Search results for: average sample number
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 5784

Search results for: average sample number

1434 Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer in Primary Surface with Corrugations Recuperators

Authors: Liu Xuedong, Liu Hanpeng, Zhou Ling

Abstract:

Study fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of microchannel in a primary Cross-corrugated(CC) surface recuperators with corrugations and without corrugations, using CFD method. The pitch-over-height ratios P/H of Cross-corrugated (CC) surface is from 1.5 to 4.0, included angles β=75º. The study was performed using CFD software FLUENT to create unit model and simulate fluid temperature, velocity, heat transfer coefficient and other parameters. The results from these simulations were compared to experimental data. It is concluded that, when the Reynolds number is constant, if increase P/H, j/f will decrease, also the decreasing trend will become weak. Under the condition of P/H=2.2, if increase the inlet velocity j/f will decrease; in addition, the heat transfer performance in surface with corrugation will increase 10% compared to that without corrugation. The study results can provide the basis to optimize the design, select the type of heat transfer surface, the scale structure, and heat-transfer surface arrangement for recuperators.

Keywords: Cross-corrugated surface, Primary surface, Numerical simulation, Heat transfer.

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1433 Automatic Design Algorithm for the Tower Crane Foundations

Authors: Sungho Lee, Goonjae Lee, Chaeyeon Lim, Sunkuk Kim

Abstract:

Foundation of tower crane serves to ensure stability against vertical and horizontal forces. If foundation stress is not sufficient, tower crane may be subject to overturning, shearing or foundation settlement. Therefore, engineering review of stable support is a highly critical part of foundation design. However, there are not many professionals who can conduct engineering review of tower crane foundation and, if any, they have information only on a small number of cranes in which they have hands-on experience. It is also customary to rely on empirical knowledge and tower crane renter-s recommendations rather than designing foundation on the basis of engineering knowledge. Therefore, a foundation design automation system considering not only lifting conditions but also overturning risk, shearing and vertical force may facilitate production of foolproof foundation design for experts and enable even non-experts to utilize professional knowledge that only experts can access now. This study proposes Automatic Design Algorithm for the Tower Crane Foundations considering load and horizontal force.

Keywords: Tower Crane, Automatic Design, Foundations, Optimization Algorithm, Stability

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1432 Yield Prediction Using Support Vectors Based Under-Sampling in Semiconductor Process

Authors: Sae-Rom Pak, Seung Hwan Park, Jeong Ho Cho, Daewoong An, Cheong-Sool Park, Jun Seok Kim, Jun-Geol Baek

Abstract:

It is important to predict yield in semiconductor test process in order to increase yield. In this study, yield prediction means finding out defective die, wafer or lot effectively. Semiconductor test process consists of some test steps and each test includes various test items. In other world, test data has a big and complicated characteristic. It also is disproportionably distributed as the number of data belonging to FAIL class is extremely low. For yield prediction, general data mining techniques have a limitation without any data preprocessing due to eigen properties of test data. Therefore, this study proposes an under-sampling method using support vector machine (SVM) to eliminate an imbalanced characteristic. For evaluating a performance, randomly under-sampling method is compared with the proposed method using actual semiconductor test data. As a result, sampling method using SVM is effective in generating robust model for yield prediction.

Keywords: Yield Prediction, Semiconductor Test Process, Support Vector Machine, Under Sampling

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1431 The Effects of Multipath on OFDM Systems for Broadband Power-Line Communications a Case of Medium Voltage Channel

Authors: Justinian Anatory, N. Theethayi, R. Thottappillil, C. Mwase, N.H. Mvungi

Abstract:

Power-line networks are widely used today for broadband data transmission. However, due to multipaths within the broadband power line communication (BPLC) systems owing to stochastic changes in the network load impedances, branches, etc., network or channel capacity performances are affected. This paper attempts to investigate the performance of typical medium voltage channels that uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) techniques with Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) sub carriers. It has been observed that when the load impedances are different from line characteristic impedance channel performance decreases. Also as the number of branches in the link between the transmitter and receiver increases a loss of 4dB/branch is found in the signal to noise ratio (SNR). The information presented in the paper could be useful for an appropriate design of the BPLC systems.

Keywords: Communication channel model, Power-line communication, Transfer function, Multipath, Branched network, OFDM, QAM, performance evaluation

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1430 Predicting Bridge Pier Scour Depth with SVM

Authors: Arun Goel

Abstract:

Prediction of maximum local scour is necessary for the safety and economical design of the bridges. A number of equations have been developed over the years to predict local scour depth using laboratory data and a few pier equations have also been proposed using field data. Most of these equations are empirical in nature as indicated by the past publications. In this paper attempts have been made to compute local depth of scour around bridge pier in dimensional and non-dimensional form by using linear regression, simple regression and SVM (Poly & Rbf) techniques along with few conventional empirical equations. The outcome of this study suggests that the SVM (Poly & Rbf) based modeling can be employed as an alternate to linear regression, simple regression and the conventional empirical equations in predicting scour depth of bridge piers. The results of present study on the basis of non-dimensional form of bridge pier scour indicate the improvement in the performance of SVM (Poly & Rbf) in comparison to dimensional form of scour.

Keywords: Modeling, pier scour, regression, prediction, SVM (Poly & Rbf kernels).

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1429 Stock Portfolio Selection Using Chemical Reaction Optimization

Authors: Jin Xu, Albert Y.S. Lam, Victor O.K. Li

Abstract:

Stock portfolio selection is a classic problem in finance, and it involves deciding how to allocate an institution-s or an individual-s wealth to a number of stocks, with certain investment objectives (return and risk). In this paper, we adopt the classical Markowitz mean-variance model and consider an additional common realistic constraint, namely, the cardinality constraint. Thus, stock portfolio optimization becomes a mixed-integer quadratic programming problem and it is difficult to be solved by exact optimization algorithms. Chemical Reaction Optimization (CRO), which mimics the molecular interactions in a chemical reaction process, is a population-based metaheuristic method. Two different types of CRO, named canonical CRO and Super Molecule-based CRO (S-CRO), are proposed to solve the stock portfolio selection problem. We test both canonical CRO and S-CRO on a benchmark and compare their performance under two criteria: Markowitz efficient frontier (Pareto frontier) and Sharpe ratio. Computational experiments suggest that S-CRO is promising in handling the stock portfolio optimization problem.

Keywords: Stock portfolio selection, Markowitz model, Chemical Reaction Optimization, Sharpe ratio

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1428 Parameters Optimization of the Laminated Composite Plate for Sound Transmission Problem

Authors: Yu T. Tsai, Jin H. Huang

Abstract:

In this paper, the specific sound Transmission Loss (TL) of the Laminated Composite Plate (LCP) with different material properties in each layer is investigated. The numerical method to obtain the TL of the LCP is proposed by using elastic plate theory. The transfer matrix approach is novelty presented for computational efficiency in solving the numerous layers of dynamic stiffness matrix (D-matrix) of the LCP. Besides the numerical simulations for calculating the TL of the LCP, the material properties inverse method is presented for the design of a laminated composite plate analogous to a metallic plate with a specified TL. As a result, it demonstrates that the proposed computational algorithm exhibits high efficiency with a small number of iterations for achieving the goal. This method can be effectively employed to design and develop tailor-made materials for various applications.

Keywords: Sound transmission loss, laminated composite plate, transfer matrix approach, inverse problem, elastic plate theory, material properties.

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1427 Routing Capability and Blocking Analysis of Dynamic ROADM Optical Networks (Category - II) for Dynamic Traffic

Authors: Indumathi T. S., T. Srinivas, B. Siva Kumar

Abstract:

Reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) can be classified into three categories based on their underlying switching technologies. Category I consists of a single large optical switch; category II is composed of a number of small optical switches aligned in parallel; and category III has a single optical switch and only one wavelength being added/dropped. In this paper, to evaluate the wavelength-routing capability of ROADMs of category-II in dynamic optical networks,the dynamic traffic models are designed based on Bernoulli, Poisson distributions for smooth and regular types of traffic. Through Analytical and Simulation results, the routing power of cat-II of ROADM networks for two traffic models are determined.

Keywords: Fully-Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexers (FROADMs), Limited Tunability in Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop multiplexers (LROADM), Multiplexer/De- Multiplexer (MUX/DEMUX), Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs), Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM).

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1426 Experiments and Modeling of Ion Exchange Resins for Nuclear Power Plants

Authors: Aurélie Mabrouk, Vincent Lagneau, Caroline De Dieuleveult, Martin Bachet, Hélène Schneider, Christophe Coquelet

Abstract:

Resins are used in nuclear power plants for water ultrapurification. Two approaches are considered in this work: column experiments and simulations. A software called OPTIPUR was developed, tested and used. The approach simulates the onedimensional reactive transport in porous medium with convectivedispersive transport between particles and diffusive transport within the boundary layer around the particles. The transfer limitation in the boundary layer is characterized by the mass transfer coefficient (MTC). The influences on MTC were measured experimentally. The variation of the inlet concentration does not influence the MTC; on the contrary of the Darcy velocity which influences. This is consistent with results obtained using the correlation of Dwivedi&Upadhyay. With the MTC, knowing the number of exchange site and the relative affinity, OPTIPUR can simulate the column outlet concentration versus time. Then, the duration of use of resins can be predicted in conditions of a binary exchange.

Keywords: ion exchange resin, mass transfer coefficient, modeling, OPTIPUR

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1425 The Risk of In-work Poverty and Family Coping Strategies

Authors: A. Banovcinova, M. Zakova

Abstract:

Labor market activity and paid employment should be a key factor in protecting individuals and families from falling into poverty and providing them with sufficient resources to meet the needs of their members. However, due to various processes in the labor market as well as the influence of individual factors and often insufficient social capital, there is a relatively large group of households that cannot eliminate paid employment and find themselves in a state of so-called working poverty. The aim of the research was to find out what strategies families use in managing poverty and meeting their needs and which of these strategies prevail in the Slovak population. A quantitative research strategy was chosen. The method of data collection was a structured interview focused on finding out the use of individual management strategies and also selected demographic indicators. The research sample consisted of members of families in which at least one member has a paid job. The condition for inclusion in the research was that the family's income did not exceed 60% of the national median equalized disposable income. The analysis of the results showed 5 basic areas to which management strategies are related - work, financial security, needs, social contacts and perception of the current situation. The prevailing strategies were strategies aimed at increasing and streamlining labor market activity and the planned and effective management of the family budget. Strategies that were rejected were mainly related to debt creation. The results make it possible to identify the preferred ways of managing poverty in individual areas of life, as well as the factors that influence this behavior. This information is important for working with families living in a state of working poverty and can help professionals develop positive ways of coping for families.

Keywords: Copying strategies, family, in-work poverty, quantitative research.

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1424 Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Pregnant Women toward Antenatal Care at Public Hospitals in Sana'a City-Yemen

Authors: Abdulfatah Al-Jaradi, Marzoq Ali Odhah, Abdulnasser A. Haza’a

Abstract:

Background: Antenatal care can be defined as the care provided by skilled healthcare professionals to pregnant women and adolescent girls to ensure the best health conditions for both mother and baby during pregnancy. The components of Antenatal Care (ANC) include risk identification; prevention and management of pregnancy-related or concurrent diseases; and health education and health promotion. The aim of this study: to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of pregnant women regarding ANC. Methodology: A descriptive knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) study was conducted in public hospitals in Sana'a City, Yemen. The study population included all pregnant women that intended to the prenatal department and clinical outpatient department; the final sample size was 371 pregnant women. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data, statistical package for social sciences SPSS was used to data analysis. The results: Most (79%) of pregnant women had correct answers in total knowledge regarding ANC, and about two-thirds (67%) of pregnant women had performance practice regarding ANC and two-third (68%) of pregnant women had a positive attitude. Conclusions: More than three quarter of pregnant women had good knowledge level, most of pregnant women had moderate practice level, and more than two-thirds of pregnant women had a positive attitude regarding antenatal care. There was a statistically significant association between overall knowledge and practice level toward ANC and demographic characteristics of pregnant women, at P-value ≤ 0.05. Recommendations: we recommended more education and training courses, lecturers, and education sessions in clinical facilitators focused on ANC, which relies on evidence-based interventions provided to women during pregnancy by skilled healthcare providers such as midwives, doctors, and nurses.

Keywords: Antenatal care, knowledge, practice, attitude, pregnant women.

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1423 A New Ridge Orientation based Method of Computation for Feature Extraction from Fingerprint Images

Authors: Jayadevan R., Jayant V. Kulkarni, Suresh N. Mali, Hemant K. Abhyankar

Abstract:

An important step in studying the statistics of fingerprint minutia features is to reliably extract minutia features from the fingerprint images. A new reliable method of computation for minutiae feature extraction from fingerprint images is presented. A fingerprint image is treated as a textured image. An orientation flow field of the ridges is computed for the fingerprint image. To accurately locate ridges, a new ridge orientation based computation method is proposed. After ridge segmentation a new method of computation is proposed for smoothing the ridges. The ridge skeleton image is obtained and then smoothed using morphological operators to detect the features. A post processing stage eliminates a large number of false features from the detected set of minutiae features. The detected features are observed to be reliable and accurate.

Keywords: Minutia, orientation field, ridge segmentation, textured image.

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1422 Hybrid Prefix Adder Architecture for Minimizing the Power Delay Product

Authors: P.Ramanathan, P.T.Vanathi

Abstract:

Parallel Prefix addition is a technique for improving the speed of binary addition. Due to continuing integrating intensity and the growing needs of portable devices, low-power and highperformance designs are of prime importance. The classical parallel prefix adder structures presented in the literature over the years optimize for logic depth, area, fan-out and interconnect count of logic circuits. In this paper, a new architecture for performing 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit Parallel Prefix addition is proposed. The proposed prefix adder structures is compared with several classical adders of same bit width in terms of power, delay and number of computational nodes. The results reveal that the proposed structures have the least power delay product when compared with its peer existing Prefix adder structures. Tanner EDA tool was used for simulating the adder designs in the TSMC 180 nm and TSMC 130 nm technologies.

Keywords: Parallel Prefix Adder (PPA), Dot operator, Semi-Dotoperator, Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS), Odd-dot operator, Even-dot operator, Odd-semi-dot operator andEven-semi-dot operator.

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1421 Internet Shopping: A Study Based On Hedonic Value and Flow Theory

Authors: Pui-Lai To, E-Ping Sung

Abstract:

With the flourishing development of online shopping, an increasing number of customers see online shopping as an entertaining experience. Because the online consumer has a double identity as a shopper and an Internet user, online shopping should offer hedonic values of shopping and Internet usage. The purpose of this study is to investigate hedonic online shopping motivations from the perspectives of traditional hedonic value and flow theory. The study adopted a focus group interview method, including two online and two offline interviews. Four focus groups of shoppers consisted of online professionals, online college students, offline professionals and offline college students. The results of the study indicate that traditional hedonic values and dimensions of flow theory exist in the online shopping environment. The study indicated that online shoppers seem to appreciate being able to learn things and grow to become competitive achievers online. Comparisons of online hedonic motivations between groups are conducted. This study serves as a basis for the future growth of Internet marketing.

Keywords: Flow theory, hedonic motivation, internet shopping.

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1420 Stroma-Providing Activity of Adipose Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in Tissue-Related O2 Microenvironment

Authors: P. I. Bobyleva, E. R. Andreeva, I. V. Andrianova, E. V. Maslova, L.B. Buravkova

Abstract:

This work studied the ability of adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to form stroma for expansion of cord blood hematopoietic cells. We showed that 72-hour interaction of MSCs with cord blood mononuclear cells (MNCs) in vitro at atmospheric (20%) and low (5%) O2 conditions increased the expression of ICAM-1, HCAM (at the beginning of interaction) on MSCs. Viability of MSCs and MNCs were maintained at high level. Adhesion of MNCs to MSCs was faster at 20% O2. MSCs promoted the proliferation of adhered MNCs to form the suspension containing great number of hematopoietic colony-forming units, and this effect was more pronounced at 5% O2. Thus, adipose-derived MSCs supplied sufficient stromal support to cord blood MNCs both at 20% and 5% О2, providing their adhesion with further expansion of new generation of different hematopoietic lineages.

Keywords: Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, mesenchymal stromal cells, tissue-related oxygen.

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1419 A Comparison of Artificial Neural Networks for Prediction of Suspended Sediment Discharge in River- A Case Study in Malaysia

Authors: M.R. Mustafa, M.H. Isa, R.B. Rezaur

Abstract:

Prediction of highly non linear behavior of suspended sediment flow in rivers has prime importance in the field of water resources engineering. In this study the predictive performance of two Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) namely, the Radial Basis Function (RBF) Network and the Multi Layer Feed Forward (MLFF) Network have been compared. Time series data of daily suspended sediment discharge and water discharge at Pari River was used for training and testing the networks. A number of statistical parameters i.e. root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), coefficient of efficiency (CE) and coefficient of determination (R2) were used for performance evaluation of the models. Both the models produced satisfactory results and showed a good agreement between the predicted and observed data. The RBF network model provided slightly better results than the MLFF network model in predicting suspended sediment discharge.

Keywords: ANN, discharge, modeling, prediction, suspendedsediment,

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1418 The Appeal of Vocal Islamism in the West: The Case of Hizb ut-Tahrir vis-à-vis Its Competitors

Authors: Elisa Orofino

Abstract:

Islamism is a very debated topic in the West but almost exclusively explored in its violent forms. Nevertheless, a number of “vocal radical Islamist” groups exist in the West and legally operate because of their non-violent nature. Vocal radicals continually inspire individuals and lead them towards specific goals and priorities, sometimes even towards violence. This paper uses the long-living group Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) to explore the elements that make the organization appealing to segments of Muslim community in the West. This paper uses three agency variables - reflexive monitoring, the rationalization of action and the motivations for actions – to analyze HT’s appeal vis-à-vis two other Islamist groups, Ikhwan al-Muslimun and Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), having similar goals and the same high international profile. This paper concludes that HT’s uniqueness is given by its method, detailed vision of the caliphate, consistency over time and the emphasis placed on the caliphate as the leading force of HT’s unchanged motivation for action.

Keywords: Agency, Caliphate, Radicalization, Vocal Radicals.

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1417 Architecture of Speech-based Registration System

Authors: Mayank Kumar, D B Mahesh Kumar, Ashwin S Kumar, N K Srinath

Abstract:

In this era of technology, fueled by the pervasive usage of the internet, security is a prime concern. The number of new attacks by the so-called “bots", which are automated programs, is increasing at an alarming rate. They are most likely to attack online registration systems. Technology, called “CAPTCHA" (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) do exist, which can differentiate between automated programs and humans and prevent replay attacks. Traditionally CAPTCHA-s have been implemented with the challenge involved in recognizing textual images and reproducing the same. We propose an approach where the visual challenge has to be read out from which randomly selected keywords are used to verify the correctness of spoken text and in turn detect the presence of human. This is supplemented with a speaker recognition system which can identify the speaker also. Thus, this framework fulfills both the objectives – it can determine whether the user is a human or not and if it is a human, it can verify its identity.

Keywords: CAPTCHA, automatic speech recognition, keyword spotting.

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1416 Cross Country Comparison: Business Process Management Maturity, Social Business Process Management and Organizational Culture

Authors: Dalia Suša Vugec

Abstract:

In recent few decades, business process management (BPM) has been in focus of a great number of researchers and organizations. There are many benefits derived from the implementation of BPM in organizations. However, there has been also noticed that lately traditional BPM faces some difficulties in terms of the divide between models and their execution, lost innovations, lack of information fusioning and so on. As a result, there has been a new discipline, called social BPM, which incorporates principles of social software into the BPM. On the other hand, many researchers indicate organizational culture as a vital part of the BPM success and maturity. Therefore, the goal of this study is to investigate the current state of BPM maturity and the usage of social BPM among the organizations from Croatia, Slovenia and Austria, with the regards to the organizational culture as well. The paper presents the results of a survey conducted as part of the PROSPER project (IP-2014-09-3729), financed by Croatian Science Foundation. The results indicate differences in the level of BPM maturity, the usage of social BPM and the dominant organizational culture in the observed organizations from different countries. These differences are further discussed in the paper.

Keywords: Business process management, BPM maturity, organizational culture, social BPM.

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1415 Analysis of Relation between Unlabeled and Labeled Data to Self-Taught Learning Performance

Authors: Ekachai Phaisangittisagul, Rapeepol Chongprachawat

Abstract:

Obtaining labeled data in supervised learning is often difficult and expensive, and thus the trained learning algorithm tends to be overfitting due to small number of training data. As a result, some researchers have focused on using unlabeled data which may not necessary to follow the same generative distribution as the labeled data to construct a high-level feature for improving performance on supervised learning tasks. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the relationship between unlabeled and labeled data for classification performance. Specifically, we will apply difference unlabeled data which have different degrees of relation to the labeled data for handwritten digit classification task based on MNIST dataset. Our experimental results show that the higher the degree of relation between unlabeled and labeled data, the better the classification performance. Although the unlabeled data that is completely from different generative distribution to the labeled data provides the lowest classification performance, we still achieve high classification performance. This leads to expanding the applicability of the supervised learning algorithms using unsupervised learning.

Keywords: Autoencoder, high-level feature, MNIST dataset, selftaught learning, supervised learning.

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1414 Sustainable Urban Waterfronts Using Sustainability Assessment Rating System

Authors: R. M. R. Hussein

Abstract:

Sustainable urban waterfront development is one of the most interesting phenomena of urban renewal in the last decades. However, there are still many cities whose visual image is compromised due to the lack of a sustainable urban waterfront development, which consequently affects the place of those cities globally. This paper aims to reimagine the role of waterfront areas in city design, with a particular focus on Egypt, so that they provide attractive, sustainable urban environments while promoting the continued aesthetic development of the city overall. This aim will be achieved by determining the main principles of a sustainable urban waterfront and its applications. This paper concentrates on sustainability assessment rating systems. A number of international case-studies, wherein a city has applied the basic principles for a sustainable urban waterfront and have made use of sustainability assessment rating systems, have been selected as examples which can be applied to the urban waterfronts in Egypt. This paper establishes the importance of developing the design of urban environments in Egypt, as well as identifying the methods of sustainability application for urban waterfronts.

Keywords: Sustainable Urban Waterfront, Green Infrastructure, Energy Efficient, Cairo.

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1413 Innovation Trends in Latin America Countries

Authors: José Carlos Rodríguez, Mario Gómez

Abstract:

This paper analyzes innovation trends in Latin America countries by means of the number of patent applications filed by residents and non residents during the period 1965 to 2012. Making use of patent data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), we search for the presence of multiple structural changes in patent application series in Argentina, Brazil Chile, and Mexico. These changes may suggest that firms’ innovative activity has been modified as a result of implementing a particular science, technology and innovation (STI) policy. Accordingly, the new regulations implemented in these countries during 1980s and 1990s have influenced their intellectual property regimes. The question conducting this research is thus how STI policies in these countries have affected their innovation activity? The results achieved in this research confirm the existence of multiple structural changes in the series of patent applications resulting from STI policies implemented in these countries.

Keywords: Econometric methods, innovation activity, Latin America countries, patents, science, technology and innovation (STI) policy.

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1412 Fuzzy Hyperbolization Image Enhancement and Artificial Neural Network for Anomaly Detection

Authors: Sri Hartati, 1Agus Harjoko, Brad G. Nickerson

Abstract:

A prototype of an anomaly detection system was developed to automate process of recognizing an anomaly of roentgen image by utilizing fuzzy histogram hyperbolization image enhancement and back propagation artificial neural network. The system consists of image acquisition, pre-processor, feature extractor, response selector and output. Fuzzy Histogram Hyperbolization is chosen to improve the quality of the roentgen image. The fuzzy histogram hyperbolization steps consist of fuzzyfication, modification of values of membership functions and defuzzyfication. Image features are extracted after the the quality of the image is improved. The extracted image features are input to the artificial neural network for detecting anomaly. The number of nodes in the proposed ANN layers was made small. Experimental results indicate that the fuzzy histogram hyperbolization method can be used to improve the quality of the image. The system is capable to detect the anomaly in the roentgen image.

Keywords: Image processing, artificial neural network, anomaly detection.

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1411 Framework for Delivery Reliability in European Machinery and Equipment Industry

Authors: G. Schuh, A. Kampker, A. Hoeschen, T. Jasinski

Abstract:

Today-s manufacturing companies are facing multiple and dynamic customer-supplier-relationships embedded in nonhierarchical production networks. This complex environment leads to problems with delivery reliability and wasteful turbulences throughout the entire network. This paper describes an operational model based on a theoretical framework which improves delivery reliability of each individual customer-supplier-relationship within non-hierarchical production networks of the European machinery and equipment industry. By developing a non-centralized coordination mechanism based on determining the value of delivery reliability and derivation of an incentive system for suppliers the number of in time deliveries can be increased and thus the turbulences in the production network smoothened. Comparable to an electronic stock exchange the coordination mechanism will transform the manual and nontransparent process of determining penalties for delivery delays into an automated and transparent market mechanism creating delivery reliability.

Keywords: delivery reliability, machinery and equipmentindustry, non-hierarchical production networks, supply chainmanagement

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1410 Effects of Global Warming on Climate Change in Udon Thani Province in the Period in 60 Surrounding Years (A.D.1951-2010)

Authors: T. Santiboon

Abstract:

This research were investigated, determined, and analyzed of the climate characteristically change in the provincial Udon Thani in the period of 60 surrounding years from 1951 to 2010 A.D. that it-s transferred to effects of climatologically data for determining global warming. Statistically significant were not found for the 60 years- data (R2<0.81). Statistically significant were found after adapted data followed as the Sun Spot cycle in 11 year periods, at the level 0.001 (R2= 1.00). These results indicate the Udon Thani-s weather are affected change; temperatures and evaporation were increased, but rainfall and number days of rainfall, cyclone storm, wind speed, and humidity, forest assessment were decreased. The effects of thermal energy from the sun radiation energy and human activities that they-re followed as the sunspot cycle are able to be predicted from the last to the future of the uniformitarian-s the climate change and global warming effect of the world.

Keywords: Climate Change, Global Warming, Udon Thani Province Weather

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1409 Consequential Influences of Work-Induced Emotions on the Work-Induced Happiness of Frontline Workers in Finance-Oriented Firms

Authors: Mohammed-Aminu Sanda, Emmanuel K. Mawuena

Abstract:

Frontline workers performing client service duties in finance-oriented firms in most sub-Saharan African countries, such as Ghana, are known to be challenged in the conduct of their activities. The challenge is attributed to clients’ continued demand for real-time services from such workers, despite the introduction of technological interventions to offset the situation. This has caused such frontline workers to experience increases in their work-induced emotions with consequential effects on their work-induced happiness. This study, therefore, explored the effect of frontline workers’ work-induced emotions on their worked-induced happiness when providing tellering services to clients. A cross-sectional design and quantitative technique were used. Data were collected from a sample of 280 frontline workers using questionnaire. Based on the analysis, it was found that an increase in the frontline workers’ work-induced emotions, caused by their feelings of strain, burnout, frustration, and hard work, had consequential effect on their work-induced happiness. This consequential effect was also found to be aggravated by the workers’ senses of being stretched beyond limit, being emotionally drained, and being used up by their work activities. It is concluded that frontline workers in finance-oriented firms can provide quality real-time services to clients without increases in their work-induced emotions, but with enhanced work-induced happiness, when the psychological and physiological emotional factors associated with the challenged work activities are understood and remedied. Management of the firms can use such understanding to redesign the activities of their frontline workers and improve the quality of their service delivery interactivity with clients.

Keywords: Client-service activity, finance industrial sector, frontline workers, work-induced emotion, work-induced happiness.

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1408 Sustainable Design of Impinging Premixed Slot Jets

Authors: T.T. Wong, C.W. Leung, M.C. Wong

Abstract:

Cooktop burners are widely used nowadays. In cooktop burner design, nozzle efficiency and greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions mainly depend on heat transfer from the premixed flame to the impinging surface. This is a complicated issue depending on the individual and combined effects of various input combustion variables. Optimal operating conditions for sustainable burner design were rarely addressed, especially in the case of multiple slot-jet burners. Through evaluating the optimal combination of combustion conditions for a premixed slot-jet array, this paper develops a practical approach for the sustainable design of gas cooktop burners. Efficiency, CO and NOx emissions in respect of an array of slot jets using premixed flames were analysed. Response surface experimental design were applied to three controllable factors of the combustion process, viz. Reynolds number, equivalence ratio and jet-to-vessel distance. Desirability Function Approach(DFA) is the analytic technique used for the simultaneous optimization of the efficiency and emission responses.

Keywords: optimization, premixed slot jets

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1407 Overall Function and Symptom Impact of Self-Applied Myofascial Release in Adult Patients with Fibromyalgia: A Seven-Week Pilot Study

Authors: Domenica Tambasco, Riina Bray

Abstract:

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, and reduced function. Management of symptoms include medications, physical treatments and mindfulness therapies. Myofascial Release is a modality that has been successfully applied in various musculoskeletal conditions. However, to the author’s best knowledge, it is not yet recognized as a self-management therapy option in Fibromyalgia. In this study, we investigated whether Self-applied Myofascial Release (SMR) is associated with overall improved function and symptoms in Fibromyalgia. Eligible adult patients with a confirmed diagnosis of Fibromyalgia at Women’s College Hospital were recruited to SMR. Sessions ran for 1 hour once a week for 7 weeks, led by the same two physiotherapists knowledgeable in this physical treatment modality. The main outcome measure was an overall impact score for function and symptoms based on the validated assessment tool for fibromyalgia, the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR), measured pre- and post-intervention. Both descriptive and analytical methods were applied and reported. We analyzed results using a paired t-test to determine if there was a statistically significant difference in mean FIQR scores between initial (pre-intervention) and final (post-intervention) scores. A clinically significant difference in FIQR was defined as a reduction in score by 10 or more points. Our pilot study showed that SMR appeared to be a safe and effective intervention for our fibromyalgia participants and the overall impact on function and symptoms occurred in only 7 weeks. Further studies with larger sample sizes comparing SMR to other physical treatment modalities (such as stretching) in an randomized control trial (RCT) are recommended.

Keywords: Fibromyalgia, myofascial release, fibromyalgia impact questionnaire, fibromyalgia assessment status.

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1406 A Query Optimization Strategy for Autonomous Distributed Database Systems

Authors: Dina K. Badawy, Dina M. Ibrahim, Alsayed A. Sallam

Abstract:

Distributed database is a collection of logically related databases that cooperate in a transparent manner. Query processing uses a communication network for transmitting data between sites. It refers to one of the challenges in the database world. The development of sophisticated query optimization technology is the reason for the commercial success of database systems, which complexity and cost increase with increasing number of relations in the query. Mariposa, query trading and query trading with processing task-trading strategies developed for autonomous distributed database systems, but they cause high optimization cost because of involvement of all nodes in generating an optimal plan. In this paper, we proposed a modification on the autonomous strategy K-QTPT that make the seller’s nodes with the lowest cost have gradually high priorities to reduce the optimization time. We implement our proposed strategy and present the results and analysis based on those results.

Keywords: Autonomous strategies, distributed database systems, high priority, query optimization.

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1405 Multiple Intelligence Theory with a View to Designing a Classroom for the Future

Authors: Phalaunnaphat Siriwongs

Abstract:

The classroom of the 21st century is an ever changing forum for new and innovative thoughts and ideas. With increasing technology and opportunity, students have rapid access to information that only decades ago would have taken weeks to obtain. Unfortunately, new techniques and technology is not a cure for the fundamental problems that have plagued the classroom ever since education was established. Class size has been an issue long debated in academia. While it is difficult to pin point an exact number, it is clear that in this case more does not mean better. By looking into the success and pitfalls of classroom size the true advantages of smaller classes will become clear. Previously, one class was comprised of 50 students. Being seventeen and eighteen-year-old students, sometimes it was quite difficult for them to stay focused. To help them understand and gain much knowledge, a researcher introduced “The Theory of Multiple Intelligence” and this, in fact, enabled students to learn according to their own learning preferences no matter how they were being taught. In this lesson, the researcher designed a cycle of learning activities involving all intelligences so that everyone had equal opportunities to learn.

Keywords: Multiple Intelligences, role play, performance assessment, formative assessment.

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