Search results for: average information ratio

Authors: Jinming Ma, Tianbing Xia, Janusz R. Getta

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This paper presents the application of fuzzy set theory to implement of mobile advertisement anti-fraud systems. Mobile anti-fraud is a method aiming to identify mobile advertisement fraudsters. One of the main problems of mobile anti-fraud is the lack of evidence to prove a user to be a fraudster. In this paper, we implement an application by using fuzzy set theory to demonstrate how to detect cheaters. The advantage of our method is that the hardship in detecting fraudsters in small data samples has been avoided. We achieved this by giving each user a suspicious degree showing how likely the user is cheating and decide whether a group of users (like all users of a certain APP) together to be fraudsters according to the average suspicious degree. This makes the process more accurate as the data of a single user is too small to be predictable.

Keywords: Mobile internet, advertisement, anti-fraud, fuzzy set theory.

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Authors: Edison Muzenda

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Gauteng, as the province with the greatest industrial and population density, the economic hub of South Africa also generates the greatest amount of waste, both general and hazardous. Therefore the province has a significant need to develop and apply appropriate integrated waste management policies that ensure that waste is recognised as a serious problem and is managed in an effective integrated manner to preserve both the present and future human health and environment. This paper reflects on Gauteng-s waste outlook in particular the province-s General Waste Minimisation Plan and its Integrated Waste Management Policy. The paper also looks at general waste generation, recyclable waste streams as well as recycling and separation at source initiatives in the province. Both the quantity and nature of solid waste differs considerably across the socio-economic spectrum. People in informal settlements generate an average of 0.16 kg per person per day whereas 2 kg per day is not unusual in affluent areas. For example the amount of waste generated in Johannesburg is approximately 1.2 kg per person per day.

Keywords: General waste, generation, integrated, minimisation, recycling, separation

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Authors: Chirawat Wattanapanich, Hong Wei

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This study presents new gait representations for improving gait recognition accuracy on cross gait appearances, such as normal walking, wearing a coat and carrying a bag. Based on the Gait Energy Image (GEI), two ideas are implemented to generate new gait representations. One is to append lower knee regions to the original GEI, and the other is to apply convolutional operations to the GEI and its variants. A set of new gait representations are created and used for training multi-class Support Vector Machines (SVMs). Tests are conducted on the CASIA dataset B. Various combinations of the gait representations with different convolutional kernel size and different numbers of kernels used in the convolutional processes are examined. Both the entire images as features and reduced dimensional features by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) are tested in gait recognition. Interestingly, both new techniques, appending the lower knee regions to the original GEI and convolutional GEI, can significantly contribute to the performance improvement in the gait recognition. The experimental results have shown that the average recognition rate can be improved from 75.65% to 87.50%.

Keywords: Convolutional image, lower knee, gait.

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

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Obesity is a low-grade inflammatory state. Childhood obesity is a multisystem disease, which is associated with a number of complications as well as potentially negative consequences. Gender is an important universal risk factor for many diseases. Hematological indices differ significantly by gender. This should be considered during the evaluation of obese children. The aim of this study is to detect hematologic indices that differ by gender in morbid obese (MO) children. A total of 134 MO children took part in this study. The parents filled an informed consent form and the approval from the Ethics Committee of Namik Kemal University was obtained. Subjects were divided into two groups based on their genders (64 females aged 10.2±3.1 years and 70 males aged 9.8±2.2 years; p ≥ 0.05). Waist-to-hip as well as head-to-neck ratios and body mass index (BMI) values were calculated. The children, whose WHO BMI-for age and sex percentile values were > 99 percentile, were defined as MO. Hematological parameters [haemoglobin, hematocrit, erythrocyte count, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, red blood cell distribution width, leukocyte count, neutrophil %, lymphocyte %, monocyte %, eosinophil %, basophil %, platelet count, platelet distribution width, mean platelet volume] were determined by the automatic hematology analyzer. SPSS was used for statistical analyses. P ≤ 0.05 was the degree for statistical significance. The groups included children having mean±SD value of BMI as 26.9±3.4 kg/m² for males and 27.7±4.4 kg/m² for females (p ≥ 0.05). There was no significant difference between ages of females and males (p ≥ 0.05). Males had significantly increased waist-to-hip ratios (0.95±0.08 vs 0.91±0.08; p=0.005) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration values (33.6±0.92 vs 33.1±0.83; p=0.001) compared to those of females. Significantly elevated neutrophil (4.69±1.59 vs 4.02±1.42; p=0.011) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios (1.70±0.71 vs 1.39±0.48; p=0.004) were detected in females. There was no statistically significant difference between groups in terms of C-reactive protein values (p ≥ 0.05). Adipose tissue plays important roles during the development of obesity and associated diseases such as metabolic syndrom and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). These diseases may cause changes in complete blood cell count parameters. These alterations are even more important during childhood. Significant gender effects on the changes of neutrophils, one of the white blood cell subsets, were observed. The findings of the study demonstrate the importance of considering gender in clinical studies. The males and females may have distinct leukocyte-trafficking profiles in inflammation. Female children had more circulating neutrophils, which may be the indicator of an increased risk of CVDs, than male children within this age range during the late stage of obesity. In recent years, females represent about half of deaths from CVDs; therefore, our findings may be the indicator of the increasing tendency of this risk in females starting from childhood.

Keywords: Children, gender, morbid obesity, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio.

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Authors: Amir Ansari, Ehsan Shahrjerdi, Ehsan Amini

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To investigate the behavior of sheet metals during forming tailor welded blanks (TWB) of various thickness made via Co2 Laser welding are under consideration. These blanks are formed used two different forming methods of rubber as well as the conventional punch and die methods. The main research objective is the effects of using a rubber die instead of a solid one the displacement of the weld line and the press force needed for forming. Specimens with thicknesses of 0.5, 0.6, 0.8 and 1mm are subjected to Erichsen two dimensional tests and the resulted force for each case are compared. This is followed by a theoretical and numerical study of press force and weld line displacement. It is concluded that using rubber pad forming (RPF) causes a reduction in weld line displacement and an increase in the press force.

Keywords: Rubber pad forming, Tailor welded blank, Thickness ratio, Weld line displacement.

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Authors: N. N. A. K. Shah, R. A. Rahman, R. Shamsuddin, N. M. Adzahan

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Pummelo is known to be the largest of all citrus fruits, with expected ratio of 2:1 (w/v) of producing juice, is an attractive opportunity for Malaysia to expand pummelo-s influence and marketability over the international market of juices. The purpose of this study is to identify and quantify the phenolic compounds in two Malaysian varieties of pummelo fruit juice: Ledang (PO55) and Tambun (PO52). Identifications of polyphenols composition were done using High Performance Liquid Chromatography Diode Array Detection (HPLC-DAD). The phenolic compounds that were found in both varieties were hydroxycinnamic acids and flavonones. This study proved that Tambun variety has the highest antioxidant and phenolic compounds in comparison to Ledang variety. However, considerations have to be made to suit consumer-s taste bud and the amount of enzyme needed to clarify the juice for its marketability.

Keywords: Antioxidant, HPLC, phenolic contents and pummelo fruit juice

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Authors: Djamal Atlaoui, Youcef Bouafia

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This work deals with the experimental study of the mechanical behavior, by shear tests (fracture shear), elements of concrete beams reinforced with fibers in chips. These fibers come from the machining waste of the steel parts. The shear tests are carried out on prismatic specimens of dimensions 10 x 20 x 120 cm³. The fibers are characterized by mechanical resistance and tearing. The optimal composition of the concrete was determined by the workability test. Two fiber contents are selected for this study (W = 0.6% and W = 0.8%) and a BT control concrete (W = 0%) of the same composition as the matrix is developed to serve as a reference with a sand-to-gravel ratio (S/G) of concrete matrix equal to 1. The comparison of the different results obtained shows that the chips fibers confer a significant ductility to the material after cracking of the concrete. Also, the fibers used limit diagonal cracks in shear and improve strength and rigidity.

Keywords: Characterization, chips fibers, cracking mode, ductility, undulation, shear.

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Authors: Morteza Fathipour, Samira Omidbakhsh, Kimia Khodayari

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RF performance of SOI CMOS device has attracted significant amount of interest recently. In order to improve RF parameters, Strained Si/Relaxed Si0.8Ge0.2 investigated as a replacement for Si technology .Enhancement of carrier mobility associated with strain engineering makes Strained Si a promising candidate for improving RF performance of CMOS technology. From the simulation, the cut-off frequency is estimated to be 224 GHZ, whereas in SOI at similar bias is about 188 GHZ. Therefore, Strained Si exhibits 19% improvement in cut-off frequency over similar Si counterpart. In this paper, Ion/Ioff ratio is studied as one of the key parameters in logic and digital application. Strained Si/SiGe demonstrates better Ion/Ioff characteristic than SOI, in similar channel length of 100 nm.Another important key analog figures of merit such as Early Voltage (VEA) ,transconductance vs drain current (gm /Ids) are studied. They introduce the efficiency of the devices to convert dc power into ac frequency.

Keywords: cut-off frequency, RF application, Silicon oninsulator, Strained Si/SiGe on insulator.

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Authors: R.Goudarzizadeh, N.Hedayat, S.H.Mousavi Jahromi

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Channel junctions can be analyzed in two ways of division (lateral intake) and combined flows (confluence). The present paper investigates 3D flow pattern at lateral intake using Navier-Stokes equation and κ -ε (RNG) turbulent model. The equations are solved by Finite-Volume Method (FVM) and results are compared with the experimental data of (Barkdoll, B.D., 1997) to test the validity of the findings. Comparison of the results with the experimental data indicated a close proximity between the two sets of data which suggest a very close simulation. Results further indicated an inverse relation between the effects of discharge ratio ( r Q ) on the length and width of the separation zone. In other words, as the discharge ration increases, the length and width of separation zone decreases.

Keywords: 900 junction, flow division, turbulent flow, numerical modeling, flow separation zone.

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Authors: H. Golchoobian, S. Saedodin, M. H. Taheri, A. Sarafraz

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In this paper, natural convection in an attic is numerically investigated. The geometry of the problem is considered to be a triangular enclosure. ANSYS Fluent software is used for modeling and numerical solution. This study is for steady state. Four right-angled triangles with height to base ratios of 2, 1, 0.5 and 0.25 are considered. The behavior of various parameters related to its performance, including temperature distribution and velocity vectors are evaluated, and graphs for the Nusselt number have been drawn. Also, in this study, the effect of geometric shape of enclosure with different height-to-base ratios has been evaluated for three types of boundary conditions of winter, summer day and one another state. It can be concluded that as the bottom side temperature and ratio of base to height of the enclosure increases, the convective effects become more prominent and circulation happened.

Keywords: Enclosure, natural convection, numerical solution, Nusselt number, triangular.

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Authors: Ehsan Ghanaei, Feridun Esmaeilzadeh, Jamshid Fathi Kaljahi

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In the previous multi-solid models,¤ò approach is used for the calculation of fugacity in the liquid phase. For the first time, in the proposed multi-solid thermodynamic model,γ approach has been used for calculation of fugacity in the liquid mixture. Therefore, some activity coefficient models have been studied that the results show that the predictive Wilson model is more appropriate than others. The results demonstrate γ approach using the predictive Wilson model is in more agreement with experimental data than the previous multi-solid models. Also, by this method, generates a new approach for presenting stability analysis in phase equilibrium calculations. Meanwhile, the run time in γ approach is less than the previous methods used ¤ò approach. The results of the new model present 0.75 AAD % (Average Absolute Deviation) from the experimental data which is less than the results error of the previous multi-solid models obviously.

Keywords: Multi-solid thermodynamic model, PredictiveWilson model, Wax formation.

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Authors: U. Antone, V. Sterna, J. Zagorska

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Milk from differently fed cows (supplemented with carotenoids from carrots or palm oil product Carotino CAF 100) was obtained in a conventional dairy farm to assess the carotenoid potential to protect milk fat against oxidation. The extracted anhydrous milk fat (AMF) was tested by peroxide value, and Rancimat tests. Temperature, and light stimulation for reaction acceleration was used. The oxidative stability enhancement by carotenoids was detected in peroxide value test – the strongest effect was observed in palm oil, following by carrot supplemented group, compared to control group, whose feed was unchanged. Rancimat accelerated oxidation test results did not show any superiority of the oxidative stability of the AMF samples from milk of the carotenoidsupplemented cow groups. The average oxidation stability of AMF dark-stored samples was 12.59 ± 0.294 h, and it was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than that of AMF light-affected samples, i.e. 2.60 ± 0.191 h.

Keywords: antioxidants, dairy products, forages, lipid aging, peroxide

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Authors: G.Anjali, M.Bhavya, N.Arvind Kumar

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In order to avoid the potentially devastating consequences of global warming and climate change, the carbon dioxide “CO2" emissions caused due to anthropogenic activities must be reduced considerably. This paper presents the first study examining the feasibility of carbon sequestration in construction and demolition “C&D" waste. Experiments were carried out in a self fabricated Batch Reactor at 40ºC, relative humidity of 50-70%, and flow rate of CO2 at 10L/min for 1 hour for water-to-solids ratio of 0.2 to 1.2. The effect of surface area was found by comparing the theoretical extent of carbonation of two different sieve sizes (0.3mm and 2.36mm) of C&D waste. A 38.44% of the theoretical extent of carbonation equating to 4% CO2 sequestration extent was obtained for C&D waste sample for 0.3mm sieve size. Qualitative, quantitative and morphological analyses were done to validate carbonate formation using X-ray diffraction “X.R.D.," thermal gravimetric analysis “T.G.A., “X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy “X.R.F.," and scanning electron microscopy “S.E.M".

Keywords: Alkaline waste, construction and demolition waste, CO2 sequestration, mineral carbonation.

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Authors: L. Belkhiri, L. Mouni, A. Tiri, T.S. Narany

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In the present study, the self-organizing map (SOM) clustering technique was applied to identify homogeneous clusters of hydrochemical parameters in El Milia plain, Algeria, to assess the quality of groundwater for potable and agricultural purposes. The visualization of SOM-analysis indicated that 35 groundwater samples collected in the study area were classified into three clusters, which showed progressive increase in electrical conductivity from cluster one to cluster three. Samples belonging to cluster one are mostly located in the recharge zone showing hard fresh water type, however, water type gradually changed to hard-brackish type in the discharge zone, including clusters two and three. Ionic ratio studies indicated the role of carbonate rock dissolution in increases on groundwater hardness, especially in cluster one. However, evaporation and evapotranspiration are the main processes increasing salinity in cluster two and three.

Keywords: Drinking water, groundwater quality, irrigation water, self-organizing maps.

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Authors: G.S. Abdiraiymova, D.K. Burkhanova, G.A. Kenzhakimova

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Education in the modern world provides the socioeconomic progress of society. In today's society, where the presence of large middle class ensures its stability and is a symbol of resolution of hidden economic problems, education is an integral part of formation and reproduction of the middle class. This article presents part of results of the sociological study conducted under the project "Kazakhstan model of education: international experience and national traditions" supported by the Foundation of the First President of Republic of Kazakhstan - Leader of the Nation to determine the ratio of students to the transformations of the educational system. The authors conclude that the Kazakhstani system of education, passing through the transformation processes, improving the quality of educational programs and trying to correspond to the international standards, not yet in full range, but begins to perform important functions in the formation of the middle class.

Keywords: Higher education, middle class, reforms, students, transformation processes.

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Authors: Hazem M. El-Bakry, Qiangfu Zhao

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In this paper, an approach to reduce the computation steps required by fast neural networksfor the searching process is presented. The principle ofdivide and conquer strategy is applied through imagedecomposition. Each image is divided into small in sizesub-images and then each one is tested separately usinga fast neural network. The operation of fast neuralnetworks based on applying cross correlation in thefrequency domain between the input image and theweights of the hidden neurons. Compared toconventional and fast neural networks, experimentalresults show that a speed up ratio is achieved whenapplying this technique to locate human facesautomatically in cluttered scenes. Furthermore, fasterface detection is obtained by using parallel processingtechniques to test the resulting sub-images at the sametime using the same number of fast neural networks. Incontrast to using only fast neural networks, the speed upratio is increased with the size of the input image whenusing fast neural networks and image decomposition.

Keywords: Fast Neural Networks, 2D-FFT, CrossCorrelation, Image decomposition, Parallel Processing.

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Authors: Fátima Gonçalves, Joaquim Brigas, Jorge Gonçalves

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As a way of managing the increasing volume and complexity of information that circulates in the present time, graphical representations are increasingly used, which add meaning to the information presented in communication media, through an efficient communication design. The visual culture itself, driven by technological evolution, has been redefining the forms of communication, so that contemporary visual communication represents a major impact on society. This article presents the results and respective comparative analysis of four publications in the Iberian press, focusing on the formal aspects of newspapers and the space they dedicate to the various communication elements. Two Portuguese newspapers and two Spanish newspapers were selected for this purpose. The findings indicated that the newspapers show a similarity in the use of graphic solutions, which corroborate a visual trend in communication design. The results also reveal that Spanish newspapers are more meticulous with graphic consistency. This study intended to contribute to improving knowledge of the Iberian generalist press.

Keywords: Communication design, graphic resources, Iberian Press, visual journalism.

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Authors: Umpawan Satitthai, Apanee Luengnaruemitchai, Erdogan Gulari

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In this study, oxidative steam reforming of methanol (OSRM) over a Au/CeO2–Fe2O3 catalyst prepared by a depositionprecipitation (DP) method was studied to produce hydrogen in order to feed a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). The support (CeO2, Fe2O3, and CeO2–Fe2O3) were prepared by precipitation and co-precipitation methods. The impact of the support composition on the catalytic performance was studied by varying the Ce/(Ce+Fe) atomic ratio, it was found that the 1%Au/CF(0.25) calcined at 300 °C exhibited the highest catalytic activity in the whole temperature studied. In addition, the effect of Au content was investigated and 3%Au/CF(0.25) exhibited the highest activity under the optimum condition in the temperature range of 200 °C to 400 °C. The catalysts were characterized by various techniques: XRD, TPR, XRF, and UV-vis.

Keywords: CeO2, Fe2O3, Gold catalyst, Hydrogen production, Methanol, Oxidative steam reforming.

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Authors: Yen-Ting Wang, Kenny Wen-Chyuan Chen, I-Tsun Chiang, Lung-Ching Liang, Alex J.Y. Lee

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The aim of this study was to establish the feasibility of a minute incremental exercise testing protocol in young asthma children. Twenty-two children with clinically diagnosed mild to moderate asthma volunteered to participate. The maximum incremental exercise test was performed using a cycle ergometer with an electromagnetic braking. A warm-up unloaded for 2 minutes then the workload was started at 40 watts for 2 minutes, and then stepwise increments of 8 watts per 2 minutes were applied. The pedaling frequency was set at 50 rpm. Ventilation and gas exchange were measured with a breath-by-breath automatic metabolic measurement system. Results showed that this test was well tolerated by all asthmatic children. Most of the children reached the VO2 plateau and satisfied the criteria for maximal respiratory exchange ratio of ≥ 1. This Study demonstrated that this testing protocol was suitable for young asthmatic children.

Keywords: Asthma, Child, Exercise, Pediatrics.

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Authors: Viliam Makis, Farnoosh Naderkhani, Leila Jafari

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In this paper, we present a model and an algorithm for the calculation of the optimal control limit, average cost, sample size, and the sampling interval for an optimal Bayesian chart to control the proportion of defective items produced using a semi-Markov decision process approach. Traditional p-chart has been widely used for controlling the proportion of defectives in various kinds of production processes for many years. It is well known that traditional non-Bayesian charts are not optimal, but very few optimal Bayesian control charts have been developed in the literature, mostly considering finite horizon. The objective of this paper is to develop a fast computational algorithm to obtain the optimal parameters of a Bayesian p-chart. The decision problem is formulated in the partially observable framework and the developed algorithm is illustrated by a numerical example.

Keywords: Bayesian control chart, semi-Markov decision process, quality control, partially observable process.

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Authors: Amin Abedi, Naser Vosoughi, Mohammad Bagher Ghofrani

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Double heterogeneity of randomly located pebbles in the core and Coated Fuel Particles (CFPs) in the pebbles are specific features in pebble bed reactors and usually, because of difficulty to model with MCNP code capabilities, are neglected. In this study, characteristics of HTR-10, Tsinghua University research reactor, are used and not only double heterogeneous but also truncated CFPs and Pebbles are considered.Firstly, 8335 CFPs are distributed randomly in a pebble and then the core of reactor is filled with those pebbles and graphite pebbles as moderator such that 57:43 ratio of fuel and moderator pebbles is established.Finally, four different core configurations are modeled. They are Simple Cubic (SC) structure with truncated pebbles,SC structure without truncated pebble, and Simple Hexagonal(SH) structure without truncated pebbles and SH structure with truncated pebbles. Results like effective multiplication factor (Keff), critical height,etc. are compared with available data.

Keywords: Double Heterogeneity, HTR-10, MCNP, Pebble Bed Reactor, Stochastic Geometry.

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Authors: M. Z. Othman, S. Uludag-Demirer, G. N. Demirer

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One of the main challenges for one phase anaerobic digestion processes is the high concentration of NH4+ and PO4 3- ions  in the digested sludge supernatant. This project focuses on enhancing the removal of nutrients during the anaerobic digestion process through fixing both NH4+ and PO4 3- ions in the form of struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate, MAP, MgNH4PO4.6H2O) within the anaerobic sludge. Batch anaerobic digestion tests showed that Mg2+ concentration in the range 279 – 812 mg/L had insignificant effect on CGP but incurred a slight increase in COD removal. The reactor that had soluble Mg2+:NH4+:PO43- at a molar ratio of 1.28:1:00:1:00 achieved the best performance enhancement of 8% increase in COD removal and 32% reduction in NH4+ in the reactor supernatant. Overall, the results show that there is a potential to optimise conventional anaerobic digestion such that supernatant lean in P and N, and sludge rich in nutrients are obtained. 

Keywords: Anaerobic Digestion, Nutrients, Struvite, Waste Activated Sludge (WAS)

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Authors: Ahmad Salman

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Electronic Response Systems such as Kahoot, Poll Everywhere, and Google Classroom are gaining a lot of popularity when surveying audiences in events, meetings, and classroom. The reason is mainly because of the ease of use and the convenience these tools bring since they provide mobile applications with a simple user interface. In this paper, we present a case study on the effectiveness of using Electronic Response Systems on student participation and learning experience in a classroom. We use a polling application for class exercises in two different technology-oriented classes. We evaluate the effectiveness of the usage of the polling applications through statistical analysis of the students performance in these two classes and compare them to the performances of students who took the same classes without using the polling application for class participation. Our results show an increase in the performances of the students who used the Electronic Response System when compared to those who did not by an average of 11%.

Keywords: Interactive learning, classroom technology, electronic response systems, polling applications, learning evaluation.

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Authors: Abdul Kadir Jumaat, Siti Salmah Yasiran, Wan Eny Zarina Wan Abd Rahman, Aminah Abdul Malek

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A mammography image is composed of low contrast area where the breast tissues and the breast abnormalities such as microcalcification can hardly be differentiated by the medical practitioner. This paper presents the application of active contour models (Snakes) for the segmentation of microcalcification in mammography images. Comparison on the microcalcifiation areas segmented by the Balloon Snake, Gradient Vector Flow (GVF) Snake, and Distance Snake is done against the true value of the microcalcification area. The true area value is the average microcalcification area in the original mammography image traced by the expert radiologists. From fifty images tested, the result obtained shows that the accuracy of the Balloon Snake, GVF Snake, and Distance Snake in segmenting boundaries of microcalcification are 96.01%, 95.74%, and 95.70% accuracy respectively. This implies that the Balloon Snake is a better segmentation method to locate the exact boundary of a microcalcification region.

Keywords: Balloon Snake, GVF Snake, Distance Snake, Mammogram, Microcalcifications, Segmentation

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Authors: Maziar Ramezani, Thomas Neitzert

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This paper gives an overview of a deep drawing process by pressurized liquid medium separated from the sheet by a rubber diaphragm. Hydroforming deep drawing processing of sheet metal parts provides a number of advantages over conventional techniques. It generally increases the depth to diameter ratio possible in cup drawing and minimizes the thickness variation of the drawn cup. To explore the deformation mechanism, analytical and numerical simulations are used for analyzing the drawing process of an AA6061-T4 blank. The effects of key process parameters such as coefficient of friction, initial thickness of the blank and radius between cup wall and flange are investigated analytically and numerically. The simulated results were in good agreement with the results of the analytical model. According to finite element simulations, the hydroforming deep drawing method provides a more uniform thickness distribution compared to conventional deep drawing and decreases the risk of tearing during the process.

Keywords: Deep drawing, Hydroforming, Rubber diaphragm

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Authors: M. Khoshtinat, N. A. S. Amin, I. Noshadi

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Direct conversion of methane to methanol by partial oxidation in a thermal reactor has a poor yield of about 2% which is less than the expected economical yield of about 10%. Conventional thermal catalytic reactors have been proposed to be superseded by plasma reactors as a promising approach, due to strength of the electrical energy which can break C-H bonds of methane. Among the plasma techniques, non-thermal dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma chemical process is one of the most future promising technologies in synthesizing methanol. The purpose of this paper is presenting a brief review of CH4 oxidation with O2 in DBD plasma reactors based on the recent investigations. For this reason, the effect of various parameters of reactor configuration, feed ratio, applied voltage, residence time (gas flow rate), type of applied catalyst, pressure and reactor wall temperature on methane conversion and methanol selectivity are discussed.

Keywords: Dielectric barrier discharge, methane, methanol, partial oxidation, Plasma.

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Authors: F. Iscan, C. Yagci

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Rapid population growth, urbanization and industrialization are known as the most important factors of environment problems. Elimination and management of solid wastes are also within the most important environment problems. One of the main problems in solid waste management is the selection of the best site for elimination of solid wastes. Lately, Geographical Information System (GIS) has been used for easing selection of landfill area. GIS has the ability of imitating necessary economic, environmental and political limitations. They play an important role for the site selection of landfill area as a decision support tool. In this study; map layers will be studied for minimum effect of environmental, social and cultural factors and maximum effect for engineering/economic factors for site selection of landfill areas and using GIS for a decision support mechanism in solid waste landfill areas site selection will be presented in Aksaray/Turkey city, Güzelyurt district practice.

Keywords: GIS, landfill, solid waste, spatial analysis.

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Authors: Saleh H. Abud, Z. Hassan, F. K. Yam

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Characteristics of MSM photodetector based on a porous In_0.08Ga_0.92N thin film were reported. Nanoporous structures of n-type In_0.08Ga_0.92N/AlN/Si thin films were synthesized by photoelectrochemical (PEC) etching at a ratio of 1:4 of HF:C₂H₅OH solution for 15min. The structural and optical properties of pre- and post-etched thin films were investigated. Field emission scanning electron microscope and atomic force microscope images showed that the pre-etched thin film has a sufficiently smooth surface over a large region and the roughness increased for porous film. Blue shift has been observed in photoluminescence emission peak at 300 K for porous sample. The photoluminescence intensity of the porous film indicated that the optical properties have been enhanced. A high work function metals (Pt and Ni) were deposited as a metal contact on the porous films. The rise and recovery times of the devices were investigated at 390nm chopped light. Finally, the sensitivity and quantum efficiency were also studied.

Keywords: Porous InGaN, photoluminescence, SMS photodetector.

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Authors: A. Radzevičius, P. Viškelis, R. Karklelienė, J. Viškelis, Č. Bobinas, E. Dambrauskienė andS. Sakalauskienė

Abstract:

Tomato nutrition value, color, flavor of their fruits and products depends mainly on lycopene, β-carotene, ascorbic acid, sugars and their ratio. The two most important carotenoids in fruits of tomato are lycopene, which determined fruits red color, and β- carotene, which accounts for approximately 7% of the tomato carotenoids. Therefore, tomato products and their quality can be well characterized by the content of these elements.Maturity at harvest is very important to composition and quality of tomatoes. This is especially a problem with tomatoes picked green since it is difficult to differentiate between mature and immature-green fruits. Typical and advanced mature-green tomatoes will usually attain a much better flavor than those picked at the immature or partially mature stages.To better understand the synthesis of biochemical compounds, their concentration should be compared not only at the last stage of maturity, but also during all fruit ripening period in different varieties.

Keywords: quality, ripeness, tomato, variety

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Authors: Benjamin Y. M. Kwan, Hon Keung Kwan

Abstract:

Noise contamination in a magnetic resonance (MR) image could occur during acquisition, storage, and transmission in which effective filtering is required to avoid repeating the MR procedure. In this paper, an iterative asymmetrical triangle fuzzy filter with moving average center (ATMAVi filter) is used to reduce different levels of salt and pepper noise in a brain MR image. Besides visual inspection on filtered images, the mean squared error (MSE) is used as an objective measurement. When compared with the median filter, simulation results indicate that the ATMAVi filter is effective especially for filtering a higher level noise (such as noise density = 0.45) using a smaller window size (such as 3x3) when operated iteratively or using a larger window size (such as 5x5) when operated non-iteratively.

Keywords: Brain images, Fuzzy filters, Magnetic resonance imaging, Salt and pepper noise reduction.

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