Search results for: Hierarchical Production Rule

Authors: M. Ahmadi Baseri, R. Mokhtari Malekabadi, A. Gandomkar

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Nowadays, one of the most important problems of the metropolises and the world large cities is the habitant traffic difficulty and lack of sufficient parking site for the vehicles. Esfahan city as the third metropolis of Iran has encountered with the vehicles parkingplace problems in the most parts of fourteen regions of the city. The non principled and non systematic dispersal and lack of parking sites in the city has created an unfavorable status for its traffic and has caused the air and sound pollutions increase; in addition, it wastes the most portions of the citizenship and travelers' charge and time in urban pathways and disturbs their mental and psychical calmness, thus leads to their intensive dissatisfaction. In this study, by the usage of AHP model in GIS environment, the effective criteria in selecting the public parking sites have been combined with each other, and the results of the created layers overlapping represent the parking utilitarian vastness and widths. The achieved results of this research indicate the pretty appropriate public parking sites selection in region number 3 of Esfahan; but inconsequential dispersal and lack of these parking sites in this region have caused abundant transportation problems in Esfahan city.

Keywords: Public parking lots, Parking site selection, Geographical Information System (GIS), Hierarchical Analysis Model, Isfahan city.

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Authors: Jungho Moon, Tae Kwon Ha

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Effect of alloying on the microstructure and mechanical properties of heat-resisting duplex stainless steel (DSS) for Mg production was investigated in this study. 25Cr-8Ni based DSS’s were cast into rectangular ingots of which the dimension was 350×350×100 mm3 . Nitrogen and Yttrium were added in the range within 0.3 in weight percent. Phase equilibrium was calculated using the FactSage®, thermodynamic software. Hot exposure, high temperature tensile and compression tests were conducted on the ingots at 1230oC, which is operation temperature employed for Mg production by Silico-thermic reduction. The steel with N and Y showed much higher strength than 310S alloy in both tensile and compression tests. By thermal exposition at 1230oC for 200 hrs, hardness of DSS containing N and Y was found to increase. Hot workability of the heat-resisting DSS was evaluated by employing hot rolling at 1230 oC. Hot shortness was observed in the ingot with N and found to disappear after addition of Y.

Keywords: Duplex Stainless Steel, alloying elements, eutectic carbides, microstructure, aging treatment.

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Authors: K. Shakeri, M. Mohebbi

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In order to consider the effects of the higher modes in the pushover analysis, during the recent years several multi-modal pushover procedures have been presented. In these methods the response of the considered modes are combined by the square-rootof- sum-of-squares (SRSS) rule while application of the elastic modal combination rules in the inelastic phases is no longer valid. In this research the feasibility of defining an efficient alternative combination method is investigated. Two steel moment-frame buildings denoted SAC-9 and SAC-20 under ten earthquake records are considered. The nonlinear responses of the structures are estimated by the directed algebraic combination of the weighted responses of the separate modes. The weight of the each mode is defined so that the resulted response of the combination has a minimum error to the nonlinear time history analysis. The genetic algorithm (GA) is used to minimize the error and optimize the weight factors. The obtained optimal factors for each mode in different cases are compared together to find unique appropriate weight factors for each mode in all cases.

Keywords: Genetic Algorithm, Modal Pushover, Optimalweight.

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Authors: Jether Gomes, Thiago M. R. Dias, Gray F. Moita

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The production and publication of scientific works have increased significantly in the last years, being the Internet the main factor of access and diffusion of these. In view of this, researchers from several areas of knowledge have carried out several studies on scientific production data in order to analyze phenomena and trends about science. The understanding of how research has evolved can, for example, serve as a basis for building scientific policies for further advances in science and stimulating research groups to become more productive. In this context, the objective of this work is to analyze the main research topics investigated along the trajectory of the Brazilian science of researchers working in the areas of engineering, in order to map scientific knowledge and identify topics in highlights. To this end, studies are carried out on the frequency and relationship of the keywords of the set of scientific articles registered in the existing curricula in the Lattes Platform of each one of the selected researchers, counting with the aid of bibliometric analysis features.

Keywords: Research topics, bibliometrics, topics of interest, Lattes Platform.

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Authors: Alhaji M. H. Conteh, Xiangbin Yan, M. E. S. Mvodo

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This study endeavors to evaluate the effects of farmers’ training program on the adoption of improved farming practices, the output of rice farming, and the income as well as the profit from rice farming by employing an ex-post non-experimental data in Sierra Leone. It was established that participating in farmers’ training program increased the possibility of adoption of the improved farming activities that were implemented in the study area. Through the training program also, the proceeds from rice production was also established to have increased considerably. These results were in line with the assumption that one of the main constraints on the growth in agricultural output particularly rice cultivation in most African states is the lack of efficient extension programs.

Keywords: Dissemination of information, improved farming practices, rice ecologies, Sierra Leone.

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Authors: Andressa dos Santos Nicolau, João P. da S.C Algusto, Claudio Márcio do N. A. Pereira, Roberto Schirru

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In case of abnormal situations, the nuclear power plant (NPP) operators must follow written procedures to check the condition of the plant and to classify the type of emergency. In this paper, we proposed a Real Time Expert System in order to improve operator’s performance in case of transient or accident with reactor shutdown. The expert system’s knowledge is based on the sequence of events (SoE) of known accident and two emergency procedures of the Brazilian Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) NPP and uses two kinds of knowledge representation: rule and logic trees. The results show that the system was able to classify the response of the automatic protection systems, as well as to evaluate the conditions of the plant, diagnosing the type of occurrence, recovery procedure to be followed, indicating the shutdown root cause, and classifying the emergency level.

Keywords: Emergence procedure, expert system, operator support, PWR nuclear power plant.

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Authors: Hirich A., Choukr-allah R., Jacobsen S-E., Hamdy A., El youssfi L., El Omari H.

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An experiment was performed in the south of Morocco in order to evaluate the effect of deficit irrigation by treated wastewater on chickpea production. We applied six irrigation treatments on a local variety of chickpea by supplying alternatively 50 or 100% of ETm in a completely randomized design. We found a highly significant difference between treatments in terms of biomass production. Drought stress during the vegetative period showed highest yield with 6.5 t/ha which was more than the yield obtained for the control (4.9 t/ha). The optimal crop stage in which deficit irrigation can be applied is the vegetative growth stage, as the crop has a chance to develop its root system, to be able to cover the plant needs for water and nutrient supply during the rest of cycle, and non stress conditions during the flowering and seed filling stages allow the plant to optimize its photosynthesis and carbon translocation, therefore increase its productivity.

Keywords: chickpea, crop stages, drought stress, water productivity

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Authors: El Kaak, Rachid, El Bikri, Khalid, Benamar, Rhali

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This paper describes a study of geometrically nonlinear free vibration of thin circular functionally graded (CFGP) plates resting on Winkler elastic foundations. The material properties of the functionally graded composites examined here are assumed to be graded smoothly and continuously through the direction of the plate thickness according to a power law and are estimated using the rule of mixture. The theoretical model is based on the classical Plate theory and the Von-Kármán geometrical nonlinearity assumptions. An homogenization procedure (HP) is developed to reduce the problem considered here to that of isotropic homogeneous circular plates resting on Winkler foundation. Hamilton-s principle is applied and a multimode approach is derived to calculate the fundamental nonlinear frequency parameters which are found to be in a good agreement with the published results. On the other hand, the influence of the foundation parameters on the nonlinear fundamental frequency has also been analysed.

Keywords: Functionally graded materials, nonlinear vibrations, Winkler foundation.

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Authors: Abdesselem Dakhli, Wajdi Bellil, Chokri Ben Amar

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DNA Barcode provides good sources of needed information to classify living species. The classification problem has to be supported with reliable methods and algorithms. To analyze species regions or entire genomes, it becomes necessary to use the similarity sequence methods. A large set of sequences can be simultaneously compared using Multiple Sequence Alignment which is known to be NP-complete. However, all the used methods are still computationally very expensive and require significant computational infrastructure. Our goal is to build predictive models that are highly accurate and interpretable. In fact, our method permits to avoid the complex problem of form and structure in different classes of organisms. The empirical data and their classification performances are compared with other methods. Evenly, in this study, we present our system which is consisted of three phases. The first one, is called transformation, is composed of three sub steps; Electron-Ion Interaction Pseudopotential (EIIP) for the codification of DNA Barcodes, Fourier Transform and Power Spectrum Signal Processing. Moreover, the second phase step is an approximation; it is empowered by the use of Multi Library Wavelet Neural Networks (MLWNN). Finally, the third one, is called the classification of DNA Barcodes, is realized by applying the algorithm of hierarchical classification.

Keywords: DNA Barcode, Electron-Ion Interaction Pseudopotential, Multi Library Wavelet Neural Networks.

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Authors: Yu-Syuan Chang, Li-Chun Huang

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Genetically modified (GM) technology in food production continued to generate controversies. Consumers were concerned with the GM foods about the healthy and environmental risks. While consumers- acceptance was a critical factor affecting how widely this technology be used. According to the research review, consumers- lack of information was one of the reasons to explain consumers- low acceptance toward GM foods. The objective for this study wanted to find out would informative product package affect consumers- behavior toward GM foods. An experiment was designed to investigate consumer behavior toward different product package information. The results indicated that the product package information influenced consumer product trust toward GM foods. Compared with the traceability production system information, the information about the GM rice was approved by authorized organizations could increase consumers product trust in GM foods. Consumers in Taiwan saw the information provided by authorized organizations more credible than other information.

Keywords: product package information, genetically modifiedfood, consumer product trust, risk perception, benefit perception.

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Authors: F. Esmaeilzadeh, M. E. Zeighami, J. Fathi

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This paper describes a one-dimensional numerical model for natural gas production from the dissociation of methane hydrate in hydrate-capped gas reservoir under depressurization and thermal stimulation. Some of the hydrate reservoirs discovered are overlying a free-gas layer, known as hydrate-capped gas reservoirs. These reservoirs are thought to be easiest and probably the first type of hydrate reservoirs to be produced. The mathematical equations that can be described this type of reservoir include mass balance, heat balance and kinetics of hydrate decomposition. These non-linear partial differential equations are solved using finite-difference fully implicit scheme. In the model, the effect of convection and conduction heat transfer, variation change of formation porosity, the effect of using different equations of state such as PR and ER and steam or hot water injection are considered. In addition distributions of pressure, temperature, saturation of gas, hydrate and water in the reservoir are evaluated. It is shown that the gas production rate is a sensitive function of well pressure.

Keywords: Hydrate reservoir, numerical modeling, depressurization, thermal stimulation, gas generation.

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Authors: G. Rezai, Z. Mohamed, M. N. Shamsudin, M. Z. Zahran

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The availability of broadband internet and increased access to computers has been instrumental in the rise of internet literacy in Malaysia. This development has led to the adoption of online shopping by many Malaysians. On another note, the Government has supported the development and production of local herbal products. This has resulted in an increase in the production and diversity of products by SMEs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of the Malaysian demographic factors and selected attitudinal characteristics in relation to the online purchasing of herbal products. In total, 1054 internet users were interviewed online and Chi-square analysis was used to determine the relationship between demographic variables and different aspects of online shopping for herbal products. The overall results show that the demographic variables such as age, gender, education level, income and ethnicity were significant when considering the online shopping antecedents of trust, quality of herbal products, perceived risks and perceived benefits.

Keywords: Demographic factors, herbal products, Malaysian consumers, online shopping, Chi-square analysis

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Authors: Bayar Shahab

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The fast development of technology that has advanced neuroscience and human interaction with computers has enabled solutions to various problems and issues of this new era. The Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) has opened the door to several new research areas and have been able to provide solutions to critical and vital issues such as supporting a paralyzed patient to interact with the outside world, controlling a robot arm, playing games in VR with the brain, driving a wheelchair. This review presents the state-of-the-art methods and improvements of canonical correlation analyses (CCA), an SSVEP-based BCI method. These are the methods used to extract EEG signal features or, to be said differently, the features of interest that we are looking for in the EEG analyses. Each of the methods from oldest to newest has been discussed while comparing their advantages and disadvantages. This would create a great context and help researchers understand the most state-of-the-art methods available in this field, their pros and cons, and their mathematical representations and usage. This work makes a vital contribution to the existing field of study. It differs from other similar recently published works by providing the following: (1) stating most of the main methods used in this field in a hierarchical way, (2) explaining the pros and cons of each method and their performance, (3) presenting the gaps that exist at the end of each method that can improve the understanding and open doors to new researches or improvements. 

Keywords: BCI, CCA, SSVEP, EEG

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Authors: Ma Shidong, He Yuncheng, Wang Zhong, Yang Guoqing

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In this paper, enhanced ground proximity warning simulation and validation system is designed and implemented. First, based on square grid and sub-grid structure, the global digital terrain database is designed and constructed. Terrain data searching is implemented through querying the latitude and longitude bands and separated zones of global terrain database with the current aircraft position. A combination of dynamic scheduling and hierarchical scheduling is adopted to schedule the terrain data, and the terrain data can be read and delete dynamically in the memory. Secondly, according to the scope, distance, approach speed information etc. to the dangerous terrain in front, and using security profiles calculating method, collision threat detection is executed in real-time, and provides caution and warning alarm. According to this scheme, the implementation of the enhanced ground proximity warning simulation system is realized. Simulations are carried out to verify a good real-time in terrain display and alarm trigger, and the results show simulation system is realized correctly, reasonably and stable.

Keywords: enhanced ground proximity warning system, digital terrain, look-ahead terrain alarm, terrain display, simulation and validation

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Authors: O. Z. Jasim

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An accuracy digital map must satisfy the users for two main requirements, first, map must be visually readable and second, all the map elements must be in a good representation. These two requirements hold especially true for map generalization which aims at simplifying the representation of cartographic data. Different scales of maps are very important for any decision in any maps with different scales such as master plan and all the infrastructures maps in civil engineering. Cartographer cannot project the data onto a piece of paper, but he has to worry about its readability. The map layout of any geodatabase is very important, this layout is help to read, analyze or extract information from the map. There are many principles and guidelines of generalization that can be find in the cartographic literature. A manual reduction method for generalization depends on experience of map maker and therefore produces incompatible results. Digital generalization, rooted from conventional cartography, has become an increasing concern in both Geographic Information System (GIS) and mapping fields. This project is intended to review the state of the art of the new technology and help to understand the needs and plans for the implementation of digital generalization capability as well as increase the knowledge of production topographic maps.

Keywords: Cartography, digital generalization, mapping, GIS.

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Authors: M. H. Imam, Imran A. Tasadduq, Abdul-Rahim Ahmad, Fahd M. Aldosari

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Learning outcomes of a course (CLOs) and the abilities at the time of graduation referred to as Student Outcomes (SOs) are required to be assessed for ABET accreditation. A question in an assessment must target a CLO as well as an SO and must represent a required level of competence. This paper presents the idea of an Expert System (ES) to select a proper question to satisfy ABET accreditation requirements. For ES implementation, seven attributes of a question are considered including the learning outcomes and Bloom’s Taxonomy level. A database contains all the data about a course including course content topics, course learning outcomes and the CLO-SO relationship matrix. The knowledge base of the presented ES contains a pool of questions each with tags of the specified attributes. Questions and the attributes represent expert opinions. With implicit rule base the inference engine finds the best possible question satisfying the required attributes. It is shown that the novel idea of such an ES can be implemented and applied to a course with success. An application example is presented to demonstrate the working of the proposed ES.

Keywords: Expert system, student outcomes, course learning outcomes, question attributes.

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Authors: M. Mhada, E. N. Jellen, S. E. Jacobsen, O. Benlhabib

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The present work has been carried out to evaluate the diversity of a collection of 78 quinoa accessions developed through recurrent selection from Andean germplasm introduced to Morocco in the winter of 2000. Twenty-three quantitative and qualitative characters were used for the evaluation of genetic diversity and the relationship between the accessions, and also for the establishment of a core collection in Morocco. Important variation was found among the accessions in terms of plant morphology and growth behavior. Data analysis showed positive correlation of the plant height, the plant fresh and the dry weight with the grain yield, while days to flowering was found to be negatively correlated with grain yield. The first four PCs contributed 74.76% of the variability; the first PC showed significant variation with 42.86% of the total variation, PC2 with 15.37%, PC3 with 9.05% and PC4 contributed 7.49% of the total variation. Plant size, days to grain filling and days to maturity are correlated to the PC1; and seed size, inflorescence density and mildew resistance are correlated to the PC2. Hierarchical cluster analysis rearranged the 78 quinoa accessions into four main groups and ten sub-clusters. Clustering was found in associations with days to maturity and also with plant size and seed-size traits.

Keywords: Character association, Chenopodium quinoa, Diversity analysis, Morphotypic cluster, Multivariate analysis.

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Authors: Chanoknart Mayusoh

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In most of apparel creation, the designer usually uses standard pattern as a fundamental of pattern making. In the design of each kind of apparel, standard pattern is starting point of production. The importance of standard pattern is that it is able to have the apparel fits to general people. Therefore, standard pattern is standardized to be the same. Regardless which type of apparel, its standard pattern will have similar production. Anyhow, the author sees that the apparel design, regardless for which type of apparel, has to stick on the standard pattern as a fundamental of apparel design and this seems to be a limitation of apparel design without any designing alternative being developed. In the research on the creation of contemporary apparel Inspired by the sofa’s pattern structure in Vimanmek Mansion. The author has applied the pattern of the sofa and armchair to be the principle in the apparel design, instead of standard pattern, to create new form of structures and shapes making the contemporary apparel becomes more interesting and different than previous, can be used in daily life, as well as being a new alternative for apparel design. Those who are interesting in such idea can apply and develop it to be more variety further.

Keywords: Contemporary Apparel, Sofa’s Pattern, Armchair’s Pattern, Vimanmek Mansion.

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Authors: S. Chadsuthi, W. Triampo, C. Modchang, P. Kanthang, D. Triampo, N. Nuttavut

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We present analysis of spatial patterns of generic disease spread simulated by a stochastic long-range correlation SIR model, where individuals can be infected at long distance in a power law distribution. We integrated various tools, namely perimeter, circularity, fractal dimension, and aggregation index to characterize and investigate spatial pattern formations. Our primary goal was to understand for a given model of interest which tool has an advantage over the other and to what extent. We found that perimeter and circularity give information only for a case of strong correlation– while the fractal dimension and aggregation index exhibit the growth rule of pattern formation, depending on the degree of the correlation exponent (β). The aggregation index method used as an alternative method to describe the degree of pathogenic ratio (α). This study may provide a useful approach to characterize and analyze the pattern formation of epidemic spreading

Keywords: spatial pattern epidemics, aggregation index, fractaldimension, stochastic, long-rang epidemics

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Authors: S. Kumar, R. Sultana

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This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Aspergillus species on acridid populations which are major agricultural pests of rice, sugarcane, wheat, maize and fodder crops in Pakistan. Three and replicates i.e. Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus and A. niger, excluding the control, were held under laboratory conditions. It was observed that consumption faecal production of acridids was significantly reduced after the pathogenic application of Aspergillus. In the control replicate, the mortality ratio for stage (N₄-N₆) was maximum on day 2^nd i.e. [F_10.7 = 18.33, P < 0.05] followed by [F_4.20 = 07.85, P < 0.05] and [F_3.77 = 06.11, P < 0.05] on 4^th and 3^rd day, respectively. Similarly, it was a minimum i.e. [F_0.48 = 84.65, P < 0.05] on the 1^st day. It was also noted that faecal production of Acridid nymphs was not significantly affected when treated with conidial concentration in H₂O formulation; however, it was significantly reduced after the contamination with conidial concentration in oil. The high morality of acridids after contamination of Aspergillus supports their use as bio-control agent for reducing pest population. The present study recommends that exploration and screening must be conducted to provide additional pathogens for evaluation as potential biological control against grasshoppers and locusts.

Keywords: Acridid, agriculture, Aspergillus, formulation, Grasshoppers.

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Authors: Tania Elena González Alvarado, Ma. Antonieta Martín Granados

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The aim of this paper is to explain what a multienterprise tie is, what evidence its analysis provides and how does the cooperation mechanism influence the establishment of a multienterprise tie. The study focuses on businesses of smaller dimension, geographically dispersed and whose businessmen are learning to cooperate in an international environment. The empirical evidence obtained at this moment permits to conclude the following: The tie is not long-lasting, it has an end; opportunism is an opportunity to learn; the multi-enterprise tie is a space to learn about the cooperation mechanism; the local tie permits a businessman to alternate between competition and cooperation strategies; the disappearance of a tie is an experience of learning for a businessman, diminishing the possibility of failure in the next tie; the cooperation mechanism tends to eliminate hierarchical relations; the multienterprise tie diminishes the asymmetries and permits SME-s to have a better position when they negotiate with large companies; the multi-enterprise tie impacts positively on the local system. The collection of empirical evidence was done trough the following instruments: direct observation in a business encounter to which the businesses attended in 2003 (202 Mexican agro industry SME-s), a survey applied in 2004 (129), a questionnaire applied in 2005 (86 businesses), field visits to the businesses during the period 2006-2008 and; a survey applied by telephone in 2008 (55 Mexican agro industry SME-s).

Keywords: Cooperation, multi-enterprise tie, links, networks.

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Authors: L. Basha, E. Gjika

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This study is focused on analyzing climate change in Albania and its potential effects on cereal yields. Initially, monthly temperature and rainfalls in Albania were studied for the period 1960-2021. Climacteric variables are important variables when trying to model cereal yield behavior, especially when significant changes in weather conditions are observed. For this purpose, in the second part of the study, linear and nonlinear models explaining cereal yield are constructed for the same period, 1960-2021. The multiple linear regression analysis and lasso regression method are applied to the data between cereal yield and each independent variable: average temperature, average rainfall, fertilizer consumption, arable land, land under cereal production, and nitrous oxide emissions. In our regression model, heteroscedasticity is not observed, data follow a normal distribution, and there is a low correlation between factors, so we do not have the problem of multicollinearity. Machine learning methods, such as Random Forest (RF), are used to predict cereal yield responses to climacteric and other variables. RF showed high accuracy compared to the other statistical models in the prediction of cereal yield. We found that changes in average temperature negatively affect cereal yield. The coefficients of fertilizer consumption, arable land, and land under cereal production are positively affecting production. Our results show that the RF method is an effective and versatile machine-learning method for cereal yield prediction compared to the other two methods: multiple linear regression and lasso regression method.

Keywords: Cereal yield, climate change, machine learning, multiple regression model, random forest.

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Authors: S. R. De Oliveira, A. De Almeida, I. M. Dal Fabbro

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Residues are produced in all stages of human activities in terms of composition and volume which vary according to consumption practices and to production methods. Forms of significant harm to the environment are associated to volume of generated material as well as to improper disposal of solid wastes, whose negative effects are noticed more frequently in the long term. The solution to this problem constitutes a challenge to the government, industry and society, because they involve economic, social, environmental and, especially, awareness of the population in general. The main concerns are focused on the impact it can have on human health and on the environment (soil, water, air and sights). The hazardous waste produced mainly by industry, are particularly worrisome because, when improperly managed, they become a serious threat to the environment. In view of this issue, this study aimed to evaluate the management system of solid waste of a coprocessing industrial waste company, to propose improvements to the rejects generation management in a specific step of the Blending production process.

Keywords: Blending, environment, industrial residues.

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Authors: Faraj El Dabee, Romeo Marian, Yousef Amer

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Just-In-Time (JIT) is a lean manufacturing tool, which provides the benefits of efficiency, and of minimizing unnecessary costs for many organisations. However, the risks arising from these benefits have been disregarded. These risks impact on system processes disrupting the whole supply chain. This paper proposes an inventory model that can simultaneously reduce costs and risks in JIT systems. This model is developed to ascertain an optimal ordering strategy for procuring raw materials by using regular multi-external and local backup suppliers to reduce the total cost of the products, and at the same time to reduce the risks arising from this cost reduction within production systems. Some results that will be illustrated in the second part of this paper are presented.

Keywords: Lean manufacturing, Just-in-Time (JIT), production system, cost-risk reduction, inventory model, eternal supplier, local backup supplier.

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Authors: Suthat Turapan, Cattareya Yotkamchornkun, Kamchai Nuithitikul

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The production of biodiesel from crude palm oil with a homogeneous base catalyst is unlikely owing to considerable formation of soap. Free fatty acids (FFA) in crude palm oil need to be reduced, e.g. by esterification. This study investigated the activity of sulfated zirconia calcined at various temperatures for esterification of FFA in crude palm oil to biodiesel. It was found that under a proper reaction condition, sulfated zirconia well catalyzes esterification. FFA content can be reduced to an acceptable value for typical biodiesel production with a homogeneous base catalyst. Crystallinity and sulfate attachment of sulfated zirconia depend on calcination temperature during the catalyst preparation. Too low temperature of calcination gives amorphous sulfated zirconia which has low activity for esterification of FFA. In contrast, very high temperature of calcination removes sulfate group, consequently, conversion of FFA is reduced. The appropriate temperature range of calcination is 550-650 oC.

Keywords: Biodiesel, Esterification, Free fatty acids, Sulfatedzirconia.

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Authors: Asaiel Alohaly

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A theoretical framework for corporate governance is needed to bridge the gap between the corporate governance of private companies and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The two dominant models, being shareholder and stakeholder, do not always address the specific requirements and challenges posed by ‘hybrid’ companies; namely, previously national bodies that have been privatised while the government retains significant control or holds a majority of shares. Thus, an exploratory theoretical study is needed to identify how ‘hybrid’ companies should be defined and why the state model should be acknowledged since it is the less conspicuous model in comparison with the shareholder and stakeholder models. This research focuses on the state model of corporate governance to understand the complex ownership, control pattern, goals, and corporate governance of these hybrid companies. The significance of this research lies in the fact that there is a limited available publication on the state model. This research argues for the state model, which proceeds from an understanding of the institutionally embedded characteristics of hybrid companies, where the government as a shareholder, is either a majority of the total shares, or has been granted power based on the rule of law; the company bylaws.

Keywords: Corporate governance, control, shareholders, state model.

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Authors: J. Furuya, S. Kobayashi, S. D. Meyer

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This research examines possible effects of climatic change focusing on global warming and its impacts on world agricultural product markets, by using a world food model developed to consider climate changes. GDP and population for each scenario were constructed by IPCC and climate data for each scenario was reported by the Hadley Center and are used in this research to consider results in different contexts. Production and consumption of primary agriculture crops of the world for each socio-economic scenario are obtained and investigated by using the modified world food model. Simulation results show that crop production in some countries or regions will have different trends depending on the context. These alternative contexts depend on the rate of GDP growth, population, temperature, and rainfall. Results suggest that the development of environment friendly technologies lead to more consumption of food in many developing countries. Relationships among environmental policy, clean energy development, and poverty elimination warrant further investigation.

Keywords: Global warming, SRES scenarios, World food model.

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Authors: Ali Dulla

Abstract:

This paper introduces a new dataset (and the methodology used to generate it) based on a wide range of historical Arabic documents containing clean data simple and homogeneous-page layouts. The experiments are implemented on printed and handwritten documents obtained respectively from some important libraries such as Qatar Digital Library, the British Library and the Library of Congress. We have gathered and commented on 150 archival document images from different locations and time periods. It is based on different documents from the 17th-19th century. The dataset comprises differing page layouts and degradations that challenge text line segmentation methods. Ground truth is produced using the Aletheia tool by PRImA and stored in an XML representation, in the PAGE (Page Analysis and Ground truth Elements) format. The dataset presented will be easily available to researchers world-wide for research into the obstacles facing various historical Arabic documents such as geometric correction of historical Arabic documents.

Keywords: Dataset production, ground truth production, historical documents, arbitrary warping, geometric correction.

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Authors: V. Pérez-Herranz, C. González-Buch, E. M. Ortega, S. Mestre

Abstract:

In this work new macroporous Ni electrodes modified with Au nanoparticles for hydrogen production have been developed. The supporting macroporous Ni electrodes have been obtained by means of the electrodeposition at high current densities. Then, the Au nanoparticles were synthesized and added to the electrode surface. The electrocatalytic behaviour of the developed electrocatalysts was studied by means of pseudo-steady-state polarization curves, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and hydrogen discharge curves. The size of the Au synthetized nanoparticles shows a monomodal distribution, with a very sharp band between 10 and 50 nm. The characteristic parameters d10, d50 and d90 were 14, 20 and 31 nm respectively. From Tafel polarization data has been concluded that the Au nanoparticles improve the catalytic activity of the developed electrodes towards the HER respect to the macroporous Ni electrodes. EIS permits to obtain the electrochemically active area by means of the roughness factor value. All the developed electrodes show roughness factor values in the same order of magnitude. From the activation energy results it can be concluded that the Au nanoparticles improve the intrinsic catalytic activity of the macroporous Ni electrodes.

Keywords: Au nanoparticles, hydrogen evolution reaction, porous Ni electrodes.

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Authors: M. Ovinis, D. Kerr, K. Bouazza-Marouf, M. Vloeberghs

Abstract:

The use of anatomical landmarks as a basis for image to patient registration is appealing because the registration may be performed retrospectively. We have previously proposed the use of two anatomical soft tissue landmarks of the head, the canthus (corner of the eye) and the tragus (a small, pointed, cartilaginous flap of the ear), as a registration basis for an automated CT image to patient registration system, and described their localization in patient space using close range photogrammetry. In this paper, the automatic localization of these landmarks in CT images, based on their curvature saliency and using a rule based system that incorporates prior knowledge of their characteristics, is described. Existing approaches to landmark localization in CT images are predominantly semi-automatic and primarily for localizing internal landmarks. To validate our approach, the positions of the landmarks localized automatically and manually in near isotropic CT images of 102 patients were compared. The average difference was 1.2mm (std = 0.9mm, max = 4.5mm) for the medial canthus and 0.8mm (std = 0.6mm, max = 2.6mm) for the tragus. The medial canthus and tragus can be automatically localized in CT images, with performance comparable to manual localization, based on the approach presented.

Keywords: Anatomical Landmarks, CT, Localization.

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