Search results for: psychosocial approach

Authors: Shonuga Olajumoke Adedoyinsola

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Staffing and Compensation are at the core of any employment exchange, and they serve as the defining characteristics of any employment relationship. Most organizations understand the benefits that a longer term approach to staff planning can bring and the answer to this problem lies not in trying to implement the traditional approach more effectively, but in implementing a completely different kind of process for strategic staffing. The study focuses on critical points of compensation, staffing and personnel management. The fundamentals of these programs include the elements of vision, potential, communication and motivation. The aim of the paper is to identify the most important attributes of compensation and incentives, staffing and personnel management. Research method is the analysis and synthesis of scientific literature, logical, comparative and graphic representation. On the basis of analysis, the author presents the models of these systems for positive employee attitudes and behaviors.

Keywords: compensation, employees, incentives, staffing, personnel management

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Authors: Walter Bernhofer, Peter Haber, Tobias Mayer, Manfred Mayr, Markus Ziegler

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Current preventive maintenance measures are cost intensive and not efficient. With the available sensor data of state of the art internet of things devices new possibilities of automated data processing emerge. Current advances in data science and in machine learning enable new, so called predictive maintenance technologies, which empower data scientists to forecast possible system failures. The goal of this approach is to cut expenses in preventive maintenance by automating the detection of possible failures and to improve efficiency and quality of maintenance measures. Additionally, a centralization of the sensor data monitoring can be achieved by using this approach. This paper describes the approach of three students to define a reference architecture for a predictive maintenance solution in the internet of things domain with a connected smartphone app for service technicians. The reference architecture is validated by a case study. The case study is implemented with current Microsoft Azure cloud technologies. The results of the case study show that the reference architecture is valid and can be used to achieve a system for predictive maintenance execution with the cloud components of Microsoft Azure. The used concepts are technology platform agnostic and can be reused in many different cloud platforms. The reference architecture is valid and can be used in many use cases, like gas station maintenance, elevator maintenance and many more.

Keywords: case study, internet of things, predictive maintenance, reference architecture

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Authors: M. J. Shofa, A. Hidayatno, O. M. Armand

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MRP as a production control system is appropriate for the deterministic environment. Unfortunately, most production systems such as customer demands are stochastic. Demand-Driven MRP (DDMRP) is a new approach for inventory control system, and it deals with demand uncertainty. The objective of this paper is to compare the MRP and DDMRP work for a long lead time and uncertain demand in terms of on-hand inventory levels. The evaluation is conducted through a discrete event simulation using purchased part data from an automotive company. The result is MRP gives 50,759 pcs / day while DDMRP gives 34,835 pcs / day (reduce 32%), it means DDMRP is more effective inventory control than MRP in terms of on-hand inventory levels.

Keywords: Demand-Driven MRP, long lead time, MRP, uncertain demand

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Authors: P. Azimi, B. Behtoiy, A. A. Najafi, H. R. Charmchi

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According to the previous studies, one of the most famous techniques which affect the efficiency of a production line is the assembly line balancing (ALB) technique. This paper examines the balancing effect of a whole production line of a real auto glass manufacturer in three steps. In the first step, processing time of each activity in the workstations is generated according to a practical approach. In the second step, the whole production process is simulated and the bottleneck stations have been identified, and finally in the third step, several improvement scenarios are generated to optimize the system throughput, and the best one is proposed. The main contribution of the current research is the proposed framework which combines two famous approaches including Assembly Line Balancing and Optimization via Simulation technique (OvS). The results show that the proposed framework could be applied in practical environments, easily.

Keywords: assembly line balancing problem, optimization via simulation, production planning

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Authors: Y. Kim, H. Lee, M. Park, B. Lee

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Planning is understood as the determination of what has to be performed, how, in which sequence, when, what resources are needed, and their cost within the organization before execution. In most construction project, it is evident that the inherent nature of planning is dynamic, and initial planning is subject to be changed due to various uncertain conditions of construction project. Planners take a continuous revision process during the course of a project and until the very end of project. However, current practice lacks reliable, systematic tool for setting variance thresholds to determine when and what corrective actions to be taken. Rather it is heavily dependent on the level of experience and knowledge of the planner. Thus, this paper introduces a machine learning approach to evaluate project control threshold reliability incorporating project-specific data and presents a method to automate the process. The results have shown that the model improves the efficiency and accuracy of the monitoring process as an early warning.

Keywords: machine learning, project control, project progress monitoring, schedule

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Authors: Althaf Marsoof

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The blocking injunction, giving rise to a ‘notice and block’ regime, has become the new approach to curtail the infringement of Intellectual Property rights on the Internet. As such, the blocking injunction is an addition to the arsenal of copyright owners, and more recently has also benefited trademark owners, in their battle against piracy and counterfeiting. Yet, the blocking injunction, notwithstanding the usefulness of its ‘notice and block’ outcome, is not without limitations. In the circumstances, it is argued that ‘notice and takedown’, the approach that has been adopted by right-holders for some years, is still an important remedy against the proliferation of online content that infringe the rights of copyright and trademark owners, which is both viable and effective. Thus, it is suggested that the battle against online piracy and counterfeiting could be won only if both the blocking injunction and the practice of ‘notice and takedown’ are utilised by right-holders as complementary and simultaneous remedies.

Keywords: blocking injunctions, internet intermediaries, notice and takedown, intellectual property

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Authors: C. Manjula, Lilly Florence

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Software technology is developing rapidly which leads to the growth of various industries. Now-a-days, software-based applications have been adopted widely for business purposes. For any software industry, development of reliable software is becoming a challenging task because a faulty software module may be harmful for the growth of industry and business. Hence there is a need to develop techniques which can be used for early prediction of software defects. Due to complexities in manual prediction, automated software defect prediction techniques have been introduced. These techniques are based on the pattern learning from the previous software versions and finding the defects in the current version. These techniques have attracted researchers due to their significant impact on industrial growth by identifying the bugs in software. Based on this, several researches have been carried out but achieving desirable defect prediction performance is still a challenging task. To address this issue, here we present a machine learning based hybrid technique for software defect prediction. First of all, Genetic Algorithm (GA) is presented where an improved fitness function is used for better optimization of features in data sets. Later, these features are processed through Decision Tree (DT) classification model. Finally, an experimental study is presented where results from the proposed GA-DT based hybrid approach is compared with those from the DT classification technique. The results show that the proposed hybrid approach achieves better classification accuracy.

Keywords: decision tree, genetic algorithm, machine learning, software defect prediction

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Authors: Anatoliy A. Alabugin, Nikolay K. Topuzov, Sergei V. Aliukov

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It is well known, that while we do a quantitative evaluation of the quality control of some economic processes (in particular, resource saving) with help innovation factors, there are three groups of problems: high uncertainty of indicators of the quality management, their considerable ambiguity, and high costs to provide a large-scale research. These problems are defined by the use of contradictory objectives of enhancing of the quality control in accordance with innovation factors and preservation of economic stability of the enterprise. The most acutely, such factors are felt in the countries lagging behind developed economies of the world according to criteria of innovativeness and effectiveness of management of the resource saving. In our opinion, the following two methods for reconciling of the above-mentioned objectives and reducing of conflictness of the problems are to solve this task most effectively: 1) the use of paradigms and concepts of evolutionary improvement of quality of resource-saving management in the cycle "from the project of an innovative product (technology) - to its commercialization and update parameters of customer value"; 2) the application of the so-called integrative-cyclical approach which consistent with complexity and type of the concept, to studies allowing to get quantitative assessment of the stages of achieving of the consistency of these objectives (from baseline of imbalance, their compromise to achievement of positive synergies). For implementation, the following mathematical tools are included in the integrative-cyclical approach: index-factor analysis (to identify the most relevant factors); regression analysis of relationship between the quality control and the factors; the use of results of the analysis in the model of fuzzy sets (to adjust the feature space); method of non-parametric statistics (for a decision on the completion or repetition of the cycle in the approach in depending on the focus and the closeness of the connection of indicator ranks of disbalance of purposes). The repetition is performed after partial substitution of technical and technological factors ("hard") by management factors ("soft") in accordance with our proposed methodology. Testing of the proposed approach has shown that in comparison with the world practice there are opportunities to improve the quality of resource-saving management using innovation factors. We believe that the implementation of this promising research, to provide consistent management decisions for reducing the severity of the above-mentioned contradictions and increasing the validity of the choice of resource-development strategies in terms of parameters of quality management and sustainability of enterprise, is perspective. Our existing experience in the field of quality resource-saving management and the achieved level of scientific competence of the authors allow us to hope that the use of the integrative-cyclical approach to the study and evaluation of the resulting and factor indicators will help raise the level of resource-saving characteristics up to the value existing in the developed economies of post-industrial type.

Keywords: integrative-cyclical approach, quality control, evaluation, innovation factors. economic sustainability, innovation cycle of management, disbalance of goals of development

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Authors: Weihao Wang, Zhulin Zong

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Two-dimensional ordered statistical constant false alarm detection is a widely used method for detecting weak target signals in radar signal processing applications. The method is based on analyzing the statistical characteristics of the noise and clutter present in the radar signal and then using this information to set an appropriate detection threshold. In this approach, the reference cell of the unit to be detected is divided into several reference subunits. These subunits are used to estimate the noise level and adjust the detection threshold, with the aim of minimizing the false alarm rate. By using an ordered statistical approach, the method is able to effectively suppress the influence of clutter and noise, resulting in a low false alarm rate. The detection process involves a number of steps, including filtering the input radar signal to remove any noise or clutter, estimating the noise level based on the statistical characteristics of the reference subunits, and finally, setting the detection threshold based on the estimated noise level. One of the main advantages of two-dimensional ordered statistical constant false alarm detection is its ability to detect weak target signals in the presence of strong clutter and noise. This is achieved by carefully analyzing the statistical properties of the signal and using an ordered statistical approach to estimate the noise level and adjust the detection threshold. In conclusion, two-dimensional ordered statistical constant false alarm detection is a powerful technique for detecting weak target signals in radar signal processing applications. By dividing the reference cell into several subunits and using an ordered statistical approach to estimate the noise level and adjust the detection threshold, this method is able to effectively suppress the influence of clutter and noise and maintain a low false alarm rate.

Keywords: two-dimensional, ordered statistical, constant false alarm, detection, weak target signals

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Authors: Gebreegziabher Hailu

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This paper presents the development of residual power series methods aimed at efficiently solving stiff differential equations, which pose significant challenges in numerical analysis due to their rapid changes in solution behavior. The RPSM is a numerical approach that generates polynomial-based approximate solutions without the need for linearization, discretization, or perturbation techniques, making it straightforward to implement and less prone to computational errors. We introduce an approach that utilizes power series expansions combined with residual minimization techniques to enhance convergence and stability. By analyzing the theoretical foundations of stiffness, we delve into the formulation of the residual power series method, detailing how it effectively captures the dynamics of stiff systems while maintaining computational efficiency. Numerical experiments demonstrate the method's superiority in terms of accuracy and computational cost when compared to traditional methods like implicit Runge-Kutta or multistep techniques. We also explore adaptive strategies within our framework to automatically adjust parameters based on the stiffness characteristics of the problem at hand. Ultimately, our findings contribute to the broader toolkit for tackling stiff differential equations, offering a robust alternative that promises to streamline computational workflows in various applied mathematics and engineering contexts.

Keywords: residual power series methods, stiff differential equoations, numerical approach, Runge Kutta methods

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Authors: Marius Gavrilescu, Sabina-Adriana Floria, Florin Leon, Silvia Curteanu, Costel Anton

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Natural sciences provide a wide range of experimental data whose related problems require study and modeling beyond the capabilities of conventional methodologies. Such problems have solution spaces whose complexity and high dimensionality require correspondingly complex regression methods for proper characterization. In this context, we propose an optimization method which consists in a hybrid dual optimizer setup: a global optimizer based on a modified variant of the popular Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA), and a local optimizer based on a gradient descent approach. The ICA is modified such that intermediate solution populations are more quickly and efficiently pruned of low-fitness individuals by appropriately altering the assimilation, revolution and competition phases, which, combined with an initialization strategy based on low-discrepancy sampling, allows for a more effective exploration of the corresponding solution space. Subsequently, gradient-based optimization is used locally to seek the optimal solution in the neighborhoods of the solutions found through the modified ICA. We use this combined approach to find the optimal configuration and weights of a fully-connected neural network, resulting in regression models used to characterize the process of obtained bricks using silicon-based materials. Installations in the raw ceramics industry, i.e., bricks, are characterized by significant energy consumption and large quantities of emissions. Thus, the purpose of our approach is to determine by simulation the working conditions, including the manufacturing mix recipe with the addition of different materials, to minimize the emissions represented by CO and CH4. Our approach determines regression models which perform significantly better than those found using the traditional ICA for the aforementioned problem, resulting in better convergence and a substantially lower error.

Keywords: optimization, biologically inspired algorithm, regression models, bricks, emissions

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Authors: Omar M. Aldenali

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Planning is one of the most important phases of the management science and network planning, which represents the project activities relationship. Critical path is one of the project management techniques used to plan and control the execution of a project activities. The objective of this paper is to implement a fuzzy logic approach to arrange network planning on construction projects. This method is used to finding out critical path in the fuzzy construction project network. The trapezoidal fuzzy numbers are used to represent the activity construction project times. A numerical example that represents a house construction project is introduced. The critical path method is implemented on the fuzzy construction network activities, and the results showed that this method significantly affects the completion time of the construction projects.

Keywords: construction project, critical path, fuzzy network project, planning

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Authors: Alina Parincu, Giuseppe Empoli, Alexandru Capatina

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The purpose of this paper is to identify the most influential predictors of emotional intelligence skills, in the case of 20 business innovation coaches, on the co-creation of knowledge through coaching services delivered to innovative start-ups from Europe, funded through Horizon 2020 – SME Instrument. We considered the emotional intelligence skills (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills) as antecedent conditions of the outcome: the quality of coaching services, perceived by the entrepreneurs who received funding within SME instrument, using fuzzy-sets qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) approach. The findings reveal that emotional intelligence skills, trained with neuro-management techniques, were associated with increased goal-focused business coaching skills.

Keywords: neuro-management, innovative start-ups, business coaching, fsQCA

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Authors: Assem El-Ansary

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This paper illustrates the event-oriented Behavioral Pattern Analysis (BPA) modeling approach in developing an Multi-Agent TeleRobotic Security Control System (MTSCS). The event defined in BPA is a real-life conceptual entity that is unrelated to any implementation. The major contributions of this research are the Behavioral Pattern Analysis (BPA) modeling methodology, and the development of an interactive software tool (DECISION), which is based on a combination of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the ELECTRE Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods.

Keywords: analysis, multi-agent, TeleRobotics control, security, modeling methodology, software modeling, event-oriented, behavioral pattern, use cases

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Authors: Reza Heidari, Maryam Amiri

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In a technological world, many countries have a tendency to fortifying their companies and technological infrastructures. Also, one of the most important requirements for developing technology is innovation, and then, all companies are struggling to consider innovation as a basic principle. Since, the expansion of a product need to combine different technologies, therefore, different innovative projects would be run in the firms as a base of technology development. In such an environment, enterprise resource planning (ERP) has special significance in order to develop and strengthen of innovations. In this article, an economic-probabilistic analysis was provided to perform an implementation project of ERP in the technological innovation (TI) based firms. The used model in this article assesses simultaneously both risk and economic analysis in view of the probability of each event that is jointly between economical approach and risk investigation approach. To provide an economic-probabilistic analysis of risk of the project, activities and milestones in the cash flow were extracted. Also, probability of occurrence of each of them was assessed. Since, Resources planning in an innovative firm is the object of this project. Therefore, we extracted various risks that are in relation with innovative project and then they were evaluated in the form of cash flow. This model, by considering risks affecting the project and the probability of each of them and assign them to the project's cash flow categories, presents an adjusted cash flow based on Net Present Value (NPV) and with probabilistic simulation approach. Indeed, this model presented economic analysis of the project based on risks-adjusted. Then, it measures NPV of the project, by concerning that these risks which have the most effect on technological innovation projects, and in the following measures probability associated with the NPV for each category. As a result of application of presented model in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, provided an appropriate analysis of feasibility of the project from the point of view of cash flow based on risk impact on the project. Obtained results can be given to decision makers until they can practically have a systematically analysis of the possibility of the project with an economic approach and as moderated.

Keywords: cash flow categorization, economic evaluation, probabilistic, risk assessment, technological innovation

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Authors: Byron Malaela Sotiata Seiuli

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Sexual violation is any form of sexual violence, including rape, child molestation, incest, and similar forms of non-consensual sexual contact. Much of these acts of violation are perpetuated, but not entirely, by men against women and children. Moetolo is a Samoan term that is used to describe a person who sexually violates another while they or their family are asleep. This paper presents and discusses sexual abuse from a Samoan viewpoint. Insights are drawn from the authors’ counseling engagement with a Samoan sex offender as part of his probation review process. Relevant literature is also engaged to inform and provide interpretation to the therapeutic work carried out. This article seeks to contribute new understanding to patterned responses of some Samoan people to sexual abuse behaviors, and steps to remedy arising concerns with perpetrators seeking reintegration back into their communities.

Keywords: Fa'asamoa, Samoan identity, sexual abuse counseling, Uputaua therapeutic approach

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Authors: Carmen Manuela Pereira Carneiro Lucas

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Background: The milestones on first (L1) and second (L2) language acquisition have fascinated researchers and practitioners for decades. However, the findings from the available research do not always and instantly reflect on the classroom, specifically in Teaching English to Young Learners in Portuguese primary schools. Within this, it is worth highlighting, as per previous studies, the lack of uniformity in terms of syllabus design and implementation in the classroom. Moreover, more continuous professional development opportunities would be welcome. This paper is set out to gather the “best of both worlds”, with the aim of contributing to research-informed teaching, based in actual findings from the classroom, through and after the implementation of an action-research programme for nurturing the seeds in learning how to read in English. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of read-aloud storybooks, associated with the use of interactive whiteboards, further anchored in a phonics-based approach to teach reading and writing to Young Learners of English. Methods: Participants were 80 (n=80) native Portuguese children, attending the second year of primary school, learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes, aged 7 years old. Results and Conclusions: The findings suggest that through the use of storybooks, followed by watching the respective videos, together with follow-up phonics activities are effective strategies which Teachers of English to Young Learners can certainly use to “nurture the seeds” for English language learning.

Keywords: teaching English to young learners, phonics-based approach, content for language and integrated learning, English across the curriculum, interactive whiteboards, teacher training

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Authors: Ali M. Al-Shaery

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The purpose of this paper is to address the functions of sustainability dimensions in city information modelling and to present the required sustainability criteria that support establishing a sustainable planning framework for enhancing existing cities and developing future smart cities. The paper is divided into two sections. The first section is based on the examination of a wide and extensive array of cross-disciplinary literature in the last decade and a half to conceptualize the terms ‘sustainable’ and ‘smart city,' and map their associated criteria to city information modelling. The second section is based on analyzing two approaches relating to city information modelling, namely statistical and dynamic approaches, and their suitability in the development of cities’ action plans. The paper argues that the use of statistical approaches to embedding sustainability dimensions in city information modelling have limited value. Despite the popularity of such approaches in addressing other dimensions like utility and service management in development and action plans of the world cities, these approaches are unable to address the dynamics across various city sectors with regards to economic, environmental and social criteria. The paper suggests an integrative dynamic and cross-disciplinary planning approach to embedding sustainability dimensions in city information modelling frameworks. Such an approach will pave the way towards optimal planning and implementation of priority actions of projects and investments. The approach can be used to achieve three main goals: (1) better development and action plans for world cities (2) serve the development of an integrative dynamic and cross-disciplinary framework that incorporates economic, environmental and social sustainability criteria and (3) address areas that require further attention in the development of future sustainable and smart cities. The paper presents an innovative approach for city information modelling and a well-argued, balanced hierarchy of sustainability criteria that can contribute to an area of research which is still in its infancy in terms of development and management.

Keywords: information modelling, smart city, sustainable city, sustainability dimensions, sustainability criteria, city development planning

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Authors: Aicha Zohbie

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The purpose of this paper is to critically compare two teaching methods: the communicative method and the grammar-translation method. The paper presents the importance of language awareness as an approach to teaching and learning language and some challenges that language teachers face. In addition, the paper strives to determine whether the adoption of communicative teaching methods or the grammar teaching method would be more effective to teach a language. A variety of features are considered for comparing the two methods: the purpose of each method, techniques used, teachers’ and students’ roles, the use of L1, the skills that are emphasized, the correction of students’ errors, and the students’ assessments. Finally, the paper includes suggestions and recommendations for implementing an approach that best meets the students’ needs in a classroom.

Keywords: language teaching methods, language awareness, communicative method grammar translation method, advantages and disadvantages

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Authors: Terefe Fuge, George Tsourtos , Emma Miller

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Objectives: Maintaining optimal adherence and viral suppression in people living with HIV (PLWHA) is essential to ensure both preventative and therapeutic benefits of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Prisoners bear a particularly high burden of HIV infection and are highly likely to transmit to others during and after incarceration. However, the level of adherence and viral suppression, as well as its associated factors in incarcerated populations in low-income countries is unknown. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of non-adherence and viral failure, and contributing factors to this amongst prisoners in South Ethiopia. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted between June 1, 2019 and July 31, 2020 to compare the level of adherence and viral suppression between incarcerated and non-incarcerated PLWHA. The study involved 74 inmates living with HIV (ILWHA) and 296 non-incarcerated PLWHA. Background information including sociodemographic, socioeconomic, psychosocial, behavioural, and incarceration-related characteristics was collected using a structured questionnaire. Adherence was determined based on participants’ self-report and pharmacy refill records, and plasma viral load measurements which were undertaken within the study period were prospectively extracted to determine viral suppression. Various univariate and multivariate regression models were used to analyse data. Results: Self-reported dose adherence was approximately similar between ILWHA and non-incarcerated PLWHA (81% and 83% respectively), but ILWHA had a significantly higher medication possession ratio (MPR) (89% vs 75%). The prevalence of viral failure (VF) was slightly higher (6%) in ILWHA compared to non-incarcerated PLWHA (4.4%). The overall dose non-adherence (NA) was significantly associated with missing ART appointments, level of satisfaction with ART services, patient’s ability to comply with a specified medication schedule and types of methods used to monitor the schedule. In ILWHA specifically, accessing ART services from a hospital compared to a health centre, an inability to always attend clinic appointments, experience of depression and a lack of social support predicted NA. VF was significantly higher in males, people of age 31-35 years and in those who experienced social stigma, regardless of their incarceration status. Conclusions: This study revealed that HIV-infected prisoners in South Ethiopia were more likely to be non-adherent to doses and so to develop viral failure compared to their non-incarcerated counterparts. A multitude of factors was found to be responsible for this requiring multilevel intervention strategies focusing on the specific needs of prisoners.

Keywords: Adherence , Antiretroviral therapy, Incarceration, South Ethiopia, Viral suppression

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Authors: Faisal Zaman, Ya Ping Wong, Boon Yian Ng

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Point cloud source data for surface reconstruction is usually contaminated with noise and outliers. To overcome this, we present a novel approach using modified kernel density estimation (KDE) technique with bilateral filtering to remove noisy points and outliers. First we present a method for estimating optimal bandwidth of multivariate KDE using particle swarm optimization technique which ensures the robust performance of density estimation. Then we use mean-shift algorithm to find the local maxima of the density estimation which gives the centroid of the clusters. Then we compute the distance of a certain point from the centroid. Points belong to outliers then removed by automatic thresholding scheme which yields an accurate and economical point surface. The experimental results show that our approach comparably robust and efficient.

Keywords: point preprocessing, outlier removal, surface reconstruction, kernel density estimation

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Authors: Marina Charalambous, Phivos Phylactou, Thekla Elriz, Loukia Psychogios, Jean-Marie Annoni

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Background: Evidence-based practices for the evaluation and treatment of people with aphasia (PWA) in Greek are mainly impairment-based. Functional and multimodal communication is usually under assessed and neglected by clinicians. This study explores the adaptation and psychometric testing of the Greek (GR) version of The Scenario Test. The Scenario Test assesses the everyday functional communication of PWA in an interactive multimodal communication setting with the support of an active communication facilitator. Aims: To define the reliability and validity of The Scenario Test GR and discuss its clinical value. Methods & Procedures: The Scenario Test-GR was administered to 54 people with chronic stroke (6+ months post-stroke): 32 PWA and 22 people with stroke without aphasia. Participants were recruited from Greece and Cyprus. All measures were performed in an interview format. Standard psychometric criteria were applied to evaluate reliability (internal consistency, test-retest, and interrater reliability) and validity (construct and known – groups validity) of the Scenario Test GR. Video analysis was performed for the qualitative examination of the communication modes used. Outcomes & Results: The Scenario Test-GR shows high levels of reliability and validity. High scores of internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .95), test-retest reliability (ICC = .99), and interrater reliability (ICC = .99) were found. Interrater agreement in scores on individual items fell between good and excellent levels of agreement. Correlations with a tool measuring language function in aphasia (the Aphasia Severity Rating Scale of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination), a measure of functional communication (the Communicative Effectiveness Index), and two instruments examining the psychosocial impact of aphasia (the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life questionnaire and the Aphasia Impact Questionnaire) revealed good convergent validity (all ps< .05). Results showed good known – groups validity (Mann-Whitney U = 96.5, p < .001), with significantly higher scores for participants without aphasia compared to those with aphasia. Conclusions: The psychometric qualities of The Scenario Test-GR support the reliability and validity of the tool for the assessment of functional communication for Greek-speaking PWA. The Scenario Test-GR can be used to assess multimodal functional communication, orient aphasia rehabilitation goal setting towards the activity and participation level, and be used as an outcome measure of everyday communication. Future studies will focus on the measurement of sensitivity to change in PWA with severe non-fluent aphasia.

Keywords: the scenario test GR, functional communication assessment, people with aphasia (PWA), tool validation

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Authors: Jadwiga Królikowska, Andrzej Królikowski, Jarosław Bajer

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The work delineates the threats of maladjustment of the capacity of rain canals, designed and built in the early 20th century, in connection to heavy rainfall, especially in summer. This is the cause of the so called 'urban floods.' It directly relates to fierce raise of paving in the cities. Resolving this problem requires a change in philosophy of draining the rainfall by wider use of retention, infiltration and usage of rainwater. In systemic approach to managing the safety of urban drainage systems the risk, which is directly connected to safety failures, has been accepted as a measure. The risk level defines the probability of occurrence of losses greater than the ones forecast for a given time frame. The procedure of risk modelling, enabling its numeric analysis by using appropriate weights, is a significant issue in this paper.

Keywords: risk management, drainage system, urban areas, urban floods

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Authors: Ahmed Mahmoud Ahmed Abouelmagd

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The diversity is the usual remedy of the transmitted signal level variations (Fading phenomena) in radio frequency channels. Diversity techniques utilize two or more copies of a signal and combine those signals to combat fading. The basic concept of diversity is to transmit the signal via several independent diversity branches to get independent signal replicas via time – frequency - space - and polarization diversity domains. Coding and decoding processes can be an alternative remedy for fading phenomena, it cannot increase the channel capacity, but it can improve the error performance. In this paper we propose the use of replication decoding with BCH code class, and Viterbi decoding algorithm with convolution coding; as examples of coding and decoding processes. The results are compared to those obtained from two optimized selection space diversity techniques. The performance of Rayleigh fading channel, as the model considered for radio frequency channels, is evaluated for each case. The evaluation results show that the coding and decoding approaches, especially the BCH coding approach with replication decoding scheme, give better performance compared to that of selection space diversity optimization approaches. Also, an approach for combining the coding and decoding diversity as well as the space diversity is considered, the main disadvantage of this approach is its complexity but it yields good performance results.

Keywords: Rayleigh fading, diversity, BCH codes, Replication decoding, ‎convolution coding, viterbi decoding, space diversity

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Authors: Hamad Alhajeri, Abdulrahman Almutairi, A. H. Alenezi, M. H. Alhajeri, Ayedh Alajmi

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The flow around three porous cylinders in inline arrangement is investigated in this paper computationally using the commercial code FLUENT. The arrangement generally operates with the dirty gases passing through the porous cylinders, the particulate material being deposited on the outside of the cylinders. However, in a combined cycle power plant, filtration is required to allow the hot exhaust gases to be fed to a turbine without causing any physical damage to the turbine blades. Three cylinder elements are placed in a two-dimensional rectangle duct with fixed face velocity and varying the velocity ratio between the approach and face velocity. Particle trajectories are obtained for a number of particle diameters and different inlet (approach) velocity to face filtration velocity ratios to investigate the behavior of particles around the cylinder.

Keywords: porous cylinders, CFD, fluid flow, filtration

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Authors: Amares Chattopadhyay, Akanksha Srivastava

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A unified approach to study the reflection of a plane wave in three-dimensional model comprised of the triclinic viscoelastic medium. The phase velocities of reflected qP, qSV and qSH wave have been calculated for the concerned medium by using the eigenvalue approach. The generalized method has been implemented to compute the complex form of amplitude ratios. Further, we discussed the nature of reflection coefficients of qP, qSV and qSH wave. The viscoelastic parameter, polar angle and azimuthal angle are found to be strongly influenced by amplitude ratios. The research article is particularly focused to study the effect of viscoelasticity associated with highly anisotropic media which exhibits the notable information about the reflection coefficients of qP, qSV, and qSH wave. The outcomes may further useful to the better exploration of all types of hydrocarbon reservoir and advancement in the field of reflection seismology.

Keywords: amplitude ratios, three dimensional, triclinic, viscoelastic

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Authors: Moein Izadi, Ali Mohammadzadeh

Abstract:

Detection of damaged parts of roads after earthquake is essential for coordinating rescuers. In this study, an approach is presented for the semi-automatic detection of damaged roads in a city using pre-event vector maps and both pre- and post-earthquake QuickBird satellite images. Damage is defined in this study as the debris of damaged buildings adjacent to the roads. Some spectral and texture features are considered for SVM classification step to detect damages. Finally, the proposed method is tested on QuickBird pan-sharpened images from the Bam City earthquake and the results show that an overall accuracy of 81% and a kappa coefficient of 0.71 are achieved for the damage detection. The obtained results indicate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed approach.

Keywords: SVM classifier, disaster management, road damage detection, quickBird images

Procedia PDF Downloads 623

Authors: Adeniran Adetunji, Babalola M. Florence, Akande Ademola

Abstract:

In this paper, we made an overview on the concept of adaptive e-Learning system, enumerates the elements of adaptive learning concepts e.g. A pedagogical framework, multiple learning strategies and pathways, continuous monitoring and feedback on student performance, statistical inference to reach final learning strategy that works for an individual learner by “mass-customization”. Briefly highlights the motivation of this new system proposed for effective learning teaching. E-Review literature on the concept of adaptive e-learning system and emphasises on the Item Response Calibration, which is an important approach to developing an adaptive e-Learning system. This paper write-up is concluded on the justification of item response calibration/estimation towards designing a successful and effective adaptive e-Learning system.

Keywords: adaptive e-learning system, pedagogical framework, item response, computer applications

Procedia PDF Downloads 596

Authors: Thu Thuy Pham, Thi Chau Loan Tran, Van Duy Nguyen

Abstract:

Marine fungi play an important role in the marine ecosystems. Marine fungi also supply biomass and metabolic products of industrial value. Currently, the biodiversity of marine fungi along the coastal areas of Vietnam has not yet been studied fully. The objective of this study is to assess the spatial and temporal diversity of planktonic fungi from the coastal waters of Nha Trang Bay and Van Phong Bay in Central Vietnam using culture-dependent and independent approach. Using culture-dependent approach, filamentous fungi and yeasts were isolated on selective media and then classified by phenotype and genotype based on the sequencing of ITS (internal transcribed spacers) regions of rDNA with two primer pairs (ITS1F_KYO2 and ITS4; NS1 and NS8). Using culture-independent approach, environmental DNA samples were isolated and amplified using fungal-specific ITS primer pairs. A total of over 160 strains were isolated from 10 seawater sampling stations at 50 cm depth. They were classified into diverse genera and species of both yeast and mold. At least 5 strains could be potentially novel species. Our results also revealed that planktonic fungi were molecularly diverse with hundreds of phylotypes recovered across these two bays. The results of the study provide data about the distribution and taxonomy of mycoplankton in this area, thereby allowing assessment of their positive role in the biogeochemical cycle of coastal ecosystems and the development of new bioactive compounds for industrial applications.

Keywords: biodiversity, ITS, marine fungi, Nha Trang Bay, Van Phong Bay

Procedia PDF Downloads 190

Authors: Krongthong Khairiree

Abstract:

The purpose of this research study is to explore mathematics project-based learning approach and the use of technology in the context of school mathematics in Thailand. Data of the study were collected from 6 sample secondary schools and the students were 6-14 years old. Research findings show that through mathematics project-based learning approach and the use of GSP, students were able to make mathematics learning fun and challenging. Based on the students’ interviews they revealed that, with GSP, they were able to visualize and create graphical representations, which will enable them to develop their mathematical thinking skills, concepts and understanding. The students had fun in creating variety of graphs of functions which they can not do by drawing on graph paper. In addition, there are evidences to show the students’ abilities in connecting mathematics to real life outside the classroom and commercial products, such as weaving, patterning of broomstick, and ceramics design.

Keywords: mathematics, project-based learning, Geometer’s Sketchpad (GSP), commercial products

Procedia PDF Downloads 336