Search results for: personality limitations

Authors: Raúl Pereda García, Julio Manuel de Luis Ruiz, Elena Castillo López, Rubén Pérez Álvarez, Felipe Piña García

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New technologies for the capture of point clouds have experienced a great advance in recent years. In this way, its use has been extended in geomatics, providing measurement solutions that have been popularized without there being, many times, a detailed study of its accuracy. This research focuses on the study of the viability of topographic works with drones incorporating different sensors sensitive to the visible spectrum. The fundamentals have been applied to a road, located in Cantabria (Spain), where a platform extension and the reform of a riprap were being constructed. A total of six flights were made during two months, all of them with GPS as part of the photogrammetric process, and the results were contrasted with those measured with total station. The obtained results show that the choice of the camera and the planning of the flight have an important impact on the accuracy. In fact, the representations with a level of detail corresponding to 1/1000 scale are admissible, depending on the existing vegetation, and obtaining better results in the area of the riprap. This set of techniques is, therefore, suitable for the control of earthworks in road works but with certain limitations which are exposed in this paper.

Keywords: Drone, earth movement control, global position system, surveying technology.

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Authors: A. Sohrabi

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The importance of local food products and their promotion are drivers for economic growth. Entrepreneurship is one of the most important tools for development, which puts its most important effect on the way of increasing business in society. The purpose of this paper is to assess the breadth of food strategies in Italy toward to promoting local Italian foods in order to present useful food policies for developing countries. The methodology of this paper is based on qualitative analysis. In order to achieve such objectives, a literature review is carried out by employing documenting study. In this research, at first, we seek to present compliance’s concepts and definitions. Then, after examining the dimensions of the three strategies, we access to the indicators and compare their effects in order to present some useful policies and guidelines for developing countries. Despite of the limitations like inaccessibility, performance of companies in exporting local foods and lacking perception of awareness and experience of people, the study offers possible ways for future, as an example for Middle East countries to promote Italian local foods. The finding of this paper evaluates the three strategies in order to promote local food entrepreneurship in Italy and developing countries.

Keywords: Local food, Italian food, Italian strategy, food policy.

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Authors: Jishu Das Gupta, Srecko Howard, Angela Howard

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Insufficient Quality of Service (QoS) of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a growing concern that has lead the need for research and study. In this paper we investigate the performance of VoIP and the impact of resource limitations on the performance of Access Networks. The impact of VoIP performance in Access Networks is particularly important in regions where Internet resources are limited and the cost of improving these resources is prohibitive. It is clear that perceived VoIP performance, as measured by mean opinion score [2] in experiments, where subjects are asked to rate communication quality, is determined by end-to-end delay on the communication path, delay variation, packet loss, echo, the coding algorithm in use and noise. These performance indicators can be measured and the affect in the Access Network can be estimated. This paper investigates the congestion in the Access Network to the overall performance of VoIP services with the presence of other substantial uses of internet and ways in which Access Networks can be designed to improve VoIP performance. Methods for analyzing the impact of the Access Network on VoIP performance will be surveyed and reviewed. This paper also considers some approaches for improving performance of VoIP by carrying out experiments using Network Simulator version 2 (NS2) software with a view to gaining a better understanding of the design of Access Networks.

Keywords: Codec, DiffServ, Droptail, RED, VOIP

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Authors: R. R. Chen, K. Khorasani

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In this paper, a robust decentralized congestion control strategy is developed for a large scale network with Differentiated Services (Diff-Serv) traffic. The network is modeled by a nonlinear fluid flow model corresponding to two classes of traffic, namely the premium traffic and the ordinary traffic. The proposed congestion controller does take into account the associated physical network resource limitations and is shown to be robust to the unknown and time-varying delays. Our proposed decentralized congestion control strategy is developed on the basis of Diff-Serv architecture by utilizing a robust adaptive technique. A Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) condition is obtained to guarantee the ultimate boundedness of the closed-loop system. Numerical simulation implementations are presented by utilizing the QualNet and Matlab software tools to illustrate the effectiveness and capabilities of our proposed decentralized congestion control strategy.

Keywords: Congestion control, Large scale networks, Decentralized control, Differentiated services traffic, Time-delay systems.

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Authors: Hang Yu

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The visualization of geographic information on mobile devices has become popular as the widespread use of mobile Internet. The mobility of these devices brings about much convenience to people-s life. By the add-on location-based services of the devices, people can have an access to timely information relevant to their tasks. However, visual analysis of geographic data on mobile devices presents several challenges due to the small display and restricted computing resources. These limitations on the screen size and resources may impair the usability aspects of the visualization applications. In this paper, a variable-scale visualization method is proposed to handle the challenge of small mobile display. By merging multiple scales of information into a single image, the viewer is able to focus on the interesting region, while having a good grasp of the surrounding context. This is essentially visualizing the map through a fisheye lens. However, the fisheye lens induces undesirable geometric distortion in the peripheral, which renders the information meaningless. The proposed solution is to apply map generalization that removes excessive information around the peripheral and an automatic smoothing process to correct the distortion while keeping the local topology consistent. The proposed method is applied on both artificial and real geographical data for evaluation.

Keywords: Map simplification, visualization, mobile devices.

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Authors: Khaled Halimi, Hassina Seridi-Bouchelaghem

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The purpose of this paper is to describe how learning analytics approaches based on social semantic web techniques can be applied to enhance the lifelong learning experiences in a connectivist perspective. For this reason, a prototype of a system called SoLearn (Social Learning Environment) that supports this approach. We observed and studied literature related to lifelong learning systems, social semantic web and ontologies, connectivism theory, learning analytics approaches and reviewed implemented systems based on these fields to extract and draw conclusions about necessary features for enhancing the lifelong learning process. The semantic analytics of learning can be used for viewing, studying and analysing the massive data generated by learners, which helps them to understand through recommendations, charts and figures their learning and behaviour, and to detect where they have weaknesses or limitations. This paper emphasises that implementing a learning analytics approach based on social semantic web representations can enhance the learning process. From one hand, the analysis process leverages the meaning expressed by semantics presented in the ontology (relationships between concepts). From the other hand, the analysis process exploits the discovery of new knowledge by means of inferring mechanism of the semantic web.

Keywords: Connectivism, data visualization, informal learning, learning analytics, semantic web, social web.

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Authors: K. Indra Gandhi

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Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have always been characterized for application-specific sensing, relaying and collection of information for further analysis. However, software development was not considered as a separate entity in this process of data collection which has posed severe limitations on the software development for WSN. Software development for WSN is a complex process since the components involved are data-driven, network-driven and application-driven in nature. This implies that there is a tremendous need for the separation of concern from the software development perspective. A layered approach for developing data acquisition design based on Model Driven Development (MDD) has been proposed as the sensed data collection process itself varies depending upon the application taken into consideration. This work focuses on the layered view of the data acquisition process so as to ease the software point of development. A metamodel has been proposed that enables reusability and realization of the software development as an adaptable component for WSN systems. Further, observing users perception indicates that proposed model helps in improving the programmer's productivity by realizing the collaborative system involved.

Keywords: Model-driven development, wireless sensor networks, data acquisition, separation of concern, layered design.

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Authors: Thusitha Mabotuwana, Christopher S. Hall

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Radiologists routinely make follow-up imaging recommendations, usually based on established clinical practice guidelines, such as the Fleischner Society guidelines for managing lung nodules. In order to ensure optimal care, it is important to make guideline-compliant recommendations, and also for patients to follow-up on these imaging recommendations in a timely manner. However, determining such compliance rates after a specific finding has been observed usually requires many time-consuming manual steps. To address some of these limitations with current approaches, in this paper we discuss a methodology to automatically detect finding-specific follow-up recommendations from radiology reports and create a visualization for relevant subsequent exams showing the modality transitions. Nearly 5% of patients who had a lung related follow-up recommendation continued to have at least eight subsequent outpatient CT exams during a seven year period following the recommendation. Radiologist and section chiefs can use the proposed tool to better understand how a specific patient population is being managed, identify possible deviations from established guideline recommendations and have a patient-specific graphical representation of the imaging pathways for an abstract view of the overall treatment path thus far.

Keywords: Follow-up recommendations, care pathways, imaging pathway visualization, follow-up tracking.

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Authors: Rizwan Ullah, Abdar Ali, Zahid Ullah

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This paper illustrates the study of three isolated zero voltage switched (ZVS) PWM full bridge (FB) converters to charge the high voltage battery in the charger of electric vehicle (EV). EV battery chargers have several challenges such as high efficiency, high reliability, low cost, isolation, and high power density. The cost of magnetic and filter components in the battery charger is reduced when switching frequency is increased. The increase in the switching frequency increases switching losses. ZVS is used to reduce switching losses and to operate the converter in the battery charger at high frequency. The performance of each of the three converters is evaluated on the basis of ZVS range, dead times of the switches, conduction losses of switches, circulating current stress, circulating energy, duty cycle loss, and efficiency. The limitations and merits of each PWM FB converter are reviewed. The converter with broader ZVS range, high efficiency and low switch stresses is selected for battery charger applications in EV.

Keywords: Electric vehicle, PWM FB converter, zero voltage switching, circulating energy, duty cycle loss, battery charger.

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Authors: Ghazi AL-Sukkar, Iyad Jafar, Khalid Darabkh, Raed Al-Zubi, Mohammed Hawa

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Smart Grids employ wireless sensor networks for their control and monitoring. Sensors are characterized by limitations in the processing power, energy supply and memory spaces, which require a particular attention on the design of routing and data management algorithms. Since most routing algorithms for sensor networks, focus on finding energy efficient paths to prolong the lifetime of sensor networks, the power of sensors on efficient paths depletes quickly, and consequently sensor networks become incapable of monitoring events from some parts of their target areas. In consequence, the design of routing protocols should consider not only energy efficiency paths, but also energy efficient algorithms in general. In this paper we propose an energy efficient routing protocol for wireless sensor networks without the support of any location information system. The reliability and the efficiency of this protocol have been demonstrated by simulation studies where we compare them to the legacy protocols. Our simulation results show that these algorithms scale well with network size and density.

Keywords: Data-centric storage, Dynamic Address Allocation, Sensor networks, Smart Grid Communications.

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Authors: Alhaji M. H. Conteh, Xiangbin Yan, Alfred V Gborie

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Rice, which is the staple food in Sierra Leone, is consumed on a daily basis. It is the most imperative food crop extensively grown by farmers across all ecologies in the country. Though much attention is now given to rice grain production through the small holder commercialization programme (SHCP), however, no attention has been given in investigating the limitations faced by rice producers. This paper will contribute to attempts to overcome the development challenges caused by food insecurity. The objective of this paper is thus, to analysis the relationship between rice production and the domestic retail price of rice. The study employed a log linear model in which, the quantity of rice produced is the dependent variable, quantity of rice imported, price of imported rice and price of domestic rice as explanatory variables. Findings showed that, locally produced rice is even more expensive than the imported rice per ton, and almost all the inhabitants in the capital city which hosts about 65% of the entire population of the country favor imported rice, as it is free from stones with other impurities. On the other hand, to control price and simultaneously increase rice production, the government should purchase the rice from the farmers and then sell to private retailers.

Keywords: Domestic price of rice, Econometric model, Rice production, Sierra Leone.

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Authors: M. Victor Jose, V. Seenivasagam

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This paper proposes a cost-effective private grid using Object-based Grid Architecture (OGA). In OGA, the data process privacy and inter communication are increased through an object- oriented concept. The limitation of the existing grid is that the user can enter or leave the grid at any time without schedule and dedicated resource. To overcome these limitations, cost-effective private grid and appropriate algorithms are proposed. In this, each system contains two platforms such as grid and local platforms. The grid manager service running in local personal computer can act as grid resource. When the system is on, it is intimated to the Monitoring and Information System (MIS) and details are maintained in Resource Object Table (ROT). The MIS is responsible to select the resource where the file or the replica should be stored. The resource storage is done within virtual single private grid nodes using random object addressing to prevent stolen attack. If any grid resource goes down, then the resource ID will be removed from the ROT, and resource recovery is efficiently managed by the replicas. This random addressing technique makes the grid storage a single storage and the user views the entire grid network as a single system.

Keywords: Object Grid Architecture, Grid Manager Service, Resource Object table, Random object addressing, Object storage, Dynamic Object Update.

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Authors: Mohammadjavad Mahdavinejad, Hadi Yazdi

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The greatest influence we have from the world is shaped through the visual form, thus light is an inseparable element in human life. The use of daylight in visual perception and environment readability is an important issue for users. With regard to the hazards of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, and in line with the attitudes on the reduction of energy consumption, the correct use of daylight results in lower levels of energy consumed by artificial lighting, heating and cooling systems. Windows are usually the starting points for analysis and simulations to achieve visual comfort and energy optimization; therefore, attention should be paid to the orientation of buildings to minimize electrical energy and maximize the use of daylight. In this paper, by using the Design Builder Software, the effect of the orientation of an 18m²(3m*6m) room with 3m height in city of Tehran has been investigated considering the design constraint limitations. In these simulations, the dimensions of the building have been changed with one degree and the window is located on the smaller face (3m*3m) of the building with 80% ratio. The results indicate that the orientation of building has a lot to do with energy efficiency to meet high-performance architecture and planning goals and objectives.

Keywords: Daylight, window, orientation, energy consumption, design builder.

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Authors: Boonlert Watjatrakul

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Mobile marketing through mobile messaging service has highly impressive growth as it enables e-business firms to communicate with their customers effectively. Educational institutions hence start using this service to enhance communication with their students. Previous studies, however, have limited understanding of applying mobile messaging service in education. This study proposes a theoretical model to understand the drivers of students- intentions to use the university-s mobile messaging service. The model indicates that social influence, perceived control and attitudes affect students- intention to use the university-s mobile messaging service. It also provides five antecedents of students- attitudes–perceived utility (information utility, entertainment utility, and social utility), innovativeness, information seeking, transaction specificity (content specificity, sender specificity, and time specificity) and privacy concern. The proposed model enables universities to understand what students concern about the use of a mobile messaging service in universities and handle the service more effectively. The paper discusses the model development and concludes with limitations and implications of the proposed model.

Keywords: education, intention, mobile marketing, mobile messaging.

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Authors: Sunita Jahirabadkar, Parag Kulkarni

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Many real-world data sets consist of a very high dimensional feature space. Most clustering techniques use the distance or similarity between objects as a measure to build clusters. But in high dimensional spaces, distances between points become relatively uniform. In such cases, density based approaches may give better results. Subspace Clustering algorithms automatically identify lower dimensional subspaces of the higher dimensional feature space in which clusters exist. In this paper, we propose a new clustering algorithm, ISC – Intelligent Subspace Clustering, which tries to overcome three major limitations of the existing state-of-art techniques. ISC determines the input parameter such as є – distance at various levels of Subspace Clustering which helps in finding meaningful clusters. The uniform parameters approach is not suitable for different kind of databases. ISC implements dynamic and adaptive determination of Meaningful clustering parameters based on hierarchical filtering approach. Third and most important feature of ISC is the ability of incremental learning and dynamic inclusion and exclusions of subspaces which lead to better cluster formation.

Keywords: Density based clustering, high dimensional data, subspace clustering, dynamic parameter setting.

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Zamani Kouhpanji

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This paper presents a MEMS/NEMS device for fatigue and fracture characterization of nanomaterials. This device can apply static loads, cyclic loads, and their combinations in nanomechanical experiments. It is based on the electromagnetic force induced between paired parallel wires carrying electrical currents. Using this concept, the actuator and sensor parts of the device were designed and analyzed while considering the practical limitations. Since the PWCC device only uses two wires for actuation part and sensing part, its fabrication process is extremely easier than the available MEMS/NEMS devices. The total gain and phase shift of the MEMS/NEMS device were calculated and investigated. Furthermore, the maximum gain and sensitivity of the MEMS/NEMS device were studied to demonstrate the capability and usability of the device for wide range of nanomaterials samples. This device can be readily integrated into SEM/TEM instruments to provide real time study of the mechanical behaviors of nanomaterials as well as their fatigue and fracture properties, softening or hardening behaviors, and initiation and propagation of nanocracks.

Keywords: Sensors and actuators, MEMS/NEMS devices, fatigue and fracture nanomechanical testing device, static and cyclic nanomechanical testing device.

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Authors: Fiona Browne, Huiru Zheng, Haiying Wang, Francisco Azuaje

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Recent years have seen a growing trend towards the integration of multiple information sources to support large-scale prediction of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks in model organisms. Despite advances in computational approaches, the combination of multiple “omic" datasets representing the same type of data, e.g. different gene expression datasets, has not been rigorously studied. Furthermore, there is a need to further investigate the inference capability of powerful approaches, such as fullyconnected Bayesian networks, in the context of the prediction of PPI networks. This paper addresses these limitations by proposing a Bayesian approach to integrate multiple datasets, some of which encode the same type of “omic" data to support the identification of PPI networks. The case study reported involved the combination of three gene expression datasets relevant to human heart failure (HF). In comparison with two traditional methods, Naive Bayesian and maximum likelihood ratio approaches, the proposed technique can accurately identify known PPI and can be applied to infer potentially novel interactions.

Keywords: Bayesian network, Classification, Data integration, Protein interaction networks.

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Authors: Noor H Jabarullah

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In the past many uneconomic solutions for limitation and interruption of short-circuit currents in low power applications have been introduced, especially polymer switch based on the positive temperature coefficient of resistance (PCTR) concept. However there are many limitations in the active material, which consists of conductive fillers. This paper presents a significantly improved and simplified approach that replaces the existing current limiters with faster switching elements. Its elegance lies in the remarkable simplicity and low-cost processes of producing the device using polyaniline (PANI) doped with methane-sulfonic acid (MSA). Samples characterized as lying in the metallic and critical regimes of metal insulator transition have been studied by means of electrical performance in the voltage range from 1V to 5 V under different environmental conditions. Moisture presence is shown to increase the resistivity and also improved its current limiting performance. Additionally, the device has also been studied for electrical resistivity in the temperature range 77 K-300 K. The temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity gives evidence for a transport mechanism based on variable range hopping in three dimensions.

Keywords: Conducting polymer, current limiter, intrinsic, moisture dependence, polyaniline, resettable, surge protection.

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Authors: Aelita Skarzauskiene, Monika Maciuliene

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In this paper, we conduct a systematic survey of urban communities in Lithuania to evaluate their potential to co-create collective intelligence or “civic intelligence” applying Digital Co-creation Index methodology that includes different socio-technological indicators. Civic intelligence is a form of collective intelligence that refers to the group’s capacity to perceive societal problems and to address them effectively. The research focuses on evaluation of diverse organizational designs that increase efficient collective performance. The current scientific project advanced the state of the art by evaluating the basic preconditions in the urban communities through which the collective intelligence is being co-created under the systemic manner. The research subject is the “bottom up” digital enabled urban platforms, initiated by Lithuanian public organizations, civic movements or business entities. The web-based monitoring results obtained by applying a social indices calculation methodology and Pearson correlation analysis provided the information about the potential and limits of the urban communities and what possible changes need to be implemented to overcome the limitations.

Keywords: Computer supported collaboration, co-creation, collective intelligence, socio-technological system, networked society.

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Authors: Lubna Alhinti, Heidi Christensen, Stuart Cunningham

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People with speech disorders may rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies to help them communicate. However, the limitations of the current AAC technologies act as barriers to the optimal use of these technologies in daily communication settings. The ability to communicate effectively relies on a number of factors that are not limited to the intelligibility of the spoken words. In fact, non-verbal cues play a critical role in the correct comprehension of messages and having to rely on verbal communication only, as is the case with current AAC technology, may contribute to problems in communication. This is especially true for people’s ability to express their feelings and emotions, which are communicated to a large part through non-verbal cues. This paper focuses on understanding more about the non-verbal communication ability of people with dysarthria, with the overarching aim of this research being to improve AAC technology by allowing people with dysarthria to better communicate emotions. Preliminary survey results are presented that gives an understanding of how people with dysarthria convey emotions, what emotions that are important for them to get across, what emotions that are difficult for them to convey, and whether there is a difference in communicating emotions when speaking to familiar versus unfamiliar people.

Keywords: Alternative and augmentative communication technology, dysarthria, speech emotion recognition, VIVOCA.

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Authors: Marzena Świgoń

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Nowadays, graduates should be prepared for serious challenges in the internal and external labor market. The notion that a degree is a “passport to employment” has been relegated to the past. In the last few years a phenomenon in the form of the increasing unemployment of highly educated young people in EU countries, including Poland has been observed. Empirical studies were conducted among Polish students in the scope of the so-called self-perceived employability review. In this study, a special scale was used which consisted of 19 statements regarding five components: student’s perception of university; field of study; self-belief; state of the external labor market; and, personal knowledge management. The respondent group consisted of final-year master’s students of International Relations at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland. The findings of the empirical studies were compiled using statistical methods: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. In general, in light of the conducted studies, the self-perceived employability of the Polish students was not high. Limitations of the studies were discussed, as well as the implications for future research in the scope of the students’ employability.

Keywords: Self-perceived employability, students of international relations, university education.

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Authors: Kwan Hee Han, Jun Woo Park, Seock Kyu Yoo, Geon Lee

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As business environments are rapidly changing, the manufacturing system must be reconfigured to adapt to various customer needs. In order to cope with this challenge, it is quintessential to test industrial control logic rapidly and easily in the design time, and monitor operational behavior in the run time of automated manufacturing system. Proposed integrated model for virtual prototyping and operational monitoring of industrial control logic is to improve limitations of current ladder programming practices and general discrete event simulation method. Each plant layout model using HMI package and object-oriented control logic model is designed independently and is executed simultaneously in integrated manner to reflect design practices of automation system in the design time. Control logic is designed and executed using UML activity diagram without considering complicated control behavior to deal with current trend of reconfigurable manufacturing. After the physical installation, layout model of virtual prototype constructed in the design time is reused for operational monitoring of system behavior during run time.

Keywords: automated manufacturing system, HMI, monitoring, object-oriented, PLC, virtual prototyping

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Authors: Saeed Sayyad Hagh Shomar

Abstract:

Traffic congestion pricing – as a strategy in travel demand management in urban areas to reduce traffic congestion, air pollution and noise pollution – has drawn many attentions towards itself. Unlike the satisfying findings in this method, there are still problems in determining the best functional congestion pricing scheme with regard to the situation. The so-called problems in this process will result in further complications and even the scheme failure. That is why having proper knowledge of the significance of congestion pricing schemes and the effective factors in choosing them can lead to the success of this strategy. In this study, first, a variety of traffic congestion pricing schemes and their components are introduced; then, their functional usage is discussed. Next, by analyzing and comparing the barriers, limitations and advantages, the selection criteria of pricing schemes are described. The results, accordingly, show that the selection of the best scheme depends on various parameters. Finally, based on examining the effective parameters, it is concluded that the implementation of area-based schemes (cordon and zonal) has been more successful in non-diversion of traffic. That is considering the topology of the cities and the fact that traffic congestion is often created in the city centers, area-based schemes would be notably functional and appropriate.

Keywords: Congestion pricing, demand management, flat toll, variable toll.

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Authors: L. Parvizsedghy, I. Gkountis, A. Senouci, T. Zayed, M. Alsharqawi, H. El Chanati, M. El-Abbasy, F. Mosleh

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The aging and deterioration of water pipelines in cities worldwide result in more frequent water main breaks, water service disruptions, and flooding damage. Therefore, there is an urgent need for undertaking proper maintenance procedures to avoid breaks and disastrous failures. However, due to budget limitations, the maintenance of water pipeline networks needs to be prioritized through efficient deterioration assessment models. Previous studies focused on the development of structural or physical deterioration assessment models, which require expensive inspection data. But, this paper aims at developing deterioration assessment models for water pipelines using statistical techniques. Several deterioration models were developed based on pipeline size, material type, and soil type using linear regression analysis. The categorical nature of some variables affecting pipeline deterioration was considered through developing several categorical models. The developed models were validated with an average validity percentage greater than 95%. Moreover, sensitivity analysis was carried out against different classifications and it displayed higher importance of age of pipes compared to other factors. The developed models will be helpful for the water municipalities and asset managers to assess the condition of their pipes and prioritize them for maintenance and inspection purposes.

Keywords: Water pipelines, deterioration assessment models, regression analysis.

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Authors: Esther Lorrayne M. Pereira, Adriana Souza M. Batista, Fabíola A. S. Ribeiro, Adelina P. Santos, Clascídia A. Furtado, Luiz O. Faria

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The combination of multi–walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with polymers offers an attractive route to reinforce the macromolecular compounds as well as the introduction of new properties based on morphological modifications or electronic interactions between the two constituents. As they are only a few nanometers in dimension, it offers ultra-large interfacial area per volume between the nano-element and polymer matrix. Nevertheless, the use of MWCNTs as a rough material in different applications has been largely limited by their poor processability, insolubility, and infusibility. Studies concerning the nanofiller reinforced polymer composites are justified in an attempt to overcome these limitations. This work presents one preliminary study of MWCNTs dispersion into the PVDF homopolymer. For preparation, the composite components were diluted in n,n-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) with mechanical agitation assistance. After complete dilution, followed by slow evaporation of the solvent at 60°C, the samples were dried. Films of about 80 μm were obtained. FTIR and UV-Vis spectroscopic techniques were used to characterize the nanocomposites. The appearance of absorption bands in the FTIR spectra of nanofilled samples, when compared to the spectrum of pristine PVDF samples, are discussed and compared with the UV-Vis measurements.

Keywords: Composites materials, FTIR, MWNTs, PVDF, UVVis.

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Authors: Shrey Sharma, Gunjan Kumar Verma

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High density electrical prospecting has been widely used in groundwater investigation, civil engineering and environmental survey. For efficient inversion, the forward modeling routine, sensitivity calculation, and inversion algorithm must be efficient. This paper attempts to provide a brief summary of the past and ongoing developments of the method. It includes reviews of the procedures used for data acquisition, processing and inversion of electrical resistivity data based on compilation of academic literature. In recent times there had been a significant evolution in field survey designs and data inversion techniques for the resistivity method. In general 2-D inversion for resistivity data is carried out using the linearized least-square method with the local optimization technique .Multi-electrode and multi-channel systems have made it possible to conduct large 2-D, 3-D and even 4-D surveys efficiently to resolve complex geological structures that were not possible with traditional 1-D surveys. 3-D surveys play an increasingly important role in very complex areas where 2-D models suffer from artifacts due to off-line structures. Continued developments in computation technology, as well as fast data inversion techniques and software, have made it possible to use optimization techniques to obtain model parameters to a higher accuracy. A brief discussion on the limitations of the electrical resistivity method has also been presented.

Keywords: Resistivity, inversion, optimization.

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Authors: Fahri Benli, Sitalakshmi Venkatraman, Ye Wei, Fiona Wahr

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A flipped classroom which is a form of blended learning shifts the focus from a teacher-centered approach to a learner-centered approach. However, not all learners are ready to take the active role of knowledge and skill acquisition through a flipped classroom and they continue to delve in a passive mode of learning. This challenges educators in designing, scaffolding and facilitating in-class activities for students to have active learning experiences in a flipped classroom environment. Experiential learning theories have been employed by educators in the past in physical classrooms based on the principle that knowledge could be actively developed through direct experience. However, with more of online teaching witnessed recently, there are inherent limitations in designing and simulating an experiential learning activity for an online environment. In this paper, we explore enhancing experiential learning using smart digital tools that could be employed in a flipped classroom within a higher education setting. We present the use of smart collaborative tools online to enhance the experiential learning activity to teach higher-order cognitive concepts of business process modeling as a case study.

Keywords: Experiential learning, flipped classroom, smart software tools, online learning higher-order learning attributes.

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Authors: Joseph E. Hummer

Abstract:

An efficient freeway system will be essential to the development of Africa, and interchanges are a key to that efficiency. Around the world, many interchanges between freeways and surface streets, called service interchanges, are of the diamond configuration, and interchanges using roundabouts or loop ramps are also popular. However, many diamond interchanges have serious operational problems, interchanges with roundabouts fail at high demand levels, and loops use lots of expensive land. Newer service interchange designs provide other options. The most popular new interchange design in the US at the moment is the double crossover diamond (DCD), also known as the diverging diamond. The DCD has enormous potential, but also has several significant limitations. The objectives of this paper are to review new service interchange options and to highlight some of the main features of those alternatives. The paper tests four conventional and seven unconventional designs using seven measures related to efficiency, cost, and safety. The results show that there is no superior design in all measures investigated. The DCD is better than most designs tested on most measures examined. However, the DCD was only superior to all other designs for bridge width. The DCD performed relatively poorly for capacity and for serving pedestrians. Based on the results, African freeway designers are encouraged to investigate the full range of alternatives that could work at the spot of interest. Diamonds and DCDs have their niches, but some of the other designs investigated could be optimum at some spots.

Keywords: Alternative, design, diverging diamond, freeway, interchange.

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Authors: Jonathan Palatz Cedeño

Abstract:

The paper will seek to examine the scope and limitations of the process of construction of ordinary and extraordinary migration regulatory tools of the countries of Latin America, due to the Venezuelan diaspora in Ibero-America (2015-2018). The analysis methodology will be based on a systematic presentation of the existing advances in the subject under a qualitative approach, in which the results are detailed. We hold that an important part of the Latin American countries that used to be the emitters of migrants have had to generate, with greater or lesser success both nationally and regionally, ordinary and extraordinary migration regulatory tools to respond to the rapid intensification of the current Venezuelan migratory flows. This fact beyond implementing policies for the reception and integration of this population marks a new moment that represents a huge challenge both for the receiving States and for the young Ibero-American institutional migration system. Therefore, we can say that measures to adopt reception and solidarity policies, despite being supported by organs of the multilateral system such as UNHCR and IOM, are not found as guidelines for national and regional action, at the expense of the reactions of the respective public opinions and the influence of what to do of the neighboring countries in the face of the problem.

Keywords: Venezuela, migration, Migration policies and governance, Venezuelan diaspora.

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Authors: N. A. Zambri, A. Mohamed, H. Shareef, M. Z. C. Wanik

Abstract:

This paper presents the modeling and simulation of a hybrid proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) with an energy storage system for use in a stand-alone distributed generation (DG) system. The simulation model consists of fuel cell DG, lead-acid battery, maximum power point tracking and power conditioning unit which is modeled in the MATLAB/Simulink platform. Poor loadfollowing characteristics and slow response to rapid load changes are some of the weaknesses of PEMFC because of the gas processing reaction and the fuel cell dynamics. To address the load-tracking issues in PEMFC, a hybrid PEMFC and battery storage system is considered and modelled. The model utilizes PEMFC as the main energy source whereas the battery functions as energy storage to compensate for the limitations of PEMFC.Simulation results are given to show the overall system performance under light and heavyloading conditions.

Keywords: Hybrid, Lead–Acid Battery, Maximum Power Point Tracking, Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell.

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