bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Long-Term and Sustained Therapeutic Results of a Specific Promonocyte Cell Formulation in Refractory Angina: ReACT®(Refractory Angina Cell Therapy) Clinical Update and Cost-Effective Analysis
Authors: Nelson Americo Hossne , Cruz Eduardo , Buffolo Enio , De Siqueira Mac Dowell Coimbra Anna Carolina Teixeira , Machado Janaina , Goldenberg Regina Coeli Dos Santos , Regazzi Germana , Azevedo Silvia , Invitti Adriana Luckow , Branco João Nelson Rodrigues , De Oliveira José Salvador Rodrigues , Stolf Noedir Antonio Groppo , Miller Leslie W. , Sanberg Paul R.
Published: May 2014

Mononuclear stem cells have been studied for their potential in myocardial ischemia. In our previous published article, ReACT®phase I/II clinical trial, our results suggest that a certain cell population, promonocytes, directly correlated with the perceived angiogenesis in refractory angina patients. This study is ReACT's clinical update, assessing long-term sustained efficacy. The ReACT phase IIA/B noncontrolled, open-label, clinical trial enrolled 14 patients with refractory angina and viable ischemic myocardium, without ventricular dysfunction, who were not suitable for myocardial revascularization. The procedure consisted of direct myocardial injection of a specific mononuclear cell formulation, with a certain percentage of promonocytes, in a single series of multiple injections (24—90; 0.2 ml each) into specific areas of the left ventricle. Primary endpoints were Canadian Cardiovascular Society Angina Classification (CCSAC) improvement at the 12-month follow-up and ischemic area reduction (scintigraphic analysis) at the 12-month follow-up, in correlation with ReACT's formulation. A recovery index (for patients with more than 1 year follow-up) was created to evaluate CCSAC over time, until April 2011. Almost all patients presented progressive improvement in CCSAC beginning 3 months ( p = 0.002) postprocedure, which was sustained at the 12-month follow-up ( p = 0.002), as well as objective myocardium ischemic area reduction at 6 months (decrease of 15%, p < 0.024) and 12 months (decrease of 100%, p < 0.004) The recovery index ( n = 10) showed that the patients were graded less than CCSAC 4 for 73.9 ± 24.2% over a median follow-up time of 46.8 months. After characterization, ReACT's promonocyte concentration suggested a positive correlation with CCSAC improvement ( r = −0.575, p = 0.082). Quality of life (SF-36 questionnaire) improved significantly in almost all domains. Cost-effectiveness analysis showed decrease in angina-related direct costs. Refractory angina patients presented a sustained long-term improvement in CCSAC and myocardium ischemic areas after the procedure. The long-term follow-up and strong improvement in quality of life reinforce effectiveness. Promonocytes may play a key role in myocardial neoangiogenesis. ReACT dramatically decreased direct costs.
Mechanical characterization of outer epidermal middle lamella of onion under tensile loading
Authors: Zamil M. Shafayet , Yi Hojae , Puri Virendra M.
Published: May 2014

•Premise of the study:The cells in plant tissue are joined together by a distinct layer called the middle lamella (ML). Understanding the mechanical properties of the ML is crucial in studying how tissue‐level mechanical properties emerge from the subcellular‐level mechanical properties. However, the nanoscale size of the ML presents formidable challenges to its characterization as a separate layer. Consequently, the mechanical properties of the ML under tensile loading are as yet unknown.

•Methods:Here, we characterize the ML from a subcellular sample excised from two adjacent cells and composed of two wall fragments and a single line of ML in between. Two techniques, cryotome sectioning and milling with a focused ion beam, were used to prepare ML samples, and tensile experiments were performed using microelectromechanical system (MEMS) tensile testing devices.

•Key results:Our test results showed that even at a subcellular scale, the ML appears to be stronger than the wall fragments. There was also evidence that the ML attached at the corner of cells more strongly than at the rest of the contact area. The contribution of the additional ML contact area was estimated to be 40.6 MPa. Wall fragment samples containing an ML layer were also significantly stronger (p< 0.05) than the wall fragments without an ML layer.

•Conclusions:The tensile properties of the ML might not have a major impact on the tissue‐scale mechanical properties. This conclusion calls for further study of the ML, including characterization under shear loading conditions and elucidation of the contributions of other extracellular parameters, such as cell size and shape, to the overall tissue‐level mechanical response.
The effects of achene type and germination time on plant performance in the heterocarpic Anacyclus clavatus (Asteraceae)
Authors: Afonso Ana , Castro Sílvia , Loureiro João , Mota Lucie , Cerca de Oliveira José , Torices Rubén
Published: May 2014

• Premise of the study: In heterocarpy, fruits with different morphologies have been associated with alternative strategies of dispersal, germination, dormancy, and seedling competitive ability. In heterocarpic species, it is common to find fruits with competitive or dispersal syndromes. The competitive advantage of nondispersing fruits has been frequently attributed to their larger size, but recent studies have suggested that this could also be mediated by germination time. The main objective of our study was to investigate which factor, fruit type or germination time, most affects plant performance and, consequently, competitive ability, using the heterocarpic species Anacyclus clavatus.

• Methods: To explore the effects of achene type and germination time on plant performance, we followed an innovative experimental approach including two experiments: one allowing for differences in germination time, and the other evaluating the effect of achene type alone by synchronizing germination time.

• Key results: A significant effect of germination time on several postdispersal life‐history traits was observed: Achenes that germinated earlier produced plants with higher biomass and reproductive effort. When germination time was controlled, no significant differences were observed in any of the traits.

• Conclusions: The competitive advantage of achenes with different morphologies was mainly mediated by germination time and not by differences in size or other intrinsic traits. The consequences of these results are discussed in light of the dispersal–competition trade‐off. Our experimental approach (i.e., the synchronization of germination time) revealed the importance of manipulative experiments for testing the effects of germination time on plant survival and performance.
FRP REINFORCEMENT FOR CONCRETE STRUCTURES: STATE-OF-THE-ART REVIEW OF APPLICATION AND DESIGN
Authors: Gudonis Eugenijus , Timinskas Edgaras , Gribniak Viktor , Kaklauskas Gintaris , Arnautov Aleksandr K. , Tamulėnas Vytautas
Published: May 2014

Fiber reinforced polymers (FRPs) are considered to be a promising alternative to steel reinforcement, especially in concrete structures subjected to an aggressive environment or to the effects of electromagnetic fields. Although attempts to develop effective reinforcement have been followed, the application of FRPs remains limited by the solution to simple structural problems that mainly appear due to the absence of design codes, significant variation in the material properties of FRP composites and limited knowledge gained by engineers as regards the application aspects of FRP composites and structural mechanics of concrete elements reinforced with FRPs. To fill the latter gap, the current state-of-the-art report is dedicated to present recent achievements in FRPs applying practice to a broad engineers’ community. The report also revises the manufacturing process, material properties, the application area and design peculiarities of concrete elements reinforced with FRP composites. Along the focus on internal reinforcement, the paper overviews recent practices of applying FRP reinforced concrete (RC) elements in structural engineering. The review highlights the main problems restricting the application of FRPs in building industry and reveals the problematic issues (related to the material properties of the FRP) important for designing RC following the formulation of targets for further research.
Fibrotic Encapsulation of a Dexamethasone Intravitreal Implant Following Vitrectomy and Silicone Oil for Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment
Authors: Bakri Sophie J. , Alniemi Saba T.
Published: May 2014

Steroids are commonly used as adjunct therapy in the management of proliferative vitreoretinopathy. The authors report a case of proliferative vitreoretinopathy treated with an intravitreal dexamethasone implant following vitrectomy in a silicone oil–filled eye. Epiretinal fibrosis developed around the implant at 6 weeks postoperatively, resulting in a recurrent retinal detachment. This was repaired by vitrectomy, removal of the implant, and peeling of epiretinal proliferation.

[
Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina
. 2014;45:243–245.]
The Entrepreneur as Strategist and Improviser
Authors: Todorov Kiril
Published: May 2014

The chapter deals with the search for relevant strategic responses to the challenges of a dynamic and competitive, international and multicultural business environment where new strategic approaches like Strategic Entrepreneurship (SE) and tools to meet the specific characteristics and needs of SMEs are launched. The entrepreneurial opportunities, and their exploration and exploitation through the entrepreneur's/ manager's various roles as a strategist, leader, and improviser, are analyzed. It is shown that in most cases the entrepreneur (especially in long-term dynamic, ambiguous conditions) acts without sufficient formal information and resources and therefore has to improvise taking certain risks (strategic improviser). Difficulties in the understanding and the implementation of entrepreneurial roles, especially those of strategist and improviser, require non-traditional approaches, forms and methods in the education of students in entrepreneurship, and in training/ consulting for both new and established entrepreneurs. The forms and methods of mythology, metaphorical representation and jargon, as tools of the so-called subjective (qualitative) approach, are widely accepted. The chapter employs examples of original myths and metaphors to demonstrate how better to understand the linkages across strategic orientation/ management, improvisation and strategic learning, thus helping entrepreneurs/ managers to better adapt theories, concepts and tools for effective working in a dynamic, competitive environment.
Strategic Management of Family SMEs
Authors: Broekaert Wouter , Degadt Jan , Lambrecht Johan
Published: May 2014

In spite of the vast literature on ‘strategy,' there is no consensus on a common delineation of the term. Similarly, although the need for strategic flexibility is acknowledged by the literature, there is little research that analyses the nature and direction of strategic change, especially where family firms are concerned. This chapter proposes building blocks for the formulation and implementation of strategy. A clear definition of competitive strategy is distilled from various perspectives on strategy available in the literature. Finally, three categories of strategic change are defined, namely Restructuring, Expansion and Transformation. Case study research of five Flemish family firms shows that none of the strategic change scenarios is naturally preferable to the others, but that each scenario offers its own set of advantages and risks.
Face Recognition Methods for Uncontrolled Settings
Authors: Wechsler Harry
Published: May 2014

The overall coverage of the chapter is about moving face recognition out of the comfort zone and dramatically improving the current performance of existing biometric tools by fusing the rich spatial, temporal, and contextual information available from the multiple views made available by video (rather than still images) in the wild and operational real-world problems. Instead of relying on a “single best frame approach,” one must confront uncontrolled settings by exploiting all available imagery to allow the addition of new evidence, graceful degradation, and re-identification. Uncontrolled settings are all-encompassing and include Aging-Pose, Illumination, and Expression (A-PIE), denial and deception characteristic of incomplete and uncertain information, uncooperative users, and unconstrained data collection, scenarios, and sensors. The challenges are many: most important among them lack of persistence for biometric data, adversarial biometrics, open rather than closed set recognition, covariate shift, cross-dataset generalization, alignment and registration, interoperability, scalability, and last but not least, the deployment of full-fledged biometrics that include detection, authentication, informative sampling, and tracking. The overall recommendations are synergetic and should consider for implementation and processing purposes the regularization, statistical learning, and boosting triad complemented by sparsity and grouping (feature sharing) to deal with high-dimensional data and enhanced generalization. The recurring theme is that of a unified framework that involves multi-task and transfer learning using metric learning and side information.
3D Face Recognition in the Presence of Partial Data
Authors: Chu Dat , Shah Shishir , Kakadiaris Ioannis A.
Published: May 2014

Performing face recognition under extreme poses and lighting conditions remains a challenging task for current state-of-the-art biometric algorithms. The recognition task is even more challenging when there is insufficient training data available in the gallery, or when the gallery dataset originates from one side of the face while the probe dataset originates from the other. The authors present a new method for computing the distance between two biometric signatures acquired under such challenging conditions. This method improves upon an existing Semi-Coupled Dictionary Learning method by computing a jointly-optimized solution that incorporates the reconstruction cost, the discrimination cost, and the semi-coupling cost. The use of a semi-coupling term allows the method to handle partial 3D face meshes where, for example, only the left side of the face is available for gallery and the right side of the face is available for probe. The method also extends to 2D signatures under varying poses and lighting changes by using 3D signatures as a coupling term. The experiments show that this method can improve recognition performance of existing state-of-the-art wavelet signatures used in 3D face recognition and provide excellent recognition results in the 3D-2D face recognition application.
Face in Person Re-Identification
Authors: Abate Andrea F. , Ricciardi Stefano , Tortora Genoveffa
Published: May 2014

The face represents one of the most diffused and established biometrics for both identity verification and recognition with a large corpus of research focused on advancing the accuracy, the robustness, and the response speed of face recognition systems by means of 2D, 3D, and hybrid approaches. One of the new research lines emerging in this field during the last years is face-based people re-identification, namely the task of recognizing new occurrences of an individual's face once it has been detected and initialized at a given time on the same location or eventually at other locations covered by a network of non-overlapping cameras. In this chapter, the main issues and challenges specifically related to face-based people re-identification are described, and the most promising techniques and results proposed on this topic so far are presented and discussed.
The Efficiency of India's Cities
Authors: Sridhar Kala Seetharam
Published: May 2014

One reason for unsatisfactory public service delivery in Indian cities is that city finances are in poor condition. Recent research shows that given the fragmented institutional arrangements for land in India's cities, there is a case for transferring revenues from land leasing and sales to cities. In this paper, the author determines whether such transfer of revenues to India's cities from the state governments is justified. The author uses stochastic frontier analysis to determine the efficiency of Indian cities, taking the case of roads. The author has found India's cities to be highly efficient in the provision of roads and there is only one percent inefficiency in the provision of roads by city governments. Hence transfer of finances to cities in a phased manner is recommended. Thus this paper shows a direct link between behavioral economics and concrete, practical applications at the organizational level.
A Multiple Natural Hazards Assessment Model Based on Geomorphic Terrain Units
Authors: Hernandez Michael W.
Published: May 2014

A Multiple Natural Hazards Assessment (MNHA) procedural model was developed to provide stakeholders (e.g., community planners and decision makers) with a clear methodology that examines the landscape as a probabilistic-based composite measure of the natural hazards at a terrain mapping unit scale. The model consists of four phases: (1) data collection; (2) individual natural hazard assessment (INHA); (3) Geomorphic Terrain Unit (GTU) development; and (4) composite MNHA classification. The model was tested in a case study across southern Davis County, Utah. Six hazards were integrated within a GIS model, producing a nonweighted probabilistic-based multi-hazard classification across GTUs. Examination of the results by stakeholders showed great potential for the model. During the evaluation workshop, stakeholders concurred that normalizing the class values using a simple frequency-based scale makes it easier to discern the differences in composite hazardousness across the community. The model is easily expanded to include objective or subjective weighting factors.
Analytics for Smarter Buildings
Authors: Lee Young M. , An Lianjun , Liu Fei , Horesh Raya , Chae Young Tae , Zhang Rui
Published: May 2014

Buildings consume about 40% of the total energy in most countries contributing to a significant amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and global warming. Therefore, reducing energy consumption in buildings, making buildings more energy efficient and operating buildings in more energy efficient manner are important tasks in today's world. Analytics can play an important role in identifying energy saving opportunities in buildings by modeling and analyzing how energy is consumed in buildings. In this paper, a set of analytics which can assist building owners, facility managers, operators and tenants of buildings in assessing, benchmarking, diagnosing, tracking, forecasting, simulating and optimizing energy consumption is presented.
Recommender Systems
Authors: Polatidis Nikolaos , Georgiadis Christos K.
Published: May 2014

Due to the rapid growth of the internet in conjunction with the information overload problem the use of recommender systems has started to become necessary for both e-businesses and customers. However there are other factors such as privacy and trust that make customers suspicious. This paper gives an overview of recommendation systems, the benefits that both the business and the customers have and an explanation of the challenges, which if faced can make the personalization process better for both parties. Moreover an outline of current studies is given along with an overview of Amazon's recommendations in order to clarify that the use of recommender systems is beneficial for an e-business in many ways and also for a valuable customer of such business.
An Experimental Comparison of System Diagrams and Textual Use Cases for the Identification of Safety Hazards
Authors: Stålhane Tor , Sindre Guttorm
Published: May 2014

Requirement defects are more costly to correct the later in the development process they are discovered. The same applies to safety requirements, and defects that remain in the fielded system are then not only costly, but potentially life-threatening. It is important to discover safety hazards as early in the process as possible, and it is thus interesting to integrate safety analysis with techniques used in the early stage of requirements engineering. This paper describes an experiment comparing how well two system diagrams and textual use cases support non-experts in identifying hazards in a simple control system. Results show that system diagrams were better for finding hazards related to peripheral equipment, while for all other kinds of hazards textual use cases were as good or better. Not only the type of representation matters, but also how the information is brought into focus for the analyst, as this might steer the analyst towards noting some hazards but ignoring others.
A Business Motivation Model for IT Service Management
Authors: Vicente Marco , Gama Nelson , Mira da Silva Miguel
Published: May 2014

The Enterprise Architecture (EA) approach usually considers a set of motivational concepts that are used to model the reasons and motivations that underlie the design and change of organizations, which corresponds to their Business Motivation Model (BMM). Likewise, this BMM is also present in organizations that provide IT services. However, although ITIL has become a standard for performing IT Service Management (ITSM), there is not one holistic solution to integrate EA and ITIL. Therefore, we propose to join both approaches through the definition of a specific Enterprise Architecture to design organizations according to ITIL's best practices to perform ITSM. Thus, this paper's goal is twofold: on one hand to establish that architecture's motivation model, and, on the other, to contribute for a formal identification and representation of the ITIL business motivation model itself.
Design and Implementation of Modified Distributive Arithmetic Based DWT Architecture Using FPGA
Authors: Kumar S. Senthil , Radhakrishnan R. , Priyadharshini K.
Published: May 2014

This paper presents a modified distributive arithmetic based DWT architecture and is implemented in FPGA. The modified DA-DWT architecture has a latency of 44 clock cycles and a throughput of 4 clock cycles. This design is twice faster than the reference design and is thus suitable for applications that require high speed image processing algorithms. In this paper, reliable and high speed DWT architecture is designed and implemented in FPGA which can be used as a co-processor for image compression and decompression. The bi-orthogonal wavelets, with different number of coefficients in the low pass and high pass filters, increase the number of operations and the complexity of the design, but they have better SNR than the orthogonal filters. The code has been written in VHDL and implemented on the FPGA using a 32 x 32 random image. This architecture enables fast computation of DWT with parallel processing. It has low memory requirements and consumes low power. This architecture is faster than the existing architectures as the latency is reduced by half clock cycles and through put is increased by a factor of 2.
PAPR Performance Improvement in OFDM System Using DCT Based on Adjacent Symbol Grouping
Authors: Muralibabu K. , Sundhararajan M.
Published: May 2014

In wireless communication, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a promising scheme against the multipath fading channel .However, due multi-carrier transmission , OFDM system has a major draw back of Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) problem that affect the efficiency of HPA in the transmitter side. In the proposed scheme, a new technique is discussed for reducing PAPR in the OFDM system by using Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and adjacent sub carriers grouping with companding technique.A computer simulation is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed PAPR scheme.
Experimental Investigation and Optimization of Friction Stir Welding Process - A Review
Authors: Yuvaraj K.P. , Senthilkumar B.
Published: May 2014

Friction stir welding process parameters plays an important role in determining the quality of welded joint. The weld quality of the joint can be assessed in terms of properties such as lack of defects, tensile strength, hardness and desired microstructure. The objective of the friction stir welding process is to obtain a good welded joint with the desired strength and microstructure. This intended to present comprehensive review of application of tool geometry, different process setups computing techniques, design of experiment (DOE) and evolutionary algorithms used to obtain the good weld joint with desired weld quality.
Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Castings under Vibration Techniques - A Review
Authors: Suresh N. , Chandrasekar P.
Published: May 2014

The challenging problems for designers and engineers in the material science are to enhance the quality of the castings. The several numbers of methods using external forces have been applied to introduce fluid flow during solidification of molten metal in casting process. These include mechanical, electromagnetic and ultrasonic vibration. Many technical journals describe the improvement in mechanical properties of castings under the vibration during solidification. In this paper, an attempt has been made to review the casting process to refine the microstructure of cast product. The awareness gain of these processes and application of the procedures offer the scope for better cost savings in design and manufacturing of cast products.
Batch Processing Development of Aerial Hyperspectral Mineral Mapping
Authors: Li Han Bo , Zhao Ying Jun , Zhang Dong Hui , Pan Wei
Published: May 2014

Aerial hyperspectral data have the characteristic of big size and complicated process, but we often need to extract information from aerial hyperspectral data quickly in practical work. To solve the contradiction between huge hyperspectral data and the demand of extracting information quickly, this paper researches the batch processing which based on traditional technique flow of alteration information extraction. The experiment result indicates this batch processing is an efficient technique to increase information extraction speed.
Vessel Traffic Flow Distribution Model of Bridge Area Waterway in the Middle Stream of Yangtze River
Authors: Hou Hai Qiang , Li Yi Cheng , He Wei , Liu Xing Long
Published: May 2014

Traffic flow data collection in Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, locates in the middle of Yangtze River, is help for analysis of the waterway operating factor, which in return increases the capacity in the bridge area waterways and promotes vessel collision avoidance. Traffic flow parameters like vessel speed, arrival time, vessel clearance were collected by manual observation. Through analysis of vessel speed and vessel clearance distribution rule, the vessel speed-clearance model is established based on least square method. Real-time density of ships on navigation, channel utilization and ship safety operation area can be obtained by study on the relationship between speed and shipping space..
A New Type of Accelerometer Based on Fiber Bragg Grating
Authors: Feng De Quan , Qiao Xue Guang , Shao Min , Luo Xiao Dong , Fan Wei
Published: May 2014

Fiber Bragg Grating has advantages of high resistance to electromagnetic interference and high accuracy, which could obtain high-precision detection of the vibrations. A new type of accelerometer based on Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) is proposed in this paper. The mechanical model of the accelerometer is designed as a single-degree-of-freedom system. The experiments show FBG accelerometer system has excellent stability and high durability. The acceleration sensitivity of the FBG accelerometer is 31.2pm/G.
Research of Super Capacitor Charging and Discharging System Based on DSP28335
Authors: Bu Xiao Kun , Liu Jun , Li Yan Song
Published: May 2014

The application of new energy resources such as wind power gets more and more attention, with the environmental problems and energy issues have become increasingly prominent. But the volatility and the characteristics of intermittent has greatly restricted the efficient utilization of the new energy. This paper designed a control circuit, the super capacitor as the energy storage device and the 28335 as the core. This circuit controls the charging and discharging of the super capacitor through the system sampling by 28335, so as to realize to the instantaneous compensation effect on the power fluctuation of the grid connected wind turbine, smooth wind farms output power and voltage. Apply this method by super-capacitor and TMS320F28335, we can provide a useful reference and efficient application of new energy.
Design and Analysis of Halbach Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors Based on FEM Models
Authors: Wei Zhong Chao , Chen Xi
Published: May 2014

This paper studies the application of Halbach array in optimal design of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSM). First, the paper demonstrates the intrinsic sinusoidal magnetic field and one-side magnetic shielding effect produced by Halbach array in FEM. Afterward, a serious of Halbach motor models based on different segment numbers per pole are established combined with Ansoft. Next, the waveform and harmonic contents of air-gap flux density are analysed. Then, the relationship between the segment numbers per pole and cogging torque are explored. Finally, the power-angle curves for coreless/core rotors are contrasted. The above results explain why and how Halbach array can be applied in PMSM design to reduce harmonic components for air-gap flux density, increase power density and decrease moment of inertia.
Research on General Interface Model Suitable for Electromechanical Transient Simulation
Authors: Sun Xiao Yan , Zhu Yong Qiang
Published: May 2014

New energy power generation system needs interface converter to connect to the grid. Because the type of new energy is different, its interface converter is also different. In order to adapt to the diversification of the modeling and control strategy of the converter, a generalized interface model is established in this paper. The model is based on the electromechanical transient simulation, which ignores the physics switching device and simplifies the control module. Finally, adaptive verifications are made in PSCAD/EMTDC and Matlab/Simulink for photovoltaic power generation system and wind power generation system. The results of simulation prove the validity of the generalized model.
A MEMS-Based Ionization Gas Sensor with ZnO Nanorods Coated Distributed Micro-Discharge Structure
Authors: Fang Mao Bo , Zhao Xiao Lin , Li Jian Hua , Wang Zi , Wang Yan Fang , Hou Zhong Yu
Published: May 2014

A kind of ionization gas sensor based on the polarization structure was designed and manufactured by MEMS technology. The gas sensor device consists of 3 main parts: the anode electrode, the cathode and the distributed polarization structure array which lie between the former two parts. All parts were coated with ZnO nanorods by a two-step hydrothermal method. Different concentration acetone gas was tested using the device. The results support that the ionization gas sensors exhibit reasonable sensitivity and good repeatability at the applied voltages lower than 4V.
THE Comprehensive Survey for the Numerical Simulation of the 4th Generation Rocket Ejection Seat Thrust Vector Control System
Authors: Wang Yu Fei , Chen Gong , Han Li Lin
Published: May 2014

The objective of this work was to develop and adapt existing computational methodologies for 3D comprehensive analysis of ejection seat aerodynamics, including rocket plume effects.Various methods were investigated for prescribing boundary and initial conditions for the seat rockets. The selected method utilizes a model that prescribes 3D nozzle exit boundary profiles extracted from detailed rocket nozzle calculations. Also a multi-domain gridding method that allows for many-to-one interface meshing was developed and tested for efficient and accurate rocket plume resolution within the 3D ejection seat computational environment. Validations were performed for Aerojet’s Pintle Escape Propulsion system (PEPS) rockets. Three dimensional ejection seat calculations with rocket power were also made to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach and the potential use of the model.
The Shift Time of Refraction Sh-Wave on an Interface of Two Media
Authors: Wang An Ling , Liu Fu Ping
Published: May 2014

Using the phase shift of refraction coefficient of SH seismic wave at the interface of strata, we derived the shift time of total refraction SH-wave, given formulae of shift time,The results show that for glancing wave or angle of incidence being near the critical angle, the shift time are very large. A large shift can be caused,In other angle of incidence the shift time is the same order of magnitude as the wavelength (period).
Research and Application of the Key Technologies of Open-Architecture Auxiliary Systems for Monitoring the Operation and Maintenance of the Information System
Authors: Deng Ying , Cheng Ming
Published: May 2014

The design and implementation of key technologies for monitoring the operation and maintenance of the information systems in the power companies are analyzed. The IT monitoring techniques based on open architecture are thoroughly investigated. A prototype of the auxiliary systems for monitoring the operation and maintenance of the information system (MOMIS) is proposed. Experiments are carried out to verity its effectiveness. Experimental results show that the proposed system can rapidly locate the faults in the information system and achieve automatic recovery, enabling the operation and maintenance personnel to better manage the information system. Hence, there is a bright prospect of its application.
Cellulase Enzyme Production from Agricultural Waste by Acinetobacter sp. KKU44
Authors: Poomai Nutt , Siripornadulsil Wilailak , Siripornadulsil Surasak
Published: May 2014

Due to a high ethanol demand, the approach for effective ethanol production is important and has been developed rapidly worldwide. Several agricultural wastes are highly abundant in celluloses and the effective cellulase enzymes do exist widely among microorganisms. Accordingly, the cellulose degradation using microbial cellulase to produce a low-cost substrate for ethanol production has attracted more attention. In this study, the cellulase producing bacterial strain has been isolated from rich straw and identified by 16S rDNA sequence analysis as Acinetobacter sp. KKU44. This strain is able to grow and exhibit the cellulase activity. The optimal temperature for its growth and cellulase production is 37 °C. The optimal temperature of bacterial cellulase activity is 60 °C. The cellulase enzyme from Acinetobacter sp. KKU44 is heat-tolerant enzyme. The bacterial culture of 36 h. showed highest cellulase activity at 120 U/mL when grown in LB medium containing 2% (w/v). The capability of Acinetobacter sp. KKU44 to grow in cellulosic agricultural wastes as a sole carbon source and exhibiting the high cellulase activity at high temperature suggested that this strain could be potentially developed further as a cellulose degrading strain for a production of low-cost substrate used in ethanol production.
Carvacrol as an Antimicrobial Agent for Poly(butylene succinate): Tensile Properties and Antimicrobial Activity Observations
Authors: Wiburanawong Sasinee , Petchwattana Nawadon , Covavisaruch Sirijutaratana
Published: May 2014

This research aims to study the influences of carvacrol essential oil on the tensile properties and antimicrobial activity of food packages prepared from poly (butylene succinate) (PBS). Overall, the tensile strength and tensile modulus of the PBS film decreased with the addition of carvacrol beyond 4wt%. PBS elongated to a greater extent when carvacrol was employed; the elongation reached its maximum level at 19% when carvacrol was added at 10wt%. The water vapor permeation (WVP) and oxygen permeation (OP) of PBS/carvacrol films tended to increase with increasing carvacrol content due to the vaporization of some carvacrol. Carvacrol was found to effectively inhibit microorganism growth; its antimicrobial activity against S.arious growth was evident when 4wt% of carvacrol was compounded with PBS while that against E.coli growth was found only when 10wt% of carvacrol was employed.
Electrical Properties of Material Characteristics Using a Microstrip Patch Sensor
Authors: Harnsoongnoen S. , Ritjaroenwattu S. , Charoen-In U. , Siritaratiwat Apirat
Published: May 2014

In this paper, the electrical properties of materials were evaluated using a microstrip patch sensor. The sensor was designed for the operating frequency in range of 1.5 to 3 GHz on a DiClad 880 substrate with the permittivity of 2.2. The resonant frequency of the design sensor ,as well as the magnitude of the reflection spectra S11, were analyzed and then simulated three-dimensional finite element modeling when,. The result shows that the increase of the dielectric constant (εr) and conductivity (σ) of the material under test (MUT) led to the significant change of the resonant frequency. Thus, the resonant frequency may be used to evaluate the moisture content of the agricultural products.
Push-Mode Printhead Using Magnetic Linear Actuator
Authors: Saedan Mana , Mangkrai Manatpong
Published: May 2014

A magnetic linear actuator drop-on-demand printhead with interchangeable components is designed and fabricated. The manufacturing processes of all parts are carried out with simple techniques. A droplet generation relies on a linear motion from a piston inside a printhead chamber that causes a pressure wave to push an ink out from a nozzle-aperture. The motion is actuated by a voice coil liked actuator. The voltage applied across the actuator is significantly lower than the piezo actuator. The interchangeable components enable rapid configuration of a printhead to suit wide range of ink-materials. The prototype of our printhead was tested with inks prepared from glycerin-water solutions. The operability of the printhead was evaluated at actuated time ranging from 2 100 milliseconds. Our printhead was able to jet a single droplet of ink with viscosity up to 35 mPa.s. The drop size is comparable to other types of printheads.
A Modified Cosine Similarity for Cross Language Information Retrieval
Authors: Inparaprapan Chatchai , Kesorn Kraisak
Published: May 2014

Since millions of documents are available on the Internet, some documents contain similar content but they are written in different languages by various authors. Unfortunately, the existing search engines do not support to all documents that are relevant to a single language query. Therefore, several researchers have put a huge effort to overcome such a problem. The major problems of a cross language search engine include 1) how to store information in a unify model and represent information of multiple languages documents effectively and 2) how to rank the retrieved multiple language documents and present to a user in the right order. This paper overcomes the first problem using an ontology model and we present a new ranking technique for a cross language information retrieval system (CLIR). Keyword weighting scheme in an ontology and document sections are introduced. Cosine similarity formula is modified to particularly support CLIR. The experimental results show the modified formula obtains more efficient ranking results than the existing method.
A Guided Genetic Algorithm for Bilateral Negotiation with Incomplete Information
Authors: Threepatcharatip Teerapat , Somhom Samerkae
Published: May 2014

Reaching an agreement between negotiators is a complex process. The complexity of the problem is depicted by the difference preference of negotiators, the size of the solution space and the negotiation procedure. The aim of this study is to develop an automated negotiation method using a genetic algorithm as a mechanism. The proposed method uses theestimation of the zone of agreementtoguide negotiation. Time and joint utility are used as performance indicators. The result shows that the proposed method hasa better time usage than others.However, our method could have poor value of joint utility in some cases. A likely explanation is that the progress rate of the negotiators affects the joint payoff.
Chlorophylls Contents in Echinocactus grusonii Extract
Authors: Chaicharoenaudomrung Nipha , Oonsivilai Anant , Oonsivilai Ratchadaporn
Published: May 2014

Currently, Golden Barrel cactus extract is formulated in dietary supplements, on account of its powerful weight loss profit and antioxidant activity. Golden Barrel cactus grusonii (Echinocactus grusonii), a Thai cultivar Golden Barrel cactus which is known as the golden barrel Golden Barrel cactus was therefore investigated for total chlorophylls with the aim of developing as a dietary supplement in future. The chlorophyll contents of 3 and 6 years Echinocactus grusonii extracts were evaluated by High Performance Liquid Chromatography with a Grace-Vydac 201TP54 reversed-phase polymeric C18 column. The results showed that chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b are the main components of Echinocactus grusonii crude extracts also at higher level at age 3 years. It was found that the main chlorophylls contents are chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b at 2.94±0.55μg/ml and 1.63±0.14 μg/ml for 3 years Echinocactus grusonii. In addition, the amount of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b show lower content at 1.11±0.25μg/ml and 0.67±0.01μg/ml for 6 years Echinocactus grusonii. In conclusion, Echinocactus grusonii age 3 years crude extracts showed total chlorophylls contents higher than at age 6 years. The phytochemical profile study of Echinocactus grusonii age 3 years and 6 years crude extracts are planned in the near future.
An Analysis of Ethanol Supply Chain in Thailand
Authors: Homchalee Rojanee , Arunyanart Sirawadee , Sessomboon Weerapat
Published: May 2014

This paper aims to analyze ethanol supply chain in Thailand. The analysis covered three main parts: supply chain structure, material flow and related costs in supply chain. The results showed that Thai ethanol supply chain is complex because it involves many stakeholders in both public and private agencies. Molasses and cassava are the main feedstocks of ethanol production in Thailand, so the upstream suppliers of ethanol supply chain are sugarcane and cassava farmers, and the collectors. The feedstocks cost of ethanol plants is high due to the fluctuation of sugarcane and cassava price. There is also a trade barrier to control both production and transportation of ethanol because it under the Liquor Act. Moreover, the distribution of ethanol has low efficiency and long distance of truck transport contribute to high transportation cost. Consequently, logistics system of Thai ethanol supply chain should be improved more efficient in order to support demand expansion of ethanol industry.
Improvement of TiO2/LDPE Composite Films for Photocatalytic Oxidation of Acetone
Authors: Suwannahong Kowit , Sirivithayapakorn Sanya , Noophan Pongsak , Sanongraj Wipada
Published: May 2014

Titanium dioxide with coupling agent (ETES) was applied as a photocatalyst for a synthesis of the TiO2/LDPE composite film. The physical properties of TiO2/LDPE composite film were analyzed by a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). TiO2 particles were impregnated into the polymer matrix film as a LDPE composite film. The results from the X-ray Diffraction (XRD) technique revealed that the structure of TiO2/LDPE composite film were anatase crystalline. The chemical structure of the TiO2/ LDPE composite films were analyzed by an ATR-Fourier transforms infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectrometer. Wavenumber of FTIR spectra at 719 cm1 indicated the Ti-O-Ti bond. Band gap energies of the films ranged from 3.19-3.29 eV. The photocatalytic activity of the film was tested for removal of gaseous acetone in a closed chamber. Experimental conditions were set as follows: a UV light intensity of approximately 2.7 mW.cm-2, flow rate of 2 L.min-1, and an initial acetone concentration of about 435±20 ppm. While the catalyst dosage was varied from 3% to 15% (wt. cat/wt. film).The degradation rate of acetone increased when increasing dosage of TiO2 from 3% to 10%, then decreased a little bit when increasing the dosage to 15%. The TiO2/LDPE composite film at the dosage of 10% yielded the highest removal efficiency of 75%, followed by the film at the dosage of 15%, 5%, and 3%, respectively.
Photocatalytic Degradation of 2-chlorophenol over TiO2 Powder
Authors: Pookmanee Pusit , Ngamta Songpon , Kangwansupamonkon Wiyong , Puntharod Ratchadaporn , Sangsrichan Supaporn , Kittikul Jiraporn , Phanichphant Sukon
Published: May 2014

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) powder was prepared by hydrothermal route. Titanium isopropoxide, ammonium hydroxide and nitric acid were used as the starting materials. The final pH value of mixed solution was 1 and treated at 80 and 100 °C for 26h. The phase transition of TiO2powder was studied by Xray diffraction (XRD). Multiphase of anatase and rutile of TiO2powder were obtained at 80 and 100 °C for 26h without calcination steps. The morphology of TiO2powder was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The particle was highly agglomerated and irregular in shape with the range of particle size of 0.10.3 μm. The chemical composition of TiO2powder was examined by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The element chemical compositions show the characteristic Xray energy level as follows: titanium Kα= 4.51 keV and Kβ= 4.93 keV and oxygen Kα= 0.52 keV, respectively. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of 2chlorophenol (2CP) over TiO2powder was determined by gas chromatography (GC). It was found that TiO2powder prepared by hydrothermal route at 80 °C for 2h was the best efficiency for photocatalytic degradation of 2CP.
Factors Influencing the Performance of Al-Zn-Sn Anode
Authors: Mungsantisuk Pinai
Published: May 2014

Al-Zn-Sn anode is not popular for corrosion prevention in marine environment as much as Al-Zn-In anode and Al-Zn-Hg anode because it requires proper heat treatment to obtain the optimum anode capacity. This paper investigates what factors would influence the anode performance of Al-Zn-Sn anode. The fine and homogeneous microstructure is the factor that plays important role to improve the anode capacity. The manufacturing techniques producing fine and homogeneous microstructure in aluminium alloys might be helpful to increase the performance of the anode without the heat treatment process.
New Car Assessment Program for Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN NCAP): Vehicle Selection and Results of Phase II
Authors: Mohd Khairudin Rahman , Mohd Hafzi Md Isa , Zulhaidi Jawi Mohd , Khairil Anwar Abu Kassim
Published: May 2014

New Car Assessment Program for Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN NCAP) is established with specific objective to elevate motor vehicle safety in the region. In line with United Nations Decade of Action for Global Road Safety 2011-2020 decree, the program is anticipated to influence consumer perception towards opting safer cars. This paper presents the results of ASEAN NCAP Phase II test on eleven popular models via offset frontal crash test, as well as the Adult Occupant Protection (AOP) results. This paper also includes explanation on the criteria for vehicle selection, as well as the direction for ASEAN NCAP to encompass the whole spectrum of occupant protection and vehicle crashworthiness.