Search results for: base of support

Authors: Nicolò Vaiana, Giorgio Serino

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The nonlinear time history analysis of seismically base-isolated structures can require a significant computational effort when the behavior of each seismic isolator is predicted by adopting the widely used differential equation Bouc-Wen model. In this paper, a nonlinear exponential model, able to simulate the response of seismic isolation bearings within a relatively large displacements range, is described and adopted in order to reduce the numerical computations and speed up the nonlinear dynamic analysis. Compared to the Bouc-Wen model, the proposed one does not require the numerical solution of a nonlinear differential equation for each time step of the analysis. The seismic response of a 3d base-isolated structure with a lead rubber bearing system subjected to harmonic earthquake excitation is simulated by modeling each isolator using the proposed analytical model. The comparison of the numerical results and computational time with those obtained by modeling the lead rubber bearings using the Bouc-Wen model demonstrates the good accuracy of the proposed model and its capability to reduce significantly the computational effort of the analysis.

Keywords: base isolation, computational efficiency, nonlinear exponential model, nonlinear time history analysis

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Authors: Tommy Krieger, Klaus Gruendler

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We present a novel approach for measuring democracy, which enables a very detailed and sensitive index. This method is based on Support Vector Machines, a mathematical algorithm for pattern recognition. Our implementation evaluates 188 countries in the period between 1981 and 2011. The Support Vector Machines Democracy Index (SVMDI) is continuously on the 0-1-Interval and robust to variations in the numerical process parameters. The algorithm introduced here can be used for every concept of democracy without additional adjustments, and due to its flexibility it is also a valuable tool for comparison studies.

Keywords: democracy, democracy index, machine learning, support vector machines

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Authors: Ashish Dhamaniya, Satish Chandra

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Pedestrian crossings at grade in India are very common and pedestrian cross the carriageway at undesignated locations where they found the path to access the residential and commercial areas. Present paper aims to determine capacity loss on 4-lane urban arterials due to such crossings. Base capacity which is defined as the capacity without any influencing factor is determined on 4-lane roads by collecting speed-flow data in the field. It is observed that base capacity is varying from 1636 pcu/hr/lane to 2043 pcu/hr/lane which is attributed to the different operating conditions at different sections. The variation in base capacity is related with the operating speed on the road sections. Free flow speed of standard car is measured in the field and 85th percentile of this speed is reported as operating speed. Capacity of the 4-lane road sections with different pedestrian cross-flow is also determined and compared with the capacity of base section. The difference in capacity values is reported as capacity loss due to the average number of pedestrian crossings in one hour. It has been observed that capacity of 4-lane road section reduces from 18 to 30 percent with pedestrian cross-flow of 800 to 1550 peds/hr. A model is proposed between capacity loss and pedestrian cross-flow from the observed data.

Keywords: capacity, free flow speed, pedestrian, urban arterial, transport

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Authors: Roman Graf, Sergiu Gordea, Heather M. Ryan

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This paper presents an approach for easy creation and classification of institutional risk profiles supporting endangerment analysis of file formats. The main contribution of this work is the employment of data mining techniques to support set up of the most important risk factors. Subsequently, risk profiles employ risk factors classifier and associated configurations to support digital preservation experts with a semi-automatic estimation of endangerment group for file format risk profiles. Our goal is to make use of an expert knowledge base, accuired through a digital preservation survey in order to detect preservation risks for a particular institution. Another contribution is support for visualisation of risk factors for a requried dimension for analysis. Using the naive Bayes method, the decision support system recommends to an expert the matching risk profile group for the previously selected institutional risk profile. The proposed methods improve the visibility of risk factor values and the quality of a digital preservation process. The presented approach is designed to facilitate decision making for the preservation of digital content in libraries and archives using domain expert knowledge and values of file format risk profiles. To facilitate decision-making, the aggregated information about the risk factors is presented as a multidimensional vector. The goal is to visualise particular dimensions of this vector for analysis by an expert and to define its profile group. The sample risk profile calculation and the visualisation of some risk factor dimensions is presented in the evaluation section.

Keywords: linked open data, information integration, digital libraries, data mining

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Authors: Muthukumarasamy Govindarajan

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Detection of unwanted, unsolicited mails called spam from email is an interesting area of research. It is necessary to evaluate the performance of any new spam classifier using standard data sets. Recently, ensemble-based classifiers have gained popularity in this domain. In this research work, an efficient email filtering approach based on ensemble methods is addressed for developing an accurate and sensitive spam classifier. The proposed approach employs Naive Bayes (NB), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) as base classifiers along with different ensemble methods. The experimental results show that the ensemble classifier was performing with accuracy greater than individual classifiers, and also hybrid model results are found to be better than the combined models for the e-mail dataset. The proposed ensemble-based classifiers turn out to be good in terms of classification accuracy, which is considered to be an important criterion for building a robust spam classifier.

Keywords: accuracy, arcing, bagging, genetic algorithm, Naive Bayes, sentiment mining, support vector machine

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Authors: Babak Nemat

Abstract:

Background: Exercise behavior (EB) has a significant impact on infertility, but the magnitude of the effect is not easily determined. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of social support and self-regulation, as external and internal factors, on changes in exercise behavior among infertile women. Methods: For a cross-sectional study conducted in Sanandaj (Iran) in 2023, we recruited infertile women (n=483) from 35 comprehensive healthcare centers by means of convenience sampling. Standardized face-to-face interviews were conducted using established and reliable instruments for the assessment of EB, social support, and self-regulation. Logistic regression models were applied to assess the association between EB, social support and self-regulation. Results: The majority of the participants (56.7%) had secondary infertility, while 70.8% of them did not perform any exercise. Self-regulation and social support were significantly higher in women with secondary infertility than in those with primary infertility (p < 0.01). Self-regulation was significantly lower in women whose height was below 160 centimeters (cm) (p<0.05). Social support was significantly higher among participants aged ≥ 35 years and weighing ≥ 60 kilograms (kg) (p < 0.01). The odds of EB adoption increased with self-regulation and social support (OR=1.05, 95% CI=1.02-1.09, p <0.01), (OR=1.06, 95% CI=1.02-1.11, p <0.01). Conclusion: Social support and self-regulation almost equally influenced EB in infertile women. Designing support and consultation programs can be considered in encouraging infertile women to exercise in future research.

Keywords: social support, regulation, infertility, women

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Authors: Mohammad Khattak, Bikash Adhikari, Sambodh Adhikari

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This research deals with the physical, microstructural, mechanical, and shrinkage characteristics of flyash-based soil-geopolymer mixtures. Medium and high plastic soils were obtained from local construction projects. Class F flyash was used with a mixture of sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide solution to develop soil-geopolymer mixtures. Several mixtures were compacted, cured at different curing conditions, and tested for unconfined compressive strength (UCS), linear shrinkage, and observed under scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results of the study demonstrated that the soil-geopolymer mixtures fulfilled the UCS criteria of cement treated design (CTD) and cement stabilized design (CSD) as recommended by the department of transportation for pavement base and subbase layers. It was found that soil-geopolymer demonstrated either similar or better UCS and shrinkage characteristics relative to conventional soil-cement mixtures. The SEM analysis revealed that microstructure of soil-geopolymer mixtures exhibited development and steady growth of geopolymerization during the curing period. Based on mechanical, shrinkage, and microstructural characteristics it was suggested that the soil-geopolymer mixtures, has an immense potential to be used as pavement subgrade, subbase, and base layers.

Keywords: soil-geopolymer, pavement base, soil stabilization, unconfined compressive strength, shrinkage, microstructure, and morphology

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Authors: Djamel Ouzandja, Boualem Tiliouine

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The safety evaluation of the concrete gravity dams subjected to seismic excitations is really very complex as the earthquake response of the concrete gravity dam depends upon its contraction joints with foundation soil. This paper presents the seismic response of concrete gravity dams considering friction contact and welded contact. Friction contact is provided using contact elements. Two-dimensional (2D) finite element model of Oued Fodda concrete gravity dam, located in Chlef at the west of Algeria, is used for this purpose. Linear and nonlinear analyses considering dam-foundation soil interaction are performed using ANSYS software. The reservoir water is modeled as added mass using the Westergaard approach. The Drucker-Prager model is preferred for dam and foundation rock in nonlinear analyses. The surface-to-surface contact elements based on the Coulomb's friction law are used to describe the friction. These contact elements use a target surface and a contact surface to form a contact pair. According to this study, the seismic analysis of concrete gravity dams including base sliding. When the friction contact is considered in joints, the base sliding displacement occurs along the dam-foundation soil contact interface. Besides, the base sliding may generally decrease the principal stresses in the dam.

Keywords: concrete gravity dam, dynamic soil-structure interaction, friction contact, sliding

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Authors: Noor Attar

Abstract:

This paper provides an overview of the current situation of HIV/AIDS patients in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and a literature review of the concepts of stigma communication, communication of social support. These concepts provide the basis for the proposed methods, which will include conducting a textual analysis of materials that are currently distributed to family members of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHIV/A) in KSA and creating an educational brochure. The brochure will aim to help families of PLWHIV/A in KSA (1) understand how stigma shapes the experience of PLWHIV/A, (2) realize the role of positive communication as a helpful social support, and (3) develop the ability to provide positive social support for their loved ones.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Saudi Arabia, social support, stigma communication

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Authors: My Ha, Suwei Lin, Huiying Zou

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This study aimed at investigating the association between teacher support and academic resilience in a developing country. Using the data from PISA 2018 Student Questionnaire and Cognitive Tests, the study provided evidence of the significant impact teacher support had on reading literacy among 15-year-old students from low socio-economic status (SES) homes in Vietnam. From a total of 5773 Vietnamese participants from all backgrounds, a sample of 1765 disadvantaged students was drawn for analysis. As a result, 32 percent of the low SES sample was identified as resilient. Through their response to the PISA items regarding the frequency of support they received from teachers, the result of Latent Class Analysis (LCA) divides children into three subgroups: High Support (74.6%), Fair Support (21.6%), and Low Support (3.8%). The high support group reported the highest proportion of resilient students. Meanwhile, the low support group scored the lowest mean on reading test and had the lowest rate of resilience. Also, as the level of support increases, reading achievement becomes less dependent on socioeconomic status, reflected by the decrease in both the slope and magnitude of their correlation. Logistic regression revealed that 1 unit increase in standardized teacher support would lead to an increase of 29.1 percent in the odds of a student becoming resilient. The study emphasizes the role of supportive teachers in promoting resilience, as well as lowering educational inequity in general.

Keywords: academic resilience, disadvantaged students, teacher support, inequity, PISA

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Authors: Paolo Castaldo, Bruno Palazzo, Laura Lodato

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This study deals with the seizure effects of friction pendulum (FP) bearings on the seismic reliability of a 3D base-isolated nonlinear structural system, designed according to Italian seismic code (NTC08). The isolated system consists in a 3D reinforced concrete superstructure, a r.c. substructure and the FP devices, described by employing a velocity dependent model. The seismic input uncertainty is considered as a random variable relevant to the problem, by employing a set of natural seismic records selected in compliance with L’Aquila (Italy) seismic hazard as provided from NTC08. Several non-linear dynamic analyses considering the three components of each ground motion have been performed with the aim to evaluate the seismic reliability of the superstructure, substructure, and isolation level, also taking into account the seizure event of the isolation devices. Finally, a design solution aimed at increasing the seismic robustness of the base-isolated systems with FPS is analyzed.

Keywords: FP devices, seismic reliability, seismic robustness, seizure

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Authors: Arezoo Fallahi‎

Abstract:

Background: Exercise behavior (EB) has a significant impact on infertility, but the magnitude of the effect is not easily determined. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of social support and self-regulation, as external and internal factors, on changes in exercise behavior among infertile women. Methods: For a cross-sectional study conducted in Sanandaj (Iran) in 2020, we recruited infertile women (n=483) from 35 comprehensive healthcare centers by means of convenience sampling. Standardized face-to-face interviews were conducted using established and reliable instruments for the assessment of EB, social support, and self-regulation. Logistic regression models were applied to assess the association between EB, social support and self-regulation. Results: The majority of the participants (56.7%) had secondary infertility, while 70.8% of them did not perform any exercise. Self-regulation and social support were significantly higher in women with secondary infertility than in those with primary infertility (p < 0.01). Self-regulation was significantly lower in women whose height was below 160 centimeters (cm) (p<0.05). Social support was significantly higher among participants aged ≥ 35 years and weighing ≥ 60 kilograms (kg) (p < 0.01). The odds of EB adoption increased with self-regulation and social support (OR=1.05, 95% CI=1.02-1.09, p <0.01), (OR=1.06, 95% CI=1.02-1.11, p <0.01). Conclusion: Social support and self-regulation almost equally influenced EB in infertile women. Designing support and consultation programs can be considered in encouraging infertile women to do exercise in future research.

Keywords: social support, regulation, infertility, women, exercise

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Authors: M. Nakkuntod, S. Srinarang, K.W. Hilu

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Water lily (Nymphaea L.) is the largest genus of Nymphaeaceae. This family is composed of six genera (Nuphar, Ondinea, Euryale, Victoria, Barclaya, Nymphaea). Its members are nearly worldwide in tropical and temperate regions. The classification of some species in Nymphaea is ambiguous due to high variation in leaf and flower parts such as leaf margin, stamen appendage. Therefore, the phylogenetic relationships based on 18S rDNA were constructed to delimit this genus. DNAs of 52 specimens belonging to water lily family were extracted using modified conventional method containing cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB). The results showed that the amplified fragment is about 1600 base pairs in size. After analysis, the aligned sequences presented 9.36% for variable characters comprising 2.66% of parsimonious informative sites and 6.70% of singleton sites. Moreover, there are 6 regions of 1-2 base(s) for insertion/deletion. The phylogenetic trees based on maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood with high bootstrap support indicated that genus Nymphaea was a paraphyletic group because of Ondinea, Victoria and Euryale disruption. Within genus Nymphaea, subgenus Nymphaea is a basal lineage group which cooperated with Euryale and Victoria. The other four subgenera, namely Lotos, Hydrocallis, Brachyceras and Anecphya were included the same large clade which Ondinea was placed within Anecphya clade due to geographical sharing.

Keywords: nrDNA, phylogeny, taxonomy, waterlily

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Authors: Danilo López, Edwin Rivas, Leyla López

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This paper presents the development of an algorithm that predicts the arrival of a secondary user (SU) to a base station (BS) in a cognitive network based on infrastructure, requesting a Best Effort (BE) or Real Time (RT) type of service with a determined bandwidth (BW) implementing neural networks. The algorithm dynamically uses a neural network construction technique using the geometric pyramid topology and trains a Multilayer Perceptron Neural Networks (MLPNN) based on the historical arrival of an SU to estimate future applications. This will allow efficiently managing the information in the BS, since it precedes the arrival of the SUs in the stage of selection of the best channel in CRN. As a result, the software application determines the probability of arrival at a future time point and calculates the performance metrics to measure the effectiveness of the predictions made.

Keywords: cognitive radio, base station, best effort, MLPNN, prediction, real time

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Authors: Farzad Jalilian, Mehdi Mirzaei Alavijeh, Fazel Zinat Motlagh

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Social support is an important benchmark of health for people in avoidance conditions. The main goal of this study was to determine the three kinds of social support (family, friend and other significant) to drug cessation among male addicts, in Kermanshah, the west of Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 132 addicts, randomly selected to participate voluntarily in the study. Data were collected from conduct interviews based on standard questionnaire and analyzed by using SPSS-18 at 95% significance level. The majority of addicts were young (Mean: 30.4 years), and with little education. Opium (36.4%), Crack (21.2%), and Methamphetamine (12.9%) were the predominant drugs. Inabilities to reject the offer and having addict friends are the most often reasons for drug usage. Almost, 18.9% reported history of drug injection. 43.2% of the participants already did drug cessation at least once. Logistic regression showed the family support (OR = 1.110), age (OR = 1.106) and drug use initiation age (OR = 0.918) was predicting drug cessation. Our result showed; family support is a more important effect among types of social support in drug cessation. It seems that providing educational program to addict’s families for more support of patients at drug cessation can be beneficial.

Keywords: drug cessation, family support, drug use, initiation age

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Authors: Roman Graf, Sergiu Gordea, Heather M. Ryan

Abstract:

This paper presents an approach for the classification of an unstructured format description for identification of file formats. The main contribution of this work is the employment of data mining techniques to support file format selection with just the unstructured text description that comprises the most important format features for a particular organisation. Subsequently, the file format indentification method employs file format classifier and associated configurations to support digital preservation experts with an estimation of required file format. Our goal is to make use of a format specification knowledge base aggregated from a different Web sources in order to select file format for a particular institution. Using the naive Bayes method, the decision support system recommends to an expert, the file format for his institution. The proposed methods facilitate the selection of file format and the quality of a digital preservation process. The presented approach is meant to facilitate decision making for the preservation of digital content in libraries and archives using domain expert knowledge and specifications of file formats. To facilitate decision-making, the aggregated information about the file formats is presented as a file format vocabulary that comprises most common terms that are characteristic for all researched formats. The goal is to suggest a particular file format based on this vocabulary for analysis by an expert. The sample file format calculation and the calculation results including probabilities are presented in the evaluation section.

Keywords: data mining, digital libraries, digital preservation, file format

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Authors: Lynda Golea, Rachid Chebaki

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Schiff bases contain heterocyclic structural units with N and O donor atoms which plays an important role in coordination chemistry. Azomethine groups are a broad class of widely used compounds with applications in many fields, including analytical, inorganic chemistry and biological. Schiff's base is of promising research interest due to the widespread antibacterial resistance in medical science. In addition, the research is essential to generate Schiff base metal complexes with various applications. Schiff complexes have been used as drugs and have antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory properties. The various donor atoms they contain offer a special ability for metal binding. In this research on the physicochemical properties of azomethine groups, we synthesized and studied the Schiff base compounds by a condensation reaction of tryptamines and acetophenone in ethanol. The structure of the prepared compound was interpreted using 1H NMR, 13C NMR, UV-vis and FT-IR. A computational analysis at the level of DFT with functional B3LYP in conjunction with the base 6-311+G (d, p) was conducted to study its electronic and molecular structure. The biological study was performed on three bacterial strains usually causing infection, including Gram-positive and Gram-negative, for antibacterial activity. Results showed moderate biological activity and proportional activity with increasing concentration.

Keywords: azomethine, HOMO, LUMO, RMN, molecular docking

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Authors: Israa Sh. Tawfic, Sema Koc Kayhan

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Given a large sparse signal, great wishes are to reconstruct the signal precisely and accurately from lease number of measurements as possible as it could. Although this seems possible by theory, the difficulty is in built an algorithm to perform the accuracy and efficiency of reconstructing. This paper proposes a new proved method to reconstruct sparse signal depend on using new method called Least Support Matching Pursuit (LS-OMP) merge it with the theory of Partial Knowing Support (PSK) given new method called Partially Knowing of Least Support Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (PKLS-OMP). The new methods depend on the greedy algorithm to compute the support which depends on the number of iterations. So to make it faster, the PKLS-OMP adds the idea of partial knowing support of its algorithm. It shows the efficiency, simplicity, and accuracy to get back the original signal if the sampling matrix satisfies the Restricted Isometry Property (RIP). Simulation results also show that it outperforms many algorithms especially for compressible signals.

Keywords: compressed sensing, lest support orthogonal matching pursuit, partial knowing support, restricted isometry property, signal reconstruction

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Authors: Ali H. Muhammad

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This paper investigates both instrumental and emotional family support on employee job satisfaction and perception of work-family conflict. Instrumental family support is manifested in family behavior that contributes to the reduction of employee’s family responsibilities and keeping the physical home environment in a proper shape. Emotional family support includes the encouragement and praise that the employee receives from his family and families for the employee’s work problem and their role in assisting the employees in dealing with these problems. The paper suggests that instrumental and emotional family support increases employee’s job satisfaction. Furthermore, the study proposes that family support decreases employee’s perception of work-family conflict. In addition, this study examines the reliability and validity of the family support index developed by Lynda King and her colleagues in 1995. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to test the validity of the instrument in an Arab business setting. A paper-pencil questionnaire was used to collect data from a random sample of 70 Kuwaiti employees working in the oil sector. Data were analyzed using factor analysis, reliability tests, and regression analysis. Results confirmed the research hypothesis. Family support had a positive effect on job satisfaction. Furthermore, family support significantly contributed to the reduction of employee perception of work-family conflict.

Keywords: family support, job satisfaction, work-family conflict, Kuwait oil sector

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Authors: Aydın Kavak, Özkan Coruk, Adnan Aydıner

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Long-term performance of pavement structures is significantly impacted by the stability of the underlying soils. In situ subgrades often do not provide enough support required to achieve acceptable performance under traffic loading and environmental demands. NovoCrete® is a powder binder-mineral for cement stabilized road pavements soils. NovoCrete® combined with Portland cement at optimum water content increases the crystallize formations during the hydration process, resulting in higher strengths, neutralizes pH levels, and provides water impermeability. These changes in soil properties may lead to transforming existing unsuitable in-situ materials into suitable fill materials. The main features of NovoCrete® are: They are applicable to all types of soil, reduce premature cracking and improve soil properties, creating base and subbase course layers with high bearing capacity by reducing hazardous materials. It can be used also for stabilization of recyclable aggregates and old asphalt pavement aggregate, etc. There are many applications in Germany, Turkey, India etc. In this paper, a few field application in Turkey will be discussed. In the road construction works, this binder material is used for cement stabilization works. In the applications 120-180 kg cement is used for 1 m3 of soil with a 2 % of binder NovoCrete® material for the stabilization. The results of a plate loading test in a road construction site show 1 mm deformation which is very small under 7 kg/cm2 loading. The modulus of subgrade reaction increase from 611 MN/m3 to 3673 MN/m3.The soaked CBR values for stabilized soils increase from 10-20 % to 150-200 %. According to these data weak subgrade soil can be used as a base or sub base after the modification. The potential reduction in the need for quarried materials will help conserve natural resources. The use of on-site or nearby materials in fills, will significantly reduce transportation costs and provide both economic and environmental benefits.

Keywords: soil, stabilization, cement, binder, Novocrete, additive

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Authors: Christa Fricke, Sibylle Meyer, Gert G. Wagner

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Our research focuses on the question of whether assistive and social robotics could pose a promising strategy to support the independent living of elderly people and potentially relieve relatives of any anxieties. To answer the question of how elderly people perceive the potential of robotics, we analysed the data from the Berlin Aging Study BASE-II (https://www.base2.mpg.de/de) (N=1463) and data from the German SYMPARTNER study (http://www.sympartner.de) (N=120) and compared those to a control group made up of people younger than 30 years (BASE II: N=241; SYMPARTNER: N=30). BASE-II is a cohort study of people living in Berlin, Germany. The sample covers more than 2200 cases; a questionnaire on the use and acceptance of assistive and social robots was carried out with a sub-sample of 1463 respondents in 2015. The SYMPARTNER study was done by SIBIS institute of Social Research, Berlin and included a total of 120 persons between the ages of 60 and 87 in Berlin and the rural German federal state of Thuringia. Both studies included a control group of persons between the ages of 20 and 35 (BASE II: N=241; SYMPARTNER: N=30). Additional data, representative for the whole population in Germany, will be surveyed in fall 2017 (Survey “Technikradar” [technology radar] by the National Academy of Science and Engineering). Since this survey is including some identical questions as BASE-II/SYMPARTNER, comparative results can be presented at 20th International Conference on Social Robotics in New York 2018. The complexity of the data gathered in BASE-II and SYMPARTNER, encompassing detailed socio-economic background characteristics as well as personality traits such as the personal attitude to risk taking, locus of control and Big Five, proves highly valuable and beneficial. Results show that participants’ expressions of resentment against robots are comparatively low. Participants’ personality traits play a role, however the effect sizes are small. Only 15 percent of participants received domestic robots with great scepticism. Participants aged older than 70 years expressed greatest rejection of the robotic assistant. The effect sizes however account for only a few percentage points. Overall, participants were surprisingly open to the robot and its usefulness. The analysis also shows that men’s acceptance of the robot is generally greater than that of women (with odds ratios of about 0.6 to 0.7). This applies to both assistive robots in the private household and in care environments. Men expect greater benefits of the robot than women. Women tend to be more sceptical of their technical feasibility than men. Interview results prove our hypothesis that men, in particular of the age group 60+, are more accustomed to delegate household chores to women. A delegation to machines instead of humans, therefore, seems palpable. The answer to the title question of this planned presentation is: social and assistive robots at home robots are not only accepted by men – but by fewer women than men.

Keywords: acceptance, care, gender, household

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Authors: Sawsan J. Al-husseini, Talib A. Dosa

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Educational institutions are today facing increasing pressures due to economic, political and social upheaval. This is only exacerbated by the nature of education as an intangible good which relies upon the intellectual assets of the organisation, its staff. Top management support has been acknowledged as having a positive general influence on knowledge management and creativity. However, there is a lack of models linking top management support, knowledge sharing, and innovation within higher education institutions, in general within developing countries, and particularly in Iraq. This research sought to investigate the impact of top management support on innovation through the mediating role of knowledge sharing in Iraqi private HEIs. A quantitative approach was taken and 262 valid responses were collected to test the causal relationships between top management support, knowledge sharing, and innovation. Employing structural equation modelling with AMOS v.25, the research demonstrated that knowledge sharing plays a pivotal role in the relationship between top management support and innovation. The research has produced some guidelines for researchers as well as leaders, and provided evidence to support the use of knowledge sharing to increase innovation within the higher education environment in developing countries, particularly Iraq.

Keywords: top management support, knowledge sharing, innovation, structural equation modelling

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Authors: Mitrajit Biswas

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This paper is trying to understand the issues related to maintaining a fan base over a period of time. The paper would be trying to look into how the fan base can be actually engaged. That is what are the attributes of keeping a fan base interested and not feeling fatigued or tired. It would also try to understand that what are the key elements required for a franchise to be active and keep the fans engaged. The paper would look to understand the primary elements of a franchise like Marvel to keep the fans engaged for such a long period of time. This will help to improve the scope of literature on consumer engagement and consumption behaviour in modern times of unpredictability. It will also help to understand how the consumers take in a longer period of engagement. This would help to understand that despite huge success and investment in fan engagement and what could be the possible reasons for disengagement? This would include in-depth interviews with a global sample of around 50 people, which would be connected through purposive, convenient, and snowball sampling. It will help to understand whether the customer lifetime value as a theory can be sustained based on customer relationship management. If yes, how can products from certain companies predict and keep up the strategy for the prediction of the consumer engagement process?

Keywords: consumption, fatigue, brand loyalty, sustainable consumption

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Authors: Ujjval J. Solanki, Prof.(Dr.) P.J. Gundaliya, Prof.M.D. Barasara

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The application of Falling Weight Deflectometer is to evaluate structural performance of the flexible pavement. The exercise of back calculation is required to know the modulus of elasticity of existing in-service pavement. The process of back calculation needs in-depth field experience for the input of range of modulus of elasticity of bituminous, granular and subgrade layer, and its required number of trial to find such matching moduli with the observed FWD deflection on the field. The study carried out at Barnala-Mansa State Highway Punjab-India using FWD before and after overlay; the deflections obtained at 0 on the load cell, 300, 600, 900,1200, 1500 and 1800 mm interval from the load cell these seven deflection results used to calculate Surface Curvature Index (SCI), Base damage Index (BDI), Base curvature index (BCI). This SCI, BCI and BDI indices are useful to predict the structural performance of in-service pavement and also useful to identify homogeneous section for condition assessment. The SCI, BCI and BDI range are determined for before and after overlay the range of SCI 520 to 51 BDI 294 to 63 BCI 83 to 0.27 for old pavement and SCI 272 to 23 BDI 228 to 28, BCI 25.85 to 4.60 for new pavement. It also shows good correlation with back calculated modulus of elasticity of all the three layer.

Keywords: back calculation, base damage index, base curvature index, FWD (Falling Weight Deflectometer), surface curvature index

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Authors: Tadaaki Tomiie, Hiroki Shinkawa

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The present study was aimed to examine the structure of children’s adaptation during school transition and to identify a commonality and dissimilarity at the elementary and junior high school. 1,983 students in the 6th grade and 2,051 students in the 7th grade were extracted by stratified two-stage random sampling and completed the ASSESS that evaluated the school adaptation from the view point of ‘general satisfaction’, ‘teachers’ support’, ‘friends’ support’, ‘anti-bullying relationship’, ‘prosocial skills’, and ‘academic adaptation’. The 7th graders tend to be worse adaptation than the 6th graders. A structural equation modeling showed the goodness of fit for each grades. Both models were very similar but the 7th graders’ model showed a lower coefficient at the pass from ‘teachers’ support’ to ‘friends’ support’. The role of ‘teachers’ support’ was decreased to keep a good relation in junior high school. We also discussed how we provide a continuous assistance for prevention of the 7th graders’ gap.

Keywords: school transition, social support, psychological adaptation, K-12

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Authors: Samson Mil'shtein, Dhawal N. Asthana

Abstract:

The presented heterostructure n-p-n bipolar transistor is comprised of Ge/GaAs heterojunctions consisting of 0.15µm thick emitter and 0.65µm collector junctions. High diffusivity of carriers in GaAs base was major motivation of current design. We avoided grading of the base which is common in heterojunction bipolar transistors, in order to keep the electron diffusivity as high as possible. The electrons injected into the 0.25µm thick p-type GaAs base with not very high doping (1017cm-3). The designed HBT enables cut off frequency on the order of 150GHz. The Ge/GaAs heterojunctions presented in our paper have proved to work better than comparable HBTs having GaAs bases and emitter/collector junctions made, for example, of AlGaAs/GaAs or other III-V compound semiconductors. The difference in lattice constants between Ge and GaAs is less than 2%. Therefore, there is no need of transition layers between Ge emitter and GaAs base. Significant difference in energy gap of these two materials presents new scope for improving performance of the emitter. With the complete structure being modelled and simulated using TCAD SILVACO, the collector/ emitter offset voltage of the device has been limited to a reasonable value of 63 millivolts by the dint of low energy band gap value associated with Ge emitter. The efficiency of the emitter in our HBT is 86%. Use of Germanium in the emitter and collector regions presents new opportunities for integration of this vertical device structure into silicon substrate.

Keywords: Germanium, Gallium Arsenide, heterojunction bipolar transistor, high cut-off frequency

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Authors: Rolla Monib, Chris Ian Goodier, Alistair Gibb

Abstract:

This paper aims to investigate decision support strategies in the EC sector to determine the most appropriate degree of modularization. This is achieved through three oil and gas (O&G) and two power plant case studies via semi-structured interviews (n=59 and n=27, respectively), analysis of project documents, and case study-specific semi-structured validation interviews (n=12 and n=8). New terminology to distinguish degrees of modularization is proposed, along with a decision-making support checklist and a diagrammatic decision-making support figure. Results indicate that the EC sub-sectors were substantially more satisfied with the application of component, structural, or traditional modularization compared with system modularization for some types of modules. Key drivers for decisions on the degree of modularization vary across module types. This paper can help the EC sector determine the most suitable degree of modularization via a decision-making support strategy.

Keywords: modularization, engineering construction, case study, decision support

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Authors: Mehdi Montakhabrazlighi, Ercan Balikci

Abstract:

The neural network (NN) method is applied to alloy development of single crystal Ni-base Superalloys with low density and improved mechanical strength. A set of 1200 dataset which includes chemical composition of the alloys, applied stress and temperature as inputs and density and time to rupture as outputs is used for training and testing the network. Thermodynamic phase diagram modeling of the screened alloys is performed with Thermocalc software to model the equilibrium phases and also microsegregation in solidification processing. The model is first trained by 80% of the data and the 20% rest is used to test it. Comparing the predicted values and the experimental ones showed that a well-trained network is capable of accurately predicting the density and time to rupture strength of the Ni-base superalloys. Modeling results is used to determine the effect of alloying elements, stress, temperature and gamma-prime phase volume fraction on rupture strength of the Ni-base superalloys. This approach is in line with the materials genome initiative and integrated computed materials engineering approaches promoted recently with the aim of reducing the cost and time for development of new alloys for critical aerospace components. This work has been funded by TUBITAK under grant number 112M783.

Keywords: neural network, rupture strength, superalloy, thermocalc

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Authors: Adinew Gebremeskel Tizazu

Abstract:

The effect of soil-structure interaction on the dynamic response of reinforced concrete buildings of regular and symmetrical geometry are considered in this study. The structures are presumed to be generally embedded in a homogenous soil formation underlain by very stiff material or bedrock. The structure-foundation–soil system is excited at the base by an earthquake ground motion. The superstructure is idealized as a system with lumped masses concentrated at the floor levels, and coupled with the substructure. The substructure system, which comprises of the foundation and soil, is represented, and replaced by springs and dashpots. Frequency-dependent impedances of the foundation system are incorporated in the discrete model in terms of the springs and dashpots coefficients. The excitation applied to the model is field ground motions of actual earthquake records. Modal superposition principle is employed to transform the equations of motion in geometrical coordinates to modal coordinates. However, the modal equations remain coupled with respect to damping terms due to the difference in damping mechanisms of the superstructure and the soil. Hence, proportional damping for the coupled structural system may not be assumed. An iterative approach is adopted and programmed to solve the system of coupled equations of motion in modal coordinates to obtain the displacement responses of the system. Parametric studies for responses of building structures with regular and symmetric plans of different structural properties and heights are made for fixed and flexible base conditions, for different soil conditions encountered in Addis Ababa. The displacement, base shear and base overturning moments are used in the comparison of different types of structures for various foundation embedment depths, site conditions and height of structures. These values are compared against those of fixed base structure. The study shows that the flexible base structures, generally exhibit different responses from those structures with fixed base. Basically, the natural circular frequencies, the base shears and the inter-story displacements for the flexible base are less than those of the fixed base structures. This trend is particularly evident when the flexible soil has large thickness. In contrast, the trend becomes less predictable, when the thickness of the flexible soil decreases. Moreover, in the latter case, the iteration undulates significantly making the prediction difficult. This is attributed to the highly jagged nature of the impedance functions of frequencies for such formations. In this case, it is difficult to conclude whether the conventional fixed-base approach yields conservative design forces, as is the case for soil formations of large thickness.

Keywords: effect of soil structure, dynamic response corroborated, the modal superposition principle, parametric studies

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Authors: Hongxia Wang, Yanjie Wang, Xiuqin Wang, Linlin Mo, Shuangshuang Niu

Abstract:

Special Education Resource Center (SERC) is the localized product in the development of inclusive education in People’s Republic of China, which provides professional support and service for the students with special education needs(SEN) and their parents, teachers as well as inclusive schools. The study investigated 155 administrators, resource teachers and inclusive education teachers from primary and secondary schools in Beijing. The results indicate that: (1) The surveyed teachers put highest expectation of SERC on specialized guidance and teacher training , instead of research and administration function; (2) Each dimension of professional support needs gets higher scores, in which individual guidance gets highest score, followed by instruction guidance, psychological counseling, proposing suggestions, informational support and teacher training; (3) locality and training experience of surveyed teachers significantly influence their expectations and support needs of SERC.

Keywords: special education resource center (SERC) , functional expectation, professional support needs, support system

Procedia PDF Downloads 379