The numerical simulation of the cracking propagation and crack distribution of concrete specimens under uniaxial tensile loading was studied in this paper. A simple, practical and improved analytical crack iterative strategy based on the principle of “Crack element appearance one by one” was presented and the cracking iteration step was subdivide according to each cracking element. Besides, the heterogeneity, the anisotropy and the material and geometric nonlinearity of concrete were considered for the cracking simulation. Further, the new crack iterative strategy and the effects above were implemented with a program called RDDP to simulate the occurrence and development of cracks in concrete specimens. Final, an example of concrete prism under the uniaxial tensile loading were presented based on the homogeneous model and the random model, in which the cracking propagation and crack distribution were simulated and discussed. The results show that new crack iterative strategy combined with the random micro-model can perform well in simulation of the cracking behavior of the concrete specimens.
Most navigation systems integrate INS (Inertial Navigation System) sensor and GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver. Our research focuses on the development and design of a low-cost INS-GPS integration system for land vehicle navigation, based on a low-cost architecture. This work presents a solution for loosely coupled INS-GPS real-time embedded system. This integration can overcome the defects of each stand-alone sensor. This paper describes the design of an INS-GPS integrated system based on a reconfigurable architecture (FPGA). The algorithm implementation is evaluated and compared to ARM7 Cortex-M3 processor architecture. Single processor architecture is proposed for loosely coupled INS-GPS integration system implementing a Kalman Filter for data fusion. The system is designed for real time navigation with an update rate of 100 Hz. Processing time of the navigation algorithm is evaluated for both cases: simple and double data precision. The experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed architecture compared to other systems in the state of the art.
The present study investigates the behavior of steel tubular columns in-filled with plain and SF reinforced concrete. A nonlinear finite element model (FEM) using ANSYS program has been developed and the results obtained from the FEM are compared with the recent experimental works. The comparison indicated that the results of the model are evaluated to an acceptable limit of accuracy. The main parameters considered in the analysis were the slenderness, steel box wall thickness, cross section, percentage of SF (SF) and load eccentricity. The results indicated that the addition of SF in core concrete has considerable effect on the behavior of concrete-filled steel tube columns. A modified design equations have been implemented to (Euro code 4 2004) and (AISC/LRFD 2009) to consider the effect of SF reinforced concrete in the design of composite columns. A comparison study between the FEM results and those of the modified design equations is performed and good agreement is proved.
This paper aims to estimate harmonic frequencies by electrical appliances in daily use. There is much work in literature using various methodologies such as Fourier series transformations and Fourier based calculation techiques for harmonic analysis. However, these appproaches are hard to apply and time consuming , and therefore works are underway in pursuit of finding more efficent ways of frequency calculation. In this work Lagrange interpolation is effectively used in frequency estimation for an examplary actual current signal and results are compared.
• Abstract:\nThis research aims to reveal the degree of commitment of Saudi banks to the decisions of the Basel Committee, which holds control of the financial and banking developments, and also working on the development of the banking performance in order to maintain the integrity and safety of the international banking system, and to prevent the occurrence of banking crisis.\nThis research was done by reference to the annual report of two national banks and two foreign banks from banks operating in Saudi Arabia. The results showed that Saudi banks are committed to the application of Basel decisions regardless the bank nationality.
One of the major problems associated with the asphalt binders is its sensitivity towards the temperature. In Pakistan, asphalt binders have been selected for asphalt pavements on the basis of penetration grade, determined at 25oC. Temperature and loading time sensitivity of asphalt binders were never investigated before its applications. The effect of temperature and time of loading of three commonly used asphalt binders in Pakistan was investigated and compared to ascertain best performing binders under these conditions. Two neat asphalt binders of 60-70 and 40-50 penetration grade and modified 60-70 pen. grade bitumen with 1.6% elvaloy were studied at six temperatures of 18, 24,30,36,42 and 48oC and in a frequency range of 0.01Hz to 100Hz using a dynamic shear rheometer. Master curves are constructed and the shift factor curves are plotted to determine the temperature susceptibility of binders. Asphalt binder with 60-70 penetration grades showed higher temperature sensitivity in all frequency and temperature ranges. Polymer modification improves asphalt binder stiffness. At higher temperature the shear modulus reduces drastically.
Presently Tumor or Cancer growth is considered as one of the most serious health problems worldwide. Detection of tumors at an earlier stage helps the medical community to prolong the lives of the patients. Computer-Aided Diagnosis is a potential method to accomplish a range of quantitative tasks such as early detection and analysis of the unwanted growth. In this paper, we use a set of two dimensional cellular automaton rules to help us detect the growth based on edge detection.
Abstract\nThe presented research aims to establish and outline the influence of managers’ personal values on managers’ innovativeness. We examine the directions and intensities of considered influences related with the survey which included 208 managers’ responses from Slovenian enterprises, obtained in 2012. Schwartz values survey questionnaire was used for measuring managers’ personal values, and typical behavior of managers in most innovative enterprise was used for measuring manager attitudes toward innovativeness. Exploratory factor analysis reveals proposed measure as reliable. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the selected influence. Findings from hierarchical regression analysis reveal that the values on the level of high-order dimension of self-transcendence have positive association with typical innovative behavior. Values’ sub-dimension of power has negative association with typical innovative behavior, while achievement has positive association with innovative behavior. Turning to single values, high importance of ambition, success, freedom, and helpfulness has a positive association with typical innovative behavior, while a high importance of wealth, detachment, and accepting ‘my portion’ in life, has a negative association with typical innovative behavior. The paper highlights how managers’ personal values influence their innovative behavior and thus define their innovativeness. Results make managers reflect upon the preferred patters for development of innovative behavior in enterprises.
Education researchers and school administrators have faced the challenge of motivating teachers to higher levels of performance. In this regard, teacher motivation increases classroom performance and, accordingly, improves schooling and the overall quality of the school system. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the different types of motivational factors, both intrinsic and extrinsic, that influence teacher performance and contribute to teacher motivation.
This study investigated the effect of sliding speed on friction and wear behaviors of plasma nitrided (PN) and borided AISI M2 steels. The PN process was carried out in a dc-plasma system at a temperature of 923 K for 6h in a gas mixture of 80%N2-20%H2 under a constant pressure of 5 mbar. The boriding process was carried out in Ekabor-II powder at a temperature of 1223 K for 6 h. X-ray diffraction analysis on the surface of the PN and borided steels revealed the presence of FeB, Fe2B, CrB, MoB, WB, FeN, Fe2N, Fe3N and Fe4N compounds. The wear tests were carried out in a ball-disc arrangement under a dry friction condition at room temperature with an applied load of 10N and with sliding speeds of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 m/sec at a sliding distance of 1000m. Wear surfaces of the samples at the different sliding speeds were analyzed using a SEM microscopy and X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy EDS. The friction coefficients of the nitrided and borided AISI M2 steel varied from 0.42 to 0.61, from 0.33 to 0.52 respectively. As a result of wear, the friction coefficient was observed to decrease with an increase in the sliding speeds of the PN and borided AISI M2 steel while an increase was observed in the wear resistance.\n\nKeywords: Plasma nitriding, Boriding, AISI M2, Sliding speed, Wear rate
Developing countries like Iran have numerous cultural signs. Such cultural signs could be identified as a result of many borders territories and using them in stage design will cause them not to be understood or identified by non-native and foreign audience.\nThis article tries to study a particular paradox in the area of stage design in developing countries by elaborating the complicated situation of cultural-visual signs, so that if the stage designer wants to be faithful to national visual signs in his works, he will lose a large number of his non-native audiences in the process of globalization. But, if he doesn\'t consider these signs, he will have to choose some ordinary and publicly understandable signs. Thus, his stage designing will lack cultural identity, on one hand and he will move toward similarity with other designer\'s works by using general and global signs on the other.\nThis article studies two dramatic works as a research sample, which has been performed by the authors\' theater groups. Both of these works are written and designed by the above mentioned authors. One of these plays is deeply dependent on native visual signs and the other has a global approach to sign systems. In this study, we will discuss the creation of meaning through the selection of signs as well as their communication with the audience. Finally, certain recommendations will be introduced for escaping this paradox.
The invasion of non-native species threatens the conservation of native plant communities and the integrity of ecosystems. Numerous studies have examined this invasibility impact in order to gain a better understanding of the traits that make non-native species successful invaders. The studies also seek to understand the factors involved in community invasibility. The link between competition and soil traits is an important factor in determining the impact mechanisms. Flaveria bidentis (L.) Kuntze (F. bidentis) is an aggressive alien plant that has invaded farmland in several Provinces, China. The present study seeks to comprehend the competitive mechanisms of F. bidentis and to provide a theoretical control solution by assessing the density effect in a field setting. A replacement series experiment was designed according to the density ratios of 4:0, 3:1, 2:2, 1:3, 0:4 of F. bidentis and Medicago sativa L. (M. sativa). Soil properties were examined and the traits of two plants were compared. The competition of F. bidentis significantly decreased plant height, tiller number and number of leaves per tiller of M. sativa; however, the difference in the number of leaves was not found for density treatments. M. sativa yielded significantly higher plant dry weight (PDW) in 3F1M (three F. bidentis and one M. sativa) compared to the yield from sole cropping and intercropping of M. sativa. The maximum value of soil N and P content occurred with sole cropping of M. sativa. Higher values of soil urease and phosphatase occurred with sole cropping of F. bidentis. F. bidentis absorbed more N and P. The research results showed that the two plants had interspecific and intraspecific competition. Further, intraspecific competition between three F. bidentis plants was significantly more than that of only two plants. F. bidentis had a strong competitive ability and could replace M. sativa.
Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems transmit different data using the same frequency, so it is necessary to separate the signals simultaneously in the emerging LTE (Long Term Evolution) wireless receiver systems. Previous studies on the detection algorithm have shown that Maximum Likelihood Detection (MLD) provides the best bit error rate (BER) performance in emerging LTE receivers. However, the Latency which is measure of time delay in MLD increases with computational complexity. Therefore, it is impractical to use a MLD without reducing its latency. Recently, the use of QR decomposition (QRD) has been proposed to reduce the system latency while maintaining the performance of the system in MLD. In this paper, a novel approach for QR decomposition using Modified Gram-Schmidt with parallel architecture is presented to reduce the clock latency in MLD. This paper shows that the proposed method reduces the clock latency by 28.57% compared to previous algorithm presented in the QRD.
This study utilizes an output oriented Bootstrapped Data Envelopment Analysis (BDEA) methodology to assess the intellectual capital efficiency of 22 listed Pharmaceutical companies in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) during the period 2002 to 2010, based on multi-dimensional IC indicators under the assumption of VRS. Three inputs and three outputs indicators reflecting IC are used for the evaluation.\nWhen combining multiple measurements in DEA models it is more likely to have problems of biased results and overestimated/underestimated IC efficiency scores. This paper provides empirical evidences which demonstrate with the application of bootstrap techniques those traditional biased related problems can be avoided. The empirical application reveals that the efficiency results obtained after applying the techniques have been significantly improved.
An advanced mathematical model for glucose-insulin concentrations in Type 1 diabetes has been developed and simulated in this study using artificial neural networks. Although several nonlinear models of glucose-insulin concentrations have been designed before, but the complexity of the mathematical models and the lack of parameters in corrective actions to cope with the disturbances and interferences occurred have made the models nearly impossible to be applied in the real world applications such as ‘artificial endocrine pancreas’. However, the strategy to develop of an advanced mathematical model could overcome the inadequacy of the nonlinear mathematical models. At first, the two nonlinear glucose-insulin concentration models known as Hovorka model and modified Hovorka model that were developed from the interactions between parameters in compartment model of glucose-insulin systems were solved using MATLAB software. The data generated from each of the variables will then be used as the inputs to the artificial neural network programming. The multilayer feed-forward back-propagation artificial neural network builds in with five hidden layers that relates the output to the inputs by hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer function and optimized by Levenberg-Marquardt optimization method has successfully modelled the complex relationships between the inputs and the output data. This is proved from the overall performance regression analysis done on the simulation of both of the data from Hovorka and modified Hovorka models. For Hovorka model, R=0.9998 and for modified Hovorka model, R=0.99988 which for both models, the R is approaching to 1. Hence, the results indicate that the artificial neural network developed is optimized because of high accuracy and performance showed during the training, validation and testing period.
Nanospıder technology for controlling of Pseudomonas cichorii and Dickeya dadantii (erwinia chrysanthemi) by electrospun nanofibers of nylon-6/chitosan blends \n\nThis is the first report to use electrospun nanofibers which could be of considerable interest to the development of new antibacterial compounds against certain species of bacteria affect plants in different ways as Pseudomonas cichorii and Dickeya dadantii (Erwinia chrysanthemi). Electrospun nylon-6/chitosan (nylon-6/Ch) nanofibers were obtained from formic acid as a single solvent. Surface modification of electrospun nylon-6/chitosan nanofibers was observed by soaking the mat in aqueous solution of glycidyltrimethylammonium chloride (GTMAC) at room temperature overnight to give nylon-6/N-[(2-hydroxy-3-trimethylammonium)propyl] chitosan chloride (nylon-6/HTCC). The morphological, structural and thermal properties of the nylon-6/chitosan nanofibers were studied by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Biological screening demonstrated that Nylon-6/HTCC mat exhibited high potential antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas cichorii and Dickeya dadantii (Erwinia chrysanthemi) on protein profile. Pseudomonas cichorii and Dickeya dadantii examined using SEM were totally deformed and exhibited severe destruction\nKeywords: Chitosan, nylon-6, glycidyltrimethyl ammonium chloride, Pseudomonas cichorii and Dickeya dadantii (Erwinia chrysanthemi).
Many researchers have quantified the border irregularity of malignant melanomas through the deterministic way. But, Ng et al. 2005 have proposed a fuzzy adaptive approach in which symmetric distances are used to measure melanoma skin lesions by means of fuzzy borders. They have mentioned for the first time, melanoma skin lesions as fuzzy borders, but they failed to provide fuzzy value on the borders. In this paper, we have proposed two new and novel approaches, namely Scan Line Method and Fuzzy Relational Method, for quantifying the border asymmetricity for melanoma skin lesions. The procedure for quantifying asymmetricity through scan line method consists of various steps which are image preprocessing, boundary detection, evaluation of the skull region of the boundary, conversion of boundary into several straight lines, formation of polygon tables and edge tables, evaluation of centroid, principle axis & image transformations, embed 2nd, 3rd and 4th quadrant images into the first quadrant and finally the scan line approach is used to find the asymmetricity. The fuzzy relational approach has also followed the same procedure except the last phase for finding asymmetricity. Sample of 60 skin lesion images are considered for analysis and its performances are tested. Finally, we conclude that the proposed approaches perform better than other methods found in
The present study has been elaborated taking into account the following: Its substantiation on evidence/relevant data, collected from a wide range of sources: literature (studies, documents, reference analyses in this field of activity), questionnaires and interviews; its generative nature, through its commitment to the drawing up of conclusions and recommendations. There has to be mentioned the fact that the methodology that has been used was greatly based on the participation and encouraging of the interviewees to stand and give arguments for their points of view within an organised framework. The interpretation of the data and the drawing of the conclusions meant a qualitative analysis, which was focused on the processes and the organization of the business environment and was based on specific economic and sociological knowledge. \nThe decisions within the human resources domain have to take into consideration the fact that the personnel of The National Forest Administration – ROMSILVA is a heterogeneous group which has to be regarded as an ensemble of distinct personalities with individual goals, hopes and objectives that can be concerted. The human potential is not the same for every individual; there are differences in genetics, biological factors, social, cultural, educational, conjectural influences etc.
The purpose of this study is to examine the mechanism of modeling by analyzing differences in sensory motor area (SMA) activation according to the display type of modeling and skill level. In total, 24 male students participated in the study. Twelve were novice tennis players who had never played, and 12 were current tennis players at their respective universities. All participants observed the modeling presented as either normal type or stromotion type. During the observation, electroencephalogram (EEG) was measured in the SMA. The measured data were used to calculate the rate of suppression of the mu rhythm. The calculated variables were analyzed using two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using skill level (novice, expert) and display type (normal type, stromotion type). The results indicated that novices show significantly high activation in the SMA when observing stromotion whereas experts do not show differences in activation according to display type. However, experts showed significantly high activation levels for both display types compared to novices. Therefore, the results of the study suggest that it is more effective to use stromotion-type modeling for novices. Experts are more sensitive to the treatment effects of the modeling regardless of the display type.
A methodology to design a nonlinear observer in a bond graph approach is proposed. This class of nonlinear observer with multivariable nonlinearities is considered. A junction structure of the bond graph observer is proposed. The proposed methodology to an electrical transformer and a DC motor including the nonlinear saturation is applied. Nonlinear observers for the transformer and DC motor based on multivariable circle criterion in the physical domain are proposed. In order to show the saturation effects on the transformer and DC motor, simulation results are obtained. Finally, the paper describe that convergence of the estimates to the true states is achieved.
Common evening primrose (Oenothera biennis L., Onagraceae) is a biennial\nherbaceous plant. The plant is grown for commercial purposes in many countries due to\nunsaturated fatty acids such as linoleic and gamma-linolenic acid its seeds contain. The study used\ncommon evening primrose grown in three different fertilizer applications, which are organic K\nmineral added (Karden K), calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) and manure. The study analyzed\nsome plant and technologic properties of common evening primrose such as plant height, number\nof branches, number of capsules in main branch, seed yield, crude oil ratio of seed and ratio of\nfatty acids such as linoleic, gamma-linolenic acid; protein contents, antioxidant values by using\n2,2-diphenyl-l-picrilhydrazil (DPPH radical scavenging) and total phenolic compound amounts\n(Folin-Ciocalteau) of ethanol:pure water (80:20) extracts of the seeds and leaves grown in\ndifferent fertilizer application. It was found that seed yield of common evening primrose varied\nbetween 1820-4074 kg ha-1 in these three fertilizer applications. Low temperatures in Rize/Pazar\nregion vegetation period had a positive impact particularly on gamma-linolenic acid ratio (2.83% -\n8.31%) and these values were found to be above mean values in Turkey. In different fertilizer\napplications, the highest antioxidant activity values in seeds were found in Karden K application\n(10.67 ± 0,0145 μg/mL); the highest antioxidant activity values in leaves were found in Karden K\napplication (26.02 ± 0.0115 μg/mL); the highest total phenolic substance amount in the seeds was\nfound in Karden K application (688.98 ± 4.8831 mg GAE g−1); and the highest amount in the\nleaves was found in Karden K application (529.7 ± 3.824 mg GAE g−1).
Service learning is an important course in colleges and universities that trains students to make voluntary contributions and learn to grow. Especially for the economic downturn, employers hope to make the most tasks using a minimum of manpower, so employers attach much importance to organizational citizenship behavior while selecting employees. Therefore, service learning and citizenship behavior are closely related. This study hopes to explore the influence relationship between service learning, self-efficacy and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and verify the mediating effect of self-efficacy. This study takes daytime students of a northern private University of Science and Technology as the research subject, distributed 500 questionnaires with scale statistical sampling method and collected 419 valid questionnaires, with the effective recovery rate being 83.8%; regression analysis method was adopted to verify the hypothesis. The results conclude that service learning will have a significantly positive impact on self-efficacy and organizational citizenship behavior; self-efficacy will have a significantly positive impact on organizational citizenship behavior and will partially mediate the influence relationship of service learning on organizational citizenship behavior.
The dynamic of hydro-climatic processes can fluctuate in a wide range of temporal scales. Such fluctuations are often unpredictable for ecosystems and a suitable adaptation represents a great challenge for the survival of the species. An unsolved issue is how much the fluctuations of climatic variables to different temporal scales can influence the frequency and the intensity of the extreme events, and how much they can modify the ecosystems life. The analysis of the probabilistic structure of these fluctuations can contribute to understand the answers of species and ecosystems to the hydro-climatic variations.\nThe present work, carried out within FP7-ENV-2010 CLUVA (CLimate Change and Urban Vulnerability in Africa) Project, shows the results related to statistical processing of rainfall daily data with reference to the cities of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania). By the Superstatistics approach, a probability density function for daily rainfall heights was defined, substantially better than classical probability distributions present in literature. \nIn order to estimate the impact of climate change on ecosystems and, in particular, the possible alterations in terms of frequency and amount of rainfall events, in this work the climate projection, provided by CMCC (Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici) was taken in account.
In this study we use three different models to predict the daily price of gold. The data analyzed cover the period from 06/01/2000 to 04/21/2011, 2802 observations. The results indicate that the predictions by the artificial neural network system based on expected prices are much more accurate than the predictions of the ARIMA model and the simple artificial neural model.
In the present investigation a two phase thermosyphon has been fabricated to investigate the effect of operating parameters on the heat transport capability. The system consists of evaporator section, adiabatic section and condenser section with thermocouples located on the wall of thermosyphon. Electric heater was fixed on the bottom of the evaporator section and water jacket for cooling the condenser was placed on the top of the condenser section of the thermosyphon. The experiments were conducted with three different thermosyphons with inner diameters of 6.7 mm, 9.5 mm and 12 mm. The variation of heat transport capability of the thermosyphon was studied for the input heat transfer rate ranging from 0 W to 1200 W for various filling ratios and with operating temperature from 30°C to 70°C. Water, methanol, ethanol and acetone were used as working fluids. The maximum heat transport capability was found to be high for water compared to other fluids such as ethanol, methanol and acetone at the operating temperatures higher than 40°C.
Developing quality software is the main concerned of software houses and organizations as well as for clients who are demanding software applications for their business needs. Same way it is also concerned of software houses and organizations to recruit highly qualified software developers for their teams. This paper will introduce “System for Measuring Source Code Quality Assurance (SMSCQA)”, which will enable the software houses and organizations to recruit best qualified software developers. Experimental results based on five programmers programs will be analyzed and finally conclusion of these experimental results along with future work will be discussed.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the motivational beliefs of preparatory class students to learn a foreign language. The research was carried out utilizing a mixed method where quantitative and qualitative data were used together. The sample chosen purposively consists of 211 students attending the School of Foreign Languages at Yıldız Technical University. As a quantitative data collection tool, the motivational beliefs dimension of “Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSQL)” was used. Qualitative data were collected via two open-ended questions which were asked to determine motivational beliefs of the students. Quantative data were analyzed via t-test and ANOVA statistics while qualitative data were analyzed through descriptive analysis. For quantitative results, the findings initially indicated that there was a significant difference in motivational beliefs between male and female students in favour of female students. Secondly, there was a significant difference in motivational beliefs associated with self-efficacy and test anxiety depending on English proficiency level of the students. Thirdly, the resource of motivation did not constitute a significant difference in motivational beliefs. Finally, qualitative findings revealed that an enjoyable learning atmosphere motivated the students to learn English.
Abstract: In many sub-Saharan African communities, parents advocate the marriage of their daughters at an early age, thinking that the marriage will benefit them both financially and socially. This study aims at determining the socio- economic factors of age at first marriage in Sudan. Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the net effects of the determined factors. The results suggested that ethnic groups, women\'s education, pre-married working status, father survival status, birth order, relation of a woman to her husband, are important factors in marriage timing for the tribal women. Educated woman were significantly less likely to be married earlier than non-educated one. The risk of early marriage was found to be insignificant among women who grew up in urban areas. More efforts should be exerted to keep the girls in schools as much as possible to reduce the probability of getting marriage earlier.\n\nKeywords: Age at first marriage; Proportional hazards regression model; Sudan.
In this study, the relationship between economic growth and export has been tested for Turkey by using the quarterly data 2000- 2012. Particularly the study examines the causes of the rapid growth trend of Turkey after the 2001 Crisis in terms of export, labor force, and fixed capital investment. In the first part of study explain briefly developments in Turkey’s foreign trade. In the second part gives the short summary of some empirical studies and the last part includes econometric model and estimation results.
In this paper we present a new edge-detection method for gray-level images. The proposed method is based on the cooperation of two techniques: multilevel wavelet decomposition and multilayer perceptron (MLP).\nFor contour extraction with wavelet transforms we have many modulus maxima created by both different object contours and image noise. For that, an operation of thresholding is essential to eliminate false contours. The threshold factor differs from image to ano ther and there is not a criterion which enables to determine this threshold. In this paper the MLP is used to avoid manual selection of this thresholding factor and provides a dynamic optimal selection of it.
Optical Networks have design and operational challenges related to Buffering of data which is inflexible and the cost of switching is considerably higher. Due to Buffer space limit Packet loss occurs when the buffer over flows and incompetent to attain a required QoS cost efficiently. This paper proposes a reconfigurable and scalable scheduling algorithm provides buffer management which consists of a new storage administration data structure based on Hashing Technique with Separate Chaining-scheduling (HSC-S) provides QoS. The main contribution is a methodical study of some buffering algorithms in existing QoS models for assuring different service classes. For the Simple Priority Queue scheduling (SPQ-S) and Round Robin scheduling (RRS) the algorithm proved tight bounds on the competitive ratio it drops packets with the lowest value when an overflow occurs. The algorithm also proved that the HSC-S algorithm can be as much as 1.5 times better that drops the initial packets among all low-priority packets where other priority based algorithms drops the latest low-priority packets is the best buffering algorithm. Packet delays for different classes of traffic are analyzed and the analytical and simulation result confirms the good performance of proposed technique for a wide range of input traffic classes and loads.
Internal relative humidity (RH) and humidity gradients in concrete at early ages have significant influence upon the properties of concrete, where exists great discrepancy among test results under different methods. By comparing and analyzing the common measuring methods of RH in concrete, a newly developed measuring method will be introduced in this study, which could measure internal RH in cement-based materials accurately, conveniently and digitally. Changing laws of internal RH in concrete at early ages were discussed. And numerical simulation of internal RH was carried out by using calculated parameters appropriately. The results indicate that measuring results under the newly developed system was more accurate than that by predrilled-hole method, while external environment does not have any effect on the measured results obtained by using new measurement system. There exist obvious humidity gradients in concrete. In concrete with low water/cement ratio, self-desiccation considerable influence on internal RH distribution. Finite element analysis results from moisture diffusion theory were in good agreement with experimental results.
Although many studies examined the existence of spatial pattern of illiteracy problem in some developing countries in improving the culture level and social status and reducing the inequalities in illiteracy between areas of such country, there is still much work to be done. Some of these studies were found spatial pattern in illiteracy using different statistical techniques and geographical mapping. Question is raised whether this pattern is existed in Iraq after the war in 2003?\nThe present paper investigates the spatial structure of illiteracy percentage across governorates to show visual picture for illiteracy, investigating hot spots of illiteracy, and provide implications for policy makers.\nThe study utilized cross-sectional census data for 18 governorates collected in 2007. Mapping was used as a first step to conduct visual inspection for illiteracy using quartiles. Two statistics of spatial autocorrelation, based on sharing boundary neighbours, known as global and local Moran\'s Ii, were carried out for examining global clustering and local clusters respectively. \nIn conclusion, based on visual inspection of mapping, global clustering was found in illiteracy and it was confirmed by significant local Moran\'s Ii statistic. Out of 18, four governorates were found as local clusters in illiteracy. The illiteracy varied across governorates with black spots in northern, western, and southern parts of the country.
