Search results for: Financial Early Warning System

Authors: Kai Häussermann, Christoph Hubig, Paul Levi, Frank Leymann, Oliver Siemoneit, Matthias Wieland, Oliver Zweigle

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Using spatial models as a shared common basis of information about the environment for different kinds of contextaware systems has been a heavily researched topic in the last years. Thereby the research focused on how to create, to update, and to merge spatial models so as to enable highly dynamic, consistent and coherent spatial models at large scale. In this paper however, we want to concentrate on how context-aware applications could use this information so as to adapt their behavior according to the situation they are in. The main idea is to provide the spatial model infrastructure with a situation recognition component based on generic situation templates. A situation template is – as part of a much larger situation template library – an abstract, machinereadable description of a certain basic situation type, which could be used by different applications to evaluate their situation. In this paper, different theoretical and practical issues – technical, ethical and philosophical ones – are discussed important for understanding and developing situation dependent systems based on situation templates. A basic system design is presented which allows for the reasoning with uncertain data using an improved version of a learning algorithm for the automatic adaption of situation templates. Finally, for supporting the development of adaptive applications, we present a new situation-aware adaptation concept based on workflows.

Keywords: context-awareness, ethics, facilitation of system use through workflows, situation recognition and learning based on situation templates and situation ontology's, theory of situationaware systems

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Authors: S. Mahdi S. Kolbadi, Ramezan Ali Alvand, Afrasiab Mirzaei

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In this study, to investigate and analyze the seismic behavior of concrete in open rectangular water storage tanks in two-dimensional and three-dimensional spaces, the Finite Element Method has been used. Through this method, dynamic responses can be investigated together in fluid storages system. Soil behavior has been simulated using tanks boundary conditions in linear form. In this research, in addition to flexibility of wall, the effects of fluid-structure interaction on seismic response of tanks have been investigated to account for the effects of flexible foundation in linear boundary conditions form, and a dynamic response of rectangular tanks in two-dimensional and three-dimensional spaces using finite element method has been provided. The boundary conditions of both rigid and flexible walls in two-dimensional finite element method have been considered to investigate the effect of wall flexibility on seismic response of fluid and storage system. Furthermore, three-dimensional model of fluid-structure interaction issue together with wall flexibility has been analyzed under the three components of earthquake. The obtained results show that two-dimensional model is also accurately near to the results of three-dimension as well as flexibility of foundation leads to absorb received energy and relative reduction of responses.

Keywords: Dynamic behavior, water storage tank, fluid-structure interaction, flexible wall.

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Authors: Aleksandrs Kovalcuks, Mara Duma

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Egg yolk oil is a concentrated source of egg bioactive compounds, such as fat-soluble vitamins, phospholipids, cholesterol, carotenoids and others. To extract lipids and other fat-soluble nutrients from liquid egg yolk, a two-step extraction process involving polar (ethanol) and non-polar (hexane) solvents were used. This extraction technique was based on egg yolk bioactive compounds polarities, where non-polar compound was extracted into non-polar hexane, but polar in to polar alcohol/water phase. But many egg yolk bioactive compounds are not strongly polar or non-polar. Egg yolk phospholipids, cholesterol and pigments are amphipatic (have both polar and non-polar regions) and their behavior in ethanol/hexane solvent system is not clear. The aim of this study was to clarify the behavior of phospholipids, cholesterol and carotenoids during extraction of egg yolk oil with ethanol and hexane and determine the loss of these compounds in egg yolk oil. Egg yolks and egg yolk oil were analyzed for phospholipids (phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE)), cholesterol and carotenoids (lutein, zeaxanthin, canthaxanthin and β-carotene) content using GC-FID and HPLC methods. PC and PE are polar lipids and were extracted into polar ethanol phase. Concentration of PC in ethanol was 97.89% and PE 99.81% from total egg yolk phospholipids. Due to cholesterol’s partial extraction into ethanol, cholesterol content in egg yolk oil was reduced in comparison to its total content presented in egg yolk lipids. The highest amount of lutein and zeaxanthin was concentrated in ethanol extract. The opposite situation was observed with canthaxanthin and β-carotene, which became the main pigments of egg yolk oil.

Keywords: Cholesterol, egg yolk oil, lutein, phospholipids, solvent extraction.

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Authors: Nazira Kakulia

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The analysis of transformation of institutional changes outlines two important characteristics. These are: the speed of the changes and their sequence. Successful transformation must be carried out in three different stages; On the first stage, macroeconomic stabilization must be achieved with the help of fiscal and monetary tools. Two-tier banking system should be established and the active functions of central bank should be replaced by the passive ones (reserve requirements and refinancing rate), together with the involvement growth of private sector. Fiscal policy by itself here means the creation of tax system which must replace previously existing direct state revenues; the share of subsidies in the state expenses must be reduced also. The second stage begins after reaching the macroeconomic stabilization at a time of change of formal institutes which must stimulate the private business. Corporate legislation creates a competitive environment at the market and the privatization of state companies takes place. Bankruptcy and contract law is created. he third stage is the most extended one, which means the formation of all state structures that is necessary for the further proper functioning of a market economy. These three stages about the cycle period of political and social transformation and the hierarchy of changes can also be grouped by the different methodology: on the first and the most short-term stage the transfer of power takes place. On the second stage institutions corresponding to new goal are created. The last phase of transformation is extended in time and it includes the infrastructural, socio-cultural and socio-structural changes. The main goal of this research is to explore and identify the features of such kind of models.

Keywords: Competitive, environment, fiscal policy, macro-economic stabilization.

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Authors: F. Noto, M. Castro, R. Garraffo, An. Mirabella, A. Rizzo, G. Cuttone

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The door fan test is a verification procedure on the tightness of a room, necessary following the installation of saturation extinguishing systems and made mandatory according to the UNI 15004-1: 2019 standard whenever a gas extinguishing system is designed and installed. The door fan test was carried out at the Portopalo di Capo Passero headquarters of the Southern National Laboratories and highlighted how the Data Processing Center (CED) is perfectly up to standard, passing the door fan test in an excellent way. The Southern National Laboratories constitute a solid research reality, well established in the international scientific panorama. The CED in the Portopalo site has been expanded, so the extinguishing system has been expanded according to a detailed design. After checking the correctness of the design to verify the absence of air leaks, we carried out the door fan test. The activities of the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (LNS) are mainly aimed at basic research in the field of Nuclear Physics, Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics. The Portopalo site will host some of the largest submarine wired scientific research infrastructures built in Europe and in the world, such as KM3NeT and EMSO ERIC; in particular, the site research laboratory in Portopalo will host the power supply and data acquisition systems of the underwater infrastructures, and a technological backbone will be created, unique in the Mediterranean, capable of allowing the connection, at abyssal depths, of dozens of real-time surveying and research structures of the marine environment deep.

Keywords: KM3Net, fire protection, door fan test, CED.

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Authors: Consalva J. Msigwa, Beda J. Kundy, Bakari M. M. Mwinyiwiwa

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In this paper the reference current for Voltage Source Converter (VSC) of the Shunt Active Power Filter (SAPF) is generated using Synchronous Reference Frame method, incorporating the PI controller with anti-windup scheme. The proposed method improves the harmonic filtering by compensating the winding up phenomenon caused by the integral term of the PI controller. Using Reference Frame Transformation, the current is transformed from om a - b - c stationery frame to rotating 0 - d - q frame. Using the PI controller, the current in the 0 - d - q frame is controlled to get the desired reference signal. A controller with integral action combined with an actuator that becomes saturated can give some undesirable effects. If the control error is so large that the integrator saturates the actuator, the feedback path becomes ineffective because the actuator will remain saturated even if the process output changes. The integrator being an unstable system may then integrate to a very large value, the phenomenon known as integrator windup. Implementing the integrator anti-windup circuit turns off the integrator action when the actuator saturates, hence improving the performance of the SAPF and dynamically compensating harmonics in the power network. In this paper the system performance is examined with Shunt Active Power Filter simulation model.

Keywords: Phase Locked Loop (PLL), Voltage SourceConverter (VSC), Shunt Active Power Filter (SAPF), PI, Pulse WidthModulation (PWM).

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Authors: Federico Pittino, Dominik Holzmann, Krithika Sayar-Chand, Stefan Moser, Sebastian Pliessnig, Thomas Arnold

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The shredding of waste materials is a key step in the recycling process towards circular economy. Industrial shredders for waste processing operate in very harsh operating conditions, leading to the need of frequent maintenance of critical components. The maintenance optimization is particularly important also to increase the machine’s efficiency, thereby reducing the operational costs. In this work, a monitoring system has been developed and deployed on an industrial shredder located at a waste recycling plant in Austria. The machine has been monitored for several months and methods for predictive maintenance have been developed for two key components: the cutting knives and the drive belt. The large amount of collected data is leveraged by statistical machine learning techniques, thereby not requiring a very detailed knowledge of the machine or its live operating conditions. The results show that, despite the wide range of operating conditions, a reliable estimate of the optimal time for maintenance can be derived. Moreover, the trade-off between the cost of maintenance and the increase in power consumption due to the wear state of the monitored components of the machine is investigated. This work proves the benefits of real-time monitoring system for efficient operation of industrial shredders.

Keywords: predictive maintenance, circular economy, industrial shredder, cost optimization, statistical machine learning

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Authors: Xiaoqing Wang, Junfeng Wang, Xiaolan Zhu

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Android operating system has been recognized by most application developers because of its good open-source and compatibility, which enriches the categories of applications greatly. However, it has become the target of malware attackers due to the lack of strict security supervision mechanisms, which leads to the rapid growth of malware, thus bringing serious safety hazards to users. Therefore, it is critical to detect Android malware effectively. Generally, the permissions declared in the AndroidManifest.xml can reflect the function and behavior of the application to a large extent. Since current Android system has not any restrictions to the number of permissions that an application can request, developers tend to apply more than actually needed permissions in order to ensure the successful running of the application, which results in the abuse of permissions. However, some traditional detection methods only consider the requested permissions and ignore whether it is actually used, which leads to incorrect identification of some malwares. Therefore, a machine learning detection method based on the actually used permissions combination and API calls was put forward in this paper. Meanwhile, several experiments are conducted to evaluate our methodology. The result shows that it can detect unknown malware effectively with higher true positive rate and accuracy while maintaining a low false positive rate. Consequently, the AdaboostM1 (J48) classification algorithm based on information gain feature selection algorithm has the best detection result, which can achieve an accuracy of 99.8%, a true positive rate of 99.6% and a lowest false positive rate of 0.

Keywords: Android, permissions combination, API calls, machine learning.

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Authors: Indiramma M., K. R. Anandakumar

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Trust management and Reputation models are becoming integral part of Internet based applications such as CSCW, E-commerce and Grid Computing. Also the trust dimension is a significant social structure and key to social relations within a collaborative community. Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) is a difficult task in the context of distributed environment (information across different geographical locations) and multidisciplinary decisions are involved such as Virtual Organization (VO). To aid team decision making in VO, Decision Support System and social network analysis approaches are integrated. In such situations social learning helps an organization in terms of relationship, team formation, partner selection etc. In this paper we focus on trust learning. Trust learning is an important activity in terms of information exchange, negotiation, collaboration and trust assessment for cooperation among virtual team members. In this paper we have proposed a reinforcement learning which enhances the trust decision making capability of interacting agents during collaboration in problem solving activity. Trust computational model with learning that we present is adapted for best alternate selection of new project in the organization. We verify our model in a multi-agent simulation where the agents in the community learn to identify trustworthy members, inconsistent behavior and conflicting behavior of agents.

Keywords: Collaborative Decision making, Trust, Multi Agent System (MAS), Bayesian Network, Reinforcement Learning.

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Authors: Hidetoshi Nonaka

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This paper presents an interactive modeling system of uniform polyhedra using the isomorphic graphs. Especially, Kepler-Poinsot solids are formed by modifications of dodecahedron and icosahedron.

Keywords: Kepler-Poinsot solid, Shape modeling, Polyhedralgraph, Graph drawing.

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Authors: Yash Pal, A.Swarup, Bhim Singh

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A new topology of unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) is proposed for different power quality (PQ) improvement in a three-phase four-wire (3P-4W) distribution system. For neutral current mitigation, a star-hexagon transformer is connected in shunt near the load along with three-leg voltage source inverters (VSIs) based UPQC. For the mitigation of source neutral current, the uses of passive elements are advantageous over the active compensation due to ruggedness and less complexity of control. In addition to this, by connecting a star-hexagon transformer for neutral current mitigation the over all rating of the UPQC is reduced. The performance of the proposed topology of 3P-4W UPQC is evaluated for power-factor correction, load balancing, neutral current mitigation and mitigation of voltage and currents harmonics. A simple control algorithm based on Unit Vector Template (UVT) technique is used as a control strategy of UPQC for mitigation of different PQ problems. In this control scheme, the current/voltage control is applied over the fundamental supply currents/voltages instead of fast changing APFs currents/voltages, thereby reducing the computational delay. Moreover, no extra control is required for neutral source current compensation; hence the numbers of current sensors are reduced. The performance of the proposed topology of UPQC is analyzed through simulations results using MATLAB software with its Simulink and Power System Block set toolboxes.

Keywords: Power-factor correction, Load balancing, UPQC, Voltage and Current harmonics, Neutral current mitigation, Starhexagon transformer.

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Authors: Muhammad Ashraf Fauzi, Nurhayati Abdul Malek, Jamilah Othman

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The implementations of green roof have been widely used in the developed countries such as Germany, United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Green roof have many benefits such as aesthetic and economic value, ecological gain which are optimization of storm water management, urban heat island mitigation and energy conservation. In term of pollution, green roof can control the air and noise pollution in urban cities. The application of green roof in Malaysian building has been studied with the previous work of green roof either in Malaysia or other Asian region as like Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and several other countries that have similar climate and environment as in Malaysia. These technologies of adapting green roof have been compared to the Green Building Index (GBI) of Malaysian buildings. The study has concentrated on the technical aspect of green roof system having focused on i) waste & recyclable materials ii) types of plants and method of planting and iii) green roof as tool to reduce storm water runoff. The finding of these areas will be compared to the suitability in achieving good practice of the GBI in Malaysia. Results show that most of the method are based on the countries own climate and environment. This suggests that the method of using green roof must adhere to the tropical climate of Malaysia. Suggestion of this research will be viewed in term of the sustainability of the green roof. Further research can be developed to implement the best method and application in Malaysian climate especially in urban cities and township.

Keywords: Green roofs, vegetation, plants, material, stormwater.

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Authors: Anshu Manik, Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan, Siddhartha K. Khaitan

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Rutting is one of the major load-related distresses in airport flexible pavements. Rutting in paving materials develop gradually with an increasing number of load applications, usually appearing as longitudinal depressions in the wheel paths and it may be accompanied by small upheavals to the sides. Significant research has been conducted to determine the factors which affect rutting and how they can be controlled. Using the experimental design concepts, a series of tests can be conducted while varying levels of different parameters, which could be the cause for rutting in airport flexible pavements. If proper experimental design is done, the results obtained from these tests can give a better insight into the causes of rutting and the presence of interactions and synergisms among the system variables which have influence on rutting. Although traditionally, laboratory experiments are conducted in a controlled fashion to understand the statistical interaction of variables in such situations, this study is an attempt to identify the critical system variables influencing airport flexible pavement rut depth from a statistical DoE perspective using real field data from a full-scale test facility. The test results do strongly indicate that the response (rut depth) has too much noise in it and it would not allow determination of a good model. From a statistical DoE perspective, two major changes proposed for this experiment are: (1) actual replication of the tests is definitely required, (2) nuisance variables need to be identified and blocked properly. Further investigation is necessary to determine possible sources of noise in the experiment.

Keywords: Airport Pavement, Design of Experiments, Rutting, NAPTF.

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Authors: M. N. Hasnine, M. K. H. Chayon, M. M. Rahman

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Organizational tendencies towards computer-based information processing have been observed noticeably in the third-world countries. Many enterprises are taking major initiatives towards computerized working environment because of massive benefits of computer-based information processing. However, designing and developing information resource management software for small and mid-size enterprises under budget costs and strict deadline is always challenging for software engineers. Therefore, we introduced an approach to design mid-size enterprise software by using the Waterfall model, which is one of the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycles), in a cost effective way. To fulfill research objectives, in this study, we developed mid-sized enterprise software named “BSK Management System” that assists enterprise software clients with information resource management and perform complex organizational tasks. Waterfall model phases have been applied to ensure that all functions, user requirements, strategic goals, and objectives are met. In addition, Rich Picture, Structured English, and Data Dictionary have been implemented and investigated properly in engineering manner. Furthermore, an assessment survey with 20 participants has been conducted to investigate the usability and performance of the proposed software. The survey results indicated that our system featured simple interfaces, easy operation and maintenance, quick processing, and reliable and accurate transactions.

Keywords: End-user Application Development, Enterprise Software Design, Information Resource Management, Usability.

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Authors: Nadia H. Mohammed, Anmar Al-Taie, Fadia H. Al-Sultany

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Although breast cancer prevalence continues to increase, mortality has been decreasing as a result of early detection and improvement in adjuvant systemic therapy. Nevertheless, this disease required further efforts to understand and identify the associated potential risk factors that could play a role in the prevalence of this malignancy among Iraqi women. The objective of this study was to assess the perception of certain predictive risk factors on the prevalence of breast cancer types among a sample of Iraqi women diagnosed with breast cancer. This was a retrospective observational study carried out at National Cancer Research Center in College of Medicine, Baghdad University from November 2017 to January 2018. Data of 100 patients with breast cancer whose biopsies examined in the National Cancer Research Center were included in this study. Data were collected to structure a detailed assessment regarding the patients’ demographic, medical and cancer records. The majority of study participants (94%) suffered from ductal breast cancer with mean age 49.57 years. Among those women, 48.9% were obese with body mass index (BMI) 35 kg/m². 68.1% of them had positive family history of breast cancer and 66% had low parity. 40.4% had stage II ductal breast cancer followed by 25.5% with stage III. It was found that 59.6% and 68.1% had positive oestrogen receptor sensitivity and positive human epidermal growth factor (HER2/neu) receptor sensitivity respectively. In regard to the impact of prediction of certain variables on the incidence of ductal breast cancer, positive family history of breast cancer (P < 0.0001), low parity (P< 0.0001), stage I and II breast cancer (P = 0.02) and positive HER2/neu status (P < 0.0001) were significant predictive factors among the study participants. The results from this study provide relevant evidence for a significant positive and potential association between certain risk factors and the prevalence of breast cancer among Iraqi women.

Keywords: Ductal breast cancer, hormone sensitivity, Iraq, risk factors.

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Authors: L. Yu, W. K. Li, S. K. Ong, A. Y. C. Nee

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In this paper, a scalable augmented reality framework for handheld devices is presented. The presented framework is enabled by using a server-client data communication structure, in which the search for tracking targets among a database of images is performed on the server-side while pixel-wise 3D tracking is performed on the client-side, which, in this case, is a handheld mobile device. Image search on the server-side adopts a residual-enhanced image descriptors representation that gives the framework a scalability property. The tracking algorithm on the client-side is based on a gravity-aligned feature descriptor which takes the advantage of a sensor-equipped mobile device and an optimized intensity-based image alignment approach that ensures the accuracy of 3D tracking. Automatic content streaming is achieved by using a key-frame selection algorithm, client working phase monitoring and standardized rules for content communication between the server and client. The recognition accuracy test performed on a standard dataset shows that the method adopted in the presented framework outperforms the Bag-of-Words (BoW) method that has been used in some of the previous systems. Experimental test conducted on a set of video sequences indicated the real-time performance of the tracking system with a frame rate at 15-30 frames per second. The presented framework is exposed to be functional in practical situations with a demonstration application on a campus walk-around.

Keywords: Augmented reality framework, server-client model, vision-based tracking, image search.

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Authors: S. Jungsuttiwong, R. Tarsang, S. Pansay, T. Yakhantip, V. Promarak, T. Sudyoadsuk, T. Kaewin, S. Saengsuwan, S. Namuangrak

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In this paper, four carbazole-based D-D-π-A organic dyes code as CCT2A, CCT3A, CCT1PA and CCT2PA were reported. A series of these organic dyes containing identical donor and acceptor group but different π-system. The effect of replacing of thiophene by phenyl thiophene as π-system on the physical properties has been focused. The structural, energetic properties and absorption spectra were theoretically investigated by means of Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT). The results show that nonplanar conformation due to steric hindrance in donor part (cabazolecarbazole unit) of dye molecule can prevent unfavorable dye aggregation. By means of the TD-DFT method, the absorption spectra were calculated by B3LYP and BHandHLYP to study the affect of hybrid functional on the excitation energy (Eg). The results revealed the increasing of thiophene units not only resulted in decreasing of Eg, but also found the shifting of absorption spectra to higher wavelength. TD-DFT/BHandHLYP calculated results are more strongly agreed with the experimental data than B3LYP functions. Furthermore, the adsorptions of CCT2A and CCT3A on the TiO2 anatase (101) surface were carried out by mean of the chemical periodic calculation. The result exhibit the strong adsorption energy. The calculated results provide our new organic dyes can be effectively used as dye for Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSC).

Keywords: Dye-Sensitized Solar cell, Carbarzole, TD-DFT, D-D-π-A organic dye

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Authors: S. Kulsri, M. Jaroensutasinee, K. Jaroensutasinee

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We developed a new method based on quasimolecular modeling to simulate the cavity flow in three cavity shapes: rectangular, half-circular and bucket beer in cgs units. Each quasi-molecule was a group of particles that interacted in a fashion entirely analogous to classical Newtonian molecular interactions. When a cavity flow was simulated, the instantaneous velocity vector fields were obtained by using an inverse distance weighted interpolation method. In all three cavity shapes, fluid motion was rotated counter-clockwise. The velocity vector fields of the three cavity shapes showed a primary vortex located near the upstream corners at time t ~ 0.500 s, t ~ 0.450 s and t ~ 0.350 s, respectively. The configurational kinetic energy of the cavities increased as time increased until the kinetic energy reached a maximum at time t ~ 0.02 s and, then, the kinetic energy decreased as time increased. The rectangular cavity system showed the lowest kinetic energy, while the half-circular cavity system showed the highest kinetic energy. The kinetic energy of rectangular, beer bucket and half-circular cavities fluctuated about stable average values 35.62 x 103, 38.04 x 103 and 40.80 x 103 ergs/particle, respectively. This indicated that the half-circular shapes were the most suitable shape for a shrimp pond because the water in shrimp pond flows best when we compared with rectangular and beer bucket shape.

Keywords: Quasi-molecular modelling, particle modelling, lid driven cavity flow.

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Authors: Mohammad Mirwais Yusufi

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Skillful management is one of the most important success factors for today’s farms. When a farm is well managed, it can generate funds for its sustainability. Grape is one of the most diffused fruits in the world and one of the most important cash crops with high potential of production in Afghanistan as well. While there are several organizations intervening for improvement of this cash crop, the quality and quantity are still not satisfactory for producers and external markets. The situation has not changed over the years. Therefore, a survey was conducted in 2017 with 60 grape growers, supported by questionnaires in Mirbachakot, Kalakan and Shakardara districts of Kabul province. The purpose was to get an understanding of the current socio-demographic characteristics of farmers, management methods, constraints, farm size, yield and contribution of grape farming to household income. Findings indicate that grape farming was predominant 83.3% male, 16.6% female and small-scale farmers were the main grape producers, 60% < 1 ha of land under grape production. Likewise, 50% had more than > 10 years and 33.3% between 1-5 years’ experience in grape farming. The high level of illiteracy and diseases had significant digit effect on growth, yield and quality of grapes. The results showed that vineyard management operations to protect grapes from mechanical damage are very poor or completely absent. Comparing developed countries, table grape is one of the fruits with the highest input of technology, while in developing countries the cost of labor is low but the purchase of the equipment is very high due to financial situation. Hence the low quality and quantity of grape are influenced by poor management methods, such as non-availability of experts and lack of technical guidance in the study site. Thereby, the study suggested that improved agricultural extension services and managerial skills could contribute to addressing the problems.

Keywords: Efficient resources use, management skills, constraints factors, Kabul.

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Authors: Chih-I. Tsai, Yu-Chien. Lin

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Through experiences of clinical practices, it is discovered that locations on the body at a level of four fingerbreadth above and below the joints are the points at which muscles connect to tendons, and since the muscles and tendons possess opposite characteristics, muscles are full of blood but lack qi, while tendons are full of qi but lack blood, these points on our body become easily blocked. It is proposed that through doing acupuncture or creating localized pressure to the areas four fingerbreadths above and below our joints, with an elastic bandage, we could help the energy, also known as qi, to flow smoothly in our body and further improve our health. Based on the Four Fingers Theory, we understand that human height is 22 four fingerbreadths. In addition, qi and blood travel through 24 meridians, 50 times each day, and they flow through 6 cun with every human breath. We can also understand the average number of human heartbeats is 75 times per minute. And the function of qi-blood circulation system in Traditional Chinese Medicine is the same as the blood circulation in Western Medical Science. Informed by Four Fingers Theory, this study further examined its applications in acupuncture practices. The research question is how Four Fingers Theory proves what has been mentioned in Nei Jing that there are 66 acupoints under a human’s elbow and knee. In responding to the research question, there are 66 acupoints under a human’s elbow and knee. Four Fingers Theory facilitated the creation of the acupuncture naming and teaching system. It is expected to serve as an approachable and effective way to deliver knowledge of acupuncture to the public worldwide.

Keywords: Four Fingers theory, Meridians circulation, 66 Acupoints under a human’s elbow and knee, acupuncture.

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Authors: Suresh Sahu, Abhijeet M. Vaidya, Naresh K. Maheshwari

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The efforts to understand the heat transfer behavior of supercritical water in supercritical water cooled reactor (SCWR) are ongoing worldwide to fulfill the future energy demand. The higher thermal efficiency of these reactors compared to a conventional nuclear reactor is one of the driving forces for attracting the attention of nuclear scientists. In this work, a solution procedure has been described for solving supercritical fluid flow problems in complex geometries. The solution procedure is based on non-staggered grid. All governing equations are discretized by finite volume method (FVM) in curvilinear coordinate system. Convective terms are discretized by first-order upwind scheme and central difference approximation has been used to discretize the diffusive parts. k-ε turbulence model with standard wall function has been employed. SIMPLE solution procedure has been implemented for the curvilinear coordinate system. Based on this solution method, 3-D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code has been developed. In order to demonstrate the capability of this CFD code in supercritical fluid flows, heat transfer to supercritical water in circular tubes has been considered as a test problem. Results obtained by code have been compared with experimental results reported in literature.

Keywords: Curvilinear coordinate, body-fitted mesh, momentum interpolation, non-staggered grid, supercritical fluids.

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Authors: Bolajoko I. Malomo, Maryam O. Yusuf

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Lagos urban mini bus drivers play a critical role in the transportation sector. The current major mode of transportation within Lagos metropolis remains road transportation and this confirms the relevance of urban mini-bus drivers in transporting the populace to their various destinations. Other modes of transportation such as the train and waterways are currently inadequate. Various threats to the well-being of urban bus drivers include congested traffic typical of modern day lifestyles, dwindling financial returns due to long hours in traffic, fewer hours of sleep, inadequate diet, time pressure, and assaults related to fare disputes. Several healthrelated problems have been documented to be associated with urban bus driving. For instance, greater rates of hypertension, obesity and cholesterol level have been reported. Research studies are yet to identify the influence of age and marital status on the well-being of urban mini-bus drivers in Lagos metropolis. A study of this nature is necessary as it is culturally perceived in Nigeria that older and married people are especially influenced by family affiliation and would behave in ways that would project positive outcomes. The study sample consisted of 150 urban mini-bus drivers who were conveniently sampled from six (6) different terminuses where their journey begins and terminates. The well-being questionnaire was administered to participants. The criteria for inclusion in the study included the ability to read in English language and the confirmation that interested participants were on duty and suited to be driving mini-buses. Due to the nature of the job of bus driving, the researcher administered the questionnaires on participants who were free and willing to respond to the survey. All participants were males of various age groups and of different marital statuses. Results of analyses conducted revealed no significant influence of age and marital status on the well-being of urban mini-bus drivers. This indicates that the well-being of urban mini bus drivers is not influenced by age or marital status. The findings of this study have cultural implications. It negates the popularly held belief that older and married people care more about their well-being than younger and single people. It brings to fore the need to also identify and consider other factors when certifying people for the job of urban bus driving.

Keywords: Age, Lagos metropolis, marital status, well-being of urban mini bus drivers.

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Authors: Roman Graf, Sergiu Gordea, Heather M. Ryan

Abstract:

This paper presents an approach for the classification of an unstructured format description for identification of file formats. The main contribution of this work is the employment of data mining techniques to support file format selection with just the unstructured text description that comprises the most important format features for a particular organisation. Subsequently, the file format indentification method employs file format classifier and associated configurations to support digital preservation experts with an estimation of required file format. Our goal is to make use of a format specification knowledge base aggregated from a different Web sources in order to select file format for a particular institution. Using the naive Bayes method, the decision support system recommends to an expert, the file format for his institution. The proposed methods facilitate the selection of file format and the quality of a digital preservation process. The presented approach is meant to facilitate decision making for the preservation of digital content in libraries and archives using domain expert knowledge and specifications of file formats. To facilitate decision-making, the aggregated information about the file formats is presented as a file format vocabulary that comprises most common terms that are characteristic for all researched formats. The goal is to suggest a particular file format based on this vocabulary for analysis by an expert. The sample file format calculation and the calculation results including probabilities are presented in the evaluation section.

Keywords: Data mining, digital libraries, digital preservation, file format.

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Authors: Mavroidis Athanasios, Karamitsos Ioannis, Saletti Paola

Abstract:

In this paper is presented a Geographic Information System (GIS) approach in order to qualify and monitor the broadband lines in efficient way. The methodology used for interpolation is the Delaunay Triangular Irregular Network (TIN). This method is applied for a case study in ISP Greece monitoring 120,000 broadband lines.

Keywords: GIS loop qualification, GIS xDSL, LLU TIN.

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Authors: G. Sarojamma, K. Vendabai

Abstract:

An analysis is carried out to investigate the effect of magnetic field and heat source on the steady boundary layer flow and heat transfer of a Casson nanofluid over a vertical cylinder stretching exponentially along its radial direction. Using a similarity transformation, the governing mathematical equations, with the boundary conditions are reduced to a system of coupled, non –linear ordinary differential equations. The resulting system is solved numerically by the fourth order Runge – Kutta scheme with shooting technique. The influence of various physical parameters such as Reynolds number, Prandtl number, magnetic field, Brownian motion parameter, thermophoresis parameter, Lewis number and the natural convection parameter are presented graphically and discussed for non – dimensional velocity, temperature and nanoparticle volume fraction. Numerical data for the skin – friction coefficient, local Nusselt number and the local Sherwood number have been tabulated for various parametric conditions. It is found that the local Nusselt number is a decreasing function of Brownian motion parameter Nb and the thermophoresis parameter Nt.

Keywords: Casson nanofluid, Boundary layer flow, Internal heat generation/absorption, Exponentially stretching cylinder, Heat transfer, Brownian motion, Thermophoresis.

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Authors: Yuan L. Lai, Yong R. Chen, Jui P. Hung, Tzuo L. Luo, Hsi H. Hsiao

Abstract:

Chatter vibration has been a troublesome problem for a machine tool toward the high precision and high speed machining. Essentially, the machining performance is determined by the dynamic characteristics of the machine tool structure and dynamics of cutting process. Therefore the dynamic vibration behavior of spindle tool system greatly determines the performance of machine tool. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of the machine frame structure on the dynamic frequency of spindle tool unit through finite element modeling approach. To this end, a realistic finite element model of the vertical milling system was created by incorporated the spindle-bearing model into the spindle head stock of the machine frame. Using this model, the dynamic characteristics of the milling machines with different structural designs of spindle head stock and identical spindle tool unit were demonstrated. The results of the finite element modeling reveal that the spindle tool unit behaves more compliant when the excited frequency approaches the natural mode of the spindle tool; while the spindle tool show a higher dynamic stiffness at lower frequency that may be initiated by the structural mode of milling head. Under this condition, it is concluded that the structural configuration of spindle head stock associated with the vertical column of milling machine plays an important role in determining the machining dynamics of the spindle unit.

Keywords: Machine tools, Compliance, Frequency response function, Machine frame structure, Spindle unit

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Authors: Bhanu Gupta

Abstract:

In this paper, the criteria of Ψ-eventual stability have been established for generalized impulsive differential systems of multiple dependent variables. The sufficient conditions have been obtained using piecewise continuous Lyapunov function. An example is given to support our theoretical result.

Keywords: impulsive differential equations, Lyapunov function, eventual stability

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Authors: Phannee Saengkaew, Weerasak Ussawawongaraya, Sasiphan Khaweerat, Supagorn Rugmai, Sirisart Ouajai, Jiraporn Luengviriya, Sakuntam Sanorpim, Manop Tirarattanasompot, Somboon Rhianphumikarakit

Abstract:

We present a preliminary x-ray study on human-hair microstructures for a health-state indicator, in particular a cancer case. As an uncomplicated and low-cost method of x-ray technique, the human-hair microstructure was analyzed by wide-angle x-ray diffractions (XRD) and small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). The XRD measurements exhibited the simply reflections at the d-spacing of 28 Å, 9.4 Å and 4.4 Å representing to the periodic distance of the protein matrix of the human-hair macrofibrous and the diameter and the repeated spacing of the polypeptide alpha helixes of the photofibrils of the human-hair microfibrous, respectively. When compared to the normal cases, the unhealthy cases including to the breast- and ovarian-cancer cases obtained higher normalized ratios of the x-ray diffracting peaks of 9.4 Å and 4.4 Å. This likely resulted from the varied distributions of microstructures by a molecular alteration. As an elemental analysis by x-ray fluorescence (XRF), the normalized quantitative ratios of zinc(Zn)/calcium(Ca) and iron(Fe)/calcium(Ca) were determined. Analogously, both Zn/Ca and Fe/Ca ratios of the unhealthy cases were obtained higher than both of the normal cases were. Combining the structural analysis by XRD measurements and the elemental analysis by XRF measurements exhibited that the modified fibrous microstructures of hair samples were in relation to their altered elemental compositions. Therefore, these microstructural and elemental analyses of hair samples will be benefit to associate with a diagnosis of cancer and genetic diseases. This functional method would lower a risk of such diseases by the early diagnosis. However, the high-intensity x-ray source, the highresolution x-ray detector, and more hair samples are necessarily desired to develop this x-ray technique and the efficiency would be enhanced by including the skin and fingernail samples with the human-hair analysis.

Keywords: Human-hair analysis, XRD, SAXS, breast cancer, health-state indicator

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Authors: Yun-na Wu, Zhen Wang

Abstract:

Due to the economic downturn and the deterioration of the living environment, the development of residential buildings as high energy consuming building is gradually changing from “extensive” to green building in China. So, the evaluation system of green building is continuously improved, but the current evaluation work has the following problems: (1) There are differences in the cost of the actual investment and the purchasing power of residents, also construction target of green residential building is single and lacks multi-objective performance development. (2) Green building evaluation lacks regional characteristics and cannot reflect the different regional residents demand. (3) In the process of determining the criteria weight, the experts’ judgment matrix is difficult to meet the requirement of consistency. Therefore, to solve those problems, questionnaires which are about the green residential building for Ningxia area are distributed, and the results of questionnaires can feedback the purchasing power of residents and the acceptance of the green building cost. Secondly, combined with the geographical features of Ningxia minority areas, the evaluation criteria system of green residential building is constructed. Finally, using the improved group AHP method and the grey clustering method, the criteria weight is determined, and a real case is evaluated, which is located in Xing Qing district, Ningxia. A conclusion can be obtained that the professional evaluation for this project and good social recognition is basically the same.

Keywords: Evaluation, green residential building, grey clustering method, group AHP.

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Authors: F. Javier Benitez, Francisco J. Real, Juan Luis Acero, Francisco Casas

Abstract:

Three emerging contaminants (amitriptyline hydrochloride, methyl salicylate and 2-phenoxyethanol) frequently found in waste-waters were selected to be individually degraded in ultra-pure water by the combined advanced oxidation process constituted by UV radiation and chlorine. The influence of pH, initial chlorine concentration and nature of the contaminants was firstly explored. The trend for the reactivity of the selected compounds was deduced: amitriptyline hydrochloride > methyl salicylate > 2-phenoxyethanol. A later kinetic study was carried out and focused on the specific evaluation of the first-order rate constants and the determination of the partial contribution to the global reaction of the direct photochemical pathway and the radical pathway. A comparison between the rate constant values among photochemical experiments without and with the presence of Cl₂ reveals a clear increase in the oxidation efficiency of the combined process with respect to the photochemical reaction alone. In a second stage, the simultaneous oxidation of mixtures of the selected contaminants in several types of water (ultrapure water, surface water from a reservoir, and two secondary effluents) was also performed by the same combination UV/Cl₂ under more realistic operating conditions. The efficiency of this combined system UV/Cl₂ was compared to other oxidants such as the UV/S₂O₈^2- and UV/H₂O₂ AOPs. Results confirmed that the UV/Cl₂ system provides higher elimination efficiencies among the AOPs tested.

Keywords: Emerging contaminants, amitriptyline, methyl salicylate, 2-phenoxyethanol, chlorination, photolysis, rate constants, UV/chlorine advanced oxidation process.

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