Search results for: arch index

Authors: Leyla Safaie Kouchaksaraie

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In this project electrical and optical properties of BaZrO3 have been accomplished through the full-potential linear augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) by applying Wein2k software. In this study band structure, density of state, gap energy, refractive index and optical conduction have been studied. The results of calculations show that BaZrO3 is an insulator with an indirect gap in which 3.2 ev and studied refractive index equal 2.07. These results are in accordance with the ones obtained in experimental researches.

Keywords: Density Functional Theory (DFT), Full PotentialLinearized Augmented Plane Wave (Fp-LAPW), GeneralizedGradient Approximation (GGA), Linearized Augmented Plane Wave(LAPW), Local Density Approximation (LDA)

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Authors: Fu-Hsuan Huang, Po-Jung Yuan, Kang-Ping Lin, Hen-Hong Chang, Cheng-Lun Tsai

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Photoplethysmography is a simple measurement of the variation in blood volume in tissue. It detects the pulse signal of heart beat as well as the low frequency signal of vasoconstriction and vasodilation. The transmission type measurement is limited to only a few specific positions for example the index finger that have a short path length for light. The reflectance type measurement can be conveniently applied on most parts of the body surface. This study analyzed the factors that determine the quality of reflectance photoplethysmograph signal including the emitter-detector distance, wavelength, light intensity, and optical properties of skin tissue. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) with four different visible wavelengths were used as the light emitters. A phototransistor was used as the light detector. A micro translation stage adjusts the emitter-detector distance from 2 mm to 15 mm. The reflective photoplethysmograph signals were measured on different sites. The optimal emitter-detector distance was chosen to have a large dynamic range for low frequency drifting without signal saturation and a high perfusion index. Among these four wavelengths, a yellowish green (571nm) light with a proper emitter-detection distance of 2mm is the most suitable for obtaining a steady and reliable reflectance photoplethysmograph signal

Keywords: Reflectance photoplethysmograph, Perfusion index, Signal-to-noise ratio

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Authors: Sun Jiaojiao, Fu Jiayan

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At present, in China, the research about the urban sustainability construction is still in the exploratory stage. The ecological problems of the coastal area are more sensitive and complicated. In the background of global warming with serious ecological damage, this paper deeply researches on the main characteristics of urban sustainability and measures how to build urban sustainability. Through combining regional environmental with economic ability along the coastal area, then authors put forward the system planning framework, construction strategy and the evaluation index system, in order to seek the way of building urban sustainability along coastal area in China.

Keywords: Urban sustainability, coastal areas, construction strategy, evaluation index system.

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Authors: Nasrin Bakhshizadeh, Ashkan Forootan

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A major problem that affects the quality control of polymer in the industrial polymerization is the lack of suitable on-line measurement tools to evaluate the properties of the polymer such as melt and density indices. Controlling the polymerization in ordinary method is performed manually by taking samples, measuring the quality of polymer in the lab and registry of results. This method is highly time consuming and leads to producing large number of incompatible products. An online application for estimating melt index and density proposed in this study is a neural network based on the input-output data of the polyethylene production plant. Temperature, the level of reactors' bed, the intensity of ethylene mass flow, hydrogen and butene-1, the molar concentration of ethylene, hydrogen and butene-1 are used for the process to establish the neural model. The neural network is taught based on the actual operational data and back-propagation and Levenberg-Marquart techniques. The simulated results indicate that the neural network process model established with three layers (one hidden layer) for forecasting the density and the four layers for the melt index is able to successfully predict those quality properties.

Keywords: Polyethylene, polymerization, density, melt index, neural network.

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Authors: Toktam Zoughi, Reza Boostani

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Determining depth of anesthesia is a challenging problem in the context of biomedical signal processing. Various methods have been suggested to determine a quantitative index as depth of anesthesia, but most of these methods suffer from high sensitivity during the surgery. A novel method based on energy scattering of samples in the wavelet domain is suggested to represent the basic content of electroencephalogram (EEG) signal. In this method, first EEG signal is decomposed into different sub-bands, then samples are squared and energy of samples sequence is constructed through each scale and time, which is normalized and finally entropy of the resulted sequences is suggested as a reliable index. Empirical Results showed that applying the proposed method to the EEG signals can classify the awake, moderate and deep anesthesia states similar to BIS.

Keywords: Depth of anesthesia, EEG, BIS, Wavelet transforms.

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Authors: Ahmet Çay, Savvas Vassiliadis, Maria Rangoussi, Işık Tarakçıoğlu

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This paper presents a novel approach to assessing textile porosity by the application of the image analysis techniques. The images of different types of sample fabrics, taken through a microscope when the fabric is placed over a constant light source,transfer the problem into the image analysis domain. Indeed, porosity can thus be expressed in terms of a brightness percentage index calculated on the digital microscope image. Furthermore, it is meaningful to compare the brightness percentage index with the air permeability and the tightness indices of each fabric type. We have experimentally shown that there exists an approximately linear relation between brightness percentage and air permeability indices.

Keywords: Textile fabrics, porosity, air permeability, image analysis, light transmission.

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Authors: George E. Tsekouras, Dimitris Papageorgiou, Sotiris Kotsiantis, Christos Kalloniatis, Panagiotis Pintelas

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We develop a three-step fuzzy logic-based algorithm for clustering categorical attributes, and we apply it to analyze cultural data. In the first step the algorithm employs an entropy-based clustering scheme, which initializes the cluster centers. In the second step we apply the fuzzy c-modes algorithm to obtain a fuzzy partition of the data set, and the third step introduces a novel cluster validity index, which decides the final number of clusters.

Keywords: Categorical data, cultural data, fuzzy logic clustering, fuzzy c-modes, cluster validity index.

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Authors: Olubunmi S. Shittu, Olufemi J. Ayodele, Augustus O. A. Ilori, Abidemi O. Filani, Adetola T. Afuye

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Indiscriminate refuse dumping in and around Ado-Ekiti combined with improper management of few available dumpsites, such as Ilokun dumpsite, posed the threat of heavy metals pollution in the surrounding soils and underground water that needs assessment using pollution indices. Surface soils (0-15 cm) were taken from the centre of Ilokun dumpsite (0 m) and environs at different directions and distances during the dry and wet seasons, as well as a background sample at 1000 m away, adjacent to the dumpsite at Ilokun, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. The concentration of heavy metals used to calculate the pollution indices for the soils were determined using Atomic Adsorption Spectrophotometer. The soils recorded high concentrations of all the heavy metals above the background concentrations irrespective of the season with highest concentrations at the 0 m except Ni and Fe at 50 m during the dry and wet season, respectively. The heavy metals concentration were in the order of Ni > Mn > Pb > Cr > Cu > Cd > Fe during the dry season, and Fe > Cr > Cu > Pb > Ni > Cd > Mn during the wet season. Using the Contamination Factor (CF), the soils were classified to be moderately contaminated with Cd and Fe to very high contamination with other metals during the dry season and low Cd contamination (0.87), moderate contamination with Fe, Pb, Mn and Ni and very high contamination with Cr and Cu during the wet season. At both seasons, the Pollution Load Index (PLI) indicates the soils to be generally polluted with heavy metals and the Geoaccumulation Index (I_geo) calculated shown the soils to be in unpolluted to moderately polluted levels. Enrichment Factor (EF) implied the soils to be deficiently enriched with all the heavy metals except Cr (7.90) and Cu (6.42) that were at significantly enrichment levels during the wet season. Modified Degree of Contamination (mC_d) recorded, indicated the soils to be of very high to extremely high degree of contamination during the dry season and moderate degree of contamination during the wet season except 0 m with high degree of contamination. The concentration of heavy metals in the soils combined with some of the pollution indices indicated the soils in and around the Ilokun Dumpsite are being polluted with heavy metals from anthropogenic sources constituted by the indiscriminate refuse dumping.

Keywords: Contamination factor, enrichment factor, geoaccumulation index, modified degree of contamination, pollution load index.

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Authors: Bi-Huei Tsai

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Previous studies on financial distress prediction choose the conventional failing and non-failing dichotomy; however, the distressed extent differs substantially among different financial distress events. To solve the problem, “non-distressed”, “slightlydistressed” and “reorganization and bankruptcy” are used in our article to approximate the continuum of corporate financial health. This paper explains different financial distress events using the two-stage method. First, this investigation adopts firm-specific financial ratios, corporate governance and market factors to measure the probability of various financial distress events based on multinomial logit models. Specifically, the bootstrapping simulation is performed to examine the difference of estimated misclassifying cost (EMC). Second, this work further applies macroeconomic factors to establish the credit cycle index and determines the distressed cut-off indicator of the two-stage models using such index. Two different models, one-stage and two-stage prediction models are developed to forecast financial distress, and the results acquired from different models are compared with each other, and with the collected data. The findings show that the one-stage model has the lower misclassification error rate than the two-stage model. The one-stage model is more accurate than the two-stage model.

Keywords: Multinomial logit model, corporate governance, company failure, reorganization, bankruptcy.

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Authors: A.A.Andaleeb, Rozhan.M.Idrus, Issham Ismail, A.K. Mokaram

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This paper reports the findings of a research conducted to evaluate the ownership and usage of technology devices within Distance Education students- according to their age. This research involved 45 Distance Education students from USM Universiti Sains Malaysia (DEUSM) as its respondents. Data was collected through questionnaire that had been developed by the researchers based on some literature review. The data was analyzed to find out the frequencies of respondents agreements towards ownership of technology devices and the use of technology devices. The findings shows that all respondents own mobile phone and majority of them reveal that they use mobile on regular basis. The student in the age 30-39 has the heist ownership of the technology devices.

Keywords: technology devices, mobile phone, distance learners, techno readiness Index, Age

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Authors: V.Ashok, A.Nirmalkumar, N.Jeyashanthi

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A method and apparatus for noninvasive measurement of blood glucose concentration based on transilluminated laser beam via the Index Finger has been reported in this paper. This method depends on atomic gas (He-Ne) laser operating at 632.8nm wavelength. During measurement, the index finger is inserted into the glucose sensing unit, the transilluminated optical signal is converted into an electrical signal, compared with the reference electrical signal, and the obtained difference signal is processed by signal processing unit which presents the results in the form of blood glucose concentration. This method would enable the monitoring blood glucose level of the diabetic patient continuously, safely and noninvasively.

Keywords: Anisotropy factor, Blood glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, Noninvasive method, Photo detectors.

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Authors: J. I. Asnor, S. Rosnah, Z. W. H. Wan, H. A. B. Badrul

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Pineapples can be classified using an index with seven levels of maturity based on the green and yellow color of the skin. As the pineapple ripens, the skin will change from pale green to a golden or yellowish color. The issues that occur in agriculture nowadays are to do with farmers being unable to distinguish between the indexes of pineapple maturity correctly and effectively. There are several reasons for why farmers cannot properly follow the guideline provide by Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority (FAMA) and one of reason is that due to manual inspection done by experts, there are no specific and universal guidelines to be adopted by farmers due to the different points of view of the experts when sorting the pineapples based on their knowledge and experience. Therefore, an automatic system will help farmers to identify pineapple maturity effectively and will become a universal indicator to farmers.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Network, Image Processing, Index of Maturity, Pineapple

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Authors: Murat Gunduz, Mohanad H. A. AbuHassan

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Construction industry mainly focuses on the superstructure, infrastructure, and oil and gas industry. The development of infrastructure projects in developing countries attracted a lot of foreign construction contractors, consultants, suppliers and diversified workforce to interfere and to be evolved in such huge investment. Reducing worksite delays in such projects require knowledge and attention. Therefore, it is important to identify the influencing delay attributes affecting construction projects. The significant project factors affecting construction delays were investigated. Data collection was carried out through an online web survey system to capture significant factors. Significant factors were determined with importance index and relevant recommendations are made. The output of the data analysis would lead the industry experts better assess the impact of construction delays on construction projects.

Keywords: Construction industry, delays, importance index.

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Authors: Antoni Wibowo, Harry Pujianto, Dewi Retno Sari Saputro

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The stock market can provide huge profits in a relatively short time in financial sector; however, it also has a high risk for investors and traders if they are not careful to look the factors that affect the stock market. Therefore, they should give attention to the dynamic fluctuations and movements of the stock market to optimize profits from their investment. In this paper, we present a nonlinear autoregressive exogenous model (NARX) to predict the movements of stock market; especially, the movements of the closing price index. As case study, we consider to predict the movement of the closing price in Indonesia composite index (IHSG) and choose the best structures of NARX for IHSG’s prediction.

Keywords: NARX, prediction, stock market, time series.

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Authors: N.K.K. Welgama, W.A.D.P. Wanigasundera

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Small tanks, the ancient man-made rain water storage systems, support the pheasant life and agriculture of the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Many small tanks were abandoned with time due to various reasons. Such tanks, rehabilitated in the recent past, were found to be less sustainable and most of these rehabilitation approaches have failed. The objective of this research is to assess the impact of the rehabilitation approaches in the management of small tanks in the Kurunegala District of Sri Lanka with respect to eight small tanks. A Sustainability index was developed using seven indicators representing the ability and commitment of the villagers to maintain these tanks. The sustainability index of the eight tanks varied between 79.2 and 47.2 out of a total score of 100. The conclusion is that, the approaches used for tank rehabilitation have a significant effect on the sustainability of the management of these small tanks.

Keywords: Minor irrigation schemes, Participatory, Small Tanks, Sustainable, Water resource management.

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Authors: Artur Krukowski, Emmanouela Vogiatzaki

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The article presents an ongoing work in research projects such as SCAN4RECO or ARCH, both funded by the European Commission under Horizon 2020 program. The former one concerns multimodal and multispectral scanning of Cultural Heritage assets for their digitization and conservation via spatiotemporal reconstruction and 3D printing, while the latter one aims to better preserve areas of cultural heritage from hazards and risks. It co-creates tools that would help pilot cities to save cultural heritage from the effects of climate change. It develops a disaster risk management framework for assessing and improving the resilience of historic areas to climate change and natural hazards. Tools and methodologies are designed for local authorities and practitioners, urban population, as well as national and international expert communities, aiding authorities in knowledge-aware decision making. In this article we focus on 3D modelling of object geometry using primarily photogrammetric methods to achieve very high model accuracy using consumer types of devices, attractive both to professions and hobbyists alike.

Keywords: 3D modeling, UAS, cultural heritage, preservation.

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Authors: Walsh Joe, Climstein Mike, Heazlewood Ian Timothy, Burke Stephen, Kettunen Jyrki, Adams Kent, DeBeliso Mark

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Whilst there is growing evidence that activity across the lifespan is beneficial for improved health, there are also many changes involved with the aging process and subsequently the potential for reduced indices of health. The nexus between health, physical activity and aging is complex and has raised much interest in recent times due to the realization that a multifaceted approached is necessary in order to counteract a growing obesity epidemic. By investigating age based trends within a population adhering to competitive sport at older ages, further insight might be gleaned to assist in understanding one of many factors influencing this relationship. BMI was derived using data gathered on a total of 6,071 masters athletes (51.9% male, 48.1% female) aged 25 to 91 years ( =51.5, s =±9.7), competing at the Sydney World Masters Games (2009). Using linear and loess regression it was demonstrated that the usual tendency for prevalence of higher BMI increasing with age was reversed in the sample. This trend in reversal was repeated for both male and female only sub-sets of the sample participants, indicating the possibility of improved prevalence of BMI with increasing age for both the sample as a whole and these individual subgroups. This evidence of improved classification in one index of health (reduced BMI) for masters athletes (when compared to the general population) implies there are either improved levels of this index of health with aging due to adherence to sport or possibly the reduced BMI is advantageous and contributes to this cohort adhering (or being attracted) to masters sport at older ages. Demonstration of this proportionately under-investigated World Masters Games population having an improved relationship between BMI and increasing age over the general population is of particular interest in the context of the measures being taken globally to curb an obesity epidemic.

Keywords: Aging, masters athlete, Quetelet Index, sport.

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Authors: S. Wongkoon, M. Jaroensutasinee, K. Jaroensutasinee, W. Preechaporn, S. Chumkiew

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This study investigated the number of Aedes larvae, the key breeding sites of Aedes sp., and the relationship between climatic factors and the incidence of DHF in Samui Islands. We conducted our questionnaire and larval surveys from randomly selected 105 households in Samui Islands in July-September 2006. Pearson-s correlation coefficient was used to explore the primary association between the DHF incidence and all climatic factors. Multiple stepwise regression technique was then used to fit the statistical model. The results showed that the positive indoor containers were small jars, cement tanks, and plastic tanks. The positive outdoor containers were small jars, cement tanks, plastic tanks, used cans, tires, plastic bottles, discarded objects, pot saucers, plant pots, and areca husks. All Ae. albopictus larval indices (i.e., CI, HI, and BI) were higher than Ae. aegypti larval indices in this area. These larval indices were higher than WHO standard. This indicated a high risk of DHF transmission at Samui Islands. The multiple stepwise regression model was y = –288.80 + 11.024xmean temp. The mean temperature was positively associated with the DHF incidence in this area.

Keywords: Dengue vectors, Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, Container Index, House Index, Breteau Index, Aedes indices, Climatic factors, Temperature.

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Authors: R. Nandikeswari, M. Sambasivam, V. Anandan

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In the present study fecundity of Terapon jarbua was estimated for 41 matured females from the Bay of Bengal, Pondicherry. The fecundity (F) was found to range from 13,475 to 115,920 in fishes between 173-278mm Total length (TL) and 65- 298 gm weight respectively. The co-efficient of correlation for F/TL (log F = - 4.821 + 4.146 log TL), F/SL (log F = -3.936 + 3.867 log SL), F/WF (log F = 1.229 + 0.730 log TW) and F/GW (log F = 0.724 + 1.113 log GW) were obtained as 0.474, 0.537, 0.641 and 0.908 respectively. The regression line for the TL, SL, WF and GW of the fishes were found to be linear when they were plotted against their fecundity on logarithmic scales. Highly significant (P<0.01) relationship was obtained for all the variables. Hence Total Length, Standard Length, Weight of Fish and Gonad Weight were found to be the best indicators of the fecundity of Terapon jarbua. Gonadosomatic indices of Terapon jarbua showed that the spawning took place in February to July. The overall sex ratio of male to female is 1.28:1 with chi-square value 5.719, significant at 5% level.

Keywords: Fecundity, Gonadosomatic index, Reproductive biology, spawning, Terapon jarbua.

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Authors: N. Zarikian

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Comparative analysis of the fauna of two families of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) – Hesperiidae and Nymphalidae were carried out. In general, 122 species of the families are recorded. among these 33 species belong to Hesperiidae and 89 to Nymphalidae. The numbers by countries are as follows: 72 species are found in Syria (including 24 Hesperiidae and 48 Nymphalidae) and 97 in Armenia (26 and 71 species, respectively). Two species of Hesperiidae are reported for Syrian fauna for the first time and one species is newly recorded for Armenia. From the species above mentioned 38 are common both for Syria and Armenia. For estimation of the similarity of faunas studied were used the Jaccard index. By families the index is rather different, consisting for Hesperiidae 0.5151 and for Nymphalidae 0.337.

Keywords: Armenia, fauna, Hesperiidae, Nymphalidae, Rhopalocera: Lepidoptera, Syria.

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Authors: E. Khaleghi, K. Arzani, N. Moallemi, M. Barzegar

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This study was conducted to determine effect of water stress on chlorophyll content and chlorophyll fluorescence parameter in young `Dezful- olive trees. Three irrigation regimes (40% ETcrop, 65% ETcrop and 100% ETcrop) were used. After irrigation treatments were applied, some of biochemical parameters including chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll, chlorophyll fluorescence and also chlorophyll content index (C.C.I) were measured. Results of Analysis of variance showed that irrigation treatments had significant effect on chlorophylla, total chlorophyll (chl a+b), C.C.I and Fv/Fm ratio. The amount of decreased chlorophyll a and total chlorophyll in plants were received 40% ETcrop were 51.55% and 46.86%, respectively, compared with 100% ETcrop.

Keywords: Evatarnspiration (ETcrop), Chlorophyll Content, Chlorophyll Fluorescence, Water stress, Olive

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Authors: C. Sinescu, M. Negrutiu, R. Negru, M. Romînu, A.G. Podoleanu

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The fixed partial dentures are mainly used in the frontal part of the dental arch because of their great esthetics. There are several factors that are associated with the stress state created in ceramic restorations, including: thickness of ceramic layers, mechanical properties of the materials, elastic modulus of the supporting substrate material, direction, magnitude and frequency of applied load, size and location of occlusal contact areas, residual stresses induced by processing or pores, restoration-cement interfacial defects and environmental defects. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the capability of Polarization Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography (PSOCT) in detection and analysis of possible material defects in metal-ceramic and integral ceramic fixed partial dentures. As a conclusion, it is important to have a non invasive method to investigate fixed partial prostheses before their insertion in the oral cavity in order to satisfy the high stress requirements and the esthetic function.

Keywords: Ceramic Fixed Partial Dentures, Material Defects, Polarization Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography, Numerical Simulation

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Authors: Orkide Donma, Mustafa M. Donma

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Obesity is a low-grade inflammatory disease and may lead to health problems such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes. It is also associated with important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. This requires the detailed evaluation of obesity, particularly in children. The aim of this study is to enlighten the potential associations between lipid ratios and obesity indices and to introduce those with discriminating features among children with obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS). A total of 408 children (aged between six and eighteen years) participated in the scope of the study. Informed consent forms were taken from the participants and their parents. Ethical Committee approval was obtained. Anthropometric measurements such as weight, height as well as waist, hip, head, neck circumferences and body fat mass were taken. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure values were recorded. Body mass index (BMI), diagnostic obesity notation model assessment index-II (D2 index), waist-to-hip, head-to-neck ratios were calculated. Total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLChol), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLChol) analyses were performed in blood samples drawn from 110 children with normal body weight, 164 morbid obese (MO) children and 134 children with MetS. Age- and sex-adjusted BMI percentiles tabulated by World Health Organization were used to classify groups; normal body weight, MO and MetS. 15^th-to-85^th percentiles were used to define normal body weight children. Children, whose values were above the 99th percentile, were described as MO. MetS criteria were defined. Data were evaluated statistically by SPSS Version 20. The degree of statistical significance was accepted as p≤0.05. Mean±standard deviation values of BMI for normal body weight children, MO children and those with MetS were 15.7±1.1, 27.1±3.8 and 29.1±5.3 kg/m², respectively. Corresponding values for the D2 index were calculated as 3.4±0.9, 14.3±4.9 and 16.4±6.7. Both BMI and D2 index were capable of discriminating the groups from one another (p≤0.01). As far as other obesity indices were considered, waist-to hip and head-to-neck ratios did not exhibit any statistically significant difference between MO and MetS groups (p≥0.05). Diagnostic obesity notation model assessment index-II was correlated with the triglycerides-to-HDL-C ratio in normal body weight and MO (r=0.413, p≤0.01 and r=0.261, (p≤0.05, respectively). Total cholesterol-to-HDL-C and LDL-C-to-HDL-C showed statistically significant differences between normal body weight and MO as well as MO and MetS (p≤0.05). The only group in which these two ratios were significantly correlated with waist-to-hip ratio was MetS group (r=0.332 and r=0.334, p≤0.01, respectively). Lack of correlation between the D2 index and the triglycerides-to-HDL-C ratio was another important finding in MetS group. In this study, parameters and ratios, whose associations were defined previously with increased cardiovascular risk or cardiac death have been evaluated along with obesity indices in children with morbid obesity and MetS. Their profiles during childhood have been investigated. Aside from the nature of the correlation between the D2 index and triglycerides-to-HDL-C ratio, total cholesterol-to-HDL-C as well as LDL-C-to- HDL-C ratios along with their correlations with waist-to-hip ratio showed that the combination of obesity-related parameters predicts better than one parameter and appears to be helpful for discriminating MO children from MetS group.

Keywords: Children, lipid ratios, metabolic syndrome, obesity indices.

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Authors: Surinder Deswal, Vineet Verma

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Air Quality Index (AQI) is used as a tool to indicate the level of severity and disseminate the information on air pollution to enable the public to understand the health and environmental impacts of air pollutant concentration levels. The annual and seasonal variation of criteria air pollutants concentration based on the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Programme has been conducted for a period of nine years (2006-2014) using the AQI system. AQI was calculated using IND-AQI methodology and Maximum Operator Concept is applied. An attempt has been made to quantify the variations in AQI on an annual and seasonal basis over a period of nine years. Further, year-wise frequency of occurrence of AQI in each category for all the five stations is analysed, which presents in depth analysis of trends over the period of study. The best air quality was observed in the Noida residential area, followed by Noida industrial area during the study period; whereas, Bulandshahar industrial area and Faridabad residential area were observed to have the worst air quality. A shift in the worst air quality from winter to summer season has also been observed during the study period. Further, the level of Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter was found to be above permissible limit at all the stations. The present study helps in enhancing public awareness and calls for the need of immediate measures to be taken to counter-effect the cause of the increasing level of air pollution.

Keywords: Air quality index, annual trends, criteria pollutants, seasonal variation.

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Authors: Sang-Rak Kim, Jea-Yong Park, Won-Goo Lee, Jin-Shik Yu, Seog-Young Han

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This paper presents a Reliability-Based Topology Optimization (RBTO) based on Evolutionary Structural Optimization (ESO). An actual design involves uncertain conditions such as material property, operational load and dimensional variation. Deterministic Topology Optimization (DTO) is obtained without considering of the uncertainties related to the uncertainty parameters. However, RBTO involves evaluation of probabilistic constraints, which can be done in two different ways, the reliability index approach (RIA) and the performance measure approach (PMA). Limit state function is approximated using Monte Carlo Simulation and Central Composite Design for reliability analysis. ESO, one of the topology optimization techniques, is adopted for topology optimization. Numerical examples are presented to compare the DTO with RBTO.

Keywords: Evolutionary Structural Optimization, PerformanceMeasure Approach, Reliability-Based Topology Optimization, Reliability Index Approach.

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Authors: Mounira Taileb, Sid Lamrous, Sami Touati

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In order to accelerate the similarity search in highdimensional database, we propose a new hierarchical indexing method. It is composed of offline and online phases. Our contribution concerns both phases. In the offline phase, after gathering the whole of the data in clusters and constructing a hierarchical index, the main originality of our contribution consists to develop a method to construct bounding forms of clusters to avoid overlapping. For the online phase, our idea improves considerably performances of similarity search. However, for this second phase, we have also developed an adapted search algorithm. Our method baptized NOHIS (Non-Overlapping Hierarchical Index Structure) use the Principal Direction Divisive Partitioning (PDDP) as algorithm of clustering. The principle of the PDDP is to divide data recursively into two sub-clusters; division is done by using the hyper-plane orthogonal to the principal direction derived from the covariance matrix and passing through the centroid of the cluster to divide. Data of each two sub-clusters obtained are including by a minimum bounding rectangle (MBR). The two MBRs are directed according to the principal direction. Consequently, the nonoverlapping between the two forms is assured. Experiments use databases containing image descriptors. Results show that the proposed method outperforms sequential scan and SRtree in processing k-nearest neighbors.

Keywords: K-nearest neighbour search, multi-dimensional indexing, multimedia databases, similarity search.

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Authors: Sonia Rebai, Mohamed Naceur Azaiez, Dhafer Saidane

Abstract:

In this study, we develop a performance evaluation model based on a multi-attribute utility approach aiming at reaching the sustainable banking (SB) status. This model is built accounting for various banks’ stakeholders in a win-win paradigm. In addition, it offers the opportunity for adopting a global measure of performance as an indication of a bank’s sustainability degree. This measure is referred to as banking sustainability performance index (BSPI). This index may constitute a basis for ranking banks. Moreover, it may constitute a bridge between the assessment types of financial and extra-financial rating agencies. A real application is performed on three French banks.

Keywords: Multi-attribute utility theory, Performance, Sustainable banking.

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Authors: Sky Chou, Joseph C. Chen

Abstract:

This paper focuses on using Six Sigma methodologies to improve the surface roughness of a manufactured part produced by the CNC milling machine. It presents a case study where the surface roughness of milled aluminum is required to reduce or eliminate defects and to improve the process capability index C_p and C_pk for a CNC milling process. The six sigma methodology, DMAIC (design, measure, analyze, improve, and control) approach, was applied in this study to improve the process, reduce defects, and ultimately reduce costs. The Taguchi-based six sigma approach was applied to identify the optimized processing parameters that led to the targeted surface roughness specified by our customer. A L₉ orthogonal array was applied in the Taguchi experimental design, with four controllable factors and one non-controllable/noise factor. The four controllable factors identified consist of feed rate, depth of cut, spindle speed, and surface roughness. The noise factor is the difference between the old cutting tool and the new cutting tool. The confirmation run with the optimal parameters confirmed that the new parameter settings are correct. The new settings also improved the process capability index. The purpose of this study is that the Taguchi–based six sigma approach can be efficiently used to phase out defects and improve the process capability index of the CNC milling process.

Keywords: CNC machining, Six Sigma, Surface roughness, Taguchi methodology.

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Authors: Nikhat Nawaz, S. Srinivasulu, P. Kesava Rao

Abstract:

Feature extraction plays an important role in many remote sensing applications. Automatic extraction of water bodies is of great significance in many remote sensing applications like change detection, image retrieval etc. This paper presents a procedure for automatic extraction of water information from remote sensing images. The algorithm uses the relative location of R color component of the chromaticity diagram. This method is then integrated with the effectiveness of the spatial scale transformation of whole method. The whole method is based on water index fitted from spectral library. Experimental results demonstrate the improved accuracy and effectiveness of the integrated method for automatic extraction of water bodies.

Keywords: Chromaticity, Feature Extraction, Remote Sensing, Spectral library, Water Index.

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Authors: A. Muthuramalingam, S. Himavathi

Abstract:

Harmonic pollution and low power factor in power systems caused by power converters have been of great concern. To overcome these problems several converter topologies using advanced semiconductor devices and control schemes have been proposed. This investigation is to identify a low cost, small size, efficient and reliable ac to dc converter to meet the input performance index of UPS. The performance of single phase and three phase ac to dc converter along with various control techniques are studied and compared. The half bridge converter topology with linear current control is identified as most suitable. It is simple, energy efficient because of single switch power loss and transformer-less operation of UPS. The results are validated practically using a prototype built using IGBT and analog controller. The performance for both single and three-phase system is verified. Digital implementation of closed loop control achieves higher reliability. Its cost largely depends on chosen bit precision. The minimal bit precision for optimum converter performance is identified as 16-bit with fixed-point operation. From the investigation and practical implementation it is concluded that half bridge ac – dc converter along with digital linear controller meets the performance index of UPS for single and three phase systems.

Keywords: PFC, energy efficient, half bridge, ac-dc converter, boost topology, linear current control, digital bit precision.

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