Virtual Collaborative R&D Teams in Malaysia Manufacturing SMEs

This paper presents the results of empirical research conducted during March to September 2009. The study focused on the influence of virtual research and development (R&D) teams within Malaysian manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The specific objective of the study is better understanding of the application of collaborative technologies in business, to find the effective factors to assist SMEs to remain competitive in the future. The paper stresses to find an answer for a question “Is there any relationship between company size, Internet connection facility and virtuality?”. The survey data shows SMEs are now technologically capable of performing the virtual collaborative team, but the infrastructure usage is less. SMEs now have the necessary technology to begin the implementation process of collaboration tools to reduce research and development (R&D) time, costs and increase productivity. So, the manager of R&D should take the potentials of virtual teams into account

Stream Fusion, to Completeness

Stream processing is mainstream (again): Widely-used stream libraries are now available for virtually all modern OO and functional languages, from Java to C# to Scala to OCaml to Haskell. Yet expressivity and performance are still lacking. For instance, the popular, well-optimized Java 8 streams do not support the zip operator and are still an order of magnitude slower than hand-written loops. We present the first approach that represents the full generality of stream processing and eliminates overheads, via the use of staging. It is based on an unusually rich semantic model of stream interaction. We support any combination of zipping, nesting (or flat-mapping), sub-ranging, filtering, mapping-of finite or infinite streams. Our model captures idiosyncrasies that a programmer uses in optimizing stream pipelines, such as rate differences and the choice of a "for" vs. "while" loops. Our approach delivers hand-written-like code, but automatically. It explicitly avoids the reliance on black-box optimizers and sufficiently-smart compilers, offering highest, guaranteed and portable performance. Our approach relies on high-level concepts that are then readily mapped into an implementation. Accordingly, we have two distinct implementations: an OCaml stream library, staged via MetaOCaml, and a Scala library for the JVM, staged via LMS. In both cases, we derive libraries richer and simultaneously many tens of times faster than past work. We greatly exceed in performance the standard stream libraries available in Java, Scala and OCaml, including the well-optimized Java 8 streams

Speeded Up Robust Features Descriptor for Iris Recognition Systems

اكتسبت النظم البايومترية اهتماما كبيرا لعدة تطبيقات. كان تحديد القزحية أحد أكثر التقنيات البايومترية تطوراً للمصادقة الفعالة. نظام التعرف على القزحية الحالية يقدم نتائج دقيقة وموثوق بها على أساس الصور المأخوذة بالأشعة التحت الحمراء (NIR) عندما يتم التقاط الصور في مسافة ثابتة مع تعاون المستخدم. ولكن بالنسبة لصور العين الملونة التي تم الحصول عليها تحت الطول الموجي المرئي (VW) دون التعاون بين المستخدمين، فإن كفاءة التعرف على القزحية تتأثر بسبب الضوضاء مثل صور عدم وضوح العين، و تداخل الرموش ، والانسداد  بالأجفان وغيرها. يهدف هذا العمل إلى استخدام (SURF) لاسترداد خصائص القزحية في كل من صور قزحية NIR والطيف المرئي. يتم استخدام هذا النهج وتقييمه على قواعد بيانات CASIA v1and IITD v1 كصورة قزحية NIR وUBIRIS v1 كصورة ملونة. وأظهرت النتائج معدل دقة عالية (98.1 ٪) على CASIA v1, (98.2) على IITD v1 و (83٪) على UBIRIS v1 تقييمها بالمقارنة مع الأساليب الأخرى.Biometric systems have gained significant attention for several applications. Iris identification was one of the most sophisticated biometrical techniques for effective and confident authentication. Current iris identification system offers accurate and reliable results based on near- infra -red light (NIR) images when images are taken in a restricted area with fixed-distance user cooperation. However, for the color eye images obtained under visible wavelength (VW) without cooperation between the users, the efficiency of iris recognition degrades because of noise such as eye blurring images, eye lashing, occlusion and reflection. This works aims to use Speeded up robust features Descriptor (SURF) to retrieve the iris's characteristics in both NIR iris images and visible spectrum. This approach is used and evaluated on the CASIA v1and IITD v1 databases as NIR iris image and UBIRIS v1 as color image. The evaluation results showed a high accuracy rate 98.1 % on CASIA v1, 98.2 on IITD v1 and 83% on UBIRIS v1 evaluated by comparing to the other method

Implementation of Controlled Robot for Fire Detection and Extinguish to Closed Areas Based on Arduino

The wireless control systems are taking a special importance in the recent years, where the wireless control system provide several advantages; including the disposal of the using wire and periodic maintenance of data transmission wires, in the science of robot wireless control unit is the main part of the fire treatment and extinguish robot system. The lives of firefighters exposed to the risk of death and Rima, therefore the use of remote control systems more secure is necessary. In this, paper a fire-extinguish robot used for extinguishing the fire in general and in treatment fires in the closed areas for protecting employees in the field of fire suppression from combustion, exposure or inhalation to the toxic gases. The basic idea of fire detection and treatment robot based on detect the fire by the wireless camera and flame sensor then suppression the fire by send command from mobile phone through Bluetooth connection to make water pump turn "ON", and the fire then extinguished

Efecto del grado de hidrólisis sobre las propiedades funcionales de proteínas de semillas oleaginosas

Hydrolyzing soybean, sesame, and ricebran meals with papain and bromelain enzymes under previously determined optimum conditions was accomplished. Aliquots were withdrawn from the bulk hydrolysates at different time intervals to determine the rate of enzymatic degradation,as well as the degree of hydrolysis of the hydrolysates at different time intervals. Twelve hydrolysates were then chosen with low and high degree of hydrolysis. They also represented hydrolysates from the three substrates hydrolysed with the two enzymes used. Some functional properties of the twelve hydrolysates were examined and then an attempt to correlate the functional properties with the degree of hydrolysis was done. The investigated functional properties included: wettability, dispersibility, flowability, bulk density,nitrogen solubility index,water absorption capacity, oil holding capacity, gelation, thermostability, emulsifying capacity and foam stability.Results showed a direct relation between increasing degree of hydrolysis and nitrogen solubility and dispersibility. Wettability, flowability and emulsifying capacity gave better results with low degree of hydrolysis.Se ha efectuado la hidrólisis de harinas de haba de soja, sésamo y germen de arroz con las enzimas papaina y bromelaina bajo condiciones óptimas previamente determinadas. Se sacaron alicuotas de los hidrolizados a diferentes intervalos de tiempo para determinar la velocidad de degradación enzimática, así como el grado de hidrólisis de los hidrolizados. Con estos datos se eligieron doce hidrolizados con bajo y alto grado de hidrólisis, que fueron representativos de los tres sustratos y los dos enzimas ensayados. Se examinaron algunas propiedades funcionales de estos doce hidrolizados y luego se llevó a cabo un intento de correlacionarlas con el grado de hidrólisis. Las propiedades funcionales investigadas incluyeron: humectabilidad, dispersabilidad, fluidez, densidad volumétrica, índice de solubilidad del nitrógeno, capacidad de absorción de agua, capacidad de retención de aceite, gelación, termoestabilidad, capacidad emulsionante y estabilidad espumante. Los resultados mostraron una relación directa entre el aumento del grado de hidrólisis y la solubilidad del nitrogéno y la dispersabilidad. La humectabilidad, la fluidez y la capacidad emulsionante dieron mejores resultados con un grado de hidrólisis bajo

Effect of electrolysis regimes on the structure and properties of coatings on aluminum alloys formed by anode-cathode microarc oxidation

Наведено результати дослідження фазового складу і властивостей МДО-покриттів на алюмінієвих сплавах. Покриття були одержані в лужно-селікатному електроліті на змінному сінусоідальному струмі і в імпульсному режимі струму. Показано, що підвищена щільність мікророзрядів при імпульсної технології збільшує сумарну енергію, що виділяється в них. Це обумовлює підвищення швидкості зростання оксидного покриття і ймовірність утворення α-Al₂O₃ фази. Одержані при мікроплазмове оксидуванні в імпульсному струмовому режимі покриття мають високу твердість і електричну міцніст