Search results for: Service Performance.

Authors: Thomas S. Abia II, Citlali Garcia-Saucedo

Abstract:

A continuous copper precipitation treatment (CCPT) system was conceived at Intel Chandler Site to serve as a first-of-kind (FOK) facility-scale waste copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and manganese (Mn) co-precipitation facility. The process was designed to treat highly variable wastewater discharged from a substrate packaging research factory. The paper discusses metals co-precipitation induced by internal changes for manufacturing facilities that lack the capacity for hardware expansion due to real estate restrictions, aggressive schedules, or budgetary constraints. Herein, operating parameters such as pH and oxidation reduction potential (ORP) were examined to analyze the ability of the CCPT System to immobilize various waste metals. Additionally, influential factors such as influent concentrations and retention times were investigated to quantify the environmental variability against system performance. A total of 2,027 samples were analyzed and statistically evaluated to measure the performance of CCPT that was internally retrofitted for Mn abatement to meet environmental regulations. In order to enhance the consistency of the influent, a separate holding tank was cannibalized from another system to collect and slow-feed the segregated Mn wastewater from the factory into CCPT. As a result, the baseline influent Mn decreased from 17.2+18.7 mg¹L^-1 at pre-pilot to 5.15+8.11 mg¹L^-1 post-pilot (70.1% reduction). Likewise, the pre-trial and post-trial average influent Cu values to CCPT were 52.0+54.6 mg¹L^-1 and 33.9+12.7 mg¹L^-1, respectively (34.8% reduction). However, the raw Ni content of 0.97+0.39 mg¹L^-1 at pre-pilot increased to 1.06+0.17 mg¹L^-1 at post-pilot. The average Mn output declined from 10.9+11.7 mg¹L^-1 at pre-pilot to 0.44+1.33 mg¹L^-1 at post-pilot (96.0% reduction) as a result of the pH and ORP operating setpoint changes. In similar fashion, the output Cu quality improved from 1.60+5.38 mg¹L^-1 to 0.55+1.02 mg¹L^-1 (65.6% reduction) while the Ni output sustained a 50% enhancement during the pilot study (0.22+0.19 mg¹L^-1 reduced to 0.11+0.06 mg¹L^-1). pH and ORP were shown to be significantly instrumental to the precipitative versatility of the CCPT System.

Keywords: Copper, co-precipitation, industrial wastewater treatment, manganese, optimization, pilot study.

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Authors: M. Lenzhofer, D. Holzmann, A. Tortschanoff

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In this paper we present a new multichannel high voltage driver box to connect up to six MOEMS mirror devices to it that have resonant and also quasistatically driven actuating electrodes. It is possible to drive all resonant axes synchronously while the amplitude of them can individually be controlled by separate microcontrollers that also operate the quasistatic axes. Circuit simulations are compared with the measurements done on the real system and also show the robust driving performance of a MOEMS mirror.

Keywords: MOEMS, scanner mirror, electrostatic driver.

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Authors: Mou-Yuan Liao, Chien-Wei Wu, Chien-Hua Lin

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Process capability index Cpk is the most widely used index in making managerial decisions since it provides bounds on the process yield for normally distributed processes. However, existent methods for assessing process performance which constructed by statistical inference may unfortunately lead to fine results, because uncertainties exist in most real-world applications. Thus, this study adopts fuzzy inference to deal with testing of Cpk . A brief score is obtained for assessing a supplier’s process instead of a severe evaluation.

Keywords: Process capability analysis, quality control.

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Authors: R. Ramli

Abstract:

The impact of the information revolution is double edged. While it is applauded for its versatility and performance robustness and acclaimed for making life smooth and easy, on the other hand people are concerned about its dark side especially to younger generations. The education system should extend its educating role beyond the school to home. Parents should be included in forming the policies of Internet use as well as in the curriculum delivery. This paper discusses how curriculum can be instrumental in addressing social and ethical issues resulted from the Internet.

Keywords: Curriculum, Ethics, Internet Addiction, Social Issues

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Authors: Luciano Nieddu, Giuseppe Manfredi, Salvatore D'Acunto, Katia La Regina

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In this paper a non-parametric statistical pattern recognition algorithm for the problem of credit scoring will be presented. The proposed algorithm is based on a clustering k- means algorithm and allows for the determination of subclasses of homogenous elements in the data. The algorithm will be tested on two benchmark datasets and its performance compared with other well known pattern recognition algorithm for credit scoring.

Keywords: Constrained clustering, Credit scoring, Statistical pattern recognition, Supervised classification.

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Authors: I. Derek Kaka’an, P. Smolianov, D. Koh Choon Lian, S. Dion, C. Schoen, J. Norberg

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This study was designed to examine mass participation and elite football performance in Nigeria with reference to advance international football management practices. Over 200 sources of literature on sport delivery systems were analyzed to construct a globally applicable model of elite football integrated with mass participation, comprising of the following three levels: macro- (socio-economic, cultural, legislative, and organizational), meso- (infrastructures, personnel, and services enabling sport programs) and micro-level (operations, processes, and methodologies for development of individual athletes). The model has received scholarly validation and showed to be a framework for program analysis that is not culturally bound. The Smolianov and Zakus model has been employed for further understanding of sport systems such as US soccer, US Rugby, swimming, tennis, and volleyball as well as Russian and Dutch swimming. A questionnaire was developed using the above-mentioned model. Survey questions were validated by 12 experts including academicians, executives from sport governing bodies, football coaches, and administrators. To identify best practices and determine areas for improvement of football in Nigeria, 120 coaches completed the questionnaire. Useful exemplars and possible improvements were further identified through semi-structured discussions with 10 Nigerian football administrators and experts. Finally, content analysis of Nigeria Football Federation’s website and organizational documentation was conducted. This paper focuses on the meso-level of Nigerian football delivery, particularly infrastructures, personnel, and services enabling sport programs. This includes training centers, competition systems, and intellectual services. Results identified remarkable achievements coupled with great potential to further develop football in different types of public and private organizations in Nigeria. These include: assimilating football competitions with other cultural and educational activities, providing favorable conditions for employees of all possible organizations to partake and help in managing football programs and events, providing football coaching integrated with counseling for prevention of antisocial conduct, and improving cooperation between football programs and organizations for peace-making and advancement of international relations, tourism, and socio-economic development. Accurate reporting of the sports programs from the media should be encouraged through staff training for better awareness of various events. The systematic integration of these meso-level practices into the balanced development of mass and high-performance football will contribute to international sport success as well as national health, education, and social harmony.

Keywords: Football, high performance, mass participation, Nigeria, sport development.

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Authors: Abdulaziz Alsadhan, Naveed Khan

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In recent years intrusions on computer network are the major security threat. Hence, it is important to impede such intrusions. The hindrance of such intrusions entirely relies on its detection, which is primary concern of any security tool like Intrusion detection system (IDS). Therefore, it is imperative to accurately detect network attack. Numerous intrusion detection techniques are available but the main issue is their performance. The performance of IDS can be improved by increasing the accurate detection rate and reducing false positive. The existing intrusion detection techniques have the limitation of usage of raw dataset for classification. The classifier may get jumble due to redundancy, which results incorrect classification. To minimize this problem, Principle component analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and Local Binary Pattern (LBP) can be applied to transform raw features into principle features space and select the features based on their sensitivity. Eigen values can be used to determine the sensitivity. To further classify, the selected features greedy search, back elimination, and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) can be used to obtain a subset of features with optimal sensitivity and highest discriminatory power. This optimal feature subset is used to perform classification. For classification purpose, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) are used due to its proven ability in classification. The Knowledge Discovery and Data mining (KDD’99) cup dataset was considered as a benchmark for evaluating security detection mechanisms. The proposed approach can provide an optimal intrusion detection mechanism that outperforms the existing approaches and has the capability to minimize the number of features and maximize the detection rates.

Keywords: Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Principle component analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Local Binary Pattern (LBP), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Multilayer Perceptron (MLP).

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Authors: Mohammed Tahir, Jonas Lagergren

Abstract:

Vancron 40, a nitrided powder metallurgical tool Steel, is used in cold work applications where the predominant failure mechanisms are adhesive wear or galling. Typical applications of Vancron 40 are among others fine blanking, cold extrusion, deep drawing and cold work rolls for cluster mills. Vancron 40 positive results for cold work rolls for cluster mills and as a tool for some severe metal forming process makes it competitive compared to other type of work rolls that require higher precision, among others in cold rolling of thin stainless steel, which required high surface finish quality. In this project, three roll materials for cold rolling of stainless steel strip was examined, Vancron 40, Narva 12B (a high-carbon, high-chromium tool steel alloyed with tungsten) and Supra 3 (a Chromium-molybdenum tungsten-vanadium alloyed high speed steel). The purpose of this project was to study the depth profiles of the ironed stainless steel strips, emergence of galling and to study the lubrication performance used by steel industries. Laboratory experiments were conducted to examine scratch of the strip, galling and surface roughness of the roll materials under severe tribological conditions. The critical sliding length for onset of galling was estimated for stainless steel with four different lubricants. Laboratory experiments result of performance evaluation of resistance capability of rolls toward adhesive wear under severe conditions for low and high reductions. Vancron 40 in combination with cold rolling lubricant gave good surface quality, prevents galling of metal surfaces and good bearing capacity.

Keywords: Adhesive wear, Cold rolling, Lubricant, Stainless steel, Surface finish, Vancron 40.

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Authors: Saeid Eshghi, Neeraj Saxena, Abdulmajeed Alsultan

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Carbon dioxide (CO₂) alongside other gas emissions in the atmosphere cause a greenhouse effect, resulting in an increase of the average temperature of the planet. Transportation vehicles are among the main contributors of CO₂ emission. Stationary vehicles with initiated motors produce more emissions than mobile ones. Intersections with traffic lights that force the vehicles to become stationary for a period of time produce more CO₂ pollution than other parts of the road. This paper focuses on analyzing the CO₂ produced by the traffic flow at Anzac Parade Road - Barker Street intersection in Sydney, Australia, before and after the implementation of Light rail transport (LRT). The data are gathered during the construction phase of the LRT by collecting the number of vehicles on each path of the intersection for 15 minutes during the evening rush hour of 1 week (6-7 pm, July 04-31, 2018) and then multiplied by 4 to calculate the flow of vehicles in 1 hour. For analyzing the data, the microscopic simulation software “VISSIM” has been used. Through the analysis, the traffic flow was processed in three stages: before and after implementation of light rail train, and one during the construction phase. Finally, the traffic results were input into another software called “EnViVer”, to calculate the amount of CO₂ during 1 h. The results showed that after the implementation of the light rail, CO₂ will drop by a minimum of 13%. This finding provides an evidence that light rail is a sustainable mode of transport.

Keywords: Carbon dioxide, emission modeling, light rail, microscopic model, traffic flow.

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Authors: S. S. Gautam, S. Samanta

Abstract:

The aim of the paper work is to investigate and predict the static performance of journal bearing in turbulent flow condition considering micropolar lubrication. The Reynolds equation has been modified considering turbulent micropolar lubrication and is solved for steady state operations. The Constantinescu-s turbulence model is adopted using the coefficients. The analysis has been done for a parallel and inertia less flow. Load capacity and friction factor have been evaluated for various operating parameters.

Keywords: hydrodynamic bearing, micropolar lubrication, coupling number, characteristic length, perturbation analysis

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Authors: Shu-Mei Liu, Feng-Chuan Pan

Abstract:

According to the governmental data, the cases of oral cancers doubled in the past 10 years. This had brought heavy burden to the patients- family, the society, and the country. The literature generally evidenced the betel nut contained particular chemicals that can cause oral cancers. Research in Taiwan had also proofed that 90 percent of oral cancer patients had experience of betel nut chewing. It is thus important to educate the betel-nut hobbyists to cease such a hazardous behavior. A program was then organized to establish several training classes across different areas specific to help ceasing this particular habit. Purpose of this research was to explore the attitude and intention toward ceasing betel-nut chewing before and after attending the training classes. 50 samples were taken from a ceasing class with average age at 45 years old with high school education (54%). 74% of the respondents were male in service or agricultural industries. Experiences in betel-nut chewing were 5-20 years with a dose of 1-20 pieces per day. The data had shown that 60% of the respondents had cigarette smoking habit, and 30% of the respondents were concurrently alcoholic dependent. Research results indicated that the attitude, intentions, and the knowledge on oral cancers were found significant different between before and after attendance. This provided evidence for the effectiveness of the training class. However, we do not perform follow-up after the class. Noteworthy is the test result also shown that participants who were drivers as occupation, or habitual smokers or alcoholic dependents would be less willing to quit the betel-nut chewing. The test results indicated as well that the educational levels and the type of occupation may have significant impacts on an individual-s decisions in taking betel-nut or substance abuse.

Keywords: Oral cancer, betel-nut ceasing class, attitude, intention

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Authors: Mohamed K. Shahin, Ahmed M. Badawi, Mohamed E. M. Rasmy

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Prior research evidenced that unimodal biometric systems have several tradeoffs like noisy data, intra-class variations, restricted degrees of freedom, non-universality, spoof attacks, and unacceptable error rates. In order for the biometric system to be more secure and to provide high performance accuracy, more than one form of biometrics are required. Hence, the need arise for multimodal biometrics using combinations of different biometric modalities. This paper introduces a multimodal biometric system (MMBS) based on fusion of whole dorsal hand geometry and fingerprints that acquires right and left (Rt/Lt) near-infra-red (NIR) dorsal hand geometry (HG) shape and (Rt/Lt) index and ring fingerprints (FP). Database of 100 volunteers were acquired using the designed prototype. The acquired images were found to have good quality for all features and patterns extraction to all modalities. HG features based on the hand shape anatomical landmarks were extracted. Robust and fast algorithms for FP minutia points feature extraction and matching were used. Feature vectors that belong to similar biometric traits were fused using feature fusion methodologies. Scores obtained from different biometric trait matchers were fused using the Min-Max transformation-based score fusion technique. Final normalized scores were merged using the sum of scores method to obtain a single decision about the personal identity based on multiple independent sources. High individuality of the fused traits and user acceptability of the designed system along with its experimental high performance biometric measures showed that this MMBS can be considered for med-high security levels biometric identification purposes.

Keywords: Unimodal, Multi-Modal, Biometric System, NIR Imaging, Dorsal Hand Geometry, Fingerprint, Whole Hands, Feature Extraction, Feature Fusion, Score Fusion

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Authors: Jean-Jacques Randrianarimanana, Nassim Sebaibi, Mohamed Boutouil

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In order to solve problems associated with stormwater runoff in urban areas and their effects on natural and artificial water bodies, the integration of new technical solutions to the rainwater drainage becomes even more essential. Permeable pavement systems are one of the most widely used techniques. This paper presents a laboratory analysis of stormwater runoff hydraulic and pollutant removal performance of permeable pavement system using pervious pavements based on seashell products. The laboratory prototype is a square column of 25 cm of side and consists of the surface in pervious concrete, a bedding of 3 cm in height, a geotextile and a subbase layer of 50 cm in height. A series of constant simulated rain events using semi-synthetic runoff which varied in intensity and duration were carried out. The initial vertical saturated hydraulic conductivity of the entire pervious pavement system was 0.25 cm/s (148 L/m²/min). The hydraulic functioning was influenced by both the inlet flow rate value and the test duration. The total water losses including evaporation ranged between 9% to 20% for all hydraulic experiments. The temporal and vertical variability of the pollutant removal efficiency (PRE) of the system were studied for total suspended solids (TSS). The results showed that the PRE along the vertical profile was influenced by the size of the suspended solids, and the pervious paver has the highest capacity to trap pollutant than the other porous layers of the permeable pavement system after the geotextile. The TSS removal efficiency was about 80% for the entire system. The first-flush effect of TSS was observed, but it appeared only at the beginning (2 to 6 min) of the experiments. It has been shown that the PPS can capture first-flush. The project in which this study is integrated aims to contribute to both the valorization of shellfish waste and the sustainable management of rainwater.

Keywords: Hydraulic, pervious concrete, pollutant removal efficiency, seashell by-products, stormwater runoff.

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Authors: Konstantinos Michail, Argyrios Zolotas, Roger Goodall, John Pearson

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In this paper a systematic method via H∞ control design is proposed to select a sensor set that satisfies a number of input criteria for a MAGLEV suspension system. The proposed method recovers a number of optimised controllers for each possible sensor set that satisfies the performance and constraint criteria using evolutionary algorithms.

Keywords: H-infinity, Sensor optimisation, Genetic algorithms, MAGLEV vehicles

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Authors: M. R. Rouhi, S. Shafiei, A. Taghavipour, H. Adibi-Asl, A. Doosthoseini

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This research targets at alleviating the problem of range anxiety associated with the battery electric vehicles (BEVs) by considering mechanical and control aspects of the powertrain. In this way, all the energy consuming components and their effect on reducing the range of the BEV and battery life index are identified. On the other hand, an appropriate control strategy is designed to guarantee the performance of the BEV and the extended electric range which is evaluated by an extensive simulation procedure and a real-world driving schedule.

Keywords: Battery, electric vehicles EV, ultra-capacitor.

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Authors: Shashank Gautam, Pramod Sharma

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In present era, development of digital circuits, signal processors and other integrated circuits, magnitude comparators are challenged by large area and more power consumption. Comparator is most basic circuit that performs comparison. This paper presents a technique to design a two bit comparator which consumes less area and power. DSCH and MICROWIND version 3 are used to design the schematic and design the layout of the schematic, observe the performance parameters at different nanometer technologies respectively.

Keywords: Chip design, consumed power, layout area, two bit comparator.

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Authors: Konstantinos G. Kostinakis, Asimina M. Athanatopoulou

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A key issue in seismic risk analysis within the context of Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering is the evaluation of the expected seismic damage of structures under a specific earthquake ground motion. The assessment of the seismic performance strongly depends on the choice of the seismic Intensity Measure (IM), which quantifies the characteristics of a ground motion that are important to the nonlinear structural response. Several conventional IMs of ground motion have been used to estimate their damage potential to structures. Yet, none of them has been proved to be able to predict adequately the seismic damage. Therefore, alternative, scalar intensity measures, which take into account not only ground motion characteristics but also structural information have been proposed. Some of these IMs are based on integration of spectral values over a range of periods, in an attempt to account for the information that the shape of the acceleration, velocity or displacement spectrum provides. The adequacy of a number of these IMs in predicting the structural damage of 3D R/C buildings is investigated in the present paper. The investigated IMs, some of which are structure specific and some are non structure-specific, are defined via integration of spectral values. To achieve this purpose three symmetric in plan R/C buildings are studied. The buildings are subjected to 59 bidirectional earthquake ground motions. The two horizontal accelerograms of each ground motion are applied along the structural axes. The response is determined by nonlinear time history analysis. The structural damage is expressed in terms of the maximum interstory drift as well as the overall structural damage index. The values of the aforementioned seismic damage measures are correlated with seven scalar ground motion IMs. The comparative assessment of the results revealed that the structure-specific IMs present higher correlation with the seismic damage of the three buildings. However, the adequacy of the IMs for estimation of the structural damage depends on the response parameter adopted. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the widely used spectral acceleration at the fundamental period of the structure is a good indicator of the expected earthquake damage level.

Keywords: Damage measures, Bidirectional excitation, Spectral based IMs, R/C buildings.

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Authors: K. Petcharat, Y. Areepong, S. Sukparungsri, G. Mititelu

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These paper, we approximate the average run length (ARL) for CUSUM chart when observation are an exponential first order moving average sequence (EMA1). We used Gauss-Legendre numerical scheme for integral equations (IE) method for approximate ARL0 and ARL1, where ARL in control and out of control, respectively. We compared the results from IE method and exact solution such that the two methods perform good agreement.

Keywords: Cumulative Sum Chart, Moving Average Observation, Average Run Length, Numerical Approximations.

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Authors: Probir Kumar Bose, Rahul Banerjee, Madhujit Deb

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The present energy situation and the concerns about global warming has stimulated active research interest in non-petroleum, carbon free compounds and non-polluting fuels, particularly for transportation, power generation, and agricultural sectors. Environmental concerns and limited amount of petroleum fuels have caused interests in the development of alternative fuels for internal combustion (IC) engines. The petroleum crude reserves however, are declining and consumption of transport fuels particularly in the developing countries is increasing at high rates. Severe shortage of liquid fuels derived from petroleum may be faced in the second half of this century. Recently more and more stringent environmental regulations being enacted in the USA and Europe have led to the research and development activities on clean alternative fuels. Among the gaseous fuels hydrogen is considered to be one of the clean alternative fuel. Hydrogen is an interesting candidate for future internal combustion engine based power trains. In this experimental investigation, the performance and combustion analysis were carried out on a direct injection (DI) diesel engine using hydrogen with diesel following the TMI(Time Manifold Injection) technique at different injection timings of 10 degree,45 degree and 80 degree ATDC using an electronic control unit (ECU) and injection durations were controlled. Further, the tests have been carried out at a constant speed of 1500rpm at different load conditions and it can be observed that brake thermal efficiency increases with increase in load conditions with a maximum gain of 15% at full load conditions during all injection strategies of hydrogen. It was also observed that with the increase in hydrogen energy share BSEC started reducing and it reduced to a maximum of 9% as compared to baseline diesel at 10deg ATDC injection during maximum injection proving the exceptional combustion properties of hydrogen.

Keywords: Hydrogen, performance, combustion, alternative fuels.

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Authors: Rurui (Angelina) Liu

Abstract:

Universities have been one of the most important institutions in society. They shoulder the responsibility to do research and teach further generations. Therefore, the governance of universities has been a heated topic and has been learned for years. Recently, it witnessed great changes, for example, the massification of Higher Education (HE), marketization, and privatization. As a result, more stakeholders are involved in the governance of HE, among which students’ participation in HE becomes more important. However, the research about students’ participation in HE governance in China is not sufficient, and the situation requires improvement. The paper aims to not only fill in the research gap but also put forward practical suggestions to follow the world’s trend of HE governance. The methodology of this paper is literature analysis with comparative studies between China and western countries. The research points out that the current situation of students’ participation in HE governance is unideal due to problems in three fields, values and concepts, mechanisms and systems, as well as student unions. Then, the policy implications are based on these reasons: universities should highlight students’ status, respect their subjectivity and adhere to the service awareness; the government requires to build a sound legal system while universities should establish complete mechanisms and systems; student unions should be encouraged by universities to take part in HE governance affairs with sufficient funds, and autonomy. On the one hand, this paper is a further application of four rationales (consumerism, political-realism, communitarian, democracy, and consequentialism) created by Luescher‐Mamashela for the inevitable trend of students’ participation in HE governance. On the other hand, the suggestions it made benefit the students, universities, and society in practical ways.

Keywords: Students’ participation, higher education governance, Chinese higher education, university power.

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Authors: Stefano Straullu, Silvio Abrate, Antonino Nespola, Paolo Savio, Roberto Gaudino

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Two completely different approaches for a Gigabit Ethernet compliant stream transmission over 50m of 1mm PMMA SI-POF have been experimentally demonstrated and are compared in this paper. The first solution is based on a commercial RC-LED transmission and a careful optimization of the physical layer architecture, realized during the POF-PLUS EU Project. The second solution exploits the performance of an edge-emitting laser at the transmitter side in order to avoid any sort of electrical equalization at the receiver side.

Keywords: Gigabit Ethernet, Home Networking, Step-Index Polymer Optical Fiber (SI-POF)

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Authors: Iruka C. Anugwo, Winston M. Shakantu

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The objective of this study is to uncover the basic business-forces that necessitated the survival and sustainable performance of the medium scale contractors in the South African construction market. This study is essential as it set to contribute towards long-term strategic solutions for combating the incessant failure of start-ups construction organizations within South African. The study used a qualitative research methodology; as the most appropriate approach to elicit and understand, and uncover the phenomena that are basic business-forces for the active contractors in the market. The study also adopted a phenomenological study approach; and in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 medium scale contractors in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, between months of August to October 2015. This allowed for an in-depth understanding of the critical and basic business-forces that influenced their survival and performance beyond the first five years of business operation. Findings of the study showed that for potential contractors (startups), to survival in the competitive business environment such as construction industry, they must possess the basic business-forces. These forces are educational knowledge in construction and business management related disciplines, adequate industrial experiences, competencies and capabilities to delivery excellent services and products as well as embracing the spirit of entrepreneurship. Convincingly, it can be concluded that the strategic approach to minimize the endless failure of startups construction businesses; the potential construction contractors must endeavoring to access and acquire the basic educationally knowledge, training and qualification; need to acquire industrial experiences in collaboration with required competencies, capabilities and entrepreneurship acumen. Without these basic business-forces as been discovered in this study, the majority of the contractors gaining entrance in the market will find it difficult to develop and grow a competitive and sustainable construction organization in South Africa.

Keywords: Basic business-forces, medium scale contractors, South Africa, sustainable organisations.

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Authors: A. Kourou, A. Ioakeimidou, E. Bafa, C. Fassoulas, M. Panoutsopoulou

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The role of volunteers in disaster management is of decisive importance and the need of their involvement is well recognized, both for prevention measures and for disaster management. During major catastrophes, whereas professional personnel are outsourced, the role of volunteers is crucial. In Greece experience has shown that various groups operating in the civil protection mechanism like local administration staff or volunteers, in many cases do not have the necessary knowledge and information on best practices to act against natural disasters. One of the major problems is the lack of volunteers’ education and training. In the above given framework, this paper presents the results of a survey aimed to identify the level of education and preparedness of civil protection volunteers in Greece. Furthermore, the implementation of earthquake protection measures at individual, family and working level, are explored. More specifically, the survey questionnaire investigates issues regarding pre-earthquake protection actions, appropriate attitudes and behaviors during an earthquake and existence of contingency plans in the workplace. The questionnaires were administered to citizens from different regions of the country and who attend the civil protection training program: “Protect Myself and Others”. A closed-form questionnaire was developed for the survey, which contained questions regarding the following: a) knowledge of self-protective actions; b) existence of emergency planning at home; c) existence of emergency planning at workplace (hazard mitigation actions, evacuation plan, and performance of drills); and, d) respondents` perception about their level of earthquake preparedness. The results revealed a serious lack of knowledge and preparedness among respondents. Taking into consideration the aforementioned gap and in order to raise awareness and improve preparedness and effective response of volunteers acting in civil protection, the EVANDE project was submitted and approved by the European Commission (EC). The aim of that project is to educate and train civil protection volunteers on the most serious natural disasters, such as forest fires, floods, and earthquakes, and thus, increase their performance.

Keywords: Civil protection, earthquake preparedness, volunteers.

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Authors: Şemsettin Şahin, Ahmet Oğuz Aktürk, İsmail Çelik

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This study investigated the views of teachers, students and their parents on the FATIH (Movement of Enhancing Opportunities and Improving Technology) Project, which was put into service by the Ministry of National Education in cooperation with the Ministry of Transportation in Turkey in November 2010 for the purpose of increasing students’ success and planned to be completed within 5 years. The study group consisted of teachers employed in a pilot school in the province of Karaman in central Turkey included within the scope of the FATIH Project, students attending this school and parents whose children are students in that school. The research data were collected through forms developed by the researchers to determine the views of teachers, students and parents on the FATIH Project. The descriptive analysis method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. An analysis of the data revealed that a large majority of the teachers and the students believed that if computers were used to serve their set purpose, then they could make considerable contributions to education. A large majority of the parents, on the other hand, regard the use of computers in education as a great opportunity for the students. The views of the teachers, students and parents on the FATIH Project usually overlap. Most of the participants in the study pointed out that the FATIH Project was intended to use technology effectively in education. Moreover, each individual participant described their role in the FATIH Project in accordance with their relative position and stated that they could perform whatever was expected of them for the effective and efficient use and progress of the Project. The views of the participants regarding the FATIH Project vary according to the kind of the participants.

Keywords: Education, FATIH Project, technology.

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Authors: Yong-can Cao, Wei-dong Zhang

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To deal with random delays in Networked Control System (NCS), Modified Fuzzy PID Controller is introduced in this paper to implement real-time control adaptively. Via adjusting the control signal dynamically, the system performance is improved. In this paper, the design process and the ultimate simulation results are represented. Finally, examples and corresponding comparisons prove the significance of this method.

Keywords: Fuzzy Control, Networked Control System, PID, Random Delays

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Authors: Mohamed M. A. Abdalla, M. F Mohamed, A. M. A. Rashwan

Abstract:

A field experiment was conducted in the Agricultural Research Station, at El-Ghoraieb, Assiut to study dry seed yield performance of two locally adapted cultivars (‘Azmerly’ and ‘Cream 7’) and two line introductions (IT81D-1032 and IT82D-812) of common cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) grown at three different within-row spaces (20, 30 and 40 cm) and two planting dates in the summer (April 15th and 30th) and in the fall season (Aug. 12th and 27th) of two successive seasons. The data showed that total dry-seed yield produced by plants grown at 20 cm was greater than at 30 cm in all cvs/lines in both years. Increases in 1000-seed weight were detected in cv ‘Azmerly’ and line IT82D-812 when they were grown at 30 cm as compared with 20 cm in the summer season. However, in the fall season such increases were found in all cvs/lines. Planting at 40 cm produced seeds of greater weight than planting at 30 cm for all cvs/lines in the fall season and also in cv. Cream 7 and line IT82D-812 in the summer season, while all cvs/lines in the fall Planting on April 15th in the summer and also planting on Aug. 12th in the fall had plants which showed increases in 1000-seed weight and total dry-seed yield. The greatest 1000-seed weight was found in the line IT81D-1032 in the summer season and in the line IT82D-812 in the fall season. The sum up results revealed that ‘Azmerly’ produced greater dry-seed yield than ‘Cream 7’ and both of them were superior to the line IT82D-812 and IT81D-1032 in the summer season. In the fall, however, the line IT82D-812 produced greater dry-seed yield than the other cultivars/lines.

Keywords: Cowpea, Assiut, fall, planting dates, El-Ghoraieb.

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Authors: Aniela Pop, Ianina Birsan, Corina Orha, Rodica Pode, Florica Manea

Abstract:

Carbon nanofiber-epoxy composite electrode has been investigated through voltammetric and amperometric techniques in order to detect parabens from aqueous solutions. The occurrence into environment as emerging pollutants of these preservative compounds has been extensively studied in the last decades, and consequently, a rapid and reliable method for their quantitative quantification is required. In this study, methylparaben (MP) and propylparaben (PP) were chosen as representatives for paraben class. The individual electrochemical detection of each paraben has been successfully performed. Their electrochemical oxidation occurred at the same potential value. Their simultaneous quantification should be assessed electrochemically only as general index of paraben class as a cumulative signal corresponding to both MP and PP from solution. The influence of pH on the electrochemical signal was studied. pH ranged between 1.3 and 9.0 allowed shifting the detection potential value to smaller value, which is very desired for the electroanalysis. Also, the signal is better-defined and higher sensitivity is achieved. Differential-pulsed voltammetry and square-wave voltammetry were exploited under the optimum pH conditions to improve the electroanalytical performance for the paraben detection. Also, the operation conditions were selected, i.e., the step potential, modulation amplitude and the frequency. Chronomaprometry application as the easiest electrochemical detection method led to worse sensitivity, probably due to a possible fouling effect of the electrode surface. The best electroanalytical performance was achieved by pulsed voltammetric technique but the selection of the electrochemical technique is related to the concrete practical application. A good reproducibility of the voltammetric-based method using carbon nanofiber-epoxy composite electrode was determined and no interference effect was found for the cation and anion species that are common in the water matrix. Besides these characteristics, the long life-time of the electrode give to carbon nanofiber-epoxy composite electrode a great potential for practical applications.

Keywords: Carbon nanofiber-epoxy composite electrode, electroanalysis, methylparaben, propylparaben.

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Authors: D. Bheenick, M. Young, M. Elmussareh, A. Ali

Abstract:

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had unprecedented effects on the healthcare system in the UK. The pandemic has impacted every service within secondary care, including urology. Our objective is to determine how COVID-19 has influenced acute urology admissions in a busy district general hospital in the UK. To conduct the study, retrospective data of patients presenting acutely to the urology department were collected between January 13 to March 22, 2020 (pre-lockdown period) and March 23 to May 31, 2020 (lockdown period). The nature of referrals, types of admission encountered, and management required in accordance with the new set of protocols established during the lockdown period were analysed and compared to the same data prior to UK lockdown. Included in the study were 1092 patients. The results show that an overall reduction of 32.5% was seen in the total number of admissions. A marked decrease was seen in non-urological pathology as compared to other categories. Urolithiasis showed the highest proportional increase. Treatment varied proportionately to the diagnosis, with conservative management accounting for the most likely treatment during lockdown. However, the proportion of patients requiring interventions during the lockdown period increased overall. No comparative differences were observed during the two periods in terms of source of referral, length of stay and patient age. The results of the study concluded that the admission rate showed a decrease, with no significant difference in the nature and timing of presentation. Our department was able to continue providing effective management to patients presenting acutely during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Keywords: COVID-19, lockdown, admissions, urology

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Authors: Gianluca Cornetta, David J. Santos, Balwant Godara

Abstract:

A 1.2 V, 0.61 mA bias current, low noise amplifier (LNA) suitable for low-power applications in the 2.4 GHz band is presented. Circuit has been implemented, laid out and simulated using a UMC 130 nm RF-CMOS process. The amplifier provides a 13.3 dB power gain a noise figure NF< 2.28 dB and a 1-dB compression point of -15.69 dBm, while dissipating 0.74 mW. Such performance make this design suitable for wireless sensor networks applications such as ZigBee.

Keywords: Current Reuse, IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee), Low NoiseAmplifiers, Wireless Sensor Networks.

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Authors: Tao Zhang, Nan Yan

Abstract:

In recent years, the Chaoshan area, a special place located in the southeast of Guangdong province in China, actively protects religious heritage and is developing religious tourism, which is attracting many expatriate Chinese who are coming back for travel and to worship. This paper discussed three questions. Firstly, what is the current situation about the different social background of tourists’ motivation, satisfaction and behavioral intention? Secondly, is there a relationship between the motivation, satisfaction and behavioral intention and the different social backgrounds of tourists? Thirdly, what is the relationship between religious tourists’ motivation, satisfaction and behavioral intention? The research methods use a combination of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis. Qualitative analysis uses the method of observation and interviews. Convenient sampling technique was used for quantitative analysis. The study showed that the different social backgrounds of tourists’ forms diverse cognition and experiences about religious tourism, and their motivations, satisfaction and behavioral intention as tourists vary. Tourists’ motivation and satisfaction has a positive phase relation. Tourists’ motivation with satisfaction as the intervening variable also has a positive phase effect on tourists’ behavior intention. The result shows that religious tourists’ motivations include experiencing a religious atmosphere, and having a rest and recreation. The result also shows that religious tourists want to travel with their family members and friends. While traveling, religious tourists like to talk with Buddhist monks or nuns. Compared to other tourism types, religious tourists have higher expectations about temple environment, traveling experience, peripheral service and temple management.

Keywords: Behavioral intension, motivation, religious tourism, satisfaction.

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