Search results for: current scenario assessment

Authors: Charles Mbohwa, Gift Nyambe

Abstract:

The paper reviews South Africa’s industrialization, the basis of its formation and to establish whether it can be expanded using technology transfer mechanisms principles. It also seek to draw comparisons from other industrialized countries and as a baseline, and take lessons on how these industrialized countries have achieved their secondary industrialization; hence they are known as the developed countries. It identifies the challenges faced by South Africa’s current industrial base and recommend ways that could be meaningful in assisting it to be expandable. It also seeks to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on industrialization and technology transfer in advancing industry formation. It is also the intention of the paper to look at best principles outlined in operations management theories on how they could be of value in strengthening industrial formation and expansion. These principles include but not limited to the application of lean manufacturing principles, however they are not only applicable to the manufacturing sector but to any business optimization strategy. There will be emphasize on the role of the primary sector in South Africa’s industrialization and the opportunities it ought to bring in strengthening and harnessing the success of the secondary sector formation.

Keywords: Industrialization, Expansion, operations and Technology transfer.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1845

Authors: Saif Ul Haq

Abstract:

The current study intends to examine the safety and quality considerations of clients of housing projects and their impact on the adoption of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) by the construction firm. Mixed method research technique has been used to collect and analyze the data wherein a survey was conducted to collect the data from 220 clients of housing projects in Saudi Arabia. Then, the telephonic and Skype interviews were conducted to collect data of 15 professionals working in the top ten real estate companies of Saudi Arabia. Data were analyzed by using partial least square (PLS) and thematic analysis techniques. Findings reveal that today’s customer prioritizes the safety and quality requirements of their houses and as a result, construction firms adopt QFD to address the needs of customers. The findings are of great importance for the clients of housing projects as well as for the construction firms as they could apply QFD in housing projects to address the safety and quality concerns of their clients.

Keywords: Construction industry, quality considerations, quality function deployment, safety considerations.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 877

Authors: S. Di Benedetto, M. P. Di Donato, A. Rispoli, S. Cardone, J. Riehmer, J. Steelant, L. Vecchione

Abstract:

Thanks to a coordinated funding by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission (EC) within the 7th framework program, the High-Speed Experimental Fly Vehicles – International (HEXAFLY-INT) project is aimed at the flight validation of hypersonics technologies enabling future trans-atmospheric flights. The project, which is currently involving partners from Europe, Russian Federation and Australia operating under ESA/ESTEC coordination, will achieve the goal of designing, manufacturing, assembling and flight testing an unpowered high speed vehicle in a glider configuration by 2018. The main technical challenges of the project are specifically related to the design of the vehicle gliding configuration and to the complexity of integrating breakthrough technologies with standard aeronautical technologies, e.g. high temperature protection system and airframe cold structures. Also, the sonic boom impact, which is one of the environmental challenges of the high speed flight, will be assessed. This paper provides a comprehensive and detailed update on all the current projects activities carried out to date on both the vehicle and mission design.

Keywords: Design, flight testing, hypersonics, integration.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2293

Authors: Zofija Tupikovskaja-Omovie, David Tyler, Sam Dhanapala, Steve Hayes

Abstract:

The UK is leading in online retail and mobile adoption. However, there is a dearth of information relating to mobile apparel retail, and developing an understanding about consumer browsing and purchase behaviour in m-retail channel would provide apparel marketers, mobile website and app developers with the necessary understanding of consumers’ needs. Despite the rapid growth of mobile retail businesses, no published study has examined shopping behaviour on fashion mobile apps and websites. A mixed method approach helped to understand why fashion consumers prefer websites on smartphones, when diverse mobile apps are also available. The following research methods were employed: survey, eye-tracking experiments, observation, and interview with retrospective think aloud. The mobile gaze tracking device by SensoMotoric Instruments was used to understand frustrations in navigation and other issues facing consumers in mobile channel. This method helped to validate and compliment other traditional user-testing approaches in order to optimize user experience and enhance the development of mobile retail channel. The study involved eight participants - females aged 18 to 35 years old, who are existing mobile shoppers. The participants used the Topshop mobile app and website on a smart phone to complete a task according to a specified scenario leading to a purchase. The comparative study was based on: duration and time spent at different stages of the shopping journey, number of steps involved and product pages visited, search approaches used, layout and visual clues, as well as consumer perceptions and expectations. The results from the data analysis show significant differences in consumer behaviour when using a mobile app or website on a smart phone. Moreover, two types of problems were identified, namely technical issues and human errors. Having a mobile app does not guarantee success in satisfying mobile fashion consumers. The differences in the layout and visual clues seem to influence the overall shopping experience on a smart phone. The layout of search results on the website was different from the mobile app. Therefore, participants, in most cases, behaved differently on different platforms. The number of product pages visited on the mobile app was triple the number visited on the website due to a limited visibility of products in the search results. Although, the data on traffic trends held by retailers to date, including retail sector breakdowns for visits and views, data on device splits and duration, might seem a valuable source of information, it cannot explain why consumers visit many product pages, stay longer on the website or mobile app, or abandon the basket. A comprehensive list of pros and cons was developed by highlighting issues for website and mobile app, and recommendations provided. The findings suggest that fashion retailers need to be aware of actual consumers’ behaviour on the mobile channel and their expectations in order to offer a seamless shopping experience. Added to which is the challenge of retaining existing and acquiring new customers. There seem to be differences in the way fashion consumers search and shop on mobile, which need to be explored in further studies.

Keywords: Consumer behaviour, eye-tracking technology, fashion retail, mobile app, m-retail, smart phones, Topshop, user experience, website.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2349

Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

Abstract:

Indices derived from anthropometric measurements [waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)] or body fat mass compositions [trunk-to-leg fat ratio (TLFR)] are used for the evaluation of obesity. The best for clinical practices is still being investigated. The aim of this study is to derive an index, which best suits the purpose for the discrimination of children with normal body mass index (N-BMI) from obese (OB) children. 83 children participated in the study. Groups 1 and 2 comprised 42 children with N-BMI and 41 OB children, whose age- and sex-adjusted BMI percentile values vary between 15-85 and 95-99, respectively. The institutional ethics committee approved the study protocol. Informed consent forms were filled by the parents of the participants. Anthropometric measurements (weight, height (Ht), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), neck circumference (NC) values) were taken. BMI, WHR, (WC+HC)/2, WC/Ht, (WC/HC)/Ht, WC*NC were calculated. Bioelectrical impedance analysis was performed to obtain body’s fat compartments in terms of total fat, trunk fat, leg fat, arm fat masses. TLFR, trunk-to-appendicular fat ratio (TAFR), (trunk fat+leg fat)/2 ((TF+LF)/2), fat mass index (FMI) and diagnostic obesity notation model assessment-II (D2I) index values were calculated. Statistical analysis was performed. Significantly higher values of (WC+HC)/2, (TF+LF)/2, D2I and FMI were observed in OB group than N-BMI group. Significant correlations were found between BMI and WC, (WC+HC)/2, (TF+LF)/2, TLFR, TAFR, D2I, FMI in both groups. Similar correlations were obtained for WC. (WC+HC)/2 was correlated with TLFR, TAFR, (TF+LF)/2, D2I and FMI in N-BMI group. In OB group, the correlations were the same except those with TLFR and TAFR. These correlations were not present with WHR. Correlations were observed between TLFR as well as TAFR and BMI, WC, (WC+HC)/2, (TF+LF)/2, D2I, FMI in N-BMI group. In OB group, correlations between TLFR or TAFR and BMI, WC as well as (WC+HC)/2 were missing. None was noted with WHR. In conclusion, the only correlation valid in both groups was that exists between (TF+LF)/2 and (WC+HC)/2, which was suggested as a link between fat-based and anthropometric indices. (WC+HC)/2, but not WHR, was much more suitable as an anthropometric obesity index.

Keywords: Children, hip circumference, obesity, waist circumference.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 392

Authors: J. Bolzan, C. Marden

Abstract:

The article proposed intends to analyze the possibility (and conditions) of a media regulation law in a democratic rule of law in the twenty-first century. To do so, will be presented initially the idea of the public sphere (by Jürgen Habermas), showing how it is presented as an interface between the citizen and the state (or the private and public) and how important is it in a deliberative democracy. Based on this paradigm, the traditional perception of the role of public information (such as system functional element) and on the possibility of media regulation will be exposed, due to the public nature of their activity. A critical argument will then be displayed from two different perspectives: a) the formal function of the current media information, considering that the digital age has fragmented the information access; b) the concept of a constructive democracy, which reduces the need for representation, changing the strategic importance of the public sphere. The question to be addressed (based on the comparative law) is if the regulation is justified in a polycentric democracy, especially when it operates under the digital age (with immediate and virtual communication). The proposal is to be presented in the sense that even in a twenty-first century the media in a democratic rule of law still has an extremely important role and may be subject to regulation, but this should be on terms very different (and narrower) from those usually defended.

Keywords: Media regulation, public sphere, digital age, constructive democracy.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2424

Authors: Seung You Na, Joo Hyun Jung, Jin Young Kim, Mohammad AhangarKiasari

Abstract:

There are various kinds of medical equipment which requires relatively accurate positional adjustments for successful treatment. However, patients tend to move without notice during a certain span of operations. Therefore, it is common practice that accompanying operators adjust the focus of the equipment. In this paper, tracking controllers for medical equipment are suggested to replace the operators. The tracking controllers use AHRS sensor information to recognize the movements of patients. Sensor fusion is applied to reducing the error magnitudes through linear Kalman filters. The image processing of optical markers is included to adjust the accumulation errors of gyroscope sensor data especially for yaw angles. The tracking controller reduces the positional errors between the current focus of a device and the target position on the body of a patient. Since the sensing frequencies of AHRS sensors are very high compared to the physical movements, the control performance is satisfactory. The typical applications are, for example, ESWT or rTMS, which have the error ranges of a few centimeters.

Keywords: AHRS, Sensor fusion, Tracking control, Position and posture.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1881

Authors: Nazedah Ain Ibrahim, Mohamed Mansor Manan

Abstract:

Information regarding early onset neonatal sepsis (EONS) pathogens may vary between regions. Global perspectives showed Group B Streptococcal (GBS) as the most common causative pathogens, but the widespread use of intrapartum antibiotics has changed the pathogens pattern towards gram negative microorganisms, especially E. coli. Objective of this study is to describe the pathogens isolated, to assess current treatment and risk of EONS. Records of 899 neonates born in three General Hospitals between 2009 until 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. Proven was found in 22 (3%) neonates. The majority was isolated with gram positive organisms, 17 (2.3%). All grams positive and most gram negative organisms showed sensitivity to the tested antibiotics. Only two rare gram negative organisms showed total resistant. Male was possible risk of proven EONS. Although proven EONS remains uncommon in Malaysia, nonetheless, the effect of intrapartum antibiotics still required continuous surveillance.

Keywords: Early onset neonatal sepsis, neonates, pathogens, gram positive, gram negative.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3039

Authors: Roohi Shabrin S., Devi Prasad B., Prabu D., Pallavi R. S., Revathi P.

Abstract:

Due to memory leaks, often-valuable system memory gets wasted and denied for other processes thereby affecting the computational performance. If an application-s memory usage exceeds virtual memory size, it can leads to system crash. Current memory leak detection techniques for clusters are reactive and display the memory leak information after the execution of the process (they detect memory leak only after it occur). This paper presents a Dynamic Memory Monitoring Agent (DMMA) technique. DMMA framework is a dynamic memory leak detection, that detects the memory leak while application is in execution phase, when memory leak in any process in the cluster is identified by DMMA it gives information to the end users to enable them to take corrective actions and also DMMA submit the affected process to healthy node in the system. Thus provides reliable service to the user. DMMA maintains information about memory consumption of executing processes and based on this information and critical states, DMMA can improve reliability and efficaciousness of cluster computing.

Keywords: Dynamic Memory Monitoring Agent (DMMA), Cluster Computing, Memory Leak, Fault Tolerant Framework, Dynamic Memory Leak Detection (DMLD).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2263

Authors: Dilshad G.A. Ganjo, Ahmed I. Khwakaram

Abstract:

An attempt was made for availability of wastewater reuse/reclamation for irrigation purposes using phytoremediation “the low cost and less technology", using six local aquatic macrophytes “e.g. T. angustifolia, B. maritimus, Ph. australis, A. donax, A. plantago-aquatica and M. longifolia (Linn)" as biological waste purifiers. Outdoor experiments/designs were conducted from May 03, 2007 till October 15, 2008, close to one of the main sewage channels of Sulaimani City/Iraq*. All processes were mainly based on conventional wastewater treatment processes, besides two further modifications were tested, the first was sand filtration pots, implanted by individual species of experimental macrophytes and the second was constructed wetlands implanted by experimental macrophytes all together. Untreated and treated wastewater samples were analyzed for their key physico-chemical properties (only heavy metals Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu with particular reference to removal efficiency by experimental macrophytes are highlighted in this paper). On the other hand, vertical contents of heavy metals were also evaluated from both pots and the cells of constructed wetland. After 135 days, macrophytes were harvested and heavy metals were analyzed in their biomass (roots/shoots) for removal efficiency assessment (i.e. uptake/ bioaccumulation rate). Results showed that; removal efficiency of all studied heavy metals was much higher in T. angustifolia followed by Ph. Australis, B. maritimus and A. donax in triple experiment sand pots. Constructed wetland experiments have revealed that; the more replicated constructed wetland cells the highest heavy metal removal efficiency was indicated.

Keywords: Aquatic Macrophytes, Heavy Metals (Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu), Phytoremediation and Removal Efficiency.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3323

Authors: H. Fallah, Z. Naddaf Baghdadabadi

Abstract:

Planning of economic activities development has various dimensions one of which determines adequate capacity of economic activities in provinces regarding the government-s goals. Paralleling planning goals of economic activities development including subjects being focused on the view statement is effective to better realize the statement's goals. Current paper presents a native framework for economic activities development in provincial level. Triple steps within the framework are concordant with the view statement-s goals achievement. At first step of the proposed framework, economic activities are being prioritized in terms of employment indices, and secondly economic activities regarding to the province's relative advantages are being recognized. In the third step, desirable capacity of economic activities is determined with regards to the government's goals and effective constraints in economic activities development. Development of economic activities related to the provinces- relative advantages, contributes on regional balance and on equal development of economic activities. Furthermore, results of the framework enable more confident investment, affect employment development and remove unemployment concern as the main goals of the view statement.

Keywords: Development, economic activity, regional planning, view statement.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1285

Authors: Mamoon M. Atout

Abstract:

The Middle East Gulf region has witnessed rapid growth and development in many areas over the last two decades. The development of the real-estate sector, construction industry and infrastructure projects are a major share of the development that has participated in the civilization of the countries of the Gulf. Construction industry projects were planned and managed by different types of experts, who came from all over the world having different types of experiences in construction management and industry. Some of these projects were completed on time, while many were not, due to many accumulating factors. Many accumulated factors are considered as the principle reason for the problem experienced at the project construction stage, which reflected negatively on the project success. Specific causes of delay have been identified by construction managers to avoid any unexpected delays through proper analysis and considerations to some implications such as risk assessment and analysis for many potential problems to ensure that projects will be delivered on time. Construction management implications were adopted and considered by project managers who have experience and knowledge in applying the techniques of the system of engineering construction management. The aim of this research is to determine the benefits of the implications of construction management by the construction team and level of considerations of the techniques and processes during the project development and construction phases to avoid any delay in the projects. It also aims to determine the factors that participate to project completion delays in case project managers are not well committed to their roles and responsibilities. The results of the analysis will determine the necessity of the applications required by the project team to avoid the causes of delays that help them deliver projects on time, e.g. verifying tender documents, quantities and preparing the construction method of the project.

Keywords: Construction management, control process, cost control, planning and scheduling, roles and responsibilities.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1401

Authors: A. Doosti, S. Moshkelani

Abstract:

Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease; its symptoms and appearances are not exclusive in human and its traditional diagnosis is based on culture, serological methods and conventional PCR. For more sensitive, specific detection and differentiation of Brucella spp., the real time PCR method is recommended. This research has performed to determine the presence and prevalence of Brucella spp. and differentiation of Brucella abortus and Brucella melitensis in house mouse (Mus musculus) in west of Iran. A TaqMan analysis and single-step PCR was carried out in total 326 DNA of Mouse's spleen samples. From the total number of 326 samples, 128 (39.27%) gave positive results for Brucella spp. by conventional PCR, also 65 and 32 out of the 128 specimens were positive for B. melitensis, B. abortus, respectively. These results indicate a high presence of this pathogen in this area and that real time PCR is considerably faster than current standard methods for identification and differentiation of Brucella species. To our knowledge, this study is the first prevalence report of direct identification and differentiation of B. abortus and B. melitensis by real time PCR in mouse tissue samples in Iran.

Keywords: Differentiation, B. abortus, B. melitensis, TaqManprobe, Iran.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1553

Authors: Lee Bih Ni, Nurul Asyikin Binti Hassan

Abstract:

This paper discusses the use of mnemonic and mathematical methods in enhancing the understanding of history. Mnemonics can help students from all levels including high school and in various disciplines including language, math and history. At the secondary level, students are exposed to various courses that require them to remember many facts that can be mastered through the application of mnemonic techniques. Researchers use narrative literature studies to illustrate the current state of art and science in the field of research focused. Researchers used narrative literature reviews to build a scientific base of knowledge. Researchers gather all the key points in the discussion, and put it here by referring to the specific field where the paper is essentially based. The findings suggest that the use of mnemonic techniques can improve the individual's memory by adding little effort. In implementing mnemonic techniques, it is important to integrate mathematics and history in the course as both are interconnected as mathematics has shaped our history and vice versa. This study shows that memory skills can actually be improved; the human mind can remember something more than expected.

Keywords: Cognitive strategy, mnemonic technique, secondary school level study, mathematical mnemonic.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 984

Authors: H. Dardour, S. Mazouz, A. Bellagi

Abstract:

For many industrial applications plate heat exchangers are demonstrating a large superiority over the other types of heat exchangers. The efficiency of such a device depends on numerous factors the effect of which needs to be analysed and accurately evaluated. In this paper we present a theoretical analysis of a cocurrent plate heat exchanger and the results of its numerical simulation. Knowing the hot and the cold fluid streams inlet temperatures, the respective heat capacities mCp and the value of the overall heat transfer coefficient, a 1-D mathematical model based on the steady flow energy balance for a differential length of the device is developed resulting in a set of N first order differential equations with boundary conditions where N is the number of channels.For specific heat exchanger geometry and operational parameters, the problem is numerically solved using the shooting method. The simulation allows the prediction of the temperature map in the heat exchanger and hence, the evaluation of its performances. A parametric analysis is performed to evaluate the influence of the R-parameter on the e-NTU values. For practical purposes effectiveness-NTU graphs are elaborated for specific heat exchanger geometry and different operating conditions.

Keywords: Plate heat exchanger, thermal performance, NTU, effectiveness.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9632

Authors: Yang-Wai Chow

Abstract:

This research investigates the design of a low-cost 3D spatial interaction approach using the Wii Remote for immersive Head-Mounted Display (HMD) virtual reality. Current virtual reality applications that incorporate the Wii Remote are either desktop virtual reality applications or systems that use large screen displays. However, the requirements for an HMD virtual reality system differ from such systems. This is mainly because in HMD virtual reality, the display screen does not remain at a fixed location. The user views the virtual environment through display screens that are in front of the user-s eyes and when the user moves his/her head, these screens move as well. This means that the display has to be updated in realtime based on where the user is currently looking. Normal usage of the Wii Remote requires the controller to be pointed in a certain direction, typically towards the display. This is too restrictive for HMD virtual reality systems that ideally require the user to be able to turn around in the virtual environment. Previous work proposed a design to achieve this, however it suffered from a number of drawbacks. The aim of this study is to look into a suitable method of using the Wii Remote for 3D interaction in a space around the user for HMD virtual reality. This paper presents an overview of issues that had to be considered, the system design as well as experimental results.

Keywords: 3D interaction, head-mounted display, virtual reality, Wii remote

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1579

Authors: Anita Kéri

Abstract:

Higher education marketing has been a widely researched field in recent years. Due to the increasing competition among higher education institutions worldwide, it has become crucial to target foreign students with effective marketing tools. Online marketing tools became central to attracting, retaining, and satisfying the needs of foreign students. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to reveal how the online marketing tools of a Hungarian university are perceived visually by its first-year foreign students, with special emphasis on the university webpage content. Eye-camera tracking and retrospective think aloud interviews were used to measure visual perceptions. Results show that freshmen students remember those online marketing content more that have familiar content on them. Pictures of real-life students and their experiences attract students’ attention more, and they also remember information on these webpage elements more, compared to designs with stock photos. This research uses eye camera tracking in the field of higher education marketing, thereby providing insight into the perception of online higher education marketing for foreign students.

Keywords: Higher education, marketing, eye-camera, visual perception.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Chen Zhang, Jiwu Wang

Abstract:

With China's urbanization continuing to accelerate, a amount of rural people flood into China's cities in recent years, and the issue of agriculture, rural areas and farmers is getting more and more serious. In 2005, the Chinese government put forward a plan for “the construction of new rural village", in order to coordinate the development of both urban and rural areas. The planning method of rural region differs sharply from that of urban areas, as same as village social structure and habits of farmer-s life, so the studies which can consider the special needs of village construction in China are absolutely essential. This paper expresses explore current situation and problems existing in the construction of China-s new rural village, such as bigger gap between urban and rural areas, excessive new construction projects, extinct traditional village style and so on. It tries to analyze the deep reason of the present situation of the village from law system, industrial structure, financial sources and planning method. Then it also provides a guide for developing policies and procedures promoting the development of china-s rural areas.

Keywords: Rural areas, village construction, physical planning, law system, financial sources, Public participation, China.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1985

Authors: Scott N. Gerard, Aliza Heching, Susann M. Keohane, Samuel S. Adams

Abstract:

The world-wide population of people over 60 years of age is growing rapidly. The explosion is placing increasingly onerous demands on individual families, multiple industries and entire countries. Current, human-intensive approaches to eldercare are not sustainable, but IoT and AI technologies can help. The Knowledge Reactor (KR) is a contextual, data fusion engine built to address this and other similar problems. It fuses and centralizes IoT and System of Record/Engagement data into a reactive knowledge graph. Cognitive applications and services are constructed with its multiagent architecture. The KR can scale-up and scaledown, because it exploits container-based, horizontally scalable services for graph store (JanusGraph) and pub-sub (Kafka) technologies. While the KR can be applied to many domains that require IoT and AI technologies, this paper describes how the KR specifically supports the challenging domain of cognitive eldercare. Rule- and machine learning-based analytics infer activities of daily living from IoT sensor readings. KR scalability, adaptability, flexibility and usability are demonstrated.

Keywords: Ambient sensing, AI, artificial intelligence, eldercare, IoT, internet of things, knowledge graph.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1026

Authors: N. Kannan, Sabu Joseph

Abstract:

Groundwater is an essential and vital component of our life support system. The groundwater resources are being utilized for drinking, irrigation and industrial purposes. There is growing concern on deterioration of groundwater quality due to geogenic and anthropogenic activities. Groundwater, being a fragile must be carefully managed to maintain its purity within standard limits. So, quality assessment and management are to be carried out hand-in-hand to have a pollution free environment and for a sustainable use. In order to assess the quality for consumption by human beings and for use in agriculture, the groundwater from the shallow aquifers (dug well) in the Palakkad and Chittur taluks of Bharathapuzha river basin - a paddy dominated agricultural basin (order=8th; L= 209 Km; Area = 6186 Km2), Kerala, India, has been selected. The water samples (n= 120) collected for various seasons, viz., monsoon-MON (August, 2005), postmonsoon-POM (December, 2005) and premonsoon-PRM (April, 2006), were analyzed for important physico-chemical attributes. Spatial and temporal variation of attributes do exist in the study area, and based on major cations and anions, different hydrochemical facies have been identified. Using Gibbs'diagram, rock dominance has been identified as the mechanism controlling groundwater chemistry. Further, the suitability of water for irrigation was determined by analyzing salinity hazard indicated by sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), residual sodium carbonate (RSC) and sodium percent (%Na). Finally, stress zones in the study area were delineated using Arc GIS spatial analysis and various management options were recommended to restore the ecosystem.

Keywords: Groundwater quality, agricultural basin, Kerala, India.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2584

Authors: A. Hol

Abstract:

Electronic mediums such as websites, feeds, blogs and social media sites are on a daily basis influencing our decision making, are improving our productivity and are shaping futures of many consumers and service/product providers. This research identifies that both customers and business providers heavily rely on smart phone applications. Based on this, mobile applications available on iTunes store were studied. It was identified that fruit and vegetable related applications used by consumers can broadly be categorized into purchase applications, diaries, tracking health applications, trip farm location and cooking applications. On the other hand, applications used by farmers can broadly be classified as: weather tracking, pests / fertilizer applications and general social media applications such as Facebook. To blur this farmer-consumer application divide, our research utilizes Context Specific eTransformation Framework and based on it identifies characteristic future consumer-farmer applications will need to have so that the current divide can be narrowed and consequently better farmerconsumer supply chain link established.

Keywords: Smart Phone Applications, SME, Farmers, Consumer, Fruit and Vegetable, Technology, Business Innovation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1550

Authors: Razan Salem

Abstract:

Men and women have different approaches towards investing, both in terms of strategies and risk attitudes. This study aims to focus mainly on investigating the financial risk behaviors of Arab women investors and to examine the financial risk tolerance levels of Arab women relative to Arab men investors. Using survey data on 547 Arab men and women investors, the results of Wilcoxon Signed-Rank (One-Sample) test Mann-Whitney U test reveal that Arab women are risk-averse investors and have lower financial risk tolerance levels relative to Arab men. Such findings can be explained by the fact of women's nature and lower investment literacy levels. Further, the current political uncertainty in the Arab region may be considered as another explanation of Arab women’s risk aversion behavior. The study's findings support the existing literature by validating the stereotype of “women are more risk-averse than men” in the Arab region. Overall, when it comes to investment and financial behaviors, women around the world behave similarly.

Keywords: Arab region, financial risk behavior, gender differences, women investors.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 959

Authors: Serin Lee, Takashi Kubota, Ichiro Nakatani

Abstract:

The approaches to make an agent generate intelligent actions in the AI field might be roughly categorized into two ways–the classical planning and situated action system. It is well known that each system have its own strength and weakness. However, each system also has its own application field. In particular, most of situated action systems do not directly deal with the logical problem. This paper first briefly mentions the novel action generator to situatedly extract a set of actions, which is likely to help to achieve the goal at the current situation in the relaxed logical space. After performing the action set, the agent should recognize the situation for deciding the next likely action set. However, since the extracted action is an approximation of the action which helps to achieve the goal, the agent could be caught into the deadlock of the problem. This paper proposes the newly developed hybrid architecture to solve the problem, which combines the novel situated action generator with the conventional planner. The empirical result in some planning domains shows that the quality of the resultant path to the goal is mostly acceptable as well as deriving the fast response time, and suggests the correlation between the structure of problems and the organization of each system which generates the action.

Keywords: Situated reasoning, situated action, planning, hybrid architecture

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1108

Authors: Frank C. Pan

Abstract:

The Taiwan Health Literacy Scale (THLS) was developed to cope with the need of measuring heath literacy of Chinese-speaking adults in Taiwan. Although the scale was proven having good reliability and validity, it was not popularly adopted by the practitioners due to the length, and the time required completing. Based on the THLS, this research further invited healthcare professionals to review the original scale for a possible shorten work. Under the logic of THLS, the research adopted an analytic hierarchy process technique to consolidate the healthcare experts- assessments to shorten the original scale. There are fifteen items out of the original 66 items were identified having higher loadings. Confirmed by the experts and passed a pilot test with 40 undergraduate students, a short form of THLS is then introduced. This research then used 839 samples from the major cities of the Hua-lien county in the eastern part of Taiwan to test the reliability and validity of this new scale. The reliability of the scale is high and acceptable. The current scale is also highly correlated with the original, of which provide evidence for the validity of the scale.

Keywords: Health literacy, THLS, health education, STHLS.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1894

Authors: Sundararajan Sangeetha, Joseph Jesu Christopher, Swaminathan Ramakrishnan

Abstract:

In this work, the primary compressive strength components of human femur trabecular bone are qualitatively assessed using image processing and wavelet analysis. The Primary Compressive (PC) component in planar radiographic femur trabecular images (N=50) is delineated by semi-automatic image processing procedure. Auto threshold binarization algorithm is employed to recognize the presence of mineralization in the digitized images. The qualitative parameters such as apparent mineralization and total area associated with the PC region are derived for normal and abnormal images.The two-dimensional discrete wavelet transforms are utilized to obtain appropriate features that quantify texture changes in medical images .The normal and abnormal samples of the human femur are comprehensively analyzed using Harr wavelet.The six statistical parameters such as mean, median, mode, standard deviation, mean absolute deviation and median absolute deviation are derived at level 4 decomposition for both approximation and horizontal wavelet coefficients. The correlation coefficient of various wavelet derived parameters with normal and abnormal for both approximated and horizontal coefficients are estimated. It is seen that in almost all cases the abnormal show higher degree of correlation than normals. Further the parameters derived from approximation coefficient show more correlation than those derived from the horizontal coefficients. The parameters mean and median computed at the output of level 4 Harr wavelet channel was found to be a useful predictor to delineate the normal and the abnormal groups.

Keywords: Image processing, planar radiographs, trabecular bone and wavelet analysis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1481

Authors: Irina Pyrlina

Abstract:

This article presents the results of a study conducted to identify operational risks for information systems (IS) with service-oriented architecture (SOA). Analysis of current approaches to risk and system error classifications revealed that the system error classes were never used for SOA risk estimation. Additionally system error classes are not normallyexperimentally supported with realenterprise error data. Through the study several categories of various existing error classifications systems are applied and three new error categories with sub-categories are identified. As a part of operational risks a new error classification scheme is proposed for SOA applications. It is based on errors of real information systems which are service providers for application with service-oriented architecture. The proposed classification approach has been used to classify SOA system errors for two different enterprises (oil and gas industry, metal and mining industry). In addition we have conducted a research to identify possible losses from operational risks.

Keywords: Enterprise architecture, Error classification, Oil&Gas and Metal&Mining industries, Operational risks, Serviceoriented architecture

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1593

Authors: Tahany W. Sadak, Fouly, A. Anwer, M. Rizk

Abstract:

The current investigation presents a study on the hydraulic performance of an electro-hydraulic servo solenoid valve controlled linear piston used in hydraulic systems. Advanced methods have been used to measure and record laboratory experiments, to ensure accurate analysis and evaluation. Experiments have been conducted under different values of temperature (28, 40 and 50 °C), supply pressure (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 bar), system stiffness (32 N/mm), and load (0.0 & 5560 N). It is concluded that increasing temperature of hydraulic oil increases the quantity of flow rate, so it achieves an increase of the quantity of flow by 5.75 % up to 48.8 % depending on operating conditions. The values of pressure decay at low temperature are less than the values at high temperature. The frequency increases with the increase of the temperature. When we connect the springs to the system, it decreases system frequency. These results are very useful in the process of packing and manufacturing of fluid products, where the properties are not affected by 50 °C, so energy and time are saved.

Keywords: Electro Hydraulic Servo Valve, fluid power control system, system stiffness, static and dynamic performance.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 665

Authors: Peter Odero Akuon

Abstract:

A rain cell ratio model is proposed that computes attenuation of the smallest rain cell which represents the maximum rain rate value i.e. the cell size when rainfall rate is exceeded 0.01% of the time, R_0.01 and predicts attenuation for other cells as the ratio with this maximum. This model incorporates the dependence of the path factor r on the ellipsoidal path variation of the Fresnel zone at different frequencies. In addition, the inhomogeneity of rainfall is modeled by a rain drop packing density factor. In order to derive the model, two empirical methods that can be used to find rain cell size distribution D_c are presented. Subsequently, attenuation measurements from different climatic zones for terrestrial radio links with frequencies F in the range 7-38 GHz are used to test the proposed model. Prediction results show that the path factor computed from the rain cell ratio technique has improved reliability when compared with other path factor and effective rain rate models, including the current ITU-R 530-15 model of 2013.

Keywords: Packing density of rain drops, prediction model, rain attenuation, rain cell ratio technique.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 675

Authors: Mo Zhou, Samantha Ashby, Lyn Ebert

Abstract:

In China, the changes that men experience in the perinatal period are not well researched. Men are also at risk of maladaptation to parenthood. The aim of this research is to review current studies regarding changes that Chinese men experience during transitioning to parenthood. 5 databases were employed to search relevant papers. The search found 128 articles. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 35 articles were included in this integrative review. Results showed the changes that Chinese fathers experienced during the transition to parenthood can be divided into two aspects: family relationships and mental problems. During transition to parenthood, fathers usually experienced an increase in their disappointment with marital conflict resolution and decreased sexual intimacy with their partner. Mental health declined, with fathers often feeling depressed and/or anxious during this time. Some men were diagnosed with clinical depression. The predictors of these changes included three domains: personal background (age and income), family background (gender of infant, relationship status and unplanned child) and cultural background (‘doing the month’, Confucianism, policy, social support).

Keywords: China, fathers, life change, prenatal, postpartum.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 655

Authors: Israt Jahan Eshita

Abstract:

Flows developed between two parallel disks have many engineering applications. Two types of non-swirling flows can be generated in such a domain. One is purely source flow in disc type domain (outward flow). Other is purely sink flow in disc type domain (inward flow). This situation often appears in some turbo machinery components such as air bearings, heat exchanger, radial diffuser, vortex gyroscope, disc valves, and viscosity meters. The main goal of this paper is to show the mesh convergence, because mesh convergence saves time, and economical to run and increase the efficiency of modeling for both sink and source flow. Then flow field is resolved using a very fine mesh near-wall, using enhanced wall treatment. After that we are going to compare this flow using standard k-epsilon, RNG k-epsilon turbulence models. Lastly compare some experimental data with numerical solution for sink flow. The good agreement of numerical solution with the experimental works validates the current modeling.

Keywords: Hydraulic diameter, k-epsilon model, meshes convergence, Reynolds number, RNG model, sink flow, source flow and wall y+.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2512