Search results for: transfer function method.

Authors: M. H. Syakira, L. Brenda

Abstract:

Antibacterial activity of Plumeria alba (Frangipani) petals methanolic extracts were evaluated against Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris,Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Enterococcus faecalis and Serratia marcescens by using disk diffusion method. Concentration extracts (80 %) showed the highest inhibition zone towards Escherichia coli (14.3 mm). Frangipani extract also showed high antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Proteus vulgaris and Serratia marcescens, but not more than the zones of the positive control used. Comparison between two broad specrum antibiotics to frangipani extracts showed that the 80 % concentration extracts produce the same zone of inhibition as Streptomycin. Frangipani extracts showed no bacterial activity towards Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterococcus faecalis. There are differences in the sensitivity of different bacteria to frangipani extracts, suggesting that frangipani-s potency varies between these bacteria. The present results indicate that frangipani showed significant antibacterial activity especially to Escherichia coli.

Keywords: Frangipani, Plumeria alba, anti microbial, Escherichia coli

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Authors: J. Andrade-Garda, A. Anguera, J. Ares-Casal, M. Hidalgo-Lorenzo, J.-A. Lara, D. Lizcano, S. Suárez-Garaboa

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In the current constantly changing economic context, collaborative networks allow partners to undertake projects that would not be possible if attempted by them individually. These projects usually involve the performance of a group of tasks (named roles) that have to be distributed among the partners. Thus, an allocation/matching problem arises that will be referred to as Role-Partner Allocation problem. In real life this situation is addressed by negotiation between partners in order to reach ad hoc agreements. Besides taking a long time and being hard work, both historical evidence and economic analysis show that such approach is not recommended. Instead, the allocation process should be automated by means of a centralized matching scheme. However, as a preliminary step to start the search for such a matching mechanism (or even the development of a new one), the problem and its core components must be specified. To this end, this paper establishes (i) the definition of the problem and its constraints, (ii) the key features of the involved elements (i.e., roles and partners); and (iii) how to create preference lists both for roles and partners. Only this way it will be possible to conduct subsequent methodological research on the solution method.     

Keywords: Collaborative network, matching, partner, preference list, role.

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Authors: L. Nevrivova, K. Lang, M. Kotoucek, D. Vsiansky

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This entry concerned with dense silica bricks microstructure was produced as a part of a project within the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic which is being implemented in cooperation of the biggest producer of refractories the P-D Refractories CZ company with the research organisation Brno University of Technology. The paper is focused on the influence of mixture homogenisation and the influence of grain size of the mineraliser on the resulting utility properties of the material as well as its microstructure. It has a decisive influence on the durability of the material in a building structure. This paper is a continuation of a previously published study dealing with the suitability of various types of mineralising agents in terms of density, strength and mineral composition of silica brick. The entry describes the influence of the method of mixture homogenisation and the influence of granulometry of the applied Femineralising agent on the resulting silica microstructure. Porosity, density, phase composition and microstructure of the experimentally prepared silica bricks samples were examined and the results were discussed in context with the technology of homogenisation and firing temperature used. The properties of silica bricks samples were compared to the sample without any Fe-mineraliser.

Keywords: Silica bricks, Fe-mineraliser, mineralogical composition, new developed silica bricks.

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Authors: P. S. Gomathi, B. Kalaavathi

Abstract:

The process in which the complementary information from multiple images is integrated to provide composite image that contains more information than the original input images is called image fusion. Medical image fusion provides useful information from multimodality medical images that provides additional information to the doctor for diagnosis of diseases in a better way. This paper represents the wavelet based medical image fusion algorithm on different multimodality medical images. In order to fuse the medical images, images are decomposed using Redundant Wavelet Transform (RWT). The high frequency coefficients are convolved with morphological operator followed by the maximum-selection (MS) rule. The low frequency coefficients are processed by MS rule. The reconstructed image is obtained by inverse RWT. The quantitative measures which includes Mean, Standard Deviation, Average Gradient, Spatial frequency, Edge based Similarity Measures are considered for evaluating the fused images. The performance of this proposed method is compared with Pixel averaging, PCA, and DWT fusion methods. When compared with conventional methods, the proposed framework provides better performance for analysis of multimodality medical images.

Keywords: Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), Image Fusion, Morphological Processing, Redundant Wavelet Transform (RWT).

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Authors: S. Ibrahim, U. B. Abubakar, S. Danbirni, A. Usman, F. M. Ballah, C. A. Kudi, L. Lawson, G. H. Abdulrazak, I. A. Abdulkadir

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Performing culture and characterization of mycobacteria in low resource settings like Nigeria is a very difficult task to undertake because of the very few and limited laboratories carrying out such an experiment; this is a largely due to stringent and laborious nature of the tests. Hence, a rapid, simple and accurate test for characterization is needed. The “SD BIOLINE TB Ag MPT 64 Rapid ®” is a simple and rapid immunochromatographic test used in differentiating Mycobacteria into Mycobacterium tuberculosis (NTM). The 100 sputa were obtained from patients suspected to be infected with tuberculosis and presented themselves to hospitals for check-up and treatment were involved in the study. The samples were cultured in a class III Biosafety cabinet and level III biosafety practices were followed. Forty isolates were obtained from the cultured sputa, and there were identified as Acid-fast bacilli (AFB) using Zeihl-Neelsen acid-fast stain. All the isolates (AFB positive) were then subjected to the SD BIOLINE Analyses. A total of 31 (77.5%) were characterized as MTBC, while nine (22.5%) were NTM. The total turnaround time for the rapid assay was just 30 minutes as compared to a few days of phenotypic and genotypic method. It was simple, rapid and reliable test to differentiate MTBC from NTM.

Keywords: Culture, mycobacteria, non-tuberculous mycobacteria, SD bioline.

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Authors: F. Al-Mufadi, F. Djavanroodi

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Ultrafine grained (UFG) and nanostructured (NS) materials have experienced a rapid development during the last decade and made profound impact on every field of materials science and engineering. The present work has been undertaken to develop ultrafine grained pure copper by severe plastic deformation method and to examine the impact property by different characterizing tools.

For this aim, equal channel angular pressing die with the channel angle, outer corner angle and channel diameter of 90^°, 17^° and 20mm had been designed and manufactured. Commercial pure copper billets were ECAPed up to four passes by route B_C at the ambient temperature. The results indicated that there is a great improvement at the hardness measurement, yield strength and ultimate tensile strength after ECAP process. It is found that the magnitudes of HV reach 136HV from 52HV after the final pass. Also, about 285% and 125% enhancement at the YS and UTS values have been obtained after the fourth pass as compared to the as-received conditions, respectively. On the other hand, the elongation to failure and impact energy have been reduced by imposing ECAP process and pass numbers. It is needed to say that about 56% reduction in the impact energy have been attained for the samples as contrasted to annealed specimens. 

Keywords: SPD, ECAP, Pure Cu, Impact property.

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Authors: I. U. Wickramasinghe, D. J. Hargreaves, D. V. De Pellegrin

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This paper presents a strategy to predict the lifetime of rails subjected to large rolling contact loads that induce ratchetting strains in the rail head. A critical element concept is used to calculate the number of loading cycles needed for crack initiation to occur in the rail head surface. In this technique the finite element method (FEM) is used to determine the maximum equivalent ratchetting strain per load cycle, which is calculated by combining longitudinal and shear stains in the critical element. This technique builds on a previously developed critical plane concept that has been used to calculate the number of cycles to crack initiation in rolling contact fatigue under ratchetting failure conditions. The critical element concept simplifies the analytical difficulties of critical plane analysis. Finite element analysis (FEA) is used to identify the critical element in the mesh, and then the strain values of the critical element are used to calculate the ratchetting rate analytically. Finally, a ratchetting criterion is used to calculate the number of cycles to crack initiation from the ratchetting rate calculated.

Keywords: Critical element analysis, finite element modeling (FEM), wheel/rail contact.

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Authors: Nouby Ghazaly, Gamal Fouad, Ali Abd-El-Tawwab, K. A. Abd El-Gwwad

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the piston stress distribution using several thicknesses of the coating materials to achieve higher gasoline engine performance. First of all, finite element structure analysis is used to uncoated petrol piston made of aluminum alloy. Then, steel and cast-iron piston materials are conducted and compared with the aluminum piston. After that, investigation of four coating materials namely, yttria-stabilized zirconia, magnesia-stabilized zirconia, alumina, and mullite are studied for each piston materials. Next, influence of various thickness coating layers on the structure stresses of the top surfaces is examined. Comparison between simulated results for aluminum, steel, and cast-iron materials is reported. Moreover, the influences of different coating thickness on the Von Mises stresses of four coating materials are investigated. From the simulation results, it can report that the maximum Von Mises stresses and deformations for the piston materials are decreasing with increasing the coating thickness for magnesia-stabilized zirconia, yttria-stabilized zirconia, mullite and alumina coated materials.

Keywords: Structure analysis, aluminum piston, MgZrO3, YTZ, mullite and alumina.

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Authors: Farzana Sharmin, Mohammad Tipu Sultan, Benqian Li

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Advancement of new media technology and consumption of social media have altered the way of communication in the tourism industry, mostly for consumers’ travel planning, online purchase, and experience sharing activity. There is an accelerating trend among young consumers’ to utilize this new media technology. This paper aims to analyze the attitude of young consumers’ about social media use for travel purposes. The convenience random sample method used to collect data from an urban area of Shanghai (China), consists of 225 young consumers’. This survey identified behavioral determinants of social media consumption by the extended theory of planned behavior (TPB). The instrument developed support on previous research to test hypotheses. The results of structural analyses indicate that attitude towards the use of social media is affected by external factors such as availability and accessibility of technology. In addition, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control have partially influenced the attitude of respondents’. The results of this study could help to improve social media travel marketing and promotional strategies for respective groups.

Keywords: Social media, theory of planned behavior, travel behavior, young consumer.

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Authors: Veruska C. Dutra, Afonso R. Aquino

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Since the 1980s, global tourism activity has consolidated worldwide to become an important economic contributor, and consequently, the sociocultural and environmental impacts are starting to become evidenced. This raises the need of discussing about actions for sustainable tourism that should be linked not only to the economy, but also to the environment and social aspects. The work that is going to be presented is part of a doctoral research project in Sciences undertaken at the Sao Paulo University, Brazil. It aims to analyze whether the monitoring of the tourism sector with a focus on sustainability is applicable or not, through those indicators, put in a case study in the Jalapão State Park (JSP) conservation unit, in the state of Tocantins, Brazil. This is a study of an interdisciplinary nature that had the deductive method as its guide. We concluded that the key points of the sustainable tourism, when analyzed with the focal point in environmental indicators, are an important evaluation and quantification tool of that activity in the study locus. It displayed itself as an adequate tool for monitoring, thus decoding, the main environmental impacts that occur in tourism regions and their intensity, which is made possible through analysis, and has the objective to trace ways to prevent and correct the presented impacts.

Keywords: Economic indicators, tourism, sustainability, Jalapão.

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Authors: Arash Poordana, Reza Ziaie Moayed

Abstract:

Calcareous sands are found most commonly in areas adjacent to crude oil and gas, and particularly around water. These types of soil have high compressibility due to high inter-granular porosity, irregularity, fragility, and especially crushing. Also, based on experience, it has been shown that the behavior of these types of soil is not similar to silica sand in loading. Since the destructive effects of cement on the environment are obvious, other alternatives such as bentonite are popular to be used. Bentonite has always been used commercially in civil engineering projects and according to its low hydraulic conductivity, it is used for landfills, cut-off walls, and nuclear wastelands. In the present study, unconfined compression tests in five ageing periods (1, 3, 7, 14, and 28 days) after mixing different percentages of bentonite (5%, 7.5% and 10%) with Bushehr calcareous sand were performed. The relative density considered for the specimens is 50%. Optimum water content was then added to each specimen accordingly (19%, 18.5%, and 17.5%). The sample preparation method was wet tamping and the specimens were compacted in five layers. It can be concluded from the results that as the bentonite content increases, the unconfined compression strength of the soil increases. Based on the obtained results, 3-day and 7-day ageing periods showed 30% and 50% increase in the shear strength of soil, respectively.

Keywords: Unconfined compression test, bentonite, bushehr calcareous sand.

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Authors: G. Chandana Sushma, T. R. Jyothsna

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This paper presents optimal Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) Placement in network using a genetic algorithm approach as it is infeasible and require high installation cost to place PMUs at every bus in network. This paper proposes optimal PMU allocation considering observability and redundancy utilizing Genetic Algorithm (GA) approach. The nonlinear constraints of buses are modeled to give accurate results. Constraints associated with Zero Injection (ZI) buses and radial buses are modeled to optimize number of locations for PMU placement. GA is modeled with ZI bus constraints to minimize number of locations without losing complete observability. Redundancy of every bus in network is computed to show optimum redundancy of complete system network. The performance of method is measured by Bus Observability Index (BOI) and Complete System Observability Performance Index (CSOPI). MATLAB simulations are carried out on IEEE -14, -30 and -57 bus-systems and compared with other methods in literature survey to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Keywords: Constraints, genetic algorithm, observability, phasor measurement units, redundancy, synchrophasors, zero injection bus.

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Authors: Kapse Swapnil, K. Shankar

Abstract:

Aiming at optimizing the weight and deflection of cantilever beam subjected to maximum stress and maximum deflection, Multi-objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) with Utopia Point based local search is implemented. Utopia point is used to govern the search towards the Pareto Optimal set. The elite candidates obtained during the iterations are stored in an archive according to non-dominated sorting and also the archive is truncated based on least crowding distance. Local search is also performed on elite candidates and the most diverse particle is selected as the global best. This method is implemented on standard test functions and it is observed that the improved algorithm gives better convergence and diversity as compared to NSGA-II in fewer iterations. Implementation on practical structural problem shows that in 5 to 6 iterations, the improved algorithm converges with better diversity as evident by the improvement of cantilever beam on an average of 0.78% and 9.28% in the weight and deflection respectively compared to NSGA-II.

Keywords: Utopia point, multi-objective particle swarm optimization, local search, cantilever beam.

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Authors: Kyung-Suk Choi, Hyung-Joon Kim

Abstract:

Modular structural systems are constructed using a method that they are assembled with prefabricated unit modular frames on-site. This provides a benefit that can significantly reduce building construction time. The structural design is usually carried out under the assumption that their load-carrying mechanism is similar to that of traditional steel moment-resisting systems. However, both systems are different in terms of beam-column connection details which may strongly influence the lateral structural behavior. Specially, the presence of access holes in a beam-column joint of a unit modular frame could cause undesirable failure during strong earthquakes. Therefore, this study carried out finite element analyses (FEMs) of unit modular frames to investigate the cyclic behavior of beam-column joints with the access holes. Analysis results show that the unit modular frames present stable cyclic response with large deformation capacities and their joints are classified into semi-rigid connections even if there are access holes.

Keywords: Unit modular frame, steel moment connection, nonlinear analytical model, moment-rotation relation, access holes.

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Authors: S. Behrad, M.Y. Yusof, K. L. Goh, A.S. Baba

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Probiotic bacteria especially Lactobacillus spp. and Bifidobacterium exert suppressive effect on Helicobacter pylori. Cinnamon and licorice have been traditionally used for the treatment of gastric ulcer. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of herbs on yogurt fermentation, the level of probiotic bacteria in yogurt during 28 days storage and the effect of herbal yogurt on the growth of H. pylori in vitro. Cinnamon or licorice was mixed with milk and the mixture was fermented with probiotic bacteria to form herbal-yogurt. Changes of pH and total titratable acids were monitored and the viability of probiotic bacteria was evaluated during and after refrigerated storage. The in vitro inhibition of H. pylori growth was determined using agar diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method. The presence of herbs did not affect the probiotic population during storage. There were no significant differences in pH and TTA between herbal-yogurts and plain-yogurt during fermentation and storage. Water extract of cinnamon-yogurt showed the highest inhibition effect (13.5mm) on H. pylori growth in comparison with licorice-yogurt (11.2mm). The present findings indicate cinnamon and licorice has bioactive components to decrease the growth of H. pylori.

Keywords: Cinnamon, Helicobacter pylori, Herbal-Yogurt, Licorice, Probiotics

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Authors: Taehyun Yoon, Keechul Jung

Abstract:

There are many researches to detect collision between real object and virtual object in 3D space. In general, these techniques are need to huge computing power. So, many research and study are constructed by using cloud computing, network computing, and distribute computing. As a reason of these, this paper proposed a novel fast 3D collision detection algorithm between real and virtual object using 2D intersection area. Proposed algorithm uses 4 multiple cameras and coarse-and-fine method to improve accuracy and speed performance of collision detection. In the coarse step, this system examines the intersection area between real and virtual object silhouettes from all camera views. The result of this step is the index of virtual sensors which has a possibility of collision in 3D space. To decide collision accurately, at the fine step, this system examines the collision detection in 3D space by using the visual hull algorithm. Performance of the algorithm is verified by comparing with existing algorithm. We believe proposed algorithm help many other research, study and application fields such as HCI, augmented reality, intelligent space, and so on.

Keywords: Collision Detection, Computer Vision, Human Computer Interaction, Visual Hull

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Authors: B. Tayebani, N. Hosseinibalam, D. Mostofinejad

Abstract:

Interest in using bacteria in cement materials due to its positive influences has been increased. Cement materials such as mortar and concrete basically suffer from higher porosity and water absorption compared to other building materials such as steel materials. Because of the negative side-effects of certain chemical techniques, biological methods have been proposed as a desired and environmentally friendly strategy for reducing concrete porosity and diminishing water absorption. This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation carried out to evaluate the influence of Sporosarcina pasteurii bacteria on the behaviour of two types of concretes (light weight aggregate concrete and normal weight concrete). The resistance of specimens to water penetration by testing water absorption and evaluating the electrical resistance of those concretes was examined and compared. As a conclusion, 20% increase in electrical resistance and 10% reduction in water absorption of lightweight aggregate concrete (LWAC) and for normal concrete the results show 7% decrease in water absorption and almost 10% increase in electrical resistance.

Keywords: Bacteria, biological method, normal weight concrete, lightweight aggregate concrete, water absorption, electrical resistance.

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Authors: G. Venkata Rao, P. Kalpana, R. Srinivasa Rao

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Adequate and reliable estimates of aquifer parameters are of utmost importance for proper management of vital groundwater resources. At present scenario, the ground water is polluted because of industrial waste disposed over the land and the contaminants are transported in the aquifer from one area to another area, which is depending on the characteristics of the aquifer and contaminants. To know the contaminant transport, the accurate estimation of aquifer properties is highly needed. Conventionally, these properties are estimated through pumping tests carried out on water wells. The occurrence and movement of ground water in the aquifer are characteristically defined by the aquifer parameters. The pumping (aquifer) test is the standard technique for estimating various hydraulic properties of aquifer systems, viz., transmissivity (T), hydraulic conductivity (K), storage coefficient (S) etc., for which the graphical method is widely used. The study area for conducting pumping test is Pydibheemavaram Industrial area near the coastal belt of Srikulam, AP, India. The main objective of the present work is to estimate the aquifer properties for developing contaminant transport model for the study area.

Keywords: Aquifer, contaminant transport, hydraulic conductivity, industrial waste, pumping test.

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Authors: T. Sakamoto, N. Hori

Abstract:

A multi-rate discrete-time model, whose response agrees exactly with that of a continuous-time original at all sampling instants for any sampling periods, is developed for a linear system, which is assumed to have multiple real eigenvalues. The sampling rates can be chosen arbitrarily and individually, so that their ratios can even be irrational. The state space model is obtained as a combination of a linear diagonal state equation and a nonlinear output equation. Unlike the usual lifted model, the order of the proposed model is the same as the number of sampling rates, which is less than or equal to the order of the original continuous-time system. The method is based on a nonlinear variable transformation, which can be considered as a generalization of linear similarity transformation, which cannot be applied to systems with multiple eigenvalues in general. An example and its simulation result show that the proposed multi-rate model gives exact responses at all sampling instants.

Keywords: Multi-rate discretization, linear systems, triangularization, similarity transformation, diagonalization, exponential transformation, multiple eigenvalues

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Authors: Tirtha S. Das, Ayan K. Sau, Subir K. Sarkar

Abstract:

Digital watermarking is a way to provide the facility of secure multimedia data communication besides its copyright protection approach. The Spread Spectrum modulation principle is widely used in digital watermarking to satisfy the robustness of multimedia signals against various signal-processing operations. Several SS watermarking algorithms have been proposed for multimedia signals but very few works have discussed on the issues responsible for secure data communication and its robustness improvement. The current paper has critically analyzed few such factors namely properties of spreading codes, proper signal decomposition suitable for data embedding, security provided by the key, successive bit cancellation method applied at decoder which have greater impact on the detection reliability, secure communication of significant signal under camouflage of insignificant signals etc. Based on the analysis, robust SS watermarking scheme for secure data communication is proposed in wavelet domain and improvement in secure communication and robustness performance is reported through experimental results. The reported result also shows improvement in visual and statistical invisibility of the hidden data.

Keywords: Spread spectrum modulation, spreading code, signaldecomposition, security, successive bit cancellation

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Authors: Pedro H. S. Messetti, Mary L. G. S. Senna, Afonso R. Aquino

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Sustainability is a very important and heavily discussed subject, expanding through tourism as well. The study proposition was to collect data and present it to the competent bodies so they can mold their public policies to improve the conditions of the site. It was hypothesized that the lack of data is currently affecting the quality of life and the sustainable development of the site and the tourism. The research was held in Mateiros, a city in the state of Tocantins (TO)/Brasil near Palmas, its capital city. Because of the concentration of tourists during the high season and several tourist attractions being around, the research took place in Mateiros. The methodological procedure had a script of theoretical construction and investigation of the deductive scientific method parameters through a case study in the Jalapão/TO/Brazil region, using it as a tool for a questionnaire given to the competent bodies in an interview system with the UN sustainability indexes as a base. In the three sustainable development scope: environmental, social and economic, the results indicated that the data presented by the interviewed were scarce or nonexistent. It shows that more research is necessary, providing the tools for the ones responsible to propose action plans to improve the site, strengthening the tourism and making it even more sustainable.

Keywords: Jalapão/Brazil State Park, sustainable tourism, UN sustainability indexes.

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Authors: C. Chitra, P. Subbaraj

Abstract:

The shortest path routing problem is a multiobjective nonlinear optimization problem with constraints. This problem has been addressed by considering Quality of service parameters, delay and cost objectives separately or as a weighted sum of both objectives. Multiobjective evolutionary algorithms can find multiple pareto-optimal solutions in one single run and this ability makes them attractive for solving problems with multiple and conflicting objectives. This paper uses an elitist multiobjective evolutionary algorithm based on the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA), for solving the dynamic shortest path routing problem in computer networks. A priority-based encoding scheme is proposed for population initialization. Elitism ensures that the best solution does not deteriorate in the next generations. Results for a sample test network have been presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed approach to generate well-distributed pareto-optimal solutions of dynamic routing problem in one single run. The results obtained by NSGA are compared with single objective weighting factor method for which Genetic Algorithm (GA) was applied.

Keywords: Multiobjective optimization, Non-dominated SortingGenetic Algorithm, Routing, Weighted sum.

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Authors: Patsaraporn Somboonsak, Mud-Armeen Munlin

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In April 2009, a new variant of Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 emerged in Mexico and spread all over the world. The influenza has three subtypes in human (H1N1, H1N2 and H3N2) Types B and C influenza tend to be associated with local or regional epidemics. Preliminary genetic characterization of the influenza viruses has identified them as swine influenza A (H1N1) viruses. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the Haemagglutinin (HA) and Neuraminidase (NA) are similar to each other and the majority of their genes of swine influenza viruses, two genes coding for the neuraminidase (NA) and matrix (M) proteins are similar to corresponding genes of swine influenza. Sequence similarity between the 2009 A (H1N1) virus and its nearest relatives indicates that its gene segments have been circulating undetected for an extended period. Nucleic acid sequence Maximum Likelihood (MCL) and DNA Empirical base frequencies, Phylogenetic relationship amongst the HA genes of H1N1 virus isolated in Genbank having high nucleotide sequence homology. In this paper we used 16 HA nucleotide sequences from NCBI for computing sequence relationships similarity of swine influenza A virus using the following method MCL the result is 28%, 36.64% for Optimal tree with the sum of branch length, 35.62% for Interior branch phylogeny Neighber – Join Tree, 1.85% for the overall transition/transversion, and 8.28% for Overall mean distance.

Keywords: Sequence DNA, Relationship of swine, Swineinfluenza, Sequence Similarity

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Authors: Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan, Anshu Manik

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Subgrade moisture content varies with environmental and soil conditions and has significant influence on pavement performance. Therefore, it is important to establish realistic estimates of expected subgrade moisture contents to account for the effects of this variable on predicted pavement performance during the design stage properly. The initial boundary soil suction profile for a given pavement is a critical factor in determining expected moisture variations in the subgrade for given pavement and climatic and soil conditions. Several numerical models have been developed for predicting water and solute transport in saturated and unsaturated subgrade soils. Soil hydraulic properties are required for quantitatively describing water and chemical transport processes in soils by the numerical models. The required hydraulic properties are hydraulic conductivity, water diffusivity, and specific water capacity. The objective of this paper was to determine isothermal moisture profiles in a soil fill and predict the soil moisture movement above the ground water table using a simple one-dimensional finite difference model.

Keywords: Fill, Hydraulic Conductivity, Pavement, Subgrade.

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Authors: G. Sevilla, S. Zapata, F. Giraldo, E. Torres, C. Collazos

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This work describes a framework for teaching of global software engineering (GSE) in university undergraduate programs. This framework proposes a method of teaching that incorporates adequate techniques of software requirements elicitation and validated tools of communication, critical aspects to global software development scenarios. The use of proposed framework allows teachers to simulate small software development companies formed by Latin American students, which build information systems. Students from three Latin American universities played the roles of engineers by applying an iterative development of a requirements specification in a global software project. The proposed framework involves the use of a specific purpose Wiki for asynchronous communication between the participants of the process. It is also a practice to improve the quality of software requirements that are formulated by the students. The additional motivation of students to participate in these practices, in conjunction with peers from other countries, is a significant additional factor that positively contributes to the learning process. The framework promotes skills for communication, negotiation, and other complementary competencies that are useful for working on GSE scenarios.

Keywords: Requirements analysis, distributed requirements engineering, practical experiences, collaborative support.

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Authors: M. F. Chow, M. F. Abu Bakar

Abstract:

Green roof system is considered a relatively new concept in Malaysia even though it has been implemented widely in the developed countries. Generally, green roofs provide many benefits such as enhancing aesthetical quality of the built environment, reduce urban heat island effect, reduce energy consumption, improve stormwater attenuation, and reduce noise pollution. A better understanding on the implementation of green roof system in Malaysia is crucial, as Malaysia’s climate is different if compared with the climate in temperate countries where most of the green roof studies have been conducted. This study has concentrated on the technical aspect of green roof system which focuses on i) types of plants and method of planting; ii) engineering design for green roof system; iii) its hydrological performance on reducing stormwater runoff; and iv) benefits of green roofs with respect to energy. Literature review has been conducted to identify the development and obstacles associated with green roofs systems in Malaysia. The study had identified the challenges and potentials of green roofs development in Malaysia. This study also provided the recommendations on standard design and strategies on the implementation of green roofs in Malaysia in the near future.

Keywords: Engineering design, green roof, sustainable development, tropical countries.

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Authors: Nur Adilah Md Zain, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zahari, Mohd Hafiz Hanafiah, Muhammad Izzat Zulkifly

Abstract:

This paper empirically investigates the relationship between Sabah state core tourism products and its destination image. Through a descriptive design using a quantitative method with a self-reported and self-administered questionnaire, this research surveyed the individual international tourists who had visited Sabah and experienced the state’s core tourism products. The research findings clearly indicate that Sabah, one of the states in Malaysia has a lot of valuable resources in the eyes of the international tourists. Interestingly, it was found that Sabah’s core tourism products namely unique marine resources, various nature attractions and cultural diversities have undoubtedly contributed to the state’s tourism image. Good feedbacks and the promising insights from the international tourists’ point of view offer varying consequences, repercussion, and implication to the state government and the relevant authorities. Collaboration and cooperation between all responsible authorities are therefore crucial in strengthening the “total tourism experience” among the international tourists in this state.

Keywords: Tourism core products, marine, cultural, nature, destination image, Sabah.

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Authors: Nigina Toktasynova, Sholpan Sagyndykova, Zhanat Kenzhebayeva, Maksat Kalimoldayev, Mariya Ishimova, Irbulat Utepbergenov

Abstract:

To solve these problems, we investigated the management system of heating enterprise, including strategic planning based on the balanced scorecard (BSC), quality management in accordance with the standards of the Quality Management System (QMS) ISO 9001 and analysis of the system based on expert judgment using fuzzy inference. To carry out our work we used the theory of fuzzy sets, the QMS in accordance with ISO 9001, BSC, method of construction of business processes according to the notation IDEF0, theory of modeling using Matlab software simulation tools and graphical programming LabVIEW. The results of the work are as follows: We determined possibilities of improving the management of heat-supply plant-based on QMS; after the justification and adaptation of software tool it has been used to automate a series of functions for the management and reduction of resources and for the maintenance of the system up to date; an application for the analysis of the QMS based on fuzzy inference has been created with novel organization of communication software with the application enabling the analysis of relevant data of enterprise management system. 

Keywords: Balanced scorecard, heat supply, quality management system, the theory of fuzzy sets.

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Authors: M. V. Sudhamani, C. R. Venugopal

Abstract:

Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) aims at searching image databases for specific images that are similar to a given query image based on matching of features derived from the image content. This paper focuses on a low-dimensional color based indexing technique for achieving efficient and effective retrieval performance. In our approach, the color features are extracted using the mean shift algorithm, a robust clustering technique. Then the cluster (region) mode is used as representative of the image in 3-D color space. The feature descriptor consists of the representative color of a region and is indexed using a spatial indexing method that uses *R -tree thus avoiding the high-dimensional indexing problems associated with the traditional color histogram. Alternatively, the images in the database are clustered based on region feature similarity using Euclidian distance. Only representative (centroids) features of these clusters are indexed using *R -tree thus improving the efficiency. For similarity retrieval, each representative color in the query image or region is used independently to find regions containing that color. The results of these methods are compared. A JAVA based query engine supporting query-by- example is built to retrieve images by color.

Keywords: Content-based, indexing, cluster, region.

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Authors: Sankaran Rajendran

Abstract:

Remote sensing plays a vital role in mapping of resources and monitoring of environments of the earth. In the present research study, mapping and monitoring of clay siltations occurred in the Alkhod Dam of Muscat, Sultanate of Oman are carried out using low-cost multispectral Landsat and ASTER data. The dam is constructed across the Wadi Samail catchment for ground water recharge. The occurrence and spatial distribution of siltations in the dam are studied with five years of interval from the year 1987 of construction to 2014. The deposits are mainly due to the clay, sand and silt occurrences derived from the weathering rocks of ophiolite sequences occurred in the Wadi Samail catchment. The occurrences of clays are confirmed by minerals identification using ASTER VNIR-SWIR spectral bands and Spectral Angle Mapper supervised image processing method. The presence of clays and their spatial distribution are verified in the field. The study recommends the technique and the low-cost satellite data to similar region of the world.

Keywords: Alkhod Dam, ASTER Siltation, Landsat, Remote Sensing, Oman.

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