Search results for: poverty measure.
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1125

Search results for: poverty measure.

735 Comparative Embodied Carbon Analysis of the Prefabrication Elements Compared with In-situ Elements in Residential Building Development of Hong Kong

Authors: Felix Wong, YT Tang

Abstract:

This paper reviews the greenhouse gas emissions of prefabrication elements for residential development in Hong Kong. Prefabrication becomes a common practice in residential development in Hong Kong and is considered as a green approach. In Hong Kong, prefabrication took place at factories in Pearl River Delta. Although prefabrication reduces construction wastage, it might generate more greenhouse gas emission from transportation and manufacturing processes. This study attempts to measure the “cradle to site" greenhouse gas emission from prefabrication elements for a public housing development in Kai Tak area. The findings could help further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through process improvement.

Keywords: Prefabrication, greenhouse gas emission, cradle-tosite, residential development.

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734 On the Use of Correlated Binary Model in Social Network Analysis

Authors: Elsayed A. Habib Elamir

Abstract:

In social network analysis the mean nodal degree and density of the graph can be considered as a measure of the activity of all actors in the network and this is an important property of a graph and for making comparisons among networks. Since subjects in a family or organization are subject to common environment factors, it is prime interest to study the association between responses. Therefore, we study the distribution of the mean nodal degree and density of the graph under correlated binary units. The cross product ratio is used to capture the intra-units association among subjects. Computer program and an application are given to show the benefits of the method.

Keywords: Correlated Binary data, cross product ratio, densityof the graph, multiplicative binomial distribution.

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733 Butene Catalytic Cracking to Propylene over Iron and Phosphorus Modified HZSM-5

Authors: Jianwen Li, Hongfang Ma, Haitao Zhang, Qiwen Sun, Weiyong Ying

Abstract:

HZSM-5 zeolites modified by iron and phosphorus were applied in catalytic cracking of butene. N2 adsorption and NH3-TPD were employed to measure the structure and acidity of catalysts. The results indicate that increasing phosphorus loading decreased surface area, pore volume and strong acidity of catalysts. The addition of phosphorus significantly decreased butene conversion and promoted propylene selectivity. The catalytic performance of catalyst was strongly dependent on the reaction conditions. Appropriate reaction conditions could suppress side reactions and enhance propylene selectivity.

Keywords: Butene catalytic cracking, HZSM-5, modification, reaction conditions.

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732 Devising a Paradigm for the Assessment of Guilt across Species

Authors: Trisha S. Malhotra

Abstract:

While there exist frameworks to study the induction, manifestation, duration and general nature of emotions like shame, guilt, embarrassment and pride in humans, the same cannot be said for other species. This is because such 'complex' emotions have situational inductions and manifestations that supposedly vary due to differences between and within different species' ethology. This paper looks at the socio-adaptive functions of guilt to posit why this emotion might be observed across varying species. Primarily, the experimental paradigm of guilt-assessment in domesticated dogs is critiqued for lack of ethological consideration in its measurement and analysis. It is argued that a paradigm for guilt-assessment should measure the species-specific prosocial approach behavior instead of the immediate feedback of the 'guilty'. Finally, it is asserted that the origin of guilt is subjective and if it must be studied across a plethora of species, its definition must be tailored to fit accordingly.

Keywords: Guilt, assessment, dogs, prosocial approach behavior, empathy, species, ethology.

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731 An Experimental Study on Autoignition of Wood

Authors: Tri Poespowati

Abstract:

Experiments were conducted to characterize fire properties of wood exposed to the certain external heat flux and under variety of wood moisture content. Six kinds of Indonesian wood: keruing, sono, cemara, kamper, pinus, and mahoni were exposed to radiant heat from a conical heater, result in appearance of a stable flame on the wood surface caused by spontaneous ignition. A thermocouple K-type was used to measure the wood surface temperature. Temperature histories were recorded throughout each experiment at 1 s intervals using a TC-08. Data of first ignition time and temperature, end ignition time and temperature, and charring rate have been successfully collected. It was found that the ignition temperature and charring rate depend on moisture content of wood.

Keywords: Fire properties, moisture content, wood, charring rate.

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730 Experimental Investigation with Different Inclination Angles on Copper Oscillating Heat Pipes Performance Using Fe2O3/Kerosene under Magnetic Field

Authors: H. R. Goshayeshi, M. Mansori, M. Ahmady, M. Khaloyi

Abstract:

This paper presents the result of an experimental investigation regarding the use of Fe2O3 nanoparticles added to kerosene as a working fluid, under magnetic field for Copper Oscillating Heat pipe with inclination angle of 0°(horizontal), 15°, 30°,45°, 60°,75° and 90° (vertical). The following were examined; measure the temperature distribution and heat transfer rate on Oscillating Heat Pipe (OHP), with magnetic field under different angles. Results showed that the addition of Fe2O3 nanoparticles under magnetic field improved thermal performance of OHP especially in 75°.

Keywords: Copper oscillating heat pipe, Fe2O3, magnetic field, inclination angles.

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729 Evaluation of a Multi-Resolution Dyadic Wavelet Transform Method for usable Speech Detection

Authors: Wajdi Ghezaiel, Amel Ben Slimane Rahmouni, Ezzedine Ben Braiek

Abstract:

Many applications of speech communication and speaker identification suffer from the problem of co-channel speech. This paper deals with a multi-resolution dyadic wavelet transform method for usable segments of co-channel speech detection that could be processed by a speaker identification system. Evaluation of this method is performed on TIMIT database referring to the Target to Interferer Ratio measure. Co-channel speech is constructed by mixing all possible gender speakers. Results do not show much difference for different mixtures. For the overall mixtures 95.76% of usable speech is correctly detected with false alarms of 29.65%.

Keywords: Co-channel speech, usable speech, multi-resolutionanalysis, speaker identification

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728 Identification of Service Quality Determinants in the Hotel Sector: A Conceptual Review

Authors: Asem M. Othman

Abstract:

The expansion of the hospitality industry is distinctive in the 21st century. Services, by nature, are intangible. Hence, service quality, in general, is a complicated process to be measured and evaluated. Hotels, as a service sector and part of the hospitality industry, are growing rapidly. This research paper was carried out to identify the quality determinants that may affect hotel guests’ service quality perception. In this research paper, each quality determinant will be discussed, illustrated, and justified thoroughly via a systematic literature review. This paper sets the stage to measure the significant influence of the service quality determinants on guest satisfaction. The knowledge contribution from this study proposes to practitioners and/or hotel service providers, fundamental elements to adopt the implications into their policies.

Keywords: Hotel service, service quality, quality determinants, quality management.

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727 Software Model for a Computer Based Training for an HVDC Control Desk Simulator

Authors: José R. G. Braga, Joice B. Mendes, Guilherme H. Caponetto, Alexandre C. B. Ramos

Abstract:

With major technological advances and to reduce the cost of training apprentices for real-time critical systems, it was necessary the development of Intelligent Tutoring Systems for training apprentices in these systems. These systems, in general, have interactive features so that the learning is actually more efficient, making the learner more familiar with the mechanism in question. In the home stage of learning, tests are performed to obtain the student's income, a measure on their use. The aim of this paper is to present a framework to model an Intelligent Tutoring Systems using the UML language. The various steps of the analysis are considered the diagrams required to build a general model, whose purpose is to present the different perspectives of its development.

Keywords: Computer based training, Hypermedia, Software modeling.

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726 Video Coding Algorithm for Video Sequences with Abrupt Luminance Change

Authors: Sang Hyun Kim

Abstract:

In this paper, a fast motion compensation algorithm is proposed that improves coding efficiency for video sequences with brightness variations. We also propose a cross entropy measure between histograms of two frames to detect brightness variations. The framewise brightness variation parameters, a multiplier and an offset field for image intensity, are estimated and compensated. Simulation results show that the proposed method yields a higher peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) compared with the conventional method, with a greatly reduced computational load, when the video scene contains illumination changes.

Keywords: Motion estimation, Fast motion compensation, Brightness variation compensation, Brightness change detection, Cross entropy.

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725 Account Management Method with Blind Signature Scheme

Authors: Ryu Watanabe, Yutaka Miyake

Abstract:

Reducing the risk of information leaks is one of the most important functions of identity management systems. To achieve this purpose, Dey et al. have already proposed an account management method for a federated login system using a blind signature scheme. In order to ensure account anonymity for the authentication provider, referred to as an IDP (identity provider), a blind signature scheme is utilized to generate an authentication token on an authentication service and the token is sent to an IDP. However, there is a problem with the proposed system. Malicious users can establish multiple accounts on an IDP by requesting such accounts. As a measure to solve this problem, in this paper, the authors propose an account checking method that is performed before account generation.

Keywords: identity management, blind signature, privacy protection

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724 Advanced Manufacturing Technology Adoption in Manufacturing Companies in Kenya

Authors: George M. Nyori, Peter K’Obonyo

Abstract:

Over the past few decades, manufacturing has evolved from a more labor-intensive set of mechanical processes to a sophisticated set of information based technology processes. With the existence of various advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs), more and more functions or jobs are performed by these machines instead of human labour. This study was undertaken in order to research the extent of AMTs adoption in manufacturing companies in Kenya. In order to investigate a survey was conducted via questionnaires that were sent to 183 selected AMT manufacturing companies in Kenya. 92 companies responded positively. All the surveyed companies were found to have a measure of investment in at least two of the 14 types of AMTs investigated. In general the company surveyed showed that the level of AMT adoption in Kenya is very low with investments levels at a mean of 2.057 and integration levels at a mean of 1.639 in a scale of 1-5.

Keywords: AMT adoption, AMT investments, AMT integration, companies in Kenya.

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723 A Research of the Influence that MP3 Sound Gives EEG of the Person

Authors: Seiya Teshima, Kazushige Magatani

Abstract:

Currently, many types of no-reversible compressed sound source, represented by MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer-3) are popular in the world and they are widely used to make the music file size smaller. The sound data created in this way has less information as compared to pre-compressed data. The objective of this study is by analyzing EEG to determine if people can recognize such difference as differences in sound. A measurement system that can measure and analyze EEG when a subject listens to music were experimentally developed. And ten subjects were studied with this system. In this experiment, a WAVE formatted music data and a MP3 compressed music data that is made from the WAVE formatted data were prepared. Each subject was made to hear these music sources at the same volume. From the results of this experiment, clear differences were confirmed between two wound sources.

Keywords: EEG, Biological signal , Sound , MP3

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722 Software Improvements of the Accuracy in the Air-Electronic Measurement Systems for Geometrical Dimensions

Authors: Miroslav H. Hristov, Velizar A. Vassilev, Georgi K. Dukendjiev

Abstract:

Due to the constant development of measurement systems and the aim for computerization, unavoidable improvements are made for the main disadvantages of air gauges. With the appearance of the air-electronic measuring devices, some of their disadvantages are solved. The output electrical signal allows them to be included in the modern systems for measuring information processing and process management. Producer efforts are aimed at reducing the influence of supply pressure and measurement system setup errors. Increased accuracy requirements and preventive error measures are due to the main uses of air electronic systems - measurement of geometric dimensions in the automotive industry where they are applied as modules in measuring systems to measure geometric parameters, form, orientation and location of the elements.

Keywords: Air-electronic, geometrical parameters, improvement, measurement systems.

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721 Automatic Image Alignment and Stitching of Medical Images with Seam Blending

Authors: Abhinav Kumar, Raja Sekhar Bandaru, B Madhusudan Rao, Saket Kulkarni, Nilesh Ghatpande

Abstract:

This paper proposes an algorithm which automatically aligns and stitches the component medical images (fluoroscopic) with varying degrees of overlap into a single composite image. The alignment method is based on similarity measure between the component images. As applied here the technique is intensity based rather than feature based. It works well in domains where feature based methods have difficulty, yet more robust than traditional correlation. Component images are stitched together using the new triangular averaging based blending algorithm. The quality of the resultant image is tested for photometric inconsistencies and geometric misalignments. This method cannot correct rotational, scale and perspective artifacts.

Keywords: Histogram Matching, Image Alignment, ImageStitching, Medical Imaging.

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720 Extensiveness and Effectiveness of Corporate Governance Regulations in South-Eastern Europe

Authors: Ana Bobirca, Paul-Gabriel Miclaus

Abstract:

The purpose of the article is to illustrate the main characteristics of the corporate governance challenge facing the countries of South-Eastern Europe (SEE) and to subsequently determine and assess the extensiveness and effectiveness of corporate governance regulations in these countries. Therefore, we start with an overview on the subject of the key problems of corporate governance in transition. We then address the issue of corporate governance measurement for SEE countries. To this end, we include a review of the methodological framework for determining both the extensiveness and the effectiveness of corporate governance legislation. We then focus on the actual analysis of the quality of corporate governance codes, as well as of legal institutions effectiveness and provide a measure of corporate governance in Romania and other SEE emerging markets. The paper concludes by emphasizing the corporate governance enforcement gap and by identifying research issues that require further study.

Keywords: corporate governance, effectiveness, extensiveness, South-Eastern Europe

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719 Spatial Distribution of Cd, Zn and Hg in Groundwater at Rayong Province, Thailand

Authors: T. Makkasap, T. Satapanajaru

Abstract:

The objective of this study was to evaluate the distribution patterns of Cd, Zn and Hg in groundwater by geospatial interpolation. The study was performed at Rayong province in the eastern part of Thailand, with high agricultural and industrial activities. Groundwater samples were collected twice a year from 31 tubewells around this area. Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometer (ICP-AES) was used to measure the concentrations of Cd, Zn, and Hg in groundwater samples. The results demonstrated that concentrations of Cd, Zn and Hg range from 0.000-0.297 mg/L (x = 0.021±0.033 mg/L), 0.022-33.236 mg/L (x = 4.214±4.766 mg/L) and 0.000-0.289 mg/L (x = 0.023±0.034 mg/L), respectively. Most of the heavy metals concentrations were exceeded groundwater quality standards as specified in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Thailand. The trend distribution of heavy metals were high concentrations at the southeastern part of the area that especially vulnerable to heavy metals and other contaminants.

Keywords: Groundwater, Heavy metals, Kriging, Rayong, Spatial distribution.

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718 Predictability Analysis on HIV/AIDS System using Hurst Exponents

Authors: K. Kamalanand, P. Mannar Jawahar

Abstract:

Methods of contemporary mathematical physics such as chaos theory are useful for analyzing and understanding the behavior of complex biological and physiological systems. The three dimensional model of HIV/AIDS is the basis of active research since it provides a complete characterization of disease dynamics and the interaction of HIV-1 with the immune system. In this work, the behavior of the HIV system is analyzed using the three dimensional HIV model and a chaotic measure known as the Hurst exponent. Results demonstrate that Hurst exponents of CD4, CD8 cells and viral load vary nonlinearly with respect to variations in system parameters. Further, it was observed that the three dimensional HIV model can accommodate both persistent (H>0.5) and anti-persistent (H<0.5) dynamics of HIV states. In this paper, the objectives of the study, methodology and significant observations are presented in detail.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, mathematical model, chaos theory, Hurst exponent

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717 A Simulator for Robot Navigation Algorithms

Authors: Michael A. Folcik, Bijan Karimi

Abstract:

A robot simulator was developed to measure and investigate the performance of a robot navigation system based on the relative position of the robot with respect to random obstacles in any two dimensional environment. The presented simulator focuses on investigating the ability of a fuzzy-neural system for object avoidance. A navigation algorithm is proposed and used to allow random navigation of a robot among obstacles when the robot faces an obstacle in the environment. The main features of this simulator can be used for evaluating the performance of any system that can provide the position of the robot with respect to obstacles in the environment. This allows a robot developer to investigate and analyze the performance of a robot without implementing the physical robot.

Keywords: Applications of Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networksin Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Embedded Systems, MobileRobots, Robot Navigation, Robotics.

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716 Effective Online Staff Training: Is This Possible?

Authors: C. Rogerson, E. Scott

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to consider the introduction of online courses to replace the current classroom-based staff training. The current training is practical, and must be completed before access to the financial computer system is authorized. The long term objective is to measure the efficacy, effectiveness and efficiency of the training, and to establish whether a transfer of knowledge back to the workplace has occurred. This paper begins with an overview explaining the importance of staff training in an evolving, competitive business environment and defines the problem facing this particular organization. A summary of the literature review is followed by a brief discussion of the research methodology and objective. The implementation of the alpha version of the online course is then described. This paper may be of interest to those seeking insights into, or new theory regarding, practical interventions of online learning in the real world.

Keywords: Computer-based courses, e-learning, online training, workplace training.

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715 Predicting and Mitigating Dredging DispersionImpact: A Case of Phuket Port, Thailand

Authors: Cherdvong Saengsupavanich

Abstract:

Dredging activities inevitably cause sediment dispersion. In certain locations, where there are important ecological areas such as mangroves or coral reefs, carefully planning the dredging can significantly reduce negative impacts. This article utilizes the dredging at Phuket port, Thailand, as a case study to demonstrate how computer simulations can be helpful to protect existing coral reefs. A software package named MIKE21 was applied. Necessary information required by the simulations was gathered. After calibrating and verifying the model, various dredging scenario were simulated to predict spoil movement. The simulation results were used as guidance to setting up an environmental measure. Finally, the recommendation to dredge during flood tide with silt curtains installed was made.

Keywords: Coastal simulation, Dredging, Environmentalprotection, Port. Coastal engineering, Thailand

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714 An Exploratory Study in Nursing Education: Factors Influencing Nursing Students’ Acceptance of Mobile Learning

Authors: R. Abdulrahman, A. Eardley, A. Soliman

Abstract:

The proliferation in the development of mobile learning (m-learning) has played a vital role in the rapidly growing electronic learning market. This relatively new technology can help to encourage the development of in learning and to aid knowledge transfer a number of areas, by familiarizing students with innovative information and communications technologies (ICT). M-learning plays a substantial role in the deployment of learning methods for nursing students by using the Internet and portable devices to access learning resources ‘anytime and anywhere’. However, acceptance of m-learning by students is critical to the successful use of m-learning systems. Thus, there is a need to study the factors that influence student’s intention to use m-learning. This paper addresses this issue. It outlines the outcomes of a study that evaluates the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model as applied to the subject of user acceptance in relation to m-learning activity in nurse education. The model integrates the significant components across eight prominent user acceptance models. Therefore, a standard measure is introduced with core determinants of user behavioural intention. The research model extends the UTAUT in the context of m-learning acceptance by modifying and adding individual innovativeness (II) and quality of service (QoS) to the original structure of UTAUT. The paper goes on to add the factors of previous experience (of using mobile devices in similar applications) and the nursing students’ readiness (to use the technology) to influence their behavioural intentions to use m-learning. This study uses a technique called ‘convenience sampling’ which involves student volunteers as participants in order to collect numerical data. A quantitative method of data collection was selected and involves an online survey using a questionnaire form. This form contains 33 questions to measure the six constructs, using a 5-point Likert scale. A total of 42 respondents participated, all from the Nursing Institute at the Armed Forces Hospital in Saudi Arabia. The gathered data were then tested using a research model that employs the structural equation modelling (SEM), including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results of the CFA show that the UTAUT model has the ability to predict student behavioural intention and to adapt m-learning activity to the specific learning activities. It also demonstrates satisfactory, dependable and valid scales of the model constructs. This suggests further analysis to confirm the model as a valuable instrument in order to evaluate the user acceptance of m-learning activity.

Keywords: Mobile learning, nursing institute, unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model.

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713 Development of Subjective Measures of Interestingness: From Unexpectedness to Shocking

Authors: Eiad Yafi, M. A. Alam, Ranjit Biswas

Abstract:

Knowledge Discovery of Databases (KDD) is the process of extracting previously unknown but useful and significant information from large massive volume of databases. Data Mining is a stage in the entire process of KDD which applies an algorithm to extract interesting patterns. Usually, such algorithms generate huge volume of patterns. These patterns have to be evaluated by using interestingness measures to reflect the user requirements. Interestingness is defined in different ways, (i) Objective measures (ii) Subjective measures. Objective measures such as support and confidence extract meaningful patterns based on the structure of the patterns, while subjective measures such as unexpectedness and novelty reflect the user perspective. In this report, we try to brief the more widely spread and successful subjective measures and propose a new subjective measure of interestingness, i.e. shocking.

Keywords: Shocking rules (SHR).

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712 CSR of top Portuguese Companies: Relation between Social Performance and Economic Performance

Authors: Afonso, S. C., Fernandes, P. O., Monte, A. P.

Abstract:

Modern times call organizations to have an active role in the social arena, through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The objective of this research was to test the hypothesis that there is a positive relation between social performance and economic performance, and if there is a positive correlation between social performance and financial-economic performance. To test these theories a measure of social performance, based on the Green Book of Commission of the European Community, was used in a group of nineteen Portuguese top companies, listed on the PSI 20 index, through a period of five years, since 2005 to 2009. A clusters analysis was applied to group companies by their social performance and to compare and correlate their economic performance. Results indicate that companies that had a better social performance are not the ones who had a better economic performance, and suggest that the middle path might provide a good relation CSR-Economic performance, as a basis to a sustainable development.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Performance, Win-Win relationship

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711 Automatic Moment-Based Texture Segmentation

Authors: Tudor Barbu

Abstract:

An automatic moment-based texture segmentation approach is proposed in this paper. First, we describe the related work in this computer vision domain. Our texture feature extraction, the first part of the texture recognition process, produces a set of moment-based feature vectors. For each image pixel, a texture feature vector is computed as a sequence of area moments. Then, an automatic pixel classification approach is proposed. The feature vectors are clustered using an unsupervised classification algorithm, the optimal number of clusters being determined using a measure based on validation indexes. From the resulted pixel classes one determines easily the desired texture regions of the image.

Keywords: Image segmentation, moment-based texture analysis, automatic classification, validity indexes.

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710 The Investigation on the Relationship between Religion and Development: By Focusing on Islam

Authors: Dalal Benboutrif

Abstract:

Religion and Development relation is one of the most arguable phrases amongst politicians, philosophers, clerics, scientists, sociologists and even the public. The main objective of this research is to clarify the relations, contrasts and interactions between religion and the major types of development including social, political, economic and scientific developments, by focusing on Islam religion. A review of the literature was performed concerning religion and development relations and conflicts, by focusing on Islam religion and then the unprocessed tips of the review were characterized. Regarding clarification of the key points of the literature, three main sectors were considered in the research. The first sector of the research mainly focused on the philosophical views on religion, which were analyzed by main evaluation of three famous philosophers’ ideas: ‘Kant’, ‘Hegel’ and ‘Weber’, and then a critical discussion on Weber’s idea about Islam and development was applied. The second sector was specified to ‘Religion and Development’ and mainly discussed the role of religion in development through poverty reduction, the interconnection of religion, spirituality and social development, religious education effects on social development, and the relation of religion with political development. The third sector was specified to ‘Islam and Development’ and mainly discussed the Islamic golden age of science, major reasons of today’s backwardness (non-development) of most Islamic countries, and Quranic instructions regarding adaptability of Islam with development. The findings of the current research approved the research hypothesis as: ‘Religious instructions (included Islam) are not in conflict with development’, rather, it could have positive effects mainly on social development and it can pave the way for society to develop. Turkey was considered as a study model, as a successful developed Islamic country demonstrating the non-conflicting relation of Islam and development.

Keywords: Development, Islam, philosophy, religion.

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709 A Markov Chain Approximation for ATS Modeling for the Variable Sampling Interval CCC Control Charts

Authors: Y. K. Chen, K. C. Chiou, C. Y. Chen

Abstract:

The cumulative conformance count (CCC) charts are widespread in process monitoring of high-yield manufacturing. Recently, it is found the use of variable sampling interval (VSI) scheme could further enhance the efficiency of the standard CCC charts. The average time to signal (ATS) a shift in defect rate has become traditional measure of efficiency of a chart with the VSI scheme. Determining the ATS is frequently a difficult and tedious task. A simple method based on a finite Markov Chain approach for modeling the ATS is developed. In addition, numerical results are given.

Keywords: Cumulative conformance count, variable sampling interval, Markov Chain, average time to signal, control chart.

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708 Factors Influencing Household Expenditure Patterns on Cereal Grains in Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Authors: E. A. Ojoko, G. B. Umbugadu

Abstract:

This study aims at describing the expenditure pattern of households on millet, maize and sorghum across income groups in Nasarawa State. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 316 respondents for the study. The Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) model was adopted in this study. Results from the study shows that the average household size was five persons with dependency ratio of 52 %, which plays an important role on the household’s expenditure pattern by increasing the household budget share. On the average 82 % were male headed households with an average age of 49 years and 13 years of formal education. Results on expenditure share show that maize has the highest expenditure share of 38 % across the three income groups and that most of the price effects are significantly different from zero at 5 % significant level. This shows that the low price of maize increased its demand as compared to other cereals. Household size and age of household members are major factors affecting the demand for cereals in the study. This agrees with the fact that increased household population (size) will bring about increase consumption. The results on factors influencing preferences for cereal grains reveals that cooking quality and appearance (65.7 %) were the most important factors affecting the demand for maize in the study area. This study recommends that cereal crop production should be prioritized in government policies and farming activities that help to boost food security and alleviate poverty should be subsidized.

Keywords: Expenditure pattern, AIDS model, budget share, price cereal grains and consumption.

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707 An Embedded System Design for SRAM SEU Test

Authors: Kyoung Kun Lee, Soongyu Kwon, Jong Tae Kim

Abstract:

An embedded system for SEU(single event upset) test needs to be designed to prevent system failure by high-energy particles during measuring SEU. SEU is a phenomenon in which the data is changed temporary in semiconductor device caused by high-energy particles. In this paper, we present an embedded system for SRAM(static random access memory) SEU test. SRAMs are on the DUT(device under test) and it is separated from control board which manages the DUT and measures the occurrence of SEU. It needs to have considerations for preventing system failure while managing the DUT and making an accurate measurement of SEUs. We measure the occurrence of SEUs from five different SRAMs at three different cyclotron beam energies 30, 35, and 40MeV. The number of SEUs of SRAMs ranges from 3.75 to 261.00 in average.

Keywords: embedded system, single event upset, SRAM

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706 Preliminary Evaluation of Passive UHF-Band RFID for Identifying Floating Objects on the Sea

Authors: Yasuhiro Sato, Kodai Noma, Kenta Sawada, Kazumasa Adachi, Yoshinori Matruura, Saori Iwanaga

Abstract:

RFID system is used to identify objects such as passenger identification in public transportation, instead of linear or 2-dimensional barcodes. Key advantages of RFID system are to identify objects without physical contact, and to write arbitrary information into RFID tag. These advantages may help to improve maritime safety and efficiency of activity on the sea. However, utilization of RFID system for maritime scenes has not been considered. In this paper, we evaluate the availability of a generic RFID system operating on the sea. We measure RSSI between RFID tag floating on the sea and RFID antenna, and check whether a RFID reader can access a tag or not, while the distance between a floating buoy and the ship, and the angle are changed. Finally, we discuss the feasibility and the applicability of RFID system on the sea through the results of our preliminary experiment.

Keywords: RFID, Experimental Evaluation, RSSI, Maritime use.

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