Search results for: Transition Class Models.

Authors: Morteza Jiryaei Sharahi

Abstract:

In this paper, the effect of width and height of the model on the earthquake response in the finite element method is discussed. For this purpose an earth dam as a soil structure under earthquake has been considered. Various dam-foundation models are analyzed by Plaxis, a finite element package for solving geotechnical problems. The results indicate considerable differences in the seismic responses.

Keywords: Geometry dimensions, finite element, earthquake

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Authors: Ming-Hui Cheng, Jyh-Horng Jeng

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In this study, a classification-based video super-resolution method using artificial neural network (ANN) is proposed to enhance low-resolution (LR) to high-resolution (HR) frames. The proposed method consists of four main steps: classification, motion-trace volume collection, temporal adjustment, and ANN prediction. A classifier is designed based on the edge properties of a pixel in the LR frame to identify the spatial information. To exploit the spatio-temporal information, a motion-trace volume is collected using motion estimation, which can eliminate unfathomable object motion in the LR frames. In addition, temporal lateral process is employed for volume adjustment to reduce unnecessary temporal features. Finally, ANN is applied to each class to learn the complicated spatio-temporal relationship between LR and HR frames. Simulation results show that the proposed method successfully improves both peak signal-to-noise ratio and perceptual quality.

Keywords: Super-resolution, classification, spatio-temporal information, artificial neural network.

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Authors: N. Affi, A. El Fadl, M. El Otmani, M.C. Benismail, L.M. Idrissi

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The object of the present research was to assess the effects of partial rootzone drying (PRD) on tomato growth, productivity, biomass allocation and water use efficiency (WUE). Plants were grown under greenhouse, on a sand substrate. Three treatments were applied: a control that was fully and conventionally irrigated, PRD-70 and PRD-50 in which, respectively, 70% and 50% of water requirements were supplied using PRD. Alternation of irrigation between the two root halves took place each three days. The Control produces the highest total yield (252tons/ha). In terms of fruit number, PRD-50 showed 23% and 16% less fruits than PRD-70 and control, respectively. Fruit size was affected by treatment with PRD-50 treatment producing 66% and 53% more class 3 fruits than, control and PRD-70, respectively. For plant growth, the difference was not significant when comparing control to PRD-70 but was significant when comparing PRD-70 and control to PRD-50. No effect was on total biomass but root biomass was higher for stressed plants compared to control. WUE was 66% and 27% higher for PRD-50 and PRD-70 respectively compared to control.

Keywords: Biomass, growth, partial rootzone drying, water use efficiency yield.

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Authors: Wei-Da Toh, Yuan Gao, Minkyu Je

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In this paper, an energy efficient digital baseband circuit for piezoelectric (PE) harvester powered batteryless remote control system is presented. Pulse mode PE harvester, which provides short duration of energy, is adopted to replace conventional chemical battery in wireless remote controller. The transmitter digital baseband repeats the control command transmission once the digital circuit is initiated by the power-on-reset. A power efficient data frame format is proposed to maximize the transmission repetition time. By using the proposed frame format and receiver clock and data recovery method, the receiver baseband is able to decode the command even when the received data has 20% error. The proposed transmitter and receiver baseband are implemented using FPGA and simulation results are presented.

Keywords: Clock and Data Recovery (CDR), Correlator, Digital Baseband, Gold Code, Power-On-Reset.

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Authors: Irshad Ahmad, Abdul Muhamin Naeem, Muhammad Islam, Shahid Nawaz

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Information on weed distribution within the field is necessary to implement spatially variable herbicide application. Since hand labor is costly, an automated weed control system could be feasible. This paper deals with the development of an algorithm for real time specific weed recognition system based on Histogram Maxima with threshold of an image that is used for the weed classification. This algorithm is specifically developed to classify images into broad and narrow class for real-time selective herbicide application. The developed system has been tested on weeds in the lab, which have shown that the system to be very effectiveness in weed identification. Further the results show a very reliable performance on images of weeds taken under varying field conditions. The analysis of the results shows over 95 percent classification accuracy over 140 sample images (broad and narrow) with 70 samples from each category of weeds.

Keywords: Image processing, real-time recognition, weeddetection.

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Authors: M. Moslehpour, S. Khorsandi

Abstract:

Due to shortage in IPv4 addresses, transition to IPv6 has gained significant momentum in recent years. Like Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) in IPv4, Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) provides some functions like address resolution in IPv6. Besides functionality of NDP, it is vulnerable to some attacks. To mitigate these attacks, Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) was introduced, but it was not efficient due to its limitation. Therefore, SEND protocol is proposed to automatic protection of auto-configuration process. It is secure neighbor discovery and address resolution process. To defend against threats on NDP’s integrity and identity, Cryptographically Generated Address (CGA) and asymmetric cryptography are used by SEND. Besides advantages of SEND, its disadvantages like the computation process of CGA algorithm and sequentially of CGA generation algorithm are considerable. In this paper, we parallel this process between network resources in order to improve it. In addition, we compare the CGA generation time in self-computing and distributed-computing process. We focus on the impact of the malicious nodes on the CGA generation time in the network. According to the result, although malicious nodes participate in the generation process, CGA generation time is less than when it is computed in a one-way. By Trust Management System, detecting and insulating malicious nodes is easier.

Keywords: NDP, IPsec, SEND, CGA, Modifier, Malicious node, Self-Computing, Distributed-Computing.

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Authors: Behnaz Shahrokh, Garnik N. Sargsyan, Arkadi B. Harutyunyan

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Investigations of the unimolecular decomposition of vinyl ethyl ether (VEE), vinyl propyl ether (VPE) and vinyl butyl ether (VBE) have shown that activation of the molecule of a ether results in formation of a cyclic construction - the transition state (TS), which may lead to the displacement of the thermodynamic equilibrium towards the reaction products. The TS is obtained by applying energy minimization relative to the ground state of an ether under the program MM2 when taking into account the hydrogen bond formation between a hydrogen atom of alkyl residue and the extreme atom of carbon of the vinyl group. The dissociation of TS up to the products is studied by energy minimization procedure using the mathematical program Gaussian. The obtained calculation data for VEE testify that the decomposition of this ether may be conditioned by hydrogen bond formation for two possible versions: when α- or β- hydrogen atoms of the ethyl group are bound to carbon atom of the vinyl group. Applying the same calculation methods to other ethers (VPE and VBE) it is shown that only in the case of hydrogen bonding between α-hydrogen atom of the alkyl residue and the extreme atom of carbon of the vinyl group (αH---C) results in decay of theses ethers.

Keywords: Gaussian, MM2, ethers, TS, decomposition

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Authors: Chang Su Woo, Hyun Sung Park

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Useful lifetime evaluation of railpads were very important in design procedure to assure the safety and reliability. It is, therefore, necessary to establish a suitable criterion for the replacement period of rail pads. In this study, we performed properties and accelerated heat aging tests of rail pads considering degradation factors and all environmental conditions including operation, and then derived a lifetime prediction equation according to changes in hardness, thickness, and static spring constants in the Arrhenius plot to establish how to estimate the aging of rail pads. With the useful lifetime prediction equation, the lifetime of e-clip pads was 2.5 years when the change in hardness was 10% at 25°C; and that of f-clip pads was 1.7 years. When the change in thickness was 10%, the lifetime of e-clip pads and f-clip pads is 2.6 years respectively. The results obtained in this study to estimate the useful lifetime of rail pads for high speed trains can be used for determining the maintenance and replacement schedule for rail pads.

Keywords: Rail pads, accelerated test, Arrhenius plot, useful lifetime prediction.

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Authors: Cristina Vatamanu, Doina Cosovan, Dragoş Gavriluţ, Henri Luchian

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In the past few years, the amount of malicious software increased exponentially and, therefore, machine learning algorithms became instrumental in identifying clean and malware files through (semi)-automated classification. When working with very large datasets, the major challenge is to reach both a very high malware detection rate and a very low false positive rate. Another challenge is to minimize the time needed for the machine learning algorithm to do so. This paper presents a comparative study between different machine learning techniques such as linear classifiers, ensembles, decision trees or various hybrids thereof. The training dataset consists of approximately 2 million clean files and 200.000 infected files, which is a realistic quantitative mixture. The paper investigates the above mentioned methods with respect to both their performance (detection rate and false positive rate) and their practicability.

Keywords: Detection Rate, False Positives, Perceptron, One Side Class, Ensembles, Decision Tree, Hybrid methods, Feature Selection.

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Authors: G. Lingam, N. Lingam, K. Raghuwaiya

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Thirty-eight rural school leaders in Solomon Islands responded to a questionnaire aimed at identifying their perceptions of work challenges. The data analysis points to an overwhelming percentage of school leaders feeling they face multifaceted problems in their work settings, including such challenges as untrained teachers, lack of funding, limited learning and teaching resources, and land disputes. The latter in particular is beyond the school leader’s jurisdiction; addressing it needs urgent attention from the principal stakeholder(s). Such challenges, seemingly tangential to the business of schooling, inadvertently affect the provision of good-quality education. The findings demonstrate that contextual challenges raise questions about what powers leadership at school level has to deal with some of them. The suggestion is advanced for the significant place-conscious leadership development to help address some community and cultural challenges. Implications of this paper are likely to be relevant to other similar contexts in the Pacific region and beyond.

Keywords: Rural school leaders, leadership, challenges, Solomon Islands, contextual factors.

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Authors: Penn P. Wu

Abstract:

Recent advances in virtual reality (VR) technologies have made it possible for students to experience a virtual on-the-scene or virtual in-person observation of an educational event. In an experimental class, the author uses VR, particularly 360° videos, to virtually engage students in an event, through a wide spectrum of educational resources, such s a virtual “bystander.” Students were able to observe the event as if they were physically on site, although they could not intervene with the scene. The author will describe the adopted equipment, specification, and cost of building them as well as the quality of VR. The author will discuss (a) feasibility, effectiveness, and efficiency of using VR as a supplemental technology to teach college students and criteria and methodologies used by the authors to evaluate them; (b) barriers and issues of technological implementation; and (c) pedagogical practices learned through this experiment. The author also attempts to explore (a) how VR could provide an interactive virtual in-person learning experience; (b) how VR can possibly change traditional college education and online education; (c) how educators and balance six critical factors: cost, time, technology, quality, result, and content.

Keywords: Learning with VR, virtual experience of learning, virtual in-person learning, virtual reality for education.

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Authors: Ehsan Amid, Sina Rezaei Aghdam, Hamidreza Amindavar

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Steel surface defect detection is essentially one of pattern recognition problems. Support Vector Machines (SVMs) are known as one of the most proper classifiers in this application. In this paper, we introduce a more accurate classification method by using SVMs as our final classifier of the inspection system. In this scheme, multiclass classification task is performed based on the "one-againstone" method and different kernels are utilized for each pair of the classes in multiclass classification of the different defects. In the proposed system, a decision tree is employed in the first stage for two-class classification of the steel surfaces to "defect" and "non-defect", in order to decrease the time complexity. Based on the experimental results, generated from over one thousand images, the proposed multiclass classification scheme is more accurate than the conventional methods and the overall system yields a sufficient performance which can meet the requirements in steel manufacturing.

Keywords: Steel Surface Defect Detection, Support Vector Machines, Kernel Methods.

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Authors: Chih-Jer Lin, Chun-Ying Lee, Chiang-Ho Cheng, Geng-Fung Chen

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This paper investigates experimental studies on vibration suppression for a cantilever beam using an Electro-Rheological (ER) sandwich shock absorber. ER fluid (ERF) is a class of smart materials that can undergo significant reversible changes immediately in its rheological and mechanical properties under the influence of an applied electric field. Firstly, an ER sandwich beam is fabricated by inserting a starch-based ERF into a hollow composite beam. At the same time, experimental investigations are focused on the frequency response of the ERF sandwich beam. Second, the ERF sandwich beam is attached to a cantilever beam to become as a shock absorber. Finally, a fuzzy semi-active vibration control is designed to suppress the vibration of the cantilever beam via the ERF sandwich shock absorber. To check the consistency of the proposed fuzzy controller, the real-time implementation validated the performance of the controller.

Keywords: Electro-Rheological Fluid, Semi-active vibration control, shock absorber, fuzzy control, Real-time control.

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Authors: Takahiro Nakamura, Kenji Takahashi, Hiroyuki Nishida, Shunjiro Shinohara, Takeshi Matsuoka, Ikkoh Funaki, Takao Tanikawa, Tohru Hada

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In order to realize long-lived electric propulsion systems, we have been investigating an electrodeless plasma thruster. In our concept, a helicon plasma is accelerated by the magnetic nozzle for the thrusts production. In addition, the electromagnetic thrust can be enhanced by the additional radio-frequency rotating electric field (REF) power in the magnetic nozzle. In this study, a direct measurement of the electromagnetic thrust and a probe measurement have been conducted using a laboratory model of the thruster under the condition without the REF power input. Fromthrust measurement, it is shown that the thruster produces a sub-milli-newton order electromagnetic thrust force without the additional REF power. The thrust force and the density jump are observed due to the discharge mode transition from the inductive coupled plasma to the helicon wave excited plasma. The thermal thrust is theoretically estimated, and the total thrust force, which is a sum of the electromagnetic and the thermal thrust force and specific impulse are calculated to be up to 650 μN (plasma production power of 400 W, Ar gas mass flow rate of 1.0 mg/s) and 210 s (plasma production power of 400 W, Ar gas mass flow rate of 0.2 mg/s), respectively.

Keywords: Electric propulsion, Helicon plasma, Lissajous acceleration, Thrust stand.

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Authors: D. Moussazadeh, A. Aytug

Abstract:

The architecture of the museum is the most exciting space for an architecture to discover and investigate. Undoubtedly, those museums that have been largely supported by people have come to be cultural memorabilia, moreover holding competitions in museums, producing new publications for theoretical or intellectual debates, and new designs lead the museums to be the most effective and attractive place for work and study. The importance of museums as centers of knowledge, science and art has increased over the last century. Museums have moved from being a place specific to the first-class of the community, to a place used by the whole community widely. By considering these reasons, the value and importance of museums in today's society is imperative. Finding common features for museum architecture in the decades after 1990s has become more difficult than previous decades. The purpose of this article is to examine the effect of museums and their position in society on architectural design of museums from the beginning to the present. In other words, this research aims to investigate the history of museums, their roles, duties, uses, their relationship with users and their position and, consequently, the impact of all these factors on the design of museum architecture. Finally, the main objective of this article is to find the position of museums in the community and their architectural form in the present century.

Keywords: Museum, form, architecture.

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Authors: A. A. Pawar, R. R. Kulkarni

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For numerical prediction of the NOX in the exhaust of a compression ignition engine a model was developed by considering the parameter equivalence ratio. This model was validated by comparing the predicted results of NOX with experimental ones. The ultimate aim of the work was to access the applicability, robustness and performance of the improved NOX model against other NOX models.

Keywords: Biodiesel fueled engine, equivalence ratio, Compression ignition engine, exhausts gas temperature, NOX formation.

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Authors: Weifeng Pan

Abstract:

The stability of a software system is one of the most important quality attributes affecting the maintenance effort. Many techniques have been proposed to support the analysis of software stability at the architecture, file, and class level of software systems, but little effort has been made for that at the feature (i.e., method and attribute) level. And the assumptions the existing techniques based on always do not meet the practice to a certain degree. Considering that, in this paper, we present a novel metric, Stability of Software (SoS), to measure the stability of object-oriented software systems by software change propagation analysis using a simulation way in software dependency networks at feature level. The approach is evaluated by case studies on eight open source Java programs using different software structures (one employs design patterns versus one does not) for the same object-oriented program. The results of the case studies validate the effectiveness of the proposed metric. The approach has been fully automated by a tool written in Java.

Keywords: Software stability, change propagation, design pattern, software maintenance, object-oriented (OO) software.

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Authors: Suman B. Chakraborty, Samir Banerjee

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Stocking density is considered one of the important factors affecting fish growth. But, information related to impact of stocking density on growth performance of monosex tilapia population under the ecological conditions of Gangetic plains in West Bengal, India is limited. The aim of our study was to compare the growth potential of monosex tilapia at various stocking densities and to determine an ideal stocking density for culture of all-male monosex fish. The males were isolated by examination of genital papilla region and were stocked separately in 0.01 ha earthen ponds at different stocking densities (5000, 10000, 15000, 20000, 25000 and 30000 fingerlings/ha). It was found that the highest weight, length, daily weight gain, growth rate and protein content were observed for the 20000 fish/ha density class. Thus, culture of monosex tilapia at a density of 20000 fish/ha can be considered ideal for augmented production of the fish under Indian context.

Keywords: Growth potential, Nile tilapia, Pond culture, Stockingdensity.

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Authors: J. Mbihi

Abstract:

This paper presents a dynamic architecture of digital duty-cycle modulation control drivers. Compared to most oversampling digital modulation schemes encountered in industrial electronics, its novelty is founded on a number of relevant merits including; embedded positive and negative feedback loops, internal modulation clock, structural simplicity, elementary building operators, no explicit need of samples of the nonlinear duty-cycle function when computing the switching modulated signal, and minimum number of design parameters. A prototyping digital control driver is synthesized and well tested within MATLAB/Simulink workspace. Then, the virtual simulation results and performance obtained under a sample of relevant instrumentation and control systems are presented, in order to show the feasibility, the reliability, and the versatility of target applications, of the proposed class of low cost and high quality digital control drivers in industrial electronics.

Keywords: Dynamic architecture, virtual simulation, duty-cycle modulation, digital control drivers, industrial electronics.

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Authors: Wei Yi Lim, M. Annamalai Arasu, M. Kumarasamy Raja, Minkyu Je

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In this paper, the design of wide-swing constant transconductance (g_m) bias circuit that generates bias voltage for low-noise amplifier (LNA) circuit design by using an off-chip resistor is demonstrated. The overall transconductance (G_m) generated by the constant g_m bias circuit is important to maintain the overall gain and noise figure of the LNA circuit. Therefore, investigation is performed to study the variation in G_m with process, temperature and supply voltage (PVT).  Temperature and supply voltage are swept from -10 °C to 85 °C and 1.425 V to 1.575 V respectively, while the process conditions are also varied to the extreme and the g_m variation is eventually concluded at between -3 % to 7 %. With the slight variation in the g_m value, through simulation, at worst condition of state SS, we are able to attain a conversion gain (S₂₁) variation of -3.10 % and a noise figure (NF) variation of 18.71 %. The whole constant g_m circuit draws approximately 100 µA from a 1.5V supply and is designed based on 0.13 µm CMOS process. 

Keywords: Transconductance, LNA, temperature, process.

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Authors: Mohamed K. Watfa, Khaled Abdel Naby, Chetan Govind Bhatia

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With the exponential rise in the number of multimedia applications available, the best-effort service provided by the Internet today is insufficient. Researchers have been working on new architectures like the Next Generation Network (NGN) which, by definition, will ensure Quality of Service (QoS) in an all-IP based network [1]. For this approach to become a reality, reservation of bandwidth is required per application per user. WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a wireless communication technology which has predefined levels of QoS which can be provided to the user [4]. IPv6 has been created as the successor for IPv4 and resolves issues like the availability of IP addresses and QoS. This paper provides a design to use the power of WiMAX as an NSP (Network Service Provider) for NGN using IPv6. The use of the Traffic Class (TC) field and the Flow Label (FL) field of IPv6 has been explained for making QoS requests and grants [6], [7]. Using these fields, the processing time is reduced and routing is simplified. Also, we define the functioning of the ASN gateway and the NGN gateway (NGNG) which are edge node interfaces in the NGNWiMAX design. These gateways ensure QoS management through built in functions and by certain physical resources and networking capabilities.

Keywords: WiMAX, NGN, QoS, IPv6, Flow Label, ASNGateway

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Authors: A.M. Fahim, A. M. Salem, F. A. Torkey, M. A. Ramadan

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Clustering algorithms are attractive for the task of class identification in spatial databases. However, the application to large spatial databases rises the following requirements for clustering algorithms: minimal requirements of domain knowledge to determine the input parameters, discovery of clusters with arbitrary shape and good efficiency on large databases. The well-known clustering algorithms offer no solution to the combination of these requirements. In this paper, a density based clustering algorithm (DCBRD) is presented, relying on a knowledge acquired from the data by dividing the data space into overlapped regions. The proposed algorithm discovers arbitrary shaped clusters, requires no input parameters and uses the same definitions of DBSCAN algorithm. We performed an experimental evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of it, and compared this results with that of DBSCAN. The results of our experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is significantly efficient in discovering clusters of arbitrary shape and size.

Keywords: Clustering Algorithms, Arbitrary Shape of clusters, cluster Analysis.

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Authors: Vadim Vagin, Marina Fomina, Oleg Morosin

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This paper contains the description of argumentation approach for the problem of inductive concept formation. It is proposed to use argumentation, based on defeasible reasoning with justification degrees, to improve the quality of classification models, obtained by generalization algorithms. The experiment’s results on both clear and noisy data are also presented.

Keywords: Argumentation, justification degrees, inductive concept formation, noise, generalization.

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Authors: Francesco Maiorana

Abstract:

In this paper a one-dimension Self Organizing Map algorithm (SOM) to perform feature selection is presented. The algorithm is based on a first classification of the input dataset on a similarity space. From this classification for each class a set of positive and negative features is computed. This set of features is selected as result of the procedure. The procedure is evaluated on an in-house dataset from a Knowledge Discovery from Text (KDT) application and on a set of publicly available datasets used in international feature selection competitions. These datasets come from KDT applications, drug discovery as well as other applications. The knowledge of the correct classification available for the training and validation datasets is used to optimize the parameters for positive and negative feature extractions. The process becomes feasible for large and sparse datasets, as the ones obtained in KDT applications, by using both compression techniques to store the similarity matrix and speed up techniques of the Kohonen algorithm that take advantage of the sparsity of the input matrix. These improvements make it feasible, by using the grid, the application of the methodology to massive datasets.

Keywords: Clustering algorithm, Data mining, Feature selection, Grid, Kohonen Self Organizing Map.

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Authors: Suresh Thokchom, Partha Ghosh, Somnath Ghosh

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This paper presents the findings of an experimental investigation to study the effect of alkali content in geopolymer mortar specimens exposed to sulphuric acid. Geopolymer mortar specimens were manufactured from Class F fly ash by activation with a mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate solution containing 5% to 8% Na2O. Durability of specimens were assessed by immersing them in 10% sulphuric acid solution and periodically monitoring surface deterioration and depth of dealkalization, changes in weight and residual compressive strength over a period of 24 weeks. Microstructural changes in the specimens were studied with Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and EDAX. Alkali content in the activator solution significantly affects the durability of fly ash based geopolymer mortars in sulphuric acid. Specimens manufactured with higher alkali content performed better than those manufactured with lower alkali content. After 24 weeks in sulphuric acid, specimen with 8% alkali still recorded a residual strength as high as 55%.

Keywords: Alkali content, acid attack, compressive strength, geopolymer

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Authors: Artur Saraiva, Moritz von Schwedler, Emília Fernandes

Abstract:

In recent years, the organic sector has increased significantly. However, with the ‘conventionalization’ of these products, it has been questioned whether these products have been losing their original vision. Accordingly, this research based on 31 phenomenological interviews with committed organic consumers in urban and rural areas of Portugal, aims to analyse how ethical motivations and ecological awareness are related to organic food consumption. The content thematic analysis highlights aspects related to society and environmental concerns. On an individual level, the importance of internal coherence, peace of mind and balance that these consumers find in the consumption of local organic products was stressed. For these consumers, local organic products consumption made for significant changes in their lives, aiding in the establishment of a green identity, and involves a certain philosophy of life. This vision of an organic lifestyle is grounded in a political and ecological perspective, beyond the usual organic definition, as a ‘post-organic era’. The paper contributes to better understand how an ideological environmental discourse allows highlighting the relationship between consumers’ environmental concerns and the politics of food, resulting in a possible transition to new sustainable consumption practices.

Keywords: Organic consumption, localism, content thematic analysis, pro-environmental discourse, political consumption, Portugal.

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Authors: Mohamed Amine Ouddan, Hassane Essafi

Abstract:

Source code retrieval is of immense importance in the software engineering field. The complex tasks of retrieving and extracting information from source code documents is vital in the development cycle of the large software systems. The two main subtasks which result from these activities are code duplication prevention and plagiarism detection. In this paper, we propose a Mohamed Amine Ouddan, and Hassane Essafi source code retrieval system based on two-level fingerprint representation, respectively the structural and the semantic information within a source code. A sequence alignment technique is applied on these fingerprints in order to quantify the similarity between source code portions. The specific purpose of the system is to detect plagiarism and duplicated code between programs written in different programming languages belonging to the same class, such as C, Cµ, Java and CSharp. These four languages are supported by the actual version of the system which is designed such that it may be easily adapted for any programming language.

Keywords: Source code retrieval, plagiarism detection, clonedetection, sequence alignment.

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Authors: Haohao Wang

Abstract:

Technology, multimedia in Open Educational Resources, can contribute positively to student performance in an online instructional environment. Student performance data of past four years were obtained from an online course entitled Applied Calculus (MA139). This paper examined the data to determine whether multimedia (independent variable) had any impact on student performance (dependent variable) in online math learning, and how students felt about the value of the technology. Two groups of student data were analyzed, group 1 (control) from the online applied calculus course that did not use multimedia instructional materials, and group 2 (treatment) of the same online applied calculus course that used multimedia instructional materials. For the MA139 class, results indicate a statistically significant difference (p = .001) between the two groups, where group 1 had a final score mean of 56.36 (out of 100), group 2 of 70.68. Additionally, student testimonials were discussed in which students shared their experience in learning applied calculus online with multimedia instructional materials.

Keywords: Online learning, Open Educational Resources, Multimedia, Technology.

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Authors: Sanjeev Sharma, Manoj Sahni

Abstract:

Transition theory has been used to derive the elasticplastic and transitional stresses. Results obtained have been discussed numerically and depicted graphically. It is observed that the rotating disk made of incompressible material with inclusion require higher angular speed to yield at the internal surface as compared to disk made of compressible material. It is seen that the radial and circumferential stresses are maximum at the internal surface with and without edge load (for flat disk). With the increase in thickness parameter (k = 2, 4), the circumferential stress is maximum at the external surface while the radial stress is maximum at the internal surface. From the figures drawn the disk with exponentially varying thickness (k = 2), high angular speed is required for initial yielding at internal surface as compared to flat disk and exponentially varying thickness for k = 4 onwards. It is concluded that the disk made of isotropic compressible material is on the safer side of the design as compared to disk made of isotropic incompressible material as it requires higher percentage increase in an angular speed to become fully plastic from its initial yielding.

Keywords: Finite deformation, Incompressibility, Transitionalstresses, Elastic-plastic.

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Authors: Rashmi S. H., G. M. Madhu, A. A. Kittur, R. Suresh

Abstract:

Polymer nanocomposites represent a new class of materials in which nanomaterials act as the reinforcing material in composites, wherein small additions of nanomaterials lead to large enhancements in thermal, optical and mechanical properties. A boost in these properties is due to the large interfacial area per unit volume or weight of the nanoparticles and the interactions between the particle and the polymer. Micro sized particles used as reinforcing agents scatter light, thus reducing light transmittance and optical clarity. Efficient nanoparticle dispersion combined with good polymer–particle interfacial adhesion eliminates scattering and allows the exciting possibility of developing strong yet transparent films, coatings and membranes. This paper aims at synthesising zinc oxide nanoparticles which are reinforced in poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer. The mechanical properties showed that the tensile strength of the PVA nanocomposites increases with the increase in the amount of nanoparticles.

Keywords: Glutaraldehyde, polymer nanocomposites, poly vinyl alcohol, zinc oxide.

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