experimental study of the cyclic behavior of unsaturated materials is more complex than that of the saturated materials due to the required equipment, experience and time. furthering investigations in the field of unsaturated materials is necessary to better understand its complexity and sensitivity of unsaturated cyclic parameters to different determinants such as suction path, stress path, lo...

PURPOSE When performing coronary angiography (CAG), diagnostic catheter intubation to the ostium can cause damping of the pressure tracing. The aim of this study was to determine the predictors of atherosclerotic ostial stenosis in patients showing pressure damping during CAG. MATERIALS AND METHODS In total, 2926 patients who underwent diagnostic CAG were screened in this study. Pressure damp...

Malaysians were reported to have the most number of Facebook friends, spend more time on Facebook and might be addicted to Facebook as well. This paper explored Facebook usage pattern, motivations and psycho logical/behavioural factors affecting the users. A focus group study was first conducted to explo re motives to use Facebook and symptoms related to excessive Facebook usage. The themes eme...

Aerodynamic damping for MEMS resonators is studied based on the numerical solution of Boltzmann-ESBGK equation. A compact model is then developed based on numerical simulations for a wide range of Knudsen numbers. The damping predictions are compared with both Reynold equation based models and several sets of experimental data. It has been found that the structural damping is dominant at low pr...

The paper presents the design of linear robust decentralised fixed-structure power system damping controllers using genetic algorithms (GA). The designed controllers follow a classical structure consisting of a gain, a wash-out stage and two lead-lag stages. To each controller is associated a set of three parameters representing the controller gain and the controller phase characteristics. The ...