Search results for: potential field method

Authors: Astorga-Trejo Rebeca, Fonseca-Peralta Héctor Manuel, Beltrán-Arredondo Laura Ivonne, Castro-Martínez Claudia

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The use of biomass as feedstock for the production of fuels and other chemicals of interest is an ever growing accepted option in the way to the development of biorefinery complexes. In the Mexican state of Sinaloa, a significant amount of residues from corn crops are produced every year, most of which can be converted to bioethanol and other products through biotechnological conversion using yeast and other microorganisms. Therefore, the objective of this work was to take advantage of corn stover and evaluate its potential as a substrate for the production of second generation bioethanol (2G), enzymes and xylitol. To produce bioethanol 2G, an acid-alkaline pretreatment was carried out prior to saccharification and fermentation. The microorganisms used for the production of enzymes, as well as for the production of xylitol, were isolated and characterized in our work group. Statistical analysis was performed using Design Expert version 11.0. The results showed that it is possible to obtain 2G bioethanol employing corn stover as a carbon source and Saccharomyces cerevisiae ItVer01 and Candida intermedia CBE002 with yields of 0.42 g and 0.31 g, respectively. It was also shown that C. intermedia has the ability to produce xylitol with a good yield (0.46 g/g). On the other hand, qualitative and quantitative studies showed that the native strains of Fusarium equiseti (0.4 IU/mL - xylanase), Bacillus velezensis (1.2 IU/mL – xylanase and 0.4 UI/mL - amylase) and Penicillium funiculosum (1.5 IU/mL - cellulases) have the capacity to produce xylanases, amylases or cellulases using corn stover as raw material. This study allowed us to demonstrate that it is possible to use corn stover as a carbon source, a low-cost raw material with high availability in our country, to obtain bioproducts of industrial interest, using processes that are more environmentally friendly and sustainable. It is necessary to continue the optimization of each bioprocess.

Keywords: Biomass, corn stover, biorefinery, bioethanol 2G, enzymes, xylitol.

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Authors: Chiung-Hui Chen

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With the approaching of digital era, various interactive service platforms and systems support human beings- needs in lives by different contents and measures. Design strategies have gradually turned from function-based to user-oriented, and are often customized. In other words, how designers include users- value reaction in creation becomes the goal. Creative design service of interior design requires positive interaction and communication to allow users to obtain full design information, recognize the style and process of personal needs, develop creative service design, lower communication time and cost and satisfy users- sense of achievement. Thus, by constructing a co-design method, based on the communication between interior designers and users, this study recognizes users- real needs and provides the measure of co-design for designers and users.

Keywords: Co-Design, Customized, Design Service, Interactive Genetic Algorithm, Interior Design.

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Authors: Amin Mojiri, Lou Ziyang

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Constructed Wetland (CW) is a reasonable method to treat wastewater. Current study was carried out to co-treat landfill leachate and domestic wastewater using a CW system. Typha domingensis was transplanted to CW, which encloses two substrate layers of adsorbents named ZELIAC and zeolite. Response surface methodology and central composite design were employed to evaluate experimental data. Contact time (h) and leachate-towastewater mixing ratio (%; v/v) were selected as independent factors. Phenols and manganese removal were selected as dependent responses. At optimum contact time (48.7 h) and leachate-towastewater mixing ratio (20.0%), removal efficiencies of phenols and manganese removal efficiencies were 90.5%, and 89.4%, respectively.

Keywords: Constructed wetland, manganese, phenols, Thypha domingensis.

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Authors: Boo-Sung Koh, Seung-Eock Kim

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In this paper, a direct design using a nonlinear inelastic analysis is suggested. Also, this paper compares the load carrying capacity obtained by a nonlinear inelastic analysis with experiment results to verify the accuracy of the results. The allowable stress design results of a railroad through a plate girder bridge and the safety factor of the nonlinear inelastic analysis were compared to examine the safety performance. As a result, the load safety factor for the nonlinear inelastic analysis was twice as high as the required safety factor under the allowable stress design standard specified in the civil engineering structure design standards for urban magnetic levitation railways, which further verified the advantages of the proposed direct design method.

Keywords: Direct design, nonlinear inelastic analysis, residual stress, initial geometric imperfection.

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Authors: Mohamed EL Boujnouni, Mohamed Jedra, Noureddine Zahid

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Support Vector Domain Description (SVDD) is one of the best-known one-class support vector learning methods, in which one tries the strategy of using balls defined on the feature space in order to distinguish a set of normal data from all other possible abnormal objects. As all kernel-based learning algorithms its performance depends heavily on the proper choice of the kernel parameter. This paper proposes a new approach to select kernel's parameter based on maximizing the distance between both gravity centers of normal and abnormal classes, and at the same time minimizing the variance within each class. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated on several benchmarks. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and the effectiveness of the presented method.

Keywords: Gravity centers, Kernel’s parameter, Support Vector Domain Description, Variance.

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Authors: Ammar Ayad Issa Al-Rifaie, Zuhreya Muazu, Maysam Ali Abdulwahid, Dermot Gleeson

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The aim of this audit was to examine the efficiency of alcohol history documentation and screening for hazardous drinkers at the Medical Admission Unit (MAU) of Northern General Hospital (NGH), Sheffield, to identify any potential for enhancing clinical practice. Data were collected from medical clerking sheets, ICE system and directly from 82 patients by three junior medical doctors using both CAGE questionnaire and AUDIT-C tool for newly admitted patients to MAU in NGH, in the period between January and March 2015. Alcohol consumption was documented in around two-third of the patient sample and this was documented fairly accurately by health care professionals. Some used subjective words such as 'social drinking' in the alcohol units’ section of the history. CAGE questionnaire was applied to only four patients and none of the patients had documented advice, education or referral to an alcohol liaison team. AUDIT-C tool had identified 30.4%, while CAGE 10.9%, of patients admitted to the NGH MAU as hazardous drinkers. The amount of alcohol the patient consumes positively correlated with the score of AUDIT-C (Pearson correlation 0.83). Re-audit is planned to be carried out after integrating AUDIT-C tool as labels in the notes and presenting a brief teaching session to junior doctors. Alcohol misuse screening is not adequately undertaken and no appropriate action is being offered to hazardous drinkers. CAGE questionnaire is poorly applied to patients and when satisfactory and adequately used has low sensitivity to detect hazardous drinkers in comparison with AUDIT-C tool. Re-audit of alcohol screening practice after introducing AUDIT-C tool in clerking sheets (as labels) is required to compare the findings and conclude the audit cycle.

Keywords: Alcohol screening, AUDIT-C, CAGE, Hazardous drinking.

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Authors: Judy Yarwood, Lesley Seaton, Philippa Seaton

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A catastrophic earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale struck the Christchurch, New Zealand Central Business District on February 22, 2012, abruptly disrupting the business of teaching and learning at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology. This paper presents the findings from a study undertaken about the complexity of delivering an educational programme in the face of this traumatic natural event. Nine interconnected themes emerged from this multiple method study: communication, decision making, leader- and follower-ship, balancing personal and professional responsibilities, taking action, preparedness and thinking ahead, all within a disruptive and uncertain context. Sustainable responses that maximise business continuity, and provide solutions to practical challenges, are among the study-s recommendations.

Keywords: Business continuity, earthquake, education, sustainability

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Authors: Rasool Razmi, Mohammad Hossein Sedaghat, Reza Janamiri, Amir Hatampou

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This work concerns on experimentally investigation of surfactant flooding in fractured porous media. In this study a series of water and surfactant injection processes were performed on micromodels initially saturated with a heavy crude oil. Eight fractured glass micromodels were used to illustrate effects of surfactant types and concentrations on oil recovery efficiency in presence of fractures with different properties i.e. fracture orientation, length and number of fractures. Two different surfactants with different concentrations were tested. The results showed that surfactant flooding would be more efficient by using SDS surfactant aqueous solution and also by locating injection well in a proper position respect to fracture properties. This study demonstrates different physical and chemical conditions that affect the efficiency of this method of enhanced oil recovery.

Keywords: Displacement, Fractured five-spot systems, Heavy oil, Surfactant flooding.

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Authors: Nora Taleb, Sellami Mokhtar, Michel Simonet

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This work concerns the evolution and the maintenance of an ontological resource in relation with the evolution of the corpus of texts from which it had been built. The knowledge forming a text corpus, especially in dynamic domains, is in continuous evolution. When a change in the corpus occurs, the domain ontology must evolve accordingly. Most methods manage ontology evolution independently from the corpus from which it is built; in addition, they treat evolution just as a process of knowledge addition, not considering other knowledge changes. We propose a methodology for managing an evolving ontology from a text corpus that evolves over time, while preserving the consistency and the persistence of this ontology. Our methodology is based on the changes made on the corpus to reflect the evolution of the considered domain - augmented surgery in our case. In this context, the results of text mining techniques, as well as the ARCHONTE method slightly modified, are used to support the evolution process.

Keywords: Corpus, Evolution, Ontology

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Authors: S. S. Mishra, D. K. Yadav

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This paper focuses on cost and profit analysis of single-server Markovian queuing system with two priority classes. In this paper, functions of total expected cost, revenue and profit of the system are constructed and subjected to optimization with respect to its service rates of lower and higher priority classes. A computing algorithm has been developed on the basis of fast converging numerical method to solve the system of non linear equations formed out of the mathematical analysis. A novel performance measure of cost and profit analysis in view of its economic interpretation for the system with priority classes is attempted to discuss in this paper. On the basis of computed tables observations are also drawn to enlighten the variational-effect of the model on the parameters involved therein.

Keywords: Cost and Profit, Computing, Expected Revenue, Priority classes

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Authors: S. Sendhil Kumar, S. N. Vijayan

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Utilization of solar energy can be found in various domestic and industrial applications. The performance of any solar collector is largely affected by various parameters such as glazing, absorber plate, top covers, and heating pipes. Technology improvements have brought us another method for conversion of solar energy to direct electricity using solar photovoltaic system. Utilization and extraction of solar energy is the biggest problem in these conversion methods. This paper aims to overcome these problems and take the advantages of available energy from solar by maximizing the utilization through solar tracking system using a refrigerant as a working medium. The use of this tracking system can help increase the efficiency of conversion devices by maximum utilization of solar energy. The dual axis tracking system gives maximum energy output compared to single axis tracking system.

Keywords: Refrigerant, solar collector, solar energy, solar panel, solar tracking.

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Authors: Saied Rasul Hosseini Baharanchi

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This paper addresses integration issues in supply chain, and tries to investigate how different aspects of integration are linked with some product features. Integration in this study is interpreted as "internal", "upstream" (supply), and "downstream" (demand). Two features of product innovative and quality are considered. To examine the relationships between supply chain integrations – as mentioned above, and product features, this research follows the survey method in automotive industry.The results imply that supply chain upstream integration has a higher impact on product quality, comparing to internal and supply chain downstream integrations. It is also found that the influence of supply chain downstream integration on product innovation is greater than other variables. In brief, this study mainly tackles the importance of specific level of supply chain integrations and its effects on two product features.

Keywords: Supply chain upstream integration, supply chaindownstream integration, internal integration, product features

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Authors: Sanchita Chauhan, V.K. Srivastava

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Catalytic converters are used for minimizing the release of pollutants to the atmosphere. It is during the warm-up period that hydrocarbons are seen to be released in appreciable quantities from these converters. In this paper the conversion of a fast oxidizing hydrocarbon propylene is analysed using two numerical methods. The quasi steady state method assumes the accumulation terms to be negligible in the gas phase mass and energy balance equations, however this term is present in the solid phase energy balance. The unsteady state model accounts for the accumulation term to be present in the gas phase mass and energy balance and in the solid phase energy balance. The results derived from the two models for gas concentration, gas temperature and solid temperature are compared.

Keywords: Propylene, catalyst, quasi steady state, unsteady state.

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Authors: Sun Ailu, Zhao Wanmin

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In the process of rapid urbanization, old urban renewal is an important task in China's urban construction. This study, using status survey and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, taking Chongqing of China as an example, puts forward the problems faced by the old urban area from the aspects of function, facilities and environment. Further, this study summarizes the types of the old urban area and proposes space renewal strategies for three typical old urban areas, such as old residential area, old factory and old market. These old urban areas are confronted with the problems of functional layout confounding, lack of infrastructure and poor living environment. At last, this paper proposes spatial strategies for urban renewal, which are hoped to be useful for urban renewal management in China.

Keywords: Old urban renewal, renewal mode, renewal strategy, Chongqing, China.

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Authors: Tushnik Sarkar, Mofazzal H. Khondekar, Subrata Banerjee

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This paper investigates the nature of the fluctuation of the daily average Solar wind speed time series collected over a period of 2492 days, from 1^st January, 1997 to 28^th October, 2003. The degree of self-similarity and scalability of the Solar Wind Speed signal has been explored to characterise the signal fluctuation. Multi-fractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MFDFA) method has been implemented on the signal which is under investigation to perform this task. Furthermore, the singularity spectra of the signals have been also obtained to gauge the extent of the multifractality of the time series signal.

Keywords: Detrended fluctuation analysis, generalized Hurst exponent, holder exponents, multifractal exponent, multifractal spectrum, singularity spectrum, time series analysis.

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Authors: A. Borji, M. Hamidi

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In this paper we examine the use of global texture analysis based approaches for the purpose of Persian font recognition in machine-printed document images. Most existing methods for font recognition make use of local typographical features and connected component analysis. However derivation of such features is not an easy task. Gabor filters are appropriate tools for texture analysis and are motivated by human visual system. Here we consider document images as textures and use Gabor filter responses for identifying the fonts. The method is content independent and involves no local feature analysis. Two different classifiers Weighted Euclidean Distance and SVM are used for the purpose of classification. Experiments on seven different type faces and four font styles show average accuracy of 85% with WED and 82% with SVM classifier over typefaces

Keywords: Persian font recognition, support vector machine, gabor filter.

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Authors: Erick López-Ornelas

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As the world changes more rapidly, the demand for update information for resource management, environment monitoring, planning are increasing exponentially. Integration of Remote Sensing with GIS technology will significantly promote the ability for addressing these concerns. This paper presents an alternative way of update GIS applications using image processing and high resolution images. We show a method of high-resolution image segmentation using graphs and morphological operations, where a preprocessing step (watershed operation) is required. A morphological process is then applied using the opening and closing operations. After this segmentation we can extract significant cartographic elements such as urban areas, streets or green areas. The result of this segmentation and this extraction is then used to update GIS applications. Some examples are shown using aerial photography.

Keywords: GIS, Remote Sensing, image segmentation, feature extraction.

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Authors: Ying Wang

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From the perspective of industrial structure coordination and based on an explicit definition for the connotation of industrial structure coordination, the synergetic coefficients are used to measure the coordination degree between three industries' input structure and output structure, and then the efficacy function method is employed to comprehensively evaluate the level of China-s industrial structure optimization. It is showed that Chinese industrial structure presented a "v-shaped" variation tendency between 1996 and 2008, and its industrial structure adjustment got obvious achievements after 2003, with the industrial structure optimization level increasing continuously. However in 2009, the level of China-s industrial structure optimization declined sharply due to the decreasing contribution degree of value added structure and energy structure coordination and the lower coordination degree of value added structure and capital structure.

Keywords: China's industrial structure, Coordination degree, Efficacy function, Synergetic coefficients

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Authors: Venkatesh Kumar, Kasun Hewage, Rehan Sadiq

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Residential buildings consume significant amounts of energy and produce large amount of emissions and waste. However, there is a substantial potential for energy savings in this sector which needs to be evaluated over the life cycle of residential buildings. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology has been employed to study the primary energy uses and associated environmental impacts of different phases (i.e., product, construction, use, end of life, and beyond building life) for residential buildings. Four different alternatives of residential buildings in Vancouver (BC, Canada) with a 50-year lifespan have been evaluated, including High Rise Apartment (HRA), Low Rise Apartment (LRA), Single family Attached House (SAH), and Single family Detached House (SDH). Life cycle performance of the buildings is evaluated for embodied energy, embodied environmental impacts, operational energy, operational environmental impacts, total life-cycle energy, and total life cycle environmental impacts. Estimation of operational energy and LCA are performed using DesignBuilder software and Athena Impact estimator software respectively. The study results revealed that over the life span of the buildings, the relationship between the energy use and the environmental impacts are identical. LRA is found to be the best alternative in terms of embodied energy use and embodied environmental impacts; while, HRA showed the best life-cycle performance in terms of minimum energy use and environmental impacts. Sensitivity analysis has also been carried out to study the influence of building service lifespan over 50, 75, and 100 years on the relative significance of embodied energy and total life cycle energy. The life-cycle energy requirements for SDH are found to be a significant component among the four types of residential buildings. The overall disclose that the primary operations of these buildings accounts for 90% of the total life cycle energy which far outweighs minor differences in embodied effects between the buildings.

Keywords: Building simulation, environmental impacts, life cycle assessment, life cycle energy analysis, residential buildings.

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Authors: J.L. Castro, K. Benghazi, M.V. Hurtado, M. Navarro, J.M. Zurita

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Nowadays, quick technological changes force companies to develop innovative products in an increasingly competitive environment. Therefore, how to enhance the time of new product development is very important. This design problem often lacks the exact formula for getting it, and highly depends upon human designers- past experiences. For these reasons, in this work, a Casebased reasoning (CBR) system to assist in new product development is proposed. When a case is recovered from the case base, the system will take into account not only the attribute-s specific value and how important it is. It will also take into account if the attribute has a positive influence over the product development. Hence the manufacturing time will be improved. This information will be introduced as a new concept called “adaptability". An application to this method for hearing instrument new design illustrates the proposed approach.

Keywords: Case based reasoning, Fuzzy logic, New product development, Retrieval stage, Similarity.

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Authors: Pamita Awasthi, Kirna, Shilpa Dogra, Manu Vatsal, Ritu Barthwal

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Doxorubicin, also known as Adriamycin, is an anthracycline class of drug used in cancer chemotherapy. It is used in the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple myeloma, acute leukemia, breast cancer, lung cancer, endometrium cancer and ovary cancers. It functions via intercalating DNA and ultimately killing cancer cells. The major side effects of doxorubicin are hair loss, myelosuppression, nausea & vomiting, oesophagitis, diarrhea, heart damage and liver dysfunction. The minor modifications in the structure of compound exhibit large variation in the biological activity, has prompted us to carry out the synthesis of sulfonamide derivatives. Sulfonamide is an important feature with broad spectrum of biological activity such as antiviral, antifungal, diuretics, antiinflammatory, antibacterial and anticancer activities. Structure of the synthesized compound N-(1-methyl-2-oxo-2-N-methyl anilinoethyl) benzene sulfonamide confirmed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR),13C NMR, Mass and FTIR spectroscopic tools to assure the position of all protons and hence stereochemistry of the molecule. Further we have reported the binding potential of synthesized sulfonamide analogues in comparison to doxorubicin drug using Auto Dock 4.2 software. Computational binding energy (B.E.) and inhibitory constant (Ki) has been evaluated for the synthesized compound in comparison of doxorubicin against Poly (dA-dT).Poly (dA-dT) and Poly (dG-dC).Poly (dG-dC) sequences. The in vitro cytotoxic study against human breast cancer cell lines confirms the better anticancer activity of the synthesized compound over currently in use anticancer drug doxorubicin. The IC50 value of the synthesized compound is 7.12 μM whereas for doxorubicin is 7.2 μM.

Keywords: Anticancer, Auto Dock, Doxorubicin, Sulfonamide.

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Authors: D. Sarkar, M. Pal, A. K. Sarkar

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Asphaltic concrete for pavement construction in India are produced by using crushed stone, gravels etc. as aggregate. In north-Eastern region of India, there is a scarcity of stone aggregate. Therefore the road engineers are always in search of an optional material as aggregate which can replace the regularly used material. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the utilization of substandard or marginal aggregates in flexible pavement construction. The investigation was undertaken to evaluate the effects of using lower quality aggregates such as over burnt brick aggregate on the preparation of asphalt concrete for flexible pavements. The scope of this work included a review of available literature and existing data, a laboratory evaluation organized to determine the effects of marginal aggregates and potential techniques to upgrade these substandard materials, and a laboratory evaluation of these upgraded marginal aggregate asphalt mixtures. Over burnt brick aggregates are water susceptible and can leads to moisture damage. Moisture damage is the progressive loss of functionality of the material owing to loss of the adhesion bond between the asphalt binder and the aggregate surface. Hence zycosoil as an anti striping additive were evaluated in this study. This study summarizes the results of the laboratory evaluation carried out to investigate the properties of asphalt concrete prepared with zycosoil modified over burnt brick aggregate. Marshall specimen were prepared with stone aggregate, zycosoil modified stone aggregate, over burnt brick aggregate and zycosoil modified over burnt brick aggregate. Results show that addition of zycosoil with stone aggregate increased stability by 6% and addition of zycosoil with over burnt brick aggregate increased stability by 30%.

Keywords: Asphalt Concrete, Over Burnt Brick Aggregate, Marshall Stability, Zycosoil.

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Authors: Alan C. Lin, Dean K. Sheu

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This paper aims to study the methodology of building the knowledge of planning adequate punches in order to complete the task of strip layout for shearing processes, using progressive dies. The proposed methodology uses die design rules and characteristics of different types of punches to classify them into five groups: prior use (the punches must be used first), posterior use (must be used last), compatible use (may be used together), sequential use (certain punches must precede some others) and simultaneous use (must be used together). With these five groups of punches, the searching space of feasible designs will be greatly reduced, and superimposition becomes a more effective method of punch layout. The superimposition scheme will generate many feasible solutions, an evaluation function based on number of stages, moment balancing and strip stability is developed for helping designers to find better solutions.

Keywords: Manufacturing systems, advances in metal forming, computer-aided design, progressive die.

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Authors: Mhand Hifi, Hedi Mhalla

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In this paper, we study the knapsack sharing problem, a variant of the well-known NP-Hard single knapsack problem. We investigate the use of a tree search for optimally solving the problem. The used method combines two complementary phases: a reduction interval search phase and a branch and bound procedure one. First, the reduction phase applies a polynomial reduction strategy; that is used for decomposing the problem into a series of knapsack problems. Second, the tree search procedure is applied in order to attain a set of optimal capacities characterizing the knapsack problems. Finally, the performance of the proposed optimal algorithm is evaluated on a set of instances of the literature and its runtime is compared to the best exact algorithm of the literature.

Keywords: Branch and bound, combinatorial optimization, knap¬sack, knapsack sharing, heuristics, interval reduction.

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Authors: Duangsamorn Rungsawanpho

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The objectives of this paper are to explore the corporate cultures management as determinants of employee retention company in Thailand. This study using mixed method methodology. Data collection using questionnaires and in-depth interviews. The statistics used for data analysis were percentage, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics will include. The results show that the corporate management culture is perfect for any organization but it depends on the business and the industry because the situations or circumstances that corporate executives are met is different. Because the finding explained that the employees of the company determine the achievement of value-oriented by the corporate culture and international relations is perceived most value for their organizations. In additional we found the employees perceiving with participation can be interpreted as a positive example, many employees feel that they are part of management because they care about their opinions or ideas related with their work.

Keywords: Corporate culture, employee retention, retention of employees, management approaches.

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Authors: Wei Chen, Cui-you Yao, Yue Qiu

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This paper deals with a portfolio selection problem based on the possibility theory under the assumption that the returns of assets are LR-type fuzzy numbers. A possibilistic portfolio model with transaction costs is proposed, in which the possibilistic mean value of the return is termed measure of investment return, and the possibilistic variance of the return is termed measure of investment risk. Due to considering transaction costs, the existing traditional optimization algorithms usually fail to find the optimal solution efficiently and heuristic algorithms can be the best method. Therefore, a particle swarm optimization is designed to solve the corresponding optimization problem. At last, a numerical example is given to illustrate our proposed effective means and approaches.

Keywords: Possibility theory, portfolio selection, transaction costs, particle swarm optimization.

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Authors: Domingo López-Rodríguez, Enrique Mérida-Casermeiro, Juan M. Ortiz-de-Lazcano-Lobato

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Hopfield model of associative memory is studied in this work. In particular, two main problems that it possesses: the apparition of spurious patterns in the learning phase, implying the well-known effect of storing the opposite pattern, and the problem of its reduced capacity, meaning that it is not possible to store a great amount of patterns without increasing the error probability in the retrieving phase. In this paper, a method to avoid spurious patterns is presented and studied, and an explanation of the previously mentioned effect is given. Another technique to increase the capacity of a network is proposed here, based on the idea of using several reference points when storing patterns. It is studied in depth, and an explicit formula for the capacity of the network with this technique is provided.

Keywords: Associative memory, Hopfield network, network capacity, spurious patterns.

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Authors: Sugandhi, Parteek Kumar, Sanmeet Kaur

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Sign Language (SL) is used by deaf and other people who cannot speak but can hear or have a problem with spoken languages due to some disability. It is a visual gesture language that makes use of either one hand or both hands, arms, face, body to convey meanings and thoughts. SL automation system is an effective way which provides an interface to communicate with normal people using a computer. In this paper, an avatar based dictionary has been proposed for text to Indian Sign Language (ISL) generation system. This research work will also depict a literature review on SL corpus available for various SL s over the years. For ISL generation system, a written form of SL is required and there are certain techniques available for writing the SL. The system uses Hamburg sign language Notation System (HamNoSys) and Signing Gesture Mark-up Language (SiGML) for ISL generation. It is developed in PHP using Web Graphics Library (WebGL) technology for 3D avatar animation. A multilingual ISL dictionary is developed using HamNoSys for both English and Hindi Language. This dictionary will be used as a database to associate signs with words or phrases of a spoken language. It provides an interface for admin panel to manage the dictionary, i.e., modification, addition, or deletion of a word. Through this interface, HamNoSys can be developed and stored in a database and these notations can be converted into its corresponding SiGML file manually. The system takes natural language input sentence in English and Hindi language and generate 3D sign animation using an avatar. SL generation systems have potential applications in many domains such as healthcare sector, media, educational institutes, commercial sectors, transportation services etc. This research work will help the researchers to understand various techniques used for writing SL and generation of Sign Language systems.

Keywords: Avatar, dictionary, HamNoSys, hearing-impaired, Indian Sign Language, sign language.

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Authors: Muhammad Ridhuan Tony Lim Abdullah, Saedah Siraj

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The learning society has currently transformed from 'wired society' to become 'mobile society' which is facilitated by wireless network. To suit to this new paradigm, m-learning was given birth and rapidly building its prospect to be included in the future curriculum. Research and studies on m-learning spruced up in numerous aspects but there is still scarcity in studies on curriculum design of m-learning. This study is a part of an ongoing bigger study probing into the m-learning curriculum for secondary schools. The paper reports on the first phase of the study which aims to probe into the needs of curriculum design for m-learning at the secondary school level and the researcher adopted the needs analysis method. Data accrued from responses on survey questionnaires based on Lickert-point scale were analyzed statistically. The findings from this preliminary study serve as a basis for m-learning curriculum development for secondary schools.

Keywords: curriculum design, e-learning, future curriculum, m-learning

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Authors: G. Disciglio, G. Gatta, F. Lops, A. Libutti, A. Tarantino, E. Tarantino

Abstract:

The experimental trial was carried out in open field at Foggia district (Apulia Region, Southern Italy), during the spring-summer season 2014, in order to evaluate the effect of four biostimulant products (RadiconÒ, Viormon plusÒ, LysodinÒ and SiaptonÒ 10L), compared with a control (no biostimulant), on the infestation of processing tomato crop (cv Dres) by the chlorophyll-lacking root parasite Phelipanche ramosa. Biostimulants consist in different categories of products (microbial inoculants, humic and fulvic acids, hydrolyzed proteins and aminoacids, seaweed extracts) which play various roles in plant growing, including the improvement of crop resistance and quali-quantitative characteristics of yield. The experimental trial was arranged according to a complete randomized block design with five treatments, each of one replicated three times. The processing tomato seedlings were transplanted on 5 May 2014. Throughout the crop cycle, P. ramosa infestation was assessed according to the number of emerged shoots (branched plants) counted in each plot, at 66, 78 and 92 day after transplanting. The tomato fruits were harvested at full-stage of maturity on 8 August 2014. From each plot, the marketable yield was measured and the quali-quantitative yield parameters (mean weight, dry matter content, colour coordinate, colour index and soluble solids content of the fruits) were determined. The whole dataset was tested according to the basic assumptions for the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the differences between the means were determined using Tukey’s tests at the 5% probability level. The results of the study showed that none of the applied biostimulants provided a whole control of Phelipanche, although some positive effects were obtained from their application. To this respect, the RadiconÒ appeared to be the most effective in reducing the infestation of this root-parasite in tomato crop. This treatment also gave the higher tomato yield.

Keywords: Biostimulants, control methods, Phelipanche ramosa, processing tomato crop.

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