第二名

Recently, there have been several researches aimed at the feasibility of electroactive polymers (EAPs) replacing motors as robotic actuators – the driving forces behind mechanical devices. However, current EAP actuators are either hard to control or incapable of discrete accurate movements. The research aims to design a computer interface that makes it possible for the electroactive polymer, VHB 4910, to become an effective substitute for bulky motors in effecting precise and accurate control of a robotic arm.

The skin of amphibians can secrete poisons from glands which reduces Palatability or sometimes result in rejection by predators. My research serves to confim the hypothesis that the pair of glands located on the ventral side of Rana Chalconota Tadpoles acts as an anti-presatory structure. Their palatability was measured by the consumption of them at developmental stages intermediate and post-metamorphic by Channa gachua and Giant Dragonfly Nymph. A known-palatable tadpole, Rana malesiana, was used as a control.

a. PURPOSE: Do babies between 0 – 3 months have certain sound reflexes that can be interpreted as a language? Can parents be helped to understand their newborn babies better? Are parents aware of infantile speech patterns and language acquisition in babies? b. PROCEDURES: 70 Babies of different cultures were tested to determine if the 5 crying-sounds can be an indication of the baby's need. Questionnaires and information were given out at hospitals and clinics. Doctors, paediatricians, sisters and parents were involved in my project. DVD's were made to show and explain the different sounds. c. DATA: I obtained my data from the questionnaires, interviews with parents, doctors, paediatricians and the staff working in the labour-wards. 70 Babies were tested (68 responded) and I listened to every cryingsound to make sure that there are only 5 different sounds. I made a DVD from all the sounds of the babies that I've tested. Data were also gathered from science. d. CONCLUSIONS: According to all the research and sources, I can positively say that a person can identify the reason why babies (0-3 months) are crying. Babies of any culture, have universal sounds that indicate their needs. The different sounds are: EH – upper gas, EAIRH – lower gas, HEH – discomfort, OWH –tired, NEH – hungry.

The pharmaceutical industry is constantly searching for methods that allow drugs to be delivered as a direct response to a specific stimulus, in which the locus of delivery is in the vicinity of required region. A unique thermo?reversible hydrogel,F127 modified with dimethacrylate (DMA), that can deliver drugs at physiological temperatures was synthesized. Nanoparticles which are specific for targeting human body cancer cell were absorbed by this hydrogel. The toxicity of nanoparticles with different diameters and coating was measured using the MTT assay. It was found that nanoparticles with smaller diameters and folate coating were most toxic to the cancer cells. The release rate of the nanoparticles from the hydrogel was measured as a function of temperature with the hydrogel releasing approximately 3 L nanoparticles per hour. Exposing this drug delivery system to cancer cells would effectively inhibit MCF7 cell proliferation. By grafting this nanoparticle?loaded hydrogel onto a thermoelectric module, the release of the drug would be controlled. Thus, a successful temperature sensitive hydrogel was synthesized that releases cancer?targeting nanoparticles which inhibit cancer cell proliferation, thereby engineering a controlled drug delivery system.

With an increase in the use of biosolids as a soil replacement and as a fertilizer for crop production, consumers continue to question the safety of crops grown in biosolids.Although past research has shown that there are no adverse affectsin the nutritional value of plants grown in biosolids, I furtherresearched the safety levels of trace metals in crops fertilized using biosolids.

This research introduces a new, more efficient method of age determination for eclipsing Binary through use of celestial Positioning . Statistical Analysis of x-y plots of eclipsing Binary Stars within our, Milky Way Galaxy were conducted in order to find the standard deviation of each eclipsing binary star’s distance from the celestial equator. Before the standard deviations could be considered for comparison, the medians from each of the three s-y plots were examined. There medians had to show a value close to zero in order for the standard deviations to be relevant. A value close to zero indicates a proportional and symmetrical plot with an equal distribution of stars on each side of the plot. All three plots generated indicted a median no greater than 1/100 in distance from the celestial equator. A low standard deviation indicates young relative age. The statictical analysis calculated standard deviations of 2.41 for W Ursae Majoris, 1.77 for Algol, and 1.20 for Deta Lyrae. The statistical analyses were then compared to the previously made visual and mathematical analyses conducted in previous years’ studies. All analyses conducted conclude that W Ursae Majoris is the oldest type and Beta Lyrae is the youngest type of eclipsing binary star. This method can be implemented to greatly reduce time in studying the relative ages of individual objects and types of objects within our Milky Way Galaxy.

The purpose of this project was to create a detection device for alcoholic drunk condition in human by using the principle of vapor pressure difference between breath samplings from normal and alcoholic-drunk men. The work comprises of three major steps. The first task was an experiment to determine an average air volume that can be fully blown out from the lungs of non-drunk people as a control. Twenty adult Thai volunteers weighing between 50 - 80 kg (average 59 kg) were used. The average blown out air volume was found to be 369.9 mL, with the range in values from 340-400 mL (sample size N = 20, SD = 15.47). The second task was an experiment to measure relationship between the blown air volume (100-700 mL, both from alcoholic-drunk and control groups of people) and the resulted vapor pressure by using manometer. The vapor pressure of normal breath increased from 400 to 1,600 newton/m2 with increasing blown air volume, whereas that of the alcoholic-drunk was found to be 600 to 1,800 newton/m2. The last task was to create a detection device prototype to gauge the alcoholic content in the human body from the breath. Air volume of 300 mL was arbitrary chosen to trigger lighting up of indicator lamps. The breath samples of low vapor pressure (low amount of alcohol, 21.12-44.00 mL, equivalent to 14.00-29.17 mg%) would trigger a green lamp to light up. A moderate vapor pressure range (medium amount of alcohol, 88-132 mL, equivalent to 58.33-87.57 mg%) would trigger green and yellow lamps to light up while a high vapor pressure (high amount of alcohol, 250 mL, equivalent to 165.72 mg%) would trigger green, yellow and red lamps to all light up. None of the three lamps would light up from (non-alcoholic) breath of control people. This device has also been tested to external group of volunteers. The work in this project has successfully demonstrated a useful application of simple principle in chemistry on partial vapor pressure.

Video compression is indispensable to web streaming and memory storage.Most video\r compression technology has difficulty to achieve high quality video at lower bit\r rates.Apparently,limited transmission bandwidth and network resources often degrade\r video signals.Thus the goal of my research was to enhance video degrade video\r signals.Thus the goal of my research was to enhance video compression performance and\r to improve visual quality.It is hypothesized that the reduction in neighboring pixels\r coding,and humans perceptual mechanisms(psychovisual)redundancy could produce a\r low-complexity geometry streams for animated visual objects.A set of algorithms is\r developed to parse bidirectional interpolation pixels into their characteristic cells,which\r vary in spectral energy and wavelength.The bits contained in these cells are vectorized and\r transformed recursively to identify lower correlations among vector arrarys for blocks\r filtering.DCT function calculates energy ratios between high spatial frequency and low\r spatial frequency,to devote most of the highest spatial frequency bits with the calculated\r energy ratios.A variable quantization method is used to measure the sensitivity of colors\r and its intensity ratios to restore any missing high spatial frequency pixels.presnted in\r mathematical intrinsic.This approach leads to the ability to compress video data that\r normally require a large amount of memory to store and high bandwidth to\r transmit,Results form the enhanced video compression experiment have attained\r 0.1bpp(256kbps,25fps)without noticeable effects comparable to the video compression\r technique that achieved 0.5bpp(1.5Mbps,25fps)in use today.