Search results for: Research and development

Authors: Khosrow Maleknejad, Reza Mollapourasl, Parvin Torabi, Mahdiyeh Alizadeh,

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Sinc-collocation scheme is one of the new techniques used in solving numerical problems involving integral equations. This method has been shown to be a powerful numerical tool for finding fast and accurate solutions. So, in this paper, some properties of the Sinc-collocation method required for our subsequent development are given and are utilized to reduce integral equation of the first kind to some algebraic equations. Then convergence with exponential rate is proved by a theorem to guarantee applicability of numerical technique. Finally, numerical examples are included to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the technique.

Keywords: Integral equation, Fredholm type, Collocation method, Sinc approximation.

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Authors: Seiichi Tamagawa, Takao Kawamura, Toshihiko Sasama, Kazunori Sugahara

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Route bus system is one of fundamental transportation device for aged people and students, and has an important role in every province. However, passengers decrease year by year, therefore the authors have developed the system called "Bus-Net" as a web application to sustain the public transport. But there are two problems in Bus-Net. One is the user interface that does not consider the variety of the device, and the other is the path planning system that dose not correspond to the on-demand bus. Then, Bus-Net was improved to be able to utilize the variety of the device, and a new function corresponding to the on-demand bus was developed.

Keywords: Route Bus, Path Planning System, User Interface, Ondemandbus, Reservation system.

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Authors: M. Chumburidze, N. Salia, T. Namchevadze

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This work deals with case processing problems in business. The task of strategic credit requirements management of cases portfolio is discussed. The information model of credit requirements in a binary tree diagram is considered. The algorithms to solve issues of prioritizing clusters of cases in business have been investigated. An implementation of priority queues to support case management operations has been presented. The corresponding pseudo codes for the programming application have been constructed. The tools applied in this development are based on binary tree ordering algorithms, optimization theory, and business management methods.

Keywords: Credit network, case portfolio, binary tree, priority queue, stack.

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Authors: Craig Loschmann

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With the global financial crisis turning into what more and more appears to be a prolonged “Great Recession", we are witnessing marked reductions in remittance transfers to developing countries with the likely possibility that overall flows will decline even further in the near future. With countless families reliant on remittance inflows as a source of income maintaining their economic livelihood, a reduction would put many at risk of falling below or deeper into poverty. Recognizing the importance of remittance inflows as a lifeline to the poor, policy should aim to (1) reduce the barriers to remit in both sending and receiving nations thus easing the decline in transfers; (2) leverage the development impacts of remittances; and (3) buffer vulnerable groups dependent on remittance transfers as a source of livelihood through sound countercyclical macroeconomic policies.

Keywords: crisis, migration, remittance, livelihood.

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Authors: Qing Zhang, Jiachen Nie, Yujia Wen, Guanyuan Kou, Peng Yu, Kun Xia, Qin Yang, Li Ding

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Background: A facility layout problem (FLP) is an NP-complete (non-deterministic polynomial) problem, for which is hard to obtain an exact optimal solution. FLP has been widely studied in various limited spaces and workflows. For example, cafeterias with many types of equipment for troops cause chaotic processes when dining. Objective: This article tried to optimize the layout of a troops’ cafeteria and to improve the overall efficiency of the dining process. Methods: First, the original cafeteria layout design scheme was analyzed from an ergonomic perspective and two new design schemes were generated. Next, three facility layout models were designed, and further simulation was applied to compare the total time and density of troops between each scheme. Last, an experiment of the dining process with video observation and analysis verified the simulation results. Results: In a simulation, the dining time under the second new layout is shortened by 2.25% and 1.89% (p<0.0001, p=0.0001) compared with the other two layouts, while troops-flow density and interference both greatly reduced in the two new layouts. In the experiment, process completing time and the number of interferences reduced as well, which verified corresponding simulation results. Conclusion: Our two new layout schemes are tested to be optimal by a series of simulation and space experiments. In future research, similar approaches could be applied when taking layout-design algorithm calculation into consideration.

Keywords: Troops’ cafeteria, layout optimization, dining efficiency, AnyLogic simulation, field experiment

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Authors: A. K. Sayah, Sh. Hosseinabadi, M. Farazar

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This study investigates CO2 mitigation by methanol synthesis from flue gas CO2 and H2 generation through water electrolysis. Electrolytic hydrogen generation is viable provided that the required electrical power is supplied from renewable energy resources; whereby power generation from renewable resources is yet commercial challenging. This approach contribute to zero-emission, moreover it produce oxygen which could be used as feedstock for chemical process. At ZPC, however, oxygen would be utilized through partial oxidation of methane in autothermal reactor (ATR); this makes ease the difficulties of O2 delivery and marketing. On the other hand, onboard hydrogen storage and consumption; in methanol plant; make the project economically more competitive.

Keywords: Biomass, CO2 abatement, flue gas recovery, renewable energy, sustainable development.

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Authors: Sujit K. Basak, Marguerite Wotto, Paul Bélanger

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This paper presents a conceptual framework on the critical success factors of e-learning implementation in higher education, derived from an in-depth survey of literature review. The aim of this study was achieved by identifying critical success factors that affect for the successful implementation of e-learning. The findings help to articulate issues that are related to e-learning implementation in both formal and non-formal higher education and in this way contribute to the development of programs designed to address the relevant issues.

Keywords: Critical success factors, e-learning, higher education, life-long learning.

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Authors: Mohammad Saber Eslamlou

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Morphology of Islamic cities has been extensively studied by researchers. In this regard, there exist much difference in method of analysis, classification, recognition, confrontation and comparative method of urban morphology. The present paper aims to examine the previous methods, approaches and insights and how Dr. Giulia Annalinda Neglia dealt with the analysis of morphology of Islamic cities. Neglia is assistant professor in University of Bari, Italy (UNIBA) who has published numerous papers and books on Islamic cities. We introduce the works in the field of morphology of Islamic cities and then, her thoughts, insights and research methodologies are presented and analyzed in critical perspective. This is a qualitative research on her written works, which have been classified in three major categories. The present paper focuses mainly on her works regarding morphology and physical shape of Islamic cities. The results of her works’ review suggest that she has used Moratoria typology in investigating morphology of Islamic cities. Moreover, overall structure of the cities under investigation is often described linear; however, she is against to define a single framework for the recognition of morphology in Islamic cities. She believes that fabric of each region in the city follows from the principles of a specific period or urban pattern, in particular, Hellenistic and Roman structures. Furthermore, she believes that it is impossible to understand the morphology of a city without taking into account the obvious and hidden developments associated with it, because form of building and their surrounding open spaces are written history of the city.

Keywords: City, Islamic city, morphology of city, Giulia Annalinda Neglia.

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Authors: Some Immunological Characteristics of Tick- Borne Encephalitis in Perm Region

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It is shown that the relationship of tick-borne encephalitis virus with the human body comes in two ways, the development of acute infection with the outcome in convalescence and long stay by the virus in the body, its persistence in the nervous tissue with periodic reactivation and prolonged circulating immunoglobulin M. In spite of the fact that tick-borne encephalitis virus has a tropism for nerve tissue, involvement in the process of blood cells is an integral component of the infection. Comprehensive study of the relation of factors of innate and adaptive immunity in the tick-borne encephalitis providing insight into the features of chronic disease.

Keywords: Tick-borne encephalitis, phagocytic activity, a progressive.

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Authors: A. Nassiry, A. Kardan

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According to development of communications and web-based technologies in recent years, e-Learning has became very important for everyone and is seen as one of most dynamic teaching methods. Grid computing is a pattern for increasing of computing power and storage capacity of a system and is based on hardware and software resources in a network with common purpose. In this article we study grid architecture and describe its different layers. In this way, we will analyze grid layered architecture. Then we will introduce a new suitable architecture for e-Learning which is based on grid network, and for this reason we call it Grid Learning Architecture. Various sections and layers of suggested architecture will be analyzed; especially grid middleware layer that has key role. This layer is heart of grid learning architecture and, in fact, regardless of this layer, e-Learning based on grid architecture will not be feasible.

Keywords: Distributed learning, Grid Learning, Grid network, SCORM standard.

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Authors: Osamah A. Alsayegh

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Kuwait-s electric power system is vertically integrated organization owned and operated by the government. For more than five decades, the government of Kuwait has provided relatively reliable electric services to consumers with subsidized electric service fees. Given the country-s rapid socio-economical development and consequently the increase of electricity demand, a question that inflicts itself: Is it necessary to reform the power system to face the fast growing demand? This paper recommends that the government should consider the private sector as a partner in operating the power system. Therefore, power system restructuring is needed to allow such partnership. There are challenges that prevent such restructuring. Abstract recommendations toward resolving these challenges are proposed.

Keywords: Deregulation, electricity market, ISO, private sector.

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Authors: Karim Shiraazi, Mahyar Asheghi Milani, Alireza Sadeghi, Eram Azami, Ahadollah Azami

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A passive system "Qanat" is collection of some underground wells. A mother-well was dug in a place far from the city where they could reach to the water table maybe 100 meters underground, they dug other wells to direct water toward the city, with minimum possible gradient. Using the slope of the earth they could bring water close to the surface in the city. The source of water or the appearance of Qanat, land slope and the ownership lines are the important and effective factors in the formation of routes and the segment division of lands to the extent that making use of Qanat as the techniques of extracting underground waters creates a channel of routes with an organic order and hierarchy coinciding the slope of land and it also guides the Qanat waters in the tradition texture of salt desert and border provinces of it. Qanats are excavated in a specified distinction from each other. The quantity of water provided by Qanats depends on the kind of land, distance from mountain, geographical situation of them and the rate of water supply from the underground land. The rate of underground waters, possibility of Qanat excavation, number of Qanats and rate of their water supply from one hand and the quantity of cultivable fertile lands from the other hand are the important natural factors making the size of cities. In the same manner the cities with several Qanats have multi central textures. The location of cities is in direct relation with land quality, soil fertility and possibility of using underground water by excavating Qanats. Observing the allowable distance for Qanat watering is a determining factor for distance between villages and cities. Topography, land slope, soil quality, watering system, ownership, kind of cultivation, etc. are the effective factors in directing Qanats for excavation and guiding water toward the cultivable lands and it also causes the formation of different textures in land division of farming provinces. Several divisions such as orderly and wide, inorderly, thin and long, comb like, etc. are the introduction to organic order. And at the same time they are complete coincidence with environmental conditions in the typical development of ecological architecture and planning in the traditional cities and settlements order.

Keywords: Qanat, Settlement Formation, Hot-Arid Region, Sustainable Development

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Authors: Moustafa Osman Mohammed

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The spatial-economic modeling database is crucial in understanding economic network structures for social development. Sustainability within spatial-economic model focuses on encouraging green businesses to align with Earth’s systems. The natural exchange patterns of ecosystems exhibit consistent and periodic cycles to maintain energy and material flows in systems ecology. When network topology influences formal and informal communication to function in systems ecology, ecosystems are hypothesized to influence the basic level of spatial sustainable outcomes (i.e., project compatibility success). These referred instrumentalities impact with various aspects of the second level of spatial sustainable outcomes (i.e., participant social security satisfaction). The sustainability outcomes are modeled using composite structure based on a network analysis model to calculate the prosperity of panel databases for efficiency value from 2005 to 2025. The spatial database structure represents the state-of-the-art of value-orientation impact and corresponding complexity of sustainability issues for collecting a consistent database in approach structure of spatial-economic-ecological model, developing a set of sustainability indicators, enabling quantification impact using value-orientation policy and demonstrating spatial structure reliability. The structure of the spatial-ecological model is established for management schemes from the perspective of pollutants of multiple sources through the input–output criteria. These criteria evaluate the spillover effect to conduct Monte Carlo simulations and sensitivity analysis in a unique spatial structure. The balance within “equilibrium patterns,” such as collective biosphere features, is measured using a composite index of many distributed feedback flows. This index has a dynamic structure related to physical and chemical properties for gradual prolongation to incremental patterns. While these spatial structures argue from ecological modeling of resource savings, static loads are not decisive model from an artistic/architectural perspective. The model attempts to unify analytic and analogical spatial structure for the development of urban environments in a relational database, using optimization software to integrate spatial structure where the process is based on the engineering topology of systems ecology.

Keywords: Ecological modeling, spatial structure, orientation impact, composite index, industrial ecology.

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Authors: Mohammed Salahat, Steve Wade, Izhar Ul-Haq

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This paper proposes a “soft systems" approach to domain-driven design of computer-based information systems. We propose a systemic framework combining techniques from Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), the Unified Modelling Language (UML), and an implementation pattern known as “Naked Objects". We have used this framework in action research projects that have involved the investigation and modelling of business processes using object-oriented domain models and the implementation of software systems based on those domain models. Within the proposed framework, Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is used as a guiding methodology to explore the problem situation and to generate a ubiquitous language (soft language) which can be used as the basis for developing an object-oriented domain model. The domain model is further developed using techniques based on the UML and is implemented in software following the “Naked Objects" implementation pattern. We argue that there are advantages from combining and using techniques from different methodologies in this way. The proposed systemic framework is overviewed and justified as multimethodologyusing Mingers multimethodology ideas. This multimethodology approach is being evaluated through a series of action research projects based on real-world case studies. A Peer-Tutoring case study is presented here as a sample of the framework evaluation process

Keywords: SSM, UML, Domain-Driven Design, Soft Domain-Driven Design, Naked Objects, Soft Languag e.

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Authors: Yuriy V. Timofeyev, Galina V. Timofeyeva

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In the paper it is questioned whether effective state social policy provides happiness and social progress. For this purpose selected correlations between Human Development Index (HDI), share of public social expenditures in GDP, the Happy Planet Index (HPI), GDP per capita, and Government Effectiveness are examined and the results are graphically presented. It is shown how a government can affect well-being and happiness in different countries of modern world. Also, it is tested the hypothesis about existence of a certain optimum of well-being and public social expenditures, which affect direction of social progress. It is concluded that efficient social policy and wealth are not the only factors determining human happiness.

Keywords: government effectiveness, happiness, social progress, state social policy

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Authors: D. B. L. Bong, K.C. Lai, A. Joseph

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The uses of road map in daily activities are numerous but it is a hassle to construct and update a road map whenever there are changes. In Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, research on Automatic Road Extraction (ARE) was explored to solve the difficulties in updating road map. The research started with using Satellite Image (SI), or in short, the ARE-SI project. A Hybrid Simple Colour Space Segmentation & Edge Detection (Hybrid SCSS-EDGE) algorithm was developed to extract roads automatically from satellite-taken images. In order to extract the road network accurately, the satellite image must be analyzed prior to the extraction process. The characteristics of these elements are analyzed and consequently the relationships among them are determined. In this study, the road regions are extracted based on colour space elements and edge details of roads. Besides, edge detection method is applied to further filter out the non-road regions. The extracted road regions are validated by using a segmentation method. These results are valuable for building road map and detecting the changes of the existing road database. The proposed Hybrid Simple Colour Space Segmentation and Edge Detection (Hybrid SCSS-EDGE) algorithm can perform the tasks fully automatic, where the user only needs to input a high-resolution satellite image and wait for the result. Moreover, this system can work on complex road network and generate the extraction result in seconds.

Keywords: Road Network Recognition, Colour Space, Edge Detection, Urban Planning.

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Authors: Rui Antunes, Fernando V. Coito

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This article presents the development of a neural network cognitive model for the classification and detection of different frequency signals. The basic structure of the implemented neural network was inspired on the perception process that humans generally make in order to visually distinguish between high and low frequency signals. It is based on the dynamic neural network concept, with delays. A special two-layer feedforward neural net structure was successfully implemented, trained and validated, to achieve minimum target error. Training confirmed that this neural net structure descents and converges to a human perception classification solution, even when far away from the target.

Keywords: Neural Networks, Signal Classification, Adaptative Filters, Cognitive Neuroscience

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Authors: Arash Sharghi, Irina Dotu

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The developments in the Middle East region have activated the involvement of a numerous diverse state and non-state actors in the regional affairs. The goals, positions, ideologies, different, and even contrast policy behaviors had procured the spreading and continuity of crisis. Non-state actors varying from Islamic organizations to takfiri-terrorist movements on one hand and regional and trans- regional actors, from another side, seek to reach their interests in the power struggle. Here, a research worthy question comes on the agenda: taking into consideration actors’ contradictory interests and constraints what are the regional peace and stability perspectives? Therein, different actors’ aims definition, their actions and behaviors, which affect instability, can be regarded as independent variables; whereas, on the contrary, Middle East peace and stability perspective analysis is a dependent variable. Though, this regional peace and war theory based research admits the significant influence of trans-regional actors, it asserts the roots of violence to derive from region itself. Consequently, hot war and conflict prevention and hot peace assurance in the Middle East region cannot be attained only by demands and approaches of trans-regional actors. Moreover, capacity of trans-regional actors is sufficient only for a cold war or cold peace to be reached in the region. Furthermore, within the framework of current conflict (struggle) between regional actors it seems to be difficult and even impossible to turn the cold war into a cold peace in the region.

Keywords: Cold peace, cold war, hot war, Middle East, non-state actors, regional and Great powers, war theory.

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Authors: Yoshio Kurosawa, Takao Yamaguchi

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High frequency automotive interior noise above 500 Hz considerably affects automotive passenger comfort. To reduce this noise, sound insulation material is often laminated on body panels or interior trim panels. For a more effective noise reduction, the sound reduction properties of this laminated structure need to be estimated. We have developed a new calculate tool that can roughly calculate the sound absorption and insulation properties of laminate structure and handy for designers. In this report, the outline of this tool and an analysis example applied to floor mat are introduced.

Keywords: Automobile, acoustics, porous material, Transfer Matrix Method.

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Authors: Dinara B. Dauyen, Nurzhamal A. Aldabek

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The purpose of this work is to identify the positive and negative aspects of parties- participation in the country-s modernization, which in turn, will help a country to determine the necessary steps to improve the social-economic development. The article considers a question of the role of the dominating party of Kazakhstan and ruling party of China in the country-s modernization. Using a comparative analysis reveals differences between the People's Democratic Party “Nur Otan" and the Communist Party of China. It is discussed the policy of carrying out of modernization, the main actions of political parties of both countries with a view of modernization implementation.

Keywords: China's modernization, dominant party, ruling party, modernization of Kazakhstan.

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Authors: F.H.Wee, F. Malek

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This paper presents the utilizing of ferroelectric material on antenna application. There are two different ferroelectric had been used on the proposed antennas which include of Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) and Bismuth Titanate (BiT), suitable for Access Points operating in the WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g and WiMAX IEEE 802.16 within the range of 2.3 GHz to 2.5 GHz application. BST, which had been tested to own a dielectric constant of εr = 15 while BiT has a dielectric constant that higher than BST which is εr = 21 and both materials are in rectangular shaped. The influence of various parameters on antenna characteristics were investigated extensively using commercial electromagnetic simulations software by Communication Simulation Technology (CST). From theoretical analysis and simulation results, it was demonstrated that ferroelectric material used have not only improved the directive emission but also enhanced the radiation efficiency.

Keywords: Ferroelectric material, WLAN, WiMAX, dielectric constant

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Authors: Mokhtar Ghobadi , Mohammad-Eghbal Ghobadi, Danial Kahrizi, Alireza Zebarjadi, Mahdi Geravandi

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Post-anthesis drought stress is the most important problem affecting wheat production in dryland fields, specially in Mediterranean regions. The main objective of this research was to evaluate drought tolerance indices in dryland wheat genotypes under post-anthesis drought stress. The research was including two different experiments. In each experiment, twenty dryland bread wheat genotypes were sown in a randomized complete blocks design (RCBD) with three replications. One of experiments belonged to rain-fed conditions (post-anthesis drought stress) and other experiment was under non-stress conditions (with supplemental irrigation). Different drought tolerance indices include Stress Tolerance (Tol), Mean Productivity (MP), Geometric Mean Productivity (GMP), Stress Susceptibility Index (SSI), Stress Tolerance Index (STI), Harmonic Mean (HAM), Yield Index (YI) and Yield Stability Index (YSI) were evaluate based on grain yield under rain-fed (Ys) and supplemental irrigation (Yp) environments. G10 and G12 were the most tolerant genotypes based on TOL and SSI. But, based on MP, GMP, STI, HAM and YI indices, G1 and G2 were selected. STI, GMP and MP indices had high correlation with grain yield under rain-fed and supplementary irrigation conditions and were recognized as appropriate indices to identify genotypes with high grain yield and low sensitivity to drought stress environments.

Keywords: Dryland wheat, Supplemental irrigation, Tolerance indices

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Authors: Melisa Yazdan Panahi

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Since, today in most countries around the world much attention is paid to planning the smallest unit in the city i.e. the residential neighborhoods to achieve sustainable urban development goals, a variety of assessment tools have been developed to assess and monitor the sustainability of new developments. One of the most reliable and widely used assessment tools is LEED-ND rating system. This paper whit the aim of assessing sustainability level of Roshdieh neighborhood in Tabriz, has introduced this rating system and applied it in the study area. The results indicate that Roshdieh has the potential of achieving the standards of sustainable neighborhoods, but the present situation is far from the ideal point.

Keywords: LEED-ND, Sustainable Neighborhood, New Developments, Tabriz.

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Authors: W. Wiyaratn, A. Watanapa

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This study was aimed to study the probability about the production of fiberboard made of durian rind through latex with phenolic resin as binding agent. The durian rind underwent the boiling process with NaOH [7], [8] and then the fiber from durian rind was formed into fiberboard through heat press. This means that durian rind could be used as replacement for plywood in plywood industry by using durian fiber as composite material with adhesive substance. This research would study the probability about the production of fiberboard made of durian rind through latex with phenolic resin as binding agent. At first, durian rind was split, exposed to light, boiled and steamed in order to gain durian fiber. Then, fiberboard was tested with the density of 600 Kg/m3 and 800 Kg/m3. in order to find a suitable ratio of durian fiber and latex. Afterwards, mechanical properties were tested according to the standards of ASTM and JIS A5905-1994. After the suitable ratio was known, the test results would be compared with medium density fiberboard (MDF) and other related research studies. According to the results, fiberboard made of durian rind through latex with phenolic resin at the density of 800 Kg/m3 at ratio of 1:1, the moisture was measured to be 5.05% with specific gravity (ASTM D 2395-07a) of 0.81, density (JIS A 5905-1994) of 0.88 g/m3, tensile strength, hardness (ASTM D2240), flexibility or elongation at break yielded similar values as the ones by medium density fiberboard (MDF).

Keywords: Durian rind, latex, phenolic resin, medium density fiberboard

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Authors: Masood Karamoozian, Zhang Hong

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The necessity and complexity of the decision-making process and the interference of the various factors to make decisions and consider all the relevant factors in a problem are very obvious nowadays. Hence, researchers show their interest in multi-criteria decision-making methods. In this research, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Simple Additive Weighting (SAW), and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods of multi-criteria decision-making have been used to solve the problem of optimal construction systems. Systems being evaluated in this problem include; Light Steel Frames (LSF), a case study of designs by Zhang Hong studio in the Southeast University of Nanjing, Insulating Concrete Form (ICF), Ordinary Construction System (OCS), and Precast Concrete System (PRCS) as another case study designs in Zhang Hong studio in the Southeast University of Nanjing. Crowdsourcing was done by using a questionnaire at the sample level (200 people). Questionnaires were distributed among experts in university centers and conferences. According to the results of the research, the use of different methods of decision-making led to relatively the same results. In this way, with the use of all three multi-criteria decision-making methods mentioned above, the PRCS was in the first rank, and the LSF system ranked second. Also, the PRCS, in terms of performance standards and economics, was ranked first, and the LSF system was allocated the first rank in terms of environmental standards.

Keywords: Multi-criteria decision making, AHP, SAW, TOPSIS.

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Authors: NattapongTecharattanased

Abstract:

The purpose of this research was to study the factors that influenced the success of mobile phone entrepreneurs at Central Plaza. The sample group included 187 entrepreneurs at Central Plaza. A questionnaire was utilized as a tool to collect data. Statistics used in this research included frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Independent- sample t- test, one way ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis. Data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.The findings disclosed that the majority of respondents were male between 25-40 years old, and held an undergraduate degree. The average income of respondents was between 15,001-25,000 baht. The majority of respondents had less than 5 years of working experience. In terms of personality, the findings revealed that expression and agreement were ranked at the highest level. Whereas, emotion stability, consciousness, open to new experience were ranked at high. From the hypotheses testing, the findings revealed that different genders had different success in their mobile phone business with different income from the last 6 months. However, difference in age, income, level of education, and experience affected the success in terms of income, number of customers, and overall success of business. Moreover, the factors of personalities included expression, agreement, emotion stability, consciousness, open to new experience, and competitive strategy. From the findings, these factors were able to predict mobile phone business success at 66.9 percent.

Keywords: Entrepreneur, Influencing Factors, Success, Mobile Phone Business.

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Authors: Liping Li, Wenan Tan, Na Wang

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With the rapid development of information technology, project management has gained more and more attention recently. Based on CDIO, this paper proposes some teaching reform ideas for software project management curriculum. We first change from Teacher-centered classroom to Student-centered and adopt project-driven, scenario animation show, teaching rhythms, case study and team work practice to improve students' learning enthusiasm. Results showed these attempts have been well received and very effective; as well, students prefer to learn with this curriculum more than before the reform.

Keywords: CDIO, teaching reform, engineering education, project-driven, scenario animation simulation.

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Authors: Farid Ezanee Mohamed Ghazali

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The Malaysia Highway Authority (MHA) was established by the Government in 1980 for the purpose of designing, constructing and maintaining toll highways in Malaysia that include the North-South Expressway and the Penang Bridge, which were procured using the publicly-funded traditional procurement. However following a recession in the mid 80-s, the operations of these tolledhighways had been privatized to ensure that their operational services continue through private financing as a result of long-term concession agreement concurred between the Malaysian Government and private operators. The change in the contract strategy for highway projects in Malaysia would have a great tendency to dictate a significant risk exposure towards the key parties involved, particularly the Malaysian Government as project principal, unless operational risks are clearly identified and managed via appropriate mitigation measures prior to a contract signing. This research identifies potential operational risks that have a possibility to occur in highway projects in Malaysia from the perspective of public sector clients. Since this research focuses on the operational risks for highway projects in Malaysia, the initial results acquired from literature review on the operational risks of highway projects in some Asian countries are then justified by a number of key individuals from the MHA through interviews. As a result, among key operational risks that have possibility to occur in the highway projects in Malaysia include initial toll-tariff decided by the Government, traffic congestion, change of road network and overloaded freight transportation, which could cause damage to the road surface and hence affecting the operation of a particular highway.

Keywords: Malaysia, operating highway project, operational risk.

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Authors: Bala Dhandayuthapani Veerasamy

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Rapid steps made in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has facilitated the development of teaching and learning methods and prepared them to serve the needs of an assorted educational institution. In other words, the information age has redefined the fundamentals and transformed the institutions and method of services delivery forever. The vision is the articulation of a desire to transform the method of teaching and learning could proceed through e-learning. E-learning is commonly deliberated to use of networked information and communications technology in teaching and learning practice. This paper deals the general aspects of the e-leaning with its issues, developments, opportunities and challenges, which can the higher institutions own.

Keywords: 2D & 3D Animations, challenges, E-learning, Flash, HTML, issues, Multimedia, opportunities, VRML

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Authors: S. R. Shamili, J. Karthikeyan

Abstract:

Fast development of the total populace and far and wide urbanization has surprisingly expanded the advancement of the construction industry. As a result of these activities, old structures are being demolished to make new buildings. Due to these large-scale demolitions, a huge amount of debris is generated all over the world, which results in a landfill. The use of construction and demolition waste as landfill causes groundwater contamination, which is hazardous. Using construction and demolition waste as aggregate can reduce the use of natural aggregates and the problem of mining. The objective of this study is to provide a detailed overview on how the construction and demolition waste material has been used as aggregate in structural concrete. In this study, the preparation, classification, and composition of construction and demolition wastes are also discussed.

Keywords: Aggregate, construction and demolition waste, landfill, large scale demolition.

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