Search results for: language performance

Authors: Eleni Galiotou, Angela Ralli

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In this paper we propose a computational model for the representation and processing of morpho-phonological phenomena in a natural language, like Modern Greek. We aim at a unified treatment of inflection, compounding, and word-internal phonological changes, in a model that is used for both analysis and generation. After discussing certain difficulties cuase by well-known finitestate approaches, such as Koskenniemi-s two-level model [7] when applied to a computational treatment of compounding, we argue that a morphology-based model provides a more adequate account of word-internal phenomena. Contrary to the finite state approaches that cannot handle hierarchical word constituency in a satisfactory way, we propose a unification-based word grammar, as the nucleus of our strategy, which takes into consideration word representations that are based on affixation and [stem stem] or [stem word] compounds. In our formalism, feature-passing operations are formulated with the use of the unification device, and phonological rules modeling the correspondence between lexical and surface forms apply at morpheme boundaries. In the paper, examples from Modern Greek illustrate our approach. Morpheme structures, stress, and morphologically conditioned phoneme changes are analyzed and generated in a principled way.

Keywords: Morpho-Phonology, Natural Language Processing.

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Authors: László Lengyel, Tihamér Levendovszky, Hassan Charaf

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This paper presents the visual control flow support of Visual Modeling and Transformation System (VMTS), which facilitates composing complex model transformations out of simple transformation steps and executing them. The VMTS Visual Control Flow Language (VCFL) uses stereotyped activity diagrams to specify control flow structures and OCL constraints to choose between different control flow branches. This work discusses the termination properties of VCFL and provides an algorithm to support the termination analysis of VCFL transformations.

Keywords: Control Flow, Metamodel-Based Visual Model Transformation, OCL, Termination Properties, UML.

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Authors: Milad Eghtedari Naeini, Gholamreza Heravi

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In this paper, based on the past project cost and time performance, a model for forecasting project cost performance is developed. This study presents a probabilistic project control concept to assure an acceptable forecast of project cost performance. In this concept project activities are classified into sub-groups entitled control accounts. Then obtain the Stochastic S-Curve (SS-Curve), for each sub-group and the project SS-Curve is obtained by summing sub-groups- SS-Curves. In this model, project cost uncertainties are considered through Beta distribution functions of the project activities costs required to complete the project at every selected time sections through project accomplishment, which are extracted from a variety of sources. Based on this model, after a percentage of the project progress, the project performance is measured via Earned Value Management to adjust the primary cost probability distribution functions. Then, accordingly the future project cost performance is predicted by using the Monte-Carlo simulation method.

Keywords: Monte Carlo method, Probabilistic model, Project forecasting, Stochastic S-curve

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Authors: S. H. J. Liu

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This paper aims to explore the role of peer Corrective Feedback (CF) in improving written productions by English-as-a- foreign-language (EFL) learners who work together via Wikispaces. It attempted to determine the effect of peer CF on form accuracy in English, such as grammar and lexis. Thirty-four EFL learners at the tertiary level were randomly assigned into the experimental (with peer feedback) or the control (without peer feedback) group; each group was subdivided into small groups of two or three. This resulted in six and seven small groups in the experimental and control groups, respectively. In the experimental group, each learner played a role as an assessor (providing feedback to others), as well as an assessee (receiving feedback from others). Each participant was asked to compose his/her written work and revise it based on the feedback. In the control group, on the other hand, learners neither provided nor received feedback but composed and revised their written work on their own. Data collected from learners’ compositions and post-task interviews were analyzed and reported in this study. Following the completeness of three writing tasks, 10 participants were selected and interviewed individually regarding their perception of collaborative learning in the Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) environment. Language aspects to be analyzed included lexis (e.g., appropriate use of words), verb tenses (e.g., present and past simple), prepositions (e.g., in, on, and between), nouns, and articles (e.g., a/an). Feedback types consisted of CF, affective, suggestive, and didactic. Frequencies of feedback types and the accuracy of the language aspects were calculated. The results first suggested that accurate items were found more in the experimental group than in the control group. Such results entail that those who worked collaboratively outperformed those who worked non-collaboratively on the accuracy of linguistic aspects. Furthermore, the first type of CF (e.g., corrections directly related to linguistic errors) was found to be the most frequently employed type, whereas affective and didactic were the least used by the experimental group. The results further indicated that most participants perceived that peer CF was helpful in improving the language accuracy, and they demonstrated a favorable attitude toward working with others in the CMC environment. Moreover, some participants stated that when they provided feedback to their peers, they tended to pay attention to linguistic errors in their peers’ work but overlook their own errors (e.g., past simple tense) when writing. Finally, L2 or FL teachers or practitioners are encouraged to employ CMC technologies to train their students to give each other feedback in writing to improve the accuracy of the language and to motivate them to attend to the language system.

Keywords: Peer corrective feedback, computer-mediated communication, second or foreign language learning, Wikispaces.

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Authors: Amilia Hasbullah, Wan Zahari Wan Yussof, Maziah Ismail

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The primary education system in Indonesia involved the community recognized as the school committee, to take a part in the process of achieving the quality of education via the school facility performance, the low level of school committee involvement in the education system has become the issue in the development of education and reflected to the quality of education. This paper will discuss the conceptual framework and methodology for the performance of school committees within the management of school facilities in Batubara district of Indonesia. The concepts of Community based Facility Management (CbFM) and Logometrix are used as a basis to measure the school committee performance in order to address the needs of quality school management. The data will be taken from questionnaires distributed for those who work and use school facilities spread over seven sub district of Batubara, Indonesia. The result of this study is expected to provide a guide for evaluating the performance of existing school committee in improving the quality of education in Indonesia.

Keywords: community based facility management, School facility management, School committee performance.

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Authors: Z.Farhadpour, Mohammad.R.Meybodi

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A number of routing algorithms based on learning automata technique have been proposed for communication networks. How ever, there has been little work on the effects of variation of graph scarcity on the performance of these algorithms. In this paper, a comprehensive study is launched to investigate the performance of LASPA, the first learning automata based solution to the dynamic shortest path routing, across different graph structures with varying scarcities. The sensitivity of three main performance parameters of the algorithm, being average number of processed nodes, scanned edges and average time per update, to variation in graph scarcity is reported. Simulation results indicate that the LASPA algorithm can adapt well to the scarcity variation in graph structure and gives much better outputs than the existing dynamic and fixed algorithms in terms of performance criteria.

Keywords: Learning automata, routing, algorithm, sparse graph

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Authors: Theologos Athanaselis, Stelios Bakamidis, Ioannis Dologlou

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Emotion in speech is an issue that has been attracting the interest of the speech community for many years, both in the context of speech synthesis as well as in automatic speech recognition (ASR). In spite of the remarkable recent progress in Large Vocabulary Recognition (LVR), it is still far behind the ultimate goal of recognising free conversational speech uttered by any speaker in any environment. Current experimental tests prove that using state of the art large vocabulary recognition systems the error rate increases substantially when applied to spontaneous/emotional speech. This paper shows that recognition rate for emotionally coloured speech can be improved by using a language model based on increased representation of emotional utterances.

Keywords: Statistical language model, N-grams, emotionallycoloured speech

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Authors: Amic G. Ho

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Language usage and typography in Hong Kong are unique, as can be seen clearly on the streets of the city. In contrast to many other parts of the world, where there is only one language, in Hong Kong many signs and billboards display two languages: Chinese and English. The language usage on signage, fonts and types used, and the designs in magazines and advertisements all demonstrate the unique features of Hong Kong typographic design, which reflect the multicultural nature of Hong Kong society. This study is the first step in investigating the nature and development of Hong Kong typography. The preliminary research explored how the historical development of Hong Kong is reflected in its unique typography. Following a review of historical development, a quantitative study was designed: Local Hong Kong participants were invited to provide input on what makes the Hong Kong typographic style unique. Their input was collected and analyzed. This provided us with information about the characteristic criteria and features of Hong Kong typography, as recognized by the local people. The most significant typographic designs in Hong Kong were then investigated and the influence of Chinese and other cultures on Hong Kong typography was assessed. The research results provide an indication to local designers on how they can strengthen local design outcomes and promote the values and culture of their mother town.

Keywords: Typography, Hong Kong, historical developments, multiple cultures.

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Authors: Ashwag O. Maghraby, Nida N. Khan, Hosnia A. Ahmed, Ghufran N. Brohi, Hind F. Assouli, Jawaher S. Melibari

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The Arabic language is one of the most important languages. Learning it is so important for many people around the world because of its religious and economic importance and the real challenge lies in practicing it without grammatical or syntactical mistakes. This research focused on detecting and correcting the syntactic mistakes of Arabic syntax according to their position in the sentence and focused on two of the main syntactical rules in Arabic: Dual and Plural. It analyzes each sentence in the text, using Stanford CoreNLP morphological analyzer and machine-learning approach in order to detect the syntactical mistakes and then correct it. A prototype of the proposed system was implemented and evaluated. It uses support vector machine (SVM) algorithm to detect Arabic grammatical errors and correct them using the rule-based approach. The prototype system has a far accuracy 81%. In general, it shows a set of useful grammatical suggestions that the user may forget about while writing due to lack of familiarity with grammar or as a result of the speed of writing such as alerting the user when using a plural term to indicate one person.

Keywords: Arabic Language acquisition and learning, natural language processing, morphological analyzer, part-of-speech.

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Authors: Sheetal R. Jadhwani, Daisy Sang, Chang-Shyh Peng

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Web applications are an integral part of modem life. They are mostly based upon the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). While HTML meets the basic needs, there are some shortcomings. For example, applications can cease to work once user goes offline, real-time updates may be lagging, and user interface can freeze on computationally intensive tasks. The latest language specification HTML5 attempts to rectify the situation with new tools and protocols. This paper studies the new Web Storage, Geolocation, Web Worker, Canvas, and Web Socket APIs, and presents applications to test their features and efficiencies.

Keywords: HTML5, Web Worker, Canvas, Web Socket.

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Authors: Huda Al Shuaily, Karen Renaud

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Databases comprise the foundation of most software systems. System developers inevitably write code to query these databases. The de facto language for querying is SQL and this, consequently, is the default language taught by higher education institutions. There is evidence that learners find it hard to master SQL, harder than mastering other programming languages such as Java. Educators do not agree about explanations for this seeming anomaly. Further investigation may well reveal the reasons. In this paper, we report on our investigations into how novices learn SQL, the actual problems they experience when writing SQL, as well as the differences between expert and novice SQL query writers. We conclude by presenting a model of SQL learning that should inform the instructional material design process better to support the SQL learning process.

Keywords: Pattern, SQL, learning, model.

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Authors: Shumani Ramuhaheli, Christopher C. Enweremadu, Hilary L. Rutto

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In this study, biodiesel from used cooking oil was produced as purified by washing with water (water wash) and amberlite (dry wash). The work presents the results of short term tests on performance characteristics of diesel engine using both biodiesel-fuel samples. In this investigation, the water wash biodiesel and dry wash biodiesel and diesel were compared for performance using a four-cylinder diesel engine. The torque, brake power, specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency were analyzed. The tests showed that in all cases, dry wash biodiesel performed marginally poorer compared to water wash biodiesel. Except for brake thermal efficiency, diesel fuel had better engine performance characteristics compared to the biodiesel-fuel samples. According to these results, dry washing of biodiesel has a marginal effect on engine performance.

Keywords: Biodiesel, engine performance, used cooking oil, water wash, dry wash.

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Authors: Saumyaranjan Sahoo, Sudhir Yadav

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Indian manufacturing firms operating in rapidly changing and highly competitive market, over the last few decades, have embraced organization-wide transformation to achieve cultural and operational excellence. In recent years, numerous approaches have been proposed to improve business and manufacturing performance. Lean practices in particular, Total Productive Management (TPM) and Total Quality Management (TQM) have received considerable attention, as they being adopted and adapted for raising the performance standard of Indian manufacturing firms to world class levels. The complementary nature of TPM and TQM is being practiced in many companies to achieve synergy. Specifically, this research investigates whether joint TPM-TQM implementation contribute to higher business performance when compared to individual implementation. Data from 160 manufacturing firms were analyzed that demonstrate synergetic implementation of both TPM-TQM practices over a reasonable period of time, contributed in delivering better business performance as compared to individual implementation strategy.

Keywords: Total productive management, total quality management, Indian manufacturing firms, business performance.

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Authors: Darwin Gouwanda, S. G. Ponnambalam

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Set covering problem is a classical problem in computer science and complexity theory. It has many applications, such as airline crew scheduling problem, facilities location problem, vehicle routing, assignment problem, etc. In this paper, three different techniques are applied to solve set covering problem. Firstly, a mathematical model of set covering problem is introduced and solved by using optimization solver, LINGO. Secondly, the Genetic Algorithm Toolbox available in MATLAB is used to solve set covering problem. And lastly, an ant colony optimization method is programmed in MATLAB programming language. Results obtained from these methods are presented in tables. In order to assess the performance of the techniques used in this project, the benchmark problems available in open literature are used.

Keywords: Set covering problem, genetic algorithm, ant colony optimization, LINGO.

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Authors: Cheng-Chia Yang , Yi-Shun Wang , Sue-Ting Chang, Suh-Er Guo, Mei-Fen Huang

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Object: Review recent publications of patient safety culture to investigate the relationship between leadership behavior, safety culture, and safety performance in the healthcare industry. Method: This study is a cross-sectional study, 350 questionnaires were mailed to hospital workers with 195 valid responses obtained, and a 55.7% valid response rate. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out to test the factor structure and determine if the composite reliability was significant with a factor loading of >0.5, resulting in an acceptable model fit. Results: Through the analysis of One-way ANOVA, the results showed that physicians significantly have more negative patient safety culture perceptions and safety performance perceptions than non- physicians. Conclusions: The path analysis results show that leadership behavior affects safety culture and safety performance in the health care industry. Safety performance was affected and improved with contingency leadership and a positive patient safety organization culture. The study suggests improving safety performance by providing a well-managed system that includes: consideration of leadership, hospital worker training courses, and a solid safety reporting system.

Keywords: Leadership Behavior, Patient Safety, Safety Culture, Safety Performance

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Authors: Mustafa Elfituri, Jonathan Cook

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Recently, graph-based computations have become more important in large-scale scientific computing as they can provide a methodology to model many types of relations between independent objects. They are being actively used in fields as varied as biology, social networks, cybersecurity, and computer networks. At the same time, graph problems have some properties such as irregularity and poor locality that make their performance different than regular applications performance. Therefore, parallelizing graph algorithms is a hard and challenging task. Initial evidence is that standard computer architectures do not perform very well on graph algorithms. Little is known exactly what causes this. The Graph500 benchmark is a representative application for parallel graph-based computations, which have highly irregular data access and are driven more by traversing connected data than by computation. In this paper, we present results from analyzing the performance of various example implementations of Graph500, including a shared memory (OpenMP) version, a distributed (MPI) version, and a hybrid version. We measured and analyzed all the factors that affect its performance in order to identify possible changes that would improve its performance. Results are discussed in relation to what factors contribute to performance degradation.

Keywords: Graph computation, Graph500 benchmark, parallel architectures, parallel programming, workload characterization.

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Authors: W. Fethallah, L. Chraibi, N. Sefiani

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The present paper is concerned with a statistical approach involving latent and manifest variables applied in order to assess the organization's social responsibility performance. The main idea is to develop an assessment tool and a measurement of the Social Responsibility Performance, enabling the company to characterize her performance regarding to the ISO 26000 standard's seven core subjects. For this, we conceptualize a structural equation modeling (SEM) which describes various causal connections between the Social Responsibility’s components. The SEM’s resolution is based on the Partial Least squares (PLS) method and the implementation is running in the XLSTAT software.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, latent and manifest variable, partial least squares, structural equation model.

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Authors: Chengxuan Geng, Haitao E, Yijie Jiang

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According to the theory of capital structure, this paper uses principal component analysis and linear regression analysis to study the relationship between the debt characteristics of the private listed companies in Jiangsu Province and their business performance. The results show that the average debt ratio of the 29 private listed companies selected from the sample is lower. And it is found that for the sample whose debt ratio is lower than 80%, its debt ratio is negatively related to corporate performance, while for the sample whose debt ratio is beyond 80%, the relationship of debt financing and enterprise performance shows the different trends. The conclusions reflect the drawbacks may exist that the debt ratio is relatively low and having not take full advantage of debt governance effect of the private listed companies in Jiangsu Province.

Keywords: private listed companies, debt financing, business performance

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Authors: Mohammad J. Rezai, Fereshteh Davarpanah

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Producing a text in a language which is not one’s mother tongue can be a demanding task for language learners. Examining lexical errors committed by EFL learners is a challenging area of investigation which can shed light on the process of second language acquisition. Despite the considerable number of investigations into grammatical errors, few studies have tackled formal and semantic errors of lexis committed by EFL learners. The current study aimed at examining Persian learners’ formal and semantic errors of lexis in English. To this end, 60 students at three different proficiency levels were asked to write on 10 different topics in 10 separate sessions. Finally, 600 essays written by Persian EFL learners were collected, acting as the corpus of the study. An error taxonomy comprising formal and semantic errors was selected to analyze the corpus. The formal category covered misselection and misformation errors, while the semantic errors were classified into lexical, collocational and lexicogrammatical categories. Each category was further classified into subcategories depending on the identified errors. The results showed that there were 2583 errors in the corpus of 9600 words, among which, 2030 formal errors and 553 semantic errors were identified. The most frequent errors in the corpus included formal error commitment (78.6%), which were more prevalent at the advanced level (42.4%). The semantic errors (21.4%) were more frequent at the low intermediate level (40.5%). Among formal errors of lexis, the highest number of errors was devoted to misformation errors (98%), while misselection errors constituted 2% of the errors. Additionally, no significant differences were observed among the three semantic error subcategories, namely collocational, lexical choice and lexicogrammatical. The results of the study can shed light on the challenges faced by EFL learners in the second language acquisition process.

Keywords: Collocational errors, lexical errors, Persian EFL learners, semantic errors.

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Authors: Prateep Wajeetongratana

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The purpose of this research was to study the influence of learning efficiency on local accountants’ job performance effectiveness. This paper drew upon the survey data collected from 335 local accountants survey conducted at Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand. The statistics utilized in this paper included percentage, mean, standard deviation, and regression analysis. The findings revealed that the majority of samples were between 31-40 years old, married, held an undergraduate degree, and had an average income between 10,000-15,000 baht. The majority of respondents had less than five years of accounting experience and worked for local administrations. The overall learning efficiency score was in the highest level while the local accountants’ job performance effectiveness score was also in the high level. The hypothesis testing’s result disclosed that learning efficiency factors which were knowledge, Skill, and Attitude had an influence on local accountants’ job the performance effectiveness.

Keywords: Accountants, Leaning Efficiency, Performance Effectiveness.

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Authors: Suwaree Yordchim, Toby J. Gibbs

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The objective is to study the satisfaction on English with an online learning. Online learning system mainly consists of English lessons, exercises, tests, web boards, and supplementary lessons for language practice. The sample groups are 80 Thai students studying English for Business Communication, majoring in Hotel and Lodging Management. The data are analyzed by mean, standard deviation (S.D.) value from the questionnaires. The results were found that the most average of satisfaction on academic aspects are technological searching tool through E-learning system that support the students’ learning (4.51), knowledge evaluation on pre-post learning and teaching (4.45), and change for project selections according to their interest, subject contents including practice in the real situations (4.45), respectively.

Keywords: English Learning, Online System, Satisfaction.

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Authors: M. Sultana, A. Rahman, S. Chowdhury

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Road authorities have confronted problems to maintaining the serviceability of road infrastructure systems by using various traditional methods of contracting. As a solution to these problems, many road authorities have started contracting out road maintenance works to the private sector based on performance measures. This contracting method is named Performance-Based Maintenance Contracting (PBMC). It is considered more costeffective than other traditional methods of contracting. It has a substantial success records in many developed and developing countries over the last two decades. This paper discusses and analyses the potential issues to be considered before the introduction of PBMC in a country.

Keywords: Contracting, Performance-Based Maintenance, Road infrastructure

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Authors: Raja Suzana Raja Kasim

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This paper attempts to highlight the significant role of knowledge management practices (KMP) and competencies in improving the performance and efficiency of public sector organizations. It appears that public sector organizations in developing countries have not received much attention in the research literature of knowledge management and competencies. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore the role of KMP and competencies in achieving superior performance among public sector organizations in Malaysia in the broader perspective. Survey questionnaires were distributed to all Administrative and Diplomatic Officers (ADS) from 28 ministries located in Putrajaya, Malaysia. This paper also examines preliminary empirical results on the relationship between support for knowledge management practices, competencies, and orientation in Malaysia-s public organizations. This paper supports the notion that the practices of knowledge management at the organizational level are a prerequisite for successful organizational performance. In conclusion, the results not only have the potential to contribute theoretically to both management strategy and knowledge management field literature but also to the area of organizational performance.

Keywords: knowledge, knowledge management practices, competencies, organizational performance

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Authors: C. Ardil

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In this study, a model, together with a software tool that implements it, has been developed to determine the performance ratings of employees in an organization operating in the information technology sector using the indicators obtained from employees' online study data. Weighted Sum (WS) Method and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method based on multidimensional decision making approach were used in the study. WS and TOPSIS methods provide multidimensional decision making (MDDM) methods that allow all dimensions to be evaluated together considering specific weights, allowing employees to objectively evaluate the problem of online performance tracking. The application of WS and TOPSIS mathematical methods, which can combine alternatives with a large number of dimensions and reach simultaneous solution, has been implemented through an online performance tracking software. In the application of WS and TOPSIS methods, objective dimension weights were calculated by using entropy information (EI) and standard deviation (SD) methods from the data obtained by employees' online performance tracking method, decision matrix was formed by using performance scores for each employee, and a single performance score was calculated for each employee. Based on the calculated performance score, employees were given a performance evaluation decision. The results of Pareto set evidence and comparative mathematical analysis validate that employees' performance preference rankings in WS and TOPSIS methods are closely related. This suggests the compatibility, applicability, and validity of the proposed method to the MDDM problems in which a large number of alternative and dimension types are taken into account. With this study, an objective, realistic, feasible and understandable mathematical method, together with a software tool that implements it has been demonstrated. This is considered to be preferable because of the subjectivity, limitations and high cost of the methods traditionally used in the measurement and performance appraisal in the information technology sector.

Keywords: Weighted sum, entropy ınformation, standard deviation, online performance tracking, performance evaluation, performance management, multidimensional decision making.

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Authors: S. Ait Ali Yahia

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One of the main features of the Maghreb is its linguistic richness. The multilingualism is a fact which always marked the Maghreb since the beginning of the history up to know. Since the arrival of the Phoenicians, followed by the Carthaginians, Romans, and Arabs, etc, there was a social group in the Maghreb which controlled two kinds of idioms. The libyc one remained, despite everything, the local language used by the major part of the population. This language had a support of written transmission attested by many inscriptions. Among all the forms of the Maghreb writing, this alphabet, however, continues to cause a certain number of questions about the origin and the date of its appearance. The archaeological, linguistic and historical data remain insufficient to answer these questions. This did not prevent the researchers from giving an opinion. In order to answer these questions we will expose here the various assumptions adopted by various authors who are founded on more or less explicit arguments. We will also speak about the various forms taken by the libyc writing during antiquity.

Keywords: The alphabet libyc, Eastern libyc, Western libyc.

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Authors: Abhishek Priyam, Prabha Chand

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A theoretical investigation on the effect of collector aspect ratio on the thermal performance of wavy finned absorber solar air heaters has been performed. For the constant collector area, the various performance parameters have been calculated for plane and wavy finned solar air heaters. It has been found that the performance of wavy finned solar air heater improved with the increase in the collector aspect ratio. The performance of wavy finned solar air heater has been found 30 percent higher than those of plane solar air heater. The obtained results for wavy fin solar air heaters are compared with the available experimental data of most common type solar air heaters.

Keywords: Wavy fin, aspect ratio, solar air heater, thermal efficiency, collector efficiency factor, temperature rise.

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Authors: Reiko Yamamoto

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This paper reports on how synchrony occurs between children and their teacher, and what prevents or facilitates synchrony. The aim of the experiment conducted in this study was to precisely analyze their movements and synchrony and reveal the process of synchrony in a real-world classroom. Specifically, the experiment was conducted for around 20 minutes during an English as a foreign language (EFL) lesson. The participants were 11 fourth-grade school children and their classroom teacher in a public elementary school in Japan. Previous researchers assert that synchrony causes the state of flow in a class. For checking the level of flow, Short Flow State Scale (SFSS) was adopted. The experimental procedure had four steps: 1) The teacher read aloud the first half of an English storybook to the children. Both the teacher and the children were at their own desks. 2) The children were subjected to an SFSS check. 3) The teacher read aloud the remaining half of the storybook to the children. She made the children remove their desks before reading. 4) The children were again subjected to an SFSS check. The movements of all participants were recorded with a video camera. From the movement analysis, it was found that the children synchronized better with the teacher in Step 3 than in Step 1, and that the teacher’s movement became free and outstanding without a desk. This implies that the desk acted as a barrier between the children and the teacher. Removal of this barrier resulted in the children’s reactions becoming synchronized with those of the teacher. The SFSS results proved that the children experienced more flow without a barrier than with a barrier. Apparently, synchrony is what caused flow or social emotions in the classroom. The main conclusion is that synchrony leads to cognitive outcomes such as children’s academic performance in EFL learning.

Keywords: Movement synchrony, teacher–child relationships, English as a foreign language, EFL learning.

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Authors: M. A. Elghorab, A. Abou El-Azm Aly, A. S. Elwetedy, M. A. Kotb

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Later marine propeller is the main component of ship propulsion system. For a non-series propeller, it is difficult to indicate the open water marine propeller performance without an experimental study to measure the marine propeller parameters. In the present study, the open water performance of a non-series marine propeller has been carried out experimentally. The geometrical aspects of a commercial non-series marine propeller have been measured for a propeller blade area ratio of 0.3985. The measured propeller performance parameters were the thrust and torque coefficients for different propeller rotational speed and different water channel flow velocity, then the open water performance for the propeller has been plotted. In addition, a direct comparison between the obtained experimental results and a theoretical study of a B-series marine propeller of the same blade area ratio has been carried out. A correction factor has been introduced to apply the operating conditions of the experimental results to that of the theoretical study for the studied marine propeller.

Keywords: Advance speed, marine propeller, open water performance, thrust coefficient, torque coefficient.

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Authors: Noorfakhriah Yaakub, Madzlan Napiah

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Public bus service plays a significant role in our society as people movers and to facilitate travels within towns and districts. The quality of service of public bus is always being regarded as poor, or rather, underestimated as second class means of transportation. Reliability of service, or the ability to deliver service as planned, is one key element in perceiving the quality of bus service and the punctuality index is one of the performance parameters in determining the service reliability. This study concentrates on evaluating the reliability performance of bus operation using punctuality index assessment. A week data for each of six city bus routes is recorded using the on-board methodology to calculate the punctuality index for city bus service in Kota Bharu. The results revealed that the punctuality index for the whole city bus network is 94.25% (LOS B).

Keywords: Punctuality Index, Reliability Performance, Service Performance.

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Authors: Bruno Henrique Rocha Fernandes, Amir Rezaee, Jucelia Appio

Abstract:

The relation between Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and organizational performance remains the subject of substantial literature. Though many studies demonstrated positive relationship, still major influencing variables are not yet clear. This study considers the Person-Environment Fit (PE Fit) and its components, Person-Supervisor (PS), Person-Group (PG), Person-Organization (PO) and Person-Job (PJ) Fit, as possible explanatory variables. We analyzed PE Fit as a moderator between HRM practices and financial performance in the “best companies to work” in Brazil. Data from HRM practices were classified through the High Performance Working Systems (HPWS) construct and data on PE-Fit were obtained through surveys among employees. Financial data, consisting of return on invested capital (ROIC) and price earnings ratio (PER) were collected for publicly traded best companies to work. Findings show that PO Fit and PJ Fit play a significant moderator role for PER but not for ROIC.

Keywords: Financial performance, human resource management, high performance working systems, person-environment fit.

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