Abstract: ‘Steganalysis’ is one of the challenging and attractive interests for the researchers with the development of information hiding techniques. It is the procedure to detect the hidden information from the stego created by known steganographic algorithm. In this paper, a novel feature based image steganalysis technique is proposed. Various statistical moments have been used along with some similarity metric. The proposed steganalysis technique has been designed based on transformation in four wavelet domains, which include Haar, Daubechies, Symlets and Biorthogonal. Each domain is being subjected to various classifiers, namely K-nearest-neighbor, K* Classifier, Locally weighted learning, Naive Bayes classifier, Neural networks, Decision trees and Support vector machines. The experiments are performed on a large set of pictures which are available freely in image database. The system also predicts the different message length definitions.
Abstract: Self-Consolidating Concrete (SCC) is considered as a relatively new technology created as an effective solution to problems associated with low quality consolidation. A SCC mix is defined as successful if it flows freely and cohesively without the intervention of mechanical compaction. The construction industry is showing high tendency to use SCC in many contemporary projects to benefit from the various advantages offered by this technology.
At this point, a main question is raised regarding the effect of enhanced fluidity of SCC on the structural behavior of high strength self-consolidating reinforced concrete.
A three phase research program was conducted at the American University of Beirut (AUB) to address this concern. The first two phases consisted of comparative studies conducted on concrete and mortar mixes prepared with second generation Sulphonated Naphtalene-based superplasticizer (SNF) or third generation Polycarboxylate Ethers-based superplasticizer (PCE). The third phase of the research program investigates and compares the structural performance of high strength reinforced concrete beam specimens prepared with two different generations of superplasticizers that formed the unique variable between the concrete mixes. The beams were designed to test and exhibit flexure, shear, or bond splitting failure.
The outcomes of the experimental work revealed comparable resistance of beam specimens cast using self-compacting concrete and conventional vibrated concrete. The dissimilarities in the experimental values between the SCC and the control VC beams were minimal, leading to a conclusion, that the high consistency of SCC has little effect on the flexural, shear and bond strengths of concrete members.
Abstract: The longitudinal shear moduli of a single aramid, carbon and glass fibres are measured in the present study. A popularly known concept of freely oscillating torsion pendulum has been used to characterize the torsional modulus. A simple freely oscillating
torsional pendulum setup is designed with two different types of plastic discs: horizontal and vertical, as the known mass of the
pendulum. The time period of the torsional oscillation is measured to determine the torsional rigidity of the fibre. Then the shear
modulus of the fibre is calculated from its torsional rigidity. The mean shear modulus of aramid, carbon and glass fibres measured are 6.22±0.09, 18.5±0.91, 38.1±3.55 GPa by horizontal disc pendulum and 6.19±0.13, 18.1±1.34 and 39.5±1.83 GPa by vertical disc pendulum, respectively. The results obtained by both pendulums differed by less than 5% and agreed well with the results reported in literature for these three types of fibres. A detailed uncertainty calculations are carried out for the measurements. It is seen that scatter as well as uncertainty (or error) in the measured shear modulus of these fibres is less than 10%. For aramid fibres the effect of gauge length on the shear modulus value is also studied. It is verified that the scatter in measured shear modulus value increases with gauge length and scatter in fibre diameter.
Abstract: The tension leg platform (TLP) is one of the compliant structures which are generally used for deep water oil exploration. With respect to the horizontal degrees of freedom, it behaves like a floating structure moored by vertical tethers which are pretension due to the excess buoyancy of the platform, whereas with respect to the vertical degrees of freedom, it is stiff and resembles a fixed structure and is not allowed to float freely. In the current study, a numerical study for square TLP using modified Morison equation was carried out in the time domain with water particle kinematics using Airy’s linear wave theory to investigate the effect of changing the tether tension force on the stiffness matrix of TLP's, the dynamic behavior of TLP's; and on the fatigue stresses in the cables. The effect was investigated for different parameters of the hydrodynamic forces such as wave periods, and wave heights. The numerical study takes into consideration the effect of coupling between various degrees of freedom. The stiffness of the TLP was derived from a combination of hydrostatic restoring forces and restoring forces due to cables. Nonlinear equation was solved using Newmark’s beta integration method. Only uni-directional waves in the surge direction was considered in the analysis. It was found that for short wave periods (i.e. 10 sec.), the surge response consisted of small amplitude oscillations about a displaced position that is significantly dependent on tether tension force, wave height; whereas for longer wave periods, the surge response showed high amplitude oscillations that is significantly dependent on wave height, and that special attention should be given to tethers fatigue because of their high tensile static and dynamic stress.
Abstract: The aim of work is to define the distribution density of
winding yarn on cylindrical and conical bobbins. It is known that
parallel winding gives greater density and more regular distribution,
but the unwinding of yarn is much more difficult for following
process.
The conical spool has an enormous advantage during unwinding
and may contain a large amount of yarns, but the density distribution
is not regular because of difference in diameters. The variation of
specific density over the reel height is explained generally by the
sudden change of winding speed due to direction movement variation
of yarn. We determined the conditions of uniform winding and
developed a calculate model to the change of the specific density of
winding wire over entire spool height.
Abstract: Identification of cancer genes that might anticipate
the clinical behaviors from different types of cancer disease is
challenging due to the huge number of genes and small number of
patients samples. The new method is being proposed based on
supervised learning of classification like support vector machines
(SVMs).A new solution is described by the introduction of the
Maximized Margin (MM) in the subset criterion, which permits to
get near the least generalization error rate. In class prediction
problem, gene selection is essential to improve the accuracy and to
identify genes for cancer disease. The performance of the new
method was evaluated with real-world data experiment. It can give
the better accuracy for classification.
Abstract: Ants are fascinating creatures that demonstrate the
ability to find food and bring it back to their nest. Their ability as a
colony, to find paths to food sources has inspired the development of
algorithms known as Ant Colony Systems (ACS). The principle of
cooperation forms the backbone of such algorithms, commonly used
to find solutions to problems such as the Traveling Salesman
Problem (TSP). Ants communicate to each other through chemical
substances called pheromones. Modeling individual ants- ability to
manipulate this substance can help an ACS find the best solution.
This paper introduces a Dynamic Ant Colony System with threelevel
updates (DACS3) that enhance an existing ACS. Experiments
were conducted to observe single ant behavior in a colony of
Malaysian House Red Ants. Such behavior was incorporated into the
DACS3 algorithm. We benchmark the performance of DACS3 versus
DACS on TSP instances ranging from 14 to 100 cities. The result
shows that the DACS3 algorithm can achieve shorter distance in
most cases and also performs considerably faster than DACS.
Abstract: In the present paper the extreme shear stresses with the corresponding planes are established using the freely available computer tools like the Gnuplot, Sage, R, Python and Octave. In order to support these freely available computer tools, their strong symbolical and graphical abilities are illustrated. The nature of the stationary points obtained by the Method of Lagrangian Multipliers can be determined using freely available computer symbolical tools like Sage. The characters of the stationary points can be explained in the easiest way using freely available computer graphical tools like Gnuplot, Sage, R, Python and Octave. The presented figures improve the understanding of the problem and the obtained solutions for the majority of students of civil or mechanical engineering.
Abstract: The objective of this study was to determine the accuracy to estimation fetal weight by Johnson-s method and compares it with actual birth weight. The sample group was 126 infants delivered in Dan KhunThot hospital from January March 2012. Fetal weight was estimated by measuring fundal height according to Johnson-s method. The information was collected by studying historical delivery records and then analyzed by using the statistics of frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Finally, the difference was analyzed by a paired t-test.The results showed had an average birth weight was 3093.57 ± 391.03 g (mean ± SD) and 3,455 ± 454.55 g average estimated fetal weight by Johnson-s method higher than average actual birth weight was 384.09 grams. When classifying the infants according to birth weight found that low birth weight ( 4000 g) actual birth weight was more than estimated fetal weight. The difference was found between actual birth weight and estimation fetal weight of the minimum weight in high birth weight ( > 4000 g) , the appropriate birth weight (2500-3999g) and low birth weight (
Abstract: A Cable-Driven Locomotion Interface provides a low
inertia haptic interface and is used as a way of enabling the user
to walk and interact with virtual surfaces. These surfaces generate
Cartesian wrenches which must be optimized for each motorized
reel in order to reproduce a haptic sensation in both feet. However,
the use of wrench control requires a measure of the cable tensions
applied to the moving platform. The latter measure may be inaccurate
if it is based on sensors located near the reel. Moreover, friction
hysteresis from the reel moving parts needs to be compensated
for with an evaluation of low angular velocity of the motor shaft.
Also, the pose of the platform is not known precisely due to cable
sagging and mechanical deformation. This paper presents a non-ideal
motorized reel design with its corresponding control strategy that
aims at overcoming the aforementioned issues. A transfert function
of the reel based on frequency responses in function of cable tension
and cable length is presented with an optimal adaptative PIDF
controller. Finally, an hybrid position/tension control is discussed with
an analysis of the stability for achieving a complete functionnality of
the haptic platform.
Abstract: Multiparty voice over IP (MVoIP) systems allows a group of people to freely communicate each other via the internet, which have many applications such as online gaming, teleconferencing, online stock trading etc. Peertalk is a peer to peer multiparty voice over IP system (MVoIP) which is more feasible than existing approaches such as p2p overlay multicast and coupled distributed processing. Since the stream mixing and distribution are done by the peers, it is vulnerable to major security threats like nodes misbehavior, eavesdropping, Sybil attacks, Denial of Service (DoS), call tampering, Man in the Middle attacks etc. To thwart the security threats, a security framework called PEERTS (PEEred Reputed Trustworthy System for peertalk) is implemented so that efficient and secure communication can be carried out between peers.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a morphing method by which face color images can be freely transformed. The main focus of this work is the transformation of one face image to another. This method is fully automatic in that it can morph two face images by automatically detecting all the control points necessary to perform the morph. A face detection neural network, edge detection and medium filters are employed to detect the face position and features. Five control points, for both the source and target images, are then extracted based on the facial features. Triangulation method is then used to match and warp the source image to the target image using the control points. Finally color interpolation is done using a color Gaussian model that calculates the color for each particular frame depending on the number of frames used. A real coded Genetic algorithm is used in both the image warping and color blending steps to assist in step size decisions and speed up the morphing. This method results in ''very smooth'' morphs and is fast to process.
Abstract: This paper determines most common model of in-pipe
robots to derive its degree of freedom in order to compare with the
necessary degree of freedom required for a system to move inside
pipelines freely in order to derive analytical reason for losing control
of in-pipe robots at branched pipe. DOF of most common mechanism
in in-pipe robots can be calculated by considering the robot as a
parallel manipulator. A new design based on previously researched
in-pipe robot PAROYS has been suggested, and its possibility to
overcome branched section has been simulated.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the pregnancy
outcomes of teenage mothers at DanKhunThot hospital, Nakhon
Ratchasima, Thailand. A retrospective descriptive study was
conducted in 573 of teenage pregnant from charts reviewed from 1st
October 2010-31st March, 2012. Data were analyzed by frequency
distribution, mean and Standard Deviation.
The results shown several problems and negatives outcomes of
pregnancy in teenager such as not attended prenatal care, Low birth
weight infants, death fetus in utero and other complications. The
results of this study can be utilized in the development of prenatal,
perinatal and post natal care services, especially in DanKhunthot
Hospital contexts. Moreover, the results were present to the District
Health Care committees in order to enhance health care service
system for teenage pregnancy of DanKhunthot District in further.
Abstract: The demand for new telecommunication services requiring higher capacities, data rates and different operating modes have motivated the development of new generation multi-standard wireless transceivers. A multi-standard design often involves extensive system level analysis and architectural partitioning, typically requiring extensive calculations. In this research, a decimation filter design tool for wireless communication standards consisting of GSM, WCDMA, WLANa, WLANb, WLANg and WiMAX is developed in MATLAB® using GUIDE environment for visual analysis. The user can select a required wireless communication standard, and obtain the corresponding multistage decimation filter implementation using this toolbox. The toolbox helps the user or design engineer to perform a quick design and analysis of decimation filter for multiple standards without doing extensive calculation of the underlying methods.
Abstract: This paper proposes an architectural and graphical
user interface (GUI) design of a traditional Thai musical instrument
application for tablet computers for practicing “Ranaad Ek" which is
a trough-resonated keyboard percussion instrument. The application
provides percussion methods for a player as real as a physical
instrument. The application consists of two playing modes. The first
mode is free playing, a player can freely multi touches on wooden bar
to produce instrument sounds. The second mode is practicing mode
that guilds the player to follow percussions and rhythms of practice
songs. The application has achieved requirements and specifications.
Abstract: The experiment was then conducted to investigate the
effect of cassava peel addition in the concentrate on the performance
of lactating dairy cows. Twenty four Holstein Friesian crossbred
(>87.5% Holstein Friesian) lactating dairy cows in mid lactation;
averaging 12.2+2.1 kg of milk, 119+45 days in milk, 44.1+6.2
months old and 449+33 kg live weight, were stratified for milk yield,
days in milk, age, stage of lactation and body weight, and then
randomly allocated to three treatment groups. The first, second and
third groups were fed concentrates containing the respective cassava
peel, 0, 20 and 40%. All cows were fed ad libitum corn silage and
freely access to clean water. Dry matter intake, 4%FCM, milk
composition and body weight change were affected (P
Abstract: Biological reactions of individuals of a testing animal
to toxic substance are unique and can be used as an indication of the
existing of toxic substance. However, to distinguish such phenomenon
need a very complicate system and even more complicate to analyze
data in 3 dimensional. In this paper, a system to evaluate in vitro
biological activities to acute toxicity of stochastic self-affine
non-stationary signal of 3D goldfish swimming by using fractal
analysis is introduced. Regular digital camcorders are utilized by
proposed algorithm 3DCCPC to effectively capture and construct 3D
movements of the fish. A Critical Exponent Method (CEM) has been
adopted as a fractal estimator. The hypothesis was that the swimming
of goldfish to acute toxic would show the fractal property which
related to the toxic concentration. The experimental results supported
the hypothesis by showing that the swimming of goldfish under the
different toxic concentration has fractal properties. It also shows that
the fractal dimension of the swimming related to the pH value of FD Ôëê
0.26pH + 0.05. With the proposed system, the fish is allowed to swim
freely in all direction to react to the toxic. In addition, the trajectories
are precisely evaluated by fractal analysis with critical exponent
method and hence the results exhibit with much higher degree of
confidence.
Abstract: The modern telecommunication industry demands
higher capacity networks with high data rate. Orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (OFDM) is a promising technique for high data
rate wireless communications at reasonable complexity in wireless
channels. OFDM has been adopted for many types of wireless
systems like wireless local area networks such as IEEE 802.11a, and
digital audio/video broadcasting (DAB/DVB). The proposed research
focuses on a concatenated coding scheme that improve the
performance of OFDM based wireless communications. It uses a
Redundant Residue Number System (RRNS) code as the outer code
and a convolutional code as the inner code. Here, a direct conversion
of analog signal to residue domain is done to reduce the conversion
complexity using sigma-delta based parallel analog-to-residue
converter. The bit error rate (BER) performances of the proposed
system under different channel conditions are investigated. These
include the effect of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN),
multipath delay spread, peak power clipping and frame start
synchronization error. The simulation results show that the proposed
RRNS-Convolutional concatenated coding (RCCC) scheme provides
significant improvement in the system performance by exploiting the
inherent properties of RRNS.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the
environmental conservation behavior of the Applied Health Science
students of Suranaree University of Technology, a green and clean
university. The sample group was 184 Applied Health Science
students (medical, nursing, and public health). A questionnaire was
used to collect information.
The result of the study found that the students had more negative
than positive behaviors towards energy, water, and forest
conservation. This result can be used as basic information for
designing long-term behavior modification activities or research
projects on environmental conservation. Thus Applied Health
Science students will be encouraged to be conscious and also be a
good example of environmental conservation behavior.