Search results for: statistical approaches

Authors: Khaled A. Madi, Rema A. Mousbahi, Mostafa B. Abuitbel, Abdualhakim O. Nagi

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Antenna perhaps is the most important part of any communication system, it determines the overall efficiency and the direction of radiation of the system. Antennas vary in shape and size on a very wide range. For fast moving vehicles, the antenna should offer as litter aerodynamic resistance as possible. Slot antenna is best suited for this purpose. It offers very little aerodynamic resistance, compact, easy to feed and fabricate. This work presented in this paper deals with the investigation of a half wave slot antenna. The antenna has been studied, analyzed, designed, simulated, fabrication, and tested at the X-band. The field of antenna study is an extremely vast one, and to grasp the fundamentals, two pronged approaches have been used, and the focus was on the fabrication and testing of a slot waveguide directional antenna. Focuses on the design and simulation of slot antennas with an emphasis on optimization of a 9.1 GHz a rectangular waveguide have been used to feed slot antenna. A microwave fed slot antenna used in the communication lab was also simulated. The results have been presented and compared with the expected values, where a good agreement was achieved between the simulation and experimental results.

Keywords: microwave, slot antenna, simulation, fabrication

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: Zilin Zhang

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Agent-based simulation has become a popular method of exploring the behavior of all kinds of urban systems. The city clearly is viewed as such a system. Many urban evolution processes, such as the development or the transaction of a piece of land, can be modeled with a set of rules. Such modeling approaches can be used to gain insight into urban-development and land market transactions in the real world. Our work contributes to such type of research by modeling the transactions of lands in a city and its surrounding suburbs. By replicating the demand and supply needs in the land market, we are able to demonstrate the different transaction patterns in three types of residential areas - downtown, city-suburban, and further suburban areas. In addition, we are also able to compare the vital roles of different activation conditions play in generating the various transaction patterns of the land market at the macro level. We use this simulation to loosely test our hypotheses about the nature of activation regimes by the replication of the Zi traders’ model. In the end, we hope our analytical results can be useful for city planners and policymakers to develop rational city plans and policies for shaping sustainable urban development.

Keywords: simulation, agent-based modeling, housing market, city

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: Abdurrasheed Sa'id, Abubakar Isma'il, Waheed Alayande

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This study focused on carrying out numerical simulations of Kangimi reservoir sedimentation by reviewing different numerical sediment transport models, and GSTARS3 was selected. The model was developed using the 1977 data. It was calibrated by simulating the 2012 profile and sediment deposition and compared with 2012 hydrographic survey results of NWRI. The model was validated by simulating the 2016 deposition and compared the results with NWRI estimates. Also, the performance of the proposed model was tested using statistical parameters such as MSE (Mean Square Error), MAPE (Mean Average Percentage Error) and R2 (Coefficient of determination) with values of 1.32m, 0.17% and 0.914 respectively which shows strong agreement. After the calibration, validation and performance testing the model was used to simulate the 2032 and 2062 profiles and deposition. The results showed that by 2032 the reservoir will be silted by 25.34MCM or 43.3% of the design capacity and 60.7% of the capacity by the year 2062. A number of sedimentation mitigation measures were recommended.

Keywords: NWRI- national water resources institute, sedimentation, GSTARS3, model

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Authors: Sarah M. Bolger

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There is a clear recognition that humanitarian and development workers are operating more and more frequently in situations of protracted crises, with conflict and violence undermining long-term development efforts. First coined at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, the humanitarian-development-peacebuilding nexus – or 'Triple Nexus' - seeks to promote greater cooperation and policy and program coherence amongst organizations working within and across the nexus. However, despite the clear need for such an approach, the Triple Nexus has failed to gain much traction. This is largely due to the lack of conceptual clarity for actors on the ground and the disconnect between the theory of the Triple Nexus and what that means in practice. This paper seeks to identify the key challenges in shifting from the conceptual definition of the Triple Nexus and what that can look like, particularly for multi-mandated organizations, to the operationalization of the Triple Nexus approach. It adopts a case study approach, examining a selection of organizations and programs and their approaches to the Triple Nexus in order to extract key challenges and lessons learned. Finally, key recommendations are provided on how these challenges can be overcome, allowing for the operationalization of the Triple Nexus and ultimately for a more integrated and sustainable approach to humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding work.

Keywords: development, humanitarian, peacebuilding, triple nexus

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Authors: W. M. M. Weerasooriya, K. T. N. P. Abeywickrama

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There has been some research on stress in the hotel industry in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. Still, the amount is not proportionate to the severity of the issue. This paper examined the effect of stress on job performance of frontline employees of Sri Lankan hotel context. Duly completed 70 self-administered questionnaires filled by frontline employees of star class hotels in North Central Province in Sri Lanka were used for the purpose with a response rate of 70%. The researcher employed empirical analysis using statistical tools such as regression analysis of Pearson’s correlation of coefficient. It was found that there is a high level of workload and role ambiguity existing among the frontline employees of hotels located in North Central Province and existing role ambiguity significantly reduce the job performance of the frontline employees of star class hotels while the existing low level of physical work environment also leads to a low level of job performance.

Keywords: hotel front line employees, job stress, job performance, Sri Lanka

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Authors: Rania Alshikhe, Vinita Jindal

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Digital innovation has played a crucial role in managing smart transportation. For this, big trajectory data collected from traveling vehicles, such as taxis through installed global positioning system (GPS)-enabled devices can be utilized. It offers an unprecedented opportunity to trace the movements of vehicles in fine spatiotemporal granularity. This paper aims to explore big trajectory data to measure the travel efficiency of road networks using the proposed statistical travel efficiency measure (STEM) across an entire city. Further, it identifies the cause of low travel efficiency by proposed least square approximation network-based causality exploration (LANCE). Finally, the resulting data analysis reveals the causes of low travel efficiency, along with the road segments that need to be optimized to improve the traffic conditions and thus minimize the average travel time from given point A to point B in the road network. Obtained results show that our proposed approach outperforms the baseline algorithms for measuring the travel efficiency of the road network.

Keywords: GPS trajectory, road network, taxi trips, digital map, big data, STEM, LANCE

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Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah

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Public sector organizations, ministries, departments and local government agencies are adopting e-government as a means to provide efficient and quality service delivery to citizens. The purpose of this research paper is to examine the extent to which perceived usefulness (PU) of e-government services moderates between perceived ease-of-use (PEOU) of e-government services and intention to use (IU) e-government services in Ghana. A structured research questionnaire instrument was developed and administered to 700 potential respondents in Ghana, of which 693 responded, representing 99% of the questionnaires distributed. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to capture and analyze the data. The results indicate that even though predictors such as PU and PEOU are main determiners of citizens’ intention to adopt and use e-government services in Ghana, it failed to show that PEOU and IU e-government services in Ghana is significantly moderated by the PU of e-government services. The implication of this finding on theory and practice is further discussed.

Keywords: e-government services, intention to use, moderating role, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, Ghana, technology acceptance model

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Authors: Justin Byrne, Jose Ramon Cobo

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The growing importance of cross- or intercultural competencies (used here interchangeably) for the business and management professionals is now a commonplace in both academic and professional literature. This reflects two parallel developments. On the one hand, it is a consequence of the increased attention paid to a whole range of 'soft skills', now seen as fundamental in both individuals' and corporate success. On the other hand, and more specifically, the increasing demand for interculturally competent professionals is a corollary of ongoing processes of globalization, which multiply and intensify encounters between individuals and companies from different cultural backgrounds. Business schools have, for some decades, responded to the needs of the job market and their own students by providing students with training in intercultural skills, as they are encouraged to do so by the major accreditation agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. Adapting Early and Ang's (2003) formulation of Cultural Intelligence (CQ), this paper aims to help fill the lagunae in the current literature on intercultural training in three main ways. First, it offers an in-depth analysis of the CQ of a little studied group: contemporary Millenial and 'Generation Z' Business School students. The level of analysis distinguishes between the four different dimensions of CQ, cognition, metacognition, motivation and behaviour, and thereby provides a detailed picture of the strengths and weaknesses in CQ of the group as a whole, as well as of different sub-groups and profiles of students. Secondly, by crossing these individual-level findings with respondents' socio-cultural and educational data, this paper also proposes and tests hypotheses regarding the relative impact and importance of four possible antecedents of intercultural skills identified in the literature: prior international experience; intercultural training, foreign language proficiency, and experience of cultural diversity in habitual country of residence. Third, we use this analysis to suggest data-based intercultural training priorities for today's management students. These conclusions are based on the statistical analysis of individual responses of some 300 Bachelor or Masters students in a major European Business School provided to two on-line surveys: Ang, Van Dyne, et al's (2007) standard 20-question self-reporting CQ Scale, and an original questionnaire designed by the authors to collate information on respondent's socio-demographic and educational profile relevant to our four hypotheses and explanatory variables. The data from both instruments was crossed in both descriptive statistical analysis and regression analysis. This research shows that there is no statistically significant and positive relationship between the four antecedents analyzed and overall CQ level. The exception in this respect is the statistically significant correlation between international experience, and the cognitive dimension of CQ. In contrast, the results show that the combination of international experience and foreign language skills acting together, does have a strong overall impact on CQ levels. These results suggest that selecting and/or training students with strong foreign language skills and providing them with international experience (through multinational programmes, academic exchanges or international internships) constitutes one effective way of training culturally intelligent managers of tomorrow.

Keywords: business school, cultural intelligence, millennial, training

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Authors: Umut Tac, Leyla Tavacioglu, Pelin Bolat

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Human factor has been one of the elements that cause vulnerabilities which can be resulted with accidents in maritime transportation. When the roots of human factor based accidents are analyzed, gaps in performing cognitive abilities (reaction time, attention, memory…) are faced as the main reasons for the vulnerabilities in complex environment of maritime systems. Thus cognitive processes in maritime systems have arisen important subject that should be investigated comprehensively. At this point, neurocognitive tests such as reaction time analysis tests have been used as coherent tools that enable us to make valid assessments for cognitive status. In this respect, the aim of this study is to evaluate the reaction time (response time or latency) of seafarers due to their occupational experience and age. For this study, reaction time for different maneuverers has been taken while the participants were performing a sea voyage through a simulator which was run up with a certain scenario. After collecting the data for reaction time, a statistical analyze has been done to understand the relation between occupational experience and cognitive abilities.

Keywords: cognitive abilities, human factor, neurocognitive test battery, reaction time

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Authors: Elham Rezaee, Sayyed Abbas Tabatabai

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Dual inhibition of COX-2 and sEH enzymes represents one of the distinct pharmaceutical approaches for the treatment of inflammation, pain, cancers, and other diseases. The discovery of these inhibitors for treatment is a great deal of attention because of some advantages such as increased efficacy, a promising safety profile, ease of formulation, and better target engagement. In this research, based on the structure-activity relationship of COX-2 and sEH inhibitors, some amide derivatives with oxadiazole and dihydropyrimidinone rings against sEH and COX-2 enzymes were developed. The designed compounds showed high affinity to the active site of both enzymes in docking studies and were synthesized in good yield and characterized by IR, Mass, 1HNMR, and 13CNMR. All of the novel compounds exhibited considerable in-vitro sEH and COX-2 inhibitory activities in comparison with 12-(3-Adamantan-1-yl-ureido)- dodecanoic acid and celecoxib (a potent urea-based sEH inhibitor and selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, respectively). Ethyl 6-methyl-4-(4-(4-(methylsulfonyl)benzamido)phenyl)-2-oxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidine-5-carboxylate was found to be the most selective COX-2 inhibitor (COX-2/COX-1 ratio: 683) with IC50 value of 2.1 nM targeting sEH enzyme.

Keywords: COX-2, dual inhibitors, sEH, synthesis

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Authors: Hui Fang Huang Su, Leanne Lai, Pei-Fen Li, Mei-Hwei Ho, Yu-Wen Chiu

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This study aimed to provide a practical, systematic, and comprehensive intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A pilot study of quasi-experimental pre-post intervention with control group design was conducted to evaluate if the mathematical intervention (Project MIND - Math Is Not Difficult) increases the math comprehension of children with ASD Children with ASD in the primary grades (K-1, 2) participated in math interventions to enhance their math comprehension and cognitive ability. The Bracken basic concept scale was used to evaluate subjects’ language skills, cognitive development, and school readiness. The study found that our systemic interventions of Project MIND significantly improved the mathematical and cognitive abilities in children with autism. The results of this study may lead to a major change in effective and adequate health care services for children with ASD and their families. All statistical analyses were performed with the IBM SPSS Statistics Version 25 for Windows. The significant level was set at 0.05 P-value.

Keywords: autism, mathematics, technology, family

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Authors: E. Marušić-Paloka, I. Pažanin, M. Prša

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Subject of this study is the stationary heat conduction problem through a pipe filled with incompressible viscous fluid. In previous work, we observed the existence and uniqueness theorems for the corresponding boundary-value problem and within we have taken into account the effects of the pipe's dilatation due to the temperature of the fluid inside of the pipe. The main difficulty comes from the fact that flow domain changes depending on the solution of the observed heat equation leading to a non-standard coupled governing problem. The goal of this work is to find solution estimate since the exact solution of the studied problem is not possible to determine. We use an asymptotic expansion in order of a small parameter which is presented as a heat expansion coefficient of the pipe's material. Furthermore, an error estimate is provided for the mentioned asymptotic approximation of the solution for inner area of the pipe. Close to the boundary, problem becomes more complex so different approaches are observed, mainly Theory of Perturbations and Separations of Variables. In view of that, error estimate for the whole approximation will be provided with additional software simulations of gotten situation.

Keywords: asymptotic analysis, dilated pipe, error estimate, heat conduction

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Authors: Timothy Whitehill

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This paper presents an innovative chat-based focus group method for collecting qualitative data to construct a cause-and-effect analysis in business research. This method was developed in response to the research and data collection challenges faced by the Covid-19 outbreak in the United Kingdom during 2020-21. This paper discusses the methodological approaches and builds a contemporary argument for its effectiveness in exploring cause-and-effect relationships in the context of focus group research, systems thinking and problem structuring methods. The pilot for this method was conducted between October 2020 and March 2021 and collected more than 7,000 words of chat-based data which was used to construct a consensus drawn cause-and-effect analysis. This method was developed in support of an ongoing Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) thesis, which is using Design Science Research methodology to operationalize organisational resilience in UK construction sector firms.

Keywords: cause-and-effect analysis, focus group research, problem structuring methods, qualitative research, systems thinking

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Authors: Abdullateef Abdulkarim Jimoh, Muhammad Lawal A., Usman Muhammad, Hamisu Abdullahi, Nuhu Abdullahi Jega

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Smart city projects can be aided by urban development policies in public facilities, but economic resources to finance urban system reorganization is an issue to various governments. This is further compounded with the impact of the slowing down of national economies. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the need to prioritize the economic benefits of smart city projects and, specifically, in towns transforming into cities like Birnin kebbi. The smart-city projects can aim at developing a new form of ‘‘modernity and civilization’’ of the productive economy. This study adopts the descriptive statistical approach to identify the key performance indicators (KPI) for tracking the progress of cities and its developmental objectives. It has been established that numerous aspects of the modernization policies can enhance the competitiveness of territories, particular in aspects of social cohesion, the diffusion of knowledge, creativity, accessibility, etc.

Keywords: economy, economic policy, public facilities, smart city, urbanization

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Authors: Dhaladhuli Pranavi, Amirtham Rajagopal

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There are various failure modes in ceramic matrix composites; notable ones are fiber breakage, matrix cracking and fiber matrix debonding. Crack nucleation and propagation in microstructure of such composites requires an understanding of interaction of crack with the multiple inclusion heterogeneous system and interfaces. In order to assess structural integrity, the material parameters especially of the interface that governs the crack growth should be determined. In the present work, a nonlocal phase field approach is proposed to model the crack interface interaction in such composites. Nonlocal approaches help in understanding the complex mechanisms of delamination growth and mitigation and operates at a material length scale. The performance of the proposed formulation is illustrated through representative numerical examples. The model proposed is implemented in the framework of the finite element method. Several parametric studies on interface crack interaction are conducted. The proposed model is easy and simple to implement and works very well in modeling fracture in composite systems.

Keywords: composite, interface, nonlocal, phase field

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Authors: Shatirah Akib, Hossein Basser, Hojat Karami, Afshin Jahangirzadeh

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Bridge piers which are constructed in the track of high water rivers cause some variations in the flow patterns. This variation mostly is a result of the changes in river sections. Decreasing the river section, bridge piers significantly impress the flow patterns. Once the flow approaches the piers, the stream lines change their order, causing the appearance of different flow patterns around the bridge piers. New flow patterns are created following the geometry and the other technical characteristics of the piers. One of the most significant consequences of this event is the scour generated around the bridge piers which threatens the safety of the structure. In order to determine the properties of scour holes, to find maximum depth of the scour is an important factor. In this manuscript a numerical simulation of the scour around Marand-Soofian route bridge piers has been carried out via SSIIM 2.0 Software and the amount of maximum scour has been achieved subsequently. Eventually the methods for retrofitting of bridge piers against scours and also the methods for decreasing the amount of scour have been offered.

Keywords: scour, bridge pier, numerical simulation, SSIIM 2.0

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Authors: Leila Mosafa, Majid Moghadam, Mohammad Shahedi

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In this work, pectinase was immobilized on the surface of silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles via covalent attachment. The magnetite-immobilized enzyme was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and vibrating sample magnetometry techniques. Response surface methodology using Minitab Software was applied for statistical designing of operating conditions in order to immobilize pectinase on magnetic nanoparticles. The optimal conditions were obtained at 30°C and pH 5.5 with 42.97 µl pectinase for 2 h. The immobilization yield was 50.6% at optimized conditions. Compared to the free pectinase, the immobilized pectinase was found to exhibit enhanced enzyme activity, better tolerance to the variation of pH and temperature, and improved storage stability. Both free and immobilized samples reduced the viscosity of apple juice from 1.12 to 0.88 and 0.92 mm2s-1, respectively, after 30 min at their optimum temperature. Furthermore, the immobilized enzyme could be reused six consecutive cycles and the efficiency loss in viscosity reduction was found to be only 8.16%.

Keywords: magnetite nanoparticles, pectinase enzyme, immobilization, juice clarification, enzyme activity

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Authors: Fawzia Mohammed Idris

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Zakat is an Islamic procedure for wealth distribution as a social protection mechanism for needy people. This study aimed to assess the possibility to expand the share of fund for national health insurance fund from zakat funds allocated for poor people by measuring the reduction of poverty that result from the investing on direct payment to the needy or by covering them in social health insurance. This study used stata regression as a statistical analysis tool and the finding clarified that there is no significant relationship between the poverty rate as the main indicator and, the number of poor people covered by national health insurance on one hand and the number of benefits poor people from the distribution of zakat fund. This study experienced many difficulties regarding the quality and the consistency of the data. The study suggested that a joint mission between national health insurance fund and zakat chamber to conduct study to assess the efficient use of zakat fund allocated to poor people.

Keywords: health finance, poverty, social health insurance, zakat

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Authors: A. M. Gadanya, B. A. Ahmad, U. Maigatari

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Effect of oral administration of Gadagi tea on superoxide dismutase activity was assessed on twenty (20) male subjects (aged 21-40years). Ten (10) male non Gadagi tea consumers (aged 20-26 years), were used as control. Blood samples were collected from the subjects and analysed for serum superoxide dismutase activity using R&D Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay method (ELISA). The subjects were grouped into four based on age i.e group I (21-25 years), group II (26-30 years), and also based on duration of the tea consumption, i.e group A (5-9 years) , group B (10-14 years), group C (15-19 years) and group D (20-24 years). The subjects in group I (0.12 U mg-l +0.05), group II (0.11 U mg-l +0.01), group III (0.14 U mg-l +0.08) and group IV (0.17 U mg-l +0.11) showed increased activity of serum superoxide dismutase when compared with the control subjects (0.88 U mg-l +0.02) (P<0.05). There was no statistical significant difference in superoxide dismutase activity within the case groups (P<0.05), based on age and duration of consumption of the tea. Thus, Gadagi tea consumption could increase serum superoxide dismutase activity in humans.

Keywords: “Gadagi” tea, Serum, Superoxide dismutase, Humans.

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Authors: Mohammad Sadeghi

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The subject matter of this article is the efficiency of current knowledge standard to afford the legal integration regarding criteria and approaches to ISP knowledge standards, to shield ISP and copyright, trademark and other parties’ rights in the online information society. The EU recognizes the knowledge-based liability for intermediaries in the European Directive on Electronic Commerce, but the implication of all parties’ responsibility for combating infringement has been immolated by dominating attention on liability due to the lack of the appropriate legal mechanism to devote each party responsibility. Moreover, there is legal challenge on the applicability of knowledge-based liability on hosting services and information location tools service. The aim of this contribution is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of ECD knowledge standard through case law with a special emphasis on duty of prevention and constructive knowledge role on internet service providers (ISP s’) to achieve fair balance between all parties rights.

Keywords: internet service providers, liability, copyright infringement, hosting, caching, mere conduit service, notice and takedown, E-commerce Directive

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Authors: M. Fadlallah, G. Ghibaudo, C. G. Theodorou

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The dynamic variation in memory devices such as the Static Random Access Memory can give errors in read or write operations. In this paper, the effect of low-frequency and random telegraph noise on the dynamic variation of one SRAM cell is detailed. The effect on circuit noise, speed, and length of time of processing is examined, using the Supply Read Retention Voltage and the Read Static Noise Margin. New test run methods are also developed. The obtained results simulation shows the importance of noise caused by dynamic variation, and the impact of Random Telegraph noise on SRAM variability is examined by evaluating the statistical distributions of Random Telegraph noise amplitude in the pull-up, pull-down. The threshold voltage mismatch between neighboring cell transistors due to intrinsic fluctuations typically contributes to larger reductions in static noise margin. Also the contribution of each of the SRAM transistor to total dynamic variation has been identified.

Keywords: low-frequency noise, random telegraph noise, dynamic variation, SRRV

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Authors: Y. Benmalem , A. Abbad, W. Benstaali, T. Lantri

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Density functional theory is used to investigate the.the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of the cubic anti-perovskites InNNi3 and ZnNNi3. The structure of antiperovskite also called (perovskite-inverse) identical to the perovskite structure of the general formula ABX3, where A is a main group (III–V) element or a metallic element, B is carbon or nitrogen, and X is a transition metal, displays a wide range of interesting physical properties, such as giant magnetoresistance. Elastic and electronic properties were determined using generalized gradient approximation (GGA), and local spin density approximation (LSDA) approaches, ), as implemented in the Wien2k computer package. The results show that the two compounds are strong ductile and satisfy the Born-Huang criteria, so they are mechanically stable at normal conditions. Electronic properties show that the two compounds studied are metallic and non-magnetic. The studies of these compounds have confirmed the effectiveness of the two approximations and the ground-state properties are in good agreement with experimental data and theoretical results available.

Keywords: anti-perovskites, elastic anisotropy, electronic band structure, first-principles calculations

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Authors: Douglas W. Scott

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The Allemande from J. S. Bach's Partita for solo flute (BWV 1013) presents many unique challenges for any flautist, especially in terms of segmentation analysis required to select breathing places in the first half. Without claiming to identify a 'correct' solution to this problem, this paper analyzes the section in terms of a set of techniques based around a statistical property commonly (if not ubiquitously) found in music, namely Zipf’s law. Specifically, the paper considers violations of this expected profile at various levels of analysis, an approach which has yielded interesting insights in previous studies. The investigation is then grounded by considering four actual solutions to the problem found in recordings made by different flautists, which opens up the possibility of expanding Zipfian analysis to include a consideration of inter-onset-intervals (IOIs). It is found that significant deviations from the expected Zipfian distributions can reveal and highlight stylistic choices made by different performers.

Keywords: inter-onset-interval, Partita for solo flute, BWV 1013, segmentation analysis, Zipf’s law

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Authors: Tahereh Yavari, Sara Norozi Far

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The aim of this study was to compare psychological well-being, hope, and health concerns in leukemia patients before and after receiving stem cells. The statistical population of the present study was made up of leukemia patients in Tehran, and the research sample was among the patients referred to the Bone Marrow Transplant Center of Shariati Hospital in Tehran, and they were placed in two experimental and control groups (15 people in each group), which were selected by purposive sampling method. In order to collect the data for the research, three psychological well-being questionnaires were used by Riff (2002), Schneider's Hope Scale (SHS), and Schneider's Health Concern Questionnaire (HCQ). In order to analyze the data in this research, according to the "pre-test-post-test design with a control group," covariance analysis was used. Based on the research findings, it was concluded that receiving stem cells increases hope and psychological well-being in leukemia patients and significantly reduces health concerns.

Keywords: psychological well-being, hope, health concerns, blood cancer, stem cells

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Authors: Sotiris Papantonopoulos, Marianna Bortziou

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This study aimed at developing a new package of saffron using emotional design and specifically the Kansei Engineering method. Kansei Engineering is a proactive product development methodology, which aims to improve the product development process and to translate consumers' feelings and image of a product into design elements. A survey was conducted with two major purposes: (1) to determine the target group of saffron use and to collect information about the adequacy of the product’s promotion and the importance of its packaging, (2) to collect the most important properties of a package according to consumers and to evaluate the existing saffron packages according to these properties (benchmarking). The interaction with the general public conducted by the distribution of online questionnaires and personal interviews as well as the statistical analysis of the results were performed using the SPSS software. The results of the survey were used in all stages of Kansei Engineering. Based on the results, a new saffron package was designed by using various designing and image processing software. This improved package is expected to achieve a better promotion and increased sales of the product.

Keywords: design, emotional design, Kansei Engineering, packaging, saffron

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Authors: Bashar Albaalbaki, Roger E. Khayat

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This work is a comparative study on the effect of Delaunay triangulation algorithms on discretization error for conduction-convection conservation problems. A structured triangulation and many unstructured Delaunay triangulations using three popular algorithms for node placement strategies are used. The numerical method employed is the vertex-centered finite volume method. It is found that when the computational domain can be meshed using a structured triangulation, the discretization error is lower for structured triangulations compared to unstructured ones for only low Peclet number values, i.e. when conduction is dominant. However, as the Peclet number is increased and convection becomes more significant, the unstructured triangulations reduce the discretization error. Also, no statistical correlation between triangulation angle extremums and the discretization error is found using 200 samples of randomly generated Delaunay and non-Delaunay triangulations. Thus, the angle extremums cannot be an indicator of the discretization error on their own and need to be combined with other triangulation quality measures, which is the subject of further studies.

Keywords: conduction-convection problems, Delaunay triangulation, discretization error, finite volume method

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Authors: Usman Tunde Saadu

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The study examined gender differences in emotional adjustment of fresh students in Kwara State University, Malete. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study, and 300 fresh students were randomly selected across the six colleges in the University. An adapted Questionnaire from Nadia (2012) was used to collect data from respondents on emotional adjustment. One research question was answered with a descriptive statistic of frequency count and percentage, and one hypothesis was tested with t-test statistical analysis at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that fresh students have a low level of emotional adjustment, and male students were found to have more emotional adjustment than female. Based on these findings, the researcher, therefore, concluded that fresh students have a low level of emotional adjustment. Based on these findings, the researcher recommended among others that emotional adjustment skills should be introduced into the secondary school curriculum to give students the opportunity to learn about these skills before they are being admitted into University.

Keywords: emotional adjustment, fresh students, gender differences, students

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Authors: Asma A. Parlin, K. Nakamura, N. Watanabe, T. Komai

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Understanding the effective diffusion of benzene vapor in the soil-atmosphere interface is important as an intrusion of benzene into the atmosphere from the soil is largely driven by diffusion. To analyze the vertical one dimensional effective diffusion of benzene vapor in porous medium with high water content, diffusion experiments were conducted in soil columns using Andosol soil and Toyoura silica sand with different water content; for soil water content was from 0 to 30 wt.% and for sand it was from 0.06 to 10 wt.%. In soil, a linear relation was found between water content and effective diffusion coefficient while the effective diffusion coefficient didn’t change in the sand with increasing water. A numerical transport model following unsteady-state approaches based on Fick’s second law was used to match the required time for a steady state of the gas phase concentration profile of benzene to the experimentally measured concentration profile gas phase in the column. The result highlighted that both the water content and porosity might increase vertical diffusion of benzene vapor in soil.

Keywords: benzene vapor-phase, effective diffusion, subsurface soil medium, unsteady state

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Authors: Majid Mohammadi, Mohammad Yosef Zadeh, Vahid Naderi Darshori

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The main purpose of this research is concreting of satisfaction literature for obtain index with online content in carmaker industry. The study measures customer satisfaction of online and collect from similar studies with reference to a model of online satisfaction, they are attempting to complete. Statistical communities of research are online customers' carmaker Iran Khodro has been buying the company's products in the last six months. One of the innovative measures in this study is that, customer reviews are obtained through an Internet site. Reliability of the data collected in this study, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was approved. The coefficient of 0.828 was calculated for the questionnaire. To test the hypothesis, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used. To ensure the correctness of initial theoretical model, we used regression analyzes and structural equation weight and finally, the results obtained with little change to the basic model of research, are improved and completed. At last obtain the perceived value has most direct effect on online car customers satisfaction.

Keywords: customer satisfaction, online satisfaction, online customer, car

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Authors: Gizem Ertürk, Nursena Dinç

Abstract:

The Aegean area has always been an important transit point for migration; however, the establishment of the European Union gave further impetus to the migration phenomenon and increased the significance of the area within this context. The migration waves have been more visible in the area in recent decades, and particularly after the “2015 Migration Crisis,” this issue has been subject to further securitization in the EU. In this conjuncture, the Frontex, which is an agency set up by the EU in 2005 for the purpose of managing and coordinating the border control efforts, has become more functional in the relevant area, but at the same time, have some questionable actions within the context of human rights. This paper problematizes the rationality behind the existence and practices of such a structure and attempts to make a political and legal analysis of the security practices of the European Union against migration within a framework based on the biopolitics approaches of Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben. The dataset of this paper, which focuses on the agency in question by taking it as a case, is formed by making use of the existing literature on the EU’s security policies, the relevant official texts of the Union and Frontex reports on migration practices in and around the Aegean Sea.

Keywords: migration, biopolitics, Frontex, security, European union, securitization

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