Search results for: Digital Image Correlation (DIC)

Authors: Sanja Seljan, Ivan Dunđer

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The paper presents combined automatic speech recognition (ASR) for English and machine translation (MT) for English and Croatian in the domain of business correspondence. The first part presents results of training the ASR commercial system on two English data sets, enriched by error analysis. The second part presents results of machine translation performed by online tool Google Translate for English and Croatian and Croatian-English language pairs. Human evaluation in terms of usability is conducted and internal consistency calculated by Cronbach's alpha coefficient, enriched by error analysis. Automatic evaluation is performed by WER (Word Error Rate) and PER (Position-independent word Error Rate) metrics, followed by investigation of Pearson’s correlation with human evaluation.

Keywords: automatic machine translation, integrated language technologies, quality evaluation, speech recognition

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Authors: Kamal Amarouche, Houda Benbrahim, Ismail Kassou

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Nowadays, e-commerce shopping websites have experienced noticeable growth. These websites have gained consumers’ trust. After purchasing a product, many consumers share comments where opinions are usually embedded about the given product. Research on the automatic management of opinions that gives suggestions to potential consumers and portrays an image of the product to manufactures has been growing recently. After launching the product in the market, the reviews generated around it do not usually contain helpful information or generic opinions about this product (e.g. telephone: great phone...); in the sense that the product is still in the launching phase in the market. Within time, the product becomes old. Therefore, consumers perceive the advantages/ disadvantages about each specific product feature. Therefore, they will generate comments that contain their sentiments about these features. In this paper, we present an unsupervised method to extract different product features hidden in the opinions which influence its purchase, and that combines Time Weighting (TW) which depends on the time opinions were expressed with Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF). We conduct several experiments using two different datasets about cell phones and hotels. The results show the effectiveness of our automatic feature extraction, as well as its domain independent characteristic.

Keywords: opinion mining, product feature extraction, sentiment analysis, SentiWordNet

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Authors: Amir Ikram, Qin Su, Muhammad Fiaz, Muhammad Waqas Shabbir

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Women entrepreneurship witnessed a healthy rise in the last decade or so, and the scenario in Pakistan is not different. However female leaders are facing various, cultural, career oriented, and professional challenges. The study investigates the impact of social and industry-specific challenges on female entrepreneurship; social challenges was evaluated in terms of culture, and industry-specific challenges was measured in terms of team management and career growth. Purposive sampling was employed to collect data from 75 multicultural organizations operating in the culturally diverse and historic city of Lahore, Pakistan. Cronbach’s alpha was conducted to endorse the reliability of survey questionnaire, while correlation and regression analysis were used to test hypotheses. Industry-specific challenges were found to be more significant as compared to cultural factors. The paper also highlights the importance of female entrepreneurship for emerging economies, and suggests that bringing women to mainstream professions can lead to economic success.

Keywords: cultural challenges, emerging economy, female entrepreneurship, leadership

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Authors: Naila Naseer

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Emotional Intelligence (EI) concept is not new yet unique and interesting. EI is a person’s ability to be aware of his/her own emotions and to manage, handle and communicate emotions with others effectively. The present study was conducted to assess the relationship between emotional intelligence and age of graduate level students at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU). Population consisted of Allama Iqbal Open University students (B.Ed 3rd Semester, Autumn 2007) from Rawalpindi and Islamabad regions. Total number of sample consisted of 469 participants was randomly drawn out by using table of random numbers. Bar-On EQ-i was administered on the participants through personal contact. The instrument was also validated through pilot study on a random sample of 50 participants (B.Ed students Spring 2006), who had completed their B.Ed degree successfully. Data was analyzed and tabulated in percentages, frequencies, mean, standard deviation, correlation, and scatter gram in SPSS (version 16.0 for windows). The results revealed that students with higher age group had scored low on the scale (Bar-On EQ-i). Moreover, the students in low age groups exhibited higher levels of EI as compared with old age students.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, age level, learning, emotion-related feelings

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Authors: Mitra Ghiasi, Roghayeh Ghorbani Bousari

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Nowadays, the aim of the organizations is to gain sustainable competitive. So, developing their intellectual capital, encouraging innovation, increasing suitable performance can be done by knowledge management. Knowledge turns into science if knowledge is used to improve decision making, decision quality and make effective decisions. The current research intends to investigate the relationship between cybernetics and knowledge management from the perspective of users who are members of electronic discussion groups (ALA, ALIA). The research methodology is survey method, and it is a type of correlation research. Cybernetics and knowledge management questionnaires used for collecting data. The questionnaire that was designed in electronic format, distributed among two electronic discussion groups during 30 days and completed by 100 members of each electronic discussion groups. The finding of this research showed that although cybernetics has an impact on knowledge management, there is no significant difference between the ALA and ALIA user's view regard to effect of cybernetics on knowledge management. The results also indicated that this conceptual model is consistent with the data collected from the sample.

Keywords: ALA discussion group, ALIA discussion group, cybernetics, knowledge management

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Authors: I. Gusti A. A. Rai Asmiwyati, Robert J. Corner, Ashraf M. Dewan

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Change on land use/cover (LULC) dominantly affects spatial structure and function. It can have such impacts by disrupting social culture practice and disturbing physical elements. Thus, it has become essential to understand of the dynamics in time and space of LULC as it can be used as a critical input for developing sustainable LULC. This study was an attempt to map and monitor the LULC change in Bali Indonesia from 2003 to 2013. Using object based classification to improve the accuracy, and change detection, multi temporal land use/cover data were extracted from a set of ASTER satellite image. The overall accuracies of the classification maps of 2003 and 2013 were 86.99% and 80.36%, respectively. Built up area and paddy field were the dominant type of land use/cover in both years. Patch increase dominantly in 2003 illustrated the rapid paddy field fragmentation and the huge occurring transformation. This approach is new for the case of diverse urban features of Bali that has been growing fast and increased the classification accuracy than the manual pixel based classification.

Keywords: land use/cover, urban, Bali, ASTER

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Authors: Ayman Aboelkassem, Mohamoud Ali, Rezq Diab

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This project aims to document and preserve boat models which were discovered in the Saqqara by Czech Institute of Egyptology archeological mission at Saqqara (GEM numbers, 46007, 46008, 46009). These boat models dates back to Egyptian Old Kingdom and have been transferred to the Conservation Center of the Grand Egyptian Museum, to be displayed at the new museum.The project objectives making such boat models more visible to visitors through the use of 3D reconstructed models and high resolution photos which describe the history of using the boats during the Ancient Egyptian history. Especially, The Grand Egyptian Museum is going to exhibit the second boat of King Khufu from Old kingdom. The project goals are to document the boat models and arrange an exhibition, where such Models going to be displayed next to the Khufu Second Boat. The project shows the importance of using boats in Ancient Egypt, and connecting their usage through Ancient Egyptian periods till now. The boat models had a unique Symbolized in ancient Egypt and connect the public with their kings. The Egyptian kings allowed high ranked employees to put boat models in their tombs which has a great meaning that they hope to fellow their kings in the journey of the afterlife.

Keywords: archaeology, boat models, 3D digital tools for heritage management, museums

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Authors: Qian Wang

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In recent years, a growing number of Chinese women choose to pursue Ph.D. education. Except for the male and female, women with PhD degrees are stigmatized as the ‘third gender’ in Chinese society. People, especially most men, believe that female PhD students challenge the traditional image and gender role of Chinese women. This gender stereotype causes a range of difficulties in finding partners in marriage market for Chinese female PhD students. In this study, the author conducted in-depth interviews with 15 participants who are currently doing their PhD studies in Chinese universities to explore their perceptions of being leftover women on the basis of their experience. All the participants are single. Based on the analysis of qualitative data, this study found that the ‘leftover women’ phenomenon among Chinese female PhD students is the result of the contradictions generated between Chinese patriarchal society and them. Although Chinese female PhD students is an attention-attracting group, the studies about them are very limited in China. This study could not only contribute to the understanding of the ‘third gender’ phenomenon and the ‘leftover women’ studies in China, but also, in practical level, could give some guidance for governments to resolve the social problems of female PhD students.

Keywords: Chinese female Ph.D. students, the ‘leftover women’, the Chinese patriarchal society, gender role, Chinese culture

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Authors: Abdurrahim Guler

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Immigrants who came to a new country experience some socio-cultural difficulties which are different from theirs. The study aims to investigate how Syrian Refugees manage their life in Turkey and the relationship between acculturation profiles and demographic background of Syrian refugees who came to Turkey after civil war has intensified in Syria. Data are collected from 280 adult Syrian refugees who were born in Syria. The study adopts bi-dimensional acculturation approach stating that both heritage and dominant host cultures can live together. Results suggest that demographic backgrounds, religion, and religiosity are significantly linked to both heritage and dominant host culture. Syrian refugees who are not affiliated with Islam are found to significantly preserve their ethnic/heritage culture. Generally, Syrian refugees are more willing to integrate Turkish society but not to assimilate. The results also confirmed acculturation process as a bi-dimensional, not a zero-sum game since we found a significant positive correlation between the heritage and the dominant host cultures which assume the independence and orthogonal of involvements in the dominant host and heritage cultures.

Keywords: acculturation, demographic backgrounds, heritage culture, religion, Syrian refugees

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Authors: Mozadded Hossen

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This study investigates the varied effects of internet addiction on college students, specifically examining the behavioral and academic outcomes. The widespread use of the Internet in academic settings has substantially impacted students' mental well-being and academic achievements. The study investigates the correlation between excessive internet usage and addiction, which manifests through symptoms including social isolation, anxiety, despair, and sleep disruptions. Additionally, the study examines the relationship between internet addiction and academic results, finding that kids with more severe addiction levels generally have lower academic performance, experience diminished focus, and show reduced involvement in academic tasks. The study intends to analyze the many consequences of internet addiction to gain insights into its ramifications. It also urges educational institutions to develop techniques that can reduce the negative impact of internet addiction and encourage healthier internet use among students. The results emphasize the necessity of implementing comprehensive measures to tackle the behavioral and academic difficulties caused by internet addiction among college students.

Keywords: internet addiction, behavioral consequences, college students, social isolation

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Authors: Mallikarjuna Rao Gundavarapu, Ch. Mallikarjuna Rao, K. Anuradha Bai

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Real Time Video Tracking is a challenging task for computing professionals. The performance of video tracking techniques is greatly affected by background detection and elimination process. Local regions of the image frame contain vital information of background and foreground. However, pixel-level processing of local regions consumes a good amount of computational time and memory space by traditional approaches. In our approach we have explored the concurrent computational ability of General Purpose Graphic Processing Units (GPGPU) to address this problem. The Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) with adaptive weighted kernels is used for detecting the background. The weights of the kernel are influenced by local regions and are updated by inter-frame variations of these corresponding regions. The proposed system has been tested with GPU devices such as GeForce GTX 280, GeForce GTX 280 and Quadro K2000. The results are encouraging with maximum speed up 10X compared to sequential approach.

Keywords: connected components, embrace threads, local weighted kernel, structuring elements

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Authors: Kamal Kumar Tanti, Nayan Moni Saikia, Markynti Swer

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This study aims to investigate and analyse the trends and variability of rainfall in Shillong and its nearby areas, located in Meghalaya hills of North-East India; which is geographically a neighbouring area to the wettest places of the Earth, i.e., Cherrapunji and Mawsynram. The analysis of variability and trends to annual, seasonal, monthly and daily rainfall was carried out, using the data collected from the IMD station at Shillong; thereby attempting to highlight whether rainfall in Shillong area has been increasing or decreasing over the years. Rainfall variability coefficient is utilized to compare the current rainfall trend of the area with its past rainfall trends. The present study also aims to analyse the frequency of occurrence of extreme rainfall events over the region. These studies will help us to establish a correlation between the current rainfall trend and climate change scenario of the study area.

Keywords: trends and variability of rainfall, annual, seasonal, monthly and daily rainfall, rainfall variability coefficient, extreme rainfall events, climate change, Shillong, Cherrapunji, Mawsynram

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Authors: Nurhak Altın, Ayhan Kucukmanisa, Oguzhan Urhan

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It is important that highways are in good condition for traffic safety. Road crashes (road cracks, erosion of lane markings, etc.) can cause accidents by affecting driving. Image processing based methods for detecting road cracks are available in the literature. In this paper, a deep learning based road crack detection approach is proposed. YOLO (You Look Only Once) is adopted as core component of the road crack detection approach presented. The YOLO network structure, which is developed for object detection, is trained with road crack images as a new class that is not previously used in YOLO. The performance of the proposed method is compared using different training methods: using randomly generated weights and training their own pre-trained weights (transfer learning). A similar training approach is applied to the simplified version of the YOLO network model (tiny yolo) and the results of the performance are examined. The developed system is able to process 8 fps on NVIDIA Jetson TX1 development kit.

Keywords: deep learning, embedded platform, real-time processing, road crack detection

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Authors: Mohamad Ibrahim Al Ladan

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Social networks, such as Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Google+, and Twitter have experienced exponential growth and a remarkable adoption rate in recent years. They provide attractive means of online social interactions and communications with family, friends, and colleagues from around the corner or across the globe, and they have become an important part of daily digital interactions for more than one and a half billion users around the world. The various personal information sharing practices that social network providers encourage have led to their success as innovative social interaction platforms. However, these practices have resulted in ample concerns with respect to privacy and security from different stakeholders. Addressing these privacy and security concerns in social networks is a must for these networks to be sustainable. Existing security and privacy tools may not be enough to address existing concerns. Some guidelines should be followed to protect users from the existing risks. In this paper, we have investigated and discussed the various privacy and security issues and concerns pertaining to social networks. Moreover, we have classified these privacy and security issues and presented a thorough discussion of the implications of these issues and concerns on the future of the social networks. In addition, we have presented a set of guidelines as precaution measures that users can consider to address these issues and concerns.

Keywords: social networks privacy issues, social networks security issues, social networks privacy precautions measures, social networks security precautions measures

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Authors: Mehravar Javid, Laura Reid Harris, Zahra Khodadadi, Rachel Walton

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The study aimed to explore commitment precedence through self-expansion among students at the Medical Science University of Shiraz, Iran. Method: The statistical population was comprised of students at Shiraz University of Medical Science during the academic years 2013 to 2014. Using random sampling, 133 married students (50 males and 83 females) were selected. The commitment condition of this studied group was assessed using Adam and Jones' (1999) Marital Commitment Dimensions Scale (DCI), and self-expansion was measured using Aron and Lewandowski's (2002) Self-Expansion Questionnaire. Simple regression analyses investigated commitment precedence via self-expansion. Results: The data revealed a positive correlation between total commitment (r=0.35, p < 0.01), the subscales of commitment to the spouse (r=0.43, p < 0.01), and commitment to marriage (r=0.31, p < 0.01). Regression analyses indicated that perceived self-expansion positively correlated with commitment to marital relationships in married students. The findings suggest that an increased possibility of self-expansion in a marital relationship corresponds with heightened commitment.

Keywords: commitment to marital relationship, married students, relationship dynamics, self-expansion

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Authors: Mst. Tuhin Akter, Sharun Akter Khushbu, S. M. Shaqib

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A real-time system architecture is highly effective for monitoring and detecting various damaged products or fruits that may deteriorate over time or become infected with diseases. Deep learning models have proven to be effective in building such architectures. However, building a deep learning model from scratch is a time-consuming and costly process. A more efficient solution is to utilize deep neural network (DNN) based transfer learning models in the real-time monitoring architecture. This study focuses on using a novel strawberry dataset to develop effective transfer learning models for the proposed real-time monitoring system architecture, specifically for evaluating and detecting strawberry freshness. Several state-of-the-art transfer learning models were employed, and the best performing model was found to be Xception, demonstrating higher performance across evaluation metrics such as accuracy, recall, precision, and F1-score.

Keywords: strawberry freshness evaluation, deep neural network, transfer learning, image augmentation

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Authors: Cheng Xu

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As the metaverse emerges as a dynamic virtual simulacrum of reality, its implications on user privacy have become a focal point of interest. While previous discussions have ventured into metaverse privacy dynamics, a glaring empirical gap persists, especially concerning the effects of personalization in the context of news recommendation services. This study stands at the forefront of addressing this void, meticulously examining how users' privacy concerns shift within the metaverse's personalization context. Through a pre-registered randomized controlled experiment, participants engaged in a personalization task across both the metaverse and traditional online platforms. Upon completion of this task, a comprehensive news recommendation service provider offers personalized news recommendations to the users. Our empirical findings reveal that the metaverse inherently amplifies privacy concerns compared to traditional settings. However, these concerns are notably mitigated when users have a say in shaping the algorithms that drive these recommendations. This pioneering research not only fills a significant knowledge gap but also offers crucial insights for metaverse developers and policymakers, emphasizing the nuanced role of user input in shaping algorithm-driven privacy perceptions.

Keywords: metaverse, privacy concerns, personalization, digital interaction, algorithmic recommendations

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Authors: Muna Al-Tarshi

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The distribution and accumulation dynamics of anthropogenic marine debris (AMD) and microplastic particles in mangrove habitats in the region are poorly understood. The abundance, sorting, and diversity aspects of AMD and microplastics were investigated in three types of mangroves creeks ( Natural mangrove, afforested mangrove, and non-planted). Abundance, concentration, and particles form of microplastics have been illustrated in three substrate in mangrove habitats e.g. sediment, water, and aquatic organisms. Density separation method by using highly saturated solution was implemented to extract the plastic particles from the sediment samples. The average size of particles in each transect was done using image software, and the polymer type was determined via FTIR. There was variability in abundance of microplastics and marine debris between the habitats and within the substrates in the habitats.Biomonitoring program was developed to detect the pollution of microplastics in mangrove habitats in Sultanate of Oman. Sediment dwelling species were the best choice. Testing whether the zooplankton (Artemia) eating the microplastics via FlowCam technique have been studied. The zooplanktons (Artemia) were eating the microplastics as mistaken food.

Keywords: microplastics, marine debris, flowcam, FTIR, polymer, artemia

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Authors: Aimen Batool Bint-E-Rashid, Syed Muhammad Dawood Ali Shah, Muhammad Usman Farooq, Mahgul Anwar

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As the world is progressing, the needs and demands of the consumer market are also changing. Nowadays the trends of consumer purchase decisions are dependent upon multiple factors. This study aims to identify the influential impact of country of origin over the perception and devotion towards daily personal care products specifically in reference to the knowledge and awareness regarding that particular brand in Pakistan. To corroborate this study, a 30-item brand origin questionnaire has been used with 300 purchase decision makers belonging to different age groups. To illustrate this study, a model has been developed based on brand origin, brand awareness and brand loyalty. Correlation and regression analysis have been used to find out the results which conclude the findings on the perspective of Pakistan’s consumer market as that brand origin has a direct relationship with brand loyalty provided that the consumer has a positive brand awareness. Support for the fact that brand origin impacts brand loyalty through brand awareness has been presented in this study.

Keywords: brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand origin, personal care products, P&G, Unilever

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Authors: John Hawkins, Graham Burton

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Contextual targeting is a common strategy for advertising that places marketing messages in media locations that are expected to be aligned with the target audience. There are multiple major challenges to contextual targeting: the ideal categorisation scheme needs to be known, as well as the most appropriate subsections of that scheme for a given campaign or creative. In addition, the campaign reach is typically limited when targeting becomes narrow, so a balance must be struck between requirements. Finally, refinement of the process is limited by the use of evaluation methods that are either rapid but non-specific (click through rates), or reliable but slow and costly (conversions or brand recall studies). In this study we evaluate the use of attention measurement as a technique for understanding the performance of targeting on the basis of specific contextual topics. We perform the analysis using a large scale dataset of impressions categorised using the iAB V2.0 taxonomy. We evaluate multiple levels of the categorisation hierarchy, using categories at different positions within an initial creative specific ranking. The results illustrate that measuring attention time is an affective signal for the performance of a specific creative within a specific context. Performance is sustained across a ranking of categories from one period to another.

Keywords: contextual targeting, digital advertising, attention measurement, marketing performance

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Authors: Ayed Mouris Gad Elsayed Khalil

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This research focuses on historical techniques associated with the Lajevardin and Haft-Rangi production methods in tile production, with particular attention to identifying techniques for applying gold leaf to the surface of these historical glazed tiles. In this context, the history of the production of glazed, gilded and glazed Lajevardin ceramics from the Khwarizmanshahid and Mongol periods (11th to 13th centuries) was first evaluated in order to better understand the context and history of the methods of historical enameling. After a historical overview of glazed ceramic production techniques and the adoption of these techniques by civilizations, we focused on the niche production methods of glazes and Lajevardin glazes, two categories of decoration commonly found on tiles. A general method for classifying the different types of gold tiles was then introduced, applicable to tiles from to the Safavid period (16th-17th centuries). These categories include gold glazed Lajevardina tiles, haft rangi gold tiles, gold glazed monolithic tiles and gold mosaic tiles.

Keywords: ethnicity, multi-cultural, jewelry, craft techniquemycenaean, ceramic, provenance, pigmentAmorium, glass bracelets, image, Byzantine empire

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Authors: E. Dehghan, R. Dehghan

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Generally, the slender structural walls have flexural behavior. Since behavior of bending members can be explained by moment–curvature relation, therefore, an analytical model is proposed based on moment–curvature relation for slender structural walls. The moment–curvature relationships of RC sections are constructed through section analysis. Governing equations describing the bond-slip behavior in walls are derived and applied to moment–curvature relations. For the purpose of removing the imprecision in analytical results, the plastic hinge length is included in the finite element modeling. Finally, correlation studies between analytical and experimental results are conducted with the objective to establish the validity of the proposed algorithms. The results show that bond-slip effect is more significant in walls subjected to larger axial compression load. Moreover, preferable results are obtained when ultimate strain of concrete is assumed conservatively.

Keywords: nonlinear analysis, slender structural walls, moment-curvature relation, bond-slip, plastic hinge length

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Authors: Bulelani Ngamntwini, Liezel Cilliers

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South Africa has one of the highest prevalence of obese people on the African continent. Forty-six percent of the adults in South Africa are physically inactive. Fitness applications can be used to increase physical inactivity. However, the uptake of mobile fitness applications in South Africa has been found to be poor due to usability challenges with the technology. The study developed a usability framework to influence the intention to use mobile fitness applications in South Africa. The study made use of a positivistic approach to collect data. A questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data from 377 respondents that have used mobile fitness applications in the past. A response rate of 80.90% was recorded. To analyse the data, the Pearson correlation was used to determine the relationships between the various hypotheses. There are four usability factors, efficiency, effectiveness, satisfaction, and learnability, which contribute to the intention of users to make use of mobile fitness applications. The study, therefore, recommends that for a mobile fitness application to be successful, these four factors must be considered and incorporated by developers when designing the applications.

Keywords: obese, overweight, physical inactivity, mobile fitness application, usability factors

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Authors: Chang Soo Chon, Cheol Woong Ko, Han Sung Kim

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The aim of this study is to develop an anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) PEEK cage suitable for Korean people. In this study, CT images were obtained from Korean male (173cm, 71kg) and 3D Korean lumbar models were reconstructed based on the CT images to investigate anatomical characteristics. Major design parameters of anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) PEEK Cage were selected using the morphological measurement information of the Korean Lumbar models. Through finite element analysis and mechanical tests, the developed ALIF PEEK Cage prototype was compared with the Fidji Cage (Zimmer.Inc, USA) and it was found that the ALIF prototype showed similar and/or superior mechanical performance compared to the FidJi Cage. Also, clinical validation for the ALIF PEEK Cage prototype was carried out to check predictable troubles in surgical operations. Finally, it is considered that the convenience and stability of the prototype was clinically verified.

Keywords: inter-body anterior fusion, ALIF cage, PEEK, Korean lumbar, CT image, animal test

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Authors: Yen-Ping Peng, Ku-Fan Chen, Ken-Lin Chang, Jian Sun

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In this study, palladium loaded titanium dioxide nanotube arrays (Pd/TNAs) was successfully synthesized by anodic oxidation etching method combined with microwave hydrothermal method, using tea or coffee as a green reductant. Pd/TNAs was employed as an electrode in a photoelectrochemcial (PEC) system to simultaneously remove azo-dye and to generate hydrogen in the anodic and cathodic chamber, respectively. The chemical and physical properties of as-synthesized Pd/TNAs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). SEM image indicates the diameter and the length of Pd/TNAs were approximately 300 nm and 2.5 μm, respectively. XPS analyses indicate that 1.13% (atomic %) of Pd was loaded onto the surface of TNAs. UV-vis results show that the band gap of TNAs was reduced from 3.2 eV to 2.37 eV after Pd loading. In addition, the electrochemical performances of Pd/TNAs were investigated by photocurrent density test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The photocurrent (4.0 mA/cm²) of Pd /TNAs was higher than that of the uncoated TNAs (1.4 mA/cm²) at a bias potential of 1 V (vs. Ag/AgCl), indicating that Pd/TNAs-C can effectively separate photogenerated electrons and holes. The mechanism of our PEC system was proposed and discussed in detail in this study.

Keywords: Pd/TNAs, photoelectrochemical, azo-dye degradation, hydrogen generation

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Authors: Ich Long Ngo, Dinh Tai Dang, Ngoc Tu Nguyen, Minh Duc Nguyen

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This paper describes an investigation on designing and enhancing the performance of H-Darrieus wind turbine (HDWT) of 10kW at the medium wind speed. The aerodynamic characteristics of this turbine were investigated by both theoretical and numerical approaches. The optimal design procedure was first proposed to enhance the power coefficient under various effects, such as airfoil type, number of blades, solidity, aspect ratio, and tip speed ratio. As a result, the overall design of the 10kW HDWT was well achieved, and the power characteristic of this turbine was found by numerical approach. Additionally, the maximum power coefficient predicted is up to 0.41 at the tip speed ratio of 3.7 and wind speed of 8 m/s. Particularly, a generalized correlation of power coefficient with tip speed ratio and wind speed is first proposed. These results obtained are very useful for enhancing the performance of the HDWTs placed in a country with high wind power potential like Vietnam.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, double multiple stream tube, h-darrieus wind turbine, renewable energy

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Authors: Novita Verayanti Manalu, Alvin Salim

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Background: Palliative care is caring holistically for patients and families to improve their quality of life. Experts stated that palliative care could be applied not only for terminally ill cases but also for acute illnesses. Therefore, this study wants to find out the level of knowledge about palliative care of the nurses along with the relationship with attitude and performance. Method: This study applies a cross-sectional survey design and allows the respondents to fill two questionnaires to determine the level of knowledge and attitude toward palliative care, while one questionnaire is filled out by the head nurse to evaluate nurses’ performance. The relationship was analyzed by Spearman rho’s correlation in alpha < 0,05 by SPSS. Results: The majority of respondents were females, aged above 25 years old, and married. Most of the nurses are staff nurses and the ratio of education level is not significantly different. The knowledge level is poor, while the attitude and performance are at an adequate level. Knowledge may affect attitude, but it doesn’t happen toward performance. Conclusion: There is a need for increased knowledge about palliative care to improve attitude and work performance. Future researchers might use this finding as a reference to conduct further study in improving knowledge of palliative care.

Keywords: knowledge, attitude, work performance, palliative care

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Authors: Meriem Harmel, Houari Khachai

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We have investigated the structural, electronic and optical properties of a compound perovskite CsSrF3 using the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method within density functional theory (DFT). In this approach, both the local density approximation (LDA) and the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) were used for exchange-correlation potential calculation. The ground state properties such as lattice parameter, bulk modulus and its pressure derivative were calculated and the results are compared whit experimental and theoretical data. Electronic and bonding properties are discussed from the calculations of band structure, density of states and electron charge density, where the fundamental energy gap is direct under ambient conditions. The contribution of the different bands was analyzed from the total and partial density of states curves. The optical properties (namely: the real and the imaginary parts of the dielectric function ε(ω), the refractive index n(ω) and the extinction coefficient k(ω)) were calculated for radiation up to 35.0 eV. This is the first quantitative theoretical prediction of the optical properties for the investigated compound and still awaits experimental confirmations.

Keywords: DFT, fluoroperovskite, electronic structure, optical properties

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Authors: May A. Massoud, R. Harissi

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The fundamental principle and overall goal of an Environmental Management System is the concept of continual improvement. The implementation of such a system reveals a commitment to compliance and sustainable development. This research project aims at identifying and evaluating the prospects and challenges facing the adoption of ISO 14001 standard in the higher education system of Lebanon. It examines the corresponding barriers, drivers and incentives associated with the implementation of the standard. For this purpose, primary data were collected using quantitative method. The results revealed a significant lack of knowledge and sense of responsibility towards ISO 14001 standard and environmental accountability. Improving educational and social responsibility, improving environmental performance and enhancing institution image are the most noticeable drivers to adopt ISO 14001. The main perceived barriers for acquiring the standard are unclear benefits of ISO 14001, the lack of government support and the fact that the standard is not seen as a priority by top management. Lebanese Higher Education institutions are far likely to consider ISO 14001 before having proper accreditation programs or until ISO 14001 become widely-known in the Lebanese economic sectors.

Keywords: ISO 14001, higher education institution, environmental management, system

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Authors: Kazuaki Shiraishi, Narumitsu Asai, Tsukasa Kitahara, Sosuke Mieno, Takaharu Kameoka

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The purpose of this research is to facilitate productivity advances in agriculture. To accomplish this, we developed an automatic three-dimensional (3D) recording system for growth of field crops that consists of a number of inexpensive modules: a very low-cost stereo camera, a couple of ZigBee wireless modules, a Raspberry Pi single-board computer, and a third generation (3G) wireless communication module. Our system uses an inexpensive Web stereo camera in order to keep total costs low. However, inexpensive video cameras record low-resolution images that are very noisy. Accordingly, in order to resolve these problems, we adopted a deep learning method. Based on the results of extended period of time operation test conducted without the use of an external power supply, we found that by using Super-Resolution Convolutional Neural Network method, our system could achieve a balance between the competing goals of low-cost and superior performance. Our experimental results showed the effectiveness of our system.

Keywords: 3D plant data, automatic recording, stereo camera, deep learning, image processing

Procedia PDF Downloads 275