Search results for: Area Control Error (ACE)

Authors: Carilette Fourie, Chris Cloete

Abstract:

The occurrence of traditional authorities and tribal land within South Africa results in unique developmental trends and challenges. Tribal communities, typically located in rural environments, are perceived to be severely affected by poverty and poor living conditions relative to their urban counterparts. The exact extent of the socio-economic disparity between tribal and non-tribal communities is addressed in this paper. After adjustment of available census data to correspond with the delineation of tribal and non-tribal land in the Kwazulu-Natal province, seven selected socio-economic indicators were compared. The investigation revealed that although tribal areas are characterised by low employment rates and educational levels, a young population, fairly large household sizes, lower access to basic services and lower income households that are highly dependent on social grants, tribal area populations do have moderate levels of education, access to formal housing and relatively good access to services.

Keywords: KwaZulu-Natal, tribal areas, traditional authority, socio-economic, well-being.

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Authors: Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan, Naga Shashidhar, Xiaoxiong Zhong

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During the process of compaction in Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA) mixtures, the distance between aggregate particles decreases as they come together and eliminate air-voids. By measuring the inter-particle distances in a cut-section of a HMA sample the degree of compaction can be estimated. For this, a calibration curve is generated by computer simulation technique when the gradation and asphalt content of the HMA mixture are known. A two-dimensional cross section of HMA specimen was simulated using the mixture design information (gradation, asphalt content and air-void content). Nearest neighbor distance methods such as Delaunay triangulation were used to study the changes in inter-particle distance and area distribution during the process of compaction in HMA. Such computer simulations would enable making several hundreds of repetitions in a short period of time without the necessity to compact and analyze laboratory specimens in order to obtain good statistics on the parameters defined. The distributions for the statistical parameters based on computer simulations showed similar trends as those of laboratory specimens.

Keywords: Computer simulations, Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA), inter-particle distance, image analysis, nearest neighbor

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Authors: Hsin-Yun Lee

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In this study, the pedestrian simulation VISWALK integration and application platform ant algorithms written program made to construct a renovation engineering schedule planning mode. The use of simulation analysis platform construction site when the user running the simulation, after calculating the user walks in the case of construction delays, the ant algorithm to find out the minimum delay time schedule plan, and add volume and unit area deactivated loss of business computing, and finally to the owners and users of two different positions cut considerations pick out the best schedule planning. To assess and validate its effectiveness, this study constructed the model imported floor of a shopping mall floor renovation engineering cases. Verify that the case can be found from the mode of the proposed project schedule planning program can effectively reduce the delay time and the user's walking mall loss of business, the impact of the operation on the renovation engineering facilities in the building to a minimum.

Keywords: Pedestrian, renovation, schedule, simulation.

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Authors: Mária Stachová, Lukáš Sobíšek

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Data mining incorporates a group of statistical methods used to analyze a set of information, or a data set. It operates with models and algorithms, which are powerful tools with the great potential. They can help people to understand the patterns in certain chunk of information so it is obvious that the data mining tools have a wide area of applications. For example in the theoretical chemistry data mining tools can be used to predict moleculeproperties or improve computer-assisted drug design. Classification analysis is one of the major data mining methodologies. The aim of thecontribution is to create a classification model, which would be able to deal with a huge data set with high accuracy. For this purpose logistic regression, Bayesian logistic regression and random forest models were built using R software. TheBayesian logistic regression in Latent GOLD software was created as well. These classification methods belong to supervised learning methods. It was necessary to reduce data matrix dimension before construct models and thus the factor analysis (FA) was used. Those models were applied to predict the biological activity of molecules, potential new drug candidates.

Keywords: data mining, classification, drug design, QSAR

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Authors: Darwin Gouwanda, S. M. N. Arosha Senanayake, M. M. Danushka Ranjana Marasinghe, Mervin Chandrapal, Jeya Mithra Kumar, Tung Mun Hon, Yulius

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This paper presents a real time force sensing instrument that is designed for human gait analysis purposes. This instrument mainly consists of three main elements: the force sensing mat, signal conditioning and switching circuit and data acquisition device. In order to control and to process the incoming signals from the force sensing mat, Force-Logger and Force-Reloader program are developed using Labview 8.0. This paper describes the architecture of the force sensing mat, signal conditioning and switching circuit and the real time streaming of the incoming data from the force sensing mat.

Keywords: Force platform, Force sensing resistor, human gait analysis

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Authors: K. Navaz, Kannan Balasubramanian

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Due to the increasing growth of internet users, the emerging applications of multicast are growing day by day and there is a requisite for the design of high-speed switches/routers. Huge amounts of effort have been done into the research area of multicast switch fabric design and algorithms. Different traffic scenarios are the influencing factor which affect the throughput and delay of the switch. The pointer based multicast scheduling algorithms are not performed well under non-uniform traffic conditions. In this work, performance of the switch has been analyzed by applying the advanced multicast scheduling algorithm OQSMS (Optimal Queue Selection Based Multicast Scheduling Algorithm), MDDR (Multicast Due Date Round-Robin Scheduling Algorithm) and MDRR (Multicast Dual Round-Robin Scheduling Algorithm). The results show that OQSMS achieves better switching performance than other algorithms under the uniform, non-uniform and bursty traffic conditions and it estimates optimal queue in each time slot so that it achieves maximum possible throughput.

Keywords: Multicast, Switch, Delay, Scheduling.

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Authors: S. Bhattacharyya, Partha P. Gopmandal

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A numerical study on the influence of electroosmotic flow on analyte preconcentration by isotachophoresis ( ITP) is made. We consider that the double layer induced electroosmotic flow ( EOF) counterbalance the electrophoretic velocity and a stationary ITP stacked zones results. We solve the Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the Nernst-Planck equations to determine the local convective velocity and the preconcentration dynamics of ions. Our numerical algorithm is based on a finite volume method along with a secondorder upwind scheme. The present numerical algorithm can capture the the sharp boundaries of step-changes ( plateau mode) or zones of steep gradients ( peak mode) accurately. The convection of ions due to EOF reduces the resolution of the ITP transition zones and produces a dispersion in analyte zones. The role of the electrokinetic parameters which induces dispersion is analyzed. A one-dimensional model for the area-averaged concentrations based on the Taylor-Aristype effective diffusivity is found to be in good agreement with the computed solutions.

Keywords: Interfaces, Electroosmotic flow, QUICK Scheme, Dispersion, Effective Diffusivity.

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Authors: Tai-Hsi Wu, Jinn-Yi Yeh, Chin-Chih Chang

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Cell formation is the first step in the design of cellular manufacturing systems. In this study, a general purpose computational scheme employing a hybrid tabu search algorithm as the core is proposed to solve the cell formation problem and its variants. In the proposed scheme, great flexibilities are left to the users. The core solution searching algorithm embedded in the scheme can be easily changed to any other meta-heuristic algorithms, such as the simulated annealing, genetic algorithm, etc., based on the characteristics of the problems to be solved or the preferences the users might have. In addition, several counters are designed to control the timing of conducting intensified solution searching and diversified solution searching strategies interactively.

Keywords: Cell formation problem, Tabu search

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Authors: Mihai Lungu

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The paper presents the design of a mini-UAV attitude controller using the backstepping method. Starting from the nonlinear dynamic equations of the mini-UAV, by using the backstepping method, the author of this paper obtained the expressions of the elevator, rudder and aileron deflections, which stabilize the UAV, at each moment, to the desired values of the attitude angles. The attitude controller controls the attitude angles, the angular rates, the angular accelerations and other variables that describe the UAV longitudinal and lateral motions. To design the nonlinear controller, by using the backstepping technique, the nonlinear equations and the Lyapunov analysis have been directly used. The designed controller has been implemented in Matlab/Simulink environment and its effectiveness has been tested with a campaign of numerical simulations using data from the UAV flight tests. The obtained results are very good and they are better than the ones found in previous works.

Keywords: Attitude angles, Backstepping, Controller, UAV.

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Authors: Goh Ong Sing, C. Ardil, Wilson Wong, Shahrin Sahib

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The evaluation of the question answering system is a major research area that needs much attention. Before the rise of domain-oriented question answering systems based on natural language understanding and reasoning, evaluation is never a problem as information retrieval-based metrics are readily available for use. However, when question answering systems began to be more domains specific, evaluation becomes a real issue. This is especially true when understanding and reasoning is required to cater for a wider variety of questions and at the same time achieve higher quality responses The research in this paper discusses the inappropriateness of the existing measure for response quality evaluation and in a later part, the call for new standard measures and the related considerations are brought forward. As a short-term solution for evaluating response quality of heterogeneous systems, and to demonstrate the challenges in evaluating systems of different nature, this research presents a black-box approach using observation, classification scheme and a scoring mechanism to assess and rank three example systems (i.e. AnswerBus, START and NaLURI).

Keywords: Evaluation, question answering, response quality.

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Authors: Hong Dongchen, Chen Qiuxiao, Wu Shuang

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Systematic Science reveals the complex nonlinear mechanisms of behavior in urban system. However, when confronted with such system, most city planners in China are still utilizing simple linear thinking to learn and understand this open complex giant system. In this paper, the hypercycle theory was introduced, which is one of the basis theories of systematic science. Based on the analysis of the reasons for the failure of current urban planning in China, and in consideration of the nonlinear characteristics of the urban system as well, optimization ideas for urban planning formulation were presented such as the shift from blueprint planning to progressive planning and from the rigid urban planning management control to its dynamically monitor and in time feedback.

Keywords: Systematic science, hypercycle theory, urban planning.

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Authors: Khaled Harrar, Rachid Jennane

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The purpose of this study is the discrimination of 28 postmenopausal with osteoporotic femoral fractures from an agematched control group of 28 women using texture analysis based on fractals. Two pre-processing approaches are applied on radiographic images; these techniques are compared to highlight the choice of the pre-processing method. Furthermore, the values of the fractal dimension are compared to those of the fractal signature in terms of the classification of the two populations. In a second analysis, the BMD measure at proximal femur was compared to the fractal analysis, the latter, which is a non-invasive technique, allowed a better discrimination; the results confirm that the fractal analysis of texture on calcaneus radiographs is able to discriminate osteoporotic patients with femoral fracture from controls. This discrimination was efficient compared to that obtained by BMD alone. It was also present in comparing subgroups with overlapping values of BMD.

Keywords: Osteoporosis, fractal dimension, fractal signature, bone mineral density.

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Authors: H. Aminfar, M. Mohammadpourfard, K. Khajeh

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This paper has focused on the most important parameters in the LSC uptake; inlet Re number and Sc number in the presence of non-uniform magnetic field. The magnetic field is arising from the thin wire with electric current placed vertically to the arterial blood vessel. According to the results of this study, applying magnetic field can be a treatment for atherosclerosis by reducing LSC along the vessel wall. Homogeneous porous layer as a arterial wall has been regarded. Blood flow has been considered laminar and incompressible containing Ferro fluid (blood and 4 % vol. Fe₃O₄) under steady state conditions. Numerical solution of governing equations was obtained by using the single-phase model and control volume technique for flow field.

Keywords: LDL Surface Concentration (LSC), Magnetic field, Computational fluid dynamics, Porous wall.

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Authors: Kristina Maiksteniene

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Various formal and informal brand alliances are being formed in professional service firms. Professional service corporate brand is heavily dependent on brands of professional employees who comprise them, and professional employee brands are in turn dependent on the corporate brand. Prior work provides limited scientific evidence of brand alliance effects in professional service area – i.e., how professional service corporate-employee brand allies are affected by an alliance, what are brand attitude effects after alliance formation and how these effects vary with different strengths of an ally. Scientific literature analysis and theoretical modeling are the main methods of the current study. As a result, a theoretical model is constructed for estimating spillover effects of professional service corporate-employee brand alliances and for comparison among different professional service firm expertise practice models – from “brains" to “procedure" model. The resulting theoretical model lays basis for future experimental studies.

Keywords: Brand alliances, professional services, corporatebrand, employee brand.

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Authors: Yan Shao, Jin Zhou, Lin Lai, Haiyan Wu, Jing Lei

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This paper describes Nano-particle based Planar Laser Scattering (NPLS) flow visualization of angled supersonic jets into a supersonic cross flow based on the HYpersonic Low TEmperature (HYLTE) nozzle which was widely used in DF chemical laser. In order to investigate the non-reacting flowfield in the HYLTE nozzle, a testing section with windows was designed and manufactured. The impact of secondary fluids orifice separation on mixing was examined. For narrow separation of orifices, the secondary fuel penetration increased obviously compared to diluent injection, which means smaller separation of diluent and fuel orifices would enhance the mixing of fuel and oxidant. Secondary injections with angles of 30, 40 and 50 degrees were studied. It was found that the injectant penetration increased as the injection angle increased, while the interfacial surface area to entrain the freestream fluid is largest when the injection angle is 40 degree.

Keywords: HYLTE nozzle, NPLS, supersonic mixing, transverse injection

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Authors: Ankit Mitra

Abstract:

Speed, power consumption and area, are some of the most important factors of concern in modern day memory design. As we move towards Deep Sub-Micron Technologies, the problems of leakage current, noise and cell stability due to physical parameter variation becomes more pronounced. In this paper we have designed an 8T Read Decoupled Dual Port SRAM Cell with Dual Threshold Voltage and characterized it in terms of read and write delay, read and write noise margins, Data Retention Voltage and Leakage Current. Read Decoupling improves the Read Noise Margin and static power dissipation is reduced by using Dual-V_t transistors. The results obtained are compared with existing 6T, 8T, 9T SRAM Cells, which shows the superiority of the proposed design. The Cell is designed and simulated in TSPICE using 90nm CMOS process.

Keywords: CMOS, Dual-Port, Data Retention Voltage, 8T SRAM, Leakage Current, Noise Margin, Loop-cutting, Single-ended.

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Authors: Seyeon Park, Mi Jang

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Tumor cells have an invasive and metastatic phenotype that is the main cause of death for cancer patients. Tumor establishment and penetration consists of a series of complex processes involving multiple changes in gene expression. In this study, intraperitoneal administration of a high concentration of ascorbic acid inhibited tumor establishment and decreased tumor mass in BALB/C mice implanted with S-180 sarcoma cancer cells. To identify proteins involved in the ascorbic acid-mediated inhibition of tumor progression, changes in the tumor proteome associated with ascorbic acid treatment of BALB/C mice implanted with S-180 were investigated using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. Twenty protein spots were identified whose expression was different between control and ascorbic acid treatment groups.

Keywords: Ascorbic acid, Proteomic analysis, S-180 implantedBALB/C mouse

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Authors: Sri Sumartiningsih

Abstract:

In elevating performance in competetive sports, an athlete must continously train in achieving maximum performance,but needs to pay attention to recovery therapy, that is to recover from fatigue as well as injury.The correct recovery therapy will assist in process of recovery and helps in the training in achieving better performace. Binahong (Anredera cordifolia) was proven empirically by the locals in assisting speedy recovery from an injury.Clinical research with lab animals receiving blunt trauma injury, microscopically shown signs of: 1) redness, 2) heatiness, 3) swelling and, 4) lack of activity. There is also microscopic indication of: 1) infiltration of inflame cells (migration of cells to the trauma area), 2) Cells necrosis, 3) Congestion (as a result of dead red blood cells), 4) uedema. On administration of Binahong for 3 days, there is a significant drop of 5% in cell inflammation, 2% increase of fibroblast (cell membrance) count.Conclutin: Binahong do assist in reducing cell inflammation and increase counts of cells fibroblast. Suggestion: In helping athlete's to recover from force injury, we need study about Binahong's roots to inflammation cell and healing of injuried cell.

Keywords: Binahong, sport injury, hematoma

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Authors: G. M. Ayininuola, A. O. Sogunro

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Most failures of soil have been attributed to poor shear strength. Consequently, the present paper investigated the suitability of cattle bone ash as a possible additive to improve the shear strength of soils. Four soil samples were collected and stabilized with prepared bone ash in proportions of 3%, 5%, 7%, 10%, 15% and 20% by dry weight. Chemical analyses of the bone ash; followed by classification, compaction, and triaxial shear tests of the treated soil samples were conducted. Results obtained showed that bone ash contained high proportion of calcium oxide and phosphate. Addition of bone ash to soil samples led to increase in soil shear strengths within the range of 22.40% to 105.18% over the strengths of the respective control tests. Conversely, all samples attained maximum shear strengths at 7% bone ash stabilization. The use of bone ash as an additive will therefore improve the shear strength of soils; however, using bone ash quantities in excess of 7% may not yield ample results.

Keywords: Bone ash, Shear strength, Stabilization, Soil.

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Authors: Marwan Ihsan Shukur, Lee Sheng Chyan, Vooi Voon Yap

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Wireless sensor networks is an emerging technology that serves as environment monitors in many applications. Yet these miniatures suffer from constrained resources in terms of computation capabilities and energy resources. Limited energy resource in these nodes demands an efficient consumption of that resource either by developing the modules itself or by providing an efficient communication protocols. This paper presents a comprehensive summarization and a comparative study of the available MAC protocols proposed for Wireless Sensor Networks showing their capabilities and efficiency in terms of energy consumption and delay guarantee.

Keywords: MAC (Medium Access Control), SEA (Simple EnergyAware), WSNs (Wireless Sensor Nodes or Networks) RTS (RequestTo Send), CTS (Clear To Send), SYNCH (Synchronize), NS2(Network Simulator 2).

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Authors: Brian J. Thomas

Abstract:

Recent changes in food retailing structure have led to the development of large supercenters in suburban areas of the United States. These changes have led some authors to suggest that there are food deserts in some urban areas, where food is difficult to access, especially for disadvantaged consumers. This study tests the food desert hypothesis by comparing the distance from food retailers to food secure and food insecure households in one urban, Midwest neighborhood. This study utilizes GIS to compare household survey respondent locations against the location of various types of area food retailers. Results of this study indicate no apparent difference between food secure and insecure households in the reported importance of distance on the decision to shop at various retailers. However, there were differences in the spatial relationship between households and retailers. Food insecure households tended to be located slightly farther from large food retailers and slightly closer to convenience stores. Furthermore, food insecure households reported traveling slightly farther to their primary food retailer. The differences between the two groups was, however, relatively small.

Keywords: Food desert, food retailer, food security, sociology.

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Authors: Noor Asilah Nordin, Normala Daud, Wan Ummi Kalsom Meor Osman

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This study applied Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to explain the knowledge sharing behaviour among academic staff at a Public Higher Education Institution (HEI) in Malaysia. The main objectives of this study are; to identify the components that influence knowledge sharing behaviour and to determine the levels of knowledge sharing behaviour among academic staff. A total of 200 respondents were participated in answering questionnaires. The findings of this study revealed that level of perceiving and implementing knowledge sharing behaviour among academic staff at a Public HEI in Malaysia exist but not openly or strongly practiced. The findings were discussed and recommendations for the future research were also addressed.

Keywords: Attitude, Knowledge Sharing Behaviour, Perceived Behavioural Control, Subjective Norm.

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Authors: Wanli Ma, Dat Tran, Dharmendra Sharma

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The temporal nature of negative selection is an under exploited area. In a negative selection system, newly generated antibodies go through a maturing phase, and the survivors of the phase then wait to be activated by the incoming antigens after certain number of matches. These without having enough matches will age and die, while these with enough matches (i.e., being activated) will become active detectors. A currently active detector may also age and die if it cannot find any match in a pre-defined (lengthy) period of time. Therefore, what matters in a negative selection system is the dynamics of the involved parties in the current time window, not the whole time duration, which may be up to eternity. This property has the potential to define the uniqueness of negative selection in comparison with the other approaches. On the other hand, a negative selection system is only trained with “normal" data samples. It has to learn and discover unknown “abnormal" data patterns on the fly by itself. Consequently, it is more appreciate to utilize negation selection as a system for pattern discovery and recognition rather than just pattern recognition. In this paper, we study the potential of using negative selection in discovering unknown temporal patterns.

Keywords: Artificial Immune Systems, ComputationalIntelligence, Negative Selection, Pattern Discovery.

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Authors: A. R. Ismail, N. Jusoh, M. Z. Nuawi, B. M. Deros, N. K. Makhtar, M. N. A. Rahman

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The objective of this study is to determine the thermal comfort among worker at Malaysian automotive industry. One critical manual assembly workstation had been chosen as a subject for the study. The human subjects for the study constitute operators at Body Assembly Station of the factory. The environment examined was the Relative Humidity (%), Airflow (m/s), Air Temperature (°C) and Radiant Temperature (°C) of the surrounding workstation area. The environmental factors were measured using Babuc apparatus, which is capable to measure simultaneously those mentioned environmental factors. The time series data of fluctuating level of factors were plotted to identify the significant changes of factors. Then thermal comfort of the workers were assessed by using ISO Standard 7730 Thermal sensation scale by using Predicted Mean Vote (PMV). Further Predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) is used to estimate the thermal comfort satisfaction of the occupant. Finally the PPD versus PMV were plotted to present the thermal comfort scenario of workers involved in related workstation. The result of PMV at the related industry is between 1.8 and 2.3, where PPD at that building is between 60% to 84%. The survey result indicated that the temperature more influenced comfort to the occupants

Keywords: Thermal, Comfort, Temperature, PPD, PMV

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Authors: Yen-Po Wang, Ming-Chih Huang, Ming-Lian Chang

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A scheme integrated with deterministic–stochastic subspace system identification and the method of damage localization vector is proposed in this study for damage detection of structures based on seismic response data. A series of shaking table tests using a five-storey steel frame has been conducted in National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE), Taiwan. Damage condition is simulated by reducing the cross-sectional area of some of the columns at the bottom. Both single and combinations of multiple damage conditions at various locations have been considered. In the system identification analysis, either full or partial observation conditions have been taken into account. It has been shown that the damaged stories can be identified from global responses of the structure to earthquakes if sufficiently observed. In addition to detecting damage(s) with respect to the intact structure, identification of new or extended damages of the as-damaged (ill-conditioned) counterpart has also been studied. The proposed scheme proves to be effective.

Keywords: Damage locating vectors, deterministic-stochastic subspace system, shaking table tests, system identification.

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Authors: M. Sajjadnejad, H. Karimi Abadeh

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In this research, zinc coatings were fabricated by electroplating process in a sulfate solution under direct and pulse current conditions. In direct and pulse current conditions, effect of maximum current was investigated on the coating properties. Also a comparison was made between the obtained coatings under direct and pulse current. Morphology of the coatings was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Corrosion behavior of the coatings was investigated by potentiodynamic polarization test. In pulse current conditions, the effect of pulse frequency and duty cycle was also studied. The effect of these conditions and parameters were also investigated on morphology and corrosion behavior. All of DC plated coatings are showing a distinct passivation area in -1 to -0.4 V range. Pulsed current coatings possessed a higher corrosion resistance. The results showed that current density is the most important factor regarding the fabrication process. Furthermore, a rise in duty cycle deteriorated corrosion resistance of coatings. Pulsed plated coatings performed almost 10 times better than DC plated coatings.

Keywords: Corrosion, duty cycle, pulsed current, zinc.

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Authors: Helena Costa Oliveira, Carmem Oliveira, Rita Moutinho

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The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a continuous strategic monitoring model focused not only on financial issues but also on internal processes, patients/users, and learning and growth. Initially dedicated to business management, it currently serves organizations of other natures - such as hospitals. This paper presents a BSC designed for a Portuguese Acute Pain Unit (APU). This study is qualitative and based on the experience of collaborators at the APU. The management of APU is based on four perspectives – users, internal processes, learning and growth, and financial and legal. For each perspective, there were identified strategic objectives, critical factors, lead indicators and initiatives. The strategic map of the APU outlining sustained strategic relations among strategic objectives. This study contributes to the development of research in the health management area as it explores how organizational insufficiencies and inconsistencies in this particular case can be addressed, through the identification of critical factors, to clearly establish core outcomes and initiatives to set up.

Keywords: Acute pain unit, balanced scorecard, hospital management, organizational performance, Portugal.

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Authors: Badarch Tuyatsetseg

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This paper presents parametric probability density models for call holding times (CHTs) into emergency call center based on the actual data collected for over a week in the public Emergency Information Network (EIN) in Mongolia. When the set of chosen candidates of Gamma distribution family is fitted to the call holding time data, it is observed that the whole area in the CHT empirical histogram is underestimated due to spikes of higher probability and long tails of lower probability in the histogram. Therefore, we provide the Gaussian parametric model of a mixture of lognormal distributions with explicit analytical expressions for the modeling of CHTs of PSNs. Finally, we show that the CHTs for PSNs are fitted reasonably by a mixture of lognormal distributions via the simulation of expectation maximization algorithm. This result is significant as it expresses a useful mathematical tool in an explicit manner of a mixture of lognormal distributions.

Keywords: A mixture of lognormal distributions, modeling call holding times, public safety network.

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Authors: U. Bottigli, D.Cascio, F. Fauci, B. Golosio, R. Magro, G.L. Masala, P. Oliva, G. Raso, S.Stumbo

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Purpose of this work is the development of an automatic classification system which could be useful for radiologists in the investigation of breast cancer. The software has been designed in the framework of the MAGIC-5 collaboration. In the automatic classification system the suspicious regions with high probability to include a lesion are extracted from the image as regions of interest (ROIs). Each ROI is characterized by some features based on morphological lesion differences. Some classifiers as a Feed Forward Neural Network, a K-Nearest Neighbours and a Support Vector Machine are used to distinguish the pathological records from the healthy ones. The results obtained in terms of sensitivity (percentage of pathological ROIs correctly classified) and specificity (percentage of non-pathological ROIs correctly classified) will be presented through the Receive Operating Characteristic curve (ROC). In particular the best performances are 88% ± 1 of area under ROC curve obtained with the Feed Forward Neural Network.

Keywords: Neural Networks, K-Nearest Neighbours, SupportVector Machine, Computer Aided Diagnosis.

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Authors: G. S. Ryu, K. T. Koh, H. Y. Kim, G. H. An, D. W. Seo

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Geopolymer mortar is produced by alkaline activation of pozzolanic materials such as fly ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) and fly ash (FA). Its unique reaction pathway facilitates rapid strength development in comparison with hydration of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Geopolymer can be fabricated using various types and dosages of alkali-activator, which effectively gives a wider control over the performance of the final product. The present study investigates the effect of types of precursors and curing conditions on the fresh state and strength development characteristics of geopolymers, thereby comparatively exploring the effect of precursors from various sources of origin. The obtained result showed that the setting time and strength development of the specimens with the identical mix proportion but different precursors displayed significant variations.

Keywords: Alkali-activated material, blast furnace slag, fly ash, Flowability, strength development.

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