Search results for: quality of life

Authors: Davinder Singh, Jaimal Singh Khamba, Tarun Nanda

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MSMEs are regarded as the sunrise sector of the Indian economy in view of its large potential for growth and likely socio economic impact specifically on employment and income generation. In today’s competitive business environment, global competition forces companies to continuously seek ways of improving their products and services. The pressure on organizations to adapt to new technologies and external threats requires resourcefulness, creativity and innovation. Market has become more open, competitive and customers more demanding. Without continuous technology innovation, no organization can ever remain competitive. Innovations reflect a critical way in which organizations respond to either technological or market challenges. The need of the market is to deliver high quality products through continuous changing in features in product, improve existing products, reduce their cost, and improve employee skills, training, technology infrastructure and financial policies. Therefore, the key factor of organization’s ability to change is innovation. The study presents a detailed review of literature on the role of technology innovation in improving manufacturing performance of industries.

Keywords: Competitive, Manufacturing performance, MSMEs, Technological Innovation.

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Authors: Tatjana Rakcejeva, Ingrida Augspole, Lija Dukalska, Fredijs Dimins

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carrot is one of the important root vegetable crops, and it is highly nutritious as it contains appreciable amount of vitamins, minerals and β-carotene. The major objective of current research was to evaluate the chemical composition of carrot variety 'Nante' hybrids in general and to select the best samples for fresh-cut salad production. The research was accomplished on fresh in Latvia cultivated carrots harvested in Zemgale region in the first part of October, 2011 and immediately used for experiments. Late-bearing variety 'Nante' hybrid carrots were used for analysis: 'Nante/Berlikum', 'Nante/Maestro', 'Nante/Forto', 'Nante/Bolero' and 'Nante/Champion'. The quality parameters as moisture, soluble solid, firmness, b-carotene, carotenoid, color, polyphenols, total phenolic compounds and total antioxidant capacity were analyzed using standard methods. For fresh-cut salad production as more applicable could be recommended hybrids 'Nante/Forto' and 'Nante/Berlikum' - mainly because it-s higher nutritive value, as higher total phenolic compounds, polyphenols and pronounced antioxidant capacity.

Keywords: carrots, chemical composition, evaluation

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Authors: Mohammed A. Elhaj, Jamal S. Yassin

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This paper presents the exergy analysis of a desalination unit using humidification-dehumidification process. Here, this unit is considered as a thermal system with three main components, which are the heating unit by using a solar collector, the evaporator or the humidifier, and the condenser or the dehumidifier. In these components the exergy is a measure of the quality or grade of energy and it can be destroyed in them. According to the second law of thermodynamics this destroyed part is due to irreversibilities which must be determined to obtain the exergetic efficiency of the system. In the current paper a computer program has been developed using visual basic to determine the exergy destruction and the exergetic efficiencies of the components of the desalination unit at variable operation conditions such as feed water temperature, outlet air temperature, air to feed water mass ratio and salinity, in addition to cooling water mass flow rate and inlet temperature, as well as quantity of solar irradiance. The results obtained indicate that the exergy efficiency of the humidifier increases by increasing the mass ratio and decreasing the outlet air temperature. In the other hand the exergy efficiency of the condenser increases with the increase of this ratio and also with the increase of the outlet air temperature.

Keywords: Exergy analysis, desalination, solar, humidifier, condenser.

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Authors: Anahita Farhang Ghahfarokhi, Alessandro Berti, Wil M.P. van der Aalst

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Process mining provides ways to analyze business processes. Common process mining techniques consider the process as a whole. However, in real-life business processes, different behaviors exist that make the overall process too complex to interpret. Process comparison is a branch of process mining that isolates different behaviors of the process from each other by using process cubes. Process cubes organize event data using different dimensions. Each cell contains a set of events that can be used as an input to apply process mining techniques. Existing work on process cubes assume single case notions. However, in real processes, several case notions (e.g., order, item, package, etc.) are intertwined. Object-centric process mining is a new branch of process mining addressing multiple case notions in a process. To make a bridge between object-centric process mining and process comparison, we propose a process cube framework, which supports process cube operations such as slice and dice on object-centric event logs. To facilitate the comparison, the framework is integrated with several object-centric process discovery approaches.

Keywords: Process mining, multidimensional process mining, multi-perspective business processes, OLAP, process cubes, process discovery.

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Authors: Taher M. Abou-deif, Mahmoud A. Fouad, Essam E. Khalil

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The present paper was concerned primarily with the analysis, simulation of the air flow and thermal patterns in a lecture room. The paper is devoted to numerically investigate the influence of location and number of ventilation and air conditioning supply and extracts openings on air flow properties in a lecture room. The work focuses on air flow patterns, thermal behaviour in lecture room where large number of students. The effectiveness of an air flow system is commonly assessed by the successful removal of sensible and latent loads from occupants with additional of attaining air pollutant at a prescribed level to attain the human thermal comfort conditions and to improve the indoor air quality; this is the main target during the present paper. The study is carried out using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation techniques as embedded in the commercially available CFD code (FLUENT 6.2). The CFD modelling techniques solved the continuity, momentum and energy conservation equations in addition to standard k – ε model equations for turbulence closure. Throughout the investigations, numerical validation is carried out by way of comparisons of numerical and experimental results. Good agreement is found among both predictions.

Keywords: Air Conditioning, CFD, Lecture Rooms, Thermal Comfort

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Authors: Negar Riazifar, Nigel G. Stocks

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This paper proposes strategies in level crossing (LC) sampling and reconstruction that provide high fidelity signal reconstruction for speech signals; these strategies circumvent the problem of exponentially increasing number of samples as the bit-depth is increased and hence are highly efficient. Specifically, the results indicate that the distribution of the intervals between samples is one of the key factors in the quality of signal reconstruction; including samples with short intervals does not improve the accuracy of the signal reconstruction, whilst samples with large intervals lead to numerical instability. The proposed sampling method, termed reduced conventional level crossing (RCLC) sampling, exploits redundancy between samples to improve the efficiency of the sampling without compromising performance. A reconstruction technique is also proposed that enhances the numerical stability through linear interpolation of samples separated by large intervals. Interpolation is demonstrated to improve the accuracy of the signal reconstruction in addition to the numerical stability. We further demonstrate that the RCLC and interpolation methods can give useful levels of signal recovery even if the average sampling rate is less than the Nyquist rate.

Keywords: Level crossing sampling, numerical stability, speech processing, trigonometric polynomial.

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Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah, Jianing Mi, Feng Cheng

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This research paper seeks to investigate the factors determining the continuance usage of online mobile payment applications among WECHAT users in China. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory would both be applied as the theoretical foundation for this study. A developed instrument would be administered to the targeted sample of 1000 WECHAT Users in the City of Harbin, China, through an online questionnaire administration platform. Factors such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived service quality, social influence, trust in the internet, internet self-efficacy, relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity would be explored to determine its significant impact on the continuance intention to use mobile payment apps. This study is at the development and implementation stage. The successful completion of this research article would not only provide an insightful understanding of the factors influencing the decision of WECHAT users in China to use mobile payment applications but also enrich the e-commerce adoption literature.

Keywords: Diffusion of innovation (DOI), e-commerce, mobile payment, technology acceptance model (TAM), WECHAT.

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Authors: Sylwia Wiewiorowska, Zbigniew Muskalski

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The article presents part of research on the development of nickel plated welding wire production technology, whose application will enable the elimination of the flaws of currently manufactured welding wires. The nickel plated welding wire will be distinguished by high quality, because the Ni layer which is deposited electrochemically onto it from acid baths is characterized by very good adhesion to the steel wire surface, while the ductile nickel well deforms plastically in the drawing process and the adhesion of the Ni layer increases in the drawing process due to the occurring process of diffusion between the Ni and the steel. The Ni layer obtained in the proposed technology, despite a smaller thickness than when the wire is coated with copper, is continuous and tight, thus ensuring high corrosion resistance, as well as unsusceptible to scaling, which should provide a product that meets requirements imposed by the market. The product will also reduce, to some extent, the amount of copper brought in to steel through recycling, while the wire coating nickel introduced to the weld in the welding process is expected, to a degree, to favorably influence its mechanical properties. The paper describes the tests of the process of nickel plating of f1.96 mm-diameter wires using various nickel plating baths with different process parameters.

Keywords: Steel wire, plating baths, welding process, coatings.

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Authors: Wenyu Song, Bingxi Li, Zhongbin Fu, Baocheng Jiang

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Full - Scale Accelerated Loading System, one part of “the Eleventh - Five - Year National Grand Technology Infrastructure Program" is a facility to evaluate the performance and service life of different kinds of pavements subjected to traffic loading under full - controlled environment. While simulating the environments of frigid zone and permafrost zone, the accurate control of air temperature, road temperature and roadbed temperature are the key points and also aporias for the designment. In this paper, numerical simulations are used to determine the design parameters of the frozen soil simulation system. At first, a brief introduction of the Full - Scale Accelerate Loading System was given. Then, the temperature control method of frozen soil simulation system was proposed. Finally, by using finite element simulations, the optimal design of frozen soil simulation system was obtained. This proposed design, which was obtained by finite element simulations, provided significant referents to the ultimate design of the environment simulation system.

Keywords: China, finite element simulation, frozen soilsimulation system, preliminary design.

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Authors: Arijit Ghosh, Tony Givargis

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Video sensor networks operate on stringent requirements of latency. Packets have a deadline within which they have to be delivered. Violation of the deadline causes a packet to be treated as lost and the loss of packets ultimately affects the quality of the application. Network latency is typically a function of many interacting components. In this paper, we propose ways of reducing the forwarding latency of a packet at intermediate nodes. The forwarding latency is caused by a combination of processing delay and queueing delay. The former is incurred in order to determine the next hop in dynamic routing. We show that unless link failures in a very specific and unlikely pattern, a vast majority of these lookups are redundant. To counter this we propose source routing as the routing strategy. However, source routing suffers from issues related to scalability and being impervious to network dynamics. We propose solutions to counter these and show that source routing is definitely a viable option in practical sized video networks. We also propose a fast and fair packet scheduling algorithm that reduces queueing delay at the nodes. We support our claims through extensive simulation on realistic topologies with practical traffic loads and failure patterns.

Keywords: Sensor networks, Packet latency, Network design, Networkperformance.

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Authors: M. Tamilarasi, T.G. Palanivelu

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Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are multi-hop wireless networks in which all nodes cooperatively maintain network connectivity. In such a multi-hop wireless network, every node may be required to perform routing in order to achieve end-to-end communication among nodes. These networks are energy constrained as most ad hoc mobile nodes today operate with limited battery power. Hence, it is important to minimize the energy consumption of the entire network in order to maximize the lifetime of ad hoc networks. In this paper, a mechanism involving the integration of load balancing approach and transmission power control approach is introduced to maximize the life-span of MANETs. The mechanism is applied on Ad hoc On-demand Vector (AODV) protocol to make it as energy aware AODV (EA_AODV). The simulation is carried out using GloMoSim2.03 simulator. The results show that the proposed mechanism reduces the average required transmission energy per packet compared to the standard AODV.

Keywords: energy aware routing, load balance, Mobile Ad HocNetworks, MANETs , on demand routing, transmission power control.

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Authors: Mo Zhou, Samantha Ashby, Lyn Ebert

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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.

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Authors: Abdel-Aziz M. Mohamed, Nermeen Coutry

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Lead time is a critical measure of a supply chain's performance. It impacts both the customer satisfactions as well as the total cost of inventory. This paper presents the result of a study on the analysis of the customer order lead-time for a multinational company. In the study, the lead time was divided into three stages respectively: order entry, order fulfillment, and order delivery. A sample of size 2,425 order lines was extracted from the company's records to use for this study. The sample data entails information regarding customer orders from the time of order entry until order delivery. Data regarding the lead time of each stage for different orders were also provided. Summary statistics on lead time data reveals that about 30% of the orders were delivered later than the scheduled due date. The result of the multiple linear regression analysis technique revealed that component type, logistics parameter, order size and the customer type have significant impacts on lead time. Data analysis on the stages of lead time indicates that stage 2 consumed over 50% of the lead time. Pareto analysis was made to study the reasons for the customer order delay in each stage. Recommendation was given to resolve the problem.

Keywords: Lead time reduction, customer satisfaction, service quality, statistical analysis.

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Authors: Layla Mujahed

Abstract:

COVID-19 is an exam for all the city’s systems. It shows many gaps in the systems such as healthcare, economic, social, and environment. This pandemic is paving for a new era, an era of technology and it has changed people’s lives, such as physical, and emotional changes, and converting communication into digitalized. The effect of COVID-19 has covered all urban city parts. COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic our cities will face. For that, more researches focus on enhancing the quality of the urban environment. This pandemic encourages a rethinking of the environment’s role, especially in cities. Cities are trying to provide the best suitable strategies and regulations to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and an example of that is Amman city. Amman has a high increment in the number of COVID-19 infected people, while it has controlled the situation for months. For that, this paper studies the relation between COVID-19 and urban environmental studies cases about cities around the world, and learns from their models to face COVID-19. In Amman, people’s behavior has changed towards public transportation and public green spaces. N­ew governmental regulations focus on increasing people’s mental awareness, supporting local businesses, and enhancing neighborhood planning that can help Amman to face any future pandemics.

Keywords: COVID-19, urban environment, urban planning, urban resilience.

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Authors: Masatora Daito, Noriyuki Tanida

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The underground shopping mall has the constructional problem of the fire evacuation. Also, the people sometimes lose their direction and information of current time in the mall. If the emergencies such as terrorist explosions or gas explosions are happened, they have to go out soon. Under such circumstances, inside of the mall has high risk for life. In this research, the authors propose a way that he/she can go out from the underground shopping mall quickly. If the narrow exits are discovered by using active RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags and using cellular phones, they can evacuate as soon as possible. To verify this hypothesis, the authors design the model and carry out the agent-based simulation. They treat, as a case study, the Tenjin mall in Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan. The result of the simulation is that the case of the pedestrian with using active RFID tags and cellular phones reduced the amount of time to spend on the evacuation. Even if the diffusion of RFID tags and cellular phones was not perfect, they could show the effectiveness of reducing the time of evacuation.

Keywords: Evacuation, active RFID tag and cellular phone, underground shopping mall, agent-based simulation.

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Authors: Fauzi Jarushi, S. AlKaabim, Paul Cosentino

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The Standard Penetration Test (SPT) is the most common in situ test for soil investigations. On the other hand, the Cone Penetration Test (CPT) is considered one of the best investigation tools. Due to the fast and accurate results that can be obtained it complaints the SPT in many applications like field explorations, design parameters, and quality control assessments. Many soil index and engineering properties have been correlated to both of SPT and CPT. Various foundation design methods were developed based on the outcome of these tests. Therefore it is vital to correlate these tests to each other so that either one of the tests can be used in the absence of the other, especially for preliminary evaluation and design purposes. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the SPT and CPT for different type of sandy soils in Florida. Data for this research were collected from number of projects sponsored by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), six sites served as the subject of SPT-CPT correlations. The correlations were established between the cone resistance (qc), sleeve friction (fs) and the uncorrected SPT blow counts (N) for various soils. A positive linear relationship was found between qc, fs and N for various sandy soils. In general, qc versus N showed higher correlation coefficients than fs versus N. qc/N ratios were developed for different soil types and compared to literature values, the results of this research revealed higher ratios than literature values.

Keywords: In situ tests, Correlation, SPT, CPT.

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Authors: Chien-Lung Chen, Jeng-Lin Tsai, Feng-Chao Chung, Su-Ching Kuo, Kuo-Hsin Tseng, Pei-Hsuan Kuo, Li-Ying Hsieh, Ying I. Tsai

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This study applied the Gaussian trajectory transfer-coefficient model (GTx) to simulate the particulate matter concentrations and the source apportionments at Nanzih Air Quality Monitoring Station in southern Taiwan from November 2007 to February 2008. The correlation coefficient between the observed and the calculated daily PM10 concentrations is 0.5 and the absolute bias of the PM10 concentrations is 24%. The simulated PM10 concentrations matched well with the observed data. Although the emission rate of PM10 was dominated by area sources (58%), the results of source apportionments indicated that the primary sources for PM10 at Nanzih Station were point sources (42%), area sources (20%) and then upwind boundary concentration (14%). The obvious difference of PM10 source apportionment between episode and non-episode days was upwind boundary concentrations which contributed to 20% and 11% PM10 sources, respectively. The gas-particle conversion of secondary aerosol and long range transport played crucial roles on the PM10 contribution to a receptor.

Keywords: back trajectory model, particulate matter, sourceapportionment

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Authors: J. Fernandez de Canete, S. Gonzalez-Perez, P. del Saz-Orozco

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Neural networks offer an alternative approach both for identification and control of nonlinear processes in process engineering. The lack of software tools for the design of controllers based on neural network models is particularly pronounced in this field. SIMULINK is properly a widely used graphical code development environment which allows system-level developers to perform rapid prototyping and testing. Such graphical based programming environment involves block-based code development and offers a more intuitive approach to modeling and control task in a great variety of engineering disciplines. In this paper a SIMULINK based Neural Tool has been developed for analysis and design of multivariable neural based control systems. This tool has been applied to the control of a high purity distillation column including non linear hydrodynamic effects. The proposed control scheme offers an optimal response for both theoretical and practical challenges posed in process control task, in particular when both, the quality improvement of distillation products and the operation efficiency in economical terms are considered.

Keywords: Distillation, neural networks, software tools, identification, control.

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Authors: R. Eslami-Farsani, S. M. S. Mousavi Bafrouyi

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During past decades, increasing demand of modified Fiber Metal Laminates (FMLs) has stimulated a strong trend towards the development of these structures. FMLs contain several thin layers of metal bonded with composite materials. Characteristics of FMLs such as low specific mass, high bearing strength, impact resistance, corrosion resistance and high fatigue life are attractive. Nowadays, increasing development can be observed to promote the properties of polymer-based composites by nanofillers. By dispersing strong, nanofillers in polymer matrix, modified composites can be developed and tailored to individual applications. On the other hand, the synergic effects of nanoparticles such as graphene and carbon nanotube can significantly improve the mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of nanocomposites. In present paper, the modifying of FMLs by nanofillers and the dispersing of nanoparticles in the polymers matrix are discussed. The evaluations have revealed that this approach is acceptable. Finally, a prospect is presented. This paper will lead to further work on these modified FML species.

Keywords: Fiber metal laminate, nanofiller, polymer matrix, property modification.

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Authors: Nurhani Kasuan, Zakariah Yusuf, Mohd Nasir Taib, Mohd Hezri Fazalul Rahiman, Nazurah Tajuddin, Mohd Azri Abdul Aziz

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This paper presents a hybrid fuzzy-PD plus PID (HFPP) controller and its application to steam distillation process for essential oil extraction system. Steam temperature is one of the most significant parameters that can influence the composition of essential oil yield. Due to parameter variations and changes in operation conditions during distillation, a robust steam temperature controller becomes nontrivial to avoid the degradation of essential oil quality. Initially, the PRBS input is triggered to the system and output of steam temperature is modeled using ARX model structure. The parameter estimation and tuning method is adopted by simulation using HFPP controller scheme. The effectiveness and robustness of proposed controller technique is validated by real time implementation to the system. The performance of HFPP using 25 and 49 fuzzy rules is compared. The experimental result demonstrates the proposed HFPP using 49 fuzzy rules achieves a better, consistent and robust controller compared to PID when considering the test on tracking the set point and the effects due to disturbance.

Keywords: Fuzzy Logic controller, steam temperature, steam distillation, real time control.

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Authors: Daniel I. Morariu, Radu G. Cretulescu, Lucian N. Vintan

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In text categorization problem the most used method for documents representation is based on words frequency vectors called VSM (Vector Space Model). This representation is based only on words from documents and in this case loses any “word context" information found in the document. In this article we make a comparison between the classical method of document representation and a method called Suffix Tree Document Model (STDM) that is based on representing documents in the Suffix Tree format. For the STDM model we proposed a new approach for documents representation and a new formula for computing the similarity between two documents. Thus we propose to build the suffix tree only for any two documents at a time. This approach is faster, it has lower memory consumption and use entire document representation without using methods for disposing nodes. Also for this method is proposed a formula for computing the similarity between documents, which improves substantially the clustering quality. This representation method was validated using HAC - Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering. In this context we experiment also the stemming influence in the document preprocessing step and highlight the difference between similarity or dissimilarity measures to find “closer" documents.

Keywords: Text Clustering, Suffix tree documentrepresentation, Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering

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Authors: Oladele K. Ogunsola, Kazeem A. Osuolale, Akintayo O. Ojo

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Many factors influence the educational outcome of students. Some of these have been studied by researchers with many emphasizing the role of students, schools, governments, peer groups and so on. More often than not, some of these factors influencing the academic achievement of the students have been traced back to parents and family; being the primary platform on which learning not only begins but is nurtured, encouraged and developed which later transforms to the performance of the students. This study not only explores parental and related factors that predict academic achievement through the review of relevant literatures but also, investigates the influence of parental background on the academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Ibadan North Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. As one of the criteria of the quality of education, students’ academic achievement was investigated because it is most often cited as an indicator of school effectiveness by school authorities and educationists. The data collection was done through interviews and use of well-structured questionnaires administered to one hundred students (100) within the target local government. This was statistically analysed and the result showed that parents’ attitudes towards their children’s education had significant effect(s) on students’ self-reporting of academic achievement. However, such factors as parental education and socioeconomic background had no significant relationship with the students’ self-reporting of academic achievement.

Keywords: Academic attainment, Parental factors, students, Oyo State, Nigeria.

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Authors: Yu. I. Pigolkin, M. A. Garcia Corro

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Age determination of unknown dead bodies in forensic personal identification is a complicated process which involves the application of numerous methods and techniques. Skeletal remains are less exposed to influences of environmental factors. In order to enhance the accuracy of forensic age estimation additional properties of bones correlating with age are required to be revealed. Material and Methods: Dimensional examination of the sella turcica was carried out on cadavers with the cranium opened by a circular vibrating saw. The sample consisted of a total of 90 Russian subjects, ranging in age from two months and 87 years. Results: The tendency of dimensional variations throughout life was detected. There were no observed gender differences in the morphometry of the sella turcica. The shared use of the sella turcica depth and length values revealed the possibility to categorize an examined sample in a certain age period. Conclusions: Based on the results of existing methods of age determination, the morphometry of the sella turcica can be an additional characteristic, amplifying the received values, and accordingly, increasing the accuracy of forensic biological age diagnosis.

Keywords: Age–related changes in bone structures, forensic personal identification, Sella turcica morphometry, body identification.

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Authors: Zhang Bian, Zhao Jijun

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The urban layout of Xi’an city (the capital Chang’an in the Tang dynasty) was shaped by feudal etiquette, but this dominant factor was replaced by modern city planning during the period of the Republic of China. This makes Xi’an a representative case to explore the transformation process of Chinese cities in the early 20^th century. By analyzing the contrast and connection between the historical texts of city planning and the realistic construction activities recorded by the maps and images, this paper reviews the transformation process of the urban space of Xi’an in the early 20^th century and divides it into four phases according to important events that significantly impacted planning and construction activities. Based on this, the entire transformation of Xi’an’s city planning and practices can be characterized by three aspects: 1) the dominant force of the city plan and construction changed with the establishment of modern city administrations; 2) the layout of the city was continuously broadened to meet the demand of modern economy and city life; and, 3) the ritual space was transformed into practical space for commercial and recreational activities.

Keywords: City space, early 20th century, transformation, Xi’an city.

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Authors: Mohammad Hosein Hojati, Fardin Boustani

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Groundwater is one of the most important water resources in Fars province. Based on this study, 95 percent of the total annual water consumption in Fars is used for agriculture, whereas the percentages for domestic and industrial uses are 4 and 1 percent, respectively. Population growth, urban and industrial growth, and agricultural development in Fars have created a condition of water stress. In this province, farmers and other users are pumping groundwater faster than its natural replenishment rate, causing a continuous drop in groundwater tables and depletion of this resource. In this research variation of groundwater level, their effects and ways to help control groundwater levels in aquifer of the Kavar- Maharloo plains in Fars plain were evaluated .Excessive exploitation of groundwater in this aquifer caused the groundwater levels fall too fast or to unacceptable levels. The average drawdown of the groundwater level in this plain were 17 meters during 1995 to 2006. The purpose of this study is to evaluate water level changes in the Kavar-Maharloo Aquifer in the Fars province in order to determine the areas of greatest depletion, the cause of depletion, and predict the remaining life of the aquifer.

Keywords: Aquifer , ground water depletion, water table

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Authors: Luh Putu T. Darmayanti, A. A. Duwipayana, I Nengah K. Putra, Nyoman S. Antara

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Processing tabah bamboo shoot as fermented pickle is one of the way to increase the shelf life of this bamboo shoot. The advantage of this shoot is low concentration of hydro cyanic acid (HCN) make it potential for functional food product. This study aimed to determine the characteristic of tabah bamboo shoot pickle such as total of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), pH, total acidity, and hydro cyanic acid (HCN) content, and also find the LAB’s type involved during fermentation, and organic acids’ profiles. The pickle was made by natural fermentation with 6% salt concentration and fermentation conducted for 13 days. The result showed during the fermentation time, in the 4th day LAB’s number was highest as much as 72 x 107 CFU/ml and the lowest pH was 3.09. We also found decreasing in HCN from 37.8 ppm at the beginning to 20.52 ppm at the end of fermentation process. The organic acids detected during the fermentation were lactic acid with the highest concentration was 0.0546 g/100 g and small amount of acetic acid. By using PCR method, the 18 of LABs which had rod shape were detected as member of Lactobacillus spp., in which 17 strains detected as L. plantarum.

Keywords: Fermentation, LAB, pickle, tabah bamboo shoot.

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Authors: M. Nashriyah, M. Y. Nur Athiqah, H. Syahril Amin, N. Norhayati, A. W. Mohamad Azhar, M. Khairil

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An ethnobotanical study was conducted to document local knowledge and potentials of wild edible tubers that has been reported and sighted and to investigate and record their distribution in Pulau Redang and nearby islands of Terengganu, Malaysia. Information was gathered from 42 villagers by using semi-structured questionnaire. These respondents were selected randomly and no appointment was made prior to the visits. For distribution, the locations of wild edible tubers were recorded by using the Global Positioning System (GPS). The wild edible tubers recorded were ubi gadung, ubi toyo, ubi kasu, ubi jaga, ubi seratus and ubi kertas. Dioscorea or commonly known as yam is reported to be one of the major food sources worldwide. The majority of villagers used Dioscorea hispida Dennst. or ubi gadung in many ways in their life such as for food, medicinal purposes and fish poison. The villagers have identified this ubi gadung by looking at the morphological characteristics; that include leaf shape, stem and the color of the tuber-s flesh.

Keywords: Ethnobotany, distribution, wild edible tubers, Dioscorea hispida Dennst., ubi gadung

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Authors: Ashagrie Getnet Flattie

Abstract:

Line-of-sight (LOS) information, data rates, good quality, and flexible network service are limited by the fact that, for the duration of any given connection, they experience severe variation in signal strength due to fading and path loss. Wireless system faces major challenges in achieving wide coverage and capacity without affecting the system performance and to access data everywhere, all the time. In this paper, the cell coverage and edge rate of different Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) schemes in 20 MHz Long Term Evolution (LTE) system under Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) platform are investigated. After some background on the enormous potential of UAV, MIMO, and LTE in wireless links, the paper highlights the presented system model which attempts to realize the various benefits of MIMO being incorporated into UAV platform. The performances of the three MIMO LTE schemes are compared with the performance of 4x4 MIMO LTE in UAV scheme carried out to evaluate the improvement in cell radius, BER, and data throughput of the system in different morphology. The results show that significant performance gains such as bit error rate (BER), data rate, and coverage can be achieved by using the presented scenario.

Keywords: BER, LTE, MIMO, path loss, UAV.

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Authors: Laura Sapranaviciute-Zabazlajeva, Abdonas Tamosiunas, Dalia Luksiene, Dalia Virviciute

Abstract:

The cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the EU, especially in the middle aged and elderly population. Psychological wellbeing (PWB) has been linked with better cardiovascular health and survival in the elderly. The aim of the study is to evaluate associations between CVD risk and PWB in middle-aged and elderly population. 10,940 middle aged and older Lithuanians of age 45-74 years, were invited to participate in the study. A study sample was a random and stratified by gender and age. In 2006-2008 7,087 responders participated in the survey, so the response rate was 64.8%. A follow-up study was conducted from 2006 till 2015. New CVD cases and deaths from CVD were evaluated using the Kaunas population-based CVD register and death register of Kaunas. Study results revealed that good PWB predicts longer life in female participants (Log Rank = 13.7, p < 0.001). In the fully adjusted model for socio-demographic, social and CVD risk factors, hazard ratio for CVD mortality risk was lower amongst women with good PWB (HR = 0.28, 95% CI 0.11-0.72), but not significantly for men. Our study concludes, that lower CVD mortality rates is being associated with better PWB in female aged 45-74 years.

Keywords: Psychological wellbeing, cardiovascular disease, elderly.

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Authors: Nurul Nadhirah Anuar, Muhammad Fauzi Abdul Ghani

Abstract:

Scheduled waste management is very important in environmental and health aspects. In delivering services, highway industry has been indirectly involved in producing scheduled wastes. This paper aims to define the scheduled waste, to provide a conceptual framework of the scheduled waste management in highway industry, to highlight the effect of improper management of scheduled waste and to encourage future researchers to identify and share the present practice of scheduled waste management in their country. The understanding on effective management of scheduled waste will help the operators of highway industry, the academicians, future researchers, and encourage a friendly environment around the world. The study on scheduled waste management in highway industry is very crucial as highway transverse and run along kilometers crossing the various type of environment, residential and schools. Using Environmental Quality (Scheduled Waste) Regulations 2005 as a guide, this conceptual paper highlight several scheduled wastes produced by highway industry in Malaysia and provide a conceptual framework of scheduled waste management that focused on the highway industry. Understanding on scheduled waste management is vital in order to preserve the environment. Besides that, the waste substances are hazardous to human being. Many diseases have been associated with the improper management of schedule waste such as cancer, throat irritation and respiration problem.

Keywords: Asia Region, Environment, Highway Industry, Scheduled Waste.

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