Search results for: Area Control Error(ACE)

Authors: Hossein Soleimanzadeh

Abstract:

The effect of seed inoculation by VA- mycorrhiza and different levels of phosphorus fertilizer on growth and yield of sunflower (Azargol cultivar) was studied in experiment farm of Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch during 2008 growing season. The experiment treatments were arranged in factorial based on a complete randomized block design with three replications. Four phosphorus fertilizer levels of 25%, 50% 75% and 100% P recommended with two levels of Mycorrhiza: with and without Mycorrhiza (control) were assigned in a factorial combination. Results showed that head diameter, number of seeds in head, seed yield and oil yield were significantly higher in inoculated plants than in non-inoculated plants. Head diameter, number of seeds in head, 1000 seeds weight, biological yield, seed yield and oil yield increased with increasing P level above 75% P recommended in non-inoculated plants, whereas no significant difference was observed between 75% and 100% P recommended. The positive effect of mycorrhizal inoculation decreased with increasing P levels due to decreased percent root colonization at higher P levels. According to the results of this experiment, application of mycorrhiza in present of 50% P recommended had an appropriate performance and could increase seed yield and oil production to an acceptable level, so it could be considered as a suitable substitute for chemical phosphorus fertilizer in organic agricultural systems.

Keywords: phosphorus fertilizer, seed yield, sunflower, VA-mycorrhiza

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Authors: M. A. Adejumobi, J. O. Ojediran

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The aim of irrigation is to recharge the available water in the soil. Quality of irrigation water is essential for the yield and quality of crops produced, maintenance of soil productivity and protection of the environment. The analysis of irrigation water arises as a need to know the impact of irrigation water on the yield of crops, the effect, and the necessary control measures to rectify the effect of this for optimum production and yield of crops. This study was conducted to assess the quality of irrigation water with its performance on crop planted, in Josepdam irrigation scheme Bacita, Nigeria. Field visits were undertaken to identify and locate water supply sources and collect water samples from these sources; X1 Drain, Oshin, River Niger loop and Ndafa. Laboratory experiments were then undertaken to determine the quality of raw water from these sources. The analysis was carried for various parameters namely; physical and chemical analyses after water samples have been taken from four sources. The samples were tested in laboratory. Results showed that the raw water sources shows no salinity tendencies with SAR values less than 1me/l and Ecvaules at Zero while the pH were within the recommended range by FAO, there are increase in potassium and sulphate content contamination in three of the location. From this, it is recommended that there should be proper monitoring of the scheme by conducting analysis of water and soil in the environment, preferable test should be carried out at least one year to cover the impact of seasonal variations and to determine the physical and chemical analysis of the water used for irrigation at the scheme.

Keywords: Irrigation, Salinity, Raw water quality, Scheme.

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Authors: S. Y. Lin, C. H. Kuan, C. H. She, W. T. Wang

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In this study, ultrasonic assisted machining (UAM) technique is applied in side-surface milling experiment for glass-ceramic workpiece material. The tungsten carbide cutting-tool with diamond coating is used in conjunction with two kinds of cooling/lubrication mediums such as water-soluble (WS) cutting fluid and minimum quantity lubricant (MQL). Full factorial process parameter combinations on the milling experiments are planned to investigate the effect of process parameters on cutting performance. From the experimental results, it tries to search for the better process parameter combination which the edge-indentation and the surface roughness are acceptable. In the machining experiments, ultrasonic oscillator was used to excite a cutting-tool along the radial direction producing a very small amplitude of vibration frequency of 20KHz to assist the machining process. After processing, toolmaker microscope was used to detect the side-surface morphology, edge-indentation and cutting tool wear under different combination of cutting parameters, and analysis and discussion were also conducted for experimental results. The results show that the main leading parameters to edge-indentation of glass ceramic are cutting depth and feed rate. In order to reduce edge-indentation, it needs to use lower cutting depth and feed rate. Water-soluble cutting fluid provides a better cooling effect in the primary cutting area; it may effectively reduce the edge-indentation and improve the surface morphology of the glass ceramic. The use of ultrasonic assisted technique can effectively enhance the surface finish cleanness and reduce cutting tool wear and edge-indentation. 

Keywords: Glass-ceramic, ultrasonic assisted machining, cutting performance, edge-indentation

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Authors: S. Onder, Z. Kocbeker

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The impact of noise upon live quality has become an important aspect to make both urban and environmental policythroughout Europe and in Turkey. Concern over the quality of urban environments, including noise levels and declining quality of green space, is over the past decade with increasing emphasis on designing livable and sustainable communities. According to the World Health Organization, noise pollution is the third most hazardous environmental type of pollution which proceeded by only air (gas emission) and water pollution. The research carried out in two phases, the first stage of the research noise and plant types providing the suction of noise was evaluated through literature study and at the second stage, definite types (Juniperus horizontalis L., Spirea vanhouetti Briot., Cotoneaster dammerii C.K., Berberis thunbergii D.C., Pyracantha coccinea M. etc.) were selected for the city of Konya. Trials were conducted on the highway of Konya. The biggest value of noise reduction was 6.3 dB(A), 4.9 dB(A), 6.2 dB(A) value with compared to the control which includes the group that formed by the bushes at the distance of 7m, 11m, 20m from the source and 5m, 9m, 20m of plant width, respectively. In this paper, definitions regarding to noise and its sources were made and the precautions were taken against to noise that mentioned earlier with the adverse effects of noise. Plantation design approaches and suggestions concerning to the diversity to be used, which are peculiar to roadside, were developed to discuss the role and the function of plant material to reduce the noise of the traffic.

Keywords: Bushes, noise, road, Konya

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Authors: Manisha Dubey, Gaurav Gupta, Anoop Arya

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The demand for power supply increases day by day in developing countries like India henceforth demand of reactive power support in the form of ancillary services provider also has been increased. The multi-line and multi-type Flexible alternating current transmission system (FACTS) controllers are playing a vital role to regulate power flow through the transmission line. Unified power flow controller and interline power flow controller can be utilized to control reactive power flow through the transmission line. In a restructured power system, the demand of such controller is being popular due to their inherent capability. The transmission pricing by using reactive power cost allocation through modified matrix methodology has been proposed. The FACTS technologies have quite costly assembly, so it is very useful to apportion the expenses throughout the restructured electricity industry. Therefore, in this work, after embedding the FACTS devices into load flow, the impact on the costs allocated to users in fraction to the transmission framework utilization has been analyzed. From the obtained results, it is clear that the total cost recovery is enhanced towards the Reactive Power flow through the different transmission line for 5 bus test system. The fair pricing policy towards reactive power can be achieved by the proposed method incorporating FACTS controller towards cost recovery of the transmission network.

Keywords: Inter line power flow controller, Transmission Pricing, Unified power flow controller, cost allocation.

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Authors: Mamidi Ramakrishna Rao

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Doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) is currently the choice for many wind turbines. These generators, when connected to the grid through a converter, is subjected to varied power system conditions like voltage variation, frequency variation, short circuit fault conditions, etc. Further, many countries like Canada, Germany, UK, Scotland, etc. have distinct grid codes relating to wind turbines. Accordingly, following the network faults, wind turbines have to supply a definite reactive current. To satisfy the requirements including reactive current capability, an optimum electrical design becomes a mandate for DFIG to function. This paper intends to optimize the equivalent circuit parameters of an electrical design for satisfactory DFIG performance. Direct search method has been used for optimization of the parameters. The variables selected include electromagnetic core dimensions (diameters and stack length), slot dimensions, radial air gap between stator and rotor and winding copper cross section area. Optimization for 2 MW DFIG has been executed separately for three objective functions - maximum reactive power capability (Case I), maximum efficiency (Case II) and minimum weight (Case III). In the optimization analysis program, voltage variations (10%), power factor- leading and lagging (0.95), speeds for corresponding to slips (-0.3 to +0.3) have been considered. The optimum designs obtained for objective functions were compared. It can be concluded that direct search method of optimization helps in determining an optimum electrical design for each objective function like efficiency or reactive power capability or weight minimization.

Keywords: Direct search, DFIG, equivalent circuit parameters, optimization.

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Authors: Hafizah Che Hasan, Fateen Nazwa Yusof, Maslina Daud

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Internet of Things (IoT) is a powerful industry system, which end-devices are interconnected and automated, allowing the devices to analyze data and execute actions based on the analysis. The IoT technology leverages the technology of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), including mobile and sensor. These technologies contribute to the evolution of IoT. However, due to more devices are connected each other in the Internet, and data from various sources exchanged between things, confidentiality of the data becomes a major concern. This paper focuses on one of the major challenges in IoT; authentication, in order to preserve data integrity and confidentiality are in place. A few solutions are reviewed based on papers from the last few years. One of the proposed solutions is securing the communication between IoT devices and cloud servers with Elliptic Curve Cryptograhpy (ECC) based mutual authentication protocol. This solution focuses on Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) cookies as security parameter.  Next proposed solution is using keyed-hash scheme protocol to enable IoT devices to authenticate each other without the presence of a central control server. Another proposed solution uses Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) based mutual authentication protocol. It emphasizes on tamper resistant and resource-efficient technology, which equals a 3-way handshake security protocol.

Keywords: Internet of Things, authentication, PUF ECC, keyed hash scheme protocol.

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Authors: Dawid Stawski, Silviya Halacheva, Dorota Zielińska

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The surface properties of many materials can be readily and predictably modified by the controlled deposition of thin layers containing appropriate functional groups and this research area is now a subject of widespread interest. The layer-by-layer (lbl) method involves depositing oppositely charged layers of polyelectrolytes onto the substrate material which are stabilized due to strong electrostatic forces between adjacent layers. This type of modification affords products that combine the properties of the original material with the superficial parameters of the new external layers. Through an appropriate selection of the deposited layers, the surface properties can be precisely controlled and readily adjusted in order to meet the requirements of the intended application. In the presented paper a variety of anionic (poly(acrylic acid)) and cationic (linear poly(ethylene imine), polymers were successfully deposited onto the polypropylene nonwoven using the lbl technique. The chemical structure of the surface before and after modification was confirmed by reflectance FTIR spectroscopy, volumetric analysis and selective dyeing tests. As a direct result of this work, new materials with greatly improved properties have been produced. For example, following a modification process significant changes in the electrostatic activity of a range of novel nanocomposite materials were observed. The deposition of polyelectrolyte nanolayers was found to strongly accelerate the loss of electrostatically generated charges and to increase considerably the thermal resistance properties of the modified fabric (the difference in T50% is over 20oC). From our results, a clear relationship between the type of polyelectrolyte layer deposited onto the flat fabric surface and the properties of the modified fabric was identified.

Keywords: Layer-by-layer technique, polypropylene nonwoven, surface modification, surface properties.

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Authors: Bunakiye R. Japheth, Ogude U. Cyril

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Since the process of transforming user requirements to modeling constructs are not very well supported by domain-specific frameworks, it became necessary to integrate domain requirements with the specific architectures to achieve an integrated customizable solutions space via artifact orientation. Domain-specific modeling language specifications of model-driven engineering technologies focus more on requirements within a particular domain, which can be tailored to aid the domain expert in expressing domain concepts effectively. Modeling processes through domain-specific language formalisms are highly volatile due to dependencies on domain concepts or used process models. A capable solution is given by artifact orientation that stresses on the results rather than expressing a strict dependence on complicated platforms for model creation and development. Based on this premise, domain-specific methods for producing artifacts without having to take into account the complexity and variability of platforms for model definitions can be integrated to support customizable development. In this paper, we discuss methods for the integration capabilities and necessities within a common structure and semantics that contribute a metamodel for artifact-orientation, which leads to a reusable software layer with concrete syntax capable of determining design intents from domain expert. These concepts forming the language formalism are established from models explained within the oil and gas pipelines industry.

Keywords: Control process, metrics of engineering, structured abstraction, semantic model.

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Authors: Ratnakar Tripathi, Rajnikant Mishra

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The PAX6, a transcription factor, is essential for the morphogenesis of the eyes, brain, pituitary and pancreatic islets. In rodents, the loss of Pax6 function leads to central nervous system defects, anophthalmia, and nasal hypoplasia. The haplo-insufficiency of Pax6 causes microphthalmia, aggression and other behavioral abnormalities. It is also required in brain patterning and neuronal plasticity. In human, heterozygous mutation of Pax6 causes loss of iris [aniridia], mental retardation and glucose intolerance. The 3- deletion in Pax6 leads to autism and aniridia. The phenotypes are variable in peneterance and expressivity. However, mechanism of function and interaction of PAX6 with other proteins during development and associated disease are not clear. It is intended to explore interactors of PAX6 to elucidated biology of PAX6 function in the tissues where it is expressed and also in the central regulatory pathway. This report describes In-silico approaches to explore interacting proteins of PAX6. The models show several possible proteins interacting with PAX6 like MITF, SIX3, SOX2, SOX3, IPO13, TRIM, and OGT. Since the Pax6 is a critical transcriptional regulator and master control gene of eye and brain development it might be interacting with other protein involved in morphogenesis [TGIF, TGF, Ras etc]. It is also presumed that matricelluar proteins [SPARC, thrombospondin-1 and osteonectin etc] are likely to interact during transport and processing of PAX6 and are somewhere its cascade. The proteins involved in cell survival and cell proliferation can also not be ignored.

Keywords: Interacting Proteins, Pax6, PIP, STRING

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Authors: H. Al-Baghli, F. Al-Asfour

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The current applied asphalt technology for Kuwait roads pavement infrastructure is the hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavement, including both pen grade and polymer modified bitumen (PMBs), that is produced and compacted at high temperature levels ranging from 150 to 180 °C. There are no current specifications for warm and cold mix asphalts in Kuwait’s Ministry of Public Works (MPW) asphalt standard and specifications. The process of the conventional HMA is energy intensive and directly responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases and other environmental hazards into the atmosphere leading to significant environmental impacts and raising health risk to labors at site. Warm mix asphalt (WMA) technology, a sustainable alternative preferred in multiple countries, has many environmental advantages because it requires lower production temperatures than HMA by 20 to 40 °C. The reduction of temperatures achieved by WMA originates from multiple technologies including foaming and chemical or organic additives that aim to reduce bitumen and improve mix workability. This paper presents a literature review of WMA technologies and techniques followed by an experimental study aiming to compare the results of produced WMA samples, using a water containing additive (foaming process), at different compaction temperatures with the HMA control volumetric properties mix designed in accordance to the new MPW’s specifications and guidelines.

Keywords: Warm-mix asphalt, water-bearing additives, foaming-based process, chemical additives, organic additives.

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Authors: Ki Hyun Kim, Jang-Hee Yoo, Kyo Il Chung

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This paper proposes a VPN Accelerator Board (VPN-AB), a virtual private network (VPN) protocol designed for trust channel security system (TCSS). TCSS supports safety communication channel between security nodes in internet. It furnishes authentication, confidentiality, integrity, and access control to security node to transmit data packets with IPsec protocol. TCSS consists of internet key exchange block, security association block, and IPsec engine block. The internet key exchange block negotiates crypto algorithm and key used in IPsec engine block. Security Association blocks setting-up and manages security association information. IPsec engine block treats IPsec packets and consists of networking functions for communication. The IPsec engine block should be embodied by H/W and in-line mode transaction for high speed IPsec processing. Our VPN-AB is implemented with high speed security processor that supports many cryptographic algorithms and in-line mode. We evaluate a small TCSS communication environment, and measure a performance of VPN-AB in the environment. The experiment results show that VPN-AB gets a performance throughput of maximum 15.645Gbps when we set the IPsec protocol with 3DES-HMAC-MD5 tunnel mode.

Keywords: TCSS(Trust Channel Security System), VPN(VirtualPrivate Network), IPsec, SSL, Security Processor, Securitycommunication.

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Authors: Suhadiyana Hanapi, Alhassan Salami Tijani, W. A. N Wan Mohamed

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In this paper, a prototype PEM fuel cell vehicle integrated with a 1 kW air-blowing proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack as a main power sources has been developed for a lightweight cruising vehicle. The test vehicle is equipped with a PEM fuel cell system that provides electric power to a brushed DC motor. This vehicle was designed to compete with industrial lightweight vehicle with the target of consuming least amount of energy and high performance. Individual variations in driving style have a significant impact on vehicle energy efficiency and it is well established from the literature. The primary aim of this study was to assesses the power and fuel consumption of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle operating at three difference driving technique (i.e. 25 km/h constant speed, 22-28 km/h speed range, 20-30 km/h speed range). The goal is to develop the best driving strategy to maximize performance and minimize fuel consumption for the vehicle system. The relationship between power demand and hydrogen consumption has also been discussed. All the techniques can be evaluated and compared on broadly similar terms. Automatic intelligent controller for driving prototype fuel cell vehicle on different obstacle while maintaining all systems at maximum efficiency was used. The result showed that 25 km/h constant speed was identified for optimal driving with less fuel consumption.

Keywords: Prototype fuel cell electric vehicles, energy efficient, control/driving technique, fuel economy.

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Authors: Nneka N. Uchegbu, Charles N. Ishiwu

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The nutritional composition and hypoglycaemic effect of crackers produced from blend of sprouted pigeon pea, unripe plantain and brewers’ spent grain and fed to Alloxan induced diabetic rat was investigated. Crackers were produced from different blends of sprouted pigeon pea, unripe plantain and brewers’ spent grain. The crackers were evaluated for proximate composition, amino acid profile and antinutritional factors. Blood glucose levels of normal and diabetic rats fed with the control sample and different formulations of cracker were measured. The protein content of the samples were significantly different (p<0.05) from each other with sample A having the lowest value and sample B with the highest value. The values obtained showed that the samples contained most of the amino acids that are found in plant proteins. The levels of antinutritional factor determined were generally low. Administration of the formulated cracker meals led to a significant reduction in the fasting blood glucose level in the diabetic rats. The present study concluded that consumption of crackers produced from this composite flour could be recommended for the diabetics and those who are sceptical about the disease.

Keywords: Crackers, diabetics rat, sprouted pigeon pea, unripe plantain and brewers’ spent grain.

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Authors: Anukriti Kumar, Tanmay Singh, Dinesh Kumar Vishwakarma

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Traffic control has been one of the most common and irritating problems since the time automobiles have hit the roads. Problems like traffic congestion have led to a significant time burden around the world and one significant solution to these problems can be the proper implementation of the Intelligent Transport System (ITS). It involves the integration of various tools like smart sensors, artificial intelligence, position technologies and mobile data services to manage traffic flow, reduce congestion and enhance driver's ability to avoid accidents during adverse weather. Road and traffic signs’ recognition is an emerging field of research in ITS. Classification problem of traffic signs needs to be solved as it is a major step in our journey towards building semi-autonomous/autonomous driving systems. The purpose of this work focuses on implementing an approach to solve the problem of traffic sign classification by developing a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classifier using the GTSRB (German Traffic Sign Recognition Benchmark) dataset. Rather than using hand-crafted features, our model addresses the concern of exploding huge parameters and data method augmentations. Our model achieved an accuracy of around 97.6% which is comparable to various state-of-the-art architectures.

Keywords: Multiclass classification, convolution neural network, OpenCV, Data Augmentation.

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Authors: Dimitrios Ntardas, Alexandros Tzanetos, Georgios Dounias

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High Voltage Substations (HVS) are the intermediate step between production of power and successfully transmitting it to clients, making them one of the most important checkpoints in power grids. Nowadays - renewable resources and consequently distributed generation are growing fast, the construction of HVS is of high importance both in terms of quality and time completion so that new energy producers can quickly and safely intergrade in power grids. The resources needed, such as machines and workers, should be carefully allocated so that the construction of a HVS is completed on time, with the lowest possible cost (e.g. not spending additional cost that were not taken into consideration, because of project delays), but in the highest quality. In addition, there are milestones and several checkpoints to be precisely achieved during construction to ensure the cost and timeline control and to ensure that the percentage of governmental funding will be granted. The management of such a demanding project is a NP-hard problem that consists of prerequisite constraints and resource limits for each task of the project. In this work, a hybrid meta-heuristic method is implemented to solve this problem. Meta-heuristics have been proven to be quite useful when dealing with high-dimensional constraint optimization problems. Hybridization of them results in boost of their performance.

Keywords: High voltage substations, nature-inspired algorithms, project management, meta-heuristics.

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Authors: Abimbola M. Enitan, John O. Odiyo, Feroz M. Swalaha

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The study of microbial ecology and their function in anaerobic digestion processes are essential to control the biological processes. This is to know the symbiotic relationship between the microorganisms that are involved in the conversion of complex organic matter in the industrial wastewater to simple molecules. In this study, diversity and quantity of bacterial community in the granular sludge taken from the different compartments of a full-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor treating brewery wastewater was investigated using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR). The phylogenetic analysis showed three major eubacteria phyla that belong to Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Chloroflexi in the full-scale UASB reactor, with different groups populating different compartment. The result of qPCR assay showed high amount of eubacteria with increase in concentration along the reactor’s compartment. This study extends our understanding on the diverse, topological distribution and shifts in concentration of microbial communities in the different compartments of a full-scale UASB reactor treating brewery wastewater. The colonization and the trophic interactions among these microbial populations in reducing and transforming complex organic matter within the UASB reactors were established.

Keywords: Bacteria, brewery wastewater, real-time quantitative PCR, UASB reactor.

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Authors: Fatma N. Talkhan, H. H. Abo-Assy, K. A. Soliman, Marwa M. Azzam, A. Z. E. Abdelsalam, A. S. Abdel-Razek

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The Egyptian Bacillus thuringiensis isolate (M5) produce crystal proteins that is toxic against insects was irradiated with UV light to induce mutants. Upon testing 10 of the resulting mutants for their toxicity against cotton leafworm larvae, the three mutants 62, 64 and 85 proved to be the most toxic ones. Upon testing these mutants along with their parental isolate by SDS-PAGE analysis of spores-crystals proteins as well as vegetative cells proteins, new induced bands appeared in the three mutants by UV radiation and also they showed disappearance of some other bands as compared with the wild type isolate. Multiplex PCR technique, with five sets of specific primers, was used to detect the three types of cryI genes cryIAa, cryIAb and cryIAc. Results showed that these three genes exist, as distinctive bands, in the wild type isolate (M5) as well as in mutants 62 and 85, while the mutant 64 had two distinctive bands of cryIAb and cryIAc genes, and a faint band of cryI Aa gene. Finally, these results revealed that mutant 62 is considered as the promising mutant since it is UV resistant, highly toxic against Spodoptera littoralis and active against a wide range of Lepidopteran insects.

Keywords: Bacillus thuringiensis, biological control, cry1 genes, multiplex PC, SDS- PAGE analysis.

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Authors: Siti Azrina B. A. Aziz, Siti Hafizah A. Hamid

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New approaches to analyze and visualize data stream in real-time basis is important in making a prompt decision by the decision maker. Financial market trading and surveillance, large-scale emergency response and crowd control are some example scenarios that require real-time analytic and data visualization. This situation has led to the development of techniques and tools that support humans in analyzing the source data. With the emergence of Big Data and social media, new techniques and tools are required in order to process the streaming data. Today, ranges of tools which implement some of these functionalities are available. In this paper, we present chronological evolution evaluation of technologies for supporting of real-time analytic and visualization of the data stream. Based on the past research papers published from 2002 to 2014, we gathered the general information, main techniques, challenges and open issues. The techniques for streaming text visualization are identified based on Text Visualization Browser in chronological order. This paper aims to review the evolution of streaming text visualization techniques and tools, as well as to discuss the problems and challenges for each of identified tools.

Keywords: Information visualization, visual analytics, text mining, visual text analytics tools, big data visualization.

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Authors: T. Valdbjørn Rasmussen

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Design criteria for achieving an acceptable indoor radon concentration are presented in this paper. The paper suggests three design criteria. These criteria have to be considered at the early stage of the building design phase to meet the latest recommendations from the World Health Organization in most countries. The three design criteria are; first, establishing a radon barrier facing the ground; second, lowering the air pressure in the lower zone of the slab on ground facing downwards; third, diluting the indoor air with outdoor air. The first two criteria can prevent radon from infiltrating from the ground, and the third criteria can dilute the indoor air. By combining these three criteria, the indoor radon concentration can be lowered achieving an acceptable level. In addition, a cheap and reliable method for measuring the radon concentration in the indoor air is described. The provision on radon in the Danish Building Regulations complies with the latest recommendations from the World Health Organization. Radon can cause lung cancer and it is not known whether there is a lower limit for when it is not harmful to human beings. Therefore, it is important to reduce the radon concentration as much as possible in buildings. Airtightness is an important factor when dealing with buildings. It is important to avoid air leakages in the building envelope both facing the atmosphere, e.g. in compliance with energy requirements, but also facing the ground, to meet the requirements to ensure and control the indoor environment. Infiltration of air from the ground underneath a building is the main providing source of radon to the indoor air.

Keywords: Radon, natural radiation, barrier, pressure lowering, ventilation.

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Authors: Md. Royhanur Islam, Thomas Cansse, Md. Sahidul Islam, Atiqur Rahman Sunny

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The geographical location of Bangladesh makes it one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. Climate-induced phenomena mainly affect the south-central region of Bangladesh (Laxmipur district) where they have begun to occur more frequently. The aim of the study was to identify the hydro-climatic factors that lead to weather-related disasters in the coastal areas and analyse the consequences of these factors on coastal livelihoods, with possible adaptation options using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools. The present study showed several disasters such as land erosion, depressions and cyclones, coastal flooding, storm surge, and precipitation. The frequency of these disasters is of a noticeable rate. Surveys have also discovered that land erosion is ongoing. Tidal water is being introduced directly into the mainland, and as a result of the salt intrusion, production capacity is declining. The coastal belt is an important area for fishing activities, but due to changed fishing times and a lack of Alternative Income Generating Activities (AIGAs), people have been forced to search for alternative livelihood options by taking both short-term and long-term adaptation options. Therefore, in order to increase awareness and minimize the losses, vulnerable communities must be fully incorporated into disaster response strategies. The government as well as national and international donor organizations should come forward and resolve the present situation of these vulnerable groups since otherwise, they will have to endure endless and miserable suffering due to the effects of climate change ahead in their lives.

Keywords: Adaptation, community, fishery development, livelihood.

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Authors: Mária Hudáková, Mária Lusková

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This report is focused on widening the theoretical knowledge as well as controlling practical application from the risk management point of view, regarding to dynamic business changes that have occurred in Slovakia which recently has been considered to be an environment full of risk and uncertainty. The idea of the report is the proposal of the controlling operation model in the course of risk management process in an enterprise operating in Slovakia, by which the controller is able to identify early risk factors in suggested major areas of the business management upon appropriate business information integration, consecutive control and prognoses and to prepare in time full-value documents in order to suggest measures for reduction thereof. Dealing with risk factors, that can quickly limit the growth potential of the enterprise, is an essential part of managerial activities on each level. This is the reason why mutual unofficial, ergo collegial cooperation of individual departments is necessary for controlling application from the business risk management point of view. An important part of the report is elaborated survey of the most important risk factors existing in major management areas of enterprises operating in Slovakia. The outcome of the performed survey is a catalogue of the most important enterprise risk factors. The catalogue serves for better understanding risk factors affecting the Slovak enterprises, their importance and evaluation.

Keywords: Controlling, information system, risks management, risk factor, crisis of enterprise.

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Authors: Saeedeh Bakhtiari, Johannes Depessemier, Stijn Hertelé, Wim De Waele

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High cycle fatigue comprising up to 10⁷ load cycles has been the subject of many studies, and the behavior of many materials was recorded adequately in this regime. However, many applications involve larger numbers of load cycles during the lifetime of machine components. In this ultra-high cycle regime, other failure mechanisms play, and the concept of a fatigue endurance limit (assumed for materials such as steel) is often an oversimplification of reality. When machine component design demands a high geometrical complexity, cast iron grades become interesting candidate materials. Grey cast iron is known for its low cost, high compressive strength, and good damping properties. However, the ultra-high cycle fatigue behavior of cast iron is poorly documented. The current work focuses on the ultra-high cycle fatigue behavior of EN-GJL-250 (GG25) grey cast iron by developing an ultrasonic (20 kHz) fatigue testing system. Moreover, the testing machine is instrumented to measure the temperature and the displacement of  the specimen, and to control the temperature. The high resonance frequency allowed to assess the  behavior of the cast iron of interest within a matter of days for ultra-high numbers of cycles, and repeat the tests to quantify the natural scatter in fatigue resistance.

Keywords: GG25, cast iron, ultra-high cycle fatigue, ultrasonic test.

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Authors: Hlaing Zaw Oo, N. Kostromina, V. Osipchik, T. Kravchenko, K. Yakovleva

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The process of modification of ed-20 epoxy resin synthesized by vinyl-containing compounds is considered. It is shown that the introduction of vinyl-containing compounds into the composition based on epoxy resin ED-20 allows adjusting the technological and operational characteristics of the binder. For improvement of the properties of epoxy resin, following modifiers were selected: polyvinylformalethyl, polyvinyl butyral and composition of linear and aromatic amines (Аramine) as a hardener. Now the big range of hardeners of epoxy resins exists that allows varying technological properties of compositions, and also thermophysical and strength indicators. The nature of the aramin type hardener has a significant impact on the spatial parameters of the mesh, glass transition temperature, and strength characteristics. Epoxy composite materials based on ED-20 modified with polyvinyl butyral were obtained and investigated. It is shown that the composition of resins based on derivatives of polyvinyl butyral and ED-20 allows obtaining composite materials with a higher complex of deformation-strength, adhesion and thermal properties, better water resistance, frost resistance, chemical resistance, and impact strength. The magnitude of the effect depends on the chemical structure, temperature and curing time. In the area of concentrations, where the effect of composite synergy is appearing, the values of strength and stiffness significantly exceed the similar parameters of the individual components of the mixture. The polymer-polymer compositions form their class of materials with diverse specific properties that ensure their competitive application. Coatings with high performance under cyclic loading have been obtained based on epoxy oligomers modified with vinyl-containing compounds.

Keywords: Epoxy resins, modification, vinyl-containing compounds, deformation and strength properties.

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Authors: M. R. Homaeinezhad, E. Tavakkoli, M. Habibi, S. A. Atyabi, A. Ghaffari

Abstract:

This paper describes a new supervised fusion (hybrid) electrocardiogram (ECG) classification solution consisting of a new QRS complex geometrical feature extraction as well as a new version of the learning vector quantization (LVQ) classification algorithm aimed for overcoming the stability-plasticity dilemma. Toward this objective, after detection and delineation of the major events of ECG signal via an appropriate algorithm, each QRS region and also its corresponding discrete wavelet transform (DWT) are supposed as virtual images and each of them is divided into eight polar sectors. Then, the curve length of each excerpted segment is calculated and is used as the element of the feature space. To increase the robustness of the proposed classification algorithm versus noise, artifacts and arrhythmic outliers, a fusion structure consisting of five different classifiers namely as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Modified Learning Vector Quantization (MLVQ) and three Multi Layer Perceptron-Back Propagation (MLP–BP) neural networks with different topologies were designed and implemented. The new proposed algorithm was applied to all 48 MIT–BIH Arrhythmia Database records (within–record analysis) and the discrimination power of the classifier in isolation of different beat types of each record was assessed and as the result, the average accuracy value Acc=98.51% was obtained. Also, the proposed method was applied to 6 number of arrhythmias (Normal, LBBB, RBBB, PVC, APB, PB) belonging to 20 different records of the aforementioned database (between– record analysis) and the average value of Acc=95.6% was achieved. To evaluate performance quality of the new proposed hybrid learning machine, the obtained results were compared with similar peer– reviewed studies in this area.

Keywords: Feature Extraction, Curve Length Method, SupportVector Machine, Learning Vector Quantization, Multi Layer Perceptron, Fusion (Hybrid) Classification, Arrhythmia Classification, Supervised Learning Machine.

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Authors: Wittaya Deein, Chockpisit Thepsithar, Aree Thongpukdee

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Plant tissue culture is an important in vitro technology applied for agricultural and industrial production. A sterile condition of culture medium is one of the main aspects. The alternative technique for medium sterilization to replace autoclaving was carried out. For sterilization of plant tissue culture medium without autoclaving, ten commercial pure essential oils and 5 disinfectants were tested. Each essential oil or disinfectant was added to a 20-mL Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium before medium was solidified in a 120-mL container, kept for 2 weeks before evaluating sterile conditions. Treated media, supplemented with essential oils or disinfectants, were compared to control medium, autoclaved at 121 degree Celsius for 15 min. Sterile conditions of MS medium were found 100% from betel oil or clove oil (18 mL/20 mL medium), cinnamon oil (36 mL/20 mL medium), lavender oil or holy basil oil (108 mL/20 mL medium), and lemon oil or tea tree oil or turmeric oil (252 mL/20 mL medium), compared to 100% sterile condition from autoclaved medium. For disinfectants, 2% iodine + 2.4% potassium iodide, 2% merbromine solution, 10% povidone-iodine, 6% sodium hypochlorite or 0.1% thimerosal at 36 mL/20 mL medium provided 100% sterile conditions. Furthermore, growth of new shoots from chrysanthemum node explants on treated media (fresh weight, shoot length, root length and number of node) were also reported and discussed in the comparison of those on autoclaved medium.

Keywords: Chrysanthemum, disinfectants, essential oils, MS medium, sterilizing agents, sterilization of medium without autoclaving.

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Authors: Suguru Ochiai, Toru Yabuki, Yoshiki Yamaguchi, Yuetsu Kodama

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In this paper, we propose a Connect6 solver which adopts a hybrid approach based on a tree-search algorithm and image processing techniques. The solver must deal with the complicated computation and provide high performance in order to make real-time decisions. The proposed approach enables the solver to be implemented on a single Spartan-6 XC6SLX45 FPGA produced by XILINX without using any external devices. The compact implementation is achieved through image processing techniques to optimize a tree-search algorithm of the Connect6 game. The tree search is widely used in computer games and the optimal search brings the best move in every turn of a computer game. Thus, many tree-search algorithms such as Minimax algorithm and artificial intelligence approaches have been widely proposed in this field. However, there is one fundamental problem in this area; the computation time increases rapidly in response to the growth of the game tree. It means the larger the game tree is, the bigger the circuit size is because of their highly parallel computation characteristics. Here, this paper aims to reduce the size of a Connect6 game tree using image processing techniques and its position symmetric property. The proposed solver is composed of four computational modules: a two-dimensional checkmate strategy checker, a template matching module, a skilful-line predictor, and a next-move selector. These modules work well together in selecting next moves from some candidates and the total amount of their circuits is small. The details of the hardware design for an FPGA implementation are described and the performance of this design is also shown in this paper.

Keywords: Connect6, pattern matching, game-tree reduction, hardware direct computation

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Authors: Murat Öztok, Nesrin Özdener

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The aim of this study is to determine the basic information and communication technology (ICT) skills that may be needed by students studying in the 8th grade of the primary education in their cooperative project works implemented via the Internet. Within the scope of the study, the curriculum used for European Computer Driving License (ECDL) and the curriculum used in Turkey are also compared in terms of the ability to use ICT, which is aimed to be provided to the students. The research population of the study, during which the pre test – post test control group experimental model was used, consisted of 40 students from three different schools. In the first stage of the study, the skills that might be needed by students for their cooperative project works implemented via the Internet were determined through examination of the completed Comenious, e – twinning and WorldLinks projects. In the second stage of the study, the curriculums of the Turkish Ministry of National Education (MEB) and ECDL were evaluated by seven different teachers in line with these skills. Also in this study the ECDL and MEB curriculums were compared in terms of capability to provide the skills to implement cooperative projects via the Internet. In line with the findings of the study, the skills that might be needed by students to implement cooperative projects via the Internet were outlined, and existence of a significant difference was established in favor of the ECDL curriculum upon comparison of both curriculums in accordance with this outline (U = 50,500; p <0,05). The findings of the study also suggested that the students had considerable deficiencies in implementation of cooperative projects via the Internet without the ICT infrastructure.

Keywords: Collaboration Projects, Comenius, Curriculum, ICT.

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Authors: Domenico Chizzoniti, Monica Moscatelli, Letizia Cattani, Piero Favino, Luca Preis

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A settlement strategy is to anticipate and respond the needs of existing and future communities through the provision of primary health care facilities in marginalized areas. Access to a health care network is important to improving healthcare coverage, often lacking, in developing countries. The study explores that a good sanitary system strategy of rural contexts brings advantages to an existing settlement: improving transport, communication, water and social facilities. The objective of this paper is to define a possible methodology to implement primary health care facilities in disadvantaged areas of emerging countries. In this research, we analyze the case study of Lauro de Freitas, a municipality in the Brazilian state of Bahia, part of the Metropolitan Region of Salvador, with an area of 57,662 km² and 194.641 inhabitants. The health localization system in Lauro de Freitas is an integrated process that involves not only geographical aspects, but also a set of factors: population density, epidemiological data, allocation of services, road networks, and more. Data were collected also using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires to the local population. Synthesized data suggest that moving away from the coast where there is the greatest concentration of population and services, a network of primary health care facilities is able to improve the living conditions of small-dispersed communities. Based on the health service needs of populations, we have developed a methodological approach that is particularly useful in rural and remote contexts in emerging countries.

Keywords: Primary health care, developing countries, policy health planning, settlement strategy.

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Authors: Iau-Teh Wang, Chin-Yu Lee

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Rockfall is a kind of irregular geological disaster. Its destruction time, space and movements are highly random. The impact force is determined by the way and velocity rocks move. The movement velocity of a rockfall depends on slope gradient of its moving paths, height, slope surface roughness and rock shapes. For effectively mitigate and prevent disasters brought by rockfalls, it is required to precisely calculate the moving paths of a rockfall so as to provide the best protective design. This paper applies Colorado Rockfall Simulation Program (CRSP) as our study tool to discuss the impact of slope shape and surface roughness on the moving paths of a single rockfall. The analytical results showed that the slope, m=1:1, acted as the threshold for rockfall bounce height on a monoclinal slight slope. When JRC ´╝£ 1.2, movement velocity reduced and bounce height increased as JCR increased. If slope fixed and JRC increased, the bounce height of rocks increased gradually with reducing movement velocity. Therefore, the analysis on the moving paths of rockfalls with CRSP could simulate bouncing of falling rocks. By analyzing moving paths, velocity, and bounce height of falling rocks, we could effectively locate impact points of falling rocks on a slope. Such analysis can be served as a reference for future disaster prevention and control.

Keywords: Rockfall, Slope Shape, Moving Path, SurfaceRoughness.

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