October 2011
Elementary school student’s acceptance of Lego NXT: The technology acceptance model, a preliminary investigation
The Lego NXT Software Development module had successfully used challenges and emulations to improve the student experience, but these challenges were somewhat artificial in nature. It was expected that the use of the Lego models would supply more focus for the students and enable them to prep over the course of the module, building on their knowledge each week, on the development of a meaningful achievement. The purpose...
October 2011
Hidden Markov models (HMMs) isolated word recognizer with the optimization of acoustical analysis and modeling techniques
Most state of the art automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems are typically based on continuous Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) as acoustic modeling technique. It has been shown that the performance of HMM speech recognizers may be affected by a bad choice of the type of acoustic feature parameters in the acoustic front end module. For these reasons, we propose in this paper a dedicated isolated word recognition system...
October 2011
Thermal and dielectric properties of polypyrrole-poly(methyl methacrylate) nanocomposites
Thermal properties of the polypyrrole-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PPy)-(PMMA) compositeswere analyzed by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). A decrease in the glass transition temperatures Tg with the PPy concentration content reveals the increase of segmental motion. Dielectric properties of these composites were studied in the frequency...
October 2011
Unsteady mixed convection visco-elastic flow and heat transfer in a thin film flow over a porous stretching sheet with internal heat generation
In this study, a two-dimensional unsteady mixed convection flow of an incompressible visco-elastic fluid over a porous thermal forming thin film stretching sheet with internal heat generation has been studied. Two novel items x and are presented for free convection in porous space important parameters and an internal heat generation phenomena, respectively. The similarity transformation and an...
October 2011
Sensing and filtering characteristics of electrostatic sensors for pneumatically conveyed particles
Electrostatic sensor, which can also be called as triboelectric sensor or electrodynamic sensor, senses the electrostatic charge carried by the dry particle in pneumatic conveyor. Source of the signal induced on the electrostatic sensor is brought by the object to be measured and no excitation circuit is necessary. Electrostatic sensors are used in the process industry due their low cost and robust. This paper describes...
October 2011
Effect of an electric field within microscopy focused ion beam (FIB) between manipulator sharp and the ion trap of the electron detector
The manipulation of samples with micro manipulators sharps in the normal axis to the observation plane is practically blind in microscopy focused ion beam (FIB) mono beam. The application of a negative potential to the manipulator sharp has been considered, which causes differences of electrical potential between the detector and the sample holder, generating an electric field between the sharp and the sample....
October 2011
Influence of ultra violet radiation on the surface and leakage current of silicone rubber insulator
This paper deals with the surface degradation characteristics of 20 kV silicone rubbers (SiR). A chamber containing nine ultra violet (UV) lamps with intensity of 50 W/m2 was considered as artificial ageing. There are many aging factors in the outdoor environment, but this paper study the factors UV that it cause Crazing, chalking, tracking and loosing hydrophobicity on the surface of insulator. Solid layer...
October 2011
An innovative combination of particle swarm optimization, learning automaton and great deluge algorithms for dynamic environments
Dynamic optimization in which global optima and local optima change over time is always a hot research topic. It has been shown that particle swarm optimization works well when facing dynamic environments. On the other hand, a learning automaton can be considered as an intelligent tool (agent) which can learn what action is the best interacting with its environment. The great deluge algorithm is also a search...
October 2011
Determination of total dissolved solid (TDS), nitrate and fluoride in 24 brands of Iranian bottled waters
Concentration of total dissolved solid (TDS), nitrate and fluoride in 24 different brands of Iranian bottled water were studied. A total of 78 bottle water was analyzed for TDS, NO3-and F- according to standard methods. Also, results were compared to Iranian, World Health Organization (WHO) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drinking water standards. The mean concentrations of F- in all examined water...
October 2011
Improvement in physical properties for ground treated with rapid impact compaction
Ground improvement has been used on many construction sites to densify granular material, in other word to improve soil properties and reduce potential settlement. This paper evaluates the efficiency of rapid impact compaction (RIC), which is an improvement on the process of deep dynamic compaction, in improving soil properties and controlling soil settlement. In this technique ground improvement is achieved by...
October 2011
Automated optical inspection system for analogical resistance type touch panel
The touch panel is the most important and promising technical product nowadays. Automated optical inspection (AOI) technology provides objective measurement, shorter production period and better production quality. The purpose of this paper is to develop an automated optical inspection system for analogical resistance type touch panel. This system integrates mechanism, electrical control and machine vision, and applies...
October 2011
Finite element analysis (FEA) modeling on adhesive joint for composite fuselage model
n this paper, a finite element modeling via ABAQUS/Explicit simulation on a novel fabrication miniature composite fuselage structure is presented. The fuselage structure is modeled as a continuum composite layup that consisted of a woven C-glass fiber/epoxy 200 g/m2 composite laminated [908] with the orthotropic elastic material properties andadhesively bonded butt joint. The...
October 2011
Analytical solution for strongly nonlinear oscillation systems using energy balance method
This paper applied He’s energy balance method (EBM) to solve the non-natural vibrations and oscillations. We find that this method (EBM) works very well for the whole range of initial amplitudes and does not demand small perturbation and also sufficiently accurate to both linear and nonlinear physics and engineering problems. We consider a high nonlinear single degree of freedom to illustrate the effectiveness and...
October 2011
Design and modelling of a linear switched reluctance actuator for biomedical applications
This paper deals with a design of linear stepper motor for biomedical applications. The involved biomedical system is a syringe pump generally used for continuous drug infusion. The syringe pump consists of a linear switched reluctance motor (LSRM) coupled to a syringe plunger. In order to determine the axial force to control the syringe plunger, it was necessary to begin by evaluating the thrust force. The latter...
October 2011
Removal of C.I. Basic Red 46 (BR 46) from contaminated water by adsorption onto hardened paste of Portland cement: Equilibrium isotherms and thermodynamic parameters study
The present study was carried out to investigate the potential of hardened paste of Portland cement (HPPC) as a low-cost adsorbent for the removal of Basic Red 46 (BR 46) from contaminated water by using batch adsorption studies. In this work, HPPC has been selected as adsorbent because of the main advantages such as high efficiency, simple separation of sludge, abundant availability and low-cost material. The...
October 2011
Dyed sensitized solar cells: A technically and economically alternative concept to p-n junction photovoltaic devices
Nanocrystalline dyed sensitized solar cells (DSSC) are photo-electrochemical cells based on principles similar to the processes in natural photosynthesis. They are based on photo sensitization of nanocrystalline semiconductor electrodes by absorbed dyes. The DSSC provides a technically and economically credible alternative concept to present day p–n junction photovoltaic devices. The DSSC work on a different...
October 2011
Mathematical models for component commonality under quality and resources breakdown in multistage production
In the era of mass customization and supply chain rivalry, managing product diversity is essential for survival in business. The use of common part for different products is a vital method of achieving the goal. The advantages of insertion of duplicate component in a product family are stated in literatures. Simulation or conceptual beliefs is employed in the majority of the researches and mainly considered single stage...
October 2011
Some iterative algorithms for trifunction equilibrium variational inequalities
In this paper, we use the auxiliary principle technique to suggest and analyze some iterative methods for solving a new class of equilibrium problems and variational inequalities, which is called the trifunction equilibrium variational inequality. Convergence of these iterative methods is proved under very mild and suitable assumptions. Several special cases are also considered. Results proved in this paper continue to...
October 2011
Direction of arrival estimation using modified orthogonal matching pursuit algorithm
Direction of arrival (DOA) estimation is a sparse reconstruction problem. However, conventional orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) may fail to identify the correct atoms since the redundant dictionary composed of the direction vectors is highly coherent. To mitigate the coherence problem, in this paper, we propose a modified OMP by constructing data dependent sensing dictionary for sparse reconstruction in...
October 2011
Dynamical analysis of clustering-based wireless sensor networks
In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), clustering-based algorithms have been proved to be effective techniques to save energy and improve fault tolerance. In this paper, a scale-free evolving model for clustering-based WSNs with exponential growth behavior is presented, in which the nodes arrive as a Poisson process with rate λ. This model takes into account four types of evolving events: selection of cluster-head...
October 2011
The effect of geological and geotechnical factors on the project design of coastal structures (Alanya Marina case study)
Coastal areas of Turkey are scientifically, culturally and economically very important places because of values in geomorphological, geological, biological, archeological and tourism properties. In this study, coastal structures are classified; and design phases of shore structures and required geological and geotechnical studies before design are explained. As an example, geological and geotechnical studies carried out...
October 2011
Heat treatment of Al2O3-SiC-MgO nanoceramic and optimizing the fracture performance
In this study, the procedure of sintering and heat treatment of Al2O3-SiC-MgO nanoceramic was considered. For improving the densification behavior and mechanical properties, experimental variables, such as sintering temperature and duration, which significantly influence the fracture performance of this nanocomposite body, were optimized. To obtain desired properties, several tests were conducted on the nanoceramic...
October 2011
Assessment of high strength and light weight aggregate concrete properties using ultrasonic pulse velocity technique
In this study, the ultrasonic pulse velocity technique as a non-destructive testing of concrete was used to assess the effect of some criteria on high strength and light weight aggregate concrete. The study included several concrete mix design with ages of 7, 28 and 90 days. The effect of age, cement content, water ratio and slump on two concrete types was studied and discussed. The use of...
October 2011
Online inter-area oscillation monitoring in power systems using PMU data and Prony analysis
In this paper, signals measured by phasor measurement units (PMUs) are used to monitor power system small signal stability. In the proposed method, proper signals selected based on the modes observability and Prony analysis is employed to extract signal damping information (amplitude and frequency of participated modes) in real-time. The proposed method is simulated using a test signal in ideal and noisy environment....
October 2011
Dynamic stability enhancement and voltage support using UPFC tuned genetic algorithms in a multi- machine environment
Unified power flow controller (UPFC) is one of the most important flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) devices in power systems. It has many applications such as stability enhancement, power flow control, voltage support, etc. In this paper UPFC is used in order to control voltage. In this scope, UPFC is installed on a specified bus and the voltage of the proposed bus is controlled by using UPFC. In order to...
October 2011
High voltage buried step-doping p+ layer silicon-on-insulator lateral double diffused mosfet (SOI LDMOSI) with a back-gate
A high voltage buried step-doping p+layer (BSP+L) lateral double diffused mosfet (LDMOS) on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) with a back-gate is proposed. The new structure is characterized by a BSP+L on the buried oxide under the source. When a high positive bias is applied to the back-gate in the off-state, the depleted BSP+L greatly enhances the electric field in the buried oxide layer under the source. Compared with...
October 2011
The effectiveness of using a recharge well to mitigate flood measured in a physical model
A structural method that involves the use of a recharge well to mitigate flood in a flat area is adopted as a mitigation method for this research. The determination of the effectiveness of this method was carried out by simulating storm-water accumulation in a reduced scaled physical model. The physical model had a rainfall simulator fitted to a sand tank which contained soil materials of different grain size and...
October 2011
An application of different artificial intelligences techniques for water quality prediction
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a new technique with a flexible mathematical structure that is capable of identifying complex non-linear relationships between input and output data when compared with other classical modelling techniques. In this study, different techniques of AI have been investigated in prediction of water quality parameters including: multi-layer perceptron neural networks...
October 2011
Ecological implication of market gardenning in the old Ogoja zone of Nigeria
Man’s attempt to improve his income and also supplement his food especially during dry season in the old Ogoja zone has led him to develop dry season farming along watershed. Man’s farming activities mainly for market gardening has impacted in no small way on the environment which has resulted in the reduction of rainfall volume, increase temperature, biodiversity depletion and soil fertility loss. In this...
October 2011
An evolutionary multi-objective optimization algorithm for portfolio selection problem
Cultural algorithms (CAs) are one of the metaheuristics which can be adapted in order to work in multi-objective optimization environments. On the other hand, portfolio selection problem (PSP) is a well-know problem in literature. However, only a few articles have applied evolutionary multi-objective (EMO) algorithms to these problems and articles presenting CAs applied to the PSP have not been found. In this article,...
October 2011
Pluggable, interoperable and extensible (PIE): A grid portal for interoperability
The main challenge grid computing environment faces today is to provide interoperability andenable collaboration between multitudes of grids. Standardization is a long term solution to enable interoperability. Grid portals and gateways have emerged to be important components in addressing interoperability challenge in grid environments to enable collaboration and expand the pool of resources available. In...
October 2011
Lean software tool for lead time reduction
Lean manufacturing, or simply lean, is a production process used to eliminate the waste from all phases of an organization’s operations and in improving the long term maximization of company resources. Finding a problem is the first step and essential part of a research process that can be investigated in the production process of a factory. For example, the major problems found in the warehouse area of a food...
October 2011
On-line surface roughness recognition system by vibration monitoring in CNC turning using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS)
This study presents a new method for modeling an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) based on vibration for predicting surface roughness in the CNC turning process. The input parameters of the model are insert nose radius, cutting speed, feed rate, depth of cut and vibration amplitude, which determine the output parameter of the surface roughness. A Gauss type membership function was used to train on ANFIS....
October 2011
A comparison between minimum-statistics and soft-decision noise estimation methods
Speech enhancement has been used in a variety of applications such as mobile phones, hearing aids and speech recognition systems. One of the most fundamental steps in manyspeech enhancement methods is noise estimation. Inexact noise estimation results in undesired effects in the enhanced signal. While over-estimating the noise leads to speech distortion, noise under-estimation leaves some annoying noise in the enhanced...
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