Search results for: periodic boundary condition

Authors: Diella Gracia Martauli

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This study investigated the relationship between music aptitude and school readiness in Indonesian children. Music aptitude is described as children’s music potential, whereas school readiness is defined as a condition in which a child is deemed ready to enter the formal education system. This study presents a hypothesis that music aptitude is correlated with school readiness. This is a correlational research study of 17 children aged 5-6 years old (M = 6.10, SD = 0.33) who were enrolled in a kindergarten school in Jakarta, Indonesia. Music aptitude scores were obtained from Primary Measures of Music Audiation, whereas School readiness scores were obtained from Bracken School Readiness Assessment Third Edition. The analysis of the data was performed using Pearson Correlation. The result found no correlation between music aptitude and school readiness (r = 0.196, p = 0.452). Discussions regarding the results, perspective from the measures and cultures are presented. Further study is recommended to establish links between music aptitude and school readiness.

Keywords: Bracken school readiness assessment, music aptitude, primary measures of music audiation, school readiness.

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Authors: Sh. Hosseini, M. B. Limooei, M. Hossein Zade, E. Askarnia, Z. Asadi

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Manganese steel (Hadfield) is one of the important alloys in industry due to its special properties. High work hardening ability with appropriate toughness and ductility are the properties that caused this alloy to be used in wear resistance parts and in high strength condition. Heat treatment is the main process through which the desired mechanical properties and microstructures are obtained in Hadfield steel. In this study various heat treatment cycles, differing in austenising temperature, time and quenching solution are applied. For this purpose, the same samples of manganese steel was heat treated in 9 different cycles, and then the mechanical properties and microstructures were investigated. Based on the results of the study, the optimum heat treatment cycle was obtained.

Keywords: Manganese steel (Hadfield), heat treatment, austenising temperature, austenising time, quenching solution, mechanical properties.

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Authors: Rita SahaRay, Ganesh Dutta

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In this article, experimental situations are considered where a main effects plan is to be used to study m two-level factors using n runs which are partitioned into b blocks, not necessarily of same size. Assuming the block sizes to be even for all blocks, for the case n ≡ 2 (mod 4), optimal designs are obtained with respect to type 1 and type 2 optimality criteria in the class of designs providing estimation of all main effects orthogonal to the block effects. In practice, such orthogonal estimation of main effects is often a desirable condition. In the wider class of all available m two level even sized blocked main effects plans, where the factors do not occur at high and low levels equally often in each block, E-optimal designs are also characterized. Simple construction methods based on Hadamard matrices and Kronecker product for these optimal designs are presented.

Keywords: Design matrix, Hadamard matrix, Kronecker product, type 1 criteria, type 2 criteria.

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Authors: P. Valsalal, S. Thangalakshmi

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There is a widespread changeover in the electrical power industry universally from old-style monopolistic outline towards a horizontally distributed competitive structure to come across the demand of rising consumption. When the transmission lines of derestricted system are incapable to oblige the entire service needs, the lines are overloaded or congested. The governor between customer and power producer is nominated as Independent System Operator (ISO) to lessen the congestion without obstructing transmission line restrictions. Among the existing approaches for congestion management, the frequently used approaches are reorganizing the generation and load curbing. There is a boundary for reorganizing the generators, and further loads may not be supplemented with the prevailing resources unless more private power producers are added in the system by considerably raising the cost. Hence, congestion is relaxed by appropriate Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices which boost the existing transfer capacity of transmission lines. The FACTs device, namely, Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) is preferred, and the correct placement of UPFC is more vital and should be positioned in the highly congested line. Hence, the weak line is identified by using power flow performance index with the new objective function with proposed hybrid Fish – Bee algorithm. Further, the location of UPFC at appropriate line reduces the branch loading and minimizes the voltage deviation. The power transfer capacity of lines is determined with and without UPFC in the identified congested line of IEEE 30 bus structure and the simulated results are compared with prevailing algorithms. It is observed that the transfer capacity of existing line is increased with the presented algorithm and thus alleviating the congestion.

Keywords: Available line transfer capability, congestion management, FACTS device, hybrid fish-bee algorithm, ISO, UPFC.

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Authors: Kati Kõrbe Kaare, Ott Koppel

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Transport and logistics are the lifeblood of societies. There is a strong correlation between overall growth in economic activity and growth of transport. The movement of people and goods has the potential for creating wealth and prosperity, therefore the state of transportation infrastructure and especially the condition of road networks is often a governmental priority. The design, building and maintenance of national roads constitute a substantial share of government budgets. Taking into account the magnitude and importance of these investments, the expedience, efficiency and sustainability of these projects are of great public interest. This paper provides an overview of supply chain management principles applied to road construction. In addition, road construction performance measurement systems and ICT solutions are discussed. Road construction in Estonia is analyzed. The authors propose the development of a national performance measurement system for road construction.

Keywords: ICT in road construction, key performance indicators, quality performance measurement, road construction supply chain.

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Authors: A. Hossain, A. S. W. Kurny, M. A. Gafur

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Effect of 2wt% Cu addition on tensile properties and fracture behavior of Al-6Si-0.5Mg-2Ni alloy at various strain rates were studied. The solution treated Al-6Si-0.5Mg-2Ni (-2Cu) alloys, were aged isochronally for 1 hour at temperatures up to 300oC. The uniaxial tension test was carried out at strain rate ranging from 10-4s-1 to 10-2s-1 in order to investigate the strain rate dependence of tensile properties. Tensile strengths were found to increase with ageing temperature and the maximum being attained ageing for 1 hr at 225oC (peak aged condition). Addition of 2wt% Cu resulted in an increase in tensile properties at all strain rates. Evaluation of tensile properties at three different strain rates (10-4, 10-3 and 10-2 s-1) showed that strain rates affected the tensile properties significantly. At higher strain rates the strength was better but ductility was poor. Microstructures of broken specimens showed that both the void coalescence and the interface debonding affect the fracture behavior of the alloys

Keywords: Al-Si-Mg-Ni-Cu alloy, tensile properties, strain rate, SEM.

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Authors: Raoudha Chaabane, Faouzi Askri, Sassi Ben Nasrallah

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Simultaneous transient conduction and radiation heat transfer with heat generation is investigated. Analysis is carried out for both steady and unsteady situations. two-dimensional gray cylindrical enclosure with an absorbing, emitting, and isotropically scattering medium is considered. Enclosure boundaries are assumed at specified temperatures. The heat generation rate is considered uniform and constant throughout the medium. The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) was used to solve the energy equation of a transient conduction-radiation heat transfer problem. The control volume finite element method (CVFEM) was used to compute the radiative information. To study the compatibility of the LBM for the energy equation and the CVFEM for the radiative transfer equation, transient conduction and radiation heat transfer problems in 2-D cylindrical geometries were considered. In order to establish the suitability of the LBM, the energy equation of the present problem was also solved using the the finite difference method (FDM) of the computational fluid dynamics. The CVFEM used in the radiative heat transfer was employed to compute the radiative information required for the solution of the energy equation using the LBM or the FDM (of the CFD). To study the compatibility and suitability of the LBM for the solution of energy equation and the CVFEM for the radiative information, results were analyzed for the effects of various parameters such as the boundary emissivity. The results of the LBMCVFEM combination were found to be in excellent agreement with the FDM-CVFEM combination. The number of iterations and the steady state temperature in both of the combinations were found comparable. Results are found for situations with and without heat generation. Heat generation is found to have significant bearing on temperature distribution.

Keywords: heat generation, cylindrical coordinates; RTE;transient; coupled conduction radiation; heat transfer; CVFEM; LBM

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Authors: Hui-Min Ting, Tsair-Fwu Lee, Ming-Yuan Cho, Pei-Ju Chao, Chun-Ming Chang, Long-Chang Chen, Fu-Min Fang

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To evaluate the ability to predict xerostomia after radiotherapy, we constructed and compared neural network and logistic regression models. In this study, 61 patients who completed a questionnaire about their quality of life (QoL) before and after a full course of radiation therapy were included. Based on this questionnaire, some statistical data about the condition of the patients’ salivary glands were obtained, and these subjects were included as the inputs of the neural network and logistic regression models in order to predict the probability of xerostomia. Seven variables were then selected from the statistical data according to Cramer’s V and point-biserial correlation values and were trained by each model to obtain the respective outputs which were 0.88 and 0.89 for AUC, 9.20 and 7.65 for SSE, and 13.7% and 19.0% for MAPE, respectively. These parameters demonstrate that both neural network and logistic regression methods are effective for predicting conditions of parotid glands.

Keywords: NPC, ANN, logistic regression, xerostomia.

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Authors: Xiaodong Gao, Pingchuan Dong, Qichao Gao

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This work attempts to predict the deposition rate of asphaltene particles in blockage tube through CFD simulation. The Euler-Lagrange equation has been applied during the flow of crude oil and asphaltene particles. The net gravitational force, virtual mass, pressure gradient, Saffman lift, and drag forces are incorporated in the simulations process. Validation of CFD simulation results is compared to the benchmark experiments from the previous literature. Furthermore, the effects of blockage location, blockage length, and blockage thickness on deposition rate are also analyzed. The simulation results indicate that the maximum deposition rate of asphaltene occurs in the blocked tube section, and the greater the deposition thickness, the greater the deposition rate. Moreover, the deposition amount and maximum deposition rate along the length of the tube have the same trend. Results of this study are in the ability to better understand the deposition of asphaltene particles in production and help achieve to deal with the asphaltene challenges.

Keywords: Asphaltene deposition rate, blockage length, blockage thickness, blockage diameter, transient condition.

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Authors: M. Salman, B. Budiardjo, K. Ramli

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Nowadays wireless technology plays an important role in public and personal communication. However, the growth of wireless networking has confused the traditional boundaries between trusted and untrusted networks. Wireless networks are subject to a variety of threats and attacks at present. An attacker has the ability to listen to all network traffic which becoming a potential intrusion. Intrusion of any kind may lead to a chaotic condition. In addition, improperly configured access points also contribute the risk to wireless network. To overcome this issue, a security solution that includes an intrusion detection and prevention system need to be implemented. In this paper, first the security drawbacks of wireless network will be analyzed then investigate the characteristics and also the limitations on current wireless intrusion detection and prevention system. Finally, the requirement of next wireless intrusion prevention system will be identified including some key issues which should be focused on in the future to overcomes those limitations.

Keywords: intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, wireless networks, proactive protection

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Authors: Veronika Kántor-Forgách

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To comply with the international human right legislation concerning the freedom of movement, transport systems are required to be made accessible in order that all citizens, regardless of their physical condition, have equal possibilities to use them. In Hungary, apparently there is a considerable default in the improvement of accessible public transport. This study is aiming to overview the current Hungarian situation and to reveal the reasons of the deficiency. The result shows that in spite of the relatively favourable juridical background linked to the accessibility needs and to the rights of persons with disabilities there is a strong delay in putting all in practice in the field of public transport. Its main reason is the lack of financial resource and referring to this the lack of creating mandatory regulations. In addition to this the proprietary rights related to public transport are also variable, which also limits the improvement possibilities. Consequently, first of all an accurate and detailed regulatory procedure is expected to change the present unfavourable situation and to create the conditions of the fast realization, which is already behind time.

Keywords: accessibility, legislation, people with reducedmobility, public transport.

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Authors: Dubbale Daniel A., Tsutsumi J., Michael J. Bendewald

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Addis Ababa is a seat of African Union (AU), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA) and hundreds of embassies and consular representatives. Addis Ababa is one of the highest capitals in the world with an average 2400 meters above sea level. It is dichotomous city with a blend of modern high-rise and deteriorating slum quarters. Water supply and sanitation, waste management and housing are continuing to be serious problems. Forest wood based domestic energy use as well as uncontrolled emissions from mobile and fixed sources has endangered the state of the urban environment. Analysis based on satellite imagery has revealed the deteriorating urban environment within the last three decades. The recently restructured city administration has brought improvements in the condition of the urban environment. However, the overwhelming size of the challenges faced by the city dwarfed their fairly good results.

Keywords: Addis Ababa, Urban environment, Slum, Housing, Relocation

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Authors: Rasaki O. Olanrewaju

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The driven processes of Wiener and Lévy are known self-standing Gaussian-Markov processes for fitting non-linear dynamical Vasciek model. In this paper, a coincidental Gaussian density stationarity condition and autocorrelation function of the two driven processes were established. This led to the conflation of Wiener and Lévy processes so as to investigate the efficiency of estimates incorporated into the one-dimensional Vasciek model that was estimated via the Maximum Likelihood (ML) technique. The conditional laws of drift, diffusion and stationarity process was ascertained for the individual Wiener and Lévy processes as well as the commingle of the two processes for a fixed effect and Autoregressive like Vasciek model when subjected to financial series; exchange rate of Naira-CFA Franc. In addition, the model performance error of the sub-merged driven process was miniature compared to the self-standing driven process of Wiener and Lévy.

Keywords: Wiener process, Lévy process, Vasciek model, drift, diffusion, Gaussian density stationary.

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Authors: B. X. Tchomeni, A. A. Alugongo, T. B. Tengen

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In this paper, de Laval rotor system has been characterized by a hinge model and its transient response numerically treated for a dynamic solution. The effect of the ensuing non-linear disturbances namely rub and breathing crack is numerically simulated. Subsequently, three analysis methods: Orbit Analysis, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), and Wavelet Transform (WT) are employed to extract features of the vibration signal of the faulty system. An analysis of the system response orbits clearly indicates the perturbations due to the rotor-to-stator contact. The sensitivities of WT to the variation in system speed have been investigated by Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT). The analysis reveals that features of crack, rubs and unbalance in vibration response can be useful for condition monitoring. WT reveals its ability to detect nonlinear signal, and obtained results provide a useful tool method for detecting machinery faults.

Keywords: Continuous wavelet, crack, discrete wavelet, high acceleration, low acceleration, nonlinear, rotor-stator, rub.

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Authors: Karolina Grzeszczuk-Kuć, Jolanta Bujok, Tomasz Walski, Małgorzata Komorowska

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Haemodialysis (HD) is a procedure saving patient lives around the world, unfortunately it brings numerous complications. Oxidative stress is one of the major factors which lead to erythrocytes destruction during extracorporeal circulation. Repeated HD procedures destroy blood elements and the organism is not able to keep up with their production. 30 HD procedures on healthy sheep were performed to evaluate effects of such treatment. Oxidative stress study was performed together with an analysis of basic blood parameters and empirical assessment of dialyzer condition after the procedure. A reversible decline in absolute leukocyte count, during first 30 min of HD, was observed. Blood clots were formed in the area of the blood inlet and outlet of the dialyzer. Our results are consistent with outcomes presented throughout the literature specifically with respect to the effects observed in humans and will provide a basis to evaluate methods for blood protection during haemodialysis.

Keywords: Animal model, blood components, haemodialysis, leukocytes, oxidative stress, sheep.

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Authors: Abdel-Rahman A., El Okle O. S.

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Fever, bloody diarrhea and high mortality rate were the main clinical finding in a group of fattening calves. Analysis of corn silage revealed presence of aflatoxins at level of 370 ppb. This level of aflatoxins in the feed of cattle is somewhat low to be the main cause of reported signs. Leukocytopenia, anemia, decreased lymphocytic activity and lowered phagocytic index are the main hematological and immunological alterations in diseased calves. Bacteriological investigation revealed isolation of pathogenic Salmonella typhimurium from the rectal swabs of diseased calves. Our results suggested that, long duration of exposure to aflatoxins even at small concentrations may considered as predisposing factor for the incidence of natural infectious outbreaks as salmonellosis due to its immunosuppressive effect. We can conclude that the veterinarians and owners must be given an attention to the relation between aflatoxicosis and salmonellosis under field condition. We are recommended that the treatment program during similar outbreaks must be including anti-aflatoxins preparations beside the antimicrobial therapy.

Keywords: Aflatoxins, Calves, Salmonellosis.

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Authors: Er, A. C., Rosli, M. H., Asmahani A., Mohamad Naim M. R., Harsuzilawati M.

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Dengue is a mosquito-borne infection that has peaked to an alarming rate in recent decades. It can be found in tropical and sub-tropical climate. In Malaysia, dengue has been declared as one of the national health threat to the public. This study aimed to map the spatial distributions of dengue cases in the district of Hulu Langat, Selangor via a combination of Geographic Information System (GIS) and spatial statistic tools. Data related to dengue was gathered from the various government health agencies. The location of dengue cases was geocoded using a handheld GPS Juno SB Trimble. A total of 197 dengue cases occurring in 2003 were used in this study. Those data then was aggregated into sub-district level and then converted into GIS format. The study also used population or demographic data as well as the boundary of Hulu Langat. To assess the spatial distribution of dengue cases three spatial statistics method (Moran-s I, average nearest neighborhood (ANN) and kernel density estimation) were applied together with spatial analysis in the GIS environment. Those three indices were used to analyze the spatial distribution and average distance of dengue incidence and to locate the hot spot of dengue cases. The results indicated that the dengue cases was clustered (p < 0.01) when analyze using Moran-s I with z scores 5.03. The results from ANN analysis showed that the average nearest neighbor ratio is less than 1 which is 0.518755 (p < 0.0001). From this result, we can expect the dengue cases pattern in Hulu Langat district is exhibiting a cluster pattern. The z-score for dengue incidence within the district is -13.0525 (p < 0.0001). It was also found that the significant spatial autocorrelation of dengue incidences occurs at an average distance of 380.81 meters (p < 0.0001). Several locations especially residential area also had been identified as the hot spots of dengue cases in the district.

Keywords: Dengue, geographic information system (GIS), spatial analysis, spatial statistics

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Authors: Bubaker M. F. Bushofa, Abdel Hafez A. Azab

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This article is based on the technique which is called Discrete Parameter Tracking (DPT). First introduced by A. A. Azab [8] which is applicable for less order reference model. The order of the reference model is (n-l) and n is the number of the adjustable parameters in the physical plant. The technique utilizes a modified gradient method [9] where the knowledge of the exact order of the nonadaptive system is not required, so, as to eliminate the identification problem. The applicability of the mentioned technique (DPT) was examined through the solution of several problems. This article introduces the solution of a third order system with three adjustable parameters, controlled according to second order reference model. The adjustable parameters have great initial error which represent condition. Computer simulations for the solution and analysis are provided to demonstrate the simplicity and feasibility of the technique.

Keywords: Adaptive Control System, Discrete Parameter Tracking, Discrete Time Model.

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Authors: Marzieh Moosavi-Nasab, Behnaz Layegh , Ladan Aminlari, Mohammad B. Hashemi

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Levan, an exopolysaccharide, was produced by Microbacterium laevaniformans and its yield was characterized as a function of concentrations of date syrup, sucrose and the fermentation time. The optimum condition for levan production from sucrose was at concentration of 20% sucrose for 48 h and for date syrup was 25% for 48 h. The results show that an increase in fermentation time caused a decrease in the levan production at all concentrations of date syrup tested. Under these conditions after 48 h in sucrose medium, levan production reached 48.9 g/L and for date syrup reached 10.48 g/L . The effect of pH on the yield of the purified levan was examined and the optimum pH for levan production was determined to be 6.0. Levan was composed mainly of fructose residues when analyzed by TLC and FT-IR spectroscopy. Date syrup is a cheap substrate widely available in Iran and has potential for levan production. The thermal stability of levan was assessed by Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) that revealed the onset of decomposition near to 49°C for the levan produced from sucrose and 51°C for the levan from date syrup. DSC results showed a single Tg at 98°C for levan produced from sucrose and 206 °C for levan from date syrup.

Keywords: Date syrup, Fermentation, Levan, Microbacteriumlaevaniformans

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Authors: Dai Zhimei, Hua Chen

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The exploration of urban spatial evolution is an important part of urban development research. Therefore, the evolutionary modern Yangzhou urban spatial texture was taken as the research object, and Spatial Syntax was used as the main research tool, this paper explored Yangzhou spatial evolution law and its driving factors from the urban street network scale, district scale and street scale. The study has concluded that at the urban scale, Yangzhou urban spatial evolution is the result of a variety of causes, including physical and geographical condition, policy and planning factors, and traffic conditions, and the evolution of space also has an impact on social, economic, environmental and cultural factors. At the district and street scales, changes in space will have a profound influence on the history of the city and the activities of people. At the end of the article, the matters needing attention during the evolution of urban space were summarized.

Keywords: Space Syntax, spatial texture, urban space, Yangzhou.

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Authors: Salam Khalid Al-Agha, Inamullah Bhatti, Hossam Adel Zaqoot, Shaukat Hayat Khan, Abdul Khalique Ansari

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This paper presents the results of preliminary assessment of water quality along the coastal areas in the vicinity of Left Bank Outfall Drainage (LBOD) and Tidal Link Drain (TLD) in Sindh province after the cyclone 2A occurred in 1999. The water samples were collected from various RDs of Tidal Link Drain and lakes during September 2001 to April 2002 and were analysed for salinity, nitrite, phosphate, ammonia, silicate and suspended material in water. The results of the study showed considerable variations in water quality depending upon the location along the coast in the vicinity of LBOD and RDs. The salinity ranged between 4.39–65.25 ppt in Tidal Link Drain samples whereas 2.4–38.05 ppt in samples collected from lakes. The values of suspended material at various RDs of Tidal Link Drain ranged between 56.6–2134 ppm and at the lakes between 68–297 ppm. The data of continuous monitoring at RD–93 showed the range of PO4 (8.6–25.2 μg/l), SiO3 (554.96–1462 μg/l), NO2 (0.557.2–25.2 μg/l) and NH3 (9.38–23.62 μg/l). The concentration of nutrients in water samples collected from different RDs was found in the range of PO4 (10.85 to 11.47 μg/l), SiO3 (1624 to 2635.08 μg/l), NO2 (20.38 to 44.8 μg/l) and NH3 (24.08 to 26.6 μg/l). Sindh coastal areas which situated at the north-western boundary the Arabian Sea are highly vulnerable to flood damages due to flash floods during SW monsoon or impact of sea level rise and storm surges coupled with cyclones passing through Arabian Sea along Pakistan coast. It is hoped that the obtained data in this study would act as a database for future investigations and monitoring of LBOD and Tidal Link Drain coastal waters.

Keywords: Tidal Link Drain, Salinity, Nutrients, Nitrite salts, Coastal areas.

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Authors: AbdulLateef A. Olanrewaju, Mohd F. Khamidi, Arazi Idrus

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This paper is part of an ongoing research on the development of systemic maintenance management model Malaysian university buildings. In order to achieve this aim, there is a need to develop a performance model against which services are measure. Measuring performance is a significant part of maintenance management service delivery. Maintenance organization needs to know where they are in order to provide user-driven services and to enhance productivity. The aim of this paper is to formulate a template or model for university maintenance organization in Malaysia. The model is based on literature review and survey questionnaire and has been validated. Through grounded theory, this paper developed a 8 points matrix for the university maintenance organizations for measuring and improving their service delivery. The potential of the model is guide and assists towards providing value added service delivery through initiating maintenance according to user value system rather than on the condition of the building.

Keywords: Performance matrix, university buildings, users, maintenance organization

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Authors: A. Gandomkar, R. Dehghani

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Drought is natural and climate phenomenon and in fact server as a part of climate in an area and also it has significant environmental, social ,and economic consequences .drought differs from the other natural disasters from this viewpoint that it s a creeping phenomenon meaning that it progresses little and its difficult to determine the time of its onset and termination .most of the drought definitions are on based on precipitation shortage and consequently ,the shortage of water some of the activities related to the water such as agriculture In this research ,drought condition in Fars province was evacuated using SPI method within a 37 year – statistical –period(1974-2010)and maps related to the drought were prepared for each of the statistical period years. According to the results obtained from this research, the years 1974, 1976, 1975, 1982 with SPI (-1.03, 0.39, -1.05, -1.49) respectively, were the doughiest years and 1996,1997,2000 with SPI (2.49, 1.49, 1.46, 1.04) respectively, the most humid within the studying time series and the rest are in more normal conditions in the term of drought.

Keywords: Fars Province, Drought, SPI Method, Time Series

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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: M. Grabowski, K. Macnar, J. Skrzyński

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Huge losses in apple production are caused by pathogens that cannot be seen shortly after harvest. After-harvest thermotherapy treatments can considerably improve control of storage diseases on apples and become an alternative to chemical pesticides. In the years 2010-2012 carried out research in this area. Apples of 'Topaz' cultivar were harvested at optimal maturity time for long storage and subject to water bath treatment at 45, 50, 52, 55°C for 60, 120, 180 and 240 seconds. The control was untreated fruits. After 12 and 24 weeks and during so called simulated trade turnover the fruits were checked for their condition and the originators of diseases were determined by using the standard phytopathological methods. The most common originator of 'Topaz' apple infection during storage were the fungi of genus Gloeosporium. In this paper it was proven that for effective protection of 'Topaz' apples against diseases, thermotherapy by using water treatments at temperature range of 50-52°C is quite sufficient.

Keywords: apple storage diseases, prolonged fruit storage, 'Topaz' apples, thermotherapeutic treatments.

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Authors: Mohammad H. Taheri, David J. Brown, Nasser Sherkat

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Engagement is one of the most important factors in determining successful outcomes and deep learning in students. Existing approaches to detect student engagement involve periodic human observations that are subject to inter-rater reliability. Our solution uses real-time multimodal multisensor data labeled by objective performance outcomes to infer the engagement of students. The study involves four students with a combined diagnosis of cerebral palsy and a learning disability who took part in a 3-month trial over 59 sessions. Multimodal multisensor data were collected while they participated in a continuous performance test. Eye gaze, electroencephalogram, body pose, and interaction data were used to create a model of student engagement through objective labeling from the continuous performance test outcomes. In order to achieve this, a type of continuous performance test is introduced, the Seek-X type. Nine features were extracted including high-level handpicked compound features. Using leave-one-out cross-validation, a series of different machine learning approaches were evaluated. Overall, the random forest classification approach achieved the best classification results. Using random forest, 93.3% classification for engagement and 42.9% accuracy for disengagement were achieved. We compared these results to outcomes from different models: AdaBoost, decision tree, k-Nearest Neighbor, naïve Bayes, neural network, and support vector machine. We showed that using a multisensor approach achieved higher accuracy than using features from any reduced set of sensors. We found that using high-level handpicked features can improve the classification accuracy in every sensor mode. Our approach is robust to both sensor fallout and occlusions. The single most important sensor feature to the classification of engagement and distraction was shown to be eye gaze. It has been shown that we can accurately predict the level of engagement of students with learning disabilities in a real-time approach that is not subject to inter-rater reliability, human observation or reliant on a single mode of sensor input. This will help teachers design interventions for a heterogeneous group of students, where teachers cannot possibly attend to each of their individual needs. Our approach can be used to identify those with the greatest learning challenges so that all students are supported to reach their full potential.

Keywords: Affective computing in education, affect detection, continuous performance test, engagement, flow, HCI, interaction, learning disabilities, machine learning, multimodal, multisensor, physiological sensors, Signal Detection Theory, student engagement.

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Authors: M. Javad Pourvaghar, A. Reza Shahsavar

Abstract:

The alterations in pancreas gland secretion hormones following an aerobic and exhausting exercise was the purpose of this study. Sixteen healthy men participated in the study. The blood samples of these participants were taken in four stages under fasting condition. The first sample was taken before Bruce exhausting and aerobic test, the second sample was taken after Bruce exercise and the third and forth stages samples were taken 24 and 48 hours after the exercises respectively. The final results indicated that a strenuous aerobic exercise can have a significant effect on glucagon and insulin concentration of blood serum. The increase in blood serum insulin was higher after 24 and 48 hours. It seems that an intensive exercise has little effect on changes in glucagon concentration of blood serum. Also, disorder in secretion in glucagon and insulin concentration of serum disturbs athletes- exercise.

Keywords: Intensive Exercise, Bruce Protocol, Glucagon, Insulin

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Authors: Nguyen Thi Thanh Truc, Chi-Hyeon Lee, Byeong-Kyu Lee, Srinivasa Reddy Mallampati

Abstract:

This study evaluated to facilitate separation of ABS plastics from other waste plastics by froth flotation after surface hydrophilization of ABS with heat treatment. The mild heat treatment at 100oC for 60s could selectively increase the hydrophilicity of the ABS plastics surface (i.e., ABS contact angle decreased from 79o to 65.8o) among other plastics mixture. The SEM and XPS results of plastic samples sufficiently supported the increase in hydrophilic functional groups and decrease contact angle on ABS surface, after heat treatment. As a result of the froth flotation (at mixing speed 150 rpm and airflow rate 0.3 L/min) after heat treatment, about 85% of ABS was selectively separated from other heavy plastics with 100% of purity. The effect of optimum treatment condition and detailed mechanism onto separation efficiency in the froth floatation was also investigated. This research is successful in giving a simple, effective, and inexpensive method for ABS separation from waste plastics.

Keywords: ABS, hydrophilic, heat treatment, froth flotation, contact angle.

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Authors: Kritphon Phanruttanachai, Winai Jaikla

Abstract:

This article presents a current-mode quadrature oscillator using differential different current conveyor (DDCC) and voltage differencing transconductance amplifier (VDTA) as active elements. The proposed circuit is realized fro m a non-inverting lossless integrator and an inverting second order low-pass filter. The oscillation condition and oscillation frequency can be electronically/orthogonally controlled via input bias currents. The circuit description is very simple, consisting of merely 1 DDCC, 1 VDTA, 1 grounded resistor and 3 grounded capacitors. Using only grounded elements, the proposed circuit is then suitable for IC architecture. The proposed oscillator has high output impedance which is easy to cascade or dive the external load without the buffer devices. The PSPICE simulation results are depicted, and the given results agree well with the theoretical anticipation. The power consumption is approximately 1.76mW at ±1.25V supply voltages.

Keywords: Current-mode, oscillator, integrated circuit, DDCC, VDTA

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Authors: A. Kowcika, E. Umamaheswari, T.V. Geetha

Abstract:

In this paper we focus on event extraction from Tamil news article. This system utilizes a scoring scheme for extracting and grouping event-specific sentences. Using this scoring scheme eventspecific clustering is performed for multiple documents. Events are extracted from each document using a scoring scheme based on feature score and condition score. Similarly event specific sentences are clustered from multiple documents using this scoring scheme. The proposed system builds the Event Template based on user specified query. The templates are filled with event specific details like person, location and timeline extracted from the formed clusters. The proposed system applies these methodologies for Tamil news articles that have been enconverted into UNL graphs using a Tamil to UNL-enconverter. The main intention of this work is to generate an event based template.

Keywords: Event Extraction, Score based Clustering, Segmentation, Template Generation.

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