Search results for: children physical development

Authors: Chutikarn Sriwiboon

Abstract:

The main purpose of this research paper was to study the requirements for human capital development in order to be ready for ASEAN Community. Thai education institutions are encountering a challenging course of change to be effective members of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015. It was vital that everyone and every organization participate in the process of becoming part of the ASEAN community, a pluralistic society. Thai universities will be required to partake in the human capital development in a variety of fields. In order to assist the whole nation to enhance potential development, there was a need to collaborate with other ASEAN leading universities to do researches to ameliorate the qualifications and capabilities of university management, administers, professors, and staffs.

Keywords: ASEAN, Education, Human capital development.

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Authors: Prasopchoke Mongsawad

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The Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy, bestowed by His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej to the people of Thailand, highlights a balanced way of living. Three principles of moderation reasonableness, and immunity, along with the conditions for morality and knowledge, can be applied to any level of the society–from an individual to the nation. The Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy helps address the current development challenges, which are issues on institutions, environmental sustainability, human well-being, and the role of the government.

Keywords: Sufficiency Economy, Development Theory, Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability, Social Capital, Human Well-Being,

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Authors: G. S. Eldiabani, W. H. G. Hale, C. P. Heron

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Forest areas are particularly susceptible to fires, which are often manmade. One of the most fire affected forest regions in the world is the Mediterranean. Libya, in the Mediterranean region, has soils that are considered to be arid except in a small area called Aljabal Alakhdar (Green mountain), which is the geographic area covered by this study. Like other forests in the Mediterranean it has suffered extreme degradation. This is mainly due to people removing fire wood, or sometimes converting forested areas to agricultural use, as well as fires which may alter several soil chemical and physical properties. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of fires on the physical properties of soil of Aljabal Alakhdar forest in the north-east of Libya. The physical properties of soil following fire in two geographic areas have been determined, with those subjected to the fire compared to those in adjacent unburned areas in one coastal and one mountain site. Physical properties studied were: soil particle size (soil texture), soil water content, soil porosity and soil particle density. For the first time in Libyan soils, the effect of burning on the magnetic susceptibility properties of soils was also tested. The results showed that the soils in both study sites, irrespective of burning or depth fell into the category of a silt loam texture, low water content, homogeneity of porosity of the soil profiles, relatively high soil particle density values and there is a much greater value of the soil magnetic susceptibility in the top layer from both sites except for the soil water content and magnetic susceptibility, fire has not had a clear effect on the soils’ physical properties.

Keywords: Aljabal Alakhdar, the coastal site, the mountain site, fire effect, soil particle size, soil water content, soil porosity, soil particle density, soil magnetic susceptibility.

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Authors: G. Erkomaishvili

Abstract:

This paper discusses small entrepreneurship development strategy in Georgia and the tools and regulations that will encourage development of small entrepreneurship. The current situation in the small entrepreneurship sector, as well as factors affecting growth and decline in the sector and the priorities of state support, are studied and analyzed. The objective of this research is to assess the current situation of the sector to highlight opportunities and reveal the gaps. State support of small entrepreneurship should become a key priority in the country’s economic policy, as development of the sector will ensure social, economic and political stability. Based on the research, a small entrepreneurship development strategy is presented; corresponding conclusions are made and recommendations are developed.

Keywords: Economic policy for small entrepreneurship development, small entrepreneurship, regulations, small entrepreneurship development strategy.

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Authors: Toshimi Munehira

Abstract:

In order to optimize annual IT spending and to reduce the complexity of an entire system architecture, SOA trials have been started. It is common knowledge that to design an SOA system we have to adopt the top-down approach, but in reality silo systems are being made, so these companies cannot reuse newly designed services, and cannot enjoy SOA-s economic benefits. To prevent this situation, we designed a generic SOA development process referred to as the architecture of “mass customization." To define the generic detail development processes, we did a case study on an imaginary company. Through the case study, we could define the practical development processes and found this could vastly reduce updating development costs.

Keywords: SOA, BPM, Generic Model, MassCustomization

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Authors: Atakan Kurt, Arzu Naiboğlu

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We present an implementation of an Online Exhibition System (OES) web service(s) that reflects our experiences with using web service development packages and software process models. The system provides major functionality that exists in similar packages. While developing such a complex web service, we gained insightful experience (i) in the traditional software development processes: waterfall model and evolutionary development and their fitness to web services development, (ii) in the fitness and effectiveness of a major web services development kit.

Keywords: Web Services, Online Exhibition System, Software Engineering, Waterfall Model, e-business.

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Authors: G. Erkomaishvili, R. Gvelesiani, E. Kharaishvili, M. Chavleishvili

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The topic reviews the situation existing currently in Georgia in the field of tourism in conditions of globalization: Touristic resources, the paces of development of the tourism infrastructure, tourism policy, possibilities of development of the Wellness industry in Georgia, that is the newest direction of the medical tourism. The factors impeding the development of the industry of tourism, namely – existence of the conflict zones, high rates of the bank credits, deficiencies associated with the tax laws, a level of infrastructural development, quality of services, deficit in the competitive staff, increase of prices in the peak seasons, insufficient promotion of the touristic opportunities of Georgia on the international markets are studied and analyzed. Besides, the level of development of tourism in Georgia according to the World Economic Forum, aspects of cooperation with the European Union, etc., is reviewed. As a result of these studies, a strategy of development of tourism and one of its direction – Wellness industry in Georgia, is introduced with the relevant conclusions, on which basis the recommendations are provided.

Keywords: Tourism, Tourism Policy, Wellness Industry.

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Authors: Karuna Tuchinda, Sasithon Bland

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This work investigates the wear of a steam turbine blade coated with titanium nitride (TiN), and compares to the wear of uncoated blades. The coating is deposited on by physical vapor deposition (PVD) method. The working conditions of the blade were simulated and surface temperature and pressure values as well as flow velocity and flow direction were obtained. This data was used in the finite element wear model developed here in order to predict the wear of the blade. The wear mechanisms considered are erosive wear due to particle impingement and fluid jet, and fatigue wear due to repeated impingement of particles and fluid jet. Results show that the life of the TiN-coated blade is approximately 1.76 times longer than the life of the uncoated one.

Keywords: Physical vapour deposition, steam turbine blade, titanium-based coating, wear prediction.

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Authors: Aber Salem Aboalgasm, Rupert Ward

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Teaching art by digital means is a big challenge for the majority of teachers of art and design in primary schools, yet it allows relationships between art, technology and creativity to be clearly identified. The aim of this article is to present a modern way of teaching art, using digital tools in the art classroom to improve creative ability in pupils aged between nine and eleven years. It also presents a conceptual model for creativity based on digital art. The model could be useful for pupils interested in learning to draw by using an e-drawing package, and for teachers who are interested in teaching modern digital art in order to improve children’s creativity. By illustrating the strategy of teaching art through technology, this model may also help education providers to make suitable choices about which technological approaches are most effective in enhancing students’ creative ability, and which digital art tools can benefit children by developing their technical skills. It is also expected that use of this model will help to develop skills of social interaction, which may in turn improve intellectual ability.

Keywords: Digital tools, motivation, creative activity.

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Authors: D. Prangchumpol

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Server provisioning is one of the most attractive topics in virtualization systems. Virtualization is a method of running multiple independent virtual operating systems on a single physical computer. It is a way of maximizing physical resources to maximize the investment in hardware. Additionally, it can help to consolidate servers, improve hardware utilization and reduce the consumption of power and physical space in the data center. However, management of heterogeneous workloads, especially for resource utilization of the server, or so called provisioning becomes a challenge. In this paper, a new concept for managing workloads based on user behavior is presented. The experimental results show that user behaviors are different in each type of service workload and time. Understanding user behaviors may improve the efficiency of management in provisioning concept. This preliminary study may be an approach to improve management of data centers running heterogeneous workloads for provisioning in virtualization system.

Keywords: association rule, provisioning, server virtualization.

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Authors: Mohamed R. Mhereeg

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The paper investigates the feasibility of constructing a software multi-agent based monitoring and classification system and utilizing it to provide an automated and accurate classification of end users developing applications in the spreadsheet domain. The agents function autonomously to provide continuous and periodic monitoring of excels spreadsheet workbooks. Resulting in, the development of the MultiAgent classification System (MACS) that is in compliance with the specifications of the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA). However, different technologies have been brought together to build MACS. The strength of the system is the integration of the agent technology with the FIPA specifications together with other technologies that are Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Oracle Data Mining (ODM). The Microsoft's .NET widows service based agents were utilized to develop the monitoring agents of MACS, the .NET WCF services together with SOA approach allowed the distribution and communication between agents over the WWW that is in order to satisfy the monitoring and classification of the multiple developer aspect. ODM was used to automate the classification phase of MACS.

Keywords: Autonomous, Classification, MACS, Multi-Agent, SOA, WCF.

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Authors: S. Pancucci

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Professional development is the focus of this study. It reports on questionnaire data that examined the perceived effectiveness of the Train the Trainer model of technology professional development for elementary teachers. Eighty-three selected teachers called Information Technology Coaches received four half-day and one after-school in-service sessions. Subsequently, coaches shared the information and skills acquired during training with colleagues. Results indicated that participants felt comfortable as Information Technology Coaches and felt well prepared because of their technological professional development. Overall, participants perceived the Train the Trainer model to be effective. The outcomes of this study suggest that the use of the Train the Trainer model, a known professional development model, can be an integral and interdependent component of the newer more comprehensive learning community professional development model.

Keywords: change, education, learning community, professional development, school improvement, technology coach, Train the Trainer.

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Authors: Dwi Puspita Sari, Gulnur Baltabayeva, Nadia Salman, Maxut Toleuov, Vijay Kanabar

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Technology era drives people to use mobile phone to support their daily life activities. Technology development has a rapid phase which pushes the IT company to adjust any technology changes in order to fulfill customer’s satisfaction. As a result of that, many companies in the USA emerged from systematics software development approach to agile software development approach in developing systems and applications to develop many mobile phone applications in a short phase to fulfill user’s needs. As a systematic approach is considered as time consuming, costly, and too risky, agile software development has become a more popular approach to use for developing software including mobile applications. This paper reflects a short-term project to develop a diet tracker mobile application using agile software development that focused on applying scrum framework in the development process.

Keywords: Agile software development, scrum, diet tracker, mobile application.

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Authors: Amit Bhattacharyya

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The economic scenario of any region does not show the real picture for the measurement of overall development. Therefore, economic development must be accompanied by social development to be able to make an assessment to measure the level of development. The spatial variation with respect to social development has been discussed taking into account the quality of functioning of a social system in a specific area. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study the spatial distribution of social infrastructural facilities and analyze the magnitude of regional disparities at inter- block level in Barddhman district. It starts with the detailed account of the selection process of social infrastructure indicators and describes the methodology employed in the empirical analysis. Analyzing the block level data, this paper tries to identify the disparity among the blocks in the levels of social development. The results have been subsequently explained using both statistical analysis and geo spatial technique. The paper reveals that the social development is not going on at the same rate in every part of the district. Health facilities and educational facilities are concentrated at some selected point. So overall development activities come to be concentrated in a few centres and the disparity is seen over the blocks.

Keywords: Disparity, inter-block, social development, spatial variation.

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Authors: Rahmat A, Radin Rafeeuddin R. D., Norasrudin S., Mastura M.

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The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of a footballer-s postural on selected physical fitness components. Twenty-one (21) subjects of the university male footballers under the Sport Excellence Center programme were photographed using qualitative analysis. The postural variables were stratified manually into normal and anomalies group and their flexibility, strength and SAQ performance were compared using the Mann-Whitney Test. The AROM assessment and SAQ test reported no significance difference (Z=-.398, p=0.711, p>0.05), similar to the lower body strength was shown with no significance different (Z=-.493, p=0.640, p>0.05). In contrast, only 1 RM strength test for the upper body strength test shown with a significance different (Z=- 2.537, p=0.009, p<0.05) the. Hence, the Body posture among the football athletes with anomalies does not influence selected physical fitness components. This study has proven, that postural anomalies will not affect or influence the physical performance the respective athletes.

Keywords: Postural Analysis, Anomalies, Flexibility, Strength, SAQ.

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Authors: Virginia Bassily, Sherif Goubran

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In heritage conservation and revival, much of the focus is placed on the techniques and methods to preserve, restore, and revive heritage structures and locations. However, more attention needs to be drawn to how deterioration happens and its effect on the area’s character and socio-economic status. To this end, this research aims to examine the decline and its effect in the El Korba area in Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt. El Korba was designed with a unique architectural character to stimulate social and economic life. However, the area has been on a path of physical deterioration that is corroding the social life on its streets. This research uses diachronic analysis in Ibrahim El-Lakkani Boulevard of El Korba based on a previously developed framework that connects buildings’ architectural features to the degree of social interaction in the street to document the changes that the building deterioration could have caused. Architectural features of the street level during both the original state (1906) and the current state (2021) are broken down and categorized in those six parameters to understand their decline or improvement over time. We find that the parameters that have decreased over the years and caused the deterioration are complexity and architectural character, permeability, territoriality and personalization, and physical comfort.  Based on these findings, revival projects can focus on physical parameters that create synergistic benefits by preserving and renewing heritage locations and revitalizing their socio-economic potential.

Keywords: Architectural character, heritage building conservation, enclosure, ground-floor use, El Korba, visual and physical permeability, personalization, physical comfort, social life, territoriality.

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Authors: Ali Reza Vaezi, Fereshteh Haghshenas

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Land use has generally been considered a local environmental issue, but it is becoming a force of global importance. Extensive changes to forests and pastures are being driven by the need to provide food, fiber, and shelter for people in recent decades. Land use is an important factor affecting soil organic carbon accumulation and storage in soils which influence directly on other physicochemical soil properties, soil productivity and soil’s susceptibility to water erosion. The change of pastures to the agricultural lands has been increasing rapidly in most semi-arid regions in Iran. Information on the effect of the land use change in these areas on the deterioration of soil physicochemical properties is limited. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the physical deterioration of soil as affected by land use change in semi-arid pastures in north west of Iran. Toward this, seven areas covering both pasture and rainfed lands with different soil textures (clay loam, silty clay loam, sandy clay loam, silt loam, loam, sandy loam and sandy loam) were selected in a semi-arid region in Zanjan, NW Iran. Pasture in the area is covered with poor vegetation and mostly grazed in wet seasons (end of winter and early spring and autumn). Rainfed lands resulting land use change are mostly planted for winter wheat production. In each area, soil samples (0-30 cm depth) were collected from the two land uses (pasture and rainfed land) at three replications. A total of 42 soil samples were taken from the study area. Various soil physical properties consisting of bulk density, total porosity, coarse pores volume, aggregate size, aggregate stability, water-holding capacity and saturated hydraulic conductivity were determined in the soil samples using the laboratory conventional methods. The results showed that the change of pastures to rainfeds is severely deteriorated soil physical properties. However, the variation rate of the physical soil properties is different. The loss of soil physical properties as a result of the land use change was in the following order: 61% water-stable aggregates, 60% aggregate size > 41% macroporosity > 28% bulk density > 22% total porosity > 11% water holding capacity > 5% saturated point. This result reveals that the structural characteristics of soils in this area are the most important soil physical characteristics that are affected by land use change. The deterioration of these soil properties influences negatively the pore size distribution and volume percentage of macroporosity. Effects of land use change on deterioration of soil physical properties were different in various soil textures. The highest mean loss of soil physical properties was found in loam (42%), whereas the lowest value was in silty clay loam (23%). As a consequence, loam is the most vulnerable soil to physical degradation caused by land use change in the pastures. This physical loss of soil is associated with its higher percentage of larger aggregates as well as water-stable aggregates.

Keywords: Pasture, soil physical properties, soil structural characteristics, soil texture.

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Authors: Svjetlana Letinić, Katarina Štavlić

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Given that entrepreneurship is a very significant factor of regional development, it is necessary to approach systematically the development with measures of regional politics. According to international classification The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS II), there are three regions in Croatia. The indicators of entrepreneurial activities on the national level of Croatia are analyzed in the paper, taking into consideration the results of referent research. The level of regional development is shown based on the analysis of entrepreneurs- operations. The results of the analysis show a very unfavorable situation in entrepreneurial activities on the national level of Croatia. The origin of this situation is to be found in the surroundings with an expressed inequality of regional development, which is caused by the non-existence of a strategically directed regional policy. In this paper recommendations which could contribute to the reduction of regional inequality in Croatia, have been made.

Keywords: indicators of entrepreneurial activity, regional development, regional inequity.

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Authors: D.O. Omondi, M.K. Walingo, G.M. Mbagaya, L.O.A. Othuon

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Many studies have applied the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in predicting health behaviors among unique populations. However, a new paradigm is emerging where focus is now directed to modification and expansion of the TPB model rather than utilization of the traditional theory. This review proposes new models modified from the Theory of Planned Behavior and suggest an appropriate study design that can be used to test the models within physical activity and dietary practice domains among Type 2 diabetics in Kenya. The review was conducted by means of literature search in the field of nutrition behavior, health psychology and mixed methods using predetermined key words. The results identify pre-intention and post intention gaps within the TPB model that need to be filled. Additional psychosocial factors are proposed to be included in the TPB model to generate new models and the efficacy of these models tested using mixed methods design.

Keywords: Physical activity, diet, Type 2 diabetes, behaviorchange theory, model.

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Authors: Andreas L. Savvides

Abstract:

These This paper looks into frameworks which aim at furthering the discussion of the role of regenerative design practices in a city-s historic core and the tool of urban design to achieve urban revitalization on the island of Cyprus. It also examines the region-s demographic mix, the effectiveness of its governmental coordination and the strategies of adaptive reuse and strategic investments in older areas with existing infrastructure. The two main prongs of investigation will consider the effect of the existing and proposed changes in the physical infrastructure and fabric of the city, as well as the catalytic effect of sustainable urban design practices. Through this process, the work hopes to integrate the contained potential within the existing historic core and the contributions and participation of the migrant and immigrant populations to the local economy. It also examines ways in which this coupling of factors can bring to the front the positive effects of this combined effort on an otherwise sluggish local redevelopment effort. The data for this study is being collected and organized as part of ongoing urban design and development student workshop efforts in urban planning and design education. The work is presented in graphic form and includes data collected from interviews with study area organizations and the community at large. Planning work is also based on best practices initiated by the staff of the Nicosia Master Plan task force, which coordinates holistic planning efforts for the historic center of the city of Nicosia.

Keywords: Urban Design, Urban Development, Urban Regeneration, Historic Core, Cultural Planning.

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Authors: Chen Zhang, Jiwu Wang

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With China's urbanization continuing to accelerate, a amount of rural people flood into China's cities in recent years, and the issue of agriculture, rural areas and farmers is getting more and more serious. In 2005, the Chinese government put forward a plan for “the construction of new rural village", in order to coordinate the development of both urban and rural areas. The planning method of rural region differs sharply from that of urban areas, as same as village social structure and habits of farmer-s life, so the studies which can consider the special needs of village construction in China are absolutely essential. This paper expresses explore current situation and problems existing in the construction of China-s new rural village, such as bigger gap between urban and rural areas, excessive new construction projects, extinct traditional village style and so on. It tries to analyze the deep reason of the present situation of the village from law system, industrial structure, financial sources and planning method. Then it also provides a guide for developing policies and procedures promoting the development of china-s rural areas.

Keywords: Rural areas, village construction, physical planning, law system, financial sources, Public participation, China.

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Authors: Isaura Esther Solano Núñez, David Suarez

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The main purpose of this research is to discover what causes death in children of the Wayuu community, and deeply analyze those results in order to take corrective measures to properly control infant mortality. We consider important to determine the reasons that are producing early death in this specific type of population, since they are the most vulnerable to high risk environmental conditions. In this way, the government, through competent authorities, may develop prevention policies and the right measures to avoid an increase of this tragic fact. The methodology used to develop this investigation is data mining, which consists in gaining and examining large amounts of data to produce new and valuable information. Through this technique it has been possible to determine that the child population is dying mostly from malnutrition. In short, this technique has been very useful to develop this study; it has allowed us to transform large amounts of information into a conclusive and important statement, which has made it easier to take appropriate steps to resolve a particular situation.

Keywords: Malnutrition, datamining, analytical, descriptive, population, wayuu, indigenous.

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Authors: Eryati Darwin, Eka Fithra Elfi, Indria Hafizah

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Background: Physical exercise induces a pattern of hormonal and immunological responses that prevent endothelial dysfunction by maintaining the availability of nitric oxide (NO). Regular and moderate exercise stimulates NO release, that can be considered as protective factor of cardiovascular diseases, while strenuous exercise induces increased levels in a number of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) triggers endothelial activation which results in an increased vascular permeability. Nuclear gene factor kappa B (NF-κB) activates biological effect of TNF-α. Aim of Study: To determine the effect of physical exercise on the endothelial and skeletal muscle, we measured the level of NF-κB on rats’ serum, macrophages, and myocytes after strenuous physical exercise. Methods: 30 male Rattus norvegicus in the age of eight weeks were randomly divided into five groups (each containing six), and there were treated groups (T) and control group (C). The treated groups obtain strenuous physical exercise by ran on treadmill at 32 m/minutes for 1 hour or until exhaustion. Blood samples, myocytes of gastrocnemius muscle, and intraperitoneal macrophages were collected sequentially. There were investigated immediately, 2 hours, 6 hours, and 24 hours (T1, T2, T3, and T4) after sacrifice. The levels of NF-κB were measured by ELISA methods. Results: From our study, we found that the levels of NF-κB on myocytes in treated group from which its specimen was taken immediately (T1), 2 hours after treadmill (T2), and 6 hours after treadmill (T3) were significantly higher than control group (p<0.05), while the group from which its specimen was taken 24 hours after treadmill, was no significantly different (p>0.05). Also on macrophages, NF-κB in treated groups T1, T2, and T3 was significantly higher than control group (p<0.05), but there was no difference between T4 and control group (p>0.05). The level of serum NF-κB was not significantly different between treatment group as well as compared to control group (p>0.05). Serum NF-κB was significantly higher than the level on macrophages and myocytes (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that strenuous physical exercise stimulates the activation of NF-κB that plays a role in vascular inflammation and muscular damage, and may be recovered after resting period.

Keywords: Endothelial function, inflammation, NF-κB, physical exercise.

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Authors: Steven R. Hawks

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The Master-s of Public Health (MPH) degree is growing in popularity among a number of higher education institutions throughout the world as a distance education graduate program. This paper offers an overview of program design and development strategies that promote successful distance delivery of MPH programs. Design and development challenges are discussed in terms of type of distance delivery, accreditation, student demand, faculty development, user needs, course content, and marketing strategies. The ongoing development of a distance education MPH program at Utah State University will be used to highlight and consider various aspects of this important but challenging process.

Keywords: Public health, course content, distance education, higher education, graduate students.

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Authors: Malinda G. Sirisena

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The aim of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of software quality assurance approaches of Sri Lankan offshore software development organizations, and to propose a framework which could be used across all offshore software development organizations.

An empirical study was conducted using derived framework from popular software quality evaluation models. The research instrument employed was a questionnaire survey among thirty seven Sri Lankan registered offshore software development organizations.

The findings demonstrate a positive view of Effectiveness of Software Quality Assurance – the stronger predictors of Stability, Installability, Correctness, Testability and Changeability. The present study’s recommendations indicate a need for much emphasis on software quality assurance for the Sri Lankan offshore software development organizations.

Keywords: Software Quality Assurance (SQA), Offshore Software Development, Quality Assurance Evaluation Models, Effectiveness of Quality Assurance.

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Authors: Václav Maněna, Roman Dostál, Štěpán Hubálovský

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Social networks play an important role in the lives of children and young people. Along with the high penetration of mobile technologies such as smartphones and tablets among the younger generation, there is an increasing use of social networks already in elementary school. The paper presents the results of research, which was realized at schools in the Hradec Králové region. In this research, the authors focused on issues related to communications on social networks for children, teenagers and young people in the Czech Republic. This research was conducted at selected elementary, secondary and high schools using anonymous questionnaires. The results are evaluated and compared with the results of the research, which has been realized in 2008. The authors focused on the possibilities of using social networks in education. The paper presents the possibility of using the most popular social networks in education, with emphasis on increasing motivation for learning. The paper presents comparative analysis of social networks, with regard to the possibility of using in education as well.

Keywords: Social networks, motivation, e-learning, mobile technology.

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Authors: K. Indra Gandhi

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

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

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Authors: Leena Korpinen, Rauno Pääkkönen, Fabriziomaria Gobba

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This paper is based on a large questionnaire study. The paper presents how all participants and subgroups (upper- and lower-level white-collar workers) answered the question, “Have you had an ache, pain, or numbness, which you associate with desktop computer use, in the different body parts during the last 12 months?’ 14.6% of participants (19.4% of women and 8.2% of men) reported that they had often or very often physical symptoms in the neck. Even if our results cannot prove a causal relation of symptoms with computer use, show that workers believe that computer use can influence their wellbeing: this is important when devising treatment modalities to decrease these physical symptoms.

Keywords: Ergonomics, work, computer, symptoms.

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Authors: Un-Hwan Park, Jun-Hyeok Heo, In-Sung Lee, Tae-Hyeon Oh, Dae-Gyu Park

Abstract:

Automotive interior material consisting of several material layers has the sound-absorbing function. It is difficult to predict sound absorbing coefficient because of several material layers. So, many experimental tunings are required to achieve the target of sound absorption. Therefore, while the car interior materials are developed, so much time and money is spent. In this study, we present a method to predict the sound absorbing performance of the material with multi-layer using physical properties of each material. The properties are predicted by Foam-X software using the sound absorption coefficient data measured by impedance tube. Then, we will compare and analyze the predicted sound absorption coefficient with the data measured by scaled reverberation chamber and impedance tubes for a prototype. If the method is used instead of experimental tuning in the development of car interior material, the time and money can be saved, and then, the development effort can be reduced because it can be optimized by simulation.

Keywords: Multi-layer nonwoven, sound absorption coefficient, scaled reverberation chamber, impedance tubes.

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Authors: Ghada A. El Khayat

Abstract:

This paper argues that a product development exercise involves in addition to the conventional stages, several decisions regarding other aspects. These aspects should be addressed simultaneously in order to develop a product that responds to the customer needs and that helps realize objectives of the stakeholders in terms of profitability, market share and the like. We present a framework that encompasses these different development dimensions. The framework shows that a product development methodology such as the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is the basic tool which allows definition of the target specifications of a new product. Creativity is the first dimension that enables the development exercise to live and end successfully. A number of group processes need to be followed by the development team in order to ensure enough creativity and innovation. Secondly, packaging is considered to be an important extension of the product. Branding strategies, quality and standardization requirements, identification technologies, design technologies, production technologies and costing and pricing are also integral parts to the development exercise. These dimensions constitute the proposed framework. The paper also presents a mathematical model used to calculate the design targets based on the target costing principle. The framework is used to study a case of a new product development in the telecommunications services sector.

Keywords: Product Development Framework, Quality FunctionDeployment, Mathematical Models, Telecommunications.

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