Search results for: monitoring and evaluation

Authors: Kavi K. Khedo, R. K. Subramanian

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Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are currently receiving significant attention due to their unlimited potential. These networks are used for various applications, such as habitat monitoring, automation, agriculture, and security. The efficient nodeenergy utilization is one of important performance factors in wireless sensor networks because sensor nodes operate with limited battery power. In this paper, we proposed the MiSense hierarchical cluster based routing algorithm (MiCRA) to extend the lifetime of sensor networks and to maintain a balanced energy consumption of nodes. MiCRA is an extension of the HEED algorithm with two levels of cluster heads. The performance of the proposed protocol has been examined and evaluated through a simulation study. The simulation results clearly show that MiCRA has a better performance in terms of lifetime than HEED. Indeed, MiCRA our proposed protocol can effectively extend the network lifetime without other critical overheads and performance degradation. It has been noted that there is about 35% of energy saving for MiCRA during the clustering process and 65% energy savings during the routing process compared to the HEED algorithm.

Keywords: Clustering algorithm, energy consumption, hierarchical model, sensor networks.

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Authors: Ebunoluwa G. Gabriel, Victoria A. Jideani, Daniel I. O. Ikhu-Omoregbe

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The current desire in food and industrial emulsification is the use of natural emulsifiers. Bambara groundnut flour (BGNF) and its starch (BGNS) will serve both emulsifying and nutritional purposes if found suitable. This current study was aimed at investigating the emulsifying properties of BGNF/BGNS. BGNS was extracted from the BGNF. Emulsions were prepared using a wide range of flour-oil-water and starch-oil-water composition as generated through the application of Response Surface (D-optimal) design. Prepared emulsions were investigated for stability to creaming/sedimentation (using the kinetic information from turbiscan) and flocculation/coalescence (by monitoring the droplet diameter growth using optical microscope) over 5 days. The most stable emulsions (one BGNF-stabilized and the other BGNS-stabilized) were determined. The optimal emulsifier/oil composition was 9g/39g for BGNF and 5g/30g for BGNS. The two emulsions had only 30% and 50% growth in oil droplet diameter respectively by day 5, compared to over 3000% in the unstable ones. The BGNF-stabilized emulsions were more stable than the BGNS-stabilized ones. Emulsions were successfully stabilized with BGNF and BGNS.

Keywords: Bambara groundnut, coalescence, creaming, emulsification, emulsion, emulsion stability.

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Authors: Chia-Chen Wu, Chih-Fu Wu, Pey-Weng Lien, Kai-Chieh Lin

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In the past, the most comprehensively adopted light source was incandescent light bulbs, but with the appearance of LED light sources, traditional light sources have been gradually replaced by LEDs because of its numerous superior characteristics. However, many of the standards do not apply to LEDs as the two light sources are characterized differently. This also intensifies the significance of studies on LEDs. As a Kansei design study investigating the visual glare produced by traffic arrows implemented with LEDs, this study conducted a semantic analysis on the styles of traffic arrows used in domestic and international occasions. The results will be able to reduce drivers’ misrecognition that results in the unsuccessful arrival at the destination, or in traffic accidents. This study started with a literature review and surveyed the status quo before conducting experiments that were divided in two parts. The first part involved a screening experiment of arrow samples, where cluster analysis was conducted to choose five representative samples of LED displays. The second part was a semantic experiment on the display of arrows using LEDs, where the five representative samples and the selected ten adjectives were incorporated. Analyzing the results with Quantification Theory Type I, it was found that among the composition of arrows, fletching was the most significant factor that influenced the adjectives. In contrast, a “no fletching” design was more abstract and vague. It lacked the ability to convey the intended message and might bear psychological negative connotation including “dangerous,” “forbidden,” and “unreliable.” The arrow design consisting of “> shaped fletching” was found to be more concrete and definite, showing positive connotation including “safe,” “cautious,” and “reliable.” When a stimulus was placed at a farther distance, the glare could be significantly reduced; moreover, the visual evaluation scores would be higher. On the contrary, if the fletching and the shaft had a similar proportion, looking at the stimuli caused higher evaluation at a closer distance. The above results will be able to be applied to the design of traffic arrows by conveying information definitely and rapidly. In addition, drivers’ safety could be enhanced by understanding the cause of glare and improving visual recognizability.

Keywords: LED, arrow, Kansei research, preferred imagery.

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Authors: Eduardo Romero, Marcelo Costamagna, Gabriela Peretti, Carlos Marqués

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This work evaluates the ability of OBT for detecting parametric faults in continuous-time filters. To this end, we adopt two filters with quite different topologies as cases of study and a previously reported statistical fault model. In addition, we explore the behavior of the test schemes when a particular test condition is changed. The new data reported here, obtained from a fault simulation process, reveal a lower performance of OBT not observed in previous work using single-deviation faults, even under the change in the test condition.

Keywords: Testing, analog fault simulation, analog filter test, oscillation based test.

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Authors: Saswata Chakraborty, R.P.Chatterjee, S. Majumder, Anup Kr. Bhattacharjee

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The scattering effect of light in fog improves the difficulty in visibility thus introducing disturbances in transport facilities in urban or industrial areas causing fatal accidents or public harassments, therefore, developing an enhanced fog vision system with radio wave to improvise the way outs of these severe problems is really a big challenge for researchers. Series of experimental studies already been done and more are in progress to know the weather effect on radio frequencies for different ranges. According to Rayleigh scattering Law, the propagating wavelength should be greater than the diameter of the particle present in the penetrating medium. Direct wave RF signal thus have high chance of failure to work in such weather for detection of any object. Therefore an extensive study was required to find suitable region in the RF band that can help us in detecting objects with proper shape. This paper produces some results on object detection using 912 MHz band with successful detection of the persistence of any object coming under the trajectory of a vehicle navigating in indoor and outdoor environment. The developed images are finally transformed to video signal to enable continuous monitoring.

Keywords: RADAR Imaging, Fog vision system, Objectdetection, Jpeg to Mpeg conversion

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Authors: Farah Diyana Abdul Rahman, Wajdi Al-Khateeb, Aisha Hassan Abdalla Hashim

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Optical networks are high capacity networks that meet the rapidly growing demand for bandwidth in the terrestrial telecommunications industry. This paper studies and evaluates singlemode and multimode fiber transmission by varying the distance. It focuses on their performance in LAN environment. This is achieved by observing the pulse spreading and attenuation in optical spectrum and eye-diagram that are obtained using OptSim simulator. The behaviors of two modes with different distance of data transmission are studied, evaluated and compared.

Keywords: Attenuation, eye diagram, fiber transmissions, multimode fiber, pulse dispersion, OSNR, single-mode fiber.

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Authors: Alireza Vafaei Sadr, Vida Abedi, Jiang Li, Ramin Zand

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Missing data is a common challenge in medical research and can lead to biased or incomplete results. When the data bias leaks into models, it further exacerbates health disparities; biased algorithms can lead to misclassification and reduced resource allocation and monitoring as part of prevention strategies for certain minorities and vulnerable segments of patient populations, which in turn further reduce data footprint from the same population – thus, a vicious cycle. This study compares the performance of six imputation techniques grouped into Linear and Non-Linear models, on two different real-world electronic health records (EHRs) datasets, representing 17864 patient records. The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and root mean squared error (RMSE) are used as performance metrics, and the results show that the Linear models outperformed the Non-Linear models in terms of both metrics. These results suggest that sometimes Linear models might be an optimal choice for imputation in laboratory variables in terms of imputation efficiency and uncertainty of predicted values.

Keywords: EHR, Machine Learning, imputation, laboratory variables, algorithmic bias.

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Authors: Raeesa Moolla, Ryan S. Johnson

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Air travel, and the use of airports, has experienced proliferative growth in the past few decades, resulting in the concomitant release of air pollutants. Air pollution needs to be monitored because of the known relationship between exposure to air pollutants and increased adverse effects on human health. This study monitored a group of volatile organic compounds (VOCs); specifically BTEX (viz. benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene and xylenes), as many are detrimental to human health. Through the use of passive sampling methods, the spatial variability of BTEX within an international airport was investigated, in order to determine ‘hotspots’ where occupational exposure to BTEX may be intensified. The passive sampling campaign revealed BTEX_total concentrations ranged between 12.95–124.04 µg m^-3. Furthermore, BTEX concentrations were dispersed heterogeneously within the airport. Due to the slow wind speeds recorded (1.13 m.s^-1); the hotspots were located close to their main BTEX sources. The main hotspot was located over the main apron of the airport. Employees working in this area may be chronically exposed to these emissions, which could be potentially detrimental to their health.

Keywords: Air pollution, air quality, hotspot monitoring, volatile organic compounds.

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Authors: Tisciane Perpetuo e Oliveira, Dante Inga Narvaez, Marcelo Gradella Villalva

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Installations of solar photovoltaic systems have increased considerably in the last decade. Therefore, it has been noticed that monitoring of meteorological data (solar irradiance, air temperature, wind velocity, etc.) is important to predict the potential of a given geographical area in solar energy production. In this sense, the present work compares two computational tools that are capable of estimating the energy generation of a photovoltaic system through correlation analyzes of solar radiation data: PVsyst software and an algorithm based on the PVlib package implemented in MATLAB. In order to achieve the objective, it was necessary to obtain solar radiation data (measured and from a solarimetric database), analyze the decomposition of global solar irradiance in direct normal and horizontal diffuse components, as well as analyze the modeling of the devices of a photovoltaic system (solar modules and inverters) for energy production calculations. Simulated results were compared with experimental data in order to evaluate the performance of the studied methods. Errors in estimation of energy production were less than 30% for the MATLAB algorithm and less than 20% for the PVsyst software.

Keywords: Energy production, meteorological data, irradiance decomposition, solar photovoltaic system.

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Authors: Mouna Mallem, Majid Tlidjane

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The study realized on alive lambs in two different areas mountain and plain in Batna region, aims to demonstrate the possible effect of field type on cupric status of lambs, through evaluation of copper contents in the chain: soil – plant – animal by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. This comparative study also allowed the investigation of the influence of the age and the season. The results obtained show that contents of copper in the soil, forage in the same way as in the plasma of lambs are higher in the plain than in the mountainous area; however, the difference is significant only between the values of feed.

Keywords: Copper, Forage, Lambs, Plasma copper.

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Authors: R. Kandiah, K. Miyamoto

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In Sri Lanka, the Jaffna area is a high drought affected area and depends mainly on groundwater aquifers for water needs. Water for daily activities is extracted from wells. As households manually extract water from the wells, it is not drawn from mid evening to early morning. The water inflow at night provides the maximum water level that decreases during the daytime due to extraction. The storage volume of water in wells is limited or at its lowest level during the dry season. This study analyzes the domestic water budget during the dry season in the Jaffna area. In order to evaluate the water inflow rate into wells, storage volume and extraction volume from wells over time, water pressure is measured at the bottom of three wells, which are located in coastal area denoted as well A, in nonspecific area denoted as well B, and agricultural area denoted as well C. The water quality at the wells A, B, and C, are mostly fresh, modest fresh, and saline respectively. From the monitoring, we can find that the daily inflow amount of water into the wells and daily water extraction depend on each other, that is, higher extraction yields higher inflow. And, in the dry season, the daily inflow volume and the daily extraction volume of each well are almost in balance.

Keywords: Domestic water, water balance, water budget, ground water, shallow well.

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Authors: K. Alese Boniface, K. Adu Michael

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Cybercrime is now becoming a big challenge in Nigeria apart from the traditional crime. Inability to identify perpetrators is one of the reasons for the growing menace. This paper proposes a design for monitoring internet users’ activities in order to curbing cybercrime. It requires redefining the operations of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which will now mandate users to be authenticated before accessing the internet. In implementing this work which can be adapted to a larger scale, a virtual router application is developed and configured to mimic a real router device. A sign-up portal is developed to allow users to register with the ISP. The portal asks for identification information which will include bio-data and government issued identification data like National Identity Card number, et cetera. A unique username and password are chosen by the user to enable access to the internet which will be used to reference him to an Internet Protocol Address (IP Address) of any system he uses on the internet and thereby associating him to any criminal act related to that IP address at that particular time. Questions such as “What happen when another user knows the password and uses it to commit crime?” and other pertinent issues are addressed.

Keywords: Cybercrime, Sign-up Portal, Internet Service Provider (ISP), Internet Protocol Address (IP address).

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Authors: Fantazi Walid, Ezzedine Tahar, Bargaoui Zoubeida

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This research presents the main ideas to implement an intelligent system composed by communicating wireless sensors measuring environmental data linked to drought indicators (such as air temperature, soil moisture , etc...). On the other hand, the setting up of a spatio temporal database communicating with a Web mapping application for a monitoring in real time in activity 24:00 /day, 7 days/week is proposed to allow the screening of the drought parameters time evolution and their extraction. Thus this system helps detecting surfaces touched by the phenomenon of drought. Spatio-temporal conceptual models seek to answer the users who need to manage soil water content for irrigating or fertilizing or other activities pursuing crop yield augmentation. Effectively, spatiotemporal conceptual models enable users to obtain a diagram of readable and easy data to apprehend. Based on socio-economic information, it helps identifying people impacted by the phenomena with the corresponding severity especially that this information is accessible by farmers and stakeholders themselves. The study will be applied in Siliana watershed Northern Tunisia.

Keywords: WSN, database spatio-temporal, GIS, web-mapping, indicator of drought.

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Authors: Hanmin Jung, Mikyoung Lee, Won-kyung Sung

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Academic research information service is a must for surveying previous studies in research and development process. OntoFrame is an academic research information service under Semantic Web framework different from simple keyword-based services such as CiteSeer and Google Scholar. The first purpose of this study is for revealing user behavior in their surveys, the objects of using academic research information services, and their needs. The second is for applying lessons learned from the results to OntoFrame.

Keywords: User Behavior, Usability Evaluation, OntoFrame, CiteSeer, Google Scholar, Academic Research Information Service.

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Authors: Vishal Naranje, Shailendra Kumar

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Metal stamping die design is a complex, experiencebased and time-consuming task. Various artificial intelligence (AI) techniques are being used by worldwide researchers for stamping die design to reduce complexity, dependence on human expertise and time taken in design process as well as to improve design efficiency. In this paper a comprehensive review of applications of AI techniques in manufacturability evaluation of sheet metal parts, die design and process planning of metal stamping die is presented. Further the salient features of major research work published in the area of metal stamping are presented in tabular form and scope of future research work is identified.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Die design, ManufacturabilityEvaluation, Metal Stamping Die.

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Authors: Jeong Hoon Lee, Jin Hwan Yu

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The number of people using SNS with their mobile devices is soaring. This research focuses on the Twitter service that has the most third-party applications and delved into the fact that there were not sufficient studies on the UX design aspects of Twitter applications. Among social network services which have emerged as a major social topic lately, this research try to analyze the UX design of the Twitter application which is also called micro-blogging service. Therefore this research sets its goal to draw components of the UX design aspect of the Tweeter application on which there are not enough analysis yet. Moreover, this research suggests improvement of mobile application which will assure better users- experience. In order to analyze the UX design aspect of the mobile twitter application, with relevant document and user research, evaluating factors of the UX Design which would affect users- experience were organized. The subjects for cases were selected among six paid and free social networking applications that had been consistently ranked from 1st to 100th in the Korean application store during May, 2012 after closely monitoring the rank. From May 15th to May 11th in 2012, in accordance with the evaluating standard, surveys were conducted in a form of interviews with 20 subjects who have used the Twitter application to find out problems and solutions for the UX design of the mobile Twitter application.

Keywords: Social network service, twitter, user experience design, interface design.

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Authors: U. Rubins, Z. Marcinkevics, K.Volceka

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The cardiovascular system has become the most important subject of clinical research, particularly measurement of arterial blood flow. Therefore correct determination of arterial diameter is crucial. We propose a novel, semi-automatic method for artery lumen detection. The method is based on Gaussian probability function. Usability of our proposed method was assessed by analyzing ultrasound B-mode CFA video sequences acquired from eleven healthy volunteers. The correlation coefficient between the manual and semi-automatic measurement of arterial diameter was 0.996. Our proposed method for detecting artery boundary is novel and accurate enough for the measurement of artery diameter.

Keywords: Ultrasound, boundary detection, artery diameter, curve fitting.

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Authors: R. Ziaie Moayed, V. Rashidian, E. Izadi

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This paper utilizes a finite element analysis to study the bearing capacity of ring footings on a two-layered soil. The upper layer, that the footing is placed on it, is soft clay and the underneath layer is a cohesionless sand. For modeling soils, Mohr–Coulomb plastic yield criterion is employed. The effects of two factors, the clay layer thickness and the ratio of internal radius of the ring footing to external radius of the ring, have been analyzed. It is found that the bearing capacity decreases as the value of ri / ro increases. Although, as the clay layer thickness increases the bearing capacity was alleviated gradually.

Keywords: Bearing capacity, Ring footing, Two-layered soil

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Authors: V. L. M. F. Capellini, A. P. P. M. Maturana, N. C. M. Brondino, M. B. C. L. B. M. Peixoto, A. J. Broughton

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A paradigm shift is a process. The process of implementing inclusive education, a system constructed to support all learners, requires planning, identification, experimentation, and evaluation. In this vein, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the capacity of one Brazilian state school systems to provide special education students with a quality inclusive education. This study originated at the behest of concerned families of students with special needs who filed complaints with the Municipality of Bauru, São Paulo. These families claimed, 1) children with learning differences and educational needs had not been identified for services, and 2) those who had been identified had not received sufficient specialized educational assistance (SEA) in schools across the City of Bauru. Hence, the Office of Civil Rights for the state of São Paulo (Ministério Público de São Paulo) summoned the local higher education institution, UNESP, to design a research study to investigate these allegations. In this exploratory study, descriptive data were gathered from all elementary and middle schools including 58 state schools and 17 city schools, for a total of 75 schools overall. Data collection consisted of each school's annual strategic action plan, surveys and interviews with all school stakeholders to determine their perceptions of the inclusive education available to students with Special Education Needs (SEN). The data were collected as one of four stages in a larger study which also included field observations of a focal students' experience and a continuing education course for all teachers and administrators in both state and city schools. For the purposes of this study, the researchers were interested in understanding the perceptions of school staff, parents, and students across all schools. Therefore, documents and surveys from 75 schools were analyzed for adherence to federal legislation guaranteeing students with SEN the right to special education assistance within the regular school setting. Results shows that while some schools recognized the legal rights of SEN students to receive special education, the plans to actually deliver services were absent. In conclusion, the results of this study revealed both school staff and families have insufficient planning and accessibility resources, and the schools have inadequate infrastructure for full-time support to SEN students, i.e., structures and systems to support the identification of SEN and delivery of services within schools of Bauru, SP. Having identified the areas of need, the city is now prepared to take next steps in the process toward preparing all schools to be inclusive.

Keywords: Inclusive education, special education, special needs.

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Authors: Samia Dardouri, Ridha Bouallegue

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Scheduling is the process of dynamically allocating physical resources to User Equipment (UE) based on scheduling algorithms implemented at the LTE base station. Various algorithms have been proposed by network researchers as the implementation of scheduling algorithm which represents an open issue in Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. This paper makes an attempt to study and compare the performance of PF, MLWDF and EXP/PF scheduling algorithms. The evaluation is considered for a single cell with interference scenario for different flows such as Best effort, Video and VoIP in a pedestrian and vehicular environment using the LTE-Sim network simulator. The comparative study is conducted in terms of system throughput, fairness index, delay, packet loss ratio (PLR) and total cell spectral efficiency.

Keywords: LTE, Multimedia flows, Scheduling algorithms.

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Authors: Bill D. Geis, Frederick Newman

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Suicide and wrongful death forensic cases are the fastest rising tort in mental health law. Most suicide-related personal injury claims fall into the legal category of “wrongful death.” Though mental health experts may be called on to address a range of forensic questions in wrongful death cases, the central consultation that most experts provide is about the negligence element—specifically, the issue of whether the clinician met the clinical standard of care in assessing, treating, and managing the deceased person’s mental health care. Standards of care, varying from US state to state, are broad and address what a reasonable clinician might do in a similar circumstance. This fact leaves the issue of the suicide standard of care, in each case, up to forensic experts to put forth a reasoned estimate of what the standard of care should have been in the specific case under litigation. Because the general state guidelines for standard of care are broad, forensic experts are readily retained to provide scientific and clinical opinions about whether or not a clinician met the standard of care in their suicide assessment, treatment, and management of the case. In the past and in much of current practice, the assessment of suicide has centered on the elicitation of verbalized suicide ideation. But suicide ideation, in the matter of suicide risk determination, may be a necessary but insufficient target of lethal suicide risk assessment. Assessment of near-term suicide risk—assessment that goes beyond verbalized suicide ideation and relates to acute crisis variables—is likely needed. Specifically, such other or additional suicide risk variable assessment may be required in the context of lethal suicide risk situations, as opposed to the discernment of general, nonlethal suicide behavior as a standard of practice (whether a patient is having suicidal thoughts or exhibiting an ambivalent suicide attempt potential). In the current study, verbalized suicide ideation information was unhelpful in the assessment of lethal risk. The Lethal Suicide Risk Assessment, Acute Model, and other dynamic, near-term risk models (such as the Acute Suicide Affective Disorder Model and the Suicide Crisis Syndrome Model)—going beyond elicited suicide ideation—need to be incorporated into current clinical suicide assessment training and become the legal standard of care for expected clinical behavior. Without this expanded clinical assessment perspective, the standard of care for suicide assessment is out of sync with current knowledge—an emerging dilemma for the forensic evaluation of suicide wrongful death cases.

Keywords: Forensic evaluation, standard of care, suicide, suicide assessment, wrongful death.

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Authors: Oscar Fernandez-Flores, Tony Speer, Rodney Day

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This paper identifies five key design characteristics of production scheduling software systems in printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing. The authors consider that, in addition to an effective scheduling engine, a scheduling system should be able to process a preventative maintenance calendar, to give the user the flexibility to handle data using a variety of electronic sources, to run simulations to support decision-making, and to have simple and customisable graphical user interfaces. These design considerations were the result of a review of academic literature, the evaluation of commercial applications and a compilation of requirements of a PCB manufacturer. It was found that, from those systems that were evaluated, those that effectively addressed all five characteristics outlined in this paper were the most robust of all and could be used in PCB manufacturing.

Keywords: Decision-making, ERP, PCB, scheduling.

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Authors: Orkide Donma, Mustafa M. Donma

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Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is widely used and an accepted measure of energy expenditure. Its principal determinant is body mass. However, this parameter is also correlated with a variety of other factors. The objective of this study is to measure BMR and compare it with the values obtained from predictive equations in adults classified according to their body mass index (BMI) values. 276 adults were included into the scope of this study. Their age, height and weight values were recorded. Five groups were designed based on their BMI values. First group (n = 85) was composed of individuals with BMI values varying between 18.5 and 24.9 kg/m². Those with BMI values varying from 25.0 to 29.9 kg/m² constituted Group 2 (n = 90). Individuals with 30.0-34.9 kg/m², 35.0-39.9 kg/m², > 40.0 kg/m² were included in Group 3 (n = 53), 4 (n = 28) and 5 (n = 20), respectively. The most commonly used equations to be compared with the measured BMR values were selected. For this purpose, the values were calculated by the use of four equations to predict BMR values, by name, introduced by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)/World Health Organization (WHO)/United Nations University (UNU), Harris and Benedict, Owen and Mifflin. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, post-Hoc Tukey and Pearson’s correlation tests were performed by a statistical program designed for Windows (SPSS, version 16.0). p values smaller than 0.05 were accepted as statistically significant. Mean ± SD of groups 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 for measured BMR in kcal were 1440.3 ± 210.0, 1618.8 ± 268.6, 1741.1 ± 345.2, 1853.1 ± 351.2 and 2028.0 ± 412.1, respectively. Upon evaluation of the comparison of means among groups, differences were highly significant between Group 1 and each of the remaining four groups. The values were increasing from Group 2 to Group 5. However, differences between Group 2 and Group 3, Group 3 and Group 4, Group 4 and Group 5 were not statistically significant. These insignificances were lost in predictive equations proposed by Harris and Benedict, FAO/WHO/UNU and Owen. For Mifflin, the insignificance was limited only to Group 4 and Group 5. Upon evaluation of the correlations of measured BMR and the estimated values computed from prediction equations, the lowest correlations between measured BMR and estimated BMR values were observed among the individuals within normal BMI range. The highest correlations were detected in individuals with BMI values varying between 30.0 and 34.9 kg/m². Correlations between measured BMR values and BMR values calculated by FAO/WHO/UNU as well as Owen were the same and the highest. In all groups, the highest correlations were observed between BMR values calculated from Mifflin and Harris and Benedict equations using age as an additional parameter. In conclusion, the unique resemblance of the FAO/WHO/UNU and Owen equations were pointed out. However, mean values obtained from FAO/WHO/UNU were much closer to the measured BMR values. Besides, the highest correlations were found between BMR calculated from FAO/WHO/UNU and measured BMR. These findings suggested that FAO/WHO/UNU was the most reliable equation, which may be used in conditions when the measured BMR values are not available.

Keywords: Adult, basal metabolic rate, FAO/WHO/UNU, obesity, prediction equations.

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Authors: R. B. Ogunrinde, C. C. Jibunoh

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In this paper, a spectral decomposition method is developed for the direct integration of stiff and nonstiff homogeneous linear (ODE) systems with linear, constant, or zero right hand sides (RHSs). The method does not require iteration but obtains solutions at any random points of t, by direct evaluation, in the interval of integration. All the numerical solutions obtained for the class of systems coincide with the exact theoretical solutions. In particular, solutions of homogeneous linear systems, i.e. with zero RHS, conform to the exact analytical solutions of the systems in terms of t.

Keywords: Spectral decomposition, eigenvalues of the Jacobian, linear RHS, homogeneous linear systems.

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Authors: Orkide Donma, Mustafa M. Donma

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Obesity may lead to growing serious health problems throughout the world. Vitamin D appears to play a role in cardiovascular and metabolic health. Vitamin D deficiency may add to derangements in human metabolic systems, particularly those of children. Childhood obesity is associated with an increased risk of chronic and sophisticated diseases. The aim of this study is to investigate associations as well as possible differences related to parameters affected by obesity and their relations with vitamin D status in obese (OB) and morbid obese (MO) children. This study included a total of 78 children. Of them, 41 and 37 were OB and MO, respectively. WHO BMI-for age percentiles were used for the classification of obesity. The values above 99 percentile were defined as MO. Those between 95 and 99 percentiles were included into OB group. Anthropometric measurements were recorded. Basal metabolic rates (BMRs) were measured. Vitamin D status is determined by the measurement of 25-hydroxy cholecalciferol [25- hydroxyvitamin D3, 25(OH)D] using high-performance liquid chromatography. Vitamin D status was evaluated as deficient, insufficient and sufficient. Values < 20.0 ng/ml, values between 20-30 ng/ml and values > 30.0 ng/ml were defined as vitamin D deficient, insufficient and sufficient, respectively. Optimal 25(OH)D level was defined as ≥ 30 ng/ml. SPSSx statistical package program was used for the evaluation of the data. The statistical significance degree was accepted as p < 0.05. Mean ages did not differ between the groups. Significantly increased body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (C) and neck C as well as significantly decreased fasting blood glucose (FBG) and vitamin D values were observed in MO group (p < 0.05). In OB group, 37.5% of the children were vitamin D deficient, and in MO group the corresponding value was 53.6%. No difference between the groups in terms of lipid profile, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and insulin values was noted. There was a severe statistical significance between FBG values of the groups (p < 0.001). Important correlations between BMI, waist C, hip C, neck C and both SBP as well as DBP were found in OB group. In MO group, correlations only with SBP were obtained. In a similar manner, in OB group, correlations were detected between SBP-BMR and DBP-BMR. However, in MO children, BMR correlated only with SBP. The associations of vitamin D with anthropometric indices as well as some lipid parameters were defined. In OB group BMI, waist C, hip C and triglycerides (TRG) were negatively correlated with vitamin D concentrations whereas none of them were detected in MO group. Vitamin D deficiency may contribute to the complications associated with childhood obesity. Loss of correlations between obesity indices-DBP, vitamin D-TRG, as well as relatively lower FBG values, observed in MO group point out that the emergence of MetS components starts during obesity state just before the transition to morbid obesity. Aside from its deficiency state, associations of vitamin D with anthropometric measurements, blood pressures and TRG should also be evaluated before the development of morbid obesity.

Keywords: Children, morbid obesity, obesity, vitamin D.

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Authors: Hui J. Gwon, Youn M. Lim, Jong S. Park, Young C. Nho

Abstract:

In this study, hydrogels consisted of polyvinyl alcohol, propylene glycol and β-glucan were developed by radiation technique for wound dressing. The prepared hydrogels were characterized by examining of physical properties such as gel fraction and absorption ratio. The gel fraction and absorption ratio were dependent on the crosslinking density. On observing the wound healing of rat skin, the resulting hydrogels accelerated the wound healing comparing to cotton gauze. Therefore, the PVA/propylene glycol/β-glucan blended hydrogels can greatly accelerate the healing without causing irritation.

Keywords: β-Glucan, poly(vinyl alcohol), propylene glycol, radiation, wound dressing.

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Authors: S. Ariffin, K. Hasnan, R.H. Weston

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A new generation of manufacturing machines so-called MIMCA (modular and integrated machine control architecture) capable of handling much increased complexity in manufacturing control-systems is presented. Requirement for more flexible and effective control systems for manufacturing machine systems is investigated and dimensioned-which highlights a need for improved means of coordinating and monitoring production machinery and equipment used to- transport material. The MIMCA supports simulation based on machine modeling, was conceived by the authors to address the issues. Essentially MIMCA comprises an organized unification of selected architectural frameworks and modeling methods, which include: NISTRCS, UMC and Colored Timed Petri nets (CTPN). The unification has been achieved; to support the design and construction of hierarchical and distributed machine control which realized the concurrent operation of reusable and distributed machine control components; ability to handle growing complexity; and support requirements for real- time control systems. Thus MIMCA enables mapping between 'what a machine should do' and 'how the machine does it' in a well-defined but flexible way designed to facilitate reconfiguration of machine systems.

Keywords: Machine control, architectures, Petri nets, modularity, modeling, simulation.

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Authors: Ashwani Kumar, Jitender Kumar

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In this paper, an optimal power flow based approach has been applied for multi-transactions deregulated environment for ATC determination with SVC and STATCOM. The main contribution of the paper is (i) OPF based approach for evaluation of ATC with multi-transactions, (ii) ATC enhancement with FACTS devices viz. SVC and STATCOM for intact and line contingency cases, (iii) Impact of ZIP load on ATC determination and comparison of ATC obtained with SVC and STATCOM. The results have been determined for intact and line contingency cases taking simultaneous as well as single transaction cases for IEEE 24 bus RTS.

Keywords: Available transfer capability, FACTS devices, line contingency, multi-transactions, ZIP load model.

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Authors: Youngji Yoo, Cheong-Sool Park, Jun Seok Kim, Young-Hak Lee, Sung-Shick Kim, Jun-Geol Baek

Abstract:

In the semiconductor manufacturing process, large amounts of data are collected from various sensors of multiple facilities. The collected data from sensors have several different characteristics due to variables such as types of products, former processes and recipes. In general, Statistical Quality Control (SQC) methods assume the normality of the data to detect out-of-control states of processes. Although the collected data have different characteristics, using the data as inputs of SQC will increase variations of data, require wide control limits, and decrease performance to detect outof- control. Therefore, it is necessary to separate similar data groups from mixed data for more accurate process control. In the paper, we propose a regression tree using split algorithm based on Pearson distribution to handle non-normal distribution in parametric method. The regression tree finds similar properties of data from different variables. The experiments using real semiconductor manufacturing process data show improved performance in fault detecting ability.

Keywords: Semiconductor, non-normal mixed process data, clustering, Statistical Quality Control (SQC), regression tree, Pearson distribution system.

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Authors: Rafał Urbaniak, Robert Kłosowiak, Michał Ciałkowski, Jarosław Bartoszewicz

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The Chair of Thermal Engineering at Poznan University of Technology has been conducted research works on the possibilities of using carbon nanostructures in energy and mechanics applications for a couple of years. Those studies have provided results in a form of co-operation with foreign research centres, numerous publications and patent applications. Authors of this paper have studied the influence of multi-walled carbon nanostructures on changes in static friction arising when steel surfaces were moved. Tests were made using the original test stand consisting of automatically controlled inclined plane driven by precise stepper motors. Computer program created in the LabView environment was responsible for monitoring of the stand operation, accuracy of measurements and archiving the obtained results. Such a solution enabled to obtain high accuracy and repeatability of all conducted experiments. Tests and analysis of the obtained results allowed us to determine how additional layers of carbon nanostructures influenced on changes of static friction coefficients. At the same time, we analyzed the potential possibilities of applying nanostructures under consideration in mechanics.

Keywords: Carbon nanotubes, static friction, dynamic friction.

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