Search results for: Science achievement

Authors: Lise P. Labéjof, Krisnayne S. Ribeiro, Jackson A. Santos, Nicolle P. dos Santos

Abstract:

An unrecorded experiment of use of the smartphone as a tool for practical classes of histology is presented in this paper. Behavior and learning of students of science courses at the University were analyzed and compared as well as the mode of teaching of this discipline and the appreciation of the students, using either digital photographs taken by phone or drawings for record microscopic observations, analyze and interpret histological sections of human or animal tissues.

Keywords: Cell phone, digital micrographs, learning of sciences, teaching practices.

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Authors: Mosseri Avraham

Abstract:

Teaching structures and structural design in architectural studies is considered a difficult mission due to complex reasons and circumstances. This article proposes a new conceptual model (HDH) for teaching structures and structural design in architectural studies. Because of its systems-thinking orientation it is also relevant and applicable to other fields and systems. The HDH model was developed in order to encourage the integration of science and art, especially in relation to structures, in architectural studies.

Keywords: Structural Thinking, Conceptual Design, Teaching Structures, Systems Thinking.

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Authors: Weifeng Pan

Abstract:

Complex networks have been intensively studied across many fields, especially in Internet technology, biological engineering, and nonlinear science. Software is built up out of many interacting components at various levels of granularity, such as functions, classes, and packages, representing another important class of complex networks. It can also be studied using complex network theory. Over the last decade, many papers on the interdisciplinary research between software engineering and complex networks have been published. It provides a different dimension to our understanding of software and also is very useful for the design and development of software systems. This paper will explore how to use the complex network theory to analyze software structure, and briefly review the main advances in corresponding aspects.

Keywords: Metrics, measurement, complex networks, software.

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Authors: Ali E. Abbas

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This paper summarizes some of the discussions that occurred in a workshop in West Virginia, U.S.A which was sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in February 2016. The goal of the workshop was to explore the opportunities and challenges for applying systems engineering in large enterprises, and some of the issues that still persist. The main topics of the discussion included challenges with elaboration and abstraction in large systems, interfacing physical and social systems, and the need for axiomatic frameworks for large enterprises. We summarize these main points of discussion drawing parallels with decision making in organizations to instigate research in these discussion areas.

Keywords: Decision analysis, systems engineering, framing, value creation.

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Authors: Yuri Nikitin, Veronika Rukas

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Within the framework of the FP7 project "START" the cooperation with European research centres has had a positive impact on raising the level of innovation researches and the introduction of innovations Institute for Superhard Materials of the National Academy of Sciences (ISM NAS) of Ukraine in the economy of Europe and Ukraine, which in turn permits to speeds up the way for Ukrainian science to the European research area through the creation in Ukraine the scientific organizations of innovative type.

Keywords: Programs of the EU, innovative scientific results, innovation competence of the staff, commercialization in business of industry of the Europe and Ukraine.

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Authors: Matthias Dehmer1 Jürgen Kilian

Abstract:

Problems on algebraical polynomials appear in many fields of mathematics and computer science. Especially the task of determining the roots of polynomials has been frequently investigated.Nonetheless, the task of locating the zeros of complex polynomials is still challenging. In this paper we deal with the location of zeros of univariate complex polynomials. We prove some novel upper bounds for the moduli of the zeros of complex polynomials. That means, we provide disks in the complex plane where all zeros of a complex polynomial are situated. Such bounds are extremely useful for obtaining a priori assertations regarding the location of zeros of polynomials. Based on the proven bounds and a test set of polynomials, we present an experimental study to examine which bound is optimal.

Keywords: complex polynomials, zeros, inequalities

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Authors: R.L. Sanders, L. McKeown

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An international cooperation between educators in Australia and the US has led to a reconceptualization of the teaching of a library science course at Appalachian State University. The pedagogy of Action Learning coupled with a 3D virtual learning environment immerses students in a social constructivist learning space that incorporates and supports interaction and reflection. The intent of this study was to build a bridge between theory and practice by providing students with a tool set that promoted personal and social reflection, and created and scaffolded a community of practice. Besides, action learning is an educational process whereby the fifty graduate students experienced their own actions and experience to improve performance.

Keywords: action learning, action research, reflection, metacognition, virtual worlds

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Authors: Alia Alghosoun, Nabil El Moçayd, Mohammed Seaid

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Modeling dam-break flows over non-flat beds requires an accurate representation of the topography which is the main source of uncertainty in the model. Therefore, developing robust and accurate techniques for reconstructing topography in this class of problems would reduce the uncertainty in the flow system. In many hydraulic applications, experimental techniques have been widely used to measure the bed topography. In practice, experimental work in hydraulics may be very demanding in both time and cost. Meanwhile, computational hydraulics have served as an alternative for laboratory and field experiments. Unlike the forward problem, the inverse problem is used to identify the bed parameters from the given experimental data. In this case, the shallow water equations used for modeling the hydraulics need to be rearranged in a way that the model parameters can be evaluated from measured data. However, this approach is not always possible and it suffers from stability restrictions. In the present work, we propose an adaptive optimal control technique to numerically identify the underlying bed topography from a given set of free-surface observation data. In this approach, a minimization function is defined to iteratively determine the model parameters. The proposed technique can be interpreted as a fractional-stage scheme. In the first stage, the forward problem is solved to determine the measurable parameters from known data. In the second stage, the adaptive control Ensemble Kalman Filter is implemented to combine the optimality of observation data in order to obtain the accurate estimation of the topography. The main features of this method are on one hand, the ability to solve for different complex geometries with no need for any rearrangements in the original model to rewrite it in an explicit form. On the other hand, its achievement of strong stability for simulations of flows in different regimes containing shocks or discontinuities over any geometry. Numerical results are presented for a dam-break flow problem over non-flat bed using different solvers for the shallow water equations. The robustness of the proposed method is investigated using different numbers of loops, sensitivity parameters, initial samples and location of observations. The obtained results demonstrate high reliability and accuracy of the proposed techniques.

Keywords: Optimal control, ensemble Kalman Filter, topography reconstruction, data assimilation, shallow water equations.

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Authors: Xun Ge, Jinjin Li, Ying Ge

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Adopting Zakowski-s upper approximation operator C and lower approximation operator C, this paper investigates granularity-wise separations in covering approximation spaces. Some characterizations of granularity-wise separations are obtained by means of Pawlak rough sets and some relations among granularitywise separations are established, which makes it possible to research covering approximation spaces by logical methods and mathematical methods in computer science. Results of this paper give further applications of Pawlak rough set theory in pattern recognition and artificial intelligence.

Keywords: Rough set, covering approximation space, granularitywise separation.

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Authors: Roelien Goede

Abstract:

Data Structures and Algorithms is a module in most Computer Science or Information Technology curricula. It is one of the modules most students identify as being difficult. This paper demonstrates how programming a solution for Sudoku can make abstract concepts more concrete. The paper relates concepts of a typical Data Structures and Algorithms module to a step by step solution for Sudoku in a human type as opposed to a computer oriented solution.

Keywords: Data Structures, Algorithms, Sudoku, ObjectOriented Programming, Programming Teaching, Education.

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Authors: Mohammad Ali Baradaran Ghahfarokhi, Parvin Baradaran Ghahfarokhi

Abstract:

In this paper, first we introduce the stable distribution, stable process and theirs characteristics. The a -stable distribution family has received great interest in the last decade due to its success in modeling data, which are too impulsive to be accommodated by the Gaussian distribution. In the second part, we propose major applications of alpha stable distribution in telecommunication, computer science such as network delays and signal processing and financial markets. At the end, we focus on using stable distribution to estimate measure of risk in stock markets and show simulated data with statistical softwares.

Keywords: stable distribution, SaS, infinite variance, heavy tail networks, VaR.

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Authors: Pedro Llanos, Diego García

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Spaceflight is considered the last frontier in terms of science, technology, and engineering. But it is also the next frontier in terms of human physiology and performance. After more than 200,000 years humans have evolved under earth’s gravity and atmospheric conditions, spaceflight poses environmental stresses for which human physiology is not adapted. Hypoxia, accelerations, and radiation are among such stressors, our research involves suborbital flights aiming to develop effective countermeasures in order to assure sustainable human space presence. The physiologic baseline of spaceflight participants is subject to great variability driven by age, gender, fitness, and metabolic reserve. The objective of the present study is to characterize different physiologic variables in a population of STEM practitioners during an aerobatic flight. Cardiovascular and pulmonary responses were determined in Science Astronaut Candidates (SACs) during unusual attitude aerobatic flight indoctrination. Physiologic data recordings from 20 subjects participating in high-G flight training were analyzed. These recordings were registered by wearable sensor-vest that monitored electrocardiographic tracings (ECGs), signs of dysrhythmias or other electric disturbances during all the flight. The same cardiovascular parameters were also collected approximately 10 min pre-flight, during each high-G/unusual attitude maneuver and 10 min after the flights. The ratio (pre-flight/in-flight/post-flight) of the cardiovascular responses was calculated for comparison of inter-individual differences. The resulting tracings depicting the cardiovascular responses of the subjects were compared against the G-loads (Gs) during the aerobatic flights to analyze cardiovascular variability aspects and fluid/pressure shifts due to the high Gs. In-flight ECG revealed cardiac variability patterns associated with rapid Gs onset in terms of reduced heart rate (HR) and some scattered dysrhythmic patterns (15% premature ventricular contractions-type) that were considered as triggered physiological responses to high-G/unusual attitude training and some were considered as instrument artifact. Variation events were observed in subjects during the +Gz and –Gz maneuvers and these may be due to preload and afterload, sudden shift. Our data reveal that aerobatic flight influenced the breathing rate of the subject, due in part by the various levels of energy expenditure due to the increased use of muscle work during these aerobatic maneuvers. Noteworthy was the high heterogeneity in the different physiological responses among a relatively small group of SACs exposed to similar aerobatic flights with similar Gs exposures. The cardiovascular responses clearly demonstrated that SACs were subjected to significant flight stress. Routine ECG monitoring during high-G/unusual attitude flight training is recommended to capture pathology underlying dangerous dysrhythmias in suborbital flight safety. More research is currently being conducted to further facilitate the development of robust medical screening, medical risk assessment approaches, and suborbital flight training in the context of the evolving commercial human suborbital spaceflight industry. A more mature and integrative medical assessment method is required to understand the physiology state and response variability among highly diverse populations of prospective suborbital flight participants.

Keywords: Aerobatic maneuvers, G force, hypoxia, suborbital flight, commercial astronauts.

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Authors: Thomas Klauß

Abstract:

In networks, mainly small and medium-sized businesses benefit from the knowledge, experiences and solutions offered by experts from industry and science or from the exchange with practitioners. Associations which focus, among other things, on networking, information and knowledge transfer and which are interested in supporting such cooperations are especially well suited to provide such networks and the appropriate web platforms. Using METORA as an example – a project developed and run by the Federal Association for Information Economy, Telecommunications and New Media e.V. (BITKOM) for the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) – This paper will discuss how associations and other network organizations can achieve this task and what conditions they have to consider.

Keywords: Associations, collaboration, communities, crossdepartmental organizations, semantic web, web 2.0.

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Authors: YuLung Wu

Abstract:

In Knowledge Structure Graph, each course unit represents a phase of learning activities. Both learning portfolios and Knowledge Structure Graphs contain learning information of students and let teachers know which content are difficulties and fails. The study purposes "Dual Mode On-line Learning Diagnosis System" that integrates two search methods: learning portfolio and knowledge structure. Teachers can operate the proposed system and obtain the information of specific students without any computer science background. The teachers can find out failed students in advance and provide remedial learning resources.

Keywords: Knowledge Structure Graph, On-line LearningDiagnosis

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Authors: Shiang-Hwua Yu, Po-Hsun Wu

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This study introduces two types of self-oscillating circuits that are frequently found in power electronics applications. Special effort is made to relate the circuits to the analogous mechanical systems of some important scientific inventions: Galileo’s pendulum clock and Coulomb’s friction model. A little touch of related history and philosophy of science will hopefully encourage curiosity, advance the understanding of self-oscillating systems and satisfy the aspiration of some students for scientific literacy. Finally, the two self-oscillating circuits are applied to design a simple class-D audio amplifier.

Keywords: Self-oscillation, sigma-delta modulator, pendulum clock, Coulomb friction, class-D amplifier.

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Authors: Khaled E. A. Negm

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A neuron can emit spikes in an irregular time basis and by averaging over a certain time window one would ignore a lot of information. It is known that in the context of fast information processing there is no sufficient time to sample an average firing rate of the spiking neurons. The present work shows that the spiking neurons are capable of computing the radial basis functions by storing the relevant information in the neurons' delays. One of the fundamental findings of the this research also is that when using overlapping receptive fields to encode the data patterns it increases the network-s clustering capacity. The clustering algorithm that is discussed here is interesting from computer science and neuroscience point of view as well as from a perspective.

Keywords: Temporal Neurons, RBF Recognition, Perturbation, On Line Recognition.

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Authors: Nhon Do

Abstract:

Ontology is a terminology which is used in artificial intelligence with different meanings. Ontology researching has an important role in computer science and practical applications, especially distributed knowledge systems. In this paper we present an ontology which is called Computational Object Knowledge Base Ontology. It has been used in designing some knowledge base systems for solving problems such as the system that supports studying knowledge and solving analytic geometry problems, the program for studying and solving problems in Plane Geometry, the knowledge system in linear algebra.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, knowledge representation, knowledge base system, ontology.

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Authors: Andrey R. Khazbulatov, Moldir Nurpeiis

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Contemporary science and technologies largely widen the gap between the spiritual and rational of the society. Industrial and technological breakthroughs might radically affect most processes in the society, thus losing the cultural heritage. The thinkers recognized the dangers of the decadence in the first place. In the present article the ways of preserving cultural heritage have been investigated. Memory has always been a necessary condition for selfidentification, - continuity is based on this. The authors have supported the hypothesis that continuity and ethnic memory are the very mechanisms that preserve cultural heritage. Such problemformulating will facilitate another, new look at the material, spiritual and arts spheres of the cultural heritage of numerous ethnic groups. The fundamental works by major European and Kazakh scientists have been taken as a basis for the research done.

Keywords: Continuity, cultural heritage, ethnic memory

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Authors: K. S. Hui, K. N. Hui, Seong Kon Lee

Abstract:

Zeolite A and MCM-41 have extensive applications in basic science, petrochemical science, energy conservation/storage, medicine, chemical sensor, air purification, environmentally benign composite structure and waste remediation. However, the use of zeolite A and MCM-41 in these areas, especially environmental remediation, are restricted due to prohibitive production cost. Efficient recycling of and resource recovery from coal fly ash has been a major topic of current international research interest, aimed at achieving sustainable development of human society from the viewpoints of energy, economy, and environmental strategy. This project reported an original, novel, green and fast methods to produce nano-porous zeolite A and MCM-41 materials from coal fly ash. For zeolite A, this novel production method allows a reduction by half of the total production time while maintaining a high degree of crystallinity of zeolite A which exists in a narrower particle size distribution. For MCM-41, this remarkably green approach, being an environmentally friendly process and reducing generation of toxic waste, can produce pure and long-range ordered MCM-41 materials from coal fly ash. This approach took 24 h at 25 oC to produce 9 g of MCM-41 materials from 30 g of the coal fly ash, which is the shortest time and lowest reaction temperature required to produce pure and ordered MCM-41 materials (having the largest internal surface area) compared to the values reported in the literature. Performance evaluation of the produced zeolite A and MCM-41 materials in wastewater treatment and air pollution control were reported. The residual fly ash was also converted to zeolite Na-P1 which showed good performance in removal of multi-metal ions in wastewater. In wastewater treatment, compared to commercial-grade zeolite A, adsorbents produced from coal fly ash were effective in removing multi heavy metal ions in water and could be an alternative material for treatment of wastewater. In methane emission abatement, the zeolite A (produced from coal fly ash) achieved similar methane removal efficiency compared to the zeolite A prepared from pure chemicals. This report provides the guidance for production of zeolite A and MCM-41 from coal fly ash by a cost-effective approach which opens potential applications of these materials in environmental industry. Finally, environmental and economic aspects of production of zeolite A and MCM-41 from coal fly ash were discussed.

Keywords: Metal ions, waste water, methane, volatile organic compounds

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Authors: Yogesh Gupta, Ashish Saini, A.K. Saxena

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Information retrieval has become an important field of study and research under computer science due to explosive growth of information available in the form of full text, hypertext, administrative text, directory, numeric or bibliographic text. The research work is going on various aspects of information retrieval systems so as to improve its efficiency and reliability. This paper presents a comprehensive study, which discusses not only emergence and evolution of information retrieval but also includes different information retrieval models and some important aspects such as document representation, similarity measure and query expansion.

Keywords: Information Retrieval, query expansion, similarity measure, query expansion, vector space model.

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Authors: Jennifer Leach, Umashanger Thayasivam

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The use of technology has benefited society in more ways than one ever thought possible. Unfortunately, as society’s knowledge of technology has advanced, so has its knowledge of ways to use technology to manipulate others. This has led to a simultaneous advancement in the world of fraud. Machine learning techniques can offer a possible solution to help decrease these advancements. This research explores how the use of various machine learning techniques can aid in detecting fraudulent activity across two different types of fraudulent datasets, and the accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 were recorded for each method. Each machine learning model was also tested across five different training and testing splits in order to discover which split and technique would lead to the most optimal results.

Keywords: Data science, fraud detection, machine learning, supervised learning.

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Authors: M. Benbrahim, K. Benjelloun, A. Ibenbrahim, M. Kasmi, E. Ardil

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The automatic discrimination of seismic signals is an important practical goal for the earth-science observatories due to the large amount of information that they receive continuously. An essential discrimination task is to allocate the incoming signal to a group associated with the kind of physical phenomena producing it. In this paper, we present new techniques for seismic signals classification: local, regional and global discrimination. These techniques were tested on seismic signals from the data base of the National Geophysical Institute of the Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique (Morocco) by using the Moroccan software for seismic signals analysis.

Keywords: Seismic signals, local discrimination, regionaldiscrimination, global discrimination, Moroccan software for seismicsignals analysis.

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Authors: Mohammed Ali Ahmed, Vaughan Coffey, Bo Xia

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Quality management systems (QMSs) in the construction industry are often implemented to ensure that sufficient effort is made by companies to achieve the required levels of quality for clients. Attainment of these quality levels can result in greater customer satisfaction, which is fundamental to ensure long-term competitiveness for construction companies. However, the construction sector is still lagging behind other industries in terms of its successful adoption of QMSs, due to the relative lack of acceptance of the benefits of these systems among industry stakeholders, as well as from other barriers related to implementing them. Thus, there is a critical need to undertake a detailed and comprehensive exploration of adoption of QMSs in the construction sector. This paper comprehensively investigates in the construction sector setting, the impacts of all the salient factors surrounding successful implementation of QMSs in building organizations, especially those of external factors. This study is part of an ongoing PhD project, which aims to develop a new framework that integrates both internal and external factors affecting QMS implementation. To achieve the paper aim and objectives, interviews will be conducted to define the external factors influencing the adoption of QMSs, and to obtain holistic critical success factors (CSFs) for implementing these systems. In the next stage of data collection, a questionnaire survey will be developed to investigate the prime barriers facing the adoption of QMSs, the CSFs for their implementation, and the external factors affecting the adoption of these systems. Following the survey, case studies will be undertaken to validate and explain in greater detail the real effects of these factors on QMSs adoption. Specifically, this paper evaluates the effects of the external factors in terms of their impact on implementation success within the selected case studies. Using findings drawn from analyzing the data obtained from these various approaches, specific recommendations for the successful implementation of QMSs will be presented, and an operational framework will be developed. Finally, through a focus group, the findings of the study and the new developed framework will be validated. Ultimately, this framework will be made available to the construction industry to facilitate the greater adoption and implementation of QMSs. In addition, deployment of the applicable recommendations suggested by the study will be shared with the construction industry to more effectively help construction companies to implement QMSs, and overcome the barriers experienced by businesses, thus promoting the achievement of higher levels of quality and customer satisfaction.

Keywords: Barriers, critical success factors, external factors, internal factors, quality management systems.

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Authors: Zheng Miao, Dennis Fernandez

Abstract:

CRISPR research has the potential to completely transform life science, agriculture, live-stock and the health care industry. The Intellectual Property derived from its research has raised significant attention in the academic as well as the biopharmaceutical industry culminating an urgent need for strategic IP protection. We review the rudimentary concepts and key competitors of CRISPR technologies as well as the paramount strategies for intellectual property protection. Further, we elaborate on prosecution issues related to CRISPR patents as well as possible solutions to various patent laws, interferences and litigation. Finally, we address how the bioinformatics of the CRISPR technology begs an inquiry into issues of privacy and a host of ethical concerns.

Keywords: Bioinformatics, CRISPR, biotechnology, intellectual property.

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Authors: Gurung S., Yadav B. N., Budhathoki SS.

Abstract:

Problem based learning is one of the highly acclaimed learning methods in medical education since its first introduction at Mc-Master University in Canada in the 1960s. It has now been adopted as a teaching learning method in many medical colleges of Nepal. B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS), a health science deemed university is the second institute in Nepal to establish problem-based learning academic program and need-based teaching approach hence minimizing teaching through lectures since its inception. During the first two years of MBBS course, the curriculum is divided into various organ-systems incorporated with problem-based learning exercise each of one week duration.

Keywords: PBL, medical education.

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Authors: Ye. Shapovalov, V. Shapovalov, O. Stryzhak, A. Salyuk

Abstract:

Over the past decades, amount of scientific information has been growing exponentially. It became more complicated to process and systemize this amount of data. The approach to systematization of scientific information on the production of biogas based on the ontological IT platform “T.O.D.O.S.” has been developed. It has been proposed to select semantic characteristics of each work for their further introduction into the IT platform “T.O.D.O.S.”. An ontological graph with a ranking function for previous scientific research and for a system of selection of microorganisms has been worked out. These systems provide high performance of information management of scientific information.

Keywords: Ontology-based analysis, analysis of scientific data, methanogenesys, microorganism hierarchy, T.O.D.O.S.

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Authors: Wan-Yu Liu, Chun-Cheng Lin

Abstract:

The Taiwan government has started to promote the “Plain Landscape Afforestation and Greening Program" since 2002. A key task of the program was the payment for environmental services (PES), entitled the “Plain Landscape Afforestation Policy" (PLAP), which was certificated by the Executive Yuan on August 31, 2001 and enacted on January 1, 2002. According to the policy, it is estimated that the total area of afforestation will be 25,100 hectares by December 31, 2007. Until the end of 2007, the policy had been enacted for six years in total and the actual area of afforestation was 8,919.18 hectares. Among them, Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC) was accounted for 7,960 hectares (with 2,450.83 hectares as public service area) which occupied 86.22% of the total afforestation area; the private farmland promoted by local governments was accounted for 869.18 hectares which occupied 9.75% of the total afforestation area. Based on the above, we observe that most of the afforestation area in this policy is executed by TSC, and the achievement ratio by TSC is better than by others. It implies that the success of the PLAP is seriously related to the execution of TSC. The objective of this study is to analyze the relevant policy planning of TSC-s participation in the PLAP, suggest complementary measures, and draw up effective adjustment mechanisms, so as to improve the effectiveness of executing the policy. Our main conclusions and suggestions are summarized as follows: 1. The main reason for TSC-s participation in the PLAP is based on their passive cooperation with the central government or company policy. Prior to TSC-s participation in the PLAP, their lands were mainly used for growing sugarcane. 2. The main factors of TSC-s consideration on the selection of tree species are based on the suitability of land and species. The largest proportion of tree species is allocated to economic forests, and the lack of technical instruction was the main problem during afforestation. Moreover, the method of improving TSC-s future development in leisure agriculture and landscape business becomes a key topic. 3. TSC has developed short and long-term plans on participating in the PLAP for the future. However, there is no great willingness or incentive on budgeting for such detailed planning. 4. Most people from TSC interviewed consider the requirements on PLAP unreasonable. Among them, an unreasonable requirement on the number of trees accounted for the greatest proportion; furthermore, most interviewees suggested that the government should continue to provide incentives even after 20 years. 5. Since the government shares the same goals as TSC, there should be sufficient cooperation and communication that support the technical instruction and reduction of afforestation cost, which will also help to improve effectiveness of the policy.

Keywords: Payment for environmental services (PES), afforestation subsidy, Taiwan Sugar Corporation.

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Authors: Wan-Yu Liu

Abstract:

The Taiwan government has started to promote the “Plain Landscape Afforestation and Greening Program" since 2002. A key task of the program was the payment for environmental services (PES), entitled the “Plain Landscape Afforestation Policy" (PLAP), which was certificated by the Executive Yuan on August 31, 2001 and enacted on January 1, 2002. According to the policy, it is estimated that the total area of afforestation will be 25,100 hectares by December 31, 2007. Until the end of 2007, the policy had been enacted for six years in total and the actual area of afforestation was 8,919.18 hectares. Among them, Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC) was accounted for 7,960 hectares (with 2,450.83 hectares as public service area) which occupied 86.22% of the total afforestation area; the private farmland promoted by local governments was accounted for 869.18 hectares which occupied 9.75% of the total afforestation area. Based on the above, we observe that most of the afforestation area in this policy is executed by TSC, and the achievement ratio by TSC is better than by others. It implies that the success of the PLAP is seriously related to the execution of TSC. The objective of this study is to analyze the relevant policy planning of TSC's participation in the PLAP, suggest complementary measures, and draw up effective adjustment mechanisms, so as to improve the effectiveness of executing the policy. Our main conclusions and suggestions are summarized as follows: 1. The main reason for TSC’s participation in the PLAP is based on their passive cooperation with the central government or company policy. Prior to TSC’s participation in the PLAP, their lands were mainly used for growing sugarcane. 2. The main factors of TSC's consideration on the selection of tree species are based on the suitability of land and species. The largest proportion of tree species is allocated to economic forests, and the lack of technical instruction was the main problem during afforestation. Moreover, the method of improving TSC’s future development in leisure agriculture and landscape business becomes a key topic. 3. TSC has developed short and long-term plans on participating in the PLAP for the future. However, there is no great willingness or incentive on budgeting for such detailed planning. 4. Most people from TSC interviewed consider the requirements on PLAP unreasonable. Among them, an unreasonable requirement on the number of trees accounted for the greatest proportion; furthermore, most interviewees suggested that the government should continue to provide incentives even after 20 years. 5. Since the government shares the same goals as TSC, there should be sufficient cooperation and communication that support the technical instruction and reduction of afforestation cost, which will also help to improve effectiveness of the policy.

Keywords: Payment for environmental services, afforestation subsidy, Taiwan sugar corporation.

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Authors: Abdallah A. Hlayel

Abstract:

Operations research science (OR) deals with good success in developing and applying scientific methods for problem solving and decision-making. However, by using OR techniques, we can enhance the use of computer decision support systems to achieve optimal management for institutions. OR applies comprehensive analysis including all factors that effect on it and builds mathematical modeling to solve business or organizational problems. In addition, it improves decision-making and uses available resources efficiently. The adoption of OR by universities would definitely contributes to the development and enhancement of the performance of OR techniques. This paper provides an understanding of the structures, approaches and models of OR in problem solving and decisionmaking.

Keywords: Best candidates' method, decision making, decision support system, operations research.

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Authors: Ali K. M. Al-Nasrawi, Uday A. Al-Hamdany, Sarah M. Hamylton, Brian G. Jones, Yasir M. Alyazichi

Abstract:

Surface elevation dynamics have always responded to disturbance regimes. Creating Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) to detect surface dynamics has led to the development of several methods, devices and data clouds. DEMs can provide accurate and quick results with cost efficiency, in comparison to the inherited geomatics survey techniques. Nowadays, remote sensing datasets have become a primary source to create DEMs, including LiDAR point clouds with GIS analytic tools. However, these data need to be tested for error detection and correction. This paper evaluates various DEMs from different data sources over time for Apple Orchard Island, a coastal site in southeastern Australia, in order to detect surface dynamics. Subsequently, 30 chosen locations were examined in the field to test the error of the DEMs surface detection using high resolution global positioning systems (GPSs). Results show significant surface elevation changes on Apple Orchard Island. Accretion occurred on most of the island while surface elevation loss due to erosion is limited to the northern and southern parts. Concurrently, the projected differential correction and validation method aimed to identify errors in the dataset. The resultant DEMs demonstrated a small error ratio (≤ 3%) from the gathered datasets when compared with the fieldwork survey using RTK-GPS. As modern modelling approaches need to become more effective and accurate, applying several tools to create different DEMs on a multi-temporal scale would allow easy predictions in time-cost-frames with more comprehensive coverage and greater accuracy. With a DEM technique for the eco-geomorphic context, such insights about the ecosystem dynamic detection, at such a coastal intertidal system, would be valuable to assess the accuracy of the predicted eco-geomorphic risk for the conservation management sustainability. Demonstrating this framework to evaluate the historical and current anthropogenic and environmental stressors on coastal surface elevation dynamism could be profitably applied worldwide.

Keywords: DEMs, eco-geomorphic-dynamic processes, geospatial information science. Remote sensing, surface elevation changes.

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