Search results for: average daily gain

Authors: Oliver Mărunţălu, Gheorghe Lăzăroiu, Elena Elisabeta Manea, Dana Andreya Bondrea, Lăcrămioara Diana Robescu

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This paper presents the results obtained by numerical simulation using the software ANSYS CFX-CFD for the air pollutants dispersion in the atmosphere coming from the evacuation of combustion gases resulting from the fuel combustion in an electric thermal power plant. The model uses the Navier-Stokes equation to simulate the dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere. It is considered as important factors in elaboration of simulation the atmospheric conditions (pressure, temperature, wind speed, wind direction), the exhaust velocity of the combustion gases, chimney height and the obstacles (buildings). Using the air quality monitoring stations it is measured the concentrations of main pollutants (SO2, NOx and PM). The pollutants were monitored over a period of 3 months, after that the average concentration are calculated, which is used by the software. The concentrations are: 8.915 μg/m3 (NOx), 9.587 μg/m3 (SO2) and 42 μg/m3 (PM). A comparison of test data with simulation results demonstrated that CFX was able to describe the dispersion of the pollutant as well the concentration of this pollutants in the atmosphere.

Keywords: Air pollutants, computational fluid dynamics, dispersion, simulation.

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Authors: Fengxia Zheng, Shouming Zhong

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ANNARIMA that combines both autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model and artificial neural network (ANN) model is a valuable tool for modeling and forecasting nonlinear time series, yet the over-fitting problem is more likely to occur in neural network models. This paper provides a hybrid methodology that combines both radial basis function (RBF) neural network and auto regression (AR) model based on binomial smoothing (BS) technique which is efficient in data processing, which is called BSRBFAR. This method is examined by using the data of Canadian Lynx data. Empirical results indicate that the over-fitting problem can be eased using RBF neural network based on binomial smoothing which is called BS-RBF, and the hybrid model–BS-RBFAR can be an effective way to improve forecasting accuracy achieved by BSRBF used separately.

Keywords: Binomial smoothing (BS), hybrid, Canadian Lynx data, forecasting accuracy.

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Authors: P. Meethum, C. Suvanjumrat

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Many aluminum motorcycle parts produced by a high pressure die casting. Some parts such as fuel caps were a thin and complex shape. This part risked for porosities and blisters on surface if it only depended on an experience of mold makers for mold design. This research attempted to use CAST-DESIGNER software simulated the high pressure die casting process with the same process parameters of a motorcycle fuel cap production. The simulated results were compared with fuel cap products and expressed the same porosity and blister locations on cap surface. An average of absolute difference of simulated results was obtained 0.094 mm when compared the simulated porosity and blister defect sizes on the fuel cap surfaces with the experimental micro photography. This comparison confirmed an accuracy of software and will use the setting parameters to improve fuel cap molds in the further work.

Keywords: Aluminum, die casting, fuel cap, motorcycle.

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Authors: Dariush Semnani, Hossein Ghayoor

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In this paper a novel method was presented for evaluating the fabric pills using digital image processing techniques. This work provides a novel technique for detecting pills and also measuring their heights, surfaces and volumes. Surely, measuring the intensity of defects by human vision is an inaccurate method for quality control; as a result, this problem became a motivation for employing digital image processing techniques for detection of defects of fabric surface. In the former works, the systems were just limited to measuring of the surface of defects, but in the presented method the height and the volume of defects were also measured, which leads to a more accurate quality control. An algorithm was developed to first, find pills and then measure their average intensity by using three criteria of height, surface and volume. The results showed a meaningful relation between the number of rotations and the quality of pilled fabrics.

Keywords: 3D analysis, computer vision, fabric, pile, surface evaluation

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Authors: Panida Jongsuksomsakul

Abstract:

This study of the ‘happiness’ and ‘sustainability’ in the community of Donkeaw, Amphoe Mae Rim, Chiang Mai Province during the non-election period in Thailand, noted that their happiness levels are in the middle-average range. This was found using a mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative methods (N = 386, α = 0.05). The study explores indicators for six aspects of well-being and happiness, including, good local governance, administrative support for the health system that maintains people’s mental and physical health, environment and weather, job security and a regular income aids them in managing a sustainable lifestyle. The impact of economic security and community relationships on social and cultural capital, and the way these aspects impact on the life style of the community, affects the sustainable well-being of people. Moreover, living with transparency and participatory communication led to diverse rewards in many areas.

Keywords: Communication, happiness, well-being, Donkeaw community, social and cultural capital.

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Authors: Taotao Deng, John D. Nelson

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Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has emerged as a cost-effective transport system for urban mobility. However its ability to stimulate land development remains largely unexplored. The study makes use of qualitative (interview method) and quantitative analysis (questionnaire survey and longitudinal analysis of property data) to investigate land development impact resulting from BRT in Beijing, China. The empirical analysis suggests that BRT has a positive impact on the residential and commercial property attractiveness along the busway corridor. The statistical analysis suggests that accessibility advantage conferred by BRT is capitalized into higher property price. The average price of apartments adjacent to a BRT station has gained a relatively faster increase than those not served by the BRT system. The capitalization effect mostly occurs after the full operation of BRT, and is more evident over time and particularly observed in areas which previously lack alternative mobility opportunity.

Keywords: accessibility, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Beijing, property value uplift

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Authors: Anita, Sari Septiani Tangke, Rusdina Bte Ladju, Nasrum Massi

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New diagnostic tools are urgently needed to interrupt the transmission of tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. The microscopic-observation drug-susceptibility (MODS) assay is a rapid, accurate and simple liquid culture method to detect multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). MODS were evaluated to determine a lower and same concentration of isoniazid and rifampin for detection of MDR-TB. Direct drug-susceptibility testing was performed with the use of the MODS assay. Drug-sensitive control strains were tested daily. The drug concentrations that used for both isoniazid and rifampin were at the same concentration: 0.16, 0.08 and 0.04μg per milliliter. We tested 56 M. tuberculosis clinical isolates and the control strains M. tuberculosis H37RV. All concentration showed same result. Of 53 M. tuberculosis clinical isolates, 14 were MDR-TB, 38 were susceptible with isoniazid and rifampin, 1 was resistant with isoniazid only. Drug-susceptibility testing was performed with the use of the proportion method using Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) system as reference. The result of MODS assay using lower concentration was significance (P<0.001) compare with the reference methods.

A lower and same concentration of isoniazid and rifampin can be used to detect MDR-TB. Operational cost and application can be more efficient and easier in resource-limited environments. However, additional studies evaluating the MODS using lower and same concentration of isoniazid and rifampin must be conducted with a larger number of clinical isolates.

Keywords: Isoniazid, MODS assay, MDR-TB, Rifampin.

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Authors: D. B. L. Bong, K.C. Lai, A. Joseph

Abstract:

The uses of road map in daily activities are numerous but it is a hassle to construct and update a road map whenever there are changes. In Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, research on Automatic Road Extraction (ARE) was explored to solve the difficulties in updating road map. The research started with using Satellite Image (SI), or in short, the ARE-SI project. A Hybrid Simple Colour Space Segmentation & Edge Detection (Hybrid SCSS-EDGE) algorithm was developed to extract roads automatically from satellite-taken images. In order to extract the road network accurately, the satellite image must be analyzed prior to the extraction process. The characteristics of these elements are analyzed and consequently the relationships among them are determined. In this study, the road regions are extracted based on colour space elements and edge details of roads. Besides, edge detection method is applied to further filter out the non-road regions. The extracted road regions are validated by using a segmentation method. These results are valuable for building road map and detecting the changes of the existing road database. The proposed Hybrid Simple Colour Space Segmentation and Edge Detection (Hybrid SCSS-EDGE) algorithm can perform the tasks fully automatic, where the user only needs to input a high-resolution satellite image and wait for the result. Moreover, this system can work on complex road network and generate the extraction result in seconds.

Keywords: Road Network Recognition, Colour Space, Edge Detection, Urban Planning.

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Authors: Sungwon Jo

Abstract:

Ceramics comprise the largest proportion of Korea-s cultural heritage currently preserved (Cited from “The Beauty of Old Ceramics of Korea" written by Yoon Yong-iee). Thus, this researcher conducted this investigation in an attempt to gain insight into Korea-s past culture and the lost period of the colonial period and the Korean War by looking into the ceramics. Korea, China and Japan are part of the similar cultural bloc within the East Asian region. Their porcelains manifest distinctive characteristics by each nation along with similarities. Thus, this research seeks to find the distinctive characteristics of the Korean porcelain by conducting comparative analysis of the similarities and distinctive characteristics. These distinctive characteristics are manifested effectively in the colors of the porcelains following the materials that can be obtained in Korea, China and Japan and production method. Likewise, this research seeks to identify the characteristics of the Korean porcelains- colors based on the comparative analysis of the porcelain colors. The reasons that porcelains were selected were because they are the most well preserved cultural remains in Korea and since they have both similarities and distinctive characteristics due to the cultural interchanges among Korea, China and Japan, which facilitates comparative study. The research targets include Korea, China and Japan-s porcelains. By comparing the colors of the porcelains from Korea, China and Japan that have their distinctive characteristics, this research seeks to identify Korea-specific porcelain colors. These colors derive from the materials that can be obtained only in Korea, and they are affected by the ideologies that governed at the time. This research is meaningful in the sense that this identifies the colors that embraces the Korean culture and provides important data by leveraging the study of the characteristics of the Korea-specific porcelains.

Keywords: The colors of Korean pottery, The colors of China pottery, The colors of Japan pottery, The unique identity of Korea, Pottery History.

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Authors: Tariq Ali Gujar, Anita Hökelmann

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Postural balance plays essential role throughout life in daily activities. Somatosensory, visual and vestibular inputs play the fundamental role in maintaining body equilibrium to balance the posture. The aim of this study was to find out electroencephalography (EEG) responses during balance activity of young people during Sensory Organization Balance Test. The outcome of this study will help to create the fitness and neurorehabilitation plan. 25 young people (25 ± 3.1 years) have been analyzed on Balance Master NeuroCom® with the coupling of Brain Vision 32 electrode wireless EEG system during the Sensory Organization Test. From the results it has been found that the balance score of samples is significantly higher under the influence of somatosensory input as compared to visual and vestibular input (p < 0.05). The EEG between somatosensory and visual input to balance the posture showed significantly higher (p < 0.05) alpha and beta activities during somatosensory input in somatosensory, attention and visual functions of the cortex whereas executive and motor functions of the cerebral cortex showed significantly higher (p < 0.05) alpha EEG activity during the visual input. The results suggest that somatosensory and attention function of the cerebral cortex has alpha and beta activity, respectively high during somatosensory and vestibular input in maintaining balance. In patients with balance impairments both physical and cognitive training, including neurofeedback will be helpful to improve balance abilities.

Keywords: Balance, electroencephalography activity, somatosensory, visual, vestibular.

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Authors: Ivo Jánský, Milan Rippel

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The paper evaluates several hundred one-day-ahead VaR forecasting models in the time period between the years 2004 and 2009 on data from six world stock indices - DJI, GSPC, IXIC, FTSE, GDAXI and N225. The models model mean using the ARMA processes with up to two lags and variance with one of GARCH, EGARCH or TARCH processes with up to two lags. The models are estimated on the data from the in-sample period and their forecasting accuracy is evaluated on the out-of-sample data, which are more volatile. The main aim of the paper is to test whether a model estimated on data with lower volatility can be used in periods with higher volatility. The evaluation is based on the conditional coverage test and is performed on each stock index separately. The primary result of the paper is that the volatility is best modelled using a GARCH process and that an ARMA process pattern cannot be found in analyzed time series.

Keywords: VaR, risk analysis, conditional volatility, garch, egarch, tarch, moving average process, autoregressive process

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Authors: Zeinab A.Hussein, Manal S. Abd El-Wahab, Shorouk A. W. El-Shennawy

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Children with hemiplgic cerebral palsy often walk with diminished reciprocal arm swing so the purpose of this study was to describe kinematic characteristics in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP) during the gait suphases, and find if there is a correlation between upper(shoulder and elbow) and lower(hip, knee, and ankle) limb joints either in involved or uninvolved.48 children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (18boys, 30girls) with an average age of (5.1±0.87) years were selected randomly to evaluate joint angles during gait by 3D motion analysis system with 6 pro reflex cameras in a sagittal plane for both sides of the body. The results showed increased shoulder and elbow flexion, increased hip angular displacement, decreased knee and ankle arcs during gait cycle, also there is correlation between shoulder and elbow to hip, knee, and ankle joints during various subphases of gait.

Keywords: Cerebral palsy, Gait, Hemiplegia, Motion analysis.

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Authors: C.-C. Tsao, S.-W. Nien, W.-H. Chen , Y.-C. Shih

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Indoor air distribution has great impact on people-s thermal sensation. Therefore, how to remove the indoor excess heat becomes an important issue to create a thermally comfortable indoor environment. To expel the extra indoor heat effectively, this paper used a dynamic CFD approach to study the effect of an air-supply guide vane swinging periodically on the indoor air distribution within a model room. The numerical results revealed that the indoor heat transfer performance caused by the swing guide vane had close relation with the number of vortices developing under the inlet cold jet. At larger swing amplitude, two smaller vortices continued to shed outward under the cold jet and remove the indoor heat load more effectively. As a result, it can be found that the average Nusselt number on the floor increased with the increase of the swing amplitude of the guide vane.

Keywords: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), dynamic mesh, heat transfer, indoor air distribution, thermal comfort.

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Authors: Mladen Dragičević, Mirjana Pejić Bach, Vanja Šimičević

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The purpose of this paper is to develop models that would enable predicting student success. These models could improve allocation of students among colleges and optimize the newly introduced model of government subsidies for higher education. For the purpose of collecting data, an anonymous survey was carried out in the last year of undergraduate degree student population using random sampling method. Decision trees were created of which two have been chosen that were most successful in predicting student success based on two criteria: Grade Point Average (GPA) and time that a student needs to finish the undergraduate program (time-to-degree). Decision trees have been shown as a good method of classification student success and they could be even more improved by increasing survey sample and developing specialized decision trees for each type of college. These types of methods have a big potential for use in decision support systems.

Keywords: Data mining, knowledge discovery in databases, prediction models, student success.

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Authors: Mohammad Akbarpour, Reza Nasiri Mahalati, Caro Lucas

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The existence of many biological systems, especially human societies, is based on cooperative behavior [1, 2]. If natural selection favors selfish individuals, then what mechanism is at work that we see so many cooperative behaviors? One answer is the effect of network structure. On a graph, cooperators can evolve by forming network bunches [2, 3, 4]. In a research, Ohtsuki et al used the idea of iterated prisoners- dilemma on a graph to model an evolutionary game. They showed that the average number of neighbors plays an important role in determining whether cooperation is the ESS of the system or not [3]. In this paper, we are going to study the dynamics of evolution of cooperation in a social network. We show that during evolution, the ratio of cooperators among individuals with fewer neighbors to cooperators among other individuals is greater than unity. The extent to which the fitness function depends on the payoff of the game determines this ratio.

Keywords: Evolution of cooperation, Iterated prisoner's dilemma, Model dynamics, Social network structure, Intensity of selection.

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Authors: Mustafa Midilli, Mustafa Salman, Omer Hakan Muglali, Tülay Ögretmen, Sena Cenesiz, Neslihan Ormanci

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This study examined the effects of zinc (Zn) from different sources and microbial phytase on the broiler performance, biochemical parameters and digestibility of nutrients when they were added to broiler diets containing low available phosphorus. A total of 875, 1-day-old male broilers of the Ross 308 strain were randomly separated into two control groups (positive and negative) and five treatment groups each containing 125 birds; each group was divided into 5 replicates of 25 birds. The positive control (PC) group was fed a diet containing adequate concentration (0.45%) of available phosphorus due to mineral premix (except zinc) and feeds. The negative control (NC) group was fed a basal diet including low concentration (0.30%) of available phosphorus due to mineral premix (except zinc) and feeds. The basal diet was supplemented with 0.30% phosphorus and 500 FTU phytase (PH); 0.30% phosphorus and organic zinc (OZ; 75mg/kg of Zn from Zn-proteinate); 0.30% phosphorus and inorganic zinc (IZ; 75 mg/kg of Zn from ZnSO4); 0.30% phosphorus, organic zinc and 500 FTU phytase (OZ + PH); and 0.30% phosphorus, inorganic zinc and 500 FTU phytase (IZ + PH) in the treatment groups 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively. The lowest value for mean body weight was in the negative control group on a diet containing low available phosphorus. The use of supplementation with organic and inorganic zinc alone or in combination with microbial phytase significantly (P<0.05) increased the digestibility of Zn in the male broilers. Supplementation of those diets with OZ + PH or IZ + PH was very effective for increasing the body weight, body weight gain and the feed conversion ratio. In conclusion, the effects on broilers of diets with low phosphorus levels may be overcome by the addition of inorganic or organic zinc compounds in combination with microbial phytase.

Keywords: Broiler, Performance, Phytase, Phosphorus, Zinc.

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Authors: Lütfü Saribulut, Mehmet Tümay, İlyas Eker

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FACTS devices are used to control the power flow, to increase the transmission capacity and to optimize the stability of the power system. One of the most widely used FACTS devices is Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC). The controller used in the control mechanism has a significantly effects on controlling of the power flow and enhancing the system stability of UPFC. According to this, the capability of UPFC is observed by using different control mechanisms based on P, PI, PID and fuzzy logic controllers (FLC) in this study. FLC was developed by taking consideration of Takagi- Sugeno inference system in the decision process and Sugeno-s weighted average method in the defuzzification process. Case studies with different operating conditions are applied to prove the ability of UPFC on controlling the power flow and the effectiveness of controllers on the performance of UPFC. PSCAD/EMTDC program is used to create the FLC and to simulate UPFC model.

Keywords: FACTS, Fuzzy Logic Controller, UPFC.

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Authors: Bruno B. Oliveira, Arnaldo P. Mourão, Teógenes A. da Silva

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The Brazilian legislation has only established diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) in terms of Multiple Scan Average Dose (MSAD) as a quality control parameter for computed tomography (CT) scanners. Compliance with DRLs can be verified by measuring the Computed Tomography Kerma Index (Ca,100) with a pencil ionization chamber or by obtaining the kerma distribution in CT scans with radiochromic films or rod shape lithium fluoride termoluminescent dosimeters (TLD-100). TL dosimeters were used to record kerma profiles and to determine MSAD values of a Bright Speed model GE CT scanner. Measurements were done with radiochromic films and TL dosimeters distributed in cylinders positioned in the center and in four peripheral bores of a standard polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) body CT dosimetry phantom. Irradiations were done using a protocol for adult chest. The maximum values were found at the midpoint of the longitudinal axis. The MSAD values obtained with three dosimetric techniques were compared.

Keywords: Kerma profile, CT, MSAD, patient dosimetry

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Authors: Chapman Eze Nnadozie

Abstract:

Cloud computing, a technology that is made possible through virtualization within networks represents a shift from the traditional ownership of infrastructure and other resources by distinct organization to a more scalable pattern in which computer resources are rented online to organizations on either as a pay-as-you-use basis or by subscription. In other words, cloud computing entails the renting of computing resources (such as storage space, memory, servers, applications, networks, etc.) by a third party to its clients on a pay-as-go basis. It is a new innovative technology that is globally embraced because of its renowned benefits, profound of which is its cost effectiveness on the part of organizations engaged with its services. In Nigeria, the services are provided either directly to companies mostly by the key IT players such as Microsoft, IBM, and Google; or in partnership with some other players such as Infoware, Descasio, and Sunnet. This action enables organizations to rent IT resources on a pay-as-you-go basis thereby salvaging them from wastages accruable on acquisition and maintenance of IT resources such as ownership of a separate data centre. This paper intends to appraise the challenges of cloud computing adoption in Nigeria, bearing in mind the country’s peculiarities’ in terms of infrastructural development. The methodologies used in this paper include the use of research questionnaires, formulated hypothesis, and the testing of the formulated hypothesis. The major findings of this paper include the fact that there are some addressable challenges to the adoption of cloud computing in Nigeria. Furthermore, the country will gain significantly if the challenges especially in the area of infrastructural development are well addressed. This is because the research established the fact that there are significant gains derivable by the adoption of cloud computing by organizations in Nigeria. However, these challenges can be overturned by concerted efforts in the part of government and other stakeholders.

Keywords: Cloud computing, data centre, infrastructure, IT resources, network, servers, virtualization.

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Authors: Alexander Y. Vaninsky

Abstract:

Environmental performance of the U.S. States is investigated for the period of 1990 – 2007 using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). The SFA accounts for both efficiency measure and stochastic noise affecting a frontier. The frontier is formed using indicators of GDP, energy consumption, population, and CO2 emissions. For comparability, all indicators are expressed as ratios to total. Statistical information of the Energy Information Agency of the United States is used. Obtained results reveal the bell - shaped dynamics of environmental efficiency scores. The average efficiency scores rise from 97.6% in 1990 to 99.6% in 1999, and then fall to 98.4% in 2007. The main factor is insufficient decrease in the rate of growth of CO2 emissions with regards to the growth of GDP, population and energy consumption. Data for 2008 following the research period allow for an assumption that the environmental performance of the U.S. States has improved in the last years.

Keywords: Stochastic frontier analysis, environmental performance, interstate comparisons.

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Authors: Sunil Kamboj, Suman Bala, Vipin Saini

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Niosomes were formulated with an aim of enhancing the oral bioavailability of losartan potassium and formulated in different molar ratios of surfactant, cholesterol and dicetyl phosphate. The formulated niosomes were found in range of 54.98 µm to 107.85 µm in size. Formulations with 1:1 ratio of surfactant and cholesterol have shown maximum entrapment efficiencies. Niosomes with sorbitan monostearate showed maximum drug release and zero order release kinetics, at the end of 24 hours. The in vivo study has shown the significant enhancement in oral bioavailability of losartan potassium in rats, after a dose of 10 mg/kg. The average relative bioavailability in relation with pure drug solution was found 2.56, indicates more than two fold increase in oral bioavailability. A significant increment in MRT reflects the release retarding ability of the vesicles. In conclusion, niosomes could be a promising delivery of losartan potassium with improved oral bioavailability and prolonged release profiles.

Keywords: Non-ionic surfactant vesicles, losartan potassium, oral bioavailability, controlled release.

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Authors: Qiying Zhang, Panpan Xu, Hui Qian

Abstract:

Groundwater is an important water resource in the world, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. In the present study, 141 groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for various physicochemical parameters to assess the irrigation water quality using six indicators (sodium percentage (Na%), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), magnesium hazard (MH), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), permeability index (PI), and potential salinity (PS)). The results show that the patterns for the average cation and anion concentrations were in decreasing orders of Na^＋ > Mg^2＋ > Ca^2＋ > K^＋and SO₄^2－ > HCO₃^－ > Cl^－ > NO₃^－ > CO₃^2－ > F^－, respectively. The values of Na%, MH, and PS show that most of the groundwater samples are not suitable for irrigation. The same conclusion is drawn from the USSL and Wilcox diagrams. PS values indicate that Cl^－and SO₄^2－have a great influence on irrigation water in Jiaokou Irrigation District. RSC and PI values indicate that more than half of groundwater samples are suitable for irrigation. The finding is beneficial for the policymakers for future water management schemes to achieve a sustainable development goal.

Keywords: Irrigation water quality evaluation, groundwater chemistry, Jiaokou Irrigation District, Guanzhong Basin.

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Authors: T.C. Manjunath, B. Bandyopadhyay

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This paper features the modeling and design of a Robust Decentralized Fast Output Sampling (RDFOS) Feedback control technique for the active vibration control of a smart flexible multimodel Euler-Bernoulli cantilever beams for a multivariable (MIMO) case by retaining the first 6 vibratory modes. The beam structure is modeled in state space form using the concept of piezoelectric theory, the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and the Finite Element Method (FEM) technique by dividing the beam into 4 finite elements and placing the piezoelectric sensor / actuator at two finite element locations (positions 2 and 4) as collocated pairs, i.e., as surface mounted sensor / actuator, thus giving rise to a multivariable model of the smart structure plant with two inputs and two outputs. Five such multivariable models are obtained by varying the dimensions (aspect ratios) of the aluminium beam. Using model order reduction technique, the reduced order model of the higher order system is obtained based on dominant Eigen value retention and the Davison technique. RDFOS feedback controllers are designed for the above 5 multivariable-multimodel plant. The closed loop responses with the RDFOS feedback gain and the magnitudes of the control input are obtained and the performance of the proposed multimodel smart structure system is evaluated for vibration control.

Keywords: Smart structure, Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, Fastoutput sampling feedback control, Finite Element Method, Statespace model, Vibration control, LMI, Model order Reduction.

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Authors: Roy R. Gu, Mahesh Sahu

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The use of contour strips of perennial vegetation with bio-fuel potential can improve surface water quality by reducing NO3-N and sediment outflow from cropland to surface water-bodies. It also has economic benefits of producing ethanol. In this study, The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was applied to a watershed in Iowa, USA to examine the effectiveness of contour strips of switch grass in reducing the NO3-N outflows from crop fields to rivers or lakes. Numerical experiments were conducted to identify potential subbasins in the watershed that have high water quality impact, and to examine the effects of strip size on NO3-N reduction under various meteorological conditions, i.e. dry, average and wet years. Useful information was obtained for the evaluation of economic feasibility of growing switch grass for bio-fuel in contour strips. The results can assist in cost-benefit analysis and decisionmaking in best management practices for environmental protection.

Keywords: ethanol, modeling, water quality, NO3-N, watershed.

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Authors: S. Pullteap

Abstract:

In this paper, a fiber based Fabry-Perot interferometer is proposed and demonstrated for a non-contact displacement measurement. A piece of micro-prism which attached to the mechanical vibrator is served as the target reflector. Interference signal is generated from the superposition between the sensing beam and the reference beam within the sensing arm of the fiber sensor. This signal is then converted to the displacement value by using a developed program written in visual Cµ programming with a resolution of λ/8. A classical function generator is operated for controlling the vibrator. By fixing an excitation frequency of 100 Hz and varying the excitation amplitude range of 0.1 – 3 Volts, the output displacements measured by the fiber sensor are obtained from 1.55 μm to 30.225 μm. A reference displacement sensor with a sensitivity of ~0.4 μm is also employed for comparing the displacement errors between both sensors. We found that over the entire displacement range, a maximum and average measurement error are obtained of 0.977% and 0.44% respectively.

Keywords: Non-contact displacement measurement, extrinsicfiber based Fabry-Perot interferometer, interference signal, zerocrossingfringe counting technique.

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Authors: M. D. Kokate, T. R. Sontakke, P. W. Wani

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This paper deals with an adaptive multiuser detector for direct sequence code division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) systems. A modified receiver, precombinig LMMSE is considered under time varying channel environment. Detector updating is performed with two criterions, mean square estimation (MSE) and MOE optimization technique. The adaptive implementation issues of these two schemes are quite different. MSE criterion updates the filter weights by minimizing error between data vector and adaptive vector. MOE criterion together with canonical representation of the detector results in a constrained optimization problem. Even though the canonical representation is very complicated under time varying channels, it is analyzed with assumption of average power profile of multipath replicas of user of interest. The performance of both schemes is studied for practical SNR conditions. Results show that for poor SNR, MSE precombining LMMSE is better than the blind precombining LMMSE but for greater SNR, MOE scheme outperforms with better result.

Keywords: LMMSE, MOE, MUD.

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Authors: T.P. Sharma

Abstract:

Querying a data source and routing data towards sink becomes a serious challenge in static wireless sensor networks if sink and/or data source are mobile. Many a times the event to be observed either moves or spreads across wide area making maintenance of continuous path between source and sink a challenge. Also, sink can move while query is being issued or data is on its way towards sink. In this paper, we extend our already proposed Grid Based Data Dissemination (GBDD) scheme which is a virtual grid based topology management scheme restricting impact of movement of sink(s) and event(s) to some specific cells of a grid. This obviates the need for frequent path modifications and hence maintains continuous flow of data while minimizing the network energy consumptions. Simulation experiments show significant improvements in network energy savings and average packet delay for a packet to reach at sink.

Keywords: Mobility in WSNs, virtual grid, GBDD, clustering.

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Authors: Josephine S. Larkings, Patricia M. Brown

Abstract:

Mental health professionals views about mental illness is an important issue which has not received enough attention. The negative stigma associated with mental illness can have many negative consequences. Unfortunately, health professionals working with the mentally ill can also exhibit stigma. It has been suggested that causal explanations or beliefs around the causes of mental illness may influence stigma. This study aims to gain a greater insight into stigma through examining stigma among potential mental health professionals. Firstly, results found that potential mental health professionals had relatively low social distance t(205) = -3.62, p <.001. Secondly, an ANOVA indicated that the participants endorsed some causal beliefs more than others, F(1.82, 311.55) = 88.47, p < .001, partial n2 = .34. Moreover, participants endorsed the biological causal explanation the most. Thirdly, results indicated that combined contact (quality and quantity) and causal beliefs (biological, psychological, and environmental) explained a significant proportion of the variance in stigma, R2 = .35, adjusted R2 = .33, F(5, 153) = 16.66, p < .001. Quality of contact was the strongest predictor, with greater quality of contact associated with lower desired social distance. Also, quantity of contact, psychological and environmental causal explanations were also significant predictors of stigma. Greater quantity of contact and higher levels of environmental causal beliefs were associated with lower levels of stigma while psychological causal explanations were associated with higher levels of stigma. A series of multiple regression analyses were conducted that showed the three causal beliefs had different impacts on four factors of stigma (Authoritarian, Benevolence, Social restrictiveness, and Community mental health ideology). These analyses showed that psychological causal beliefs had the most positive impact. More research is required on this topic as it has important implications to the treatment and recovery for people suffering from mental illness.

Keywords: Causal beliefs, contact, health professionals, mental illness stigma, social distance.

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Authors: Qiang Yang, Ping-An Du

Abstract:

Group decision making with multiple attribute has attracted intensive concern in the decision analysis area. This paper assumes that the contributions of all the decision makers (DMs) are not equal to the decision process based on different knowledge and experience in group setting. The aim of this paper is to develop a novel approach to determine weights of DMs in the group decision making problems. In this paper, the weights of DMs are determined in the group decision environment via angle cosine and projection method. First of all, the average decision of all individual decisions is defined as the ideal decision. After that, we define the weight of each decision maker (DM) by aggregating the angle cosine and projection between individual decision and ideal decision with associated direction indicator μ. By using the weights of DMs, all individual decisions are aggregated into a collective decision. Further, the preference order of alternatives is ranked in accordance with the overall row value of collective decision. Finally, an example in a chemical company is provided to illustrate the developed approach.

Keywords: Angel cosine, ideal decision, projection method, weights of decision makers.

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Authors: Isao Tomita

Abstract:

Electrical conduction in a quasi-one-dimensional polycrystalline metallic ring with a long electron phase coherence length realized at low temperature is investigated. In this situation, the wave nature of electrons is important in the ring, where the electrical current I can be induced by a vector potential that arises from a static magnetic field applied perpendicularly to the ring’s area. It is shown that if the average grain size of the polycrystalline ring becomes large (or comparable to the Fermi wavelength), the electrical current I increases to ~I0, where I0 is a current in a disorder-free ring. The cause of this increasing effect is examined, and this takes place if the electron localization length in the polycrystalline potential increases with increasing grain size, which gives rise to coherent connection of tails of a localized electron wave function in the ring and thus provides highly coherent electrical conduction.

Keywords: Electrical Conduction, Electron Phase Coherence, Polycrystalline Metal, Magnetic Field.

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