Search results for: interface effectiveness

Authors: S. Amirhossein Tabatabaei, Abdulghader A. Aldaeef, Mohammad T. Rayhani

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As the permafrost continues to melt in the northern regions due to global warming, a soil-water mixture is left behind with drastically lower strength; a phenomenon that directly impacts the resilience of existing structures and infrastructure systems. The frozen soil-structure interaction, which in ice-poor soils is controlled by both interface shear and ice-bonding, changes its nature into a sole frictional state. Adfreeze, the controlling mechanism in frozen soil-structure interaction, diminishes as the ground temperature approaches zero. The main purpose of this paper is to capture the altered behaviour of frozen interface with respect to rising temperature, especially near melting states. A series of pull-out tests are conducted on model piles inside a cold room to study how the strength parameters are influenced by the phase change in ice-poor soils. Steel model piles, embedded in artificially frozen cohesionless soil, are subjected to both sustained pull-out forces and constant rates of displacement to observe the creep behaviour and acquire load-deformation curves, respectively. Temperature, as the main variable of interest, is increased from a lower limit of -10°C up to the point of melting. During different stages of the temperature rise, both skin deformations and temperatures are recorded at various depths along the pile shaft. Significant reduction of pullout capacity and accelerated creep behaviour is found to be the primary consequences of rising temperature. By investigating the different pull-out capacities and deformations measured during step-wise temperature change, characteristics of the transition from frozen to unfrozen soil-structure interaction are studied.

Keywords: Adfreeze, frozen soil-structure interface, ice-poor soils, pull-out capacity, warming permafrost

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Authors: Huangmei Liu, Si Liu, Jia’nan Liu

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The present experiment investigated and compared the effectiveness of two kinds of methods of attention control: Task distraction and visual enhancement. In the study, the effectiveness of task distractions to explicit features and of visual enhancement to implicit features of the same group of Chinese characters were compared based on their effect on the participants’ reaction time, subjective confidence rating, and verbal report. We found support that the visual enhancement on implicit features did overcome the contrary effect of training distraction and led to awareness of those implicit features, at least to some extent.

Keywords: task distraction, visual enhancement, attention, awareness, learning

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Authors: Mui Joo Tang, Eang Teng Chan

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Advertising is commonly used to foster sales and reputation of an institution. It is at first the growth of print advertising that has increased the population and number of periodicals of newspaper and its circulation. The rise of Internet and online media has somehow blurred the role of media and advertising though the intention is still to reach out to audience and to increase sales. The relationship between advertising and audience on a product purchase through persuasion has been developing from print media to online media. From the changing media environment and audience, it is the concern of this research to study the impact of online advertising to such a relationship cycle. The content of online advertisements is much of text, multimedia, photo, audio and video. The messages of such content format may indeed bring impacts to its audience and its credibility. This study is therefore reflecting the effectiveness of online advertisement and its influences on generation Y in their purchasing behavior. This study uses Media Dependency Theory to analyze the relationship between the impact of online advertisement and media usage pattern of generation Y. Hierarchy of Effectiveness Model is used as a marketing communication model to study the effectiveness of advertising and further to determine the impact of online advertisement on generation Y in their purchasing decision making. This research uses online survey to reach out the sample of generation Y. The results have shown that online advertisements do not affect much on purchase decision making even though generation Y relies much on the media content including online advertisement for its information and believing in its credibility. There are few other external factors that may interrupt the effectiveness of online advertising. The very obvious influence of purchasing behavior is actually derived from the peers.

Keywords: generation Y, purchase decision, print media, online advertising, persuasion

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Authors: Teruya Goto, Hokuto Chiba, Tatsuhiro Takahashi

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Carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic resin using short carbon fiber has been produced by melt mixing and the improvement of mechanical properties has been frequently reported up to now. One of the most frequently reported enhancement has been seen in carbon fiber / polypropylene (PP) composites by adding small amount of maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MA-g-PP) into PP matrix. However, the further enhancement of tensile strength and tensile modules has been expected for lightning the composite more. Our present research aims to improve the mechanical property by using a highly reactive monolayer polymer, which can react with both COOH of carbon fiber surface and maleic anhydride of MA-g-PP in the matrix, on carbon fiber for PP/CF composite. It has been known that oxazoline has much higher reactivity with COOH without catalysts, compared with amine group and alcohol OH group. However, oxazoline group has not been used for the interface. To achieve the purpose, poly-2-vinyl-2-oxazoline (Pvozo), having highly reactivity with COOH and maleic anhydride, has been originally synthesized through radical polymerization using 2-vinyl-2-oxazoline as a monomer, resulting in the Mw around 140,000. Monolayer Pvozo chemically reacted on CF was prepared in 1-methoxy-2-propanol solution of Pvozo by heating at 100oC for 3 hours. After this solution treatment, unreacted Pvozo was completely washed out by methanol, resulting the uniform formation of the monolayer Pvozo on CF. Monolayer Pvozo coated CF was melt mixed by with PP and a small amount of MA-g-PP for the preparation of the composite samples using a batch type melt mixer. With performing the tensile strength tests of the composites, the tensile strength of CF/MA-g-PP/PP showed 40% increase, compared to that of CF/PP. While, that of Pvozo coated CF/MA-g-PP/PP exhibited 80% increase, compared to that of CF/PP. To get deeper insight of the dramatic increase, the weight percentage of chemically grafted polymer based on CF was evaluated by dissolving and removing the matrix polymer by xylene using by thermos gravimetric analysis (TGA). The chemically grafted remained polymer was found to be 0.69wt% in CF/PP, 0.98wt% in CF/MA-g-PP/PP, 1.51wt% in Pvozo coated CF/MA-g-PP/PP, suggesting that monolayer Pvozo contributed to the increase of the grafted polymer amount. In addition, the very strong adhesion by Pvozo was confirmed by observing the fractured cross-sectional surface of the composite by scanning electron micrograph (SEM). As a conclusion, the effectiveness of a highly reactive monolayer Pvozo on CF for the enhancement of the mechanical properties of CF/PP composite was demonstrated, which can be interpreted by the clear evidence of the increase of the grafting polymer on CF.

Keywords: CFRTP, interface, oxazoline, polymer graft, mechanical property

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Authors: Enver Kucukkulahli, Pakize Erdogmus, Kemal Polat

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The 2D image segmentation is a significant process in finding a suitable region in medical images such as MRI, PET, CT etc. In this study, we have focused on 2D MRI images for image segmentation process. We have designed a GUI (graphical user interface) written in MATLABTM for 2D MRI images. In this program, there are two different interfaces including data pre-processing and image clustering or segmentation. In the data pre-processing section, there are median filter, average filter, unsharp mask filter, Wiener filter, and custom filter (a filter that is designed by user in MATLAB). As for the image clustering, there are seven different image segmentations for 2D MR images. These image segmentation algorithms are as follows: PSO (particle swarm optimization), GA (genetic algorithm), Lloyds algorithm, k-means, the combination of Lloyds and k-means, mean shift clustering, and finally BBO (Biogeography Based Optimization). To find the suitable cluster number in 2D MRI, we have designed the histogram based cluster estimation method and then applied to these numbers to image segmentation algorithms to cluster an image automatically. Also, we have selected the best hybrid method for each 2D MR images thanks to this GUI software.

Keywords: image segmentation, clustering, GUI, 2D MRI

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Authors: Sergio Luiz da Costa Junior, Carolina Fofonka Palomino, Paulo Cesar Lodi

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The use of light landfills is an effective solution for road works in soft ground sites, such as Rio de Janeiro (RJ) and Santos (SP) - the Southeastern Brazilian coast. The technique consists in replacing the topsoil by expandable polystyrene (EPS) geofoam, lined with geomembrane to prevent the attack of chemical products.Thus, knowing the interface shear strength of those materials is important in projects to avoid rupturing the system. The purpose of this paper is to compare the shear strength in the geomembrane-EPS interfaces by the direct shear test. The tests were performed under the dry and saturated condition, and four kind of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) 2,00mm geomembranes were used, smooth and texturized - manufactured in the flat die and blown film process. It was found that the shear strength is directly influenced by the roughness of the geomembrane, showed higher friction angle in the textured geomembrane. The direct shear test, in the saturated condition, also showed smaller friction angle than the now-wetted test.

Keywords: geofoam, geomembrane, soft ground, strength shear

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Authors: Suphap Sikkhaphan, Muwanga Zake, Johnnie Wycliffe Frank

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The purposes of the study included a) investigating the authentic and transformational leadership model of the directors of tambon health promoting hospitals b) evaluating the relation between the authentic and transformation leadership of the directors of tambon health promoting hospitals and the effectiveness of their hospitals and c) assessing the invariance test of the authentic and transformation leadership of the directors of tambon health promoting hospitals. All 400 southern tambon health promoting hospital directors were enrolled into the study. Half were males (200), and another half were females (200). They were sampled via a stratified method. A research tool was a questionnaire paper containing 4 different sections. The Alpha-Cronbach’s Coefficient was equally to .98. Descriptive analysis was used for demographic data, and inferential statistics was used for the relation and invariance tests of authentic and transformational leadership of the directors of tambon health promoting hospitals. The findings revealed overall the authentic and transformation leadership model of the directors of tambon health promoting hospitals has the relation to the effectiveness of the hospitals. Only the factor of “strong community support” was statistically significantly related to the authentic leadership (p < .05). However, there were four latent variables statistically related to the transformational leadership including, competency and work climate, management system, network cooperation, and strong community support (p = .01). Regarding the relation between the authentic and transformation leadership of the directors of tambon health promoting hospitals and the effectiveness of their hospitals, four casual variables of authentic leadership were not related to those latent variables. In contrast, all four latent variables of transformational leadership has statistically significantly related to the effectiveness of tambon health promoting hospitals (p = .001). Furthermore, only management system variable was significantly related to those casual variables of the authentic leadership (p < .05). Regarding the invariance test, the result found no statistical significance of the authentic and transformational leadership model of the directors of tambon health promoting hospitals, especially between male and female genders (p > .05).

Keywords: authentic leadership, transformational leadership, tambon health promoting hospital

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Authors: Mamouni Mohammed Dhiya Eddine

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This work aims at studying the exploitation of high-speed networks of clusters for distributed storage. Parallel applications running on clusters require both high-performance communications between nodes and efficient access to the storage system. Many studies on network technologies led to the design of dedicated architectures for clusters with very fast communications between computing nodes. Efficient distributed storage in clusters has been essentially developed by adding parallelization mechanisms so that the server(s) may sustain an increased workload. In this work, we propose to improve the performance of distributed storage systems in clusters by efficiently using the underlying high-performance network to access distant storage systems. The main question we are addressing is: do high-speed networks of clusters fit the requirements of a transparent, efficient and high-performance access to remote storage? We show that storage requirements are very different from those of parallel computation. High-speed networks of clusters were designed to optimize communications between different nodes of a parallel application. We study their utilization in a very different context, storage in clusters, where client-server models are generally used to access remote storage (for instance NFS, PVFS or LUSTRE). Our experimental study based on the usage of the GM programming interface of MYRINET high-speed networks for distributed storage raised several interesting problems. Firstly, the specific memory utilization in the storage access system layers does not easily fit the traditional memory model of high-speed networks. Secondly, client-server models that are used for distributed storage have specific requirements on message control and event processing, which are not handled by existing interfaces. We propose different solutions to solve communication control problems at the filesystem level. We show that a modification of the network programming interface is required. Data transfer issues need an adaptation of the operating system. We detail several propositions for network programming interfaces which make their utilization easier in the context of distributed storage. The integration of a flexible processing of data transfer in the new programming interface MYRINET/MX is finally presented. Performance evaluations show that its usage in the context of both storage and other types of applications is easy and efficient.

Keywords: distributed storage, remote file access, cluster, high-speed network, MYRINET, zero-copy, memory registration, communication control, event notification, application programming interface

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Authors: Amaal Almigal

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Technology has been argued to offer distinct advantages and benefits for teaching children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to communicate. One aspect of this technology is augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems such as picture exchange or speech generation devices. Whilst there has been significant progress in teaching these children to request their wants and needs with AAC, there remains a need for developing technologies that can really make a difference in teaching them to ask questions. iPad-based AAC can be effective for communication. However, the effectiveness of this type of AAC in teaching children to ask questions needs to be examined. Thus, in order to examine the effectiveness of iPad-based AAC in teaching children with ASD to ask questions, This research will test whether iPad leads to more learning than a traditional approach picture and text cards does. Two groups of children who use AAC will be taught to ask ‘What is it?’ questions. With the first group, low-tech AAC picture and text cards will be used, while an iPad-based AAC application called Proloquo2Go will be used with the second group. Interviews with teachers and parents will be conducted before and after the experiment. The children’s perspectives will also be considered. The initial outcomes of this research indicate that iPad can be an effective tool to help children with autism to ask questions.

Keywords: autism, communication, information, iPad, pictures, requesting

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Authors: Malaiphan Pansap, Surasit Vithayarat

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The purpose of this study was to study the relationship between internal organization communications’ effectiveness and employee’s performance of Faculty of Management Science, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. Study on solutions of communication were carried out within the organization. Questionnaire was used to collect information from 136 people of staff and instructor and data were analyzed by using frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation and then data processing statistic programs. The result found that organization communication that affects their employee’s performance is sender which lack the skills for speaking and writing to convince audiences ready before taking message and the message which organizations are not always informed. The employees believe the behavior of good organization communication has a positive impact on the development of organization because the employees feel involved and be a part of the organization, by the cooperation in working to achieve the goal, the employees can work in the same direction and meet goal quickly.

Keywords: employee’s performance, faculty of management science, internal organization communications’ effectiveness, management accounting, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University

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Authors: Fakhrul Anwar Zainol, Wan Norhayate Wan Daud, Zulhamri Abdullah, Mohd Rafi Yaacob

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Malaysia has made great strides in eradicating poverty. Based on the latest figures of the 9th Malaysian Plan Mid-term review, the overall hardcore poverty percentage is down to 0.7%, and only 3.6% of the Malaysian population is living below the overall poverty line. While in the past significant efforts had been taken by the government through various developmental project to alleviate poverty in rural area had proven successful. Today, urban poverty in Malaysia is an increasingly visible phenomenon due to rural-urban migration and the natural population growth in urban areas. Given the changing dimensions and emerging new forms of poverty as a result of unwanted effects of development there is a dire need to re-examine and re-visit urban poverty in Malaysia. Based on the leaders’ perceptions, this study affirmed that social entrepreneurship organizations in Malaysia have try to overcome the urban poverty through social entrepreneurship. The new framework has been developed from the results of this study. It shows that social entrepreneurship contributed to the organizational effectiveness. This result indicates that it is important to have social entrepreneurship in order to increase the socio economy and achieve the organization’s mission. Therefore, this study has proven that social entrepreneurship is beneficial to the Malaysian.

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship, Organizational Effectiveness, Urban Poverty, Malaysia.

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Authors: Chan Ka Lok Sobel

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The rapid evolution of digital media platforms has given rise to new forms of narrative engagement, particularly through multi-channel storytelling. This research focuses on exploring the teaching pedagogy and effectiveness of multi-channel storytelling for social media, cinema, games, and streaming platforms. The study employs case studies of the popular series "Squid Game" to investigate the diverse pedagogical approaches and strategies used in teaching multi-channel storytelling. Through qualitative research methods, including interviews, surveys, and content analysis, the research assesses the effectiveness of these approaches in terms of student engagement, knowledge acquisition, critical thinking skills, and the development of digital literacy. The findings contribute to understanding best practices for incorporating multi-channel storytelling into educational contexts and enhancing learning outcomes in the digital media landscape.

Keywords: digital literacy, game-based learning, artificial intelligence, animation production, educational technology

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Authors: Olufunmilayo Folaranmi

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The study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of micro-credit scheme of (COWAD) in enhancing the living standard of women in selected local government areas of Oyo State. A survey research design was adopted for the study. A sample of 250 respondents was purposively selected for the study while a structured questionnaire tagged Effectiveness of Micro-Credit Scheme of Community Women and Development and Living Standards of Women Questionnaire (EMCSCWDQ) was designed to collect data for the study. Data collected was analyzed using frequency distribution, tables, percentages and chi-square statistics. Three hypotheses were tested for the study at 0.05 level of significance. Findings from the study indicated that loan provided by COWAD for women in selected local government areas towards improving their economic conditions has improved the living conditions of the women, promoted their general welfare, and reduced their poverty level. Findings also showed that some beneficiaries were not able to pay back, therefore reducing the effectiveness for future beneficiaries. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the providers of various micro-credit schemes of the state should design a convenient pattern of payment which will provide enough time for the beneficiaries of the loan to sell their goods or work for proper and timely payment. Also, the problem of collateral should be reviewed as the majority of women involved are poor. Other recommendations include replication of COWAD facilities in other NGOs as well as sustainability of the facility.

Keywords: micro-credit scheme, welfare, women, development, poverty

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Authors: Solehah Yaacob

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The study focuses on revisiting the effectiveness of Critical Thinking in human mind capability as a major faculty in human life. The tool used as a measurement of this knowledge ability consists of several processes including experience and education background. To emphasize the `Overview` concept, the researcher highlights two major aspects of philosophical approach, they are; Divine Revelation Concept and Modern Scientific Theory. The research compares between the both parties to introduce the Divine Revelation into Modern Scientific theory. An analytical and critical study of the both concepts become the methodology of the discussion.

Keywords: critical thinking, knowledge, intellectual, language

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Authors: Seyedeh Mozhgan Seyed-Talebi, Weng-Kent Chan, Hsin-Yi Tiffany Chen

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Lead-free perovskite photovoltaic (PV) technology employing non-toxic tin halide perovskite absorbers is pivotal for advancing perovskite solar cell (PSC) commercialization. Despite challenges posed by perovskite sensitivity to oxygen and humidity, our study utilizes DFT calculations using VASP and NanoDCAL software and SCAPS-1D simulations to elucidate the charge transport mechanism at the interface of CsSnI₃-FASnI₃ heterojunction. Results reveal how inherent electric fields facilitate efficient carrier transport, reducing recombination losses. We predict optimized power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) and highlight the potential of CsSnI3-FASnI3 heterojunctions for cost-effective and efficient charge transport layer-free (CTLF) photovoltaic devices. Our study provides insights into the future direction of recognizing more efficient, nontoxic heterojunction perovskite devices.

Keywords: charge transport layer free, CsSnI₃-FASnI₃ heterojunction, lead-free perovskite solar cell, tin halide perovskite., Charge transport layer free

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Authors: Nur Mohammad Ali, Md. Shafiqul Alam, Jayanta Bhusan Deb, Nowrin Sharmin

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The past ten years have seen significant expansion in the aviation sector, which during the previous five years has steadily pushed emerging countries closer to economic independence. It is crucial to accurately forecast the potential demand for air travel to make long-term financial plans. To forecast market demand for low-cost passenger carriers, this study suggests working with low-cost airlines, airports, consultancies, and governmental institutions' strategic planning divisions. The study aims to develop an artificial intelligence-based methods, notably fuzzy inference systems (FIS), to determine the most accurate forecasting technique for domestic low-cost carrier demand in Bangladesh. To give end users real-world applications, the study includes nine variables, two sub-FIS, and one final Mamdani Fuzzy Inference System utilizing a graphical user interface (GUI) made with the app designer tool. The evaluation criteria used in this inquiry included mean square error (MSE), accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and specificity. The effectiveness of the developed air passenger demand prediction FIS is assessed using 240 data sets, and the accuracy, precision, sensitivity, specificity, and MSE values are 90.83%, 91.09%, 90.77%, and 2.09%, respectively.

Keywords: aviation industry, fuzzy inference system, membership function, graphical user interference

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Authors: Saba Hasanvandi, Molok Khademi Ashkezari, Niloofar Esmaieli

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The research purpose was to assess the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy in metacognitive beliefs, anxiety and social phobia of male students studying in the high schools of Dargaz City. The sample comprised 30 students who were randomly selected and assigned to the experimental and control groups. The kind of this study was experimental study with pre-ops and follow-up stages. Subjects filled out metacognitive beliefs, anxiety and social phobia questionnaires. The experimental group underwent 10 sessions of therapeutic metacognitive sessions. The group therapy was conducted for ten, weekly, 90-minute sessions. Mankova analysis was utilized to analyze the data. Results revealed that metacognitive group therapy decreased metacognitive beliefs (P=0.007), anxiety (P<0.001) and social phobia (P=<0.017) in the experimental group as compared to the control group. Furthermore, the effectiveness of group metacognitive therapy was stable and consistent after one month of time interval. The results of present study can be effective for mental health professional in reaching a better understanding of anxiety and social phobia.

Keywords: group metacognitive therapy, metacognitive beliefs, anxiety, social phobia, high school students

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Authors: Pavel H. Llamocca, Victoria Lopez

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The main objective of our work is the comparative analysis of environmental data from Open Data bases, belonging to different governments. This means that you have to integrate data from various different sources. Nowadays, many governments have the intention of publishing thousands of data sets for people and organizations to use them. In this way, the quantity of applications based on Open Data is increasing. However each government has its own procedures to publish its data, and it causes a variety of formats of data sets because there are no international standards to specify the formats of the data sets from Open Data bases. Due to this variety of formats, we must build a data integration process that is able to put together all kind of formats. There are some software tools developed in order to give support to the integration process, e.g. Data Tamer, Data Wrangler. The problem with these tools is that they need data scientist interaction to take part in the integration process as a final step. In our case we don’t want to depend on a data scientist, because environmental data are usually similar and these processes can be automated by programming. The main idea of our tool is to build Hadoop procedures adapted to data sources per each government in order to achieve an automated integration. Our work focus in environment data like temperature, energy consumption, air quality, solar radiation, speeds of wind, etc. Since 2 years, the government of Madrid is publishing its Open Data bases relative to environment indicators in real time. In the same way, other governments have published Open Data sets relative to the environment (like Andalucia or Bilbao). But all of those data sets have different formats and our solution is able to integrate all of them, furthermore it allows the user to make and visualize some analysis over the real-time data. Once the integration task is done, all the data from any government has the same format and the analysis process can be initiated in a computational better way. So the tool presented in this work has two goals: 1. Integration process; and 2. Graphic and analytic interface. As a first approach, the integration process was developed using Java and Oracle and the graphic and analytic interface with Java (jsp). However, in order to open our software tool, as second approach, we also developed an implementation with R language as mature open source technology. R is a really powerful open source programming language that allows us to process and analyze a huge amount of data with high performance. There are also some R libraries for the building of a graphic interface like shiny. A performance comparison between both implementations was made and no significant differences were found. In addition, our work provides with an Official Real-Time Integrated Data Set about Environment Data in Spain to any developer in order that they can build their own applications.

Keywords: open data, R language, data integration, environmental data

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Authors: Wong Seng Yue

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Game dynamics and game mechanics are the two main components that used in gamification to engage and encourage students to learn. The advantages of gamified classroom are engaging students, increasing students interest, preserving students focus and remain a positive behaviour. However, the empirical studies on gamification are still at early stage, especially the effectiveness of various gamification components have not been evaluated. Thus, this study is aimed to conduct a user experience (UX) evaluation on gamified classroom through Prezi, which focused on learning experience, gaming experience, adaptivity, and gameplay experience. This study is a further study extended from the previous exploratory study to explore more on UX of gamified classroom via Prezi by interview. A focus group study, which involves 22 students from a foundation course has been conducted for the study. Besides the empirical data from the previous study, this focus group study has significantly found that 90.9% respondents show their positive perceptions on gaming experience via Prezi. They are interested, feel fresh, good, and highly motivated of the contents of Prezi. 95.5% participants have had a positive learning experience from the gamified classroom via Prezi, which can engage them, made them concentrate on learning and easy to remember what they have learned if compared to the traditional classroom slides. The adaptivity of the gamified classroom also high due to its zooming user interface, narrative, rewards and engagement features. This study has uncovered on how far the impact of gamification components in the classroom, especially UX that implemented in gamified classroom.

Keywords: user experience (UX), gamification, gamified classroom, Prezi

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Authors: Qijiao He, Lin Ye

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To evaluate the effect of the ribs on internal structure in film hole and the film cooling performance on outer surface, the numerical study investigates on the effects of rib configuration on the film cooling performance with ribbed cross-flow coolant channel. The base smooth case and three ribbed cases, including the continuous rib case and two cross-truncated rib cases with different arrangement, are studied. The distributions of adiabatic film cooling effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient are obtained under the blowing ratios with the value of 0.5 and 1.0, respectively. A commercial steady RANS (Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes) code with realizable k-ε turbulence model and enhanced wall treatment were performed for numerical simulations. The numerical model is validated against available experimental data. The two cross-truncated rib cases produce approximately identical cooling effectiveness compared with the smooth case under lower blowing ratio. The continuous rib case significantly outperforms the other cases. With the increase of blowing ratio, the cases with ribs are inferior to the smooth case, especially in the upstream region. The cross-truncated rib I case produces the highest cooling effectiveness among the studied the ribbed channel case. It is found that film cooling effectiveness deteriorates with the increase of spiral intensity of the cross-flow inside the film hole. Lower spiral intensity leads to a better film coverage and thus results in better cooling effectiveness. The distinct relative merits among the cases at different blowing ratios are explored based on the aforementioned dominant mechanism. With regard to the heat transfer coefficient, the smooth case has higher heat transfer intensity than the ribbed cases under the studied blowing ratios. The laterally-averaged heat transfer coefficient of the cross-truncated rib I case is higher than the cross-truncated rib II case.

Keywords: cross-flow, cross-truncated rib, film cooling, numerical simulation

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Authors: Faishal Muhammad, Erlinda Muslim, Nadia Faradilla, Sayidul Fikri

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To deal with the increase of mass transportation needs problem, PT. Kereta Commuter Jabodetabek (KCJ) implements Commuter Vending Machine (C-VIM) as the solution. For that background, C-VIM is implemented as a substitute to the conventional ticket windows with the purposes to make transaction process more efficient and to introduce self-service technology to the commuter line user. However, this implementation causing problems and long queues when the user is not accustomed to using the machine. The objective of this research is to evaluate user experience after using the commuter vending machine. The goal is to analyze the existing user experience problem and to achieve a better user experience design. The evaluation method is done by giving task scenario according to the features offered by the machine. The features are daily insured ticket sales, ticket refund, and multi-trip card top up. There 20 peoples that separated into two groups of respondents involved in this research, which consist of 5 males and 5 females each group. The experienced and inexperienced user to prove that there is a significant difference between both groups in the measurement. The user experience is measured by both quantitative and qualitative measurement. The quantitative measurement includes the user performance metrics such as task success, time on task, error, efficiency, and learnability. The qualitative measurement includes system usability scale questionnaire (SUS), questionnaire for user interface satisfaction (QUIS), and retrospective think aloud (RTA). Usability performance metrics shows that 4 out of 5 indicators are significantly different in both group. This shows that the inexperienced group is having a problem when using the C-VIM. Conventional ticket windows also show a better usability performance metrics compared to the C-VIM. From the data processing, the experienced group give the SUS score of 62 with the acceptability scale of 'marginal low', grade scale of “D”, and the adjective ratings of 'good' while the inexperienced group gives the SUS score of 51 with the acceptability scale of 'marginal low', grade scale of 'F', and the adjective ratings of 'ok'. This shows that both groups give a low score on the system usability scale. The QUIS score of the experienced group is 69,18 and the inexperienced group is 64,20. This shows the average QUIS score below 70 which indicate a problem with the user interface. RTA was done to obtain user experience issue when using C-VIM through interview protocols. The issue obtained then sorted using pareto concept and diagram. The solution of this research is interface redesign using activity relationship chart. This method resulted in a better interface with an average SUS score of 72,25, with the acceptable scale of 'acceptable', grade scale of 'B', and the adjective ratings of 'excellent'. From the time on task indicator of performance metrics also shows a significant better time by using the new interface design. Result in this study shows that C-VIM not yet have a good performance and user experience.

Keywords: activity relationship chart, commuter line vending machine, system usability scale, usability performance metrics, user experience evaluation

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Authors: Ivana Bulog

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Decision making is a vital part of the business world and any other field of human endeavor. Which way a business organization will take, and where that way will lead it, depends on broad range of decisions made by managers in the managerial structure. Strategic decisions are of the greatest importance for organizational success. Although much empirical research has been done trying to describe and explain its nature and effectiveness, knowledge about strategic decision making is still incomplete. This paper explores the nature of strategic decision making in particular setting - in Croatian companies. The main focus of this research is on the style that decision makers on strategic management level are following when making decisions of life importance for their companies. Two main decision making style that explain the way decision maker collects and processes available information and performs all the activities in strategic decision making process were empirical tested: rational and intuitive one. Besides analyzing their existence on strategic management level in Croatian companies, their effectiveness is analyzed as well. Results showed that decision makers at strategic management level are following both styles somewhat equally in order to function effectively, and that intuitive style is more effective when considering decisions outcomes.

Keywords: decision making style, decision making effectiveness, strategic decisions, management sciences

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Authors: Maryam Alimardani, Kazuo Hiraki

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This study presents a framework for development of a new generation of therapy robots that can interact with users by monitoring their physiological and mental states. Here, we focused on one of the controversial methods of therapy, hypnotherapy. Hypnosis has shown to be useful in treatment of many clinical conditions. But, even for healthy people, it can be used as an effective technique for relaxation or enhancement of memory and concentration. Our aim is to develop a robot that collects information about user’s mental and physical states using electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) signals and performs costeffective hypnosis at the comfort of user’s house. The presented framework consists of three main steps: (1) Find the EEG-correlates of mind state before, during, and after hypnosis and establish a cognitive model for state changes, (2) Develop a system that can track the changes in EEG and EMG activities in real time and determines if the user is ready for suggestion, and (3) Implement our system in a humanoid robot that will talk and conduct hypnosis on users based on their mental states. This paper presents a pilot study in regard to the first stage, detection of EEG and EMG features during hypnosis.

Keywords: hypnosis, EEG, robotherapy, brain-computer interface (BCI)

Procedia PDF Downloads 235

Authors: Walid Hassairi, Moncef Bousselmi, Mohamed Abid

Abstract:

Functional verification is a major part of today’s system design task. Several approaches are available for verification on a high abstraction level, where designs are often modeled using MATLAB/Simulink. However, different approaches are a barrier to a unified verification flow. In this paper, we propose a co-simulation interface between SystemC and MATLAB and Simulink to enable functional verification of multi-abstraction levels designs. The resulting verification flow is tested on JPEG compression algorithm. The required synchronization of both simulation environments, as well as data type conversion is solved using the proposed co-simulation flow. We divided into two encoder jpeg parts. First implemented in SystemC which is the DCT is representing the HW part. Second, consisted of quantization and entropy encoding which is implemented in Matlab is the SW part. For communication and synchronization between these two parts we use S-Function and engine in Simulink matlab. With this research premise, this study introduces a new implementation of a Hardware SystemC of DCT. We compare the result of our simulation compared to SW / SW. We observe a reduction in simulation time you have 88.15% in JPEG and the design efficiency of the supply design is 90% in SDR.

Keywords: hardware/software, co-design, co-simulation, systemc, matlab, s-function, communication, synchronization

Procedia PDF Downloads 365

Authors: Ahmed A. D. Sarhan, M. Sayuti, M. Hamdi

Abstract:

Due to rapid consumption of world's fossil fuel resources and impracticality of large-scale application and production of renewable energy, the significance of energy efficiency improvement of current available energy modes has been widely realized by both industry and academia. In the CNC machining field, the key solution for this issue is by increasing the effectiveness of the existing lubrication systems as it could reduce the power required to overcome the friction component in machining process. For more improvement, introducing the nanolubrication could produce much less power consumption as the rolling action of billions units of nanoparticle in the tool chip interface could reduce the cutting forces significantly. In this research, the possibility of using carbon onion nanolubrication with DLC cutting tool is investigated to reduce the machining power consumption. Carbon onion nanolubrication has been successfully developed with high tribology performance and mixed with ordinary mineral oil. The proper sonification method is used to provide a way to mix and suspend the particles thoroughly and efficiently. Furthermore, Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) cutting tool is used and expected to play significant role in reducing friction and cutting forces and increasing abrasion resistance. The results showed significant reduction of the cutting force and the working power compared with the other conditions of using carbon black and normal lubrication systems.

Keywords: carbon onion, nanolubrication, machining power consumption, DLC cutting tool

Procedia PDF Downloads 408

Authors: Sung Ho Oh

Abstract:

The advanced traffic lights, the system of traffic information collection and provision, the CCTVs for traffic control, and the traffic information center were installed in Asuncion, capital of Paraguay. After pre-post comparison of the installation, significant changes were found. Even though the traffic volumes were increased, travel speed was higher, so that travel time from origin to destination was decreased. the saving values for travel time, gas cost, and environmental cost are about 47 million US dollars per year. Satisfaction survey results for the installation were presented with statistical significance analysis.

Keywords: advanced transport management systems, effectiveness, Paraguay, traffic lights

Procedia PDF Downloads 327

Authors: Magdy Abdel-Aleem Abdel-Ati Mayouf, Islam Al Sayed Hussein Al Sayed

Abstract:

Development of tourism and hospitality faculties' graduates is a key to the future health of hospitality and tourism sectors. Meanwhile information and communication technologies (ICTs) increasingly become the driving engine for productivity improvement and business opportunities in tourism and hospitality industry. Tourism and hospitality education and training must address these developments to enhance the ability of future managers to adopt a variety of ICT tools and strategies to increase their organization's efficiency and competitiveness. Therefore, this study aims to explore the types and effectiveness of ICT training offered by faculties of tourism and hotels in Egypt, and evaluating the importance of that training from the graduate's point of view. The study targets the graduates who graduated in the present ten years from three different faculties of tourism and hotels. Results argued the types, levels and effectiveness of ICT training offered in these faculties and the extent to which training programs were appreciated by graduates working in different fields, and finally, it recommended particular practices to enhance the training efficiency and raising the perceived benefits of it for workers in tourism and hospitality fields.

Keywords: training, IT, graduated, tourism and hospitality, education

Procedia PDF Downloads 330

Authors: Hiroki Yoshikai, Shin’ichi Arakawa, Tetsuya Takine, Masayuki Murata

Abstract:

API (Application Programming Interface) economy is expected to create new value by converting corporate services such as information processing and data provision into APIs and using these APIs to connect services. Understanding the dynamics of a market of API economy under the strategies of participants is crucial to fully maximize the values of the API economy. To capture the behavior of a market in which the number of participants changes over time, we present a time-evolving market model for a platform in which API providers who provide APIs to service providers participate in addition to service providers and consumers. Then, we use the market model to clarify the role API providers play in expanding market participants and forming ecosystems. The results show that the platform with API providers increased the number of market participants by 67% and decreased the cost to develop services by 25% compared to the platform without API providers. Furthermore, during the expansion phase of the market, it is found that the profits of participants are mostly the same when 70% of the revenue from consumers is distributed to service providers and API providers. It is also found that when the market is mature, the profits of the service provider and API provider will decrease significantly due to their competition, and the profit of the platform increases.

Keywords: API economy, ecosystem, platform, API providers

Procedia PDF Downloads 68

Authors: N. M. Zukani, E. O. Adu

Abstract:

Homeschooling has been a primary method for parents to educate their children. It has become a growing educational phenomenon across the globe. However, homeschooling is, therefore, an alternative form of education in which children are instructed at home rather than in mainstream schools. This study evaluated the effectiveness of homeschooling in East London Education District, looking at the stakeholder’s perceptions, reviewing issues that impact on this as reflected in literature. This is a qualitative study done in selected homeschools. Semi structured interviews were used as a form of collecting data. Data was scrutinized and grouped into themes. The study revealed the importance of differentiation of instruction, and the need for flexibility in the process of homeschooling for children who faced difficulties, special needs in learning in mainstream schooling. It is therefore concluded that the participants in the study clearly showed that homeschooling is an educational choice for parents who have concerns about the quality of education of their children. Furthermore, homeschooling has the potential to be the most learner centered, nurturing educational approach. It was recommended that an effective homeschooling practice mainly, the practice should consider attention to children-parent’s goals and learning structure. Although homeschooling looks at how to overcome the drawbacks of mainstream schooling, there are also cases that reflected, the incompetency of parents or tutors conducting the homeschooling and also a need for the support material and other educational supports from the government.

Keywords: homeschooling, effectiveness, stakeholders, parents, perception

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Qazi Umer Jamil, Abubakr Siddique, Mubeen Ur Rehman, Nida Aziz, Mohsin I. Tiwana

Abstract:

This paper discusses a brain controlled robotic gait trainer for neurorehabilitation of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) patients. Patients suffering from Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) become unable to execute motion control of their lower proximities due to degeneration of spinal cord neurons. The presented approach can help SCI patients in neuro-rehabilitation training by directly translating patient motor imagery into walkers motion commands and thus bypassing spinal cord neurons completely. A non-invasive EEG based brain-computer interface is used for capturing patient neural activity. For signal processing and classification, an open source software (OpenVibe) is used. Classifiers categorize the patient motor imagery (MI) into a specific set of commands that are further translated into walker motion commands. The robotic walker also employs fall detection for ensuring safety of patient during gait training and can act as a support for SCI patients. The gait trainer is tested with subjects, and satisfactory results were achieved.

Keywords: brain computer interface (BCI), gait trainer, spinal cord injury (SCI), neurorehabilitation

Procedia PDF Downloads 133