Search results for: locus of health control

Authors: Nidal Hadadin

Abstract:

This study investigated the effect of cross sectional geometry on sediment transport rate. The processes of sediment transport are generally associated to environmental management, such as pollution caused by the forming of suspended sediment in the channel network of a watershed and preserving physical habitats and native vegetations, and engineering applications, such as the influence of sediment transport on hydraulic structures and flood control design. Many equations have been proposed for computing the sediment transport, the influence of many variables on sediment transport has been understood; however, the effect of other variables still requires further research. For open channel flow, sediment transport capacity is recognized to be a function of friction slope, flow velocity, grain size, grain roughness and form roughness, the hydraulic radius of the bed section and the type and quantity of vegetation cover. The effect of cross sectional geometry of the channel on sediment transport is one of the variables that need additional investigation. The width-depth ratio (W/d) is a comparative indicator of the channel shape. The width is the total distance across the channel and the depth is the mean depth of the channel. The mean depth is best calculated as total cross-sectional area divided by the top width. Channels with high W/d ratios tend to be shallow and wide, while channels with low (W/d) ratios tend to be narrow and deep. In this study, the effects of the width-depth ratio on sediment transport was demonstrated theoretically by inserting the shape factor in sediment continuity equation and analytically by utilizing the field data sets for Yalobusha River. It was found by utilizing the two approaches as a width-depth ratio increases the sediment transport decreases.

Keywords: Sediment transport, shape factor, hydraulicgeometry, flow discharge, width depth ratio.

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Authors: I. Sonia d’Apolito, Bianca Sisinni, Mirko Grimaldi, Barbara Gili Fivela

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The American English contrast /ɑ-ʌ/ (cop-cup) is difficult to be produced by Italian learners since they realize L2-/ɑ-ʌ/ as L1-/ɔ-a/ respectively, due to differences in phonetic-phonological systems and also in grapheme-to-phoneme conversion rules. In this paper, we try to answer the following research questions: Can a short training improve the production of English /ɑ-ʌ/ by Italian learners? Is a perceptual training better than an articulatory (ultrasound - US) training? Thus, we compare a perceptual training with an US articulatory one to observe: 1) the effects of short trainings on L2-/ɑ-ʌ/ productions; 2) if the US articulatory training improves the pronunciation better than the perceptual training. In this pilot study, 9 Salento-Italian monolingual adults participated: 3 subjects performed a 1-hour perceptual training (ES-P); 3 subjects performed a 1-hour US training (ES-US); and 3 control subjects did not receive any training (CS). Verbal instructions about the phonetic properties of L2-/ɑ-ʌ/ and L1-/ɔ-a/ and their differences (representation on F1-F2 plane) were provided during both trainings. After these instructions, the ES-P group performed an identification training based on the High Variability Phonetic Training procedure, while the ES-US group performed the articulatory training, by means of US video of tongue gestures in L2-/ɑ-ʌ/ production and dynamic view of their own tongue movements and position using a probe under their chin. The acoustic data were analyzed and the first three formants were calculated. Independent t-tests were run to compare: 1) /ɑ-ʌ/ in pre- vs. post-test respectively; /ɑ-ʌ/ in pre- and post-test vs. L1-/a-ɔ/ respectively. Results show that in the pre-test all speakers realize L2-/ɑ-ʌ/ as L1-/ɔ-a/ respectively. Contrary to CS and ES-P groups, the ES-US group in the post-test differentiates the L2 vowels from those produced in the pre-test as well as from the L1 vowels, although only one ES-US subject produces both L2 vowels accurately. The articulatory training seems more effective than the perceptual one since it favors the production of vowels in the correct direction of L2 vowels and differently from the similar L1 vowels.

Keywords: L2 vowel production, perceptual training, articulatory training, ultrasound.

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Authors: Olugbade Damola, Adekomi Adebimbo, Sofowora Olaniyi Alaba

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One of the major problems facing education in Nigeria is the provision of quality Science and Technology education. Inadequate teaching facilities, non-usage of innovative teaching strategies, ineffective classroom management, lack of students’ motivation and poor integration of ICT has resulted in the increase in percentage of students who failed Basic Science and Technology in Junior Secondary Certification Examination for National Examination Council in Nigeria. To address these challenges, the Federal Government came up with a road map on education. This was with a view of enhancing quality education through integration of modern technology into teaching and learning, enhancing quality assurance through proper monitoring and introduction of innovative methods of teaching. This led the researcher to investigate how MOODLE LMS could be used to enhance students’ learning outcomes in BST. A sample of 120 students was purposively selected from four secondary schools in Ogbomoso. The experimental group was taught using MOODLE LMS, while the control group was taught using the conventional method. Data obtained were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test. The result showed that MOODLE LMS was an effective learning platform in teaching BST in junior secondary schools (t=4.953, P<0.05). Students’ attitudes towards BST was also enhanced through MOODLE LMS (t=15.632, P<0.05). The use of MOODLE LMS significantly enhanced students’ retention (t=6.640, P<0.05). In conclusion, the Federal Government efforts at enhancing quality assurance through integration of modern technology and e-learning in Secondary schools proved to have yielded good result has students found MOODLE LMS to be motivating and interactive. Attendance was improved.

Keywords: MOODLE, learning management system, quality assurance, basic science and technology.

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Authors: H. Nur Gorkemli, Mehmet Fidan

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After the first acquaintance with internet in April 1993, number of internet users increased rapidly in Turkey. Almost half of the population between 16-74 age group use internet in the country. Hospitals are one of the areas where the internet is intensively being used like many other businesses. As a part of public relations application, websites are important tools for hospitals to reach a wide range of target audience within and outside the organization. With their websites, hospitals have opportunities to give information about their organization, strengthen their image, compete with their rivals, interact with shareholders, reflect their transparency and meet with new audiences. This study examines web sites of totally 34 hospitals which are located in Konya. Institutions are categorized as public and private hospitals and then three main research categories are determined: content, visual and technical. Main and sub categories are examined by using content analysis method. Results are interpreted in scope of public and private institutions and as a whole.

Keywords: Health Communication, Hospital, Internet, Webpages, Websites

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Authors: E. Sarauskis, L. Masilionyte, Z. Kriauciuniene, K. Romaneckas, S. Buragiene

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In maize growing technologies, tillage technological operations are the most time-consuming and require the greatest fuel input. Substitution of conventional tillage, involving deep ploughing, by other reduced tillage methods can reduce technological production costs, diminish soil degradation and environmental pollution from greenhouse gas emissions, as well as improve economic competitiveness of agricultural produce.

Experiments designed to assess energy and environmental aspects associated with different reduced tillage systems, applied in maize cultivation were conducted at Aleksandras Stulginskis University taking into account Lithuania’s economic and climate conditions. The study involved 5 tillage treatments: deep ploughing (DP, control), shallow ploughing (SP), deep cultivation (DC), shallow cultivation (SC) and no-tillage (NT).

Our experimental evidence suggests that with the application of reduced tillage systems it is feasible to reduce fuel consumption by 13-58% and working time input by 8.4% to nearly 3-fold, to reduce the cost price of maize cultivation technological operations, decrease environmental pollution with CO₂ gas by 30 to 146 kg ha^-1, compared with the deep ploughing.

Keywords: Reduced tillage, energy and environmental assessment, fuel consumption, CO2 emission, maize.

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Authors: Tuisem Shimrah

Abstract:

One general agreement on climate change is that its causes may be local but the effects are global. Indigenous people are subscribed to “low-carbon” traditional ways of life and as such they have contributed little to causes of climate change. On the contrary they are the most adversely affected by climate change due to their dependence on surrounding rich biological wealth as a source of their livelihood, health care, entertainment and cultural activities This paper deals with the results of the investigation of various adaptation strategies adopted to combat climate change by traditional community. The result shows effective ways of application of traditional knowledge and wisdom applied by Tangkhul traditional community at local and community level in remote areas in Northeast India. Four adaptation measures are being presented in this paper.

Keywords: Climate change, adaptation, Tangkhul, traditional community, policy, Northeast India.

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Authors: May Paing Paing Zaw, Su Myat Marlar Soe

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Network Management Systems have played a great important role in information systems. Management is very important and essential in any fields. There are many managements such as configuration management, fault management, performance management, security management, accounting management and etc. Among them, configuration, fault and security management is more important than others. Because these are essential and useful in any fields. Configuration management is to monitor and maintain the whole system or LAN. Fault management is to detect and troubleshoot the system. Security management is to control the whole system. This paper intends to increase the network management functionalities including configuration management, fault management and security management. In configuration management system, this paper specially can support the USB ports and devices to detect and read devices configuration and solve to detect hardware port and software ports. In security management system, this paper can provide the security feature for the user account setting and user management and proxy server feature. And all of the history of the security such as user account and proxy server history are kept in the java standard serializable file. So the user can view the history of the security and proxy server anytime. If the user uses this system, the user can ping the clients from the network and the user can view the result of the message in fault management system. And this system also provides to check the network card and can show the NIC card setting. This system is used RMI (Remote Method Invocation) and JNI (Java Native Interface) technology. This paper is to implement the client/server network management system using Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE). This system can provide more than 10 clients. And then this paper intends to show data or message structure of client/server and how to work using TCP/IP protocol.

Keywords: TCP/ IP based client server application

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Authors: Behrang Tavousi Tehrani, Mohammad-Zaman Kabir

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Shape memory alloys (SMA) are often implemented in smart structures as the active components. Their ability to recover large displacements has been used in many applications, including structural stability/response enhancement and active structural acoustic control. SMA wires or fibers can be embedded with composite cylinders to increase their critical buckling load, improve their load-deflection behavior, and reduce the radial deflections under various thermo-mechanical loadings. This paper presents a semi-analytical investigation on the non-linear load-deflection response of SMA-reinforced composite circular cylindrical shells. The cylinder shells are under uniform external pressure load. Based on first-order shear deformation shell theory (FSDT), the equilibrium equations of the structure are derived. One-dimensional simplified Brinson’s model is used for determining the SMA recovery force due to its simplicity and accuracy. Airy stress function and Galerkin technique are used to obtain non-linear load-deflection curves. The results are verified by comparing them with those in the literature. Several parametric studies are conducted in order to investigate the effect of SMA volume fraction, SMA pre-strain value, and SMA activation temperature on the response of the structure. It is shown that suitable usage of SMA wires results in a considerable enhancement in the load-deflection response of the shell due to the generation of the SMA tensile recovery force.

Keywords: Airy stress function, cylindrical shell, Galerkin technique, load-deflection curve, recovery stress, shape memory alloy.

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Authors: Ilma Robo, Saimir Heta, Merilda Tarja, Sonila Kapaj, Eduart Kapaj, Geriona Lasku

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The classification of periodontal diseases has changed significantly in favor of simplifying the protocol of diagnosis and periodontal treatment. This review study aims to highlight the latest publications in the new periodontal disease classification, talking about the most significant differences versus the old classification with the tendency to express the advantages or disadvantages of clinical application. The aim of the study also includes the growing tendency to link the way of classification of periodontal diseases with predetermined protocols of periodontal treatment of the diagnoses included in the classification. The new classification of periodontal diseases is rather comprehensive in its subdivisions, as the disease is viewed in its entirety, with the biological dimensions of the disease, the degree of aggravation and progression of the disease, in relation to risk factors, predisposition to patient susceptibility and impact of periodontal disease to the general health status of the patient.

Keywords: Periodontal diseases, clinical application, periodontal treatment, oral diagnosis.

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Authors: K. Nirmala Devi, V. Murali Bhaskaran

Abstract:

Traditional document representation for classification follows Bag of Words (BoW) approach to represent the term weights. The conventional method uses the Vector Space Model (VSM) to exploit the statistical information of terms in the documents and they fail to address the semantic information as well as order of the terms present in the documents. Although, the phrase based approach follows the order of the terms present in the documents rather than semantics behind the word. Therefore, a semantic concept based approach is used in this paper for enhancing the semantics by incorporating the ontology information. In this paper a novel method is proposed to forecast the intraday stock market price directional movement based on the sentiments from Twitter and money control news articles. The stock market forecasting is a very difficult and highly complicated task because it is affected by many factors such as economic conditions, political events and investor’s sentiment etc. The stock market series are generally dynamic, nonparametric, noisy and chaotic by nature. The sentiment analysis along with wisdom of crowds can automatically compute the collective intelligence of future performance in many areas like stock market, box office sales and election outcomes. The proposed method utilizes collective sentiments for stock market to predict the stock price directional movements. The collective sentiments in the above social media have powerful prediction on the stock price directional movements as up/down by using Granger Causality test.

Keywords: Bag of Words, Collective Sentiments, Ontology, Semantic relations, Sentiments, Social media, Stock Prediction, Twitter, Vector Space Model and wisdom of crowds.

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Authors: P. Suntornchot, T. Satapanajaru, S.D. Comfort

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Water, soil and sediment contaminated with metolachlor poses a threat to the environment and human health. We determined the effectiveness of nano-zerovalent iron (NZVI) to dechlorinate metolachlor [2-chloro-n-(2-ethyl-6-methyl-phenyl)-n- (1-methoxypropan-2-yl)acetamide] in pH solution and the presence of aluminium salt. The optimum dosage of degradation of 100 mlL-1 metolachlor was 1% (w/v) NZVI. The degradation kinetic rate (kobs) was 0.218×10-3 min-1 and specific first-order rates (kSA) was 8.72×10-7 L m-2min-1. By treating aqueous solutions of metolachlor with NZVI, metolachlor destruction rate were increased as the pH decrease from 10 to 4. Lowering solution pH removes Fe (III) passivating layers from the NZVI and makes it free for reductive transformations. Destruction kinetic rates were 20.8×10-3 min-1 for pH4, 18.9×10-3 min-1 for pH7, 13.8×10-3 min-1 for pH10. In addition, destruction kinetic of metolachlor by NZVI was enhanced when aluminium sulfate was added. The destruction kinetic rate were 20.4×10-3 min-1 for 0.05% Al(SO4)3 and 60×10-3 min-1 for 0.1% Al(SO4)3.

Keywords: destruction, kinetic rate, metolachlor, nano-zerovalent iron

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Authors: Muftah H. El-Naas, Ameera F. Mohammad, Mabruk I. Suleiman, Mohamed Al Musharfy, Ali H. Al-Marzouqi

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CO₂ capture and storage technologies play a significant role in contributing to the control of climate change through the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. The present study evaluates and optimizes CO₂ capture through a process, where carbon dioxide is passed into pH adjusted high salinity water and reacted with sodium chloride to form a precipitate of sodium bicarbonate. This process is based on a modified Solvay process with higher CO₂ capture efficiency, higher sodium removal, and higher pH level without the use of ammonia. The process was tested in a bubble column semi-batch reactor and was optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). CO₂ capture efficiency and sodium removal were optimized in terms of major operating parameters based on four levels and variables in Central Composite Design (CCD). The operating parameters were gas flow rate (0.5–1.5 L/min), reactor temperature (10 to 50 ^oC), buffer concentration (0.2-2.6%) and water salinity (25-197 g NaCl/L). The experimental data were fitted to a second-order polynomial using multiple regression and analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The optimum values of the selected variables were obtained using response optimizer. The optimum conditions were tested experimentally using desalination reject brine with salinity ranging from 65,000 to 75,000 mg/L. The CO₂ capture efficiency in 180 min was 99% and the maximum sodium removal was 35%. The experimental and predicted values were within 95% confidence interval, which demonstrates that the developed model can successfully predict the capture efficiency and sodium removal using the modified Solvay method.

Keywords: Bubble column reactor, CO2 capture, Response Surface Methodology, water desalination.

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Authors: Mehmet Altınöz

Abstract:

Organizational communication is an administrative function crucial especially for executives in the implementation of organizational and administrative functions. Executives spend a significant part of their time on communicative activities. Doing his or her daily routine, arranging meeting schedules, speaking on the telephone, reading or replying to business correspondence, or fulfilling the control functions within the organization, an executive typically engages in communication processes. Efficient communication is the principal device for the adequate implementation of administrative and organizational activities. For this purpose, management needs to specify the kind of communication system to be set up and the kind of communication devices to be used. Communication is vital for any organization. In conventional offices, communication takes place within the hierarchical pyramid called the organizational structure, and is known as formal or informal communication. Formal communication is the type that works in specified structures within the organizational rules and towards the organizational goals. Informal communication, on the other hand, is the unofficial type taking place among staff as face-to-face or telephone interaction. Communication in virtual as well as conventional offices is essential for obtaining the right information in administrative activities and decision-making. Virtual communication technologies increase the efficiency of communication especially in virtual teams. Group communication is strengthened through an inter-group central channel. Further, ease of information transmission makes it possible to reach the information at the source, allowing efficient and correct decisions. Virtual offices can present as a whole the elements of information which conventional offices produce in different environments. At present, virtual work has become a reality with its pros and cons, and will probably spread very rapidly in coming years, in line with the growth in information technologies.

Keywords: Organization, conventional office, virtual office, communication, communication model, communication functions, communication methods, vertical communication, linear communication, diagonal communication

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Authors: J. Szolomicki, H. Golasz-Szolomicka

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The architectural and structural analysis of selected high-rise buildings in Tokyo is presented in this paper. The capital of Japan is the most densely populated city in the world and moreover is located in one of the most active seismic zones. The combination of these factors has resulted in the creation of sophisticated designs and innovative engineering solutions, especially in the field of design and construction of high-rise buildings. The foreign architectural studios (as, for Jean Nouvel, Kohn Pedesen Associates, Skidmore, Owings & Merill) which specialize in the designing of skyscrapers, played a major role in the development of technological ideas and architectural forms for such extraordinary engineering structures. Among the projects completed by them, there are examples of high-rise buildings that set precedents for future development. An essential aspect which influences the design of high-rise buildings is the necessity to take into consideration their dynamic reaction to earthquakes and counteracting wind vortices. The need to control motions of these buildings, induced by the force coming from earthquakes and wind, led to the development of various methods and devices for dissipating energy which occur during such phenomena. Currently, Japan is a global leader in seismic technologies which safeguard seismic influence on high-rise structures. Due to these achievements the most modern skyscrapers in Tokyo are able to withstand earthquakes with a magnitude of over seven degrees at the Richter scale. Damping devices applied are of a passive, which do not require additional power supply or active one which suppresses the reaction with the input of extra energy. In recent years also hybrid dampers were used, with an additional active element to improve the efficiency of passive damping.

Keywords: Core structure, damping systems, high-rise buildings.

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Authors: K. R. Balabiyev, A. O. Kaipbayeva

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The article discusses the legal framework of the government’s environmental function and analyzes the role of the national policy in protection of wetlands. The problem is of interest for it deals with the most important branch of economy – utilization of Kazakhstan’s natural resources, protection of health and environmental wellbeing of the population. Development of a longterm environmental program addressing the protection of wetlands represents the final stage of the government’s environmental policy, and is a relatively new function for the public administration system. It appeared due to the environmental measures that require immediate decisions to be taken. It is an integral part of the effort in the field of management of state-owned natural resource, as well as of the measures aimed at efficient management of natural resources to avoid their early depletion or contamination.

Keywords: Environmental focus, government’s environmental function, protection of wetlands.

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Authors: Tamer ElSerafi

Abstract:

In recent approaches to heritage conservation, the whole context of historic areas becomes as important as the single historic building. This makes the provision of infrastructure and network of mobility an effective element in the urban conservation. Sustainable urban conservation projects consider the high density of activities, the need for a good quality access system to the transit system, and the importance of the configuration of the mobility network by identifying the best way to connect the different districts of the urban area through a complex unique system that helps the synergic development to achieve a sustainable mobility system. A sustainable urban mobility is a key factor in maintaining the integrity between socio-cultural aspects and functional aspects. This paper illustrates the mobility aspects, mobility problems in historic districts, and the needs of the mobility systems in the first part. The second part is a practical analysis for different mobility plans. It is challenging to find innovative and creative conservation solutions fitting modern uses and needs without risking the loss of inherited built resources. Urban mobility management is becoming an essential and challenging issue in the urban conservation projects. Depending on literature review and practical analysis, this paper tries to define and clarify the guidelines for mobility management in historic districts as a key element in sustainability of urban conservation and development projects. Such rules and principles could control the conflict between the socio–cultural and economic activities, and the different needs for mobility in these districts in a sustainable way. The practical analysis includes a comparison between mobility plans which have been implemented in four different cities; Freiburg in Germany, Zurich in Switzerland and Bray Town in Ireland. This paper concludes with a matrix of guidelines that considers both principles of sustainability and livability factors in urban historic districts.

Keywords: Sustainable mobility, urban mobility, mobility management, historic districts.

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Authors: Tshimangadzo Oscar Magadze

Abstract:

For successful re-integration, the individual offender must adapt and transform, which requires that the offender should adopt and internalise socially approved norms, attitudes, values, and beliefs. However, the offender’s labelling and community stigmatisation decide the destination of the offender. Community involvement in ex-offenders’ re-integration is an important issue in efforts to reduce recidivism and to control overcrowding in our correctional facilities. Crime is a social problem that requires society to come together to fight against it. This study was conducted in the Limpopo Province in Vhembe District Municipality within four local municipalities, namely Musina, Makhado, Mutale, and Thulamela. A total number of 30 participants were interviewed, and all were members of the Community Corrections Forums. This was necessitated by the fact that Musina is a very small area, which compelled the Department of Correctional Services to combine the two (Musina and Makhado) into one social re-integration entity. This is a qualitative research study where participants were selected through the use of purposive sampling. Participants were selected based on the value they would add to this study in order to achieve the objectives. The data collection method of this study was the focus group, which comprised of three groups of 10 participants each. Thulamela and Mutale local municipalities formed a group with (10) participants each, whereas Musina (2) and Makhado (8) formed another. Results indicate that the current situation is not conducive for re-integration to be successful. Participants raised many factors that need serious redress, namely offenders’ discrimination, lack of forgiveness by members of the community, which is fuelled by lack of community awareness due to the failure of the Department of Correctional Services in educating communities on ex-offenders’ re-integration.

Keywords: Ex-offender, labelling, re-integration, stigmatisation.

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Authors: S. Azadmard-Damirchi, Sh. Emami, J. Hesari, S.H. Peighambardoust, M. Nemati

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Nuts are part of a healthy diet such as Mediterranean diet. Benefits of nuts in reducing the risk of heart disease has been reasonably attributed to their composition of vitamins, minerals, unsaturated fatty acids, fiber and phytochemicals such as polyphenols, tocopherols, squalene and phytosterols. More than 75% of total fatty acids of nuts are unsaturated. α- tocopherol is the main tocopherol isomer present in most of the nuts. While walnuts, Brazil nut, cashew nut, peanut, pecan and pistachio nuts are rich in γ- tocopherol. β- sitosterol is dominant sterol in nuts. Pistachio and pine nut have the highest total phytosterol and Brazil nut and English walnut the lowest. Walnuts also contain large amount of phenolic compounds compared with other nuts. Nuts are rich in compounds with antioxidant properties and their consumption can offer preventing from incidence of many diseases including cardiovascular.

Keywords: Nuts, phenols, phytosterols, squalene, vitamin E.

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Authors: M. Ghazikhani, M. R. Kalateh, Y. K. Toroghi, M. Dehnavi

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In this study, effects of premixed and equivalence ratios on CO and HC emissions of a dual fuel HCCI engine are investigated. Tests were conducted on a single-cylinder engine with compression ratio of 17.5. Premixed gasoline is provided by a carburetor connected to intake manifold and equipped with a screw to adjust premixed air-fuel ratio, and diesel fuel is injected directly into the cylinder through an injector at pressure of 250 bars. A heater placed at inlet manifold is used to control the intake charge temperature. Optimal intake charge temperature results in better HCCI combustion due to formation of a homogeneous mixture, therefore, all tests were carried out over the optimum intake temperature of 110-115 ºC. Timing of diesel fuel injection has a great effect on stratification of in-cylinder charge and plays an important role in HCCI combustion phasing. Experiments indicated 35 BTDC as the optimum injection timing. Varying the coolant temperature in a range of 40 to 70 ºC, better HCCI combustion was achieved at 50 ºC. Therefore, coolant temperature was maintained 50 ºC during all tests. Simultaneous investigation of effective parameters on HCCI combustion was conducted to determine optimum parameters resulting in fast transition to HCCI combustion. One of the advantages of the method studied in this study is feasibility of easy and fast transition of typical diesel engine to a dual fuel HCCI engine. Results show that increasing premixed ratio, while keeping EGR rate constant, increases unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions due to quenching phenomena and trapping of premixed fuel in crevices, but CO emission decreases due to increase in CO to CO2 reactions.

Keywords: Dual fuel HCCI engine, premixed ratio, equivalenceratio, CO and UHC emissions.

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Authors: M. Amir Abas, M. Dahlui

Abstract:

This paper presents the development of analysis tools for Home Agriculture project. The tools are required for monitoring the condition of greenhouse which involves two components: measurement hardware and data analysis engine. Measurement hardware is functioned to measure environment parameters such as temperature, humidity, air quality, dust and etc while analysis tool is used to analyse and interpret the integrated data against the condition of weather, quality of health, irradiance, quality of soil and etc. The current development of the tools is completed for off-line data recorded technique. The data is saved in MMC and transferred via ZigBee to Environment Data Manager (EDM) for data analysis. EDM converts the raw data and plot three combination graphs. It has been applied in monitoring three months data measurement for irradiance, temperature and humidity of the greenhouse..

Keywords: Monitoring, Environment, Greenhouse, Analysis tools

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Authors: S. Sowmyayani

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The advancement of computer-aided design helps the medical force and security force. Some applications include biometric recognition, elderly fall detection, face recognition, cancer recognition, tumor recognition, etc. This paper deals with different machine learning algorithms that are more generically used for any health care system. The most focused problems are classification and regression. With the rise of big data, machine learning has become particularly important for solving problems. Machine learning uses two types of techniques: supervised learning and unsupervised learning. The former trains a model on known input and output data and predicts future outputs. Classification and regression are supervised learning techniques. Unsupervised learning finds hidden patterns in input data. Clustering is one such unsupervised learning technique. The above-mentioned models are discussed briefly in this paper.

Keywords: Supervised learning, unsupervised learning, regression, neural network.

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Authors: Alireza Arab, Morteza Elsa, Amirhossein Moghanian

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In this study, experiments were carried out to achieve a promising multifunctional and modified silicate based bioactive glass (BG). The main aim of the study was investigating the effect of lithium (Li) and magnesium (Mg) substitution, on in vitro bioactivity of substituted-58S BG. Moreover, it is noteworthy to state that modified BGs were synthesized in 60SiO₂–(36-x)CaO–4P₂O₅–(x)Li₂O and 60SiO₂–(36-x)CaO–4P₂O₅–(x)MgO (where x = 0, 5, 10 mol.%) quaternary systems, by sol-gel method. Their performance was investigated through different aspects such as biocompatibility, antibacterial activity as well as their effect on alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, and proliferation of MC3T3 cells. The antibacterial efficiency was evaluated against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. To do so, CaO was substituted with Li₂O and MgO up to 10 mol % in 58S-BGs and then samples were immersed in simulated body fluid up to 14 days and then, characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry, and scanning electron microscopy. Results indicated that this modification led to a retarding effect on in vitro hydroxyapatite (HA) formation due to the lower supersaturation degree for nucleation of HA compared with 58s-BG. Meanwhile, magnesium revealed further pronounced effect. The 3-(4,5 dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and ALP analysis illustrated that substitutions of both Li₂O and MgO, up to 5 mol %, had increasing effect on biocompatibility and stimulating proliferation of the pre-osteoblast MC3T3 cells in comparison to the control specimen. Regarding to bactericidal efficiency, the substitution of either Li or Mg for Ca in the 58s BG composition led to statistically significant difference in antibacterial behaviors of substituted-BGs. Meanwhile, the sample containing 5 mol % CaO/Li₂O substitution (BG-5L) was selected as a multifunctional biomaterial in bone repair/regeneration due to the improved biocompatibility, enhanced ALP activity and antibacterial efficiency among all of the synthesized L-BGs and M-BGs.

Keywords: Alkaline, alkaline earth, bioactivity, biomedical applications, sol-gel processes.

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Authors: Natinee Thanajaro

Abstract:

In the past few decades, international research on the country of origin of products has garnered significant interest, particularly in investigating the effects of consumers’ evaluation and perception. As globalization and market competition rise, international firms are seeking ways to control their labour costs and minimise taxes. Many products are outsourced and manufactured in countries with cheap labour. Consequently, the proliferation of ‘bi-national’ products has increased, raising important questions related to consumers’ perception. Moreover, the rapid growth in emerging markets, especially in Asia, has made these countries attractive options for international brands. Therefore, studying the country of origin allows firms and researchers to understand how customers perceive such information regarding the country of manufacture and the country of the brand. This study aims to investigate the influence of the country of manufacture (COM) and country of brand (COB) on Thai consumers’ perception of the brand. In addition, it embraces a different perspective on brand experience as a moderating factor. A sample of 403 Thai respondents was collected through face-to-face survey questionnaires in central Bangkok. This research employs an experiment using a factorial design to test the hypotheses. SPSS statistics software was adopted to analyse and validate the reliability of the testing of the constructs and model hypotheses. The results of this research show that the respondents positively respond to the COB more than the COM, and brand experience plays a moderating role in this research. This research provides a significant contribution to the existing literature and managerial practicality by using multi-dimensional information on the country and analyses the relationships between these dimensions.

Keywords: Brand experience, country of brand, country of manufacture, purchase intention.

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Authors: K. C. Rajan, H. B. Rijal, Kazui Yoshida, Masanori Shukuya

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The electricity consumption in the Japanese household sector has increased with higher rate than that of other sectors. This may be because of aging and information oriented society that requires more electrical appliances to make the life better and easier, under this circumstances, energy saving is one of the essential necessity in Japanese society. To understand the way of energy use and demand response of the residential occupants, it is important to understand the structure of energy used. Home Energy Management System (HEMS) may be used for understanding the pattern and the structure of energy used. HEMS is a visualization system of the energy usage by connecting the electrical equipment in the home and thereby automatically control the energy use in each device, so that the energy saving is achieved. Therefore, the HEMS can provide with the easiest way to understand the structure of energy use. The HEMS has entered the mainstream of the Japanese market. The objective of this study is to understand the pattern of energy saving and cost saving in different regions including Japan during HEMS use. To observe thermal comfort level of HEMS managed residential buildings in Japan, the field survey was made and altogether, 1534 votes from 37 occupants related to thermal comfort, occupants’ behaviors and clothing insulation were collected and analyzed. According to the result obtained, approximately 17.9% energy saving and 8.9% cost saving is possible if HEMS is applied effectively. We found the thermal sensation and overall comfort level of the occupants is high in the studied buildings. The occupants residing in those HEMS buildings are satisfied with the thermal environment and they have accepted it. Our study concluded that the significant reduction in Japanese residential energy use can be achieved by the proper utilization of the HEMS. Better thermal comfort is also possible with the use of HEMS if energy use is managed in a rationally effective manner.

Keywords: Energy reduction, thermal comfort, HEMS market, thermal environment.

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Authors: Jac W. Andrews, J. B. Hale

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Effective practicing psychologists require ongoing skill development that is constructivist and recursive in nature, with mentor, colleague, co-worker, and patient feedback critical to successful acquisition and maintenance of professional competencies. This paper will provide an overview of the nature and scope of psychologist skill development through multisource feedback (MSF) or 360 degree evaluation, present a rationale for its use for assessing practicing psychologist performance, and advocate its use in psychology given the demonstrated model utility in other health professions. The paper will conclude that an international research design is needed to assess the feasibility, reliability, and validity of MSF system ratings intended to solicit feedback from mentors, colleagues, coworkers, and patients about psychologist competencies. If adopted, the MSF model could lead to enhanced skill development that fosters patient satisfaction within and across countries.

 

Keywords: Psychologist, multisource feedback, psychologist competency, professionalism.

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Authors: Shinji Kawakura, Ryosuke Shibasaki

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We have been grouping and developing various kinds of practical, promising sensing applied systems concerning agricultural advancement and technical tradition (guidance). These include advanced devices to secure real-time data related to worker motion, and we analyze by methods of various advanced statistics and human dynamics (e.g. primary component analysis, Ward system based cluster analysis, and mapping). What is more, we have been considering worker daily health and safety issues. Targeted fields are mainly common farms, meadows, and gardens. After then, we observed and discussed time-line style, changing data. And, we made some suggestions. The entire plan makes it possible to improve both the aforementioned applied systems and farms.

Keywords: Advanced statistical analysis, wearable sensing system, tradition of skill, supporting for workers, detecting crisis.

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Authors: Kiurski J., Adamović S., Oros I., Krstić J., Đogo M.

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Most often the contaminants are not taken seriously into consideration, and this behavior comes out directly from the lack of monitoring and professional reporting about pollution in the printing facilities in Serbia. The goal of planned and systematic ozone measurements in ambient air of the screen printing facilities in Novi Sad is to examine of its impact on the employees health, and to track trends in concentration. In this study, ozone concentrations were determined by using discontinuous and continuous method during the automatic and manual screen printing process. Obtained results indicates that the average concentrations of ozone measured during the automatic process were almost 3 to 28 times higher for discontinuous and 10 times higher for continuous method (1.028 ppm) compared to the values prescribed by OSHA. In the manual process, average concentrations of ozone were within prescribed values for discontinuous and almost 3 times higher for continuous method (0.299 ppm).

Keywords: indoor pollution, ozone, screen printing

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Authors: I. Gedrovica, D. Karklina

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From year to year, the incidence of different diseases is increasing in humans, and the cause is inadequate intake of dietary fibre, vitamins, and minerals. One of the possibilities to take care of your health preventively is including in the diet products with increased dietary fibre, vitamin, and mineral content.Jerusalem artichoke powder (JAP) made from Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L) roots is a valuable product. By adding it to pastry goods, we can obtain a fibre-rich food that could be healthier and an excellent alternative to the classical pastry products of this kind.Experiments were carried out at the Faculty of Food Technology of Latvia University of Agriculture (LLU). Results of experiments showed that addition of Jerusalem artichoke powder has significant impact on all the studied pastry products nutritional value (p<0.05). With increasing concentration of Jerusalem artichoke powder in pastry products increase it nutritional value and decrease energy value.

Keywords: Biscuits, cakes, Jerusalem artichoke powder, nutritional and energy value

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Authors: Mahdiyeh Zafaranchi, Ethan S. Cantor, William T. Riddell, Jess W. Everett

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The New Jersey Department of Military and Veteran’s Affairs (NJ DMAVA) operates over 50 facilities throughout the state of New Jersey, US. NJ DMAVA is under a mandate to move toward decarbonization, which will eventually include eliminating the use of natural gas and other fossil fuels for heating. At the same time, the organization requires increased resiliency regarding electric grid disruption. These competing goals necessitate adopting the use of on-site renewables such as photovoltaic and geothermal power, as well as implementing power control strategies through microgrids. Planning for these changes requires a detailed understanding of current and future electricity use on yearly, monthly, and shorter time scales, as well as a breakdown of consumption by heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. This paper discusses case studies of two buildings that were simulated using the QUick Energy Simulation Tool (eQUEST). Both buildings use electricity from the grid and photovoltaics. One building also uses natural gas. While electricity use data are available in hourly intervals and natural gas data are available in monthly intervals, the simulations were developed using monthly and yearly totals. This approach was chosen to reflect the information available for most NJ DMAVA facilities. Once completed, simulation results are compared to metrics recommended by several organizations to validate energy use simulations. In addition to yearly and monthly totals, the simulated peak demands are compared to actual monthly peak demand values. The simulations resulted in monthly peak demand values that were within 30% of the measured values. These benchmarks will help to assess future energy planning efforts for NJ DMAVA.

Keywords: Building Energy Modeling, eQUEST, peak demand, smart meters.

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Authors: V. Barot, S. McLeod, R. Harrison, A. A. West

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Manufacturing Industries face a crucial change as products and processes are required to, easily and efficiently, be reconfigurable and reusable. In order to stay competitive and flexible, situations also demand distribution of enterprises globally, which requires implementation of efficient communication strategies. A prototype system called the “Broadcaster" has been developed with an assumption that the control environment description has been engineered using the Component-based system paradigm. This prototype distributes information to a number of globally distributed partners via an adoption of the circular-based data processing mechanism. The work highlighted in this paper includes the implementation of this mechanism in the domain of the manufacturing industry. The proposed solution enables real-time remote propagation of machine information to a number of distributed supply chain client resources such as a HMI, VRML-based 3D views and remote client instances regardless of their distribution nature and/ or their mechanisms. This approach is presented together with a set of evaluation results. Authors- main concentration surrounds the reliability and the performance metric of the adopted approach. Performance evaluation is carried out in terms of the response times taken to process the data in this domain and compared with an alternative data processing implementation such as the linear queue mechanism. Based on the evaluation results obtained, authors justify the benefits achieved from this proposed implementation and highlight any further research work that is to be carried out.

Keywords: Broadcaster, circular buffer, Component-based, distributed manufacturing, remote data propagation.

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