Search results for: standard dimension

Authors: M. Sasajima, T. Yamaguchi, Y. Hu, Y. Koike

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In this paper, we discuss the propagation of sound in the narrow pathways of an occluded-ear simulator typically used for the measurement of insert-type earphones. The simulator has a standardized frequency response conforming to the international standard (IEC60318-4). In narrow pathways, the speed and phase of sound waves are modified by viscous air damping. In our previous paper, we proposed a new finite element method (FEM) to consider the effects of air viscosity in this type of audio equipment. In this study, we will compare the results from the ear simulator FEM model, and those from a three dimensional human ear canal FEM model made from computed tomography images, with the measured frequency response data from the ear canals of 18 people.

Keywords: ear simulator, FEM, viscosity, human ear canal

Procedia PDF Downloads 387

Authors: Lorenzo Buti

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This paper investigates the nature of democratic action through a critical reading of Claude Lefort’s notion of the democratic ‘regime’. Lefort provides one of the most innovative accounts of the essential features of a democratic regime. According to him, democracy is a political regime that acknowledges the indeterminacy of a society and stages it as a contestation between competing political actors. As such, democracy provides the symbolic markers of society’s openness towards the future. However, despite their democratic features, the recent decades in late capitalist societies attest to a sense of the future becoming fixed and predetermined. This suggests that Lefort’s conception of democracy harbours a misunderstanding of the character and experience of democratic action. This paper examines this underlying tension in Lefort’s work. It claims that Lefort underestimates how a democratic regime, next to its symbolic function, also takes a materially constituted form with its particular dynamics of power relations. Lefort’s systematic dismissal of this material dimension for democratic action can lead to the contemporary paradoxical situation where democracy’s symbolic markers are upheld (free elections, public debate, dynamic between government and opposition in parliament,…) but the room for political decision-making is constrained due to a myriad of material constraints (e.g., market pressures, institutional inertias). The paper draws out the implications for the notion of democratic action. Contra Lefort, it argues that democratic action necessarily targets the material conditions that impede the capacity for decision-making on the basis of equality and liberty. This analysis shapes our understanding of democratic action in two ways. First, democratic action takes an asymmetrical, insurgent form, as a contestation of material power relations from below. Second, it reveals an ambivalent position vis-à-vis the political regime: democratic action is symbolically made possible by the democratic dispositive, but it contests the constituted form that the democratic regime takes.

Keywords: Claude Lefort, democratic action, material constitution, political regime

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Authors: O. I. Nkwonta, B. Dzwairo, J. Adeyemo, A. Jaiyola, N. Sawyerr, F. Otieno

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The effective management of water resources is of great importance to ensure the supply of water resources to support changing water requirements over a selected planning horizon and in a sustainable and cost-effective way. Essentially, the purpose of the water resources planning process is to balance the available water resources in a system with the water requirements and losses to which the system is subjected. In such situations, Water resources yield and planning model can be used to solve those difficulties. It has an advantage over other models by managing model runs, developing a representative system network, modelling incremental sub-catchments, creating a variety of standard system features, special modelling features, and run result output options.

Keywords: complex, water resources, planning, cost effective and management

Procedia PDF Downloads 552

Authors: JoonHo Lee, KyoJin An, JunSu Kim, Young-Chul Park

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In this study, the fluid flow characteristics and performance numerical study through CFD model of the Non-split quick coupling for flow control in hydraulic system equipment for the aerospace business group focused to predict. In this study, we considered turbulence models for the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics for the CFD model of the Non-split Quick Coupling for aerospace business. In addition to this, the adequacy of the CFD model were verified by comparing with standard value. Based on this analysis, accurate the fluid flow characteristics can be predicted. It is, therefore, the design of the fluid flow characteristic contribute the reliability for the Quick Coupling which is required in industries on the basis of research results.

Keywords: CFD, FEM, quick coupling, turbulence

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Authors: Aisling Davies, Ciara Greene

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Over the past decade the phenomenon of mind-wandering in cognitive tasks has attracted widespread scientific attention. Research indicates that mind-wandering occurrences can be detected through behavioural responses in the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) and several studies have attributed a specific pattern of responding around an error in this task to an observable effect of a mind-wandering state. SART behavioural responses are also widely accepted as indices of sustained attention and of general attention lapses. However, evidence suggests that these same patterns of responding may be attributable to other factors associated with more focused states and that it may also be possible to distinguish the two states within the same task. To use behavioural responses in the SART to study mind-wandering, it is essential to establish both the SART parameters that would increase the likelihood of errors due to mind-wandering, and exactly what type of responses are indicative of mind-wandering, neither of which have yet been determined. The aims of this study were to compare different versions of the SART to establish which task would induce the most mind-wandering episodes and to determine whether mind-wandering related errors can be distinguished from errors during periods of focus, by behavioural responses in the SART. To achieve these objectives, 25 Participants completed four modified versions of the SART that differed from the classic paradigm in several ways so to capture more instances of mind-wandering. The duration that trials were presented for was increased proportionately across each of the four versions of the task; Standard, Medium Slow, Slow, and Very Slow and participants intermittently responded to thought probes assessing their level of focus and degree of mind-wandering throughout. Error rates, reaction times and variability in reaction times decreased in proportion to the decrease in trial duration rate and the proportion of mind-wandering related errors increased, until the Very Slow condition where the extra decrease in duration no longer had an effect. Distinct reaction time patterns around an error, dependent on level of focus (high/low) and level of mind-wandering (high/low) were also observed indicating four separate attention states occurring within the SART. This study establishes the optimal duration of trial presentation for inducing mind-wandering in the SART, provides evidence supporting the idea that different attention states can be observed within the SART and highlights the importance of addressing other factors contributing to behavioural responses when studying mind-wandering during this task. A notable finding in relation to the standard SART, was that while more errors were observed in this version of the task, most of these errors were during periods of focus, raising significant questions about our current understanding of mind-wandering and associated failures of attention.

Keywords: attention, mind-wandering, trial duration rate, Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART)

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Authors: Runlin Liu, Shilong Li

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China is a mountainous country, with two-thirds of its territory covered by plateaus, hills, and mountains, and nearly half of the cities and towns are distributed in mountainous areas. Compared with the environmental constraints in the development path of cities and towns in the plains, there are heterogeneities in aspects such as spatial characteristics, growth mode, and ecological protection and so on for mountain village and townlets, and the development path of mountain village and townlets has a bidirectional relationship between mountain space and economic growth. Based on classical growth theory, this article explores the two-dimensional coupling relation between space and economy in mountain village and townlets under background of rural rejuvenation. GIS technology is adopted in the study to analyze spatial trends and patterns, economical spatial differentiation characteristics of village and townlets. This powerful tool can also help differentiate and analyze limiting factors and assessment systems in the economic growth of village and townlets under spatial dimension of mountainous space. To make the research more specific, this article selects mountain village and townlets in Southwest China as the object of study; this provides good cases for analyzing parallel coupling mechanism of the duality structure system between economic growth and spatial expansion and discussing the path selection of spatial economic growth of mountain village and towns with multiple constraints. The research results can provide quantitative references for the spatial and economic development paths of mountain villages and towns, which is helpful in realizing efficient and high-quality development mode with equal emphasis on spatial and economic benefits for these type of towns.

Keywords: coupling mechanism, geographic information technology, mountainous town, synergetic development, spatial economy

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Authors: Oseyemi Omowunmi Olubomehin, Olufemi Michael Denton

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Diabetes mellitus is a disease that is related to the digestion of carbohydrates, proteins and fats and how this affects the blood glucose levels. Various synthetic drugs employed in the management of the disease work through different mechanisms. Keeping postprandial blood glucose levels within acceptable range is a major factor in the management of type 2 diabetes and its complications. Thus, the inhibition of carbohydrate-hydrolyzing enzymes such as α-amylase is an important strategy in lowering postprandial blood glucose levels, but synthetic inhibitors have undesirable side effects like flatulence, diarrhea, gastrointestinal disorders to mention a few. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and explore the α-amylase inhibitors from plants due to their availability, safety, and low costs. In the present study, extracts from the leaves of Rauvolfia vomitoria and seeds of Picralima nitida which are used in the Nigeria traditional system of medicine to treat diabetes were tested for their α-amylase inhibitory effect. The powdered plant samples were subjected to phytochemical screening using standard procedures. The leaves and seeds macerated successively using n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol resulted in the crude extracts which at different concentrations (0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/mL) alongside the standard drug acarbose, were subjected to α-amylase inhibitory assay using the Benfield and Miller methods, with slight modification. Statistical analysis was done using ANOVA, SPSS version 2.0. The phytochemical screening results of the leaves of Rauvolfia vomitoria and the seeds of Picralima nitida showed the presence of alkaloids, tannins, saponins and cardiac glycosides while in addition Rauvolfia vomitoria had phenols and Picralima nitida had terpenoids. The α-amylase assay results revealed that at 1 mg/mL the methanol, hexane, and ethyl acetate extracts of the leaves of Rauvolfia vomitoria gave (15.74, 23.13 and 26.36 %) α-amylase inhibitions respectively, the seeds of Picralima nitida gave (15.50, 30.68, 36.72 %) inhibitions which were not significantly different from the control at p < 0.05, while acarbose gave a significant 56 % inhibition at p < 0.05. The presence of alkaloids, phenols, tannins, steroids, saponins, cardiac glycosides and terpenoids in these plants are responsible for the observed anti-diabetic activity. However, the low percentages of α-amylase inhibition by these plant samples shows that α-amylase inhibition is not the major way by which both plants exhibit their anti-diabetic effect.

Keywords: alpha-amylase, Picralima nitida, postprandial hyperglycemia, Rauvolfia vomitoria

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Authors: Shimaa Mahmoud Ali Ahmed, Boshra Tawfek El-Shreef

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Sustainable development has become an important concern worldwide, and climate change has become a global threat. Some of these affect how we approach environmental issues — and how we should approach them. Environmental aspects have an important impact on the built environment, that’s why knowledge about Green Building and Green Construction become a vital dimension of urban sustainable development to face the challenges of climate change. There are several levels of green buildings, from energy-efficient lighting to 100% eco-friendly construction; the concept of green buildings in Egypt is still a rare occurrence, with the concept being relatively new to the market. There are several projects on the ground that currently employing sustainable and green solutions to some extent, some of them achieve a limit of success and others fail to employ the new solutions. The market and the cost as well, are great factors. From the last century, green architecture and environmental sustainability become a famous trend that all the researchers like to follow. Nowadays, the trend towards green has shifted to housing and real estate projects. While the environmental aspects are the key to achieve green buildings, the economic benefits, and the market forces are considered as big challenges. The paper assumes that some appropriate environmental treatments could be added to the applied prototype of the governmental social housing projects in Egypt to achieve better environmental solutions. The aim of the research is to get housing projects in Egypt closer to the track of sustainable and green buildings, through making a local future proposal to be integrated into the current policies. The proposed model is based upon adding some appropriate, cheap environmental modifications to the prototype of the Ministry of Housing, Infrastructure, and New Urban Communities. The research is based on an analytical, comparative analytical, and inductive approach to study and analyze the housing projects in Egypt and the possibilities of integrating green techniques into it.

Keywords: green buildings, urban sustainability, housing projects, sustainable development goals, Egypt 2030

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Authors: Babulayi B. Wilson

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Unsatisfactory performance of construction projects in both the industrialised and developing countries indicate that there could be several defects in construction projects phases. Notwithstanding the fact that some project defects are often conceived at the initiation phase of construction projects, insufficient knowledge of contract procedures has been identified as one of the major sources of construction disputes. Contract procedures are a set of rules that outlines the primary obligations and liabilities of parties involved in the implementation of a construction project. Engineering professional bodies often codify contract procedures into standard forms of contract such as the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE, UK) and Association of Consulting Engineers (ACE, UK) and keep them under constant review by updating any clause to reflect any change in case law or relevant piece of legislation. Even so, it is the responsibility of a professional body or conditions of contract draftsperson to introduce contract-specific clauses that may be necessary for business efficacy but not covered in the chosen standard conditions of contract. In Botswana, the use of clients’ drafted and/or un-adapted for environment of use international forms of contract in conjunction with client-drafted pricing schedules is common. The product of the latter often impact negatively upon contractors’ claims and payments, in that, tender rates and prices can only be deemed to be sufficient if the chosen conditions of contract compliment the pricing schedule (use of standardised procurement documents). In addition, client drafted and the use of borrowed forms of contract such as FIDIC often conflict with domicile law resulting in costly disputes on the part of the client. It is upon the preceding text that the object of the research is to measure the level of knowledge of contract procedures amongst key stakeholders in the Botswana construction industry by requesting a representative sample from the industry and academia to respond to tutorial questions prepared from two commonly used forms of contract for civil works, that is, FIDIC (International Form of Contract) and ICE (UK). The questions were prepared under the following captions: (a) preparation of tender documents (b) obligations of the parties (c) contract administration; and (d) claims, variations, and valuation of variations. After ascertaining that the level of knowledge of contract procedures is insufficient among most practitioners in the Botswana construction industry, major procurement entities, and engineering institutions of learning; a guide to drafting a condition of a construction contract was developed and then validated through seminars and workshops. In the present, the effectiveness of the guide is not yet measured but feedback from seminars and workshops conducted indicates an appreciation of the guide by the majority of major construction industry stakeholders.

Keywords: contract procedures, conditions of contract, professional practice, construction law, forms of contract

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Authors: Abdolrasoul Daneshjoo

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Soccer is a game which draws more attention in different countries especially in Brazil. Kicking among different skills in soccer and soccer players is an excellent role for the success and preference of a team. The way of point gaining in this game is passing the ball over the goal lines which are gained by shoot skill in attack time and or during the penalty kicks.Regarding the above assumption, identifying the effective factors in instep kicking in different distances shoot with maximum force and high accuracy or pass and penalty kick, may assist the coaches and players in raising qualitative level of performing the skill.The aim of the present study was to study of a few kinematical parameters in instep kicking from 5 and 7 meter distance among the male and female elite soccer players.24 right dominant lower limb subjects (12 males and 12 females) among Tehran elite soccer players with average and the standard deviation (22.5 ± 1.5) & (22.08± 1.31) years, height of (179.5 ± 5.81) & (164.3 ± 4.09) cm, weight of (69.66 ± 4.09) & (53.16 ± 3.51) kg, %BMI (21.06 ± .731) & (19.67 ± .709), having playing history of (4 ± .73) & (3.08 ± .66) years respectively participated in this study. They had at least two years of continuous playing experience in Tehran soccer league.For sampling player's kick; Kinemetrix Motion analysis with three cameras with 1000 Hz was used. Five reflective markers were placed laterally on the kicking leg over anatomical points (the iliac crest, major trochanter, lateral epicondyle of femur, lateral malleolus, and lateral aspect of distal head of the fifth metatarsus). Instep kick was filmed, with one step approach and 30 to 45 degrees angle from stationary ball. Three kicks were filmed, one kick selected for further analyses. Using Kinemetrix 3D motion analysis software, the position of the markers was analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the mean and standard deviation, while the analysis of variance, and independent t-test (P < 0.05) were used to compare the kinematic parameters between two genders.Among the evaluated parameters, the knee acceleration, the thigh angular velocity, the angle of knee proportionately showed significant relationship with consequence of kick. While company performance on 5m in 2 genders, significant differences were observed in internal – external displacement of toe, ankle, hip and the velocity of toe, ankle and the acceleration of toe and the angular velocity of pelvic, thigh and before time contact . Significant differences showed the internal – external displacement of toe, the ankle, the knee and the hip, the iliac crest and the velocity of toe, the ankle and acceleration of ankle and angular velocity of the pelvic and the knee.

Keywords: biomechanics, kinematics, instep kicking, soccer

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Authors: Nareshkumar Harale, B. B. Meshram

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The continued exponential growth of successful cyber intrusions against today’s businesses has made it abundantly clear that traditional perimeter security measures are no longer adequate and effective. We evolved the network trust architecture from trust-untrust to Zero-Trust, With Zero Trust, essential security capabilities are deployed in a way that provides policy enforcement and protection for all users, devices, applications, data resources, and the communications traffic between them, regardless of their location. Information exchange over the Internet, in spite of inclusion of advanced security controls, is always under innovative, inventive and prone to cyberattacks. TCP/IP protocol stack, the adapted standard for communication over network, suffers from inherent design vulnerabilities such as communication and session management protocols, routing protocols and security protocols are the major cause of major attacks. With the explosion of cyber security threats, such as viruses, worms, rootkits, malwares, Denial of Service attacks, accomplishing efficient and effective intrusion detection and prevention is become crucial and challenging too. In this paper, we propose a design and analysis model for next generation network intrusion detection and protection system as part of layered security strategy. The proposed system design provides intrusion detection for wide range of attacks with layered architecture and framework. The proposed network intrusion classification framework deals with cyberattacks on standard TCP/IP protocol, routing protocols and security protocols. It thereby forms the basis for detection of attack classes and applies signature based matching for known cyberattacks and data mining based machine learning approaches for unknown cyberattacks. Our proposed implemented software can effectively detect attacks even when malicious connections are hidden within normal events. The unsupervised learning algorithm applied to network audit data trails results in unknown intrusion detection. Association rule mining algorithms generate new rules from collected audit trail data resulting in increased intrusion prevention though integrated firewall systems. Intrusion response mechanisms can be initiated in real-time thereby minimizing the impact of network intrusions. Finally, we have shown that our approach can be validated and how the analysis results can be used for detecting and protection from the new network anomalies.

Keywords: network intrusion detection, network intrusion prevention, association rule mining, system analysis and design

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Authors: Dogan Cetin, Burak Turk, Mahmut Candan

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Landslides cause remarkable damage and loss of human life every year around the world. They may be made more likely by factors such as earthquakes, heavy precipitation, and incorrect construction activities near or on slopes. The stadium of Karabük University is located at the bottom of a very high slope. After construction of the stadium, severe deformations were observed on the social activity area surrounding the stadium. Some inclinometers were placed behind the stadium to detect the possible landslide activity. According to measurements of the inclinometers, irregular soil movements were detected at depths between 20 m and 45 m. Also, significant heaves and settlements were observed behind the stadium walls located at the toe of the slope. The heaves indicate that the stadium walls were under threat of a significant landslide. After inclinometer readings and field observations, the potential failure geometry was estimated. The protection system was designed based on numerous numerical analysis performed by 2-D Plaxis software. After the design was completed, protective geotechnical work was started. Before the geotechnical work began, new inclinometers were installed to monitor earth movement during the work and afterward. The total horizontal length of the possible failure surface is 220 m. Geotechnical work included two-row-pile construction and three-row-pile construction on the slope. The bored piles were 120 cm in diameter for two-row-pile construction, and 150 cm in diameter for three-row-pile construction. Pile length is 31.30 m for two-row-pile construction and 31.40 m for three-row-pile construction. The distance between two-row-pile and three-row-pile construction is 60 m. With these bored piles, the landslide was divided into three parts. In this way, the earth's pressure was reduced. After a number of inclinometer readings, it was seen that deformation continued during the work, but after the work was done, the movement reversed, and total deformation stayed in mm dimension. It can be said that the protection work eliminated the possible landslide.

Keywords: landslide, landslide protection, inclinometer measurement, bored piles

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Authors: Abdelghafour Galadi

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In this paper, accurate power MOSFET models including quasi-saturation effect are presented. These models have no internal node voltages determined by the circuit simulator and use one JFET or one depletion mode MOSFET transistors controlled by an “effective” gate voltage taking into account the quasi-saturation effect. The proposed models achieve accurate simulation results with an average error percentage less than 9%, which is an improvement of 21 percentage points compared to the commonly used standard power MOSFET model. In addition, the models can be integrated in any available commercial circuit simulators by using their analytical equations. A description of the models will be provided along with the parameter extraction procedure.

Keywords: power MOSFET, drift layer, quasi-saturation effect, SPICE model

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: J. O. Ezekwesili-Ofili, L. I. Okorafor, S. C. Nsofor

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Diabetes mellitus is a carbohydrate metabolism disorder due to an absolute or relative deficiency of insulin secretion, action or both. Many known hypoglycaemic drugs are known to produce serious side effects. However, the search for safer and more effective agents has shifted to plant products, including foods and spices. One of such is the rhizome of Curcuma longa or turmeric, which is a spice with high medicinal value. A drawback in the use of C. longa is the poor bioavailability of curcumin, the active ingredient. It has been reported that piperine, an alkaloid present in peppers increases the bioavailability of curcumin. This work therefore investigated the hypoglycaemic and antioxidant effects of ethanolic extract of C. longa rhizomes, alone and with two pepper adjuvants in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. A total of 48 rats were divided into 6 groups of 8 rats each. Groups A–E were induced with diabetes using 150mg/kg body weight of alloxan monohydrate, while group F was normoglycaemic: Group A: Diabetic; fed with 400 mg/g body weight of turmeric extract; group B: Diabetic, fed with 400 mg/kg b. w. and 200mg/kg b. w of ethanolic extract of seeds of Piper guinensee; group C: Diabetic, fed with 400 mg/kg b. w. and 200 mg /kg b. w. of ethanolic extract of seeds of Capsicum annum var cameroun, group D: Diabetic, treated with standard drug, glibenclamide (0.3mg/kg body weight), group E: Diabetic; no treatment i.e. Positive control and group F: non diabetic, no treatment i.e. Negative control. Blood glucose levels were monitored for 14 days using a glucometer. The levels of the antioxidant enzymes; glutathione peroxidase, catalase and superoxide dismutase were also assayed in serum. The ethanolic extracts of C. longa rhizomes at the dose given (400 mg/kg b. w) significantly reduced the blood glucose levels of the diabetic rats (p<0.05) comparable to the standard drug. Co administration of extract of the peppers did not significantly increase the efficiency of the extract, although C. annum var cameroun showed greater effect, though not significantly. The antioxidant effect of the extract was significant in diabetic rats. The use of piperine-containing peppers enhanced the antioxidant effect. Phytochemical analyses of the ethanolic extract of C. longa showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, saponins, tannins, glycosides, and terpenoids. These results suggest that the ethanolic extract of C. longa had antidiabetic with antioxidant effects and could thus be of benefit in the treatment and management of diabetes as well as ameliorate pro-oxidant effects that may lead to diabetic complications. However, while the addition of piperine did not affect the antidiabetic effect of C. longa, the antioxidant effect was greatly enhanced.

Keywords: antioxidant, Curcuma longa rhizome, hypoglycaemic, pepper adjuvants, piperine

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Authors: Wah Wah Min

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The relative abundance and diversities of gastropods and crabs were assessed for mangrove areas of Ko Libong, Kantang district, Trang, Thailand in June 2022. Two sample sites (I and II) were studied. The site I was replanted under ecotourism, whereas site II represented the protected natural restored mangroves. This study is aimed to assess faunal diversity and how it could become re-established and resemble to natural restored mangroves. There was one sample plot at each study site with the dimension (10m x 25m) in study site I and (20m x 30m) in site II. The sample was randomly taken from each plot by using a quadrate measuring at (1 m2) in site I and (3m2) in site II; there were four quadrates in total of each site. The species richness (S), Shannon Index (H’) and Evenness Index (J’), vegetative measurements and physico-chemical parameters were calculated for each site. Seventeen gastropod species belonged to 11 families and six crab species under two families, which were collected in both study sites. Overall, in gastropod species, the highest relative abundance of Nerita planospira exhibited (53.45%, category C) with lower population density (1.61 individuals/m2), whichwas observed in study site II and for crab species, Parasesarma plicatum (83.33%, category C) with lower population density (0.33 individuals/m2). The diversity indices of gastropod species at the study site I was calculated higher indicating by (S= 12, H’= 2.27, J’ and SDI=0.91) compared to study site II (S= 7, H’= 1.22, J’ and SDI=0.63, 0.62). For the crabs, (S= 4, H’=1.33, J’ and SDI=0.96, 0.9) in study site I and (S= 2, H’=0.64, J’ and SDI=0.92, 0.67) in site II. Overall, the higher species diversity indices of study site I can be categorized “very equally” with a very good category according to evenness criteria (>0.81). This can be gained by increasing restoration sites through an ecotourism replanting program for achieving the goals of sustainable development for mangrove conservation and long-term studies are required to confirm this hypothesis.

Keywords: biodiversity, ecotourism, restoration, population

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Authors: Chun-Chuan Yang, Jeng-Yueng Chen, Yi-Ting Mai, Hsieh-Hua Liu

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By introduction of Relay Nodes (RNs), LTE-Advanced can provide enhanced coverage and capacity at cell edges and hot-spot areas. The authors have been researching the issue of power saving in mobile communications technology such as WiMax and LTE for some years. Based on the idea of Load-Based Power Saving (LBPS), three efficient power saving schemes for the user equipment (UE) were proposed in the authors’ previous work. In this paper, three revised schemes of the previous work in order to integrate RN and UE in power saving are proposed. Simulation study shows the proposed schemes can achieve significantly better power saving efficiency than the standard based scheme at the cost of moderately increased delay.

Keywords: DRX, LTE-A, power saving, RN

Procedia PDF Downloads 505

Authors: Vithya Veeramani, Karunanidhi Subbaiah

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Emotional problems were found to be the predominant cause of suicide and second leading cause of death among adolescents in India. Emotional problems seem to be the underlying cause for various other severe psycho-social problems experienced in adolescence and also in later years of life. The Corporation schools in Chennai city are named as Chennai High School or Chennai Higher Secondary School run by the Corporation of Chennai. These schools fulfill the educational needs of students who hail from lower socio-economic status living in slums of the Chennai city. Adolescent students of Chennai schools tend to lack basic needs like food, clothes, shelter, etc. Some of the other significant problems faced by them are broken family, lack of parental support, frequent quarrel between parents, alcoholic parents, drug abuse and substance abuse among parents and neighbors, extended family, illiterate parents, deprivation of love and care, and lack of sense of belongingness. This prevailing condition may affect them emotionally and could lead to maladaptive behaviour, aggressiveness, poor interpersonal relationship with others, school refusal behaviour, school drop-out, suicide, etc. Therefore, it is very important to investigate the emotional problems faced by the adolescent students studying in Chennai schools, Chennai. A cross-sectional survey design was used to find the prevalence of emotional problems among adolescent students. Cluster sampling technique was used to select the schools for the present study considering the school as a cluster. In total, there are 15 zones, under the control of Chennai Corporation, of which only 7 zones have Corporation Schools in Chennai city, comprising of 32 Chennai Higher Secondary Schools and 38 Chennai High Schools. Out of these 70 schools, 29 schools comprising of 17 high schools and 12 higher secondary schools were selected randomly using lottery method. A sample of 2594 adolescent students from 9th standard and 11th standard was chosen for the study. Percentage analysis was done to find out the prevalence rate of emotional problems among adolescents students studying in Chennai Schools. Results of the study revealed that, out of 2594 students surveyed, 21.04% adolescent students were found to have academic problems (n = 546), 15.99% adolescent students had social problems (n = 415), behaviour problems was found to be prevalent among 12.87% adolescent students (n = 334), depression was prevalent among 15.88% adolescent students (n = 412) and anxiety was prevalent among 14.42% adolescent students (n = 374). Prevalence of emotional problems among male and female revealed that academic problems were more prevalent compared to other problems. Behaviour problems were least prevalent among boys and anxiety was least prevalent among girls than other problems. The overall prevalence rate of emotional problems was found to be on an increasing trend among adolescent students of low socio-economic status in Chennai city. The findings indicated the need for intervention to prevent and rehabilitate these adolescent students.

Keywords: adolescents, corporation schools, emotional problems, prevalence

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Authors: Sana Kouchi, Hassina Nacer, Kadda Beghdad-bey

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Cloud computing is growing very fast in the market and has become one of the most controversial discussed developments in recent years. Cloud computing providers become very numerous in these areas and each of them prefers its own cloud computing infrastructure, due to the incompatibility of standards and cloud access formats, which prevents them from accepting to support cloud computing applications in a standardized manner, this heterogeneity creates the problem of interoperability between clouds, and considering that cloud customers are probably in search of an interoperable cloud computing, where they will have total control over their applications and simply migrate their services as needed, without additional development investment. A cloud federation strategy should be considered. In this article, we propose a common architecture for the cloud that is based on existing architectures and also the use of best practices from ICT frameworks, such as IBM, ITIL, NIST, etc., to address the interoperability of architectures issues in a multi-cloud system.

Keywords: cloud computing, reference architecture, interoperability, standard

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Authors: Samaneh Pouyanfar, Michael Oliff

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The industry of home appliances may beone of theindustries which has the highest competition, and actually what can guarantee the survival of this industry is discovering the superior services. A trend to provide quality products and services plays an important role in this industry because discovering the services is counted as a vital affair for Manufacturing Organizations’ survival and profitability. Given the importance of the topic, this paper attempts to investigate the relative priority of the factors influencing the customer satisfaction in gaining the competitive advantage in Pars-Khazar Company. In sum, 96 executives of Pars-Khazar Company where investigated in a census. For this purpose, after reviewing the research literature and performing deep interviews between pundits and experts active in the industry, the research questionnaire was made based on variables affecting customer satisfaction and components determining business competitive advantage. Determining the content validity took place by judgement of the experts. The reliability of each structure was measured based on Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Since the value of Cronbach's alpha was higher than 0.7 for each structure, internal consistency of statements was high and the reliability of the questionnaire was acceptable. The data analysis was also done with Kulmgrf-asmyrnf test and Friedman test using SPSS software. The results showed that in dimension of factors affecting customer satisfaction, the History of trade name (brand), Familiarity with the product brand, Brand reputation and Safety have the highest value of priority respectively, and the variable of firm growth has the highest value of priority among the components determining the performance of competitive advantage.

Keywords: customer satisfaction, competitive advantage, brand history, safety, growth

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Authors: M. S. Baazzim, M. S. Al-Saud, M. A. El-Kady

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In this paper, steady-state ampacity (current carrying capacity) evaluation of underground power cable system by using analytical and numerical methods for different conditions (depth of cable, spacing between phases, soil thermal resistivity, ambient temperature, wind speed), for two system voltage level were used 132 and 380 kV. The analytical method or traditional method that was used is based on the thermal analysis method developed by Neher-McGrath and further enhanced by International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and published in standard IEC 60287. The numerical method that was used is finite element method and it was recourse commercial software based on finite element method.

Keywords: cable ampacity, finite element method, underground cable, thermal rating

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Authors: Rajaa Filali, Mohamed Bouhdadi

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This paper presents an incremental development of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) in Event-B. DHCP is widely used communication protocol, which provides a standard mechanism to obtain configuration parameters. The specification is performed in a stepwise manner and verified through a series of refinements. The Event-B formal method uses the Rodin platform to modeling and verifying some properties of the protocol such as safety, liveness and deadlock freedom. To model and verify the protocol, we use the formal technique Event-B which provides an accessible and rigorous development method. This interaction between modelling and proving reduces the complexity and helps to eliminate misunderstandings, inconsistencies, and specification gaps.

Keywords: DHCP protocol, Event-B, refinement, proof obligation, Rodin

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Authors: Fabrício José Piacente, Vanessa de Cillos Silva, Thiago Luiz Mello Melato

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The construction industry has been demonstrating increased growth and importance in Brazil’s national economic development. This study aims to evaluate the financial performance of the leading companies in the construction sector in Brazil in the period from 2009 to 2012. An analysis is made of the capital structure, liquidity, and profitability of the six largest companies in the construction sector in Brazil: Brookfield, Cyrela, Gafisa, MRV, PDG and Rossi. The results are then compared with standard industry ratios. It was found that among the companies analyzed, MRV and Cyrela showed the best relative performance in the period under consideration.

Keywords: accounting ratios, construction, financial performance, Brazil

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Authors: Alexis Thouki

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In our post-Christian societies, ecclesiastical heritage acquired a new extrovert profile aiming to reach out an increasingly diverse audience. In this context, the various motivations, interests, personalities and cultural exchanges, found in the ‘post-modern pilgrimage’, bequeath a hybrid and multidimensional character to religious tourism education. In consequence, churches have acquired the challenging role of enriching visitors cultural and spiritual capital. Despite this promising diversification to relate, reveal and provoke constructive discourses, due to the various ‘conflicting interests’, practitioners attempt to tame the rich in symbolism and meanings religious environment through ‘neutral interpretations’. This paper aims to present the results of an ongoing developing strategy related to the presentation of contentious meanings in English churches. The paper will explore some of the underlying issues related to the capacity of ‘neutrality’ to spark, downplay or eliminate contentious conversations relating to the cultural, religious, and social dimension of Christian cultural heritage thematology. In an effort to understand this issue, the paper examines the concept of neutrality and what it stands for, executing a discourse analysis in the semantic context in which the theological lexicon is interwoven with the cultural and social meanings of sacred sites. Following that, the paper examines whether the preferable interpretive strategies meet the post-modern interpretative framework which is marked by polysemy and critical active engagement. The ultimate aim of the paper is to investigate the hypothesis that the preferable neutral strategies, managing the ‘conflicting’ demands of worshippers and visitors, result in the uneven treatment of both, the religious and historical spirit of the place.

Keywords: contentious dialogue, interpretation, meaning making, religious tourism

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Authors: Srisuporn Piyaratanawong, Suchai Assawapantanakul

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This study aims to reflect changes in beliefs and rituals among the Urak Lawoi sea gypsies on the Bulon archipelago of Satun Province that are related to changes of society according to each dimension of time. The historical study was conducted using an oral history approach. The study found that the traditional way of life as itinerants who moved seasonally resulted in their dependence on nature and beliefs in supernatural power, and mysterious powers and superstitions in the belief of ghosts, ancestors, guardian spirits, large banyan trees, life and living, treatment of diseases, king of nagas, and other beliefs. They displayed their respect to supernatural powers through rituals by worshiping, making offerings to spirits and performing Rongeng dance for spirits in return for fulfilling their vows. After World War II (1945), the Urak Lawoi sea gypsies on Bulon archipelago changed their itinerant way of life to permanent settlements. However, their beliefs in supernatural powers and ritual performances remained in existence. Until 1987, when tourism began to spread to the archipelago, some of them gradually turned to make a living with tourism. Moreover, during the last 20 years (from around 1994), Islam has spread among the people. With this social context, the traditional beliefs in supernatural powers have changed to beliefs according to the religion and the way of life that has changed. Thus, when the traditional beliefs and rituals can no longer fulfil the new way of life, they slowly disappear, such as the floating the boat ceremony that has been replaced with new beliefs and rituals according to Islam. Nevertheless, some beliefs and rituals still exist, such as beliefs about treatment of diseases and Rongeng dance for spirits in return for vow fulfilling. In conclusion, the traditional beliefs and rituals of the Urak Lawoi sea gypsies on the Bulon archipelago cannot fulfil the new way of life, and have, thus, brought about changes in beliefs and rituals that are congruent with the current society.

Keywords: belief, ritual, Urak Lawoi, sea gypsy, Bulon Archipelago

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Authors: Kiatnarong Supapanmanee, Ekkarin Phongphinittana, Pongsak Nimdum

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Natural fibers are readily available raw materials that are widely used as composite materials. The most common problem facing many researchers with composites made from this fiber is the adhesion between the natural fiber contact surface and the matrix material. Part of the problem is due to the hydrophilic properties of natural fibers and the hydrophobic properties of the matrix material. Based on the aforementioned problems, this research selected bamboo fiber, which is a strong natural fiber in the research study. The first step was to study the effect of the mechanical properties of the pure bamboo strip by testing the tensile strength of different measurement lengths. The bamboo strip was modified surface with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at 6wt% concentrations for different soaking periods. After surface modification, the physical and mechanical properties of the pure bamboo strip fibers were studied. The modified and unmodified bamboo strips were molded into a composite material using epoxy as a matrix to compare the mechanical properties and adhesion between the fiber surface and the material with tensile and bending tests. In addition, the results of these tests were compared with the finite element method (FEM). The results showed that the length of the bamboo strip affects the strength of the fibers, with shorter fibers causing higher tensile stress. Effects of surface modification of bamboo strip with NaOH, this chemical eliminates lignin and hemicellulose, resulting in the smaller dimension of the bamboo strip and increased density. From the pretreatment results above, it was found that the treated bamboo strip and composite material had better Ultimate tensile stress and Young's modulus. Moreover, that results in better adhesion between bamboo fiber and matrix material.

Keywords: bamboo fiber, bamboo strip, composite material, bamboo composite, pure bamboo, surface modification, mechanical properties of bamboo, bamboo finite element method

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Authors: Mohammed Kafaji

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This paper aims to investigate the influence of quality of education and quality of research, provided by local educational institutions, on the adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in managing business operations for companies in Saudi market. A model was developed and tested using data collected from 138 CEO’s of foreign companies in diverse business sectors. The data is analysed and managed using multivariate approaches through standard statistical packages. The results showed that educational quality has little contribution to the ICT adoption while research quality seems to play a more prominent role. These results are analysed in terms of business environment and market constraints and further extended to the perceived effectiveness of applied pedagogical approaches in schools and universities.

Keywords: quality of education, quality of research, mediation, domestic competition, ICT adoption

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Authors: P. Tanuska, A. Elias, P. Vazan, B. Zahradnikova

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This article describes the information system for measuring and evaluating the dose rate in the environment of nuclear power plants Mochovce and Bohunice in Slovakia. The article presents the results achieved in the implementation of the EU project–Research of monitoring and evaluation of non-standard conditions in the area of nuclear power plants. The objectives included improving the system of acquisition, measuring and evaluating data with mobile and autonomous units applying new knowledge from research. The article provides basic and specific features of the system and compared to the previous version of the system, also new functions.

Keywords: information system, dose rate, mobile devices, nuclear power plant

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Authors: Manish Jain, Dinesh Gopalani

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Growing dependency of mankind on software technology increases the need for thorough testing of the software applications and automated testing techniques that support testing activities. We have outlined our testing strategy for performing various types of automated testing of Java applications using AspectJ which has become the de-facto standard for Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP). Likewise JUnit, a unit testing framework is the most popular Java testing tool. In this paper, we have evaluated our proposed AOP approach for automated testing and JUnit on various parameters. First we have provided the similarity between the two approaches and then we have done a detailed comparison of the two testing techniques on factors like lines of testing code, learning curve, testing of private members etc. We established that our AOP testing approach using AspectJ has got several advantages and is thus particularly more effective than JUnit.

Keywords: aspect oriented programming, AspectJ, aspects, JU-nit, software testing

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Authors: Mathieu Audet, Monica Soliman, Emilie Eve Gravel, Rebecca Friesdorf

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Access to higher education is critical for reducing social inequalities. The Canada Learning Bond (CLB) is a government savings incentive aimed at increasing higher education access for children of low income families by providing money toward a Registered Education Savings Plan. To better understand the educational and financial decision-making of low income families, Employment Social Development Canada conducted qualitative fieldwork with eligible parents and children, teachers, and community organizations promoting the Bond. Insights from this fieldwork were then used to develop letters to better target the needs and experiences of eligible families. In the present study, we conducted a randomized controlled trial with children ages 12 to 13, the oldest cohort of eligible children, to test the effectiveness of the new letters. Parents or caregivers of 150,088 eligible children were assigned to one of five letter conditions promoting the Bond or to a control condition that did not receive a letter. The letter conditions were: (a) the standard letter from past outreach, (b) a letter presenting the exact amount the child was eligible to receive, enhancing the salience of benefits, (c) a letter with a social norm, (d) a letter with an image emphasizing the feasibility of higher education by presenting the diversity of options (i.e., college, trade schools, apprenticeships) – many participants interviewed viewed that university was unfeasible, and (e) a letter minimizing references to 'saving' (i.e., not framing the Bond explicitly as a savings incentive) – a concept that did not resonate with low income families who felt they could not afford to save. The exact amount was also presented in letters (c) through (e). The letter minimizing references to 'saving' and presenting the exact amount had the highest net take-up rate at 6.6%, compared to 3.5% for the standard letter group. Furthermore, this trial’s BI-informed letters showed the largest impact on take-up so far, with a net take-up of 5.7% compared to 3.0% and 3.9% in the first two trials. This research highlights the value of mixed-method approaches combining qualitative and behavioural insights methods for developing context-sensitive interventions for social programs. By gaining a deeper understanding of the needs and experiences of program users through qualitative fieldwork, and then integrating these insights into behaviourally informed communications, we were able to increase take-up of an education savings program, which may ultimately improve access to higher education in children of low income families.

Keywords: access to higher education, behavioral insights, government, innovation, mixed-methods, social programs

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Authors: Fatemeh Ansarniya, Fatemeh Mirjalili, Hamid Reza Abedini, Shabnam Salari, M. Horasht

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The study of this research is the effect of using Fe₂O₃ and sum of alkalis elements in the floor tile production. At first, raw materials of floor tile with the same formulation of original sample was prepared and sintered for 39 minutes at 1130˚C in roller kiln and finally, physical properties of the sintered bodies based on floor tile standard process was investigated. The results showed that there was the possibility of production of floor tile containing different percentages of Fe₂O₃ and sum of Na₂O+ K₂O. With increasing the Fe₂O₃ and sum of Na₂O+ K₂O elements, the percentages of water absorption and raw, dry and sintered strengths were decreased, but the percentages of shrinkage were increased which caused the decreasing the percentages of expansion.

Keywords: floor tile, physical properties, Na2O+ K2O, Fe2O3

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