Search results for: financial methods

Authors: Emily Hickmann, Peggy Richter, Maren Kaehlig, Hannes Schlieter

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Patient engagement is a cornerstone of high-quality care and essential for patients with chronic diseases to achieve improved health outcomes. Through digital transformation, possibilities to engage patients in their personal healthcare have multiplied. However, the exploitation of this potential is still lagging. To support the transmission of patient engagement theory into practice, this paper’s objective is to give a state-of-the-art overview of patient engagement tools and methods. A systematic literature review was conducted. Overall, 56 tools and methods were extracted and synthesized according to the four attributes of patient engagement, i.e., personalization, access, commitment, and therapeutic alliance. The results are discussed in terms of their potential to be implemented in digital health solutions under consideration of the “computers are social actors” (CASA) paradigm. It is concluded that digital health can catalyze patient engagement in practice, and a broad future research agenda is formulated.

Keywords: chronic diseases, digitalization, patient-centeredness, patient empowerment, patient engagement

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Authors: Swathi Sampath, V. Kalaichelvi

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The assessment of the risk posed by a borrower to a lender is one of the common problems that financial institutions have to deal with. Consumers vying for a mortgage are generally compared to each other by the use of a number called the Credit Score, which is generated by applying a mathematical algorithm to information in the applicant’s credit report. The higher the credit score, the lower the risk posed by the candidate, and the better he is to be taken on by the lender. The objective of the present work is to use fuzzy logic and linguistic rules to create a model that generates Credit Scores.

Keywords: credit scoring, fuzzy logic, mortgage, risk assessment

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Authors: S. Cencek, A. Markun

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Noise assessment methods are regularly used in scope of Environmental Impact Assessments for planned projects to assess (predict) the expected noise emissions of these projects. Different noise assessment methods could be used. In recent years, we had an opportunity to collaborate in some noise assessment procedures where noise assessments of different laboratories have been performed simultaneously. We identified some significant differences in noise assessment results between laboratories in Slovenia. We estimate that despite good input Georeferenced Data to set up acoustic model exists in Slovenia; there is no clear consensus on methods for predictive noise methods for planned projects. We analyzed input data, methods and results of predictive noise methods for two planned industrial projects, both were done independently by two laboratories. We also analyzed the data, methods and results of two interlaboratory collaborative noise models for two existing noise sources (railway and motorway). In cases of predictive noise modelling, the validations of acoustic models were performed by noise measurements of surrounding existing noise sources, but in varying durations. The acoustic characteristics of existing buildings were also not described identically. The planned noise sources were described and digitized differently. Differences in noise assessment results between different laboratories have ranged up to 10 dBA, which considerably exceeds the acceptable uncertainty ranged between 3 to 6 dBA. Contrary to predictive noise modelling, in cases of collaborative noise modelling for two existing noise sources the possibility to perform the validation noise measurements of existing noise sources greatly increased the comparability of noise modelling results. In both cases of collaborative noise modelling for existing motorway and railway, the modelling results of different laboratories were comparable. Differences in noise modeling results between different laboratories were below 5 dBA, which was acceptable uncertainty set up by interlaboratory noise modelling organizer. The lessons learned from the study were: 1) Predictive noise calculation using formulae from International standard SIST ISO 9613-2: 1997 is not an appropriate method to predict noise emissions of planned projects since due to complexity of procedure they are not used strictly, 2) The noise measurements are important tools to minimize noise assessment errors of planned projects and should be in cases of predictive noise modelling performed at least for validation of acoustic model, 3) National guidelines should be made on the appropriate data, methods, noise source digitalization, validation of acoustic model etc. in order to unify the predictive noise models and their results in scope of Environmental Impact Assessments for planned projects.

Keywords: environmental noise assessment, predictive noise modelling, spatial planning, noise measurements, national guidelines

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Authors: Chidiebere Samuel Ijeoma

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The impact and importance of technology in all domains of existence cannot be overemphasized. It is like a double-edged sword which can be both constructive and destructive. The paper, therefore, tends to evaluate the impact of technology so far in the teaching and learning of French language in Nigeria. According to the study, the traditional methods of teaching French as a Foreign Language and recognized as our cultural methods of knowledge transfer are being fast replaced by digitalization in teaching. This, the research tends to portray and suggest the best way forward. In the Nigerian Primary Education System, the use of some local and cultural Instructional materials (teaching aids) is now almost history which the paper frowns at. Consequently, the study has these questions to ask?; Where are the chalks and blackboards? Where are the ‘Handworks’ (local brooms) submitted by school children as part of their Continuous Assessment? Finally, the research is in no way against the application of technology in the Nigerian French Language Teaching System but tries to draw a curtain between Technological methods of teaching French as a Foreign Language and the Original Nigerian System of teaching the language before the arrival of technology.

Keywords: French language teaching, future, impact, importance of technology

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Authors: An-Jui. Li, Kelvin Lim, Chien-Kuo Chiu, Benson Hsiung

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This paper details the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of slope stability whereby quick and convenient solutions can be obtained using the developed tool. The AI tool used in this study is the artificial neural network (ANN), while the slope stability analysis methods are the finite element limit analysis methods. The developed tool allows for the prompt prediction of the safety factors of fill slopes and their corresponding probability of failure (depending on the degree of variation of the soil parameters), which can give the practicing engineer a reasonable basis in their decision making. In fact, the successful use of the Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) algorithm shows that slope stability analysis is no longer confined to the conventional methods of modeling, which at times may be tedious and repetitive during the preliminary design stage where the focus is more on cost saving options rather than detailed design. Therefore, similar ANN-based tools can be further developed to assist engineers in this aspect.

Keywords: landslide, limit analysis, artificial neural network, soil properties

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Authors: Thevaranchany Sivaskaran

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Women entrepreneurs are the key players in the society and their contributions is highly highlighted to enhance economic stability in the country. In Sri Lanka, especially in North and East provinces people badly affected by war. Most of them are widows and women headed families. Due to this changing environment, Educational opportunities, and the support of NGO’s Most of the women have started their business and become entrepreneurs. Even though existing family setup and social setup entrepreneurial women are overburdened and difficult to balance their business and family roles. The research has been conducted on the experiences of women entrepreneurs with the family role support and work-life balance within the small and micro- enterprise sector in Jaffna, Srilanka. This study aims to identify that what extent the role of family support will be the tool to balancing work and life effectively and, secondly, the main challenges they face in achieving work-life balance. This is done by drawing on literatures including those on work-life balance, small-and micro enterprises, and entrepreneurship theories. To find out this objective, the data were collected from 50 entrepreneurs among the members of Jaffna women chamber in each GS division basis (cluster random sampling). A qualitative methodological technique and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data for the case study on these entrepreneurs. The results indicate that the majority of entrepreneurs do not enjoy a sense of work-life balance because most of them are women headed family and they need to work hard to generate financial profit for the benefit of family. The motivation for them to work in this way is to provide basic needs. Results confirmed for others that support of husbands is very important. Mostly, emotional support (belief and empowerment) is exposed; however, getting financial contribution seems to be highly appreciated. More responsibilities which spouses were ready to take over regarding the home responsibilities (that is, childcare) should also not be neglected in the system of support to their entrepreneurial wives. Although, more important for all, women with children appreciated other members and spouses help and assistance to a higher extent. Results showed that majority of women who started their own business feel that in the first year of ope-ration the emotional support of family members was more important.

Keywords: family support, work life balance, women entrepreneurs, Jaffna District, Sri Lanka

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Authors: Fatemeh Rouhi, Hadi Nassiri

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Earning forecast is a key element in economic decisions but there are some situations, such as conflicts of interest in financial reporting, complexity and lack of direct access to information has led to the phenomenon of information asymmetry among individuals within the organization and external investors and creditors that appear. The adverse selection and moral hazard in the investor's decision and allows direct assessment of the difficulties associated with data by users makes. In this regard, the role of trustees in corporate governance disclosure is crystallized that includes controls and procedures to ensure the lack of movement in the interests of the company's management and move in the direction of maximizing shareholder and company value. Therefore, the earning forecast of companies in the capital market and the need to identify factors influencing this study was an attempt to make relationship between moral hazard and corporate governance with earning forecast quality companies operating in the capital market and its impact on Earnings Forecasts quality by the company to be established. Getting inspiring from the theoretical basis of research, two main hypotheses and sub-hypotheses are presented in this study, which have been examined on the basis of available models, and with the use of Panel-Data method, and at the end, the conclusion has been made at the assurance level of 95% according to the meaningfulness of the model and each independent variable. In examining the models, firstly, Chow Test was used to specify either Panel Data method should be used or Pooled method. Following that Housman Test was applied to make use of Random Effects or Fixed Effects. Findings of the study show because most of the variables are positively associated with moral hazard with earnings forecasts quality, with increasing moral hazard, earning forecast quality companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange is increasing. Among the variables related to corporate governance, board independence variables have a significant relationship with earnings forecast accuracy and earnings forecast bias but the relationship between board size and earnings forecast quality is not statistically significant.

Keywords: corporate governance, earning forecast quality, moral hazard, financial sciences

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Authors: Shukran M. Dadayev

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To author's best knowledge, in this paper, the Basic Properties and Research methods of a Fundamental Particle is studied for the first time. That's to say, Fundamental Particle has not been discovered in the Nature yet. Because Fundamental Particle consists of specific Physical, Geometrical and Internal bases. Geometrical and Internal characteristics that are considered significant for the elementary and fundamental particles aren’t basic properties, characteristics or criteria of a Fundamental Particle. Of course, completely new Physical and Visual experimental methods of Quantum mechanics and Behavioral-Physical investigations of Particles are needed to study and discover the Fundamental Particle. These are new Physical, Visual and Behavioral-Physical experimental methods for describing and discovering the Fundamental Particle in the Nature and Microworld. Fundamental Particle consists of the same Energy-Mass-Motion system and a symmetry of Energy-Mass-Motion. Fundamental Particle supplies each of the elementary particles with the same Energy-Mass-Motion system at the same time and regulates each of the particles. Fundamental Particle gives Energy, Mass and Motion to each particles at the same time, each of the Particles consists of acquired Energy-Mass-Motion system and symmetry. Energy, Mass, Motion given by the Fundamental Particle to the particles are Symmetrical Equivalent and they remain in their primary shapes in all cases. Fundamental Particle gives Energy-Mass-Motion system and symmetry consisting of different measures and functions to each of the particles. The Motion given by the Fundamental Particle to the particles is Gravitation, Gravitational Interaction not only gives Motion, but also cause Motion by attracting. All Substances, Fields and Cosmic objects consist of Energy-Mass-Motion. The Field also includes specific Mass. They are always Energetic, Massive and Active. Fundamental Particle establishes the bases of the Nature. Supplement and Regulating of all the particles existing in the Nature belongs to Fundamental Particle.

Keywords: basic properties of a fundamental particle, behavioral-physical and visual methods, energy-mass-motion system and symmetrical equivalence, fundamental particle

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Authors: James Purnama, Riri Fitri Sari

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We investigate the machine learning algorithm selection problem in the term of a depth image based eye gaze estimation, with respect to its essential difficulty in reducing the number of required training samples and duration time of training. Statistics based prediction accuracy are increasingly used to assess and evaluate prediction or estimation in gaze estimation. This article evaluates Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and R-Squared statistical analysis to assess machine learning methods on depth camera data for gaze estimation. There are 4 machines learning methods have been evaluated: Random Forest Regression, Regression Tree, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Linear Regression. The experiment results show that the Random Forest Regression has the lowest RMSE and the highest R-Squared, which means that it is the best among other methods.

Keywords: gaze estimation, gaze tracking, eye tracking, kinect, regression model, orange python

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Authors: Magdalena Orth, Gunnar Gotz

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Background: Domestic accountability, budget transparency and public financial management (PFM) are considered vital components of good governance in developing countries. The aid modality budget support (BS) promotes these governance functions in developing countries. BS engages in political decision-making and provides financial and technical support to poverty reduction strategies of the partner countries. Nevertheless, many donors have withdrawn their support from this modality due to cases of corruption, fraud or human rights violations. This exit from BS is leaving a finance and governance vacuum in the countries. The evaluation team analyzed the consequences of terminating the use of this modality and found particularly negative effects for good governance outcomes. Methodology: The evaluation uses a qualitative (theory-based) approach consisting of a comparative case study design, which is complemented by a process-tracing approach. For the case studies, the team conducted over 100 semi-structured interviews in Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia and used four country-specific, tailor-made budget analysis. In combination with a previous DEval evaluation synthesis on the effects of BS, the team was able to create a before-and-after comparison that yields causal effects. Main Findings: In all four countries domestic accountability and budget transparency declined if other forms of pressure are not replacing BS´s mutual accountability mechanisms. In Malawi a fraud scandal created pressure from the society and from donors so that accountability was improved. In the other countries, these pressure mechanisms were absent so that domestic accountability declined. BS enables donors to actively participate in political processes of the partner country as donors transfer funds into the treasury of the partner country and conduct a high-level political dialogue. The results confirm that the exit from BS created a governance vacuum that, if not compensated through external/internal pressure, leads to a deterioration of good governance. For example, in the case of highly aid dependent Malawi did the possibility of a relaunch of BS provide sufficient incentives to push for governance reforms. Overall the results show that the three good governance areas are negatively affected by the exit from BS. This stands in contrast to positive effects found before the exit. The team concludes that the relationship is causal, because the before-and-after comparison coherently shows that the presence of BS correlates with positive effects and the absence with negative effects. Conclusion: These findings strongly suggest that BS is an effective modality to promote governance and its abolishment is likely to cause governance disruptions. Donors and partner governments should find ways to re-engage in closely coordinated policy-based aid modalities. In addition, a coordinated and carefully managed exit-strategy should be in place before an exit from similar modalities is considered. Particularly a continued framework of mutual accountability and a high-level political dialogue should be aspired to maintain pressure and oversight that is required to achieve good governance.

Keywords: budget support, domestic accountability, public financial management and budget transparency, Sub-Sahara Africa

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Authors: Berrachid Dounia, Bellihi Hassan

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The financial crisis made a barrier in front of small projects that are looking for funding, but in the other hand it has had at least an interesting side effect which is the rise of alternative and increasingly creative forms of financing. The traditional forms of financing has known a recession due to the new difficult situation of economical recession that all parts of the world have known. Having an innovating idea that has an effect on both sides, the economic one and social one is very beneficial for those who wants to get rid of the economical crisis. In this case, entrepreneurs who want to be successful are looking for the means of financing that are going to get their projects to the reality. The financing could be various, whether the entrepreneur can use his own resources, or go to the three “Fs”(Family, friends, and fools),look for Angel Investors, or try for the academic solution like universities and private incubators, but sometimes, entrepreneurs feels uncomfortable about those means and start looking to newer, less traditional forms of financing their projects. In the last few years, people have shown a great interest to the use of internet for many reasons (information, social networking, communication, entertainment, transaction, etc.). The use of internet facilitates relations between people and eases the maintenance of existing relationships ,it increases also the number of exchanges which leads to a “collective creativity”, moreover, internet gives an opportunity to create new tool for mobilizing civil society, which makes the participation in a project company much easier. The new atmosphere of business forces the project leaders to look for new solution of financing that cut out the financial intermediaries. Using platforms in order to finance projects is an alternative that is changing the traditional solutions of financing projects. New creative ways of lending money appears like Peer to Peer (person to person or P2P)lending. This digital directly intermediary got his origins from microcredit principles. Crowdfunding also, like P2P, involves getting individuals to pool their resources to finance a project without a typical financial intermediary. For Lambert and Schwienbacher "Crowdfunding involves an open call, essentially through the Internet, for the provision of financial resources either in the form of donations (without rewards) or in exchange for some form of reward and/or voting rights in order to support initiatives for specific purposes". The idea of this proposal for investors and entrepreneurs is to encourage small contributions from a large number of funders "the crowd" in order to raise money to fund projects. All those conditions made from crowdfunding a useful alternative to project leaders, and especially the ones who are carrying special ideas that need special funds. As mentioned before by Laflamme. S. et Lafortune. S. internet is a tool for mobilizing civil society. In our case, the crowdfunding is the tool that funds social entrepreneurship, in the case of not for profit organizations, it focuses his attention on social problems which could be resolved by mobilizing different resources, creating innovative initiatives, and building new social arrangements which call up the civil society. Social entrepreneurs are mostly the ones who goes onto crowdfunding web site, so they propose the amount which is expected to realize their project and then they receive the funds from crowd funders. Something the crowd funders expect something in return, like a product from the business (a sample from a product (case of a cooperative) or a CD (in the case of films or songs)), but not their money back. Thus, we cannot say that their lands are donations, because a donator did not expect anything back. However, in order to encourage "crowd-funders", rewards motivates people to get interested by projects and made some money from internet. The operation of crowd funding is making all parts satisfied investors, entrepreneurs and also crowdfunding sites owners. This paper aims to give a view of the mechanism of crowdfunding, by clarifying the techniques and its different categories, and social entrepreneurship as a sponsor of social development. Also, it aims to show how this alternative of financing could be beneficial for social entrepreneurs and how it is bringing a solution to fund social projects. The article concludes with a discussion of the contribution of crowdfunding in social entrepreneurship especially in the Moroccan context.

Keywords: crowd-funding, social entrepreneurship, projects funding, financing

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Authors: U.V. Suryawanshi, S.S. Chowhan, U.V Kulkarni

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Accuracy of segmentation methods is of great importance in brain image analysis. Tissue classification in Magnetic Resonance brain images (MRI) is an important issue in the analysis of several brain dementias. This paper portraits performance of segmentation techniques that are used on Brain MRI. A large variety of algorithms for segmentation of Brain MRI has been developed. The objective of this paper is to perform a segmentation process on MR images of the human brain, using Fuzzy c-means (FCM), Kernel based Fuzzy c-means clustering (KFCM), Spatial Fuzzy c-means (SFCM) and Improved Fuzzy c-means (IFCM). The review covers imaging modalities, MRI and methods for noise reduction and segmentation approaches. All methods are applied on MRI brain images which are degraded by salt-pepper noise demonstrate that the IFCM algorithm performs more robust to noise than the standard FCM algorithm. We conclude with a discussion on the trend of future research in brain segmentation and changing norms in IFCM for better results.

Keywords: image segmentation, preprocessing, MRI, FCM, KFCM, SFCM, IFCM

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Authors: Yiea Funk Te, Daniel Mueller, Irena Pletikosa Cvijikj

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Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the economy of many countries. When the overall world economy is considered, SMEs represent 95% of all businesses in the world, accounting for 66% of the total employment. Existing studies show that the current business environment is characterized as highly turbulent and strongly influenced by modern information and communication technologies, thus forcing SMEs to experience more severe challenges in maintaining their existence and expanding their business. To support SMEs at improving their competitiveness, researchers recently turned their focus on applying data mining techniques to build risk and growth prediction models. However, data used to assess risk and growth indicators is primarily obtained via questionnaires, which is very laborious and time-consuming, or is provided by financial institutes, thus highly sensitive to privacy issues. Recently, web mining (WM) has emerged as a new approach towards obtaining valuable insights in the business world. WM enables automatic and large scale collection and analysis of potentially valuable data from various online platforms, including companies’ websites. While WM methods have been frequently studied to anticipate growth of sales volume for e-commerce platforms, their application for assessment of SME risk and growth indicators is still scarce. Considering that a vast proportion of SMEs own a website, WM bears a great potential in revealing valuable information hidden in SME websites, which can further be used to understand SME risk and growth indicators, as well as to enhance current SME risk and growth prediction models. This study aims at developing an automated system to collect business-relevant data from the Web and predict future growth trends of SMEs by means of WM and data mining techniques. The envisioned system should serve as an 'early recognition system' for future growth opportunities. In an initial step, we examine how structured and semi-structured Web data in governmental or SME websites can be used to explain the success of SMEs. WM methods are applied to extract Web data in a form of additional input features for the growth prediction model. The data on SMEs provided by a large Swiss insurance company is used as ground truth data (i.e. growth-labeled data) to train the growth prediction model. Different machine learning classification algorithms such as the Support Vector Machine, Random Forest and Artificial Neural Network are applied and compared, with the goal to optimize the prediction performance. The results are compared to those from previous studies, in order to assess the contribution of growth indicators retrieved from the Web for increasing the predictive power of the model.

Keywords: data mining, SME growth, success factors, web mining

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Authors: Conor Mccartney, Mark Lee

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Background: An essential component in ambulatory breast augmentation surgery is good analgesia. The demographic undergoing this operation is usually fit, low risk with few comorbidities. These patients do not require long-term hospitalization and do not want to spend excessive time in the hospital for financial reasons. Opiate analgesia can have significant side effects such as nausea, vomiting and sedation. Reducing volumes of postoperative opiates allows faster ambulation and discharge from day surgery. We have developed two targeted nerve blocks that can be applied by the operating surgeon in a matter of seconds under direct vision, not requiring imaging. Anecdotally we found that these targeted nerve blocks reduced opiate requirements and allowed accelerated discharge and faster return to normal activities. This was then tested in a prospective randomized, double-blind trial. Methods: 20 patients were randomized into saline (n = 10) or Ropivicaine adrenaline solution (n = 10). The operating surgeon and anesthetist were blinded to the solution. All patients were closely followed up and morphine equivalents were accurately recorded. Follow-up pain scores were recorded using the Overall Benefit of Analgesia pain questionnaire. Findings: The Ropivicaine nerve blocks significantly reduced opiate requirements postoperatively (p<0.05). Pain scores were significantly decreased in the study group (p<0.05). There were no side effects attributable to the nerve blocks. Conclusions: Intraoperative targeted nerve blocks significantly reduce postoperative opiate requirements in breast augmentation surgery. This results in faster recovery and higher patient satisfaction.

Keywords: breast augmentation, nerve block, postoperative recovery, opiate analgesia, inter pectoral block, sub serratus block

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Authors: Arpita Saha, Satish Chandra, Indrajit Ghosh

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Delay implicates the time loss of a traveler while crossing an intersection. Efficiency of traffic operation at signalized intersections is assessed in terms of delay caused to an individual vehicle. Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) method and Webster’s method are the most widely used in India for delay estimation purpose. However, in India, traffic is highly heterogeneous in nature with extremely poor lane discipline. Therefore, to explore best delay estimation technique for Indian condition, a comparison was made. In this study, seven signalized intersections from three different cities where chosen. Data was collected for both during morning and evening peak hours. Only under saturated cycles were considered for this study. Delay was estimated based on the field data. With the help of Simpson’s 1/3 rd rule, delay of under saturated cycles was estimated by measuring the area under the curve of queue length and cycle time. Moreover, the field observed delay was compared with the delay estimated using HCM, Webster, Probabilistic, Taylor’s expansion and Regression methods. The drawbacks of the existing delay estimation methods to be use in Indian heterogeneous traffic conditions were figured out, and best method was proposed. It was observed that direct estimation of delay using field measured data is more accurate than existing conventional and modified methods.

Keywords: delay estimation technique, field delay, heterogeneous traffic, signalised intersection

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Authors: Narayanappa Devakumar, Chengalappa Seenappa

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The field experiments were conducted during Rabi 2013 and summer 2014 at College of Sericulture, Chintamani, Chickaballapur district, Karnataka, India to find out the response of mulberry to different methods, levels of irrigation and mulching. The results showed that leaf yield and water productivity of mulberry were significantly influenced by different methods, levels of irrigation and mulching. Subsurface drip with lower level of irrigation at 0.8 CPE (Cumulative Pan Evaporation) recorded higher leaf yield and water productivity (42857 kg ha-1 yr-1and 364.41 kg hacm-1) than surface drip with higher level of irrigation at 1.0 CPE (38809 kg ha-1 yr-1 and 264.10 kg hacm-1) and micro spray jet (39931 kg ha-1 yr-1 and 271.83 kg hacm-1). Further, subsurface drip recorded minimum water used to produce one kg of leaf and to earn one rupee of profit (283 L and 113 L) compared to surface drip (390 L and 156 L) and micro spray jet (379 L and 152 L) irrigation methods. Mulberry leaf yield increased and water productivity decreased with increased levels of irrigation. However, these results indicated that irrigation of mulberry with subsurface drip increased leaf yield and water productivity by saving 20% of irrigation water than surface drip and micro spray jet irrigation methods in Eastern Dry Zone (EDZ) of Karnataka.

Keywords: cumulative pan evaporation, mulaberry, subsurface drip irrigation, water productivity

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Authors: N. Gopalakrishna Kini, Ranjana Paleppady, Akshata K. Naik

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Password authentication is one of the widely used methods to achieve authentication for legal users of computers and defense against attackers. There are many different ways to authenticate users of a system and there are many password cracking methods also developed. This paper is mainly to propose how best password cracking can be performed on a CPU-GPGPU based system. The main objective of this work is to project how quickly a password can be cracked with some knowledge about the computer security and password cracking if sufficient security is not incorporated to the system.

Keywords: GPGPU, password cracking, secret key, user authentication

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Authors: Frank Hespeler, Giuseppe Loiacono

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We propose measures for systemic risk generated through intra-sectorial interdependencies in the hedge fund sector. These measures are based on variations in the average cross-effects of funds showing significant interdependency between their individual returns and the moments of the sector’s return distribution. The proposed measures display a high ability to identify periods of financial distress, are robust to modifications in the underlying econometric model and are consistent with intuitive interpretation of the results.

Keywords: hedge funds, systemic risk, vector autoregressive model, risk monitoring

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Authors: Mahmoud Lot

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In this article, we will discuss the solution of elliptic optimal control problem. First, by using the nite element method, we obtain the discrete form of the problem. The obtained discrete problem is actually a large scale constrained optimization problem. Solving this optimization problem with traditional methods is difficult and requires a lot of CPU time and memory. But split Bergman method converts the constrained problem to an unconstrained, and hence it saves time and memory requirement. Then we use the split Bregman method for solving this problem, and examples show the speed and accuracy of split Bregman methods for solving these types of problems. We also use the SQP method for solving the examples and compare with the split Bregman method.

Keywords: Split Bregman Method, optimal control with elliptic partial differential equation constraint, finite element method

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Authors: M. Erhan Orhan, Onur Ozdemir

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Expansion of area of operation and increasing diversity of threats forced the military organizations to change in many ways. However, tacit knowledge still is the most fundamental component of organizational knowledge. Since it is human oriented and in warfare human stands at the core of the organization. Therefore, military organizations should find effective ways of systematically utilizing tacit knowledge. In this context, this article suggest some methods for turning tacit knowledge into explicit in military organizations.

Keywords: tacit knowledge, military, knowledge management, warfare, technology

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Authors: L. Freeborn

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This paper discusses the application of complex dynamic system theory (DST) to the study of individual differences in second language development. This transdisciplinary framework allows researchers to view the trajectory of language development as a dynamic, non-linear process. A DST approach views language as multi-componential, consisting of multiple complex systems and nested layers. These multiple components and systems continuously interact and influence each other at both the macro- and micro-level. Dynamic systems theory aims to explain and describe the development of the language system, rather than make predictions about its trajectory. Such a holistic and ecological approach to second language development allows researchers to include various research methods from neurological, cognitive, and social perspectives. A DST perspective would involve in-depth analyses as well as mixed methods research. To illustrate, a neurobiological approach to second language development could include non-invasive neuroimaging techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate areas of brain activation during language-related tasks. A cognitive framework would further include behavioural research methods to assess the influence of intelligence and personality traits, as well as individual differences in foreign language aptitude, such as phonetic coding ability and working memory capacity. Exploring second language development from a DST approach would also benefit from including perspectives from the field of applied linguistics, regarding the teaching context, second language input, and the role of affective factors such as motivation. In this way, applying mixed research methods from neurobiological, cognitive, and social approaches would enable researchers to have a more holistic view of the dynamic and complex processes of second language development.

Keywords: dynamic systems theory, mixed methods, research design, second language development

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Authors: Roham Rafiee, Behzad Mazhari

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Composite structures, having incredible properties, have gained considerable popularity in the last few decades. Among all types, polymer matrix composites are being used extensively due to their unique characteristics including low weight, convenient fabrication process and low cost. Having polymer as matrix, these type of composites show different creep behavior when compared to metals and even other types of composites since most polymers undergo creep even in room temperature. One of the most challenging topics in creep is to introduce new techniques for predicting long term creep behavior of materials. Depending on the material which is being studied the appropriate method would be different. Methods already proposed for predicting long term creep behavior of polymer matrix composites can be divided into five categories: (1) Analytical Modeling, (2) Empirical Modeling, (3) Superposition Based Modeling (Semi-empirical), (4) Rheological Modeling, (5) Finite Element Modeling. Each of these methods has individual characteristics. Studies have shown that none of the mentioned methods can predict long term creep behavior of all PMC composites in all circumstances (loading, temperature, etc.) but each of them has its own priority in different situations. The reason to this issue can be found in theoretical basis of these methods. In this study after a brief review over the background theory of each method, they are compared in terms of their applicability in predicting long-term behavior of composite structures. Finally, the explained materials are observed through some experimental studies executed by other researchers.

Keywords: creep, comparative study, modeling, composite materials

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Authors: Omran M. Kenshel, Alan J. O'Connor

Abstract:

Estimating the service life of Reinforced Concrete (RC) bridge structures located in corrosive marine environments of a great importance to their owners/engineers. Traditionally, bridge owners/engineers relied more on subjective engineering judgment, e.g. visual inspection, in their estimation approach. However, because financial resources are often limited, rational calculation methods of estimation are needed to aid in making reliable and more accurate predictions for the service life of RC structures. This is in order to direct funds to bridges found to be the most critical. Criticality of the structure can be considered either form the Structural Capacity (i.e. Ultimate Limit State) or from Serviceability viewpoint whichever is adopted. This paper considers the service life of the structure only from the Structural Capacity viewpoint. Considering the great variability associated with the parameters involved in the estimation process, the probabilistic approach is most suited. The probabilistic modelling adopted here used Monte Carlo simulation technique to estimate the Reliability (i.e. Probability of Failure) of the structure under consideration. In this paper the authors used their own experimental data for the Correlation Length (CL) for the most important deterioration parameters. The CL is a parameter of the Correlation Function (CF) by which the spatial fluctuation of a certain deterioration parameter is described. The CL data used here were produced by analyzing 45 chloride profiles obtained from a 30 years old RC bridge located in a marine environment. The service life of the structure were predicted in terms of the load carrying capacity of an RC bridge beam girder. The analysis showed that the influence of SV is only evident if the reliability of the structure is governed by the Flexure failure rather than by the Shear failure.

Keywords: Chloride-induced corrosion, Monte-Carlo simulation, reinforced concrete, spatial variability

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Authors: Mary Josephine

Abstract:

Waste of certain process can be the input source of other sectors in order to reduce environmental pollution. Today there are more and more solid wastes are generated, but only very small amount of those are recycled. So, the threatening of environmental pressure to public health is very serious. The methods considered for the treatment of solid waste are biogas tanks or processing to make animal feed and fertilizer, however, they did not perform well. An alternative approach is growing mushrooms on waste residues. This is regarded as an environmental friendly solution with potential economic benefit. The substrate producers do their best to produce quality substrate at low cost. Apart from other methods, this can be achieved by employing biologically degradable wastes used as the resource material component of the substrate. Mushroom growing is a significant tool for the restoration, replenishment and remediation of Earth’s overburdened ecosphere. One of the rational methods of waste utilization involves locally available wastes. The present study aims to find out the yield of mushroom grown on locally available waste for free and to conserve our environment by recycling wastes.

Keywords: biodegradable, environment, mushroom, remediation

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Authors: Sofia Meacham

Abstract:

In this abstract paper, the Domain-Specific Languages (DSL) evaluation will be presented based on existing literature and years of experience developing DSLs for several domains. The domains we worked on ranged from AI, business applications, and finances/accounting to health. In general, DSLs have been utilised in many domains to provide tailored and efficient solutions to address specific problems. Although they are a reputable method among highly technical circles and have also been used by non-technical experts with success, according to our knowledge, there isn’t a commonly accepted method for evaluating them. There are some methods that define criteria that are adaptations from the general software engineering quality criteria. Other literature focuses on the DSL usability aspect of evaluation and applies methods such as Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and goal modeling. All these approaches are either hard to introduce, such as the goal modeling, or seem to ignore the domain-specific focus of the DSLs. From our experience, the DSLs have domain-specificity in their core, and consequently, the methods to evaluate them should also include domain-specific criteria in their core. The domain-specific criteria would require synergy between the domain experts and the DSL developers in the same way that DSLs cannot be developed without domain-experts involvement. Methods from agile and other software engineering practices, such as co-creation workshops, should be further emphasised and explored to facilitate this direction. Concluding, our latest experience and plans for DSLs evaluation will be presented and open for discussion.

Keywords: domain-specific languages, DSL evaluation, DSL usability, DSL quality metrics

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Authors: Hailu Kebede Bekele

Abstract:

Construction delays are suitable where project events occur at a certain time expected due to causes related to the client, consultant, and contractor. Delay is the major cause of the cost overrun that leads to the poor efficiency of the project. The cost difference between completion and the originally estimated is known as cost overrun. The common ways of cost overruns are not simple issues that can be neglected, but more attention should be given to prevent the organization from being devastated to be failed, and financial expenses to be extended. The reasons that may raised in different studies show that the problem may arise in construction projects due to errors in budgeting, lack of favorable weather conditions, inefficient machinery, and the availability of extravagance. The study is focused on the pace of mega projects that can have a significant change in the cost overrun calculation.15 mega projects are identified to study the problem of the cost overrun in the site. The contractor, consultant, and client are the principal stakeholders in the mega projects. 20 people from each sector were selected to participate in the investigation of the current mega construction project. The main objective of the study on the construction cost overrun is to prioritize the major causes of the cost overrun problem. The methodology that was employed in the construction cost overrun is the qualitative methodology that mostly rates the causes of construction project cost overrun. Interviews, open-ended and closed-ended questions group discussions, and rating qualitative methods are the best methodologies to study construction projects overrun. The result shows that design mistakes, lack of labor, payment delay, old equipment and scheduling, weather conditions, lack of skilled labor, payment delays, transportation, inflation, and order variations, market price fluctuation, and people's thoughts and philosophies, the prior cause of the cost overrun that fail the project performance. The institute shall follow the scheduled activities to bring a positive forward in the project life.

Keywords: cost overrun, delay, mega projects, design

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Authors: Rolandas Strazdas, Jurate Cerneviciute

Abstract:

Creative industries are defined as those industries which produce tangible or intangible artistic and creative output and have a potential for income generation by exploitingcultural assets and producing knowledge-based goods and services (both traditional and contemporary). With the emergence of an entire sector of creative industriestriggered by the development of creative products managingcreativity-based business processes becomes a critical issue. Diverse managerial practices and models on effective management of creativity have beenexamined in scholarly literature. Even thoughthese studies suggest how creativity in organisations can be nourished, they do not sufficiently relate the proposed practices to the underlying business processes. The article analyses a range of business process improvement methods such as PDCA, DMAIC, DMADV and TOC. The strengths and weaknesses of these methods aimed to improvethe innovation development process are identified. Based on the analysis of the existing improvement methods, a continuous improvement model was developed and presented in the article.

Keywords: continuous improvement, creative industries, improvement model, process mapping

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Authors: Nida Iftikhar, Jamaluddin Thaheem, Bilal Iftikhar

Abstract:

In the construction industry, adequate and effective decision-making can mean the difference between success and failure. Bidding is the most important element of the construction business since it is a mean by which contractors obtain work. This is probably the only option for any contractor firm to sustain in the market and achieve its objective of earning the profits by winning tenders. The capability to select most appropriate ventures not only defines the success and wellbeing of contractor firms but also their survival and sustainability in the industry. The construction practitioners are usually on their own when it comes to deciding on bidding for a project or not. Usually, experience-based solutions are offered where a lot of subjectivity is involved. This research has been opted considering the local construction industry of Pakistan in order to examine the critical success factors from contractors’ perspective while making bidding decisions, listing and evaluating critical factors in order of their importance, categorization of these factors into decision support & decision oppose groups and to develop a framework to help contractors in the decision-making process. Literature review, questionnaires, and structured interviews are used for identification and quantification of factors affecting bid/no bid decision-making. Statistical methods of ranking analysis and analytical hierarchy process of multi-criteria decision-making method are used for analysis. It is found that profitability, need for work and financial health of client are the most decisive factors in bid/no bid decision-making while project size, project type, fulfilling the tender conditions imposed by the client and relationship, identity & reputation of the client are least impact factors in bid/no bid decision-making. Further, to verify the developed framework, case studies have been conducted to evaluate the bid/no bid decision-making in building procurement. This is the first of its nature study in the context of the local construction industry and recommends using a holistic decision-making framework for such business-critical deliberations.

Keywords: bidding, bid decision-making, construction procurement, contractor

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Authors: Reza Dinarvand, Mahdi Sadeghian, Somaye Sadeghian

Abstract:

Prediction of the ultimate bearing capacity of piles (Qu) is one of the basic issues in geotechnical engineering. So far, several methods have been used to estimate Qu, including the recently developed artificial intelligence methods. In recent years, optimization algorithms have been used to minimize artificial network errors, such as colony algorithms, genetic algorithms, imperialist competitive algorithms, and so on. In the present research, artificial neural networks based on colonial competition algorithm (ANN-ICA) were used, and their results were compared with other methods. The results of laboratory tests of short piles in clayey soils with parameters such as pile diameter, pile buried length, eccentricity of load and undrained shear resistance of soil were used for modeling and evaluation. The results showed that ICA-based artificial neural networks predicted lateral bearing capacity of short piles with a correlation coefficient of 0.9865 for training data and 0.975 for test data. Furthermore, the results of the model indicated the superiority of ICA-based artificial neural networks compared to back-propagation artificial neural networks as well as the Broms and Hansen methods.

Keywords: artificial neural network, clayey soil, imperialist competition algorithm, lateral bearing capacity, short pile

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Authors: Amir Sattari

Abstract:

For newly produced houses and energy renovations, an energy calculation needs to be conducted. This is done to verify whether the energy consumption criteria of the house -to reach the energy targets by 2020 and 2050- are in-line with the norms. The main purpose of this study is to confirm whether easy to use energy calculation software or hand calculations used by small companies or individuals give logical results compared to advanced energy simulation program used by researchers or bigger companies. There are different methods for calculating energy consumption. In this paper, two energy calculation programs are used and the relation of energy consumption with solar radiation is compared. A hand calculation is also done to validate whether the hand calculations are still reasonable. The two computer programs which have been used are TMF Energi (the easy energy calculation variant used by small companies or individuals) and IDA ICE - Indoor Climate and Energy (the advanced energy simulation program used by researchers or larger companies). The calculations are done for a standard house from the Swedish house supplier Fiskarhedenvillan. The method is based on having the same conditions and inputs in the different calculation forms so that the results can be compared and verified. The house has been faced differently to see how the orientation affects energy consumption in different methods. The results for the simulations are close to each other and the hand calculation differs from the computer programs by only 5%. Even if solar factors differ due to the orientation of the house, energy calculation results from different computer programs and even hand calculation methods are in line with each other.

Keywords: energy calculation, energy consumption, energy simulation, IDA ICE, TMF energi

Procedia PDF Downloads 115