Search results for: context based recommendation

Authors: Ved Kulkarni, Karthik Kini

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This experiment aims to understand how the media affects the power markets in the mainland United States and study the duration of reaction time between news updates and actual price movements. it have taken into account electric utility companies trading in the NYSE and excluded companies that are more politically involved and move with higher sensitivity to Politics. The scrapper checks for any news related to keywords, which are predefined and stored for each specific company. Based on this, the classifier will allocate the effect into five categories: positive, negative, highly optimistic, highly negative, or neutral. The effect on the respective price movement will be studied to understand the response time. Based on the response time observed, neural networks would be trained to understand and react to changing market conditions, achieving the best strategy in every market. The stock trader would be day trading in the first phase and making option strategy predictions based on the black holes model. The expected result is to create an AI-based system that adjusts trading strategies within the market response time to each price movement.

Keywords: data mining, language processing, artificial neural networks, sentiment analysis

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Authors: Saeed Mahjoub Moghadas, Farhad Asadi, Shahed Torkamandi, Hassan Moradi, Mahmood Purgamshidian

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In this paper, we present real-time obstacle avoidance approach for both autonomous and non-autonomous DS-based controllers and also based on dynamical systems (DS) method. In this approach, we can modulate the original dynamics of the controller and it allows us to determine safety margin and different types of DS to increase the robot’s reactiveness in the face of uncertainty in the localization of the obstacle and especially when robot moves very fast in changeable complex environments. The method is validated in simulation and influence of different autonomous and non-autonomous DS such as limit cycles, and unstable DS on this algorithm and also the position of different obstacles in complex environment is explained. Finally, we describe how the avoidance trajectories can be verified through different parameters such as safety factor.

Keywords: limit cycles, nonlinear dynamical system, real time obstacle avoidance, DS-based controllers

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Authors: Fouad Inel, Lakhdar Khochemane

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This article presents a comparative response specification performance between two controllers of three and four cable based robots for various applications. The main objective of this work is: the first is to use the direct and inverse geometric model to study and simulate the end effector position of the robot with three and four cables. A graphical user interface has been implemented in order to visualizing the position of the robot. Secondly, we present the determination of static and dynamic tensions and lengths of cables required to flow different trajectories. At the end, we study the response of our systems in closed loop with a Proportional-IntegratedDerivative (PID) and Proportional-Integrated (PD) controllers then this last are compared the results of the same examples using MATLAB/Simulink; we found that the PID method gives the better performance, such as rapidly speed response, settling time, compared to PD controller.

Keywords: dynamic modeling, geometric modeling, graphical user interface, open loop, parallel cable-based robots, PID/PD controllers

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Authors: Ali Berkan Ural

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This paper presents the analysis, evaluation, and pre-diagnosis of early stage breast based diagnostic problems (breast cancer, nodulesorlumps) by Computer Aided Diagnosing (CAD) system from mammogram radiological images. According to the statistics, the time factor is crucial to discover the disease in the patient (especially in women) as possible as early and fast. In the study, a new algorithm is developed using advanced image processing and deep learning method to detect and classify the problem at earlystagewithmoreaccuracy. This system first works with image processing methods (Image acquisition, Noiseremoval, Region Growing Segmentation, Morphological Operations, Breast BorderExtraction, Advanced Segmentation, ObtainingRegion Of Interests (ROIs), etc.) and segments the area of interest of the breast and then analyzes these partly obtained area for cancer detection/lumps in order to diagnosis the disease. After segmentation, with using the Spectrogramimages, 5 different deep learning based methods (specified Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) basedAlexNet, ResNet50, VGG16, DenseNet, Xception) are applied to classify the breast based problems.

Keywords: computer aided diagnosis, breast cancer, region growing, segmentation, deep learning

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Authors: Kannapha Amaruchkul

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We formulate a dynamic overbooking model for a tour operator, in which most reservations contain at least two people. The cancellation rate and the timing of the cancellation may depend on the group size. We propose two overbooking policies, namely economic- and service-based. In an economic-based policy, we want to minimize the expected oversold and underused cost, whereas, in a service-based policy, we ensure that the probability of an oversold situation does not exceed the pre-specified threshold. To illustrate the applicability of our approach, we use tour package data in 2016-2018 from a tour operator in Thailand to build a data-driven robust optimization model, and we tested the proposed overbooking policy in 2019. We also compare the data-driven approach to the conventional approach of fitting data into a probability distribution.

Keywords: applied stochastic model, data-driven robust optimization, overbooking, revenue management, tour operator

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Authors: Wang Shuen-Tai, Lin Yu-Ching, Chang Hsi-Ya

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Cloud computing is the innovative and leading information technology model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort. In this paper, we aim at the development of workflow management system for cloud computing platforms based on our previous research on the dynamic allocation of the cloud computing resources and its workflow process. We took advantage of the HTML 5 technology and developed web-based workflow interface. In order to enable the combination of many tasks running on the cloud platform in sequence, we designed a mechanism and developed an execution engine for workflow management on clouds. We also established a prediction model which was integrated with job queuing system to estimate the waiting time and cost of the individual tasks on different computing nodes, therefore helping users achieve maximum performance at lowest payment. This proposed effort has the potential to positively provide an efficient, resilience and elastic environment for cloud computing platform. This development also helps boost user productivity by promoting a flexible workflow interface that lets users design and control their tasks' flow from anywhere.

Keywords: web-based, workflow, HTML5, Cloud Computing, Queuing System

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Authors: Rui Mao, Heming Ji, Xiaoyu Wang

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Keystroke dynamics are widely used in identity recognition. It has the advantage that the individual typing rhythm is difficult to imitate. It also supports continuous authentication through the keyboard without extra devices. The existing keystroke dynamics authentication methods based on machine learning have a drawback in supporting relatively complex scenarios with massive data. There are drawbacks to both feature extraction and model optimization in these methods. To overcome the above weakness, an authentication model of keystroke dynamics based on deep learning is proposed. The model uses feature vectors formed by keystroke content and keystroke time. It ensures efficient continuous authentication by cooperating attention mechanisms with the combination of CNN and Bi-LSTM. The model has been tested with Open Data Buffalo dataset, and the result shows that the FRR is 3.09%, FAR is 3.03%, and EER is 4.23%. This proves that the model is efficient and accurate on continuous authentication.

Keywords: keystroke dynamics, identity authentication, deep learning, CNN, LSTM

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Authors: Minjuan Sun

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Ever since the late 1990s, China has experienced explosive growth in consumer lending, especially in short-term consumer loans, among which, the growth rate of non-bank lending has surpassed bank lending due to the development in financial technology. On the other hand, China does not have a universal credit scoring and registration system that can guide lenders during the processes of credit evaluation and risk control, for example, an individual’s bank credit records are not available for online lenders to see and vice versa. Given this context, the purpose of this paper is three-fold. First, we explore if and how alternative digital footprint data can be utilized to assess borrower’s creditworthiness. Then, we perform a comparative analysis of machine learning methods for the canonical problem of credit default prediction. Finally, we analyze, from an institutional point of view, the necessity of establishing a viable and nationally universal credit registration and scoring system utilizing online digital footprints, so that more people in China can have better access to the consumption loan market. Two different types of digital footprint data are utilized to match with bank’s loan default records. Each separately captures distinct dimensions of a person’s characteristics, such as his shopping patterns and certain aspects of his personality or inferred demographics revealed by social media features like profile image and nickname. We find both datasets can generate either acceptable or excellent prediction results, and different types of data tend to complement each other to get better performances. Typically, the traditional types of data banks normally use like income, occupation, and credit history, update over longer cycles, hence they can’t reflect more immediate changes, like the financial status changes caused by the business crisis; whereas digital footprints can update daily, weekly, or monthly, thus capable of providing a more comprehensive profile of the borrower’s credit capabilities and risks. From the empirical and quantitative examination, we believe digital footprints can become an alternative information source for creditworthiness assessment, because of their near-universal data coverage, and because they can by and large resolve the "thin-file" issue, due to the fact that digital footprints come in much larger volume and higher frequency.

Keywords: credit score, digital footprint, Fintech, machine learning

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Authors: Jhansi Rani Boda, G. Sunitha

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Worldwide, the financial markets are influenced by several factors such as the changes in economic and political processes that occur in the country and the globe, information diffusion and approachability and so on. Yet, the foremost important factor is the investor’s reaction and perception. For an individual investor, decision-making process can be perceived as a continuous process that has significant impact of their psychology while making investment decisions. Behavioral finance relies on research of human and social recognition and emotional tolerance studies to identify and understand the investment decisions. This article aims to report the research of individual investor’s financial behavior in a historical perspective. This article uncovers the investor’s psychology in investment decision making focusing on the investor’s rationality with an explanation of psychological and emotional factors that affect investing. The results of the study are revealed by means of Graphical visualization.

Keywords: behavioral finance, psychology, investor’s behavior, psychological and emotional factors

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Authors: Wahhaj Ahmed Farooqi, Bilal Ahmad, Sandra Maritza Zambrano Bernal

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In view of structural engineering, monitoring of structural responses over time is of great importance with respect to recent developments of construction technologies. Recently, developments of advanced computing tools have enabled researcher’s better execution of structural health monitoring (SHM) and control systems. In the last decade, building information modeling (BIM) has substantially enhanced the workflow of planning and operating engineering structures. Typically, building information can be stored and exchanged via model files that are based on the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) standard. In this study a modeling approach for semantic modeling of SHM and control systems is integrated into the BIM methodology using the IFC standard. For validation of the modeling approach, a laboratory test structure, a four-story shear frame structure, is modeled using a conventional BIM software tool. An IFC schema extension is applied to describe information related to monitoring and control of a prototype SHM and control system installed on the laboratory test structure. The SHM and control system is described by a semantic model applying Unified Modeling Language (UML). Subsequently, the semantic model is mapped into the IFC schema. The test structure is composed of four aluminum slabs and plate-to-column connections are fully fixed. In the center of the top story, semi-active tuned liquid column damper (TLCD) is installed. The TLCD is used to reduce effects of structural responses in context of dynamic vibration and displacement. The wireless prototype SHM and control system is composed of wireless sensor nodes. For testing the SHM and control system, acceleration response is automatically recorded by the sensor nodes equipped with accelerometers and analyzed using embedded computing. As a result, SHM and control systems can be described within open BIM, dynamic responses and information of damages can be stored, documented, and exchanged on the formal basis of the IFC standard.

Keywords: structural health monitoring, open building information modeling, industry foundation classes, unified modeling language, semi-active tuned liquid column damper, nondestructive testing

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Authors: Ali Kadivar, Kaveh Niayesh

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This report summarizes a simulation-based approach to estimate the current interruption behavior of a fuse element utilized in a DC network protecting battery banks under different stresses. Due to internal resistance of the battries, the short circuit current in very close to the nominal current, and it makes the fuse designation tricky. The base configuration considered in this report consists of five fuse units in parallel. The simulations are performed using a multi-physics software package, COMSOL® 5.6, and the necessary material parameters have been calculated using two other software packages.The first phase of the simulation starts with the heating of the fuse elements resulted from the current flow through the fusing element. In this phase, the heat transfer between the metallic strip and the adjacent materials results in melting and evaporation of the filler and housing before the aluminum strip is evaporated and the current flow in the evaporated strip is cut-off, or an arc is eventually initiated. The initiated arc starts to expand, so the entire metallic strip is ablated, and a long arc of around 20 mm is created within the first 3 milliseconds after arc initiation (v_elongation = 6.6 m/s. The final stage of the simulation is related to the arc simulation and its interaction with the external circuitry. Because of the strong ablation of the filler material and venting of the arc caused by the melting and evaporation of the filler and housing before an arc initiates, the arc is assumed to burn in almost pure ablated material. To be able to precisely model this arc, one more step related to the derivation of the transport coefficients of the plasma in ablated urethane was necessary. The results indicate that an arc current interruption, in this case, will not be achieved within the first tens of milliseconds. In a further study, considering two series elements, the arc was interrupted within few milliseconds. A very important aspect in this context is the potential impact of many broken strips parallel to the one where the arc occurs. The generated arcing voltage is also applied to the other broken strips connected in parallel with arcing path. As the gap between the other strips is very small, a large voltage of a few hundred volts generated during the current interruption may eventually lead to a breakdown of another gap. As two arcs in parallel are not stable, one of the arcs will extinguish, and the total current will be carried by one single arc again. This process may be repeated several times if the generated voltage is very large. The ultimate result would be that the current interruption may be delayed.

Keywords: DC network, high current / low SC fuses, FEM simulation, paralle fuses

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Authors: Siwei Chang, Heng Li, Haitao Wu, Xin Fang

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Construction robots are receiving more and more attention as a promising solution to the manpower shortage issue in the construction industry. The development of intelligent control techniques that assist in controlling the robots to avoid transparency and reflected building obstacles is crucial for guaranteeing the adaptability and flexibility of mobile construction robots in complex construction environments. With the boom of computer vision techniques, a number of studies have proposed vision-based methods for transparent obstacle avoidance to improve operation accuracy. However, vision-based methods are also associated with disadvantages such as high computational costs. To provide better perception and value evaluation, this study aims to analyze the performance of vision-based techniques for avoiding transparent building obstacles. To achieve this, commonly used sensors, including a lidar, an ultrasonic sensor, and a USB camera, are equipped on the robotic platform to detect obstacles. A Raspberry Pi 3 computer board is employed to compute data collecting and control algorithms. The turtlebot3 burger is employed to test the programs. On-site experiments are carried out to observe the performance in terms of success rate and detection distance. Control variables include obstacle shapes and environmental conditions. The findings contribute to demonstrating how effectively vision-based obstacle avoidance strategies for transparent building obstacle avoidance and provide insights and informed knowledge when introducing computer vision techniques in the aforementioned domain.

Keywords: construction robot, obstacle avoidance, computer vision, transparent obstacle

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Authors: Aseem Rajvanshi, Pankaj Kumar Pandey

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Increase in population has increased the demand of energy to fulfill all its needs. This will result in burden on fossil fuels especially crude oil. Waste oil due to its disposal problem creates environmental degradation. In this context, this paper studies utilization of waste cooking oil and waste motor sludge for making lubricating grease. Experimental studies have been performed by variation in time and concentration of mixture of waste cooking oil and waste motor sludge. The samples were analyzed using penetration test (ASTM D-217), dropping point (ASTM D-566), work penetration (ASTM D-217) and copper strip test (ASTM D-408). Among 6 samples, sample 6 gives the best results with a good drop point and a fine penetration value. The dropping point and penetration test values were found to be 205 °C and 315, respectively. The penetration value falls under the category of NLGI (National Lubricating Grease Institute) consistency number 1.

Keywords: crude oil, copper strip corrosion test, dropping point, penetration test

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Authors: L. Benseghir, H. Kadi-Hanifi

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Vegetation of the high steppic plains of southern Algiers region has ever been used by human occupation. The harsh climatic context characterized by long periods of drought and an ovine livestock in constant growth lead us to devote a particular attention to the biodiversity of those living environment. The diachronic study made in Tadmit (50 km south of the district of Djelfa) about the specific recording led us to notice that: The floristic recording of Tadmit is not reduced in time but fluctuate, depending on the pasture intensity, the annual rainfall and especially by the protection area of the following two years from January 2004. The forming specific recording of the station undergo significant changes from a period to another. Those changes in floristic list concern nearly 50% of the initial flora that could disappear or be replaced by new species. Finally, the alfa steppe is in a marked decline and is substituted by new facies that were privileged by the overgrazing, stranding or clearance.

Keywords: overgrazing, diachronic study, protection area, climate, desertification

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Authors: Nazia Yaqub

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Globally, the number of cases of international parental child abduction has remained consistent in the past decade despite the legal provision designed to prevent and deter abduction, and so it appears the current legal approach to prevent abduction is lacking. Reflecting on the findings of an empirical study conducted by the author between 2017-19 on parental abduction from the UK, the article considers a solution to the predicament of protecting children at risk of abduction through electronic monitoring. The electronic monitoring of children has negative connotations, particularly in its use in the criminal justice system, yet in the context of family law proceedings, the article considers whether electronic monitoring could serve a protective rather than a punitive purpose. The article reflects on the use of electronic monitoring in parental abduction cases by the Family Courts and examines the ethical considerations of the proposal, drawing on the rights found in the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Keywords: law, parental child abduction, electronic monitoring, legal solutions

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Authors: Yulia Stukalina

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This paper explores the main issues related to implementing a cross-disciplinary research project (LEARNIT) based on collaboration between universities from three European countries. The paper discusses the importance of using the holistic approach to managing scientific projects with due account for the complicated nature of the educational environment of a modern university. To illustrate this approach, the author describes some actions to be taken for supporting different focus areas of LEARNIT project, in the process using integrated tangible, non-tangible, and semi-tangible resources of the partner university. The methodology of the paper is based on the academic literature and research papers analysis within management discipline. The analysis reported in the paper is also based on the author’s professional experience in the area of managing international research projects in a university.

Keywords: LEARNIT, focus area, project management, resources

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Authors: Yusef Karimi, Masoomeh Esmaeily, Razgar Mohammadi

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Following the events of September 11th, one of the most important concerns of governments, politicians and, researchers has been to answer the question that why does an ordinary person become fundamentalism? One of the major controversies in past researches was about as to whether a fundamentalist person is normal or abnormal. In this regard, the purpose of this research is to investigate whether a Salafi-jihadi individual is normal or abnormal. The participants included 6 Jihadi Salafism individuals who were living in the Middle East and had been purposefully selected. This research is a qualitative study which examines these people′s retrospective experience of their lives. The data were collected through collaborative observation and interview. This continued till data saturation. Unlike the introduced concepts of fundamentalist personality in the previous studies such as self-fascination, aggression, paranoid personality and psychopathic, participants in this study had no abnormal symptoms of mental disorders. Hence, in the context of recognizing the fundamentalist personality, we must seek other personality and positional variables.

Keywords: abnormal, fundamentalism, normal, personality, Salafi

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Authors: Muhammad Jumat Dasuki

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The curbing of excesses of women in politics is a topic that has been extensively studied in the field of Islamic law. This issue is complex and involves various cultural and religious factors, making it a highly debated topic. This paper examines the role of Islamic law in regulating the behavior of women in politics. In many Islamic societies, women face restrictions and limitations when it comes to their participation in the political sphere. This paper investigates the reasons behind these restrictions and analyzes how Islamic law can be used to curb any excesses that may arise from women's involvement in politics. By examining various case studies and analyzing the principles of Islamic law, this paper sheds light on the issue of women's participation in politics and provides potential solutions for balancing their rights and duties according to Islamic law. The methodology includes primary sources through in-depth oral interviews and secondary sources like textbooks and journals, aiming for a holistic understanding of the ethical dimensions of support initiatives within the context of Islamic Law to establish the fairness of Islam Law in its approach to women in politics. The paper concludes with suggestions and recommendations.

Keywords: excess, Islamic law, principles, women

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Authors: S. Ben Fredj, H. Ghali, M. Ben Rejeb, S. Layouni, S. Khefacha, L. Dhidah, H. Said

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Background: The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) provides continuous care and uses a high level of treatment technologies. Although developed country hospitals allocate only 5–10% of beds in critical care areas, approximately 20% of nosocomial infections (NI) occur among patients treated in ICUs. Whereas in the developing countries the situation is still less accurate. The aim of our study is to assess mortality rates in ICUs and to determine its predictive factors. Methods: We carried out a nested case-control study in a 630-beds public tertiary care hospital in Eastern Tunisia. We included in the study all patients hospitalized for more than two days in the surgical or medical ICU during the entire period of the surveillance. Cases were patients who died before ICU discharge, whereas controls were patients who survived to discharge. NIs were diagnosed according to the definitions of ‘Comité Technique des Infections Nosocomiales et les Infections Liées aux Soins’ (CTINLIS, France). Data collection was based on the protocol of Rea-RAISIN 2009 of the National Institute for Health Watch (InVS, France). Results: Overall, 301 patients were enrolled from medical and surgical ICUs. The mean age was 44.8 ± 21.3 years. The crude ICU mortality rate was 20.6% (62/301). It was 35.8% for patients who acquired at least one NI during their stay in ICU and 16.2% for those without any NI, yielding an overall crude excess mortality rate of 19.6% (OR= 2.9, 95% CI, 1.6 to 5.3). The population-attributable fraction due to ICU-NI in patients who died before ICU discharge was 23.46% (95% CI, 13.43%–29.04%). Overall, 62 case-patients were compared to 239 control patients for the final analysis. Case patients and control patients differed by age (p=0,003), simplified acute physiology score II (p < 10-3), NI (p < 10-3), nosocomial pneumonia (p=0.008), infection upon admission (p=0.002), immunosuppression (p=0.006), days of intubation (p < 10-3), tracheostomy (p=0.004), days with urinary catheterization (p < 10-3), days with CVC ( p=0.03), and length of stay in ICU (p=0.003). Multivariate analysis demonstrated 3 factors: age older than 65 years (OR, 5.78 [95% CI, 2.03-16.05] p=0.001), duration of intubation 1-10 days (OR, 6.82 [95% CI, [1.90-24.45] p=0.003), duration of intubation > 10 days (OR, 11.11 [95% CI, [2.85-43.28] p=0.001), duration of CVC 1-7 days (OR, 6.85[95% CI, [1.71-27.45] p=0.007) and duration of CVC > 7 days (OR, 5.55[95% CI, [1.70-18.04] p=0.004). Conclusion: While surveillance provides important baseline data, successful trials with more active intervention protocols, adopting multimodal approach for the prevention of nosocomial infection incited us to think about the feasibility of similar trial in our context. Therefore, the implementation of an efficient infection control strategy is a crucial step to improve the quality of care.

Keywords: intensive care unit, mortality, nosocomial infection, risk factors

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Authors: Nattaporn Khanoonkon, Rangrong Yoksan, Amod A. Ogale

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Polyethylene (PE) is one of the most petroleum-based thermoplastic materials used in many applications including packaging due to its cheap, light-weight, chemically inert and capable to be converted into various shapes and sizes of products. Although PE is a commercially potential material, its non-biodegradability caused environmental problems. At present, bio-based polymers become more interesting owing to its bio-degradability, non-toxicity, and renewability as well as being eco-friendly. Thermoplastic starch (TPS) is a bio-based and biodegradable plastic produced from the plasticization of starch under applying heat and shear force. In many researches, TPS was blended with petroleum-based polymers including PE in order to reduce the cost and the use of those polymers. However, the phase separation between hydrophobic PE and hydrophilic TPS limited the amount of TPS incorporated. The immiscibility of two different polarity polymers can be diminished by adding compatibilizer. PE-based compatibilizers, e.g. polyethylene-grafted-maleic anhydride, polyethylene-co-vinyl alcohol, etc. have been applied for the PE/TPS blend system in order to improve their miscibility. Until now, there is no report about the utilization of starch-based compatibilizer for PE/TPS blend system. The aims of the present research were therefore to synthesize a new starch-based compatibilizer, i.e. stearic acid-grafted starch (SA-g-starch) and to study the effect of SA-g-starch on chemical interaction, morphological properties, tensile properties and water vapor as well as oxygen barrier properties of the PE/TPS blend films. PE/TPS blends without and with incorporating SA-g-starch with a content of 1, 3 and 5 part(s) per hundred parts of starch (phr) were prepared using a twin screw extruder and then blown into films using a film blowing machine. Incorporating 1 phr and 3 phr of SA-g-starch could improve miscibility of the two polymers as confirmed from the reduction of TPS phase size and the good dispersion of TPS phase in PE matrix. In addition, the blend containing SA-g-starch with contents of 1 phr and 3 phr exhibited higher tensile strength and extensibility, as well as lower water vapor and oxygen permeabilities than the naked blend. The above results suggested that SA-g-starch could be potentially applied as a compatibilizer for the PE/TPS blend system.

Keywords: blend, compatibilizer, polyethylene, thermoplastic starch

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Authors: Cher Leng Lee

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The existence of multiple first-person pronouns (1PPs) in classical Chinese is an issue that has not been resolved despite linguists using the grammatical perspective. This paper proposes pragmatics as a viable solution. There is also a lack of research exploring the evolving usage patterns of 1PPs within the historical context of Chinese language use. Such research can help us comprehend the changes and developments of these linguistic elements. To fill these research gaps, we use the diachronic pragmatics approach to contrast the functions of Chinese 1PPs in three representative texts from three different historical periods: The Analects (The Spring and Autumn Period), The Grand Scribe’s Records (Grand Records) (Qin and Han Period), and A New Account of Tales of the World (New Account) (The Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Period). The 1PPs of these texts are manually identified and classified according to the pragmatic functions in the given contexts to observe their historical changes, understand the factors that contribute to these changes, and provide possible answers to the development of how wo became the only 1PP in today’s spoken Mandarin.

Keywords: Chinese language, classical Chinese, historical linguistics, pragmatics, first-person pronouns

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Authors: Hugh Battye

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In recent years, Muslim identity in China has strengthened against the backdrop of a worldwide Islamic revival. One discussion arising from this has been focused around the Hui, an ethnicity created by the Communist government in the 1950s covering the Chinese speaking 'Sino-Muslims' as opposed to those with their own language. While the term Hui in Chinese has traditionally meant 'Muslim', the strengthening of Hui identity in recent decades has led to a debate among scholars as to whether this identity is primarily ethnically or religiously driven. This article looks at the case of a mixed ethnic community in rural Gansu Province, Central Northwest China, which not only contains the official Hui ethnicity but also members of the smaller Muslim Salar and Bonan minority groups. In analyzing the close interaction between these groups, the paper will argue that, despite government attempts to promote the Hui as an ethnicity within its modern ethnic paradigm, in rural Gansu and the general region, Hui is still essentially seen as a religious identity. Having provided an overview of the historical evolution of the Hui ethnonym in China and presented the views of some of the important scholars involved in the discussion, the paper will then offer its findings based on participant observation and survey work in Gansu. The results will show that, firstly, for the local Muslims, religious identity clearly dominates ethnic identity. On the ground, the term Hui continues to be used as a catch-all term for Muslims, whether they belong to the official 'Hui' nationality or not, and against this backdrop, the ethnic importance of being 'Hui', 'Bonan' or 'Salar' within the Muslim community itself is by contrast minimal. Secondly, however, this local Muslim solidarity is not at present pointing towards some kind of national pan-ethnic Islamic movement that could potentially set itself up in opposition to the Chinese government; rather it is better seen as part of an ongoing negotiation by local Muslims with the state in the context of its ascribed ethnic categories. The findings of this study in a region where many of the Muslims are more conservative in their beliefs is not necessarily replicated in other contexts, such as in urban areas and in eastern and southern China, and hence reification of the term Hui as one idea extending all across China should be avoided, whether in terms of a united religious 'ummah' or of a real or imagined 'ethnic group.' Rather, this localized case study seeks to demonstrate ways in which Muslims of rural Central Northwest China are 'being Hui,' as a contribution to the broader discussion on what it means to be Muslim and Chinese in the reform era.

Keywords: China, ethnicity, Hui, identity, Muslims

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Authors: Miju Choi

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Shopping tourism is an emerging concept in tourism research, thus contradicting the notion that shopping is not a novel idea. Tourists have long been performing shopping activities, such as purchasing authentic handicrafts and souvenirs, to benefit from a pleasant tourism experience. Some scholars regarded shopping as one of the oldest tourist activities and stressed that a trip is incomplete without shopping. Others then asserted that shopping is inseparable from other activities in tourist destinations and may in fact be considered a main purpose for travel. In other words, shopping is regarded as an incidental tourist activity, thereby indicating its potential as a primary travel motivation. The current study investigates the personal values of shopping tourists and their satisfaction levels. Via convenience sampling, 230 samples were collected. The software packages SPSS Statistics 20.0 and AMOS 20.0 were used for statistical analysis. Findings showed that both hedonic and utilitarian values positively influence tourist satisfaction and positive word of mouth. Therefore, this research deepens understanding regarding tourist behavior in the context of shopping tourism research.

Keywords: shopping tourism, hedonic value, utilitarian value, tourist satisfaction

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Authors: Oumaima Ben Abderrahim, Mohamed Houcine Elhedhili, Leila Saidane

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In this paper, we propose a trust management system based on clustering architecture for the social internet of things called TMBCO-SIOT. The proposed model integrates numerous factors such as direct and indirect trust; transaction factor; precaution factor; and social modeling of trust. The novelty of our approach can be summed up in two aspects. The first aspect concerns the architecture based on the community of interest (CoT) where each community is headed by an administrator (admin). However, the second aspect is the trust management system that tries to prevent On-Off attacks and mitigates dishonest recommendations using the k-means algorithm and guarantor things. The effectiveness of the proposed system is proved by simulation against malicious nodes.

Keywords: IoT, trust management system, attacks, trust, dishonest recommendations, K-means algorithm

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Authors: M. Greeshma, V. Ashvini, P. Jayarekha

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Project based learning (PBL) is a student-driven educational framework and offers the student an opportunity for in-depth investigations of courses. This paper presents the need of PBL in engineering education for the student to graduate with a capacity to design and implement complex problems. The implementation strategy of PBL and its related challenges are presented. The case study that energizes the engineering curriculum with a relevance to the real-world of technology along with its benefits to the students is also included.

Keywords: PBL, engineering education, curriculum, implement complex

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Authors: Veljko Jeremic, Milica Kostic Stankovic, Aleksandar Markovic, Milan Martic

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Evaluating the efficiency of decision making units has been frequently elaborated on in numerous publications. In this paper, the theoretical framework for a novel method of Distance Based Analysis (DBA) is presented. In addition, the method is performed on a sample of the ARWU’s top 54 Universities of the United States, the findings of which clearly demonstrate that the best ranked Universities are far from also being the most efficient.

Keywords: evaluating efficiency, distance based analysis, ranking of universities, ARWU

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Authors: Fethia Zenak, Salima Benbernou, Linda Zaoui

Abstract:

Recently, many companies are based on process development from scratch to achieve their business goals. The process development is not trivial and the main objective of enterprise managing processes is to decrease the software development time. Several concepts have been proposed in the field of business process-based reused development, known as BP Mashup. This concept consists of reusing existing business processes which have been modeled in order to respond to a particular goal. To meet user process requirements, our contribution is to mix parts of processes as 'processes fragments' components to build a new process (i.e. process mashup). The main idea of our paper is to offer graphical framework tool for both creating and running processes mashup. Allow users to perform a mixture of fragments, using a simple interface with set of graphical mixture operators based on a proposed formal model. A process mashup and mixture behavior are described within a new specification of a high-level language, language for process mashup (BPML).

Keywords: business process, mashup, fragments, bp mashup

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Authors: Kamrun N. Keya, Nasrin A. Kona, Ruhul A. Khan

Abstract:

Bamboo fiber (BF) reinforced polypropylene (PP) based composites were fabricated by a conventional compression molding technique. In this investigation, bamboo composites were manufactured using different percentages of fiber, which were varying from 25-65% on the total weight of the composites. To fabricate the BF/PP composites untreated and treated fibers were selected. A systematic study was done to observe the physical, mechanical, and interfacial behavior of the composites. In this study, mechanical properties of the composites such as tensile, impact, and bending properties were observed precisely. Maximum tensile strength (TS) and bending strength (BS) were found for 50 wt% fiber composites, 65 MPa, and 85.5 MPa respectively, whereas the highest tensile modulus (TM) and bending modulus (BM) was examined, 5.73 GPa and 7.85 GPa respectively. The BF/PP based composites were treated with irradiated under gamma radiation (the source strength 50 kCi Cobalt-60) of various doses (i.e. 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 kGy doses). The effect of gamma radiation on the composites was also investigated, and it found that the effect of 30.0 kGy (i.e. units for radiation measurement is 'gray', kGy=kilogray) gamma dose showed better mechanical properties than other doses. After flexural testing, fracture sides of the untreated and treated both composites were studied by scanning electron microscope (SEM). SEM results of the treated BF/PP based composites showed better fiber-matrix adhesion and interfacial bonding than untreated BF/PP based composites. Water uptake and soil degradation tests of untreated and treated composites were also investigated.

Keywords: bamboo fiber, polypropylene, compression molding technique, gamma radiation, mechanical properties, scanning electron microscope

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Authors: Gavin J. Baxter, Mark H. Stansfield

Abstract:

This paper reviews the internal use of blogs and their potential effectiveness as organisational learning tools. Prior to and since the emergence of the concept of ‘Enterprise 2.0’ there still remains a lack of empirical evidence associated with how organisations are applying social media tools and whether they are effective towards supporting organisational learning. Surprisingly, blogs, one of the more traditional social media tools, still remains under-researched in the context of ‘Enterprise 2.0’ and organisational learning. The aim of this paper is to identify the theoretical linkage between blogs and organisational learning in addition to reviewing prior research on organisational blogging with a view towards exploring why this area remains under-researched and identifying what needs to be done to try and move the area forward. Through a review of the literature, one of the principal findings of this paper is that organisational blogs, dependent on their use, do have a mutual compatibility with the interpretivist aspect of organisational learning. This paper further advocates that further empirical work in this subject area is required to substantiate this theoretical assumption.

Keywords: Enterprise 2.0, blogs, organisational learning, social media tools

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Authors: Selin Guney, Andres Riquelme

Abstract:

The traditional bio-economic method for fisheries modeling uses some estimate of the growth parameters and the system carrying capacity from a biological model for the population dynamics (usually a logistic population growth model) which is then analyzed as a traditional production function. The stock dynamic is transformed into a revenue function and then compared with the extraction costs to estimate the maximum economic yield. In this paper, the logistic population growth model for the population is combined with a forecast of the abundance and location of the stock by using a generalized additive model approach. The paper focuses on the Chilean hake population. This method allows for the incorporation of climatic variables and the interaction with other marine species, which in turn will increase the reliability of the estimates and generate better extraction paths for different conservation objectives, such as the maximum biological yield or the maximum economic yield.

Keywords: bio-economic, fisheries, GAM, production

Procedia PDF Downloads 259