Search results for: modern information technologies

Authors: Mokopane Charles Marakalala

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Research shows that mobile fraud has grown exponentially in South Africa during the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC), fraudulent online banking and transactions resulted in a sharp increase in cybercrime since the beginning of the lockdown, resulting in a huge loss to the banking industry in South Africa. While the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 38 of 2001, regulate financial transactions, it is evident that criminals are making use of technology to their advantage. Money-laundering ranks among the major crimes, not only in South Africa but worldwide. This paper focuses on the impact of biometric-based solutions in combatting mobile fraud at the South African Risk Information. SABRIC had the challenges of a successful mobile fraud; cybercriminals could hijack a mobile device and use it to gain access to sensitive personal data and accounts. Cybercriminals are constantly looting the depths of cyberspace in search of victims to attack. Millions of people worldwide use online banking to do their regular bank-related transactions quickly and conveniently. This was supported by the SABRIC, who regularly highlighted incidents of mobile fraud, corruption, and maladministration in SABRIC, resulting in a lack of secure their banking online; they are vulnerable to falling prey to fraud scams such as mobile fraud. Criminals have made use of digital platforms since the development of technology. In 2017, 13 438 instances involving banking apps, internet banking, and mobile banking caused the sector to suffer gross losses of more than R250,000,000. The final three parties are forced to point fingers at one another while the fraudster makes off with the money. A non-probability sampling (purposive sampling) was used in selecting these participants. These included telephone calls and virtual interviews. The results indicate that there is a relationship between remote online banking and the increase in money-laundering as the system allows transactions to take place with limited verification processes. This paper highlights the significance of considering the development of prevention mechanisms, capacity development, and strategies for both financial institutions as well as law enforcement agencies in South Africa to reduce crime such as money-laundering. The researcher recommends that strategies to increase awareness for bank staff must be harnessed through the provision of requisite training and to be provided adequate training.

Keywords: biometric-based solution, investigation, cybercrime, forensic investigation, fraud, combatting

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Authors: Judith Partouche-Sebban, Saeedeh Rezaee Vessal

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Because of the rising number of new cases of cancer, especially among women, it is more than essential to better understand how women experience cancer in order to bring them adapted to support and care and enhance their well-being and patient experience. Cancer stands for a traumatic experience in which the diagnosis, its medical treatments, and the related side effects lead to deep physical and psychological changes that may arouse considerable stress and anxiety. In order to reduce these negative emotions, women tend to use various defense mechanisms, among which denial has been defined as the most frequent mechanism used by breast cancer patients. This study aims to better understand the consequences of the experience of cancer and their link with the adoption of a denial strategy. The empirical research was done among female cancer survivors in France. Since the topic of this study is relatively unexplored, a qualitative methodology and open-ended interviews were employed. In total, 25 semi-directive interviews were conducted with a female with different cancers, different stages of treatment, and different ages. A systematic inductive method was performed to analyze data. The content analysis enabled to highlight three different denial-related behaviors among women with cancer, which serve a self-protective function. First, women who expressed high levels of anxiety confessed they tended to completely deny the existence of their cancer immediately after the diagnosis of their illness. These women mainly exhibit many fears and a deep distrust toward the medical context and professionals. This coping mechanism is defined by the patient as being unconscious. Second, other women deliberately decided to deny partial information about their cancer, whether this information is related to the stages of the illness, the emotional consequences, or the behavioral consequences of the illness. These women use this strategy as a way to avoid the reality of the illness and its impact on the different aspects of their life as if cancer does not exist. Third, some women tend to reinterpret and give meaning to their cancer as a way to reduce its impact on their life. To this end, they may use magical thinking or positive reframing, or reinterpretation. Because denial may lead to delays in medical treatments, this topic deserves a deep investigation, especially in the context of oncology. As denial is defined as a specific defense mechanism, this study contributes to the existing literature in service marketing which focuses on emotions and emotional regulation in healthcare services which is a crucial issue. Moreover, this study has several managerial implications for healthcare professionals who interact with patients in order to implement better care and support for the patients.

Keywords: cancer, coping mechanisms, denial, healthcare services

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Authors: Routsukol Sunalai

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This research purpose is to study and compare the administration of Buddhist monks at northeastern Thailand. The samples used in the study are the priest in the Northeast by simple random sampling for 190 sampling. The tools used in this study is questioner were created in the 40 question items. The statistics used for data analysis were percentage, average, and standard deviation. The research found that the human resources management for the Buddhist monks as a whole is moderate. But it was found that the highest average is the policy followed by the management information. The Buddhist monks aged less than 25 years old with the overall difference was not significant. The priests who are less than 10 years in the monk experience and the priest has long held in the position for 10 years are not different in the significant level.

Keywords: employee job-related outcomes, ethical institutionalization, quality of work life, stock exchange of Thailand

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Authors: Seyyed Hassan Seyyedrezaei

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The advent of computer and ICT thereafter has introduced many irrevocable changes in learning and teaching. There is substantially growing need for the use of IT and ICT in language learning and teaching. In other words, the integration of Information Technology (IT) into online teaching is of vital importance for education and assessment. Considering the fact that the image of education is undergone drastic changes by the advent of technology, education systems and teachers move beyond the walls of traditional classes and methods in order to join with other educational centers to revitalize education. Given the advent of distance learning, online courses and virtual universities, e-assessment has taken a prominent place in effective teaching and meeting the learners' educational needs. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, scrutinizing e-learning, it discusses how and why e-assessment is becoming widely used by educationalists and administrators worldwide. As a second purpose, a couple of effective strategies for online assessment will be enumerated.

Keywords: e-assessment, e learning, ICT, online assessment

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Authors: Usman Asif, Klaus Schmidt

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In recent years, the development of alternate fuel vehicles has helped to reduce carbon emissions worldwide. As the number of vehicles will continue to increase in the future, the energy demand will also increase. Therefore, we must consider automotive technologies that are efficient and less harmful to the environment in the long run. Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) have gained popularity in recent years because of their lower maintenance, lower fuel costs, and lower carbon emissions. Nevertheless, BEVs show several disadvantages, such as slow charging times and lower range than traditional combustion-powered vehicles. These factors keep many people from switching to BEVs. The authors of this research believe that these limitations can be overcome by using fuel cell technology. Fuel cell technology converts chemical energy into electrical energy from hydrogen power and therefore serves as fuel to power the motor and thus replacing heavy lithium batteries that are expensive and hard to recycle. Also, in contrast to battery-powered electric vehicle technology, Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) offer higher ranges and lower fuel-up times and therefore are more competitive with electric vehicles. However, FCEVs have not gained the same popularity as electric vehicles due to stringent legal frameworks, underdeveloped infrastructure, high fuel transport, and storage costs plus the expense of fuel cell technology itself. This research will focus on the legal frameworks for hydrogen-powered vehicles, and how a change in these policies may affect and improve hydrogen fueling infrastructure and lower hydrogen transport and storage costs. These policies may also facilitate reductions in fuel cell technology costs. In order to attain a better framework, a number of countries have developed conceptual roadmaps. These roadmaps have set out a series of objectives to increase the access of FCEVs to their respective markets. This research will specifically focus on policies in Japan, Europe, and the USA in their attempt to shape the automotive industry of the future. The researchers also suggest additional policies that may help to accelerate the advancement of FCEVs to mass-markets. The approach was to provide a solid literature review using resources from around the globe. After a subsequent analysis and synthesis of this review, the authors concluded that in spite of existing legal challenges that have hindered the advancement of fuel-cell technology in the automobile industry in the past, new initiatives that enhance and advance the very same technology in the future are underway.

Keywords: fuel cell electric vehicles, fuel cell technology, legal frameworks, policies and regulations

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Authors: Robin Root

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A fundamental premise of medical anthropology is that clinical phenomena are simultaneously cultural, political, and economic: none more so than the linked acronyms HIV/AIDS. For the medical researcher, HIV/AIDS signals an epidemiological pandemic and a pathophysiology. For persons diagnosed with an HIV-related condition, the acronym often conjures dread, too often marking and marginalizing the afflicted irretrievably. Critical medical anthropology is uniquely equipped to theorize the linkages that bind individual and social wellbeing to global structural and culture-specific phenomena. This paper reports findings from an anthropological study of HIV/AIDS in Swaziland, site of the highest HIV prevalence in the world. The project, initiated in 2005, has documented experiences of HIV/AIDS, religiosity, and treatment and care as well as drought and famine. Drawing on interviews with Swazi religious and traditional leaders about their experiences of leadership amidst worsening economic conditions, environmental degradation, and an ongoing global health crisis, the paper provides uncommon insights for global health practitioners whose singular paradigm for designing and delivering interventions is biomedically-based. In contrast, this paper details the role of local leaders in mediating extreme social suffering and resilience in ways that medical science cannot model but which radically impact how sickness is experienced and health services are delivered and accessed. Two concepts help to organize the paper’s argument. First, a ‘moral economy of language’ is central to showing up the implicit ‘technologies of knowledge’ that inhere in scientific and religious discourses of HIV/AIDS; people draw upon these discourses strategically to navigate highly vulnerable conditions. Second, Paulo Freire’s ethnographic focus on a culture’s 'dangerous words' opens up for examination how ‘sex’ is dangerous for religion and ‘god’ is dangerous for science. The paper interrogates hegemonic and ‘lived’ discourses, both biomedical and religious, and contributes to an important literature on the moral economies of health, a framework of explication and, importantly, action appropriate to a wide-range of contemporary global health phenomena. The paper concludes by asserting that it is imperative that global health planners reflect upon and ‘check’ their hegemonic policy platforms by, one, collaborating with local authoritative agents of ‘what sickness means and how it is best treated,’ and, two, taking account of the structural barriers to achieving good health.

Keywords: Africa, biomedicine, HIV/AIDS, qualitative research , religion

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Authors: Abdul Rahman Hamdan

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The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has brought unprecedented technological advancements that have disrupted many industries worldwide. In keeping up with the technological advances and rapid disruption by the introduction of many technological advancements brought forth by the 4IR, the use of technology road mapping has emerged as one of the critical tools for organizations to leverage. Technology road mapping can be used by many companies to guide them to become more adaptable and anticipate future transformation and innovation, and avoid being redundant or irrelevant due to the rapid changes in technological advancement. This research paper provides a comprehensive analysis of technology road mapping within the context of the 4IR. The objectives of the paper are to provide companies with practical insights and a strategic framework of technology road mapping for them to navigate the fast-changing nature of the 4IR. This study also contributes to the understanding and practice of technology road mapping in the 4IR and, at the same time, provides organizations with the necessary tools and critical insight to navigate the 4IR transformation by leveraging technology road mapping. Based on the literature review and case studies, the study analyses key principles, methodologies, and best practices in technology road mapping and integrates them with the unique characteristics and challenges of the 4IR. The research paper gives the background of the fourth industrial revolution. It explores the disruptive potential of technologies in the 4IR and the critical need for technology road mapping that consists of strategic planning and foresight to remain competitive and relevant in the 4IR era. It also highlights the importance of technology road mapping as an organisation’s proactive approach to align the organisation’s objectives and resources to their technology and product development in meeting the fast-evolving technological 4IR landscape. The paper also includes the theoretical foundations of technology road mapping and examines various methodological approaches, and identifies external stakeholders in the process, such as external experts, stakeholders, collaborative platforms, and cross-functional teams to ensure an integrated and robust technological roadmap for the organisation. Moreover, this study presents a comprehensive framework for technology road mapping in the 4IR by incorporating key elements and processes such as technology assessment, competitive intelligence, risk analysis, and resource allocation. It provides a framework for implementing technology road mapping from strategic planning, goal setting, and technology scanning to road mapping visualisation, implementation planning, monitoring, and evaluation. In addition, the study also addresses the challenges and limitations related to technology roadmapping in 4IR, including the gap analysis. In conclusion of the study, the study will propose a set of practical recommendations for organizations that intend to leverage technology road mapping as a strategic tool in the 4IR in driving innovation and becoming competitive in the current and future ecosystem.

Keywords: technology management, technology road mapping, technology transfer, technology planning

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Authors: Stoyan Nedeltchev, Markus Schubert

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The gas holdup fluctuations in a bubble column (0.15 m in ID) have been recorded by means of a conductivity wire-mesh sensor in order to extract information about the main transition velocities. These parameters are very important for bubble column design, operation and scale-up. For this purpose, the classical definition of the Shannon entropy was modified and used to identify both the onset (at UG=0.034 m/s) of the transition flow regime and the beginning (at UG=0.089 m/s) of the churn-turbulent flow regime. The results were compared with the Kolmogorov entropy (KE) results. A slight discrepancy was found, namely the transition velocities identified by means of the KE were shifted to somewhat higher (0.045 and 0.101 m/s) superficial gas velocities UG.

Keywords: bubble column, gas holdup fluctuations, modified Shannon entropy, Kolmogorov entropy

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Authors: N. Sefiani, C. Fikri Benbrahim, A. Boumane, K. Reklaoui

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Nowadays, the reflection on competence management is the basic for new competitive strategies. It is considered as the core of the problems of the global supply chain. It interacts a variety of actors: information, physical and activities flows, etc. Even though competence management is seen as the key factor for any business success, the existing approaches demonstrate the deficiencies and limitations of the competence concept. This research has two objectives: The first is to make a contribution by focusing on the development of a competence approach, based on continuous improvement. It allows the enterprise to spot key competencies, mobilize them in order to serve its strategic objectives and to develop future competencies. The second is to propose a method to evaluate the level of Collective Competence. The approach was confirmed through an application carried out at an automotive company.

Keywords: competence, competencies’ approach, competence management, continuous improvement, collective competence level, performance indicator

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Authors: Gabriela Kalcikova, Gregor Marolt, Anita Jemec Kokalj, Andreja Zgajnar Gotvajn

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Since the 90’s, nanotechnology is one of the fastest growing fields of science. Nanomaterials are increasingly becoming part of many products and technologies. Metal oxide nanoparticles are among the most used nanomaterials. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (nZnO) is widely used due to its versatile properties; it has been used in products including plastics, paints, food, batteries, solar cells and cosmetic products. It is also a very effective photocatalyst used for water treatment. Such expanding application of nZnO increases their possible occurrence in the environment. In the aquatic ecosystem nZnO interact with natural environmental factors such as UV radiation, and thus it is essential to evaluate possible interaction between them. In this context, the aim of our study was to evaluate combined ecotoxicity of nZnO and Zn²⁺ on duckweed Lemna minor in presence or absence UV. Inhibition of vegetative growth of duckweed Lemna minor was monitored over a period of 7 days in multi-well plates. After the experiment, specific growth rate was determined. ZnO nanoparticles used were of primary size 13.6 ± 1.7 nm. The test was conducted with nominal nZnO and Zn²⁺ (in form of ZnCl₂) concentrations of 1, 10, 100 mg/L. Experiment was repeated with presence of natural intensity of UV (8h UV, 10 W/m² UVA, 0.5 W/m² UVB). Concentration of Zn during the test was determined by ICP-MS. In the regular experiment (absence of UV) the specific growth rate was slightly increased by low concentrations of nZnO and Zn²⁺ in comparison to control. However, 10 and 100 mg/L of Zn²⁺ resulted in 45% and 68% inhibition of the specific growth rate, respectively. In case of nZnO both concentrations (10 and 100 mg/L) resulted in similar ~ 30% inhibition and the response was not dose-dependent. The lack of the dose-response relationship is often observed in case of nanoparticles. The possible explanation is that the physical impact prevails instead of chemical ones. In the presence of UV the toxicity of Zn²⁺ was increased and 100 mg/L of Zn²⁺ caused total inhibition of the specific growth rate (100%). On the other hand, 100 mg/L of nZnO resulted in low inhibition (19%) in comparison to the experiment without UV (30%). It is thus expected, that tested nZnO is low photoactive, but could have a good UV absorption and/or reflective properties and thus protect duckweed against UV impacts. Measured concentration of Zn in the test suspension decreased only about 4% after 168h in the case of ZnCl₂. On the other hand concentration of Zn in nZnO test decreased by 80%. It is expected that nZnO were partially dissolved in the medium and at the same time agglomeration and sedimentation of particles took place and thus the concentration of Zn at the water level decreased. Results of our study indicated, that nZnO combined with UV of natural intensity does not increase toxicity of nZnO, but slightly protect the plant against UV negative effects. When Zn²⁺ and ZnO results are compared it seems that dissolved Zn plays a central role in the nZnO toxicity.

Keywords: duckweed, environmental factors, nanoparticles, toxicity

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Authors: Nazri Kama, Sufyan Basri, Roslina Ibrahim

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It is important to manage the changes in the software to meet the evolving needs of the customer. Accepting too many changes causes delay in the completion and it incurs additional cost. One type of information that helps to make the decision is through change impact analysis. Current impact analysis approaches assume that all classes in the class artifact are completely developed and the class artifact is used as a source of analysis. However, these assumptions are impractical for impact analysis in the software development phase as some classes in the class artifact are still under development or partially developed that leads to inaccuracy. This paper presents a novel impact analysis approach to be used in the software development phase. The significant achievements of the approach are demonstrated through an extensive experimental validation using three case studies.

Keywords: software development, impact analysis, traceability, static analysis.

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Authors: Saddikuti Venkataramanaiah, N Ravichandran

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The main focus of this paper is to highlight the challenges faced by the world’s largest pilgrimage center in providing free-of-cost luggage handling services to visiting pilgrims. The service was managed by a third-party agency selected based on a competitive bidding process. The third-party agency is responsible for providing timely, reliable, and secure services to the pilgrims. The methodology includes field visits and interaction with pilgrims, service providers, and other stakeholders of the system. Based on a detailed analysis of the information/data gathered, various innovations implemented and implications for policy making and sustainable service delivery were suggested.

Keywords: luggage handling, sustainable, service delivery, third party logistics, innovation

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Authors: Y. Xu, L. Xiong, Z. Xu

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In order to protect data privacy, image with sensitive or private information needs to be encrypted before being outsourced to the cloud. However, this causes difficulties in image retrieval and data management. A secure image retrieval method based on orthogonal decomposition is proposed in the paper. The image is divided into two different components, for which encryption and feature extraction are executed separately. As a result, cloud server can extract features from an encrypted image directly and compare them with the features of the queried images, so that the user can thus obtain the image. Different from other methods, the proposed method has no special requirements to encryption algorithms. Experimental results prove that the proposed method can achieve better security and better retrieval precision.

Keywords: secure image retrieval, secure search, orthogonal decomposition, secure cloud computing

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Authors: Robert Gilliland

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In any organization, a potential issue can arise and become a problem when management deviates from the standard norms set in the system development process of an IT system and the policies that pertain to it. In these instances, cybersecurity is a big challenge that organizations have to face in safeguarding the data that they generate and use. When a new idea, task, or process begins, specific standards must be followed, along with the policies and procedures that ensure the safeguard of data in the information system within the company. A good IT Strategy and Policy should have individuals who are in charge of overseeing the design, development, implementation, and auditing of these policies. Auditors are people who check to make sure that the issue conforms with the plan that is in place. Management has the ability through the role of the manager to potentially abuse power is given and to direct specific ideas, events, projects, and outcomes that are contrary to the vision or goals of the company.

Keywords: strategic policy, policy management, new policy, strategic planning

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Authors: Leorisyl D. Siarot

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It is conventional to see and hear Filipinos, in general, speak two or more languages. This phenomenon brings us to a closer look on how our minds process the input and produce an output with a specific chosen language. This study aimed to generate a theoretical model which explained the interaction of the first and the second languages in the human mind. After a careful analysis of the gathered data, a theoretical prototype called Language Activation Model was generated. For every string, there are three specialized banks: lexico-semantics, morphono-syntax, and pragmatics. These banks are interrelated to other banks of other language strings. As the bilingual learns more languages, a new string is replicated and is filled up with the information of the new language learned. The principles of the first and second languages' interaction are drawn; these are expressed in laws, namely: law of dominance, law of availability, law of usuality and law of preference. Furthermore, difficulties encountered in the learning of second languages were also determined.

Keywords: bilingualism, psycholinguistics, second language learning, languages

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Authors: Alexander P. Vazhenin, Mikhail M. Lavrentiev, Alexey A. Romanenko, Pavel V. Tatarintsev

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One of the problems obstructing effective tsunami modelling is the lack of information about initial wave shape at source. The existing methods; geological, sea radars, satellite images, contain an important part of uncertainty. Therefore, direct measurement of tsunami waves obtained at the deep water bottom peruse recorders is also used. In this paper we propose a new method to reconstruct the initial sea surface displacement at tsunami source by the measured signal (marigram) approximation with the help of linear combination of synthetic marigrams from the selected set of unit sources, calculated in advance. This method has demonstrated good precision and very high performance. The mathematical model and results of numerical tests are here described.

Keywords: numerical tests, orthogonal decomposition, Tsunami Initial Sea Surface Displacement

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Authors: Julianto Agung Saputro, Jogiyanto Hartono

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Multiple valuation is widely used by investors and practitioners but its accuracy is questionable. Multiple valuation inaccuracies are due to the unreliability of information used in valuation, inaccuracies comparison group selection, and use of individual multiple values. This study investigated the accuracy of valuation to examine factors that can increase the accuracy of the valuation of multiple ratios, that are discretionary accruals, the comparison group, and the composite of multiple valuation. These results indicate that multiple value adjustment method with discretionary accruals provides better accuracy, the industry comparator group method combined with the size and growth of companies also provide better accuracy. Composite of individual multiple valuation gives the best accuracy. If all of these factors combined, the accuracy of valuation of multiple ratios will give the best results.

Keywords: multiple, valuation, composite, accuracy

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Authors: Gilang Maulana, Dhika Rahma Qomariah, Yasin Fadil

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Purpose: This research meant to measure the magnitude of the influence of the quality of the presentation to the targeted audience perception in catching information presentation. Design/Methodology/Approach: This research uses a quantitative research method. The kind of data that uses in this research is the primary data. The population in this research are students the economics faculty of Semarang State University. The sampling techniques uses in this research is purposive sampling. The retrieving data uses questionnaire on 30 respondents. The data analysis uses descriptive analysis. Result: The quality of presentation influential positive against perception of the audience. This proved that the more qualified presentation will increase the perception of the audience. Limitation: Respondents were limited to only 30 people.

Keywords: quality of presentation, presentation, audience, perception, semarang state university

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Authors: Bozena Tyliszczak, Anna Drabczyk, Sonia Kudlacik-Kramarczyk, Agnieszka Sobczak-Kupiec

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Introduction: Nanomaterials become one of the leading materials in the synthesis of various compounds. This is a reason for the fact that nano-size materials exhibit other properties compared to their macroscopic equivalents. Such a change in size is reflected in a change in optical, electric or mechanical properties. Among nanomaterials, particular attention is currently directed into gold nanoparticles. They find application in a wide range of areas including cosmetology or pharmacy. Additionally, nanogold may be a component of modern wound dressings, which antibacterial activity is beneficial in the viewpoint of the wound healing process. Specific properties of this type of nanomaterials result in the fact that they may also be applied in cancer treatment. Studies on the development of new techniques of the delivery of drugs are currently an important research subject of many scientists. This is due to the fact that along with the development of such fields of science as medicine or pharmacy, the need for better and more effective methods of administering drugs is constantly growing. The solution may be the use of drug carriers. These are materials that combine with the active substance and lead it directly to the desired place. A role of such a carrier may be played by gold nanoparticles that are able to covalently bond with many organic substances. This allows the combination of nanoparticles with active substances. Therefore gold nanoparticles are widely used in the preparation of nanocomposites that may be used for medical purposes with special emphasis on drug delivery. Methodology: As part of the presented research, synthesis of composites was carried out. The mentioned composites consisted of the polymer matrix and gold nanoparticles that were introduced into the polymer network. The synthesis was conducted with the use of a crosslinking agent, and photoinitiator and the materials were obtained by means of the photopolymerization process. Next, incubation studies were conducted using selected liquids that simulated fluids are occurring in the human body. The study allows determining the biocompatibility of the tested composites in relation to selected environments. Next, the chemical structure of the composites was characterized as well as their sorption properties. Conclusions: Conducted research allowed for the preliminary characterization of prepared polymer composites containing gold nanoparticles in the viewpoint of their application for biomedical use. Tested materials were characterized by biocompatibility in tested environments. What is more, synthesized composites exhibited relatively high swelling capacity that is essential in the viewpoint of their potential application as drug carriers. During such an application, composite swells and at the same time releases from its interior introduced active substance; therefore, it is important to check the swelling ability of such material. Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank The National Science Centre (Grant no: UMO - 2016/21/D/ST8/01697) for providing financial support to this project. This paper is based upon work from COST Action (CA18113), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).

Keywords: nanocomposites, gold nanoparticles, drug carriers, swelling properties

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Authors: Yasuhiro Sato, Kodai Noma, Kenta Sawada, Kazumasa Adachi, Yoshinori Matsuura, Saori Iwanaga

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RFID system is used to identify objects such as passenger identification in public transportation, instead of linear or 2-dimensional barcodes. Key advantages of RFID system are to identify objects without physical contact, and to write arbitrary information into RFID tag. These advantages may help to improve maritime safety and efficiency of activity on the sea. However, utilization of RFID system for maritime scenes has not been considered. In this paper, we evaluate the availability of a generic RFID system operating on the sea. We measure RSSI between RFID tag floating on the sea and RFID antenna, and check whether a RFID reader can access a tag or not, while the distance between a floating buoy and the ship, and the angle are changed. Finally, we discuss the feasibility and the applicability of RFID system on the sea through the results of our preliminary experiment.

Keywords: RFID, experimental evaluation, RSSI, maritime use

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Authors: Boulis M. Ibrahim, Iordanis A. Kalaitzoglou

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A micro structural pricing model is proposed in which price components account for learning by incorporating changing expectations of the trading intensity and the risk level of incoming trades. An analysis of European carbon futures transactions finds expected trading intensity to increase the information component and decrease the liquidity component of price changes, but at different rates. Among the results, the expected persistence in trading intensity explains the majority of the auto correlations in the level and the conditional volatility of price changes, helps predict hourly patterns in the bid–ask spread and differentiates between the impact of buy versus sell and continuing versus reversing trades.

Keywords: CO2 emission allowances, market microstructure, duration, price discovery

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Authors: Serkan Aras, Emrah Gulay

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Combining various forecasting models is an important tool for researchers to attain more accurate forecasts. A great number of papers have shown that selecting single models as dissimilar models, or methods based on different information as possible leads to better forecasting performances. However, there is not a certain rule regarding the number of single models to be used in any combining methods. This study focuses on determining the optimal or near optimal number for single models with the help of statistical tests. An extensive experiment is carried out by utilizing some well-known time series data sets from diverse fields. Furthermore, many rival forecasting methods and some of the commonly used combining methods are employed. The obtained results indicate that some statistically significant performance differences can be found regarding the number of the single models in the combining methods under investigation.

Keywords: combined forecast, forecasting, M-competition, time series

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Authors: Christoph Opperer

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Space syntax is a theory and method for analyzing the spatial layout of buildings and urban environments to understand how they can influence patterns of human movement, social interaction, and behavior. While direct visibility is a key factor in space syntax research, important visual information such as light, color, texture, etc., are typically not considered, even though psychological studies have shown a strong correlation to the human perceptual experience within physical space – with light and color, for example, playing a crucial role in shaping the perception of spaciousness. Furthermore, these surface properties are often the visual features that are most salient and responsible for drawing attention to certain elements within the environment. This paper explores the potential of integrating these factors into general space syntax methods and visibility-based analysis of space, particularly for architectural spatial layouts. To this end, we use a combination of geometric (isovist) and topological (visibility graph) approaches together with image-based methods, allowing a comprehensive exploration of the relationship between spatial geometry, visual aesthetics, and human experience. Custom-coded ray-tracing techniques are employed to generate spherical panorama images, encoding three-dimensional spatial data in the form of two-dimensional images. These images are then processed through computer vision algorithms to generate saliency-maps, which serve as a visual representation of areas most likely to attract human attention based on their visual properties. The maps are subsequently used to weight the vertices of isovists and the visibility graph, placing greater emphasis on areas with high saliency. Compared to traditional methods, our weighted visibility analysis introduces an additional layer of information density by assigning different weights or importance levels to various aspects within the field of view. This extends general space syntax measures to provide a more nuanced understanding of visibility patterns that better reflect the dynamics of human attention and perception. Furthermore, by drawing parallels to traditional isovist and VGA analysis, our weighted approach emphasizes a crucial distinction, which has been pointed out by Ervin and Steinitz: the difference between what is possible to see and what is likely to be seen. Therefore, this paper emphasizes the importance of including surface properties in visibility-based analysis to gain deeper insights into how people interact with their surroundings and to establish a stronger connection with human attention and perception.

Keywords: space syntax, visibility analysis, isovist, visibility graph, visual features, human perception, saliency detection, raytracing, spherical images

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Authors: Chinchira Bunchutrakun

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The purposes of the study are to investigate the problems that the translators encountered when translating English idioms into Thai and study the strategies they applied in solving the problems. The original English version and the Thai translated version of each of two works of fiction were purposively selected for the study. The first was Mr. Maybe, written by Jane Green and translated by Montharat Songphao. The second was The Trials of Tiffany Trott, written by Isabel Wolff and translated by Jitraporn Notoda. Thirty idioms of two translated works of fiction were, then, analyzed. Questionnaires and interviews with the translators of each novel were conducted to obtain the best possible information. The results indicated that the only type of problem that occurred was cultural problems, and these were solved differently by the two translators.

Keywords: translation, idiom translation, fiction translation, problem-solution strategies

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Authors: Kaveh Shahi, Helmi Z. M. Shafri, Ebrahim Taherzadeh

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In remote sensing, shadow causes problems in many applications such as change detection and classification. It is caused by objects which are elevated, thus can directly affect the accuracy of information. For these reasons, it is very important to detect shadows particularly in urban high spatial resolution imagery which created a significant problem. This paper focuses on automatic shadow detection based on a new spectral index for multispectral imagery known as Shadow Detection Index (SDI). The new spectral index was tested on different areas of World-View 2 images and the results demonstrated that the new spectral index has a massive potential to extract shadows effectively and automatically.

Keywords: spectral index, shadow detection, remote sensing images, World-View 2

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Authors: Pacharaporn Lekyan

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The purpose of this study is to explore the conflict management affecting the workplace and analyze the ability of the prediction of leadership of the headman and the methods to handle the conflict in an organization. The quantitative research and developed the questionnaire in order to collect information from the respondents from 200 samples from leader or manager who worked in frozen food factories in Thailand. The result analysis shows about the problem of the relationship between conflict management factors, leadership, and the confliction in organization. The emotion of the leader in the organization is not the only factor that can affect conflict management but also the emotion of surrounding people which this factor can happen all the time and shows that four out of five factors of interpersonal conflict management have affected on emotion intelligence and also shows that the behaviors of leadership have an influence on conflict management.

Keywords: conflict management, emotional intelligence, leadership, factories' employee

Procedia PDF Downloads 360

Authors: Bakytzhan Bimbetov, Abay Zhangabilov, Saule Aitbaeva, Galymzhan Meirambekov

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Mare’s milk (saumal) contains in total about 40 biological components necessary for the human body. The most significant among them are amino acids, fats, carbohydrates, enzymes (lysozyme, amylase), more minerals and vitamins which are well balanced with each other. In Kazakhstan, Company "Eurasia Invest Ltd.” produces a freeze-dried saumal in form of powder by the use of modern German innovative technology by means of evaporating at low temperature (-35°C) with an appropriate pasteurization. Research of freeze-dried biomilk for the qualitative content showed that main ingredients of freshly drown milk are being preserved. We are currently studying medical and dietary properties of freeze-dried mare's milk for diseases of the digestive system, including for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and liver cirrhosis (LC) viral etiology. The studied group consisted of 14 patients with NASH, and 7 patients with LC viral etiology of Class A severity degree as per Child-Pugh. Patients took freeze-dried saumal, preliminary dissolved in boiled warm water (24 g. powder per 200 ml water) 3-4 times a day for a month in conjunction with basic therapy. The results were compared to a control group (11 patients with NASH and LC) who received only basic therapy without mare’s milk. Results of preliminary research showed an improvement of subjective and objective conditions of all patients, but more significant improvement of clinical symptoms and syndromes were observed in the treatment group compared to the control one. Patients with NASH significantly over time compared to the beginning of therapy decreased asthenic and dyspeptic syndromes (p<0,01). Hepatomegaly, identified on the basis of ultrasound prior to treatment was observed in 92,8±2,4% of patients, and after combination therapy hepatomegaly the rate decreased by 14,3%, amounting to 78,5±2,8%. Patients with LC also noted the improvement of asthenic (p<0,01) and dyspeptic (p<0,05) syndromes and hemorrhagic syndrome (nosebleeds and bleeding gums when brushing your teeth, p<0,05), and jaundice. Laboratory study also showed improvement in the research group, but more significant changes were observed in the experimental group. Group of patients with NASH showed a significant improvement of index in cytolysis in conjunction with a combination therapy (p<0,05). In the control group, these indicators were also improved, but they were not statistically reliable (p>0,05). Markers of liver failure were additionally studied during the study of laboratory parameters in patients with liver cirrhosis, in particular, bilirubin, albumin and prothrombin index (PTI). Combined therapy with the use of basic treatment and mare's milk showed a significant improvement in cytolysis and bilirubin (p<0,05). In our opinion, a very important and interesting fact is that, in conjunction with basic therapy, the use of mare's milk revealed an improvement of liver function in the form of normalized PTI and albumin in patients with liver cirrhosis viral etiology. Results of this work have shown therapeutic efficiency of the use of mare's milk in complex treatment of patients with liver disease and require further in-depth study.

Keywords: liver cirrhosis, non-alcohol steatohepatitis, saumal, mare’s milk

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Authors: Orhan Akınoğlu, Arif Çömek, Ersin Elmacı, Tuğba Gündoğdu

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The concept map is known to be a powerful tool to organize the ideas and concepts of an individuals’ mind. This tool is a kind of visual map that illustrates the relationships between the concepts of a certain subject. The effect of concept mapping on cognitive and affective qualities is one of the research topics among educational researchers for last decades. We educators want to utilize it both as an instructional tool or an assessment tool in classes. For that reason, this study aimed to determine the effect of concept mapping as a learning strategy in science classes on students’ academic achievement and attitude. The research employed a randomized pre-test post-test control group design. Data collected from 60 sixth grade students participated in the study from a randomly selected primary school in Turkey. Sixth-grade classes of the school were analyzed according to students’ academic achievement, science attitude, gender, mathematics, science courses grades, and their GPAs before the implementation. Two of the classes found to be equivalent (t=0,983, p>0,05) and one of them was defined as experimental and the other one control group randomly. During a 5-weeks period, the experimental group students (N=30) used the paper-based concept mapping method while the control group students (N=30) were taught with the traditional approach according to the science and technology education curriculum for light and sound subject. Both groups were taught by the same teacher who is experienced using concept mapping in science classes. Before the implementation, the teacher explained the theory of the concept maps and showed how to create paper-based concept mapping individually to the experimental group students for two hours. Then for two following hours she asked them to create some concept maps related to their former science subjects and gave them feedback by reviewing their concept maps to be sure that they can create during the implementation. The data were collected by science achievement test, science attitude scale and personal information form. Science achievement test and science attitude scale were implemented as pre-test and post-test while personal information form was implemented just as once. The reliability coefficient of the achievement test was KR20=0,76 and Cronbach’s Alpha of the attitude scale was 0,89. SPSS statistical software was used to analyze the data. According to the results, there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control group for academic achievement but not for attitude. The experimental group had significantly greater gains from academic achievement test than the control group (t=0,02, p<0,05). The findings showed that the paper-and-pencil concept mapping can be used as an effective method for students’ academic achievement in science classes. The results have implications for further researches.

Keywords: concept mapping, science education, constructivism, academic achievement, science attitude

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Authors: Vikrant Gupta, Amrit Goswami

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The fixed income market forms the basis of the modern financial market. All other assets in financial markets derive their value from the bond market. Owing to its over-the-counter nature, corporate bonds have relatively less data publicly available and thus is researched upon far less compared to Equities. Bond price prediction is a complex financial time series forecasting problem and is considered very crucial in the domain of finance. The bond prices are highly volatile and full of noise which makes it very difficult for traditional statistical time-series models to capture the complexity in series patterns which leads to inefficient forecasts. To overcome the inefficiencies of statistical models, various machine learning techniques were initially used in the literature for more accurate forecasting of time-series. However, simple machine learning methods such as linear regression, support vectors, random forests fail to provide efficient results when tested on highly complex sequences such as stock prices and bond prices. hence to capture these intricate sequence patterns, various deep learning-based methodologies have been discussed in the literature. In this study, a recurrent neural network-based deep learning model using long short term networks for prediction of corporate bond prices has been discussed. Long Short Term networks (LSTM) have been widely used in the literature for various sequence learning tasks in various domains such as machine translation, speech recognition, etc. In recent years, various studies have discussed the effectiveness of LSTMs in forecasting complex time-series sequences and have shown promising results when compared to other methodologies. LSTMs are a special kind of recurrent neural networks which are capable of learning long term dependencies due to its memory function which traditional neural networks fail to capture. In this study, a simple LSTM, Stacked LSTM and a Masked LSTM based model has been discussed with respect to varying input sequences (three days, seven days and 14 days). In order to facilitate faster learning and to gradually decompose the complexity of bond price sequence, an Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) has been used, which has resulted in accuracy improvement of the standalone LSTM model. With a variety of Technical Indicators and EMD decomposed time series, Masked LSTM outperformed the other two counterparts in terms of prediction accuracy. To benchmark the proposed model, the results have been compared with traditional time series models (ARIMA), shallow neural networks and above discussed three different LSTM models. In summary, our results show that the use of LSTM models provide more accurate results and should be explored more within the asset management industry.

Keywords: bond prices, long short-term memory, time series forecasting, empirical mode decomposition

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Authors: Yeliz Ekinci, Melis Koyuncu

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Successful planning of solid waste management systems requires successful prediction of the amount of solid waste generated in an area. Waste management planning can protect the environment and human health, hence it is tremendously important for countries. The lack of information in waste generation can cause many environmental and health problems. Turkey is a country that plans to join European Union, hence, solid waste management is one of the most significant criteria that should be handled in order to be a part of this community. Solid waste management system requires a good forecast of solid waste generation. Thus, this study aims to forecast solid waste generation in Turkey. Artificial Neural Network and Linear Regression models will be used for this aim. Many models will be run and the best one will be selected based on some predetermined performance measures.

Keywords: forecast, solid waste generation, solid waste management, Turkey

Procedia PDF Downloads 501