Conformal mapping of unbounded multiply connected regions onto canonical slit regions

We present a boundary integral equation method for conformal mapping of unbounded multiply connected regions onto five types of canonical slit regions. For each canonical region, three linear boundary integral equations are constructed from a boundary relationship satisfied by an analytic function on an unboundedmultiply connected region. The integral equations are uniquely solvable. The kernels involved in these integral equations are the modified Neumann kernels and the adjoint generalized Neumann kernels

Effect of Different Catalyst Deposition Technique on Aligned Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Grown by Thermal Chemical Vapor Deposition

The paper reported the investigation of the substrate preparation technique involving deposition of iron catalyst by electron beam evaporation and ferrocene vaporization in order to produce vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes array needed for fabrication of tailored devices. Prior to the growth at 700°C in ethylene, silicon dioxide coated silicon substrate was prepared by depositing alumina followed by iron using two different methods as described earlier. Characterization analysis revealed that aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes array of 107.9 µm thickness grown by thermal chemical vapor deposition technique can only be achieved for the sample with iron deposited using ferrocene vaporization. The thick layer of partially oxidized iron film can prevent the deactivation of catalyst and thus is able to sustain the growth. It also increases the rate of permeation of the hydrocarbon gas into the catalyst particles and prevents agglomeration at the growth temperature. Combination of alumina-iron layer provides an efficient growth of high density multiwalled carbon nanotubes array with the steady growth rate of 3.6 µm per minute for the first 12 minutes and dropped by half after 40 minutes. Thicker and uniform iron catalyst film obtained from ferrocene vaporization is attributed to the multidirectional deposition of particles in the gaseous form

Key risk determinant of listed deposit-taking institutions in Malaysia

Risk management is a critical function in banking operations in the wake of several banking crises. However; we find few studies on risk management and a lack of empirical investigation on factors affecting the risk of Malaysian banks. These gaps have motivated us to identify the main factors associated with the risk of locally listed deposit-taking institutions. The findings show that three factors were signlficantly associated with unsystematic risk, while the systematic risk and the total risk of these deposit-taking institutions were significantly affected by four main factors. These four factors namely non-performing loans, cost of funds, loan to deposit ratio and inter-bank offered rate however; were found to have a more profound effect on the total risk than on the systematic risk or the unsystematic risk of Malaysian deposit-taking institutions

Slight-Delay Shaped Variable Bit Rate (SD-SVBR) Technique for Video Transmission

The aim of this thesis is to present a new shaped Variable Bit Rate (VBR) for video transmission, which plays a crucial role in delivering video traffic over the Internet. This is due to the surge of video media applications over the Internet and the video typically has the characteristic of a highly bursty traffic, which leads to the Internet bandwidth fluctuation. This new shaped algorithm, referred to as Slight Delay - Shaped Variable Bit Rate (SD-SVBR), is aimed at controlling the video rate for video application transmission. It is designed based on the Shaped VBR (SVBR) algorithm and was implemented in the Network Simulator 2 (ns-2). SVBR algorithm is devised for real-time video applications and it has several limitations and weaknesses due to its embedded estimation or prediction processes. SVBR faces several problems, such as the occurrence of unwanted sharp decrease in data rate, buffer overflow, the existence of a low data rate, and the generation of a cyclical negative fluctuation. The new algorithm is capable of producing a high data rate and at the same time a better quantization parameter (QP) stability video sequence. In addition, the data rate is shaped efficiently to prevent unwanted sharp increment or decrement, and to avoid buffer overflow. To achieve the aim, SD-SVBR has three strategies, which are processing the next Group of Picture (GoP) video sequence and obtaining the QP-to-data rate list, dimensioning the data rate to a higher utilization of the leaky-bucket, and implementing a QP smoothing method by carefully measuring the effects of following the previous QP value. However, this algorithm has to be combined with a network feedback algorithm to produce a better overall video rate control. A combination of several video clips, which consisted of a varied video rate, has been used for the purpose of evaluating SD-SVBR performance. The results showed that SD-SVBR gains an impressive overall Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) value. In addition, in almost all cases, it gains a high video rate but without buffer overflow, utilizes the buffer well, and interestingly, it is still able to obtain smoother QP fluctuation

Penyelenggaraan fasiliti stadium

Penyelenggaraan adalah kerja yang dilakukan untuk memelihara, menjaga, mengendali, memperbaiki dan mengawalselia struktur bangunan, kemudahan, kelengkapan, perkhidmatan bangunan dan persekitaran bagi memastikan bangunan sentiasa berada pada tahap piawaian yang telah ditetapkan. Selain itu, penyelenggaraan juga dapat mempertahankan utiliti dan nilai fasiliti kemudahan serta berada dalam keadaan selamat digunakan

Method and apparatus for lead-unity-lag electric power generation system

A method employing a lead-unity-lag adjustment on a power generation system is disclosed. The method may include calculating a unity power factor point and adjusting system parameters to shift a power factor angle to substantially match an operating power angle creating a new unity power factor point. The method may then define operation parameters for a high reactance permanent magnet machine based on the adjusted power level

Fine-granulated FEC code for IPTV I-frames over wireless DVB-T channels

Powerful Forward Error Correction (FEC) codes are usually used over digital video broadcast (DVB) networks. IPTV uses a base video layer and enhancement layer. In IPTV, the Intra-frame (I-frame) has the highest dependency where corruption of an I-frame will result in error propagation through all the frames in the Group of Pictures (GOP). This phenomena motivates the development of frame-selective fine - granulated FEC schemes in the application layer at the frame level (e.g., GOP) rather than the PHY layer packet level. The objective ofthis letter is to confirm this hypothesis by investigating the GOP peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and the bit energy to the noise energy (Et/No) performance for different bit error rate (BER) levels using such fine-granuled Reed-Solomon (RS) FEC coding and Interleaving at the video source before being passed down to the PHY layer. Recent research works have considered the effect of using FEC coding at the application layer for the whole GOP stream in conjunction with the PHY layer [I, 2 among others] but, to the best of the authors' knowledge, none has opted to study the effect of FEC coding to the individual 1frames that forms the base video at the video source before streaming it, in the open literature. Such I-frame protection reduces the required processing time and coding overhead that is most useful when streaming IPTV over satellite links, WiMAX, and other wireless channels

Role of Imaging Studies in Evaluating Patients Post Cytoreductive Surgery and Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy

A 77-year-old male presented to the ED with a new onset of acute abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. He had a previous surgical history of cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for an appendiceal tumor. Despite the repeated reassuring abdominal examinations, CT abdomen showed high-grade bowel obstruction and perforation. He was urgently taken to the operating room and underwent resection of 70 cm segment of small ischemic bowel with primary anastomosis. His postoperative course was complicated with atrial fibrillation (AF) requiring cardioversion and medical therapy. Later, he was discharged home under stable conditions. Relying on abdominal signs, an abdominal exam in a patient with a previous history of extensive peritonectomy and post-HIPEC surgery is challenging due to the altered peritoneal anatomy. As a result, the abdominal examination findings can be benign and misleading. This can lead to delayed surgical intervention, thereby increasing morbidity and mortality significantly. Therefore, a detailed evaluation with a low threshold for abdominal imaging studies like abdominal X-rays and CT abdomen series is warranted in this subset of patients