An imperialist competitive algorithm mixed model assembly line sequencing problem on just in time system
October 2012
Mixed-model lines are used to produce several kinds of models in small lots without carrying large inventories. The production sequence for the mixed-model sequencing problem depends on the goals of the production facility. In order to enjoy the useful application of these lines, it is vital to devise a schedule for assembling the different products to be determined. Based on the NP-hardness of the problem, this present...
Evaluation of nanosilver efficacy along with transforming growth factor (TGFβ) in induction of chondrogenesis: An animal study
October 2012
This study is on the multipotential mesenchymal cells which enable us to differentiate chondroblasts in presence of Transforming growth factor (TGFβ) andbone morphogenic factors (BMPs). As use of a transferring system for these growth factors is a notable issue in recent researches, the present study was designed to evaluate the nanosilver transferring system of TGFβ on two sample groups...
Relationship between caregivers' burnout and elderly emotional abuse
October 2012
The aim of the present study is to identify the relationship between caregivers' burnout and elderly emotional abuse. Descriptive correlation research design was utilized in this study to achieve the stated aim. The sample consisted of 40 Saudi female elderly clients aged 60 years and over and 15 caregivers. This study was conducted in geriatric home in El-Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Data were collected by...
Evaluation of automated guided vehicle systems in thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) Array manufacturing process
October 2012
In real bay layout of automated guided vehicle (AGV) systems for thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) Array manufacturing, excessive inter-bay transfers in such systems will degrade performance. Thus, this paper presents two models which capture the elements of the material handling time of both bay and conventional AGV systems. Five...
Metabolic syndrome among medical university students in Kashan, Iran
October 2012
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is defined as a clustering of complicated disorders such as: central obesity, hypertension, increased blood glucose and impaired blood lipids. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among students of Kashan University of Medical Sciences between 19 to 27 years old (n=221). Metabolic syndrome was defined using the updated 2001 National Cholesterol Education...
Withdrawal and drainage of thin film flow on a vertical cylinder
October 2012
The thin film flow of a power law fluid on a vertical cylinder for a lift and a drainage problem is studied. The goverming nonlinear differential equations have been derived from the continuity, momentum and constitutive equations. The resulting equations are then solved using binomial series method. Series solutions have been obtained for velocity, volume flow rate and average velocity in both cases. The graphical...
A novel meta-heuristic algorithm for numerical function optimization: Blind, naked mole-rats (BNMR) algorithm
October 2012
Optimization algorithms inspired by the world of nature have turned into powerful tools for solving the complicated problems. However, they have still some drawbacks need the investigation of new and better optimization algorithms. In this paper, we propose a new meta-heuristic algorithm called blind naked mole-rats (BNMR) algorithm. This algorithm has been developed based on the social behavior of the blind naked...
Exploring the challenges of molecular diagnostic techniques for clinical and veterinary microbiology in developing countries
October 2012
The advent of molecular biology techniques for the detection, diagnosis, monitoring and characterization of microorganisms have revolutionalized as well as increased the reliability of microbiology laboratory results. The fact that laboratories always served as an early warning system for epidemiologic surveillance, the use of molecular techniques also placed a huge challenge on microbiologists all over developing...
Issues of resistance of pathogens to antimicrobial agents
October 2012
Antimicrobial resistance among pathogenic organisms is now a persistent problem and of tremendous public health care concern around the globe. These pathogens are able to develop mechanisms of resistance, the antimicrobial agents that were at one time the drug of choice. They continue to develop various mechanisms of resistance either by intrinsic or acquired, and have been able to transfer and accept different...
Modeling and simulation of active front steering system
October 2012
This paper includes the modeling and simulation of active front steering (AFS) system. AFS controls the front wheel steering angle to improve the steering feel and comfort. Driver and vehicle models are used for the simulation. AFS adjusts the yaw rate in critical driving maneuvers. The driver workload is reduced and the yaw rate response is diminished by AFS. Firstly, step function is applied to the vehicle. Secondly...
Genotype X environment interactions and grain yield stability of haricot bean varieties in Northwest Ethiopia
October 2012
Seven haricot bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) varieties were evaluated in 2000 to 2001 and 2001 to 2002 cropping seasons at three representative locations in northwest Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to evaluate genotype x environment interactions (GEIs) and grain yield stability in multi-environmental trials across wide ecological locations. The trial was laid out in the randomized complete block design...
Is there no urban forestry in the developing world?
October 2012
Urban forestry and greening offer a multitude of benefits to the inhabitants of towns and cities. However, the nature and magnitude of these frequently depend upon the context. Yet, at first glance, the developing world context around urban forestry debates seems to be poorly represented in the international peer-reviewed literature. This is examined in this paper, followed by a brief outline of ten key research areas...
A survey on formation of virtual cellular manufacturing systems (VCMSs) and related issues
October 2012
In an environment with fluctuating demand and unpredictable parts mix compositions, the efficiency of cellular systems necessitates the use of virtual cells. Virtual cellular manufacturing systems (VCMSs) are based on a highly flexible manufacturing concept designed to improve the performance of classical cellular manufacturing systems (CMSs) and job shop manufacturing environment by creating virtual grouping the...
Possibilities of using preservatives in environmentally friendly furniture industry
October 2012
Impregnation of the wooden equipment used as furniture, decoration and building materials, outdoor effects and some kinds of air situations as a result of varnishing is studied in this work. Especially, the changes in the wooden material, varnish and impregnation material, used massively in furniture are studied according to seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter) and months (3, 6, 9 and 12). According to the...
Atrazine transport and distribution in field soils and comparison of the predictions made by leaching estimation and chemistry model-pesticide (LEACHP) model
October 2012
Affluent use of herbicide such as Atrazine especially in corn farms must be supplemented with water and soil resources. This research was conducted in a pilot farm of Chamran University, Faculty of Water Science Engineering, Ahvaz, Iran. This research investigated transmission of the dynamic use of atrazine in various depths of soil in growth period and after growth period. Also, atrazine transmission potentiality and...
Simulation of bleaching of soda pulp from Hesperaloe funifera by polynomial and neural fuzzy models
October 2012
Influence of variables [soda, (0.5 to 3.0%), hydrogen peroxide (1.0 to 10.0%) and time (1 to 5 h)] in the bleaching of soda pulp of Hesperaloe funifera, on the properties of bleached pulps, was studied. Polynomial and neural fuzzy models had reproduced the results of Kappa number, brightness and viscosity of the pulps with errors less than 10 and 15%, respectively. By simulating the bleaching process of...
Imaging fractures in a massive limestone with ground penetrating radar, Haymana, Turkey
October 2012
This study was conducted by utilizing ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to determine the subsurface conditions of the Mollaresul High Plateau located in Haymana, Ankara, Turkey. The site is thought to be managed as a marble quarry. The GPR reflection profiling method was used because it could be applied rapidly and non-invasively without causing any damage to the surveyed area. Approximately N-S directed measurements...
Effective factors for improving the personnel’s attitudes towards patient safety
October 2012
Emphasizing on the patient safety improvement has led to extensive tendencies towards measuring safety culture and improving it in the medical centers. So, a research was conducted in Shahid Modarres Hospital to measure safety culture before and after education and to determine the affecting factors. A population of 236 employees was defined, including top managers, middle managers and personnel. They were given the...
A study of the factors affecting construction time in Western Australia
October 2012
Delays are major problems that face the Western Australia’s construction industry. Delays can lead to many negative effects such as cost overruns, and is of high concern to those who are involved in the construction industry. This study was set to identify the major causes of delays in the Western Australian construction industry, by means of a literature review and a questionnaire survey. A total of 48 delay...
Hydrolysis degradation of polycarbonate under microwave irradiation by using design of experiment software
October 2012
Depolymerization of polycarbonate (PC) is one of the important issues in environment especially in industry field. In this project degradation of PC is done by employing the hydrolysis method using microwave irradiation. PC degradation was carried out under constant amount of tetrahydrofuran (THF) as co-solvent and by using various amount of water (H2O) as main solvent and different concentration of sodium hydroxide...
Internal model control - proportional integral derivative controller tuning for first order plus time delayed unstable systems using bacterial foraging algorithm
October 2012
This paper proposes a bacterial foraging optimization (BFO) algorithm based approach to tune the parameters of IMC-PID controller for a class of first order plus time delayed (FOPTD) unstable systems with various ‘θ/τ’ ratios. Initially, the proportional controller based system identification procedure is attempted to convert the higher order unstable process model into an equivalent FOPTD unstable...
Optimal location of facts devices for solving multi-objective optimal power flow (OPF) using improved shuffled leaping frog algorithm
October 2012
Renewable energy is the demand of the future and wind energy plays a very pivotal role in it but the main disadvantage with wind energy is that its efficiency is very low and the main reason for this is the demand for reactive power. If the power network is not able to satisfy the wind farm reactive power requirement, the overall energy losses in the distribution networks would be increased. Hence minimization of...
Analysis of leaching kinetics of tincal in phosphoric acid solutions in high temperatures
October 2012
The aim of the study is to propose an alternative process to boric acid generation by researching the dissolution kinetic of tincal in phosphoric acid solutions in high temperature, and to root the procuring of Na2HPO4 that is used commonly as byproduct in industry during the process. Reaction temperature, particle size, stirring speed, acid concentration and solid/liquid ratio were selected as parameters of...
Mineral chemistry of K-feldspar megacrystals and petrochemistry of the Keban syenitic intrusive, ElaziÄŸ, Eastern Turkey
October 2012
The Keban syenitic intrusive is composed of porphyric syenite, monzonitic-syenite and monzonite. These rocks were emplaced in a shallow level and display a phaneritic texture with euhedral K-feldspar megacrystals (Kfms) with simple twinning and growth structures. These Kfms contain mafic and felsic inclusions. The fact that the inclusions are usually placed along the longer axis of the K-feldspar crystals and their...
Development and testing of an intelligent hybrid polymeric composite beam embedded with Ni-Ti shape memory alloy with crack growth retarding ability
October 2012
Hybrid Polymeric Composites (HPC) structural materials pose a challenge of developing microcracks and delaminations under impact and dynamic loads. This paper presents the development and testing of an Intelligent Hybrid Polymeric Composite (IHPC) beam embedded with Ni-Ti Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) with crack growth retarding ability. Upon heating to austenite finish temperature (Af), Ni-Ti SMA wire contracts as a result...
Acute toxicity test of Zn, on Java medaka (Oryzias javanicus) fish as an indicator of estuary pollution
October 2012
The acute toxicity of Zn on Java medaka (Oryzias javanicus) fish was studied. To obtain the results, the experiments were carried out in 3-liter aquariums (15 to 20 fish for each aquarium) with static condition based on O.E.C.D method with 5 treatments, and 1 blank in two repetitions. During the experiment, water physico-chemical factors were pH = 7.7 to 7.9, salinity = 19.3 to 19.7 p.p.t, temperature = 29.1...
An oscillation discovery of the forced vibrating system predicted by the multi-time differential equation
October 2012
In this article, an experiment of the forced oscillating pendulum system was set up. Here, a pendulum is driven sinusoidally by the loudspeaker. From this experiment, the spectrum of output signal of a Hall-effect sensor (UGN3503) which is used to transform the oscillatory motion of the pendulum into an electrical signal, exhibits four sharp frequency peaks, and it is also found that two of these frequency peaks cannot...
Experimental analysis of the tool-to-workpiece vibrations transmission during chatter development in milling processes
October 2012
An experimental work to analyze the mechanical vibrations that arise during chatter development in milling processes was conducted. The tool vibrations and the frequencies that are excited at the workpiece due to the tool impacts were studied for various levels of chatter. Tool vibrations were measured with an inductive sensor, while the workpiece vibrations were measured with an accelerometer. The relevance of the...
Angiotensin converting enzyme insertion /deletion polymorphism in angiographically proven coronary artery disease subjects of South India
October 2012
The prevalence of Coronary artery disease (CAD) varies epidemiologically among different population. Environmental and genetic factors play an important role in the pathogenesis of CAD. Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) insertion/deletion polymorphism has an effect on the pathogenesis of CAD, through angiotensin II mediated mechanism. In the present study, we have evaluated the association of insertion/deletion...
Application and efficacy of information technology in construction industry
September 2012
In the 21st century, information technology (IT) is seen as a tool that assists companies to perform more efficiently and effectively. However, many studies have posed the question whether the benefits outweigh the investments. The issue is more serious in the construction industry where there are factors that limit performance such as inadequate training, ineffective use of IT infrastructures, maintenance...
Dynamic modeling and analysis of T-source electronic inverter using state space technique
September 2012
T-Source inverter is a single stage power converter which can be used as a cost effective alternative for Z-source inverter. Dynamic modeling and analysis of T-source inverter (TSI) is vital for the determination of system limits, components selection for T-shape impedance network and controller design. A novel dynamic model of TSI in continuous conduction mode using the state space approach has been derived here. The...
Supply response of mustard in Bangladesh: A cointegration analysis
September 2012
An attempt has been made in this study to examine the supply response of mustard through cointegration and vector error correction approach. Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test indicates that all the variables considered have a unit root problem at level form and is stationary at differenced form for which all the data series are I(1). The trace statistic and maximum eign value tests confirm that there is at least one...
Chemical characteristics of precipitation in central Liaoning Province, Northeast China
September 2012
The chemical characteristics of precipitation were analyzed based on the chemical composition of principal ionic within acid rain (from February 2007 to January 2008) of Liaozhong Meteorological Station (LMS) located in Malong Village in central Liaoning Province of Northeast China, meteorological conditions on the corresponding period ground, and variation of several air pollutants concentration. The results indicated...
A review of experimental studies on double-porosity soils
September 2012
Double-porosity is an important characteristic in soil that is found to influence the migration of fluids within the soil. Of late, a number of laboratory experiment studies have been carried out on the flow of water through soil media with double-porosity characteristics as well as on the mechanical aspects of the double-porosity structure of the soil. This paper first introduces the double-porosity concept as apposite...
Comparative analysis of reactive oxygen species in cigarette smoke under two machine smoking regimes (ISO and Canadian intense conditions) from selected Chinese cigarette brands
September 2012
Cigarette smoke can cause cellular oxidative stress and contributes to various adverse health effects associated with smoke exposure, partially due to reactive oxygen species (ROS) present in cigarette smoke. The purpose of present work is to evaluate toxic potential of selected Chinese blended and flue-cured cigarettes in terms of ROS quantification and effect of different smoking behaviors on the deliveries of ROS in...
Blind recognition of mixed and disturbed correlated ancient texts
September 2012
Separation and recognition of ancient documents and texts that have been mixed and disturbed over centuries, is an interesting problem in image processing area and it has been investigated by many researchers. In recent years, independent component analysis (ICA) method has been used for solving this problem, but independence of sources is an essential assumption in ICA, whereas in some problems, sources are not...
Production practices and constraints to sheep productivity in two ecologically different and resource-poor communal farming systems of South Africa
September 2012
The objective of the current study was to determine the production practices and constraints to sheep productivity in ecologically different communal areas of South Africa. Direct observations and participatory techniques were also employed to capture data from farmers in Gaga and Sompondo communal villages. Most (70%) of sheep owners were men and were more involved in sheep flock management than adult females and...
Cytotoxic effect of Mercurialis annua L. methanolic extract on six human solid cancer cell lines
September 2012
The unprecedented rates of resistance of cancer cells to traditional chemotherapeutic medications necessitated relentless exploration and drug design in an attempt to introduce safe and effective new antineoplastic agents. The latter is a particular pivotal to the treatment of solid tumors malignancies which represent the top causes of cancer deaths. Our laboratory has established a line of research to investigate...
Clinical evaluation of nasal lacrimal sac positioning using nasal endoscope guided by intra-lacrimal duct fiber optics
September 2012
This study aims to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a new approach to locate lacrimal sac using nasal endoscopy guided by intra-lacrimal duct fiber optics during nasolacrimal ostomy. 31 patients with recurrent dacryocystitis were chosen for nasolacrimal ostomy using nasal endoscope. During the surgery, fiber optic was inserted into lacrimal duct to project the light through the lacrimal sac, subsequently...
Estimation of the Rayleigh distribution parameters with presence of k outliers generated from Gamma distribution
September 2012
The moment, maximum likelihood and mixture of the estimators of parameters of the Rayleigh distribution are derived with presence of k outliers generated from Gamma distribution. These estimators are compared empirically when all the parameters are unknown; their Bias and MSE are investigated with the help of numerical technique. We have shown that these estimators are asymptotically unbiased. At the end, we conclude...
Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, Agricultural Faculty, Gaziosmanpasa University, Tokat, Turkey.
September 2012
Meditation is the traditional eastern method to improve health. Leg crossing is the main component on meditation to enhance the inner chi circulation. In this study, leg crossing effects was investigated with physiological parameters for meditation group. Five minute heart rate variability (HRV) and pulse transit time (PTT) was measured as feature for leg crossing. College students were recruited as subjects. There were...
Experimental investigation of natural convection heat transfer of the fin arrangement on a computer heat sink
September 2012
Needs for buoyancy driven ventilation appear in a variety of engineering applications, ranging from cooling of electronic components to cooling of nuclear reactor fuel elements. Hence, it becomes crucial to optimize the natural convection heat transfer as far as possible. If the fins are properly designed, they become very attractive for these applications since they offer an economical, trouble-free solution to the...
Prediction of evaporation in tropical climate using artificial neural network and climate based models
September 2012
Malaysia is a tropical country with high rainfall rate. But there is increasing demand on water due to development. Also, global weather change makes the dry season longer and evaporation rate from impounding reservoirs higher. So, evaporation as a natural phenomenon contributes in reducing the availability of water for various uses. Estimation of evaporation can give an idea about the water losses from storage...
Predicting iron and zinc content of soils in an apple orchard using artificial neural network
September 2012
Evaluation of neural network based simulation models for the prediction of site specific soil properties of the large agricultural areas will provide important technological benefits for the efficient use of land resources and Agricultural Decision Making System. In this study, an artificial intelligence model was investigated for simulation of site specific iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) levels in the soils of apple orchard...
Performance measurement systems for green supply chains using modified balanced score card and analytical hierarchical process
September 2012
Environmental management is becoming a key strategic issue for Supply chain performance. Performance measurement systems for green supply chain is critical for its monitoring, control and improvement. A comparative analysis of some most widely cited Performance measurement systems for supply chains have been undertaken, and it indicates that the modified Balanced score card is a suitable framework for Green supply chain...
Utility based channel assignment: A centralized channel assignment mechanism for multi radio multi channel wireless mesh networks
September 2012
In this paper, we address the channel assignment problem in a multi-radio mesh network that involves assigning channels to radio interfaces for eliminating the effect of wireless interference. Due to the insufficient number of frequency channels and available radios per node, interference is still present which limits the available bandwidth on wireless links and eventually decreases the achievable throughput. In this...
Iris recognition system based on video for unconstrained environments
September 2012
This paper proposes an iris image quality and segmentation accuracy evaluation method for video-based iris recognition systems, operating in unconstrained environment. Proposed approach consists of two stages of video quality evaluation that allows improving the iris recognition rates in non-ideal or no cooperative situations; where the first stage discards the low quality eye frames, while the second stage discards...
Resilience of physiological attributes of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to abiotic stresses
September 2012
Water stress and high temperature variability are the major constraints for wheat crop productivity and food security in the context of climate change. Impact of high temperature and water stress at anthesis stage of spring wheat was studied through field experiments conducted during 2008 to 2009 and 2009 to 2010. Five wheat varieties of diverse origin namely Tatara, National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC)-2009,...
Improving QoE in multicast IPTV systems: Channel zapping times
September 2012
The usage of Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) deployments in the consumer electronics market is growing very popular in recent years. In IPTV multicast systems, quality of experience is a very critical factor for user satisfaction. Existing and future IPTV systems will offer a large number of channels to users. The most important factors that affect the quality of experience in IPTV systems are channel zapping times....
Effect of different harvest time on yield and forage quality of three varieties of common millet (Panicum miliaceum)
August 2012
Monitoring forage quality is one of the most important factors of essential and good management of a farm. The most important factor about plants and forage quality is growing stage which can help to identify the optimum time of harvest. As different varieties of plants have different harvest times and quality, in order to search the variety effect on forage yield and quality...
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