Search results for: direct object

Authors: Jason Sheng-Hong Tsai, Faezeh Ebrahimzadeh, Min-Ching Chung, Shu-Mei Guo, Leang-San Shieh, Tzong-Jiy Tsai, Li Wang

Abstract:

In this paper, we first construct a new state and disturbance estimator using discrete-time proportional plus integral observer to estimate the system state and the unknown external disturbance for the discrete-time system with an input-to-output direct-feedthrough term. Then, the generalized optimal linear quadratic digital tracker design is applied to construct a proportional plus integral observer-based tracker for the system with an unknown external disturbance to have a desired tracking performance. Finally, a numerical simulation is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new application of our proposed approach.

Keywords: Optimal linear quadratic tracker, proportional plus integral observer, state estimator, disturbance estimator.

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Authors: Marco Lopes, Pedro D. Gaspar, Maria P. Simões

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This paper reviews the different concepts that have been investigated concerning the mechanization of fruit thinning as well as multiple working principles and solutions that have been developed for feature extraction of horticultural products, both in the field and industrial environments. The research should be committed towards selective methods, which inevitably need to incorporate some kinds of sensor technology. Computer vision often comes out as an obvious solution for unstructured detection problems, although leaves despite the chosen point of view frequently occlude fruits. Further research on non-traditional sensors that are capable of object differentiation is needed. Ultrasonic and Near Infrared (NIR) technologies have been investigated for applications related to horticultural produce and show a potential to satisfy this need while simultaneously providing spatial information as time of flight sensors. Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology also shows a huge potential but it implies much greater costs and the related equipment is usually much larger, making it less suitable for portable devices, which may serve a purpose on smaller unstructured orchards. Portable devices may serve a purpose on these types of orchards. In what concerns sensor methods, on-tree fruit detection, major challenge is to overcome the problem of fruits’ occlusion by leaves and branches. Hence, nontraditional sensors capable of providing some type of differentiation should be investigated.

Keywords: Fruit thinning, horticultural field, portable devices, sensor technologies.

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Authors: Cătălin Mărculescu, Andrei Avram, Cătălin Pârvulescu, Marioara Avram, Cătălin Mihai Bălan

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The present microfluidic study is emphasizing the flow behavior within a Y shape micro-bifurcation in two similar flow configurations. We report here a numerical and experimental investigation on the velocity profiles evolution and secondary flows, manifested at different Reynolds numbers (Re) and for two different boundary conditions. The experiments are performed using special designed setup based on optical microscopic devices. With this setup, direct visualizations and quantitative measurements of the path-lines are obtained. A Micro-PIV measurement system is used to obtain velocity profiles distributions in a spatial evolution in the main flows domains. The experimental data is compared with numerical simulations performed with commercial computational code FLUENT in a 3D geometry with the same dimensions as the experimental one. The numerical flow patterns are found to be in good agreement with the experimental manifestations.

Keywords: Micro-PIV, numerical investigations, secondary flows, velocity profiles.

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Authors: A. Rohana, A. M., Fadzilah Adibah, M. S. Muhammad Roji

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Oleic acid (C18:1) play an important role in proliferation of fat cells. In this study, the effect of oleate on cells viability in 3T3-L1 cells (fat cells) was investigated. The 3T3-L1 cells were treated with various concentrations of oleate in the presence of 23 mM glucose. Oleate was added to adipogenic media (day 0) to investigate the influence of oleate on proliferation of postconfluent preadipocytes after 24 h induction. 0.1 mM oleate promoted cell division by increasing 33.9% number of cells from basal control in postconfluent preadipocytes. However, there were no significantly different in cells viability with control cells when oleate concentrations were increased up to 0.5 mM. When added to differentiated adipocytes (day 12) for 48 h, the number of cells decreased as oleate concentrations increased. 92.7% of cells lost demonstrated apoptosis and necrosis after 48 h with 0.5 mM oleate. The fluorochrome staining was examined under fluorescence microscopy using acridine orange and ethidium bromide double staining. Furthermore, the presence of high lactate (60.6% increased from basal control) released into plasma has shown the direct cytotoxicity of 0.5 mM oleate on adipocytes.

Keywords: adipocytes, apoptosis, oleate, postconfluentpreadipocytes

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Authors: Wenhua Hou, Xing Liu, Deqiang Chen

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The ubiquitous payment problems within construction industry of China are notoriously hard to be resolved, thus lead to a series of impacts to the industry chain. Among of them, the most direct result is affecting the normal operation of contractors negatively. A wealth of research has already discussed reasons of the payment problems by introducing a number of possible improvement strategies. But the causalities of these problems are still far from harsh reality. In this paper, the authors propose a model for cash flow system of construction projects by introducing System Dynamics techniques to explore causal facets of the payment problem. The effects of payment arrears on both cash flow and profitability of project are simulated into four scenarios by using data from real projects. Simulating results show visible clues to help contractors quantitatively determining the consequences for the construction project that arise from payment delay.

Keywords: payment problems, cash flow, profitability, system dynamics.

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Authors: Mehdi Nafar, Mohammad Reza Mansouri

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The present research presents a direct active and reactive power control (DPC) of a wind energy conversion system (WECS) for the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) based on a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) connected to electric power grid. The control strategy of the Rotor Side Converter (RSC) is targeted in extracting a maximum of power under fluctuating wind speed. A fuzzy logic speed controller (FLC) has been used to ensure the MPPT. The Grid Side Converter is directed in a way to ensure sinusoidal current in the grid side and a smooth DC voltage. To reduce fluctuations, rotor torque and voltage use of multilevel inverters is a good way to remove the rotor harmony.

Keywords: DFIG, power quality improvement, wind energy conversion system, WECS, fuzzy logic, RSC, GSC, inverter.

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Authors: Sunil Gupta, Harsh Kumar Verma, AL Sangal

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Wireless sensor networks can be used to measure and monitor many challenging problems and typically involve in monitoring, tracking and controlling areas such as battlefield monitoring, object tracking, habitat monitoring and home sentry systems. However, wireless sensor networks pose unique security challenges including forgery of sensor data, eavesdropping, denial of service attacks, and the physical compromise of sensor nodes. Node in a sensor networks may be vanished due to power exhaustion or malicious attacks. To expand the life span of the sensor network, a new node deployment is needed. In military scenarios, intruder may directly organize malicious nodes or manipulate existing nodes to set up malicious new nodes through many kinds of attacks. To avoid malicious nodes from joining the sensor network, a security is required in the design of sensor network protocols. In this paper, we proposed a security framework to provide a complete security solution against the known attacks in wireless sensor networks. Our framework accomplishes node authentication for new nodes with recognition of a malicious node. When deployed as a framework, a high degree of security is reachable compared with the conventional sensor network security solutions. A proposed framework can protect against most of the notorious attacks in sensor networks, and attain better computation and communication performance. This is different from conventional authentication methods based on the node identity. It includes identity of nodes and the node security time stamp into the authentication procedure. Hence security protocols not only see the identity of each node but also distinguish between new nodes and old nodes.

Keywords: Authentication, Key management, Wireless Sensornetwork, Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC).

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Authors: S. Malathi, P. Seenuvasakumaran

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Nanomaterials ferrites have applications in making permanent magnets, high density information devices, color imaging etc. In the present examination, lithium ferrite is synthesized by sol-gel process. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) result shows that the structure of lithium ferrite is monoclinic structure. The average particle size 22 nm is calculated by Scherer formula. The lattice parameters and dislocation density (δ) are calculated from XRD data. Strain (ε) values are evaluated from Williamson – hall plot. The FT-IR study reveals the formation of ferrites showing the significant absorption bands. The VU-VIS spectroscopic data is used to calculate direct and indirect optical band gap (Eg) of 1.57eV and 1.01eV respectively for lithium ferrite by using Tauc plot at the edge of the absorption band. The energy dispersive x-ray analysis spectra showed that the expected elements exist in the material. The magnetic behaviour of the materials studied using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM).

Keywords: Sol-gel, dislocation density, energy band gap, VSM.

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Authors: Pragati Garg, Naveen Aggarwal, Sanjeev Sofat

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With the development of ubiquitous computing, current user interaction approaches with keyboard, mouse and pen are not sufficient. Due to the limitation of these devices the useable command set is also limited. Direct use of hands as an input device is an attractive method for providing natural Human Computer Interaction which has evolved from text-based interfaces through 2D graphical-based interfaces, multimedia-supported interfaces, to fully fledged multi-participant Virtual Environment (VE) systems. Imagine the human-computer interaction of the future: A 3Dapplication where you can move and rotate objects simply by moving and rotating your hand - all without touching any input device. In this paper a review of vision based hand gesture recognition is presented. The existing approaches are categorized into 3D model based approaches and appearance based approaches, highlighting their advantages and shortcomings and identifying the open issues.

Keywords: Computer Vision, Hand Gesture, Hand Posture, Human Computer Interface.

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Authors: Beata Wentura-Dudek

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In the United States in 2007-2010 before the crisis, the US labour market policy focused mainly on providing residents with unemployment insurance, after the recession this policy changed. The aim of the article was to present quantitative research presenting the most effective labor market instruments contributing to reducing unemployment during the crisis in the USA. The article presents research based on the analysis of available documents and statistical data. The results of the conducted research show that the most effective forms of counteracting unemployment at that time were: direct job creation, job search assistance, subsidized employment, training and employment promotion using new technologies, including social media.

Keywords: United States, financial crisis, unemployment, employment promotion, social media, job creation, training, labour market, employment agencies, lifelong learning, job search assistance, subsidized employment, companies, tax.

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Authors: Amin Lotfi Eghlim, Mehran pourgholi

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Explosion occurs due to sudden release of energy. Common examples of explosion include chemical, atomic, heat, and pressure tank (due to ignition) explosions. Petroleum, gas, and petrochemical industries operations are threatened by natural risks and processes. Fires and explosions are the greatest process risks which cause financial damages. This study aims at designing a single-floor structure for the control room of a petroleum refinery to be resistant against gas explosion loads, and the information related to the structure specifications have been provided regarding the fact that the structure is made on the ground's surface. In this research, the lateral stiffness of single pile is calculated by SPPLN.FOR computer program, and its value for 13624 KN/m single pile has been assessed. The analysis used due to the loading conditions, is dynamic nonlinear analysis with direct integration method.

Keywords: Gas Explosion Load, Petroleum Refinery, Single-Floor Structure

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Authors: Razib M. Othman, Safaai Deris, Rosli M. Illias

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Gene Ontology terms have been actively used to annotate various protein sets. SWISS-PROT, TrEMBL, and InterPro are protein databases that are annotated according to the Gene Ontology terms. However, direct implementation of the Gene Ontology terms for annotation of anonymous protein sequences is not easy, especially for species not commonly represented in biological databases. UTMGO is developed as a tool that allows the user to quickly and easily search for a group of semantically related Gene Ontology terms. The applicability of the UTMGO is demonstrated by applying it to annotation of anonymous protein sequence. The extended UTMGO uses the Gene Ontology terms together with protein sequences associated with the terms to perform the annotation task. GOPET, GOtcha, GoFigure, and JAFA are used to compare the performance of the extended UTMGO.

Keywords: Anonymous protein sequence, Gene Ontology, Protein sequence annotation, Protein sequence alignment

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Authors: Elnaz Afshari, Siamak Najarian, Naser Simforoosh, Siamak Hajizadeh Farkoush

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Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is now being widely used as a preferred choice for various types of operations. The need to detect various tactile properties, justifies the key role of tactile sensing that is currently missing in MIS. In this regard, Laparoscopy is one of the methods of minimally invasive surgery that can be used in kidney stone removal surgeries. At this moment, determination of the exact location of stone during laparoscopy is one of the limitations of this method that no scientific solution has been found for so far. Artificial tactile sensing is a new method for obtaining the characteristics of a hard object embedded in a soft tissue. Artificial palpation is an important application of artificial tactile sensing that can be used in different types of surgeries. In this study, a new method for determining the exact location of stone during laparoscopy is presented. In the present study, the effects of stone existence on the surface of kidney were investigated using conceptual 3D model of kidney containing a simulated stone. Having imitated palpation and modeled it conceptually, indications of stone existence that appear on the surface of kidney were determined. A number of different cases were created and solved by the software and using stress distribution contours and stress graphs, it is illustrated that the created stress patterns on the surface of kidney show not only the existence of stone inside, but also its exact location. So three-dimensional analysis leads to a novel method of predicting the exact location of stone and can be directly applied to the incorporation of tactile sensing in artificial palpation, helping surgeons in non-invasive procedures.

Keywords: Kidney Stone, Laparoscopic Surgery, Artificial Tactile Sensing, Finite Element Method.

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Authors: Ilze Stokmane

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Economic processes underway in the country directly and indirectly affect the welfare of the people and the social environment, starting with job security and having a direct impact on the qualitative and safe living environment.

The paper describes existing situation and gives analysis of the regional development policy determination and implementation in the all three Baltic countries. According statistical indicators there are differences between implementation of the regional development activities between all Baltic countries and in regions of inside each country.

It is analyzed more detail differences between regions in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia according possibility to evaluate success of development processes in regions of the Baltic countries. The descriptive analyze of documents, statistical indicators at national level and regional level were used in the research.

Keywords: Baltic countries, city environment, regional development, urban areas.

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Authors: Fatma Didin Sonmez, Pinar Sener

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Technology transfer by international trade and foreign direct investment is the most important positive outcome of open economy. It is widely accepted that new technology and knowledge have an important role in enhancing economic growth. Human capital is the other important factor assisting economic growth. In this study, the role of human capital in the growth process is examined in a view of new endogenous growth theory emphasizing on the technology transfer resulting from international trade. Using the panel data of 10 developed and 10 developing countries, impact of human capital and openness on the rate of economic growth of different countries is analysed. Evidence suggests the view that human capital and openness contribute to the economic growth in both developing and developed countries, but with different rates.

Keywords: economic growth, human capital, openness, technology

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Authors: María-Dolores Afonso-Suárez, Nayra Pumar-Carreras, Juan Ruiz-Alzola

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This research addresses the use of an e-Learning creation methodology for learning objects. Throughout the process, indicators are being gathered, to determine if it responds to the main objectives of an engineering discipline. These parameters will also indicate if it is necessary to review the creation cycle and readjust any phase. Within the project developed for this study, apart from the use of structured methods, there has been a central objective: the establishment of a learning atmosphere. A place where all the professionals involved are able to collaborate, plan, solve problems and determine guides to follow in order to develop creative and innovative solutions. It has been outlined as a blended learning program with an assessment plan that proposes face to face lessons, coaching, collaboration, multimedia and web based learning objects as well as support resources. The project has been drawn as a long term task, the pilot teaching actions designed provide the preliminary results object of study. This methodology is been used in the creation of learning content for the African countries of Senegal, Mauritania and Cape Verde. It has been developed within the framework of the MACbioIDi, an Interreg European project for the International cooperation and development. The educational area of this project is focused in the training and advice of professionals of the medicine as well as engineers in the use of applications of medical imaging technology, specifically the 3DSlicer application and the Open Anatomy Browser.

Keywords: Teaching contents engineering, e-learning, blended learning, international cooperation, 3DSlicer, open anatomy browser.

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Authors: Sunmyeng Kim

Abstract:

IEEE 802.11a/b/g standards support multiple transmission rates. Even though the use of multiple transmission rates increase the WLAN capacity, this feature leads to the performance anomaly problem. Cooperative communication was introduced to relieve the performance anomaly problem. Data packets are delivered to the destination much faster through a relay node with high rate than through direct transmission to the destination at low rate. In the legacy cooperative protocols, a source node chooses a relay node only based on the transmission rate. Therefore, they are not so feasible in multi-flow environments since they do not consider the effect of other flows. To alleviate the effect, we propose a new relay node selection algorithm based on the transmission rate and channel contention level. Performance evaluation is conducted using simulation, and shows that the proposed protocol significantly outperforms the previous protocol in terms of throughput and delay.

Keywords: Cooperative communications, MAC protocol, Relay node, WLAN.

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Authors: Ju-Na Hwang, Yong-Jun Park, Min-Hae Park, Kee-Joe Lim

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Many studies have been conducted on DC transmission. Of power apparatus for DC transmission, high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable systems are being evaluated because of the increase in power demand and transmission distance. Therefore, dc insulation characteristics of liquid silicone rubber (LSR), which has various advantages such as short curing time and the ease of maintenance, were investigated to assess its performance as a HVDC insulation material for cable joints. The electrical performance of LSR added to nano-aluminum trihydrate (ATH) were confirmed by measurements of the breakdown strength and electrical conductivity. In addition, field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) was used as a means of confirmation of nanofiller dispersion state. The LSR nanocomposite was prepared by compounding LSR filled nano-sized ATH filler. The dc insulation properties of LSR added to nano-sized ATH fillers were found to be superior to those of the LSR without a filler. 

Keywords: Liquid silicone rubber, Nanocomposite, Nano-ATH, HVDC insulation, Cable joints.

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Authors: Vakhtang Charaia

Abstract:

The article focuses on the role of FDI in Georgia’s economic development for the last decade. To attract as much FDI as possible a proper investment climate should be on the place - institutional, policy and regulatory environment. Well developed investment climate is the chance and motivation for both, local economy and foreign companies, to generate maximum income, create new work places and improve the quality of life. FDI trend is one of the best indicators of country’s economic sustainability and its attractiveness. Especially for small and developing countries, the amount of FDI matters, therefore most of such countries are trying to compete with each other through improving their investment climate according to different world famous indexes. As a result of impressive reforms since 2003, Georgian economy was benefited with large invasion of FDI, however the level of per capita GDP is still law in comparison to Eastern European countries and it should be improved. The main idea of the paper is to show a real linkage between FDI and employment ration, on the case of Georgian economy.

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment, Sustainable Development, Corruption, Employment/Unemployment.

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Authors: Maruto Masserie Sardadi, Mohd Shafry bin Mohd Rahim, Zahabidin Jupri, Daut bin Daman

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The latest Geographic Information System (GIS) technology makes it possible to administer the spatial components of daily “business object," in the corporate database, and apply suitable geographic analysis efficiently in a desktop-focused application. We can use wireless internet technology for transfer process in spatial data from server to client or vice versa. However, the problem in wireless Internet is system bottlenecks that can make the process of transferring data not efficient. The reason is large amount of spatial data. Optimization in the process of transferring and retrieving data, however, is an essential issue that must be considered. Appropriate decision to choose between R-tree and Quadtree spatial data indexing method can optimize the process. With the rapid proliferation of these databases in the past decade, extensive research has been conducted on the design of efficient data structures to enable fast spatial searching. Commercial database vendors like Oracle have also started implementing these spatial indexing to cater to the large and diverse GIS. This paper focuses on the decisions to choose R-tree and quadtree spatial indexing using Oracle spatial database in mobile GIS application. From our research condition, the result of using Quadtree and R-tree spatial data indexing method in one single spatial database can save the time until 42.5%.

Keywords: Indexing, Mobile GIS, MapViewer, Oracle SpatialDatabase.

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Authors: B. Prebreza, I. Krasniqi, G. Kabashi, G. Pula, N. Avdiu

Abstract:

This paper discusses aspects of outages in the electric transmission network in the Kosovo Power System caused by the atmospheric discharges.

Frequency and location of the atmospheric discharges in Kosovo territory will be provided by a lightning location system ALARM (Automated Lightning Alert and Risk Management) and from the data from the Meteorological Department in Prishtina International Airport. These data will be used to make comparisons with the actual outages registered in the Kosovo Power System from the Kosovo Transmission, systems and market operator (KOSTT) during a specific time period.

The lines with the worst performance determined, regarding the atmospheric discharges, will be choose for further discussions in terms of over voltages caused by the direct or indirect lightning strokes.

Recommendations for protection in terms of insulator coordination and surge arresters will be given at the end and in this stage dynamic simulation will take part.

Keywords: Atmospheric discharges, dynamic simulations, Kosovo Power System, surge arresters.

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Authors: Abdu Masanawa Sagir

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In this paper, linear multistep technique using power series as the basis function is used to develop the block methods which are suitable for generating direct solution of the special second order ordinary differential equations of the form y′′ = f(x,y), a < = x < = b with associated initial or boundary conditions. The continuaous hybrid formulations enable us to differentiate and evaluate at some grids and off – grid points to obtain two different three discrete schemes, each of order (4,4,4)T, which were used in block form for parallel or sequential solutions of the problems. The computational burden and computer time wastage involved in the usual reduction of second order problem into system of first order equations are avoided by this approach. Furthermore, a stability analysis and efficiency of the block method are tested on linear and non-linear ordinary differential equations whose solutions are oscillatory or nearly periodic in nature, and the results obtained compared favourably with the exact solution.

Keywords: Block Method, Hybrid, Linear Multistep Method, Self – starting, Special Second Order.

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Authors: Ellen A. Kalinga, R. B. Bagile Burchard, Lena Trojer

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Tanzania secondary schools in rural areas are geographically and socially isolated, hence face a number of problems in getting learning materials resulting in poor performance in National examinations. E-learning as defined to be the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for supporting the educational processes has motivated Tanzania to apply ICT in its education system. There has been effort to improve secondary school education using ICT through several projects. ICT for e-learning to Tanzania rural secondary school is one of the research projects conceived by the University of Dar-es-Salaam through its College of Engineering and Technology. The main objective of the project is to develop a tool to enable ICT support rural secondary school. The project is comprehensive with a number of components, one being development of e-learning management system (e-LMS) for Tanzania secondary schools. This paper presents strategies of developing e-LMS. It shows the importance of integrating action research methodology with the modeling methods as presented by model driven architecture (MDA) and the usefulness of Unified Modeling Language (UML) on the issue of modeling. The benefit of MDA will go along with the development based on software development life cycle (SDLC) process, from analysis and requirement phase through design and implementation stages as employed by object oriented system analysis and design approach. The paper also explains the employment of open source code reuse from open source learning platforms for the context sensitive development of the e-LMS for Tanzania secondary schools.

Keywords: Action Research Methodology, OOSA&D, MDA, UML, Open Source LMS.

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Authors: Shuenn-Yih Chang, Chiu-Li Huang

Abstract:

Three structure-dependent integration methods have been developed for solving equations of motion, which are second-order ordinary differential equations, for structural dynamics and earthquake engineering applications. Although they generally have the same numerical properties, such as explicit formulation, unconditional stability and second-order accuracy, a different performance is found in solving the free vibration response to either linear elastic or nonlinear systems with high frequency modes. The root cause of this different performance in the free vibration responses is analytically explored herein. As a result, it is verified that a weak instability is responsible for the different performance of the integration methods. In general, a weak instability will result in an inaccurate solution or even numerical instability in the free vibration responses of high frequency modes. As a result, a weak instability must be prohibited for time integration methods.

Keywords: Dynamic analysis, high frequency, integration method, overshoot, weak instability.

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Authors: Houshmand E. Masoumi

Abstract:

Residential self-selection has gained increasing attention in the Western travel behavior research during the past decade. Many studies in the US, UK, and Germany conclude that the role of individuals’ residential location choice on commute travel behavior is more important than that of the built environment or at least it has considerable effects. However the effectiveness of location choice in many countries and cultures like Iran is unclear. This study examines the self-selections in two neighborhoods in Tehran. As a part of a research about the influences of land use on travel behavior information about people’s location preferences was collected by direct questioning. The findings show that the main reasons for selecting the location of residential units are related to socio-economic factors such as rise of house price and affordability of house prices. Transportation has little impacts on location decisions. Moreover, residential self-selection accounts for only 3 to 7.5 percent of the pedestrian, PT, and car trips.

Keywords: Residential self-selection, Tehran, travel behavior, urban transportation.

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Authors: Yilmaz Bayhan, Emin Güzel, Ömer Barış Özlüoymak, Ahmet İnce, Abdullah Sessiz

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In this study, determining of reduced tillage techniques in green bean farming as a second crop after harvesting wheat was targeted. To this aim, four different soil tillage methods namely, heavy-duty disc harrow (HD), rotary tiller (ROT), heavy-duty disc harrow plus rotary tiller (HD+ROT) and no-tillage (NT) (seeding by direct drill) were examined. Experiments were arranged in a randomized block design with three replications. The highest green beans yields were obtained in HD+ROT and NT as 5,862.1 and 5,829.3 Mg/ha, respectively. The lowest green bean yield was found in HD as 3,076.7 Mg/ha. The highest fuel consumption was measured 30.60 L ha^-1 for HD+ROT whereas the lowest value was found 7.50 L ha^-1 for NT. No tillage method gave the best results for fuel consumption and effective power requirement. It is concluded that no-tillage method can be used in second crop green bean in the Thrace Region due to economic and erosion conditions.

Keywords: Soil tillage, green bean, vegetative, generative, yield.

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Authors: Huaizhi Han, Bingxi Li, Yurong He, Rushan Bie, Zhao Wu

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The flow and heat transfer mechanism in convex corrugated tubes have been investigated through numerical simulations in this paper. Two kinds of tube types named as symmetric corrugated tube (SCT) and asymmetric corrugated tube (ACT) are modeled and studied numerically based on the RST model. The predictive capability of RST model is examined in the corrugation wall in order to check the reliability of RST model under the corrugation wall condition. We propose a comparison between the RST modelling the corrugation wall with existing direct numerical simulation of Maaß C and Schumann U [14]. The numerical results pressure coefficient at different profiles between RST and DNS are well matched. The influences of large corrugation tough radii to heat transfer and flow characteristic had been considered. Flow and heat transfer comparison between SCT and ACT had been discussed. The numerical results show that ACT exhibits higher overall heat transfer performance than SCT.

Keywords: Asymmetric corrugated tube, RST, DNS, flow and heat transfer mechanism.

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Authors: O. S. Eludoyin, A. A. Aiyeloja, O. C. Ndife

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The study investigated the spatial analysis of trees composition, diversity and richness in the built up area of University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Four quadrats of 25m x 25m size were laid randomly in each of the three parks and inventories of trees ≥10cm girth at breast height were taken and used to calculate the species composition, diversity and richness. Results showed that species composition and diversity in Abuja Park was the highest with 134 species and 0.866 respectively while the species richness was highest in Choba Park with a value of 2.496. The correlation between the size of park (spatial coverage) and species composition was 0.99 while the correlation between the size of the park and species diversity was 0.78. There was direct relationship between species composition and diversity while the relationship between species composition and species richness was inversely proportional. Rational use of these resources is encouraged.

Keywords: Built up area, composition, diversity, richness, spatial analysis, urban tree.

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Authors: Zhanna Mingaleva, Irina Mirskikh

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Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation dedicated to legal regulation of Intellectual property rights came into force in 2008. It is a first attempt of codification in Intellectual property sphere in Russia. That is why a lot of new norms appeared. The main problem of the Russian Civil Code (part IV) is that many rules (norms of Law) contradict the norms of International Intellectual property Law (i.e. protection of inventions, creations, ideas, know-how, trade secrets, innovations). Intellectual property rights protect innovations and creations and reward innovative and creative activity. Intellectual property rights are international in character and in that respect they fit in rather well with the economic reality of the global economy. Inventors prefer not to take out a patent for inventions because it is a very difficult procedure, it takes a lot of time and is very expensive. That-s why they try to protect their inventions as ideas, know-how, confidential information. An idea is the main element of any object of Intellectual property (creation, invention, innovation, know-how, etc.). But ideas are not protected by Civil Code of Russian Federation. The aim of the paper is to reveal the main problems of legal regulation of Intellectual property in Russia and to suggest possible solutions. The authors of this paper have raised these essential issues through different activities. Through the panel survey, questionnaires which were spread among the participants of intellectual activities the main problems of implementation of innovations, protecting of the ideas and know-how were identified. The implementation of research results will help to solve economic and legal problems of innovations, transfer of innovations and intellectual property.1

Keywords: Innovation activities, intellectual property rights, know-how, patents, indicators of innovation activities

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Authors: Mustafa Engin Basoğlu, Bekir Çakır

Abstract:

The most important component affecting the efficiency of photovoltaic power systems are solar panels. In other words, efficiency of these systems are significantly affected due to the being low efficiency of solar panel. Thus, solar panels should be operated under maximum power point conditions through a power converter. In this study, design of boost converter has been carried out with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm which is incremental conductance (Inc-Cond). By using this algorithm, importance of power converter in MPPT hardware design, impacts of MPPT operation have been shown. It is worth noting that initial operation point is the main criteria for determining the MPPT performance. In addition, it is shown that if value of load resistance is lower than critical value, failure operation is realized. For these analyzes, direct duty control is used for simplifying the control.

Keywords: Boost converter, Incremental Conductance (Inc- Cond), MPPT, Solar panel.

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