Abstract: Sensorized instruments that accurately measure the interaction forces (between biological tissue and instrument endeffector) during surgical procedures offer surgeons a greater sense of immersion during minimally invasive robotic surgery. Although there is ongoing research into force measurement involving surgical graspers little corresponding effort has been carried out on the measurement of forces between scissor blades and tissue. This paper presents the design and development of a force measurement test apparatus, which will serve as a sensor characterization and evaluation platform. The primary aim of the experiments is to ascertain whether the system can differentiate between tissue samples with differing mechanical properties in a reliable, repeatable manner. Force-angular displacement curves highlight trends in the cutting process as well the forces generated along the blade during a cutting procedure. Future applications of the test equipment will involve the assessment of new direct force sensing technologies for telerobotic surgery.
Abstract: In this paper, we present an analytical framework for the evaluation of the uplink performance of multihop cellular networks based on dynamic time division duplex (TDD). New wireless broadband protocols, such as WiMAX, WiBro, and 3G-LTE apply TDD, and mobile communication protocols under standardization (e.g., IEEE802.16j) are investigating mobile multihop relay (MMR) as a future technology. In this paper a novel MMR TDD scheme is presented, where the dynamic range of the frame is shared to traffic resources of asymmetric nature and multihop relaying. The mobile communication channel interference model comprises of inner and co-channel interference (CCI). The performance analysis focuses on the uplink due to the fact that the effects of dynamic resource allocation show significant performance degradation only in the uplink compared to time division multiple access (TDMA) schemes due to CCI [1-3], where the downlink results to be the same or better.The analysis was based on the signal to interference power ratio (SIR) outage probability of dynamic TDD (D-TDD) and TDMA systems,which are the most widespread mobile communication multi-user control techniques. This paper presents the uplink SIR outage probability with multihop results and shows that the dynamic TDD scheme applying MMR can provide a performance improvement compared to single hop applications if executed properly.
Abstract: This paper presents a fast and efficient on-line technique for estimating impedance of unbalanced loads in power systems. The proposed technique is an application of a discrete timedynamic filter based on stochastic estimation theory which is suitable for estimating parameters in noisy environment. The algorithm uses sets of digital samples of the distorted voltage and current waveforms of the non-linear load to estimate the harmonic contents of these two signal. The non-linear load impedance is then calculated from these contents. The method is tested using practical data. Results are reported and compared with those obtained using the conventional least error squares technique. In addition to the very accurate results obtained, the method can detect and reject bad measurements. This can be considered as a very important advantage over the conventional static estimation methods such as the least error square method.
Abstract: Soil chemical and physical properties have important
roles in compartment of the environment and agricultural
sustainability and human health. The objectives of this research is
determination of spatial distribution patterns of Cd, Zn, K, pH, TNV,
organic material and electrical conductivity (EC) in agricultural soils
of Natanz region in Esfehan province. In this study geostatistic and
non-geostatistic methods were used for prediction of spatial
distribution of these parameters. 64 composite soils samples were
taken at 0-20 cm depth. The study area is located in south of
NATANZ agricultural lands with area of 21660 hectares. Spatial
distribution of Cd, Zn, K, pH, TNV, organic material and electrical
conductivity (EC) was determined using geostatistic and geographic
information system. Results showed that Cd, pH, TNV and K data
has normal distribution and Zn, OC and EC data had not normal
distribution. Kriging, Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW), Local
Polynomial Interpolation (LPI) and Redial Basis functions (RBF)
methods were used to interpolation. Trend analysis showed that
organic carbon in north-south and east to west did not have trend
while K and TNV had second degree trend. We used some error
measurements include, mean absolute error(MAE), mean squared
error (MSE) and mean biased error(MBE). Ordinary
kriging(exponential model), LPI(Local polynomial interpolation),
RBF(radial basis functions) and IDW methods have been chosen as
the best methods to interpolating of the soil parameters. Prediction
maps by disjunctive kriging was shown that in whole study area was
intensive shortage of organic matter and more than 63.4 percent of
study area had shortage of K amount.
Abstract: The paper proposes a way of parallel processing of
SURF and Optical Flow for moving object recognition and tracking.
The object recognition and tracking is one of the most important task
in computer vision, however disadvantage are many operations cause
processing speed slower so that it can-t do real-time object recognition
and tracking. The proposed method uses a typical way of feature
extraction SURF and moving object Optical Flow for reduce
disadvantage and real-time moving object recognition and tracking,
and parallel processing techniques for speed improvement. First
analyse that an image from DB and acquired through the camera using
SURF for compared to the same object recognition then set ROI
(Region of Interest) for tracking movement of feature points using
Optical Flow. Secondly, using Multi-Thread is for improved
processing speed and recognition by parallel processing. Finally,
performance is evaluated and verified efficiency of algorithm
throughout the experiment.
Abstract: This work evaluated the effect of temperature on headspace solid-phase microextraction of volatile and furanic compounds in coated fish sticks. The major goal was the analysis of the samples as consumed, to reproduce volatile compounds people feel when consuming those products. Extraction at 37 ºC (the human body temperature) throughout the HS-SPME analysis of volatile and furanic compounds in coated fish was compared with higher extraction temperatures, which are frequently used for this kind of determinations. The profile of volatile compounds found in deepfried (F) and non-fried (NF) coated fish at 37 and 50 ºC was different from that obtained at 80 ºC. Concerning furan and its derivatives, an extra formation of these compounds was observed at higher extraction temperatures. The analysis of volatile and furanic compounds in fish coated sticks simulating the cooking and eating conditions can be reliably carried out setting the headspace absorption temperature at 37 ºC.
Abstract: Over 90% of the world trade is carried by the
international shipping industry. As most of the countries are
developing, seaborne trade continues to expand to bring benefits for
consumers across the world. Studies show that world trade will
increase 70-80% through shipping in the next 15-20 years. Present
global fleet of 70000 commercial ships consumes approximately 200
million tonnes of diesel fuel a year and it is expected that it will be
around 350 million tonnes a year by 2020. It will increase the
demand for fuel and also increase the concentration of CO2 in the
atmosphere. So, it-s essential to control this massive fuel
consumption and CO2 emission. The idea is to utilize a diesel-wind
hybrid system for ship propulsion. Use of wind energy by installing
modern wing-sails in ships can drastically reduce the consumption of
diesel fuel. A huge amount of wind energy is available in oceans.
Whenever wind is available the wing-sails would be deployed and
the diesel engine would be throttled down and still the same forward
speed would be maintained. Wind direction in a particular shipping
route is not same throughout; it changes depending upon the global
wind pattern which depends on the latitude. So, the wing-sail
orientation should be such that it optimizes the use of wind energy.
We have made a computer programme in which by feeding the data
regarding wind velocity, wind direction, ship-motion direction; we
can find out the best wing-sail position and fuel saving for
commercial ships. We have calculated net fuel saving in certain
international shipping routes, for instance, from Mumbai in India to
Durban in South Africa. Our estimates show that about 8.3% diesel
fuel can be saved by utilizing the wind. We are also developing an
experimental model of the ship employing airfoils (small scale wingsail)
and going to test it in National Wind Tunnel Facility in IIT
Kanpur in order to develop a control mechanism for a system of
airfoils.
Abstract: Fourty one strains of ESBL producing P.aeruginosa
which were previously isolated from burn patients in Kerman
University general hospital, Iran were subjected to PCR, RFLP and
sequencing in order to determine the type of extended spectrum β-
lactamases (ESBL), the restriction digestion pattern and possibility of
mutation among detected genes. DNA extraction was carried out by
phenol chloroform method. PCR for detection of bla genes was
performed using specific primer for each gene. Restriction Fragment
Length Polymorphism (RFLP) for ESBL genes was carried out using
EcoRI, NheI, PVUII, EcoRV, DdeI, and PstI restriction enzymes. The
PCR products were subjected to direct sequencing of both the strands
for identification of the ESBL genes.The blaCTX-M, blaVEB-1, blaPER-1,
blaGES-1, blaOXA-1, blaOXA-4 and blaOXA-10 genes were detected in the
(n=1) 2.43%, (n=41)100%, (n=28) 68.3%, (n=10) 24.4%, (n=29)
70.7%, (n=7)17.1% and (n=38) 92.7% of the ESBL producing isolates
respectively. The RFLP analysis showed that each ESBL gene has
identical pattern of digestion among the isolated strains. Sequencing
of the ESBL genes confirmed the genuinety of PCR products and
revealed no mutation in the restriction sites of the above genes. From
results of the present investigation it can be concluded that blaVEB-1
and blaCTX-M were the most and the least frequently isolated ESBL
genes among the P.aeruginosa strains isolated from burn patients. The
RFLP and sequencing analysis revealed that same clone of the bla
genes were indeed existed among the antibiotic resistant strains.
Abstract: The study explored varied types of human smiles and
extracted most of the key factors affecting the smiles. These key
factors then were converted into a set of control points which could
serve to satisfy the needs for creation of facial expression for 3D
animators and be further applied to the face simulation for robots in the
future. First, hundreds of human smile pictures were collected and
analyzed to identify the key factors for face expression. Then, the
factors were converted into a set of control points and sizing
parameters calculated proportionally. Finally, two different faces
were constructed for validating the parameters via the process of
simulating smiles of the same type as the original one.
Abstract: A novel typical day prediction model have been built and validated by the measured data of a grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) system in Macau. Unlike conventional statistical method used by previous study on PV systems which get results by averaging nearby continuous points, the present typical day statistical method obtain the value at every minute in a typical day by averaging discontinuous points at the same minute in different days. This typical day statistical method based on discontinuous point averaging makes it possible for us to obtain the Gaussian shape dynamical distributions for solar irradiance and output power in a yearly or monthly typical day. Based on the yearly typical day statistical analysis results, the maximum possible accumulated output energy in a year with on site climate conditions and the corresponding optimal PV system running time are obtained. Periodic Gaussian shape prediction models for solar irradiance, output energy and system energy efficiency have been built and their coefficients have been determined based on the yearly, maximum and minimum monthly typical day Gaussian distribution parameters, which are obtained from iterations for minimum Root Mean Squared Deviation (RMSD). With the present model, the dynamical effects due to time difference in a day are kept and the day to day uncertainty due to weather changing are smoothed but still included. The periodic Gaussian shape correlations for solar irradiance, output power and system energy efficiency have been compared favorably with data of the PV system in Macau and proved to be an improvement than previous models.
Abstract: Biodiesel as an alternative fuel for diesel engines has been developed for some three decades now. While it is gaining wide acceptance in Europe, USA and some parts of Asia, the same cannot be said of Africa. With more than 35 countries in the continent depending on imported crude oil, it is necessary to look for alternative fuels which can be produced from resources available locally within any country. Hence this study presents performance of single cylinder diesel engine using blends of shea butter biodiesel. Shea butter was transformed into biodiesel by transesterification process. Tests are conducted to compare the biodiesel with baseline diesel fuel in terms of engine performance and exhaust emission characteristics. The results obtained showed that the addition of biodiesel to diesel fuel decreases the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and increases the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC). These results are expected due to the lower energy content of biodiesel fuel. On the other hand while the NOx emissions increased with increase in biodiesel content in the fuel blends, the emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), un-burnt hydrocarbon (UHC) and smoke opacity decreased. The engine performance which indicates that the biodiesel has properties and characteristics similar to diesel fuel and the reductions in exhaust emissions make shea butter biodiesel a viable additive or substitute to diesel fuel.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to develop and examine a
Teaching Commitment Scale of Health and Physical Education
(TCS-HPE) for Taiwanese elementary school teachers. First of all,
based on teaching commitment related theory and literatures to
develop a original scale with 40 items, later both stratified random
sampling and cluster sampling were used to sample participants.
During the first stage, 300 teachers were sampled and 251 valid scales
(83.7%) returned. Later, the data was analyzed by exploratory factor
analysis to obtain 74.30% of total variance for the construct validity.
The Cronbach-s alpha coefficient of sum scale reliability was 0.94, and
subscale coefficients were between 0.80 and 0.96. In the second stage,
400 teachers were sampled and 318 valid scales (79.5%) returned.
Finally, this study used confirmatory factor analysis to test validity and
reliability of TCS-HPE. The result showed that the fit indexes reached
acceptable criteria(¤ç2
(246 ) =557.64 , p
Abstract: In this paper, a nonlinear model predictive swing-up
and stabilizing sliding controller is proposed for an inverted
pendulum-cart system. In the swing up phase, the nonlinear model
predictive control is formulated as a nonlinear programming problem
with energy based objective function. By solving this problem at
each sampling instant, a sequence of control inputs that optimize the
nonlinear objective function subject to various constraints over a
finite horizon are obtained. Then, this control drives the pendulum to
a predefined neighborhood of the upper equilibrium point, at where
sliding mode based model predictive control is used to stabilize the
systems with the specified constraints. It is shown by the simulations
that, due to the way of formulating the problem, short horizon
lengths are sufficient for attaining the swing up goal.
Abstract: In modern distributed software systems, the issue of communication among composing parts represents a critical point, but the idea of extending conventional programming languages with general purpose communication constructs seems difficult to realize. As a consequence, there is a (growing) gap between the abstraction level required by distributed applications and the concepts provided by platforms that enable communication. This work intends to discuss how the Model Driven Software Development approach can be considered as a mature technology to generate in automatic way the schematic part of applications related to communication, by providing at the same time high level specialized languages useful in all the phases of software production. To achieve the goal, a stack of languages (meta-meta¬models) has been introduced in order to describe – at different levels of abstraction – the collaborative behavior of generic entities in terms of communication actions related to a taxonomy of messages. Finally, the generation of platforms for communication is viewed as a form of specification of language semantics, that provides executable models of applications together with model-checking supports and effective runtime environments.
Abstract: It is well known that during the developments in the
economic sector and through the financial crises occur everywhere in
the whole world, volatility measurement is the most important
concept in financial time series. Therefore in this paper we discuss
the volatility for Amman stocks market (Jordan) for certain period of
time. Since wavelet transform is one of the most famous filtering
methods and grows up very quickly in the last decade, we compare
this method with the traditional technique, Fast Fourier transform to
decide the best method for analyzing the volatility. The comparison
will be done on some of the statistical properties by using Matlab
program.
Abstract: A five-class density histogram with an index named cumulative density was proposed to analyze the short-term HRV. 150 subjects participated in the test, falling into three groups with equal numbers -- the healthy young group (Young), the healthy old group (Old), and the group of patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). Results of multiple comparisons showed a significant differences of the cumulative density in the three groups, with values 0.0238 for Young, 0.0406 for Old and 0.0732 for CHF (p
Abstract: By employing BS (Base Station) cooperation we can
increase substantially the spectral efficiency and capacity of cellular
systems. The signals received at each BS are sent to a central unit that
performs the separation of the different MT (Mobile Terminal) using
the same physical channel. However, we need accurate sampling and
quantization of those signals so as to reduce the backhaul
communication requirements.
In this paper we consider the optimization of the quantizers for BS
cooperation systems. Four different quantizer types are analyzed and
optimized to allow better SQNR (Signal-to-Quantization Noise
Ratio) and BER (Bit Error Rate) performance.
Abstract: The position and momentum space information entropies
of hydrogen atom are exactly evaluated. Using isospectral
Hamiltonian approach, a family of isospectral potentials is constructed having same energy eigenvalues as that of the original potential. The information entropy content is obtained in position
space as well as in momentum space. It is shown that the information
entropy content in each level can be re-arranged as a function of deformation parameter.
Abstract: This paper proposed a novel model for short term load
forecast (STLF) in the electricity market. The prior electricity
demand data are treated as time series. The model is composed of
several neural networks whose data are processed using a wavelet
technique. The model is created in the form of a simulation program
written with MATLAB. The load data are treated as time series data.
They are decomposed into several wavelet coefficient series using
the wavelet transform technique known as Non-decimated Wavelet
Transform (NWT). The reason for using this technique is the belief
in the possibility of extracting hidden patterns from the time series
data. The wavelet coefficient series are used to train the neural
networks (NNs) and used as the inputs to the NNs for electricity load
prediction. The Scale Conjugate Gradient (SCG) algorithm is used as
the learning algorithm for the NNs. To get the final forecast data, the
outputs from the NNs are recombined using the same wavelet
technique. The model was evaluated with the electricity load data of
Electronic Engineering Department in Mandalay Technological
University in Myanmar. The simulation results showed that the
model was capable of producing a reasonable forecasting accuracy in
STLF.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the learning
effects on dance domain in Arts Curriculum at junior and senior high
levels. A total of 1,366 students from 9th to 11th grade of different
areas from Taiwan were administered a self-designed dance
achievement test. Data were analyzed through descriptive analysis,
independent sample t test, one-way ANOVA and Post hoc comparison
analysis using Scheffé Test. The results showed (1) female students