Search results for: direct vs. indirect values.

Authors: Towfeeq Fairooz, Salim Istyaq

Abstract:

The passive electrical properties of a tissue depends on the intrinsic constituents and its structure, therefore by measuring the complex electrical impedance of the tissue it might be possible to obtain indicators of the tissue state or physiological activity [1]. Complete bio-impedance information relative to physiology and pathology of a human body and functional states of the body tissue or organs can be extracted by using a technique containing a fourelectrode measurement setup. This work presents the estimation measurement setup based on the four-electrode technique. First, the complex impedance is estimated by three different estimation techniques: Fourier, Sine Correlation and Digital De-convolution and then estimation errors for the magnitude, phase, reactance and resistance are calculated and analyzed for different levels of disturbances in the observations. The absolute values of relative errors are plotted and the graphical performance of each technique is compared.

Keywords: Electrical Impedance, Fast Fourier Transform, Additive White Gaussian Noise, Total Least Square, Digital De-Convolution, Sine-Correlation.

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Authors: M. Ghobeiti-Hasab

Abstract:

Magnetic powder of Sr-ferrite was prepared by conventional and sol-gel auto-combustion methods. In conventional method, strontium carbonate and ferric oxide powders were mixed together and then mixture was calcined. In sol-gel auto-combustion method, a solution containing strontium nitrate, ferric nitrate and citric acid was heated until the combustion took place automatically; then, as-burnt powder was calcined. Thermal behavior, phase identification, morphology and magnetic properties of powders obtained by these two methods were compared by DTA, XRD, SEM and VSM techniques. According to the results of DTA analysis, formation temperature of Sr-ferrite obtained by conventional and solgel auto-combustion methods were 1300°C and 1000°C, respectively. XRD results confirmed the formation of pure Sr-ferrite at the mentioned temperatures. Plate and hexagonal-shape particles of Srferrite were observed using SEM. The Sr-ferrite powder obtained by sol-gel auto-combustion method had saturation magnetization of 66.03 emu/g and coercivity of 5731 Oe in comparison with values of 58.20 emu/g and 4378 Oe obtained by conventional method.

Keywords: Sr-ferrite, Sol-gel, Magnetic properties, Calcination.

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Authors: Frank Emmert-Streib, Matthias Dehmer

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Inferring the network structure from time series data is a hard problem, especially if the time series is short and noisy. DNA microarray is a technology allowing to monitor the mRNA concentration of thousands of genes simultaneously that produces data of these characteristics. In this study we try to investigate the influence of the experimental design on the quality of the result. More precisely, we investigate the influence of two different types of random single gene perturbations on the inference of genetic networks from time series data. To obtain an objective quality measure for this influence we simulate gene expression values with a biologically plausible model of a known network structure. Within this framework we study the influence of single gene knock-outs in opposite to linearly controlled expression for single genes on the quality of the infered network structure.

Keywords: Dynamic Bayesian networks, microarray data, structure learning, Markov chain Monte Carlo.

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Authors: N. S. Achour, M. Hamdaoui, S. Ben Nasrallah

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Wicking and evaporation of water in porous knitted fabrics is investigated by combining experimental and analytical approaches: The standard wicking model from Lucas and Washburn is enhanced to account for evaporation and gravity effects. The goal is to model the effect of gravity and evaporation on wicking using simple analytical expressions and investigate the influence of fabrics geometrical parameters, such as porosity and thickness on evaporation impact on maximum reachable height values. The results show that fabric properties have a significant influence on evaporation effect. In this paper, an experimental study of determining water kinetics from different knitted fabrics were gravimetrically investigated permitting the measure of the mass and the height of liquid rising in fabrics in various atmospheric conditions. From these measurements, characteristic pore parameters (capillary radius and permeability) can be determined.

Keywords: Evaporation, experimental study, geometrical parameters, model, porous knitted fabrics, wicking.

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Authors: Ujjal K Ghosh, Ling Teen

Abstract:

Pervaporation has the potential to be an alternative to the other traditional separation processes such as distillation, adsorption, reverse osmosis and extraction. This study investigates the separation of phenol from water using a polyurethane membrane by pervaporation by applying the modified Maxwell-Stephen model. The modified Maxwell-Stefan model takes into account the non-ideal multi-component solubility effect, nonideal diffusivity of all permeating components, concentration dependent density of the membrane and diffusion coupling to predict various fluxes. Four cases has been developed to investigate the process parameters effects on the flux and weight fraction of phenol in the permeate values namely feed concentration, membrane thickness, operating temperature and operating downstream pressure. The model could describe semi-quantitatively the performance of the pervaporation membrane for the given system as a very good agreement between the observed and theoretical fluxes was observed.

Keywords: Pervaporation, Phenol, Polyurethane, Modified Maxwell-Stefan equation, Solution Diffusion

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Authors: Arif Hassan, Forbis Ahmed

Abstract:

The issue of leadership has been investigated from several perspectives; however, very less from ethical perspective. With the growing number of corporate scandals and unethical roles played by business leaders in several parts of the world, the need to examine leadership from ethical perspective cannot be over emphasized. The importance of leadership credibility has been discussed in the authentic model of leadership. Authentic leaders display high degree of integrity, have deep sense of purpose, and committed to their core values. As a result they promote a more trusting relationship in their work groups that translates into several positive outcomes. The present study examined how authentic leadership contribute to subordinates- trust in leadership and how this trust, in turn, predicts subordinates- work engagement. A sample of 395 employees was randomly selected from several local banks operating in Malaysia. Standardized tools such as ALQ, OTI, and EEQ were employed. Results indicated that authentic leadership promoted subordinates- trust in leader, and contributed to work engagement. Also, interpersonal trust predicted employees- work engagement as well as mediated the relationship between this style of leadership and employees- work engagement.

Keywords: Authentic Leadership, Interpersonal Trust, WorkEngagement

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Authors: Syed Muhammad Aqil Burney, Tahseen Ahmed Jilani, C. Ardil

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Using neural network we try to model the unknown function f for given input-output data pairs. The connection strength of each neuron is updated through learning. Repeated simulations of crisp neural network produce different values of weight factors that are directly affected by the change of different parameters. We propose the idea that for each neuron in the network, we can obtain quasi-fuzzy weight sets (QFWS) using repeated simulation of the crisp neural network. Such type of fuzzy weight functions may be applied where we have multivariate crisp input that needs to be adjusted after iterative learning, like claim amount distribution analysis. As real data is subjected to noise and uncertainty, therefore, QFWS may be helpful in the simplification of such complex problems. Secondly, these QFWS provide good initial solution for training of fuzzy neural networks with reduced computational complexity.

Keywords: Crisp neural networks, fuzzy systems, extraction of logical rules, quasi-fuzzy numbers.

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Authors: Yohannes Yirga, Daniel Tesfay

Abstract:

The convective heat and mass transfer in nanofluid flow through a porous media due to a permeable stretching sheet with magnetic field, viscous dissipation, chemical reaction and Soret effects are numerically investigated. Two types of nanofluids, namely Cu-water and Ag-water were studied. The governing boundary layer equations are formulated and reduced to a set of ordinary differential equations using similarity transformations and then solved numerically using the Keller box method. Numerical results are obtained for the skin friction coefficient, Nusselt number and Sherwood number as well as for the velocity, temperature and concentration profiles for selected values of the governing parameters. Excellent validation of the present numerical results has been achieved with the earlier linearly stretching sheet problems in the literature.

Keywords: Heat and mass transfer, magnetohydrodynamics, nanofluid.

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Authors: Huong M. T. Nguyen, Hoa A. P. Nguyen, Mai P. T. Nguyen, Ngoc D. Ngo, Van T. Ta, Hai T. Le, Chi V. Phan

Abstract:

Wilson’s disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder of the copper metabolism, which is caused by a mutation in the copper-transporting P-type ATPase (ATP7B). The mechanism of this disease is the failure of hepatic excretion of copper to bile, and leads to copper deposits in the liver and other organs. The ATP7B gene is located on the long arm of chromosome 13 (13q14.3). This study aimed to investigate the gene mutation in the Vietnamese patients with WD, and make a presymptomatic diagnosis for their familial members. Forty-three WD patients and their 65 siblings were identified as having ATP7B gene mutations. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples; 21 exons and exon-intron boundaries of the ATP7B gene were analyzed by direct sequencing. We recognized four mutations ([R723=; H724Tfs*34], V1042Cfs*79, D1027H, and IVS6+3A>G) in the sum of 20 detectable mutations, accounting for 87.2% of the total. Mutation S105* was determined to have a high rate (32.6%) in this study. The hotspot regions of ATP7B were found at exons 2, 16, and 8, and intron 14, in 39.6 %, 11.6 %, 9.3%, and 7 % of patients, respectively. Among nine homozygote/compound heterozygote siblings of the patients with WD, three individuals were determined as asymptomatic by screening mutations of the probands. They would begin treatment after diagnosis. In conclusion, 20 different mutations were detected in 43 WD patients. Of this number, four novel mutations were explored, including [R723=; H724Tfs*34], V1042Cfs*79, D1027H, and IVS6+3A>G. The mutation S105* is the most prevalent and has been considered as a biomarker that can be used in a rapid detection assay for diagnosis of WD patients. Exons 2, 8, and 16, and intron 14 should be screened initially for WD patients in Vietnam. Based on risk profile for WD, genetic testing for presymptomatic patients is also useful in diagnosis and treatment.

Keywords: ATP7B gene, mutation detection, presymptomatic diagnosis, Vietnamese Wilson’s disease.

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Authors: P. Acharjee, S. K. Goswami

Abstract:

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) with elite PSO parameters has been developed for power flow analysis under practical constrained situations. Multiple solutions of the power flow problem are useful in voltage stability assessment of power system. A method of determination of multiple power flow solutions is presented using a hybrid of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and local search technique. The unique and innovative learning factors of the PSO algorithm are formulated depending upon the node power mismatch values to be highly adaptive with the power flow problems. The local search is applied on the pbest solution obtained by the PSO algorithm in each iteration. The proposed algorithm performs reliably and provides multiple solutions when applied on standard and illconditioned systems. The test results show that the performances of the proposed algorithm under critical conditions are better than the conventional methods.

Keywords: critical conditions, ill-conditioned systems, localsearch technique, multiple power flow solutions, particle swarmoptimization.

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Authors: Chee Teck Phua, Gaëlle Lissorgues

Abstract:

Blood pulse is an important human physiological signal commonly used for the understanding of the individual physical health. Current methods of non-invasive blood pulse sensing require direct contact or access to the human skin. As such, the performances of these devices tend to vary with time and are subjective to human body fluids (e.g. blood, perspiration and skin-oil) and environmental contaminants (e.g. mud, water, etc). This paper proposes a simulation model for the novel method of non-invasive acquisition of blood pulse using the disturbance created by blood flowing through a localized magnetic field. The simulation model geometry represents a blood vessel, a permanent magnet, a magnetic sensor, surrounding tissues and air in 2-dimensional. In this model, the velocity and pressure fields in the blood stream are described based on Navier-Stroke equations and the walls of the blood vessel are assumed to have no-slip condition. The blood assumes a parabolic profile considering a laminar flow for blood in major artery near the skin. And the inlet velocity follows a sinusoidal equation. This will allow the computational software to compute the interactions between the magnetic vector potential generated by the permanent magnet and the magnetic nanoparticles in the blood. These interactions are simulated based on Maxwell equations at the location where the magnetic sensor is placed. The simulated magnetic field at the sensor location is found to assume similar sinusoidal waveform characteristics as the inlet velocity of the blood. The amplitude of the simulated waveforms at the sensor location are compared with physical measurements on human subjects and found to be highly correlated.

Keywords: Blood pulse, magnetic sensing, non-invasive measurement, magnetic disturbance.

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Authors: Risdiana, D. Suhendar, S. Pratiwi, W. A. Somantri, T. Saragi

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The effect of partially substitution of magnetic impurity Fe for Cu to the magnetic and transport properties in electron-doped superconducting cuprates of Eu1.85+yCe0.15-yCu1-yFeyO4+α-δ (ECCFO) with y = 0, 0.010, 0.020, and 0.050 has been studied, in order to investigate the mechanism of magnetic and transport properties of ECCFO in normal-state. Magnetic properties are investigated by DC magnetic-susceptibility measurements that carried out at low temperatures down to 2 K using a standard SQUID magnetometer in a magnetic field of 5 Oe on field cooling. Transport properties addressed to electron mobility, are extracted from radius of electron localization calculated from temperature dependence of resistivity. For y = 0, temperature dependence of dc magnetic-susceptibility (χ) indicated the change of magnetic behavior from paramagnetic to diamagnetic below 15 K. Above 15 K, all samples show paramagnetic behavior with the values of magnetic moment in every volume unit increased with increasing y. Electron mobility decreased with increasing y.

Keywords: DC magnetic-susceptibility, electron mobility, Eu1.85+yCe0.15-yCu1-yFeyO4+α-δ, normal state.

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Authors: Yuri A. Gruber, Matheus Rosendo, Ulisses G. A. Casemiro, Klaus de Geus, Rafael T. Bee

Abstract:

Lightning strikes can cause severe negative impacts to the electrical sector causing direct damage to equipment as well as shutdowns, especially when occurring in power substations. In order to mitigate this problem, a meticulous planning of the power substation protection system is of vital importance. A critical part of this is the distribution of shielding wires through the substation, which creates a 3D imaginary protection mesh similar to a circus tarpaulin. Equipment enclosed in the volume defined by that 3D mesh is considered protected against lightning strikes. The use of traditional methods of longitudinal cutting analysis based on 2D CAD tools makes the process laborious and the results obtained may not guarantee satisfactory protection of electrical equipment. This work describes the application of a Game Engine to the problem of lightning protection of power substations providing the visualization of the 3D protection mesh, the amount of protected components and the highlight of equipment which remain unprotected. In addition, aspects regarding the implementation and the advantages of approaching the problem using Unreal® Engine 4 are described. In order to validate results, a comparison with traditional 2D methods is applied to the same case study to which the proposed technique has been applied. Finally, a comparative study involving different levels of protection using the technique developed in this work is presented, showing that modern game engines can be a powerful accessory for simulations in several areas of engineering.

Keywords: Game engine, rolling spheres method, substation protection, UE4, Unreal® Engine 4.

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Authors: Seyed Mehran Kazemi, Bahare Fatemi

Abstract:

Sudoku is a logic-based combinatorial puzzle game which is popular among people of different ages. Due to this popularity, computer softwares are being developed to generate and solve Sudoku puzzles with different levels of difficulty. Several methods and algorithms have been proposed and used in different softwares to efficiently solve Sudoku puzzles. Various search methods such as stochastic local search have been applied to this problem. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is one of the algorithms which have been applied to this problem in different forms and in several works in the literature. In these works, chromosomes with little or no information were considered and obtained results were not promising. In this paper, we propose a new way of applying GA to this problem which uses more-informed chromosomes than other works in the literature. We optimize the parameters of our GA using puzzles with different levels of difficulty. Then we use the optimized values of the parameters to solve various puzzles and compare our results to another GA-based method for solving Sudoku puzzles.

Keywords: Genetic algorithm, optimization, solving Sudoku puzzles, stochastic local search.

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Authors: N. Ullah, A. Haddad, F. Van Der Linde

Abstract:

This paper investigates the effects of breaks in bonds, breaks in the earthing system and breaks in earth wire on the rise of the earth potential (EPR) in a substation and at the transmission tower bases using various models of an L6 tower. Different approaches were adopted to examine the integrity of the earthing system and the terminal towers. These effects were investigated to see the associated difference in the EPR magnitudes with respect to a healthy system at various locations. Comparisons of the computed EPR magnitudes were then made between the healthy and unhealthy system to detect any difference. The studies were conducted at power frequency for a uniform soil with different soil resistivities. It was found that full breaks in the double bond of the terminal towers increase the EPR significantly at the fault location, while they reduce EPR at the terminal tower bases. A fault on the isolated section of the grid can result in EPR values up to 8 times of those on a healthy system at higher soil resistivities, provided that the extended earthing system stays connected to the grid.

Keywords: Bonding, earthing, EPR, integrity, system.

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Authors: M. E. Silva, I. Brás

Abstract:

The aim of this work was to study the viability of recycling the residual yeast and diatomaceous earth (RYDE) slurry generated by the beer brewing industry by composting with animal manures, as well as to evaluate the quality of the composts obtained. Two pilot composting trials were carried out with different mixes: cow manure/RYDE slurry (Pile CM) and sheep manure/RYDE slurry (Pile SM). For all piles, wood chips were applied as bulking agent. The process was monitored by evaluating standard physical and chemical parameters. The compost quality was assessed by the heavy metals content and phytotoxicity. Both piles reached a thermophilic phase in the first day, however having different trends. The pH showed a slight alkaline character. The C/N reached values lower than 19 at the end of composting process. Generally, all the piles exhibited absence of heavy metals. However, the pile SM exhibited phytotoxicity. This study showed that RYDE slurry can be valorized by composting with cow manure.

Keywords: Beer brewing wastes, compost; quality, valorization.

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Authors: Nurhayati Abdullah, Fauziah Sulaiman, Muhamad Azman Miskam, Rahmad Mohd Taib

Abstract:

Banana pseudo-stem and fruit-bunch-stem are agricultural residues that can be used for conversion to bio-char, biooil, and gases by using thermochemical process. The aim of this work is to characterize banana pseudo-stem and banana fruit-bunch-stem through proximate analysis, elemental analysis, chemical analysis, thermo-gravimetric analysis, and heating calorific value. The ash contents of the banana pseudo-stem and banana fruit-bunch-stem are 11.0 mf wt.% and 20.6 mf wt.%; while the carbon content of banana pseudo-stem and fruit-bunch-stem are 37.9 mf wt.% and 35.58 mf wt.% respectively. The molecular formulas for banana stem and banana fruit-bunch-stem are C24H33NO26 and C19H29NO33 respectively. The measured higher heating values of banana pseudostem and banana fruit-bunch-stem are 15.5MJ/kg and 12.7 MJ/kg respectively. By chemical analysis, the lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose contents in the samples will also be presented. The feasibility of the banana wastes to be a feedstock for thermochemical process in comparison with other biomass will be discussed in this paper.

Keywords: Banana Waste, Biomass, Renewable Energy, Thermo-chemical Characteristics.

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Authors: F. Maamar, M. Sartor

Abstract:

The present study focuses on methods allowing a convenient and quick calculation of the SIFs in order to predict the static adhesive strength of bonded joints. A new SIF calculation method is proposed, based on the stresses obtained from a FE model at a reference point located in the adhesive layer at equal distance of the free-edge and of the two interfaces. It is shown that, even limiting ourselves to the two main modes, i.e. the opening and the shearing modes, and using the values of the stresses resulting from a low detailed FE model, an efficient calculation of the peeling stress at adhesive-substrate corners can be obtained by this way. The proposed method is interesting in that it can be the basis of a prediction tool that will allow the designer to quickly evaluate the SIFs characterizing a particular application without developing a detailed analysis.

Keywords: Adhesive layer, bounded joints, free-edge corner, stress intensity factor.

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Authors: Kadyrzhan Smagulov, Mukhtar Senggirbay, Sholpan Zhandossova, Lyaila Ivatova, Gulnar Nassimova

Abstract:

terrorism and extremism are among the most dangerous and difficult to forecast the phenomena of our time, which are becoming more diverse forms and rampant. Terrorist attacks often produce mass casualties, involve the destruction of material and spiritual values, beyond the recovery times, sow hatred among nations, provoke war, mistrust and hatred between the social and national groups, which sometimes can not be overcome within a generation. Currently, the countries of Central Asia are a topical issue – the threat of terrorism and religious extremism, which grow not only in our area, but throughout the world. Of course, in each of the terrorist threat is assessed differently. In our country the problem of terrorism should not be acutely. Thus, after independence and sovereignty of Kazakhstan has chosen the path of democracy, progress and free economy. With the policy of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and well-organized political and economic reforms, there has been economic growth and rising living standards, socio-political stability, ensured civil peace and accord in society [1].

Keywords: Kazakhstan, national security, religious extremism and terrorism, ethnic conflict

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Authors: Mike Dee

Abstract:

Urban public spaces are sutured with a range of surveillance and sensor technologies that claim to enable new forms of ‘data based citizen participation’, but also increase the tendency for ‘function-creep’, whereby vast amounts of data are gathered, stored and analysed in a broad application of urban surveillance. This kind of monitoring and capacity for surveillance connects with attempts by civic authorities to regulate, restrict, rebrand and reframe urban public spaces. A direct consequence of the increasingly security driven, policed, privatised and surveilled nature of public space is the exclusion or ‘unfavourable inclusion’ of those considered flawed and unwelcome in the ‘spectacular’ consumption spaces of many major urban centres. In the name of urban regeneration, programs of securitisation, ‘gentrification’ and ‘creative’ and ‘smart’ city initiatives refashion public space as sites of selective inclusion and exclusion. In this context of monitoring and control procedures, in particular, children and young people’s use of space in parks, neighbourhoods, shopping malls and streets is often viewed as a threat to the social order, requiring various forms of remedial action. This paper suggests that cities, places and spaces and those who seek to use them, can be resilient in working to maintain and extend democratic freedoms and processes enshrined in Marshall’s concept of citizenship, calling sensor and surveillance systems to account. Such accountability could better inform the implementation of public policy around the design, build and governance of public space and also understandings of urban citizenship in the sensor saturated urban environment.

Keywords: Citizenship, Public Space, Surveillance, Young People.

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Authors: Freeman Ntuli

Abstract:

An overview of the important aspects of managing and controlling industrial effluent discharges to public sewers namely sampling, characterization, quantification and legislative controls has been presented. The findings have been validated by means of a case study covering three industrial sectors namely, tanning, textile finishing and food processing industries. Industrial effluents discharges were found to be best monitored by systematic and automatic sampling and quantified using water meter readings corrected for evaporative and consumptive losses. Based on the treatment processes employed in the public owned treatment works and the chemical oxygen demand and biochemical oxygen demand levels obtained, the effluent from all the three industrial sectors studied were found to lie in the toxic zone. Thus, physico-chemical treatment of these effluents is required to bring them into the biodegradable zone. KL values (quoted to base e) were greater than 0.50 day-1 compared to 0.39 day-1 for typical municipality wastewater.

Keywords: biodegradability, industrial effluent, pollution control, public sewers

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Authors: Hala S. Mekawy

Abstract:

Affordable housing delivery for low and lower middle income families is a prominent problem in many developing countries; governments alone are unable to address this challenge due to diverse financial and regulatory constraints, and the private sector's contribution is rare and assists only middle-income households even when institutional and legal reforms are conducted to persuade it to go down market. Also, the market-enabling policy measures advocated by the World Bank since the early nineties have been strongly criticized and proven to be inappropriate to developing country contexts, where it is highly unlikely that the formal private sector can reach low income population. In addition to governments and private developers, affordable housing delivery systems involve an intricate network of relationships between a diverse range of actors. Collaboration between them was proven to be vital, and hence, an approach towards partnership schemes for affordable housing delivery has emerged. The basic premise of this paper is that addressing housing affordability challenges in Egypt demands direct public support, as markets and market actors alone would never succeed in delivering decent affordable housing to low and lower middle income groups. It argues that this support would ideally be through local level partnership schemes, with a leading decentralized local government role, and partners being identified according to specific local conditions. It attempts to identify major attributes that would ensure the fulfillment of the goals of such schemes in the Egyptian context. This is based upon evidence from diversified worldwide experiences, in addition to the main outcomes of a questionnaire that was conducted to specialists and chief actors in the field.

Keywords: Affordable housing, partnership schemes.

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Authors: Anupam Kumar, Abdul Hamid Bhat, Pramod Agarwal

Abstract:

Bidirectional energy transfer capability with high efficiency and reduced cost is fast gaining prominence in the central part of a lot of power conversion systems in Direct Current (DC) microgrid. Preferably, under the economics constraints, these systems utilise a single high efficiency power electronics conversion system and a dual active bridge converter. In this paper, modeling and performance of Dual Active Bridge (DAB) converter with Extended Phase Shift (EPS) is evaluated with two batteries on both sides of DC bus and bidirectional energy transfer is facilitated and this is further compared with the Single Phase Shift (SPS) mode of operation. Optimum operating zone is identified through exhaustive simulations using MATLAB/Simulink and SimPowerSystem software. Reduced rules based fuzzy logic controller is implemented for closed loop control of DAB converter. The control logic enables the bidirectional energy transfer within the batteries even at lower duty ratios. Charging and discharging of batteries is supervised by the fuzzy logic controller. State of charge, current and voltage for both the batteries are plotted in the battery characteristics. Power characteristics of batteries are also obtained using MATLAB simulations.

Keywords: Fuzzy logic controller, rule base, membership functions, dual active bridge converter, bidirectional power flow, duty ratio, extended phase shift, state of charge.

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Authors: Shivali D. Kulkarni, Ameya K. Naik, Nitin S. Nagori

Abstract:

In this paper we present simulation results for the application of a bandwidth efficient algorithm (mapping algorithm) to an image transmission system. This system considers three different real valued transforms to generate energy compact coefficients. First results are presented for gray scale and color image transmission in the absence of noise. It is seen that the system performs its best when discrete cosine transform is used. Also the performance of the system is dominated more by the size of the transform block rather than the number of coefficients transmitted or the number of bits used to represent each coefficient. Similar results are obtained in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise. The varying values of the bit error rate have very little or no impact on the performance of the algorithm. Optimum results are obtained for the system considering 8x8 transform block and by transmitting 15 coefficients from each block using 8 bits.

Keywords: Additive white Gaussian noise channel, mapping algorithm, peak signal to noise ratio, transform encoding.

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Authors: Toan Vu Duc, Son Ha Viet

Abstract:

This research presents the first comprehensive survey of congener profiles (7 indicator congeners) of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in sediment samples covering ten sites in CauBay River, Vietnam. Chemical analyses were carried out in gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) for tri- to hepta- brominated congeners. Results pointed out a non-homogenous contamination of the sediment with ∑₇ PBDE values ranging from 8.93 to 25.64ng g⁻¹, reflecting moderate to low contamination closely in conformity to other Asian aquatic environments. The general order of decreasing congener contribution to the total load was: BDE 47 > 99 > 100 > 154, similar to the distribution pattern worldwide. PBDEs had rare risks in the sediment of studied area.  However, due to the propensity of PBDEs to accumulate in various compartments of wildlife and human food webs, evaluation of biological tissues should be undertaken as a high priority. 

Keywords: Residue, Risk assessment, PBDEs, Sediment.

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Authors: Abdel-Rahman M. Jaradat, , Mansour I. Irshid, Talha T. Nassar

Abstract:

A novel file splitting technique for the reduction of the nth-order entropy of text files is proposed. The technique is based on mapping the original text file into a non-ASCII binary file using a new codeword assignment method and then the resulting binary file is split into several subfiles each contains one or more bits from each codeword of the mapped binary file. The statistical properties of the subfiles are studied and it is found that they reflect the statistical properties of the original text file which is not the case when the ASCII code is used as a mapper. The nth-order entropy of these subfiles are determined and it is found that the sum of their entropies is less than that of the original text file for the same values of extensions. These interesting statistical properties of the resulting subfiles can be used to achieve better compression ratios when conventional compression techniques are applied to these subfiles individually and on a bit-wise basis rather than on character-wise basis.

Keywords: Bit-wise compression, entropy, file splitting, source mapping.

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Authors: A. Robbin

Abstract:

In a multilingual setting like Nigeria, the success of service encounters is enhanced by the use of a language that ensures the linguistic and persuasive demands of the interlocutors. This study examined motivations for code switching as a negotiation strategy in bank-hall desk service encounters in Ìbàdàn metropolis using Myers-Scotton’s exploration on markedness in language use. The data consisted of transcribed audio recording of bank-hall service encounters, and direct observation of bank interactions in two purposively sampled commercial banks in Ìbàdàn metropolis. The data was subjected to descriptive linguistic analysis using Myers Scotton’s Markedness Model.  Findings reveal that code switching is frequently employed during different stages of service encounter: greeting, transaction and closing to fulfil relational, bargaining and referential functions. Bank staff and customers code switch to make unmarked, marked and explanatory choices. A strategy used to identify with customer’s cultural affiliation, close status gap, and appeal to begrudged customer; or as an explanatory choice with non-literate customers for ease of communication. Bankers select English to maintain customers’ perceptions of prestige which is retained or diverged from depending on their linguistic preference or ability.  Yoruba is seen as an efficient negotiation strategy with both bankers and their customers, making choices within conversation to achieve desired conversational and functional aims.

Keywords: Markedness, bilingualism, code switching, service encounter, banking.

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Authors: Basit Shahzad, Muhammad Tanvir Afzal

Abstract:

Many algorithms are available for sorting the unordered elements. Most important of them are Bubble sort, Heap sort, Insertion sort and Shell sort. These algorithms have their own pros and cons. Shell Sort which is an enhanced version of insertion sort, reduces the number of swaps of the elements being sorted to minimize the complexity and time as compared to insertion sort. Shell sort improves the efficiency of insertion sort by quickly shifting values to their destination. Average sort time is O(n1.25), while worst-case time is O(n1.5). It performs certain iterations. In each iteration it swaps some elements of the array in such a way that in last iteration when the value of h is one, the number of swaps will be reduced. Donald L. Shell invented a formula to calculate the value of ?h?. this work focuses to identify some improvement in the conventional Shell sort algorithm. ''Enhanced Shell Sort algorithm'' is an improvement in the algorithm to calculate the value of 'h'. It has been observed that by applying this algorithm, number of swaps can be reduced up to 60 percent as compared to the existing algorithm. In some other cases this enhancement was found faster than the existing algorithms available.

Keywords: Algorithm, Computation, Shell, Sorting.

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Authors: Keke, Reginald Chikere

Abstract:

This paper examined leadership failure consequent on endemic corruption as being the bane of good governance in Nigeria since independence in 1960 and the way forward. Nigeria is lavishly gifted by nature of abundance in human and material resources to be harnessed a strategic, resolute, ingenious, and inventive leadership. For leadership to drive sustainable growth in society, it must be rooted in the cultural values of the people. This, however, is contrary in Nigeria owing to unscrupulous leadership miscarriage, corruption, and bad governance. Using the eclectic approach, the paper scrutinizes the issues of leadership, corruption, and governance to clearly show how bad leadership and governance have destroyed the national fabric and the way out of Nigeria's development quack mire. Furthermore, this paper examined the perplexing nature of corruption in Nigeria that has made it the only lucrative endeavor for politicians and their cronies, leading Nigeria to be regarded as the world's poverty capital. This paper advocates that Nigerians and the international community must endeavor to enshrine effective leadership and good governance through strong institutions, laws, and individuals who have zero tolerance for corruption and mediocrity in the polity. It is only when this is done that Nigeria will be a better place for present and future generations.

Keywords: Corruption, leadership, governance, Nigeria.

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Authors: Jiuyang Lin, Wenyuan Ye, Arcadio Sotto, Bart Van der Bruggen

Abstract:

Application of nanoparticles as additives in membrane synthesis for improving the resistance of membranes against fouling has triggered recent interest in new membrane types. However, most nanoparticle-enhanced membranes suffer from the tradeoff between permeability and selectivity. In this study, nano-WS2 was explored as the additive in membrane synthesis by non-solvent induced phase separation. Blended PES-WS2 flat-sheet membranes with the incorporation of ultra-low concentrations of nanoparticles (from 0.025 to 0.25%, WS2/PES ratio) were manufactured and investigated in terms of permeability, fouling resistance and solute rejection. Remarkably, a significant enhancement in the permeability was observed as a result of the incorporation of ultra-low fractions of nano-WS2 to the membrane structure. Optimal permeability values were obtained for modified membranes with 0.10% nanoparticle/polymer concentration ratios. Furthermore, fouling resistance and solute rejection were significantly improved by the incorporation of nanoparticles into the membrane matrix. Specifically, fouling resistance of modified membrane can increase by around 50%.

Keywords: Nano-WS2, Nanoparticle enhanced hybrid membrane, Ultralow concentration, Antifouling.

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