Search results for: positive analysis

Authors: J. Luebkemann, P. Nyhuis

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Nowadays companies are facing an increasing turbulent environment. It is more and more important to react fast on changes to stay competitive. But not only the technology has to be adaptable; also the frame conditions for the production have to adapt as fast as the other elements of a manufacturing company. Therefore, the Institute of Production Systems and Logistics of the Leibniz University of Hanover has implemented a research project to describe and develop changeable organizational structures. The results of the analysis, which design principles can be used to evolve an organizational structure of a factory regarding their changeability will be presented in this paper.

Keywords: Changeability, factory, organization.

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Authors: Görkem Arslan Kılınç

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Due to the high construction, operation, and maintenance costs of tall buildings, quantification of the area in the plan layout which provides a financial return is an important design criterion. The area of the “core and the structural system elements” does not provide financial return but must exist in the plan layout. Some characteristic items of tall office buildings affect the size of these areas. From this point of view, 15 tall office buildings were systematically investigated. The typical office floor plans of these buildings were re-produced digitally. The area of the “core and the structural system elements” in each building and the characteristic items of each building were calculated. These characteristic items are the size of the long and short plan edge, plan length/width ratio, size of the core long and short edge, core length/width ratio, core area, slenderness, building height, number of floors, and floor height. These items were analyzed by correlation and regression analyses. Results of this paper put forward that; characteristic items which affect the area of "core and structural system elements" are plan long and short edge size, core short edge size, building height, and the number of floors. A one-unit increase in plan short side size increases the area of the "core and structural system elements" in the plan by 12,378 m2. An increase in core short edge size increases the area of the core and structural system elements in the plan by 25,650 m2. Subsequent studies can be conducted by expanding the sample of the study and considering the geographical location of the building.

Keywords: Core area, correlation analysis, floor area, regression analysis, space efficiency, tall office buildings.

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Authors: Angela Ralli, Eleni Galiotou

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In this paper we describe the recognition process of Greek compound words using the PC-KIMMO software. We try to show certain limitations of the system with respect to the principles of compound formation in Greek. Moreover, we discuss the computational processing of phenomena such as stress and syllabification which are indispensable for the analysis of such constructions and we try to propose linguistically-acceptable solutions within the particular system.

Keywords: Morpho-phonological parsing, compound words, two-level morphology, natural language processing.

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Authors: Xiuyong Ding, Lan Shu

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This paper addresses the stability of the switched systems with discrete and distributed time delays. By applying Lyapunov functional and function method, we show that, if the norm of system matrices Bi is small enough, the asymptotic stability is always achieved. Finally, a example is provided to verify technically feasibility and operability of the developed results.

Keywords: Switched system, stability, Lyapunov function, Lyapunov functional, delays.

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Authors: Vladyslav Povoroznyuk, Nataliia Dzerovych, Larysa Martynyuk, Tetiana Kovtun

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Obesity and osteoporosis are the two diseases whose increasing prevalence and high impact on the global morbidity and mortality, during the two recent decades, have gained a status of major health threats worldwide. Obesity purports to affect the bone metabolism through complex mechanisms. Debated data on the connection between the bone mineral density and fracture prevalence in the obese patients are widely presented in literature. There is evidence that the correlation of weight and fracture risk is sitespecific. This study is aimed at determining the connection between the bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone score (TBS) parameters in Ukrainian women suffering from obesity. We examined 1025 40-89-year-old women, divided them into the groups according to their body mass index: Group A included 360 women with obesity whose BMI was ≥30 kg/m2, and Group B – 665 women with no obesity and BMI of <30 kg/m2. The BMD of total body, lumbar spine at the site L1-L4, femur and forearm were measured by DXA (Prodigy, GEHC Lunar, Madison, WI, USA). The TBS of L1- L4 was assessed by means of TBS iNsight® software installed on our DXA machine (product of Med-Imaps, Pessac, France). In general, obese women had a significantly higher BMD of lumbar spine, femoral neck, proximal femur, total body and ultradistal forearm (p<0.001) in comparison with women without obesity. The TBS of L1-L4 was significantly lower in obese women compared to nonobese women (p<0.001). The BMD of lumbar spine, femoral neck and total body differed to a significant extent in women of 40-49, 50- 59, 60-69 and 70-79 years (p<0.05). At same time, in women aged 80-89 years the BMD of lumbar spine (p=0.09), femoral neck (p=0.22) and total body (p=0.06) barely differed. The BMD of ultradistal forearm was significantly higher in women of all age groups (p<0.05). The TBS of L1-L4 in all the age groups tended to reveal the lower parameters in obese women compared with the nonobese; however, those data were not statistically significant. By contrast, a significant positive correlation was observed between the fat mass and the BMD at different sites. The correlation between the fat mass and TBS of L1-L4 was also significant, although negative. Women with vertebral fractures had a significantly lower body weight, body mass index and total body fat mass in comparison with women without vertebral fractures in their anamnesis. In obese women the frequency of vertebral fractures was 27%, while in women without obesity – 57%.

Keywords: Bone mineral density, trabecular bone score, obesity, women.

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Authors: Nadia Bensiali, Erik Etien, Amar Omeiri, Gerard Champenois

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Adaptive observers used in sensorless control of induction motors suffer from instability especally in regenerating mode. In this paper, an optimal feed back gain design is proposed, it can reduce the instability region in the torque speed plane .

Keywords: Induction motor drive, adaptive observer, regenerating mode, stabilizing design.

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Authors: B.P. Bezruchko, D.A. Smirnov

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Quantitative characterization of nonlinear directional couplings between stochastic oscillators from data is considered. We suggest coupling characteristics readily interpreted from a physical viewpoint and their estimators. An expression for a statistical significance level is derived analytically that allows reliable coupling detection from a relatively short time series. Performance of the technique is demonstrated in numerical experiments.

Keywords: Nonlinear time series analysis, directional couplings, coupled oscillators.

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Authors: A. Moradi, S. Khodadadiyan

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In this paper, one-dimensional analysis of flow in a single-stage gas gun is conducted. The compressible inviscid flow equations are numerically solved by the second-order Roe TVD method, by using moving boundaries. For investigation of real gas effect the Noble-Able equation is applied. The numerical results are compared with the experimental data to validate the numerical scheme. The results show that with using the Noble-Able equation, the muzzle velocity decreases.

Keywords: Gas gun, Roe, projectile, muzzle velocity

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Authors: Carsten Röcker

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This paper reports on a survey of state-of-the-art application scenarios for smart office environments. Based on an analysis of ongoing research activities and industry projects, functionalities and services of future office systems are extracted. In a second step, these results are used to identify the key characteristics of emerging products.

Keywords: Ambient Intelligence, Ubiquitous Computing, Smart Office Environments, Application Scenarios.

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Authors: Kazuki Kamada, Haruka Yamashita

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In Japan, taxi is one of the popular transportations and taxi industry is one of the big businesses. However, in recent years, there has been a difficult problem of reducing the number of taxi drivers. In the taxi business, mainly three passenger catching methods are applied. One style is "cruising" that drivers catches passengers while driving on a road. Second is "waiting" that waits passengers near by the places with many requirements for taxies such as entrances of hospitals, train stations. The third one is "dispatching" that is allocated based on the contact from the taxi company. Above all, the cruising taxi drivers need the experience and intuition for finding passengers, and it is difficult to decide "the destination for cruising". The strong recommendation system for the cruising taxies supports the new drivers to find passengers, and it can be the solution for the decreasing the number of drivers in the taxi industry. In this research, we propose a method of recommending a destination for cruising taxi drivers. On the other hand, as a machine learning technique, the embedding models that embed the high dimensional data to a low dimensional space is widely used for the data analysis, in order to represent the relationship of the meaning between the data clearly. Taxi drivers have their favorite courses based on their experiences, and the courses are different for each driver. We assume that the course of cruising taxies has meaning such as the course for finding business man passengers (go around the business area of the city of go to main stations) and course for finding traveler passengers (go around the sightseeing places or big hotels), and extract the meaning of their destinations. We analyze the cruising history data of taxis based on the embedding model and propose the recommendation system for passengers. Finally, we demonstrate the recommendation of destinations for cruising taxi drivers based on the real-world data analysis using proposing method.

Keywords: Taxi industry, decision making, recommendation system, embedding model.

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Authors: S. A Puviyarasu, V. S. Ukkeshwar

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Elicitation of creative conceptual designing and fabrication of mini bikes is the primary aim of this study. Miniature bikes or pit bikes or simply mini bikes are found to be the recently prevalent trendsetters amongst the younger population around the globe, be it for commuting and sports. This study also focuses on the steps to be put forth in building a self-designed mini bike concept and showcases similar instances.

Keywords: Miniature bikes, design methods, creative styling.

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Authors: Samir Osman M., Mohammed Hassan S.

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Sample of CsAg2I3 was prepared by solid state reaction. Then, microstructure parameters of this sample have been determined using wide angle X-ray scattering WAXS method. As well as, Cell parameters of crystal structure have been refined using CHEKCELL program. This analysis states that the lattice intrinsic strainof the sample is so small and the crystal size is on the order of 559Å.

Keywords: WAXS, Microstructure parameters, super-ionic conductor.

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Authors: T. Chaiechi, N. Stoeckl

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Scarcity of resources for biodiversity conservation gives rise to the need of strategic investment with priorities given to the cost of conservation. While the literature provides abundant methodological options for biodiversity conservation; estimating true cost of conservation remains abstract and simplistic, without recognising dynamic nature of the cost. Some recent works demonstrate the prominence of economic theory to inform biodiversity decisions, particularly on the costs and benefits of biodiversity however, the integration of the concept of true cost into biodiversity actions and planning are very slow to come by, and specially on a farm level. Conservation planning studies often use area as a proxy for costs neglecting different land values as well as protected areas. These literature consider only heterogeneous benefits while land costs are considered homogenous. Analysis with the assumption of cost homogeneity results in biased estimation; since not only it doesn’t address the true total cost of biodiversity actions and plans, but also it fails to screen out lands that are more (or less) expensive and/or difficult (or more suitable) for biodiversity conservation purposes, hindering validity and comparability of the results. Economies of scope” is one of the other most neglected aspects in conservation literature. The concept of economies of scope introduces the existence of cost complementarities within a multiple output production system and it suggests a lower cost during the concurrent production of multiple outputs by a given farm. If there are, indeed, economies of scope then simplistic representation of costs will tend to overestimate the true cost of conservation leading to suboptimal outcomes. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to provide first road review of the various theoretical ways in which economies of scope are likely to occur of how they might occur in conservation. Consequently, the paper addresses gaps that have to be filled in future analysis.

Keywords: Cost, biodiversity conservation, Multi-output production systems, Empirical techniques.

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Authors: Sakulsri Srisaracam

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Social media has become an important source of information for the public and the media profession. Some social issues raised on social media are picked up by journalists to report on other platforms. This relationship between social media and mainstream media can sometimes drive public debate or stimulate social movements. The question to examine is in what situations can social media conversations raise awareness and stimulate change on public issues. This study addresses the communication patterns of social media conversations driving covert issues into mainstream media and leading to social advocacy movements. In methodological terms, the study findings are based on a content analysis of Facebook, Twitter, news websites and television media reports on three different case studies – saving Bryde’s whale, protests against a government proposal to downsize the Office of Knowledge Management and Development in Thailand, and a dengue fever campaign. These case studies were chosen because they represent issues that most members of the public do not pay much attention to but social media conversations stimulated public debate and calls to action. This study found: 1) Collective social media conversations can stimulate public debate and encourage change at three levels – awareness, public debate, and action of policy and social change. The level depends on the communication patterns of online users and media coverage. 2) Patterns of communication have to be designed to combine social media conversations, online opinion leaders, mainstream media coverage and call to both online and offline action to motivate social change. Thus, this result suggests that social media is a powerful platform for collective communication and setting the agenda on public issues for mainstream media. However, for social change to succeed, social media should be used to mobilize online movements to move offline too.

Keywords: Public issue, social media conversation, social media, social movement.

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Authors: Takatoshi Ishii, Koji Kimita, Keiichi Muramatsu, Yoshiki Shimomura

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To increase the quality of learning, teacher and learner need mutual effort for realization of educational value. For this purpose, we need to manage the co-creational education among teacher and learners. In this research, we try to find a feature of co-creational education. To be more precise, we analyzed learners’ reports by natural language processing, and extract some features that describe the state of the co-creational education.

Keywords: Co-creational education, e-portfolios, ICT integration, labeled Latent Dirichlet allocation.

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Authors: Bi-Huei Tsai

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This work explores the inter-region investment behaviors of Integrated Circuit (IC) design industry from Taiwan to China using the amount of foreign direct investment (FDI). According to the mutual dependence among different IC design industrial locations, Lotka-Volterra model is utilized to explore the FDI interactions between South and East China. Effects of inter-regional collaborations on FDI flows into China are considered. The analysis results show that FDIs into South China for IC design industry significantly inspire the subsequent FDIs into East China, while FDIs into East China for Taiwan’s IC design industry significantly hinder the subsequent FDIs into South China. Because the supply chain along IC industry includes upstream IC design, midstream manufacturing, as well as downstream packing and testing enterprises, IC design industry has to cooperate with IC manufacturing, packaging and testing industries in the same area to form a strong IC industrial cluster. Taiwan’s IC design industry implement the largest FDI amount into East China and the second largest FDI amount into South China among the four regions: North, East, Mid-West and South China. If IC design houses undertake more FDIs in South China, those in East China are urged to incrementally implement more FDIs into East China to maintain the competitive advantages of the IC supply chain in East China. On the other hand, as the FDIs in East China rise, the FDIs in South China will successively decline since capitals have concentrated in East China. In addition, this investigation proves that the prediction of Lotka-Volterra model in FDI trends is accurate because the industrial interactions between the two regions are included. Finally, this work confirms that the FDI flows cannot reach a stable equilibrium point, so the FDI inflows into East and South China will expand in the future.

Keywords: Lotka-Volterra model, Foreign direct investment, Competitive, Equilibrium analysis.

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Authors: Yehia A. Eldrainy, Mohammad Nazri Mohd. Jaafar, Tholudin Mat Lazim

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This paper presents a cold flow simulation study of a small gas turbine combustor performed using laboratory scale test rig. The main objective of this investigation is to obtain physical insight of the main vortex, responsible for the efficient mixing of fuel and air. Such models are necessary for predictions and optimization of real gas turbine combustors. Air swirler can control the combustor performance by assisting in the fuel-air mixing process and by producing recirculation region which can act as flame holders and influences residence time. Thus, proper selection of a swirler is needed to enhance combustor performance and to reduce NOx emissions. Three different axial air swirlers were used based on their vane angles i.e., 30°, 45°, and 60°. Three-dimensional, viscous, turbulent, isothermal flow characteristics of the combustor model operating at room temperature were simulated via Reynolds- Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) code. The model geometry has been created using solid model, and the meshing has been done using GAMBIT preprocessing package. Finally, the solution and analysis were carried out in a FLUENT solver. This serves to demonstrate the capability of the code for design and analysis of real combustor. The effects of swirlers and mass flow rate were examined. Details of the complex flow structure such as vortices and recirculation zones were obtained by the simulation model. The computational model predicts a major recirculation zone in the central region immediately downstream of the fuel nozzle and a second recirculation zone in the upstream corner of the combustion chamber. It is also shown that swirler angles changes have significant effects on the combustor flowfield as well as pressure losses.

Keywords: cold flow, numerical simulation, combustor;turbulence, axial swirler.

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Authors: Mohammad Taghi Darvishi, Mohammad Najafi

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By means of the extended homoclinic test approach (shortly EHTA) with the aid of a symbolic computation system such as Maple, some complexiton type solutions for the (3+1)-dimensional Jimbo-Miwa equation are presented.

Keywords: Jimbo-Miwa equation, painleve analysis, Hirota's bilinear form, computerized symbolic computation.

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Authors: Akbar Zamaniyan, Alireza Behroozsarand, Hadi Ebrahimi

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Partial oxidation (POX) of light hydrocarbons (e.g. methane) is occurred in the first part of the autothermal reformer (ATR). The results of the detailed modeling of the reformer based on the thermodynamic model of the POX and 1D heterogeneous catalytic model for the fixed bed section are considered here. According to the results, the overall performance of the ATR can be improved by changing the important feed parameters.

Keywords: Autothermal Reformer, Partial Oxidation, Mathematical Modeling, Process Simulation, Syngas.

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Authors: Pascal Mwenge, Tumisang Seodigeng

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The combination of world population and the third industrial revolution led to high demand for fuels. On the other hand, the decrease of global fossil 8fuels deposits and the environmental air pollution caused by these fuels has compounded the challenges the world faces due to its need for energy. Therefore, new forms of environmentally friendly and renewable fuels such as biodiesel are needed. The primary analytical techniques for methanolysis yield monitoring have been chromatography and spectroscopy, these methods have been proven reliable but are more demanding, costly and do not provide real-time monitoring. In this work, the in situ monitoring of biodiesel from sunflower oil using FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared) has been studied; the study was performed using EasyMax Mettler Toledo reactor equipped with a DiComp (Diamond) probe. The quantitative monitoring of methanolysis was performed by building a quantitative model with multivariate calibration using iC Quant module from iC IR 7.0 software. 15 samples of known concentrations were used for the modelling which were taken in duplicate for model calibration and cross-validation, data were pre-processed using mean centering and variance scale, spectrum math square root and solvent subtraction. These pre-processing methods improved the performance indexes from 7.98 to 0.0096, 11.2 to 3.41, 6.32 to 2.72, 0.9416 to 0.9999, RMSEC, RMSECV, RMSEP and R2Cum, respectively. The R² value of 1 (training), 0.9918 (test), 0.9946 (cross-validation) indicated the fitness of the model built. The model was tested against univariate model; small discrepancies were observed at low concentration due to unmodelled intermediates but were quite close at concentrations above 18%. The software eliminated the complexity of the Partial Least Square (PLS) chemometrics. It was concluded that the model obtained could be used to monitor methanol of sunflower oil at industrial and lab scale.

Keywords: Biodiesel, calibration, chemometrics, FTIR, methanolysis, multivariate analysis, transesterification.

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Authors: S. Bagher Daryaii

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Delays in construction projects are one of the most common risky problems and regardless of the causes, the delays can occur in all projects and all industries. The impact of delays has a wide range from neglectable ones to losing the project's importance or its economic justification. In this paper, by doing research and interview with managers, executors, consultants and supervisors of construction projects in the petrochemical industry, their opinions about reasons of delays in projects have been gathered.

Keywords: Analysis of delays, causes of delays, delays in petrochemical projects, project delays.

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Authors: M. S. Alatas, H. D. Umucalilar

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SARA is a common and serious metabolic disorder in early lactation in dairy cattle and in finishing beef cattle, caused by diets with high inclusion of cereal grain. This experiment was performed to determine the efficacy of Megasphaera elsdenii, a major lactate-utilizing bacterium in prevention/treatment of SARA in vivo. In vivo experimentation, it was used eight ruminally cannulated rams and it was applied the rapid adaptation with the mixture of grain based on wheat (80% wheat, 20% barley) and barley (80% barley, 20% wheat). During the systematic adaptation, it was followed the probability of SARA formation by being measured the rumen pH with two hours intervals after and before feeding. After being evaluated the data, it was determined the ruminal pH ranged from 5.2-5.6 on the condition of feeding with 60 percentage of grain mixture based on barley and wheat, that assured the definite form of subacute acidosis. In four days SARA period, M. elsdenii (1010 cfu ml-1) was inoculated during the first two days. During the SARA period, it was observed the decrease of feed intake with M. elsdenii inoculation. Inoculation of M. elsdenii was caused to differentiation of rumen pH (P<0.0001), while it was found the pH level approximately 5.55 in animals applied the inoculation, it was 5.63 pH in other animals. It was observed that total VFA with the bacterium inoculation tended to change in terms of grain feed (P<0.07). It increased with the effect of total VFA inoculation in barley based diet, but it was more stabilized in wheat based diet. Bacterium inoculation increased the ratio of propionic acid (18.33%-21.38%) but it caused to decrease the butyric acid, and acetic/propionic acid. During the rapid adaptation, the concentration of lactic acid in the rumen liquid increased depending upon grain level (P<0.0001). On the other hand bacterium inoculation did not have an effect on concentration of lactic acid. M. elsdenii inoculation did not affect ruminal ammonia concentration. In the group that did not apply inoculation, the level of ruminal ammonia concentration was higher than the others applied inoculation. M. elsdenii inoculation did not changed protozoa count in barley-based diet whereas it decreased in wheat-based diet. When it is generally evaluated, it is seen that M. elsdenii inoculation has not a positive impact on rumen parameters. Therefore, to reveal the full impact of the inoculation with different strains, feedstuffs and animal groups, further research is required.

Keywords: In vivo, subactute ruminal acidosis, Megasphaera elsdenii, rumen fermentation.

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Authors: A. Taqaddas

Abstract:

Purpose: Planning and dosimetry of different VMAT algorithms (SmartArc, Ergo++, Autobeam) is compared with IMRT for Head and Neck Cancer patients. Modelling was performed to rule out the causes of discrepancies between planned and delivered dose. Methods: Five HNC patients previously treated with IMRT were re-planned with SmartArc (SA), Ergo++ and Autobeam. Plans were compared with each other and against IMRT and evaluated using DVHs for PTVs and OARs, delivery time, monitor units (MU) and dosimetric accuracy. Modelling of control point (CP) spacing, Leaf-end Separation and MLC/Aperture shape was performed to rule out causes of discrepancies between planned and delivered doses. Additionally estimated arc delivery times, overall plan generation times and effect of CP spacing and number of arcs on plan generation times were recorded. Results: Single arc SmartArc plans (SA4d) were generally better than IMRT and double arc plans (SA2Arcs) in terms of homogeneity and target coverage. Double arc plans seemed to have a positive role in achieving improved Conformity Index (CI) and better sparing of some Organs at Risk (OARs) compared to Step and Shoot IMRT (ss-IMRT) and SA4d. Overall Ergo++ plans achieved best CI for both PTVs. Dosimetric validation of all VMAT plans without modelling was found to be lower than ss-IMRT. Total MUs required for delivery were on average 19%, 30%, 10.6% and 6.5% lower than ss-IMRT for SA4d, SA2d (Single arc with 2⁰ Gantry Spacing), SA2Arcs and Autobeam plans respectively. Autobeam was most efficient in terms of actual treatment delivery times whereas Ergo++ plans took longest to deliver. Conclusion: Overall SA single arc plans on average achieved best target coverage and homogeneity for both PTVs. SA2Arc plans showed improved CI and some OARs sparing. Very good dosimetric results were achieved with modelling. Ergo++ plans achieved best CI. Autobeam resulted in fastest treatment delivery times.

Keywords: Dosimetry, Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy, Optimization Algorithms, Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy.

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Authors: Liang Chen

Abstract:

A family of improved secant-like method is proposed in this paper. Further, the analysis of the convergence shows that this method has super-linear convergence. Efficiency are demonstrated by numerical experiments when the choice of α is correct.

Keywords: Nonlinear equations, Secant method, Convergence order, Secant-like method.

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Authors: Nattapol Pourprasert

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This study has an objective to analyze foreign policy of member states in globalization current, aiming to answer that the foreign policy of member states have been changed or remained the same and there are any factors affecting changing of foreign policy of the member states. From the study results, it is found that the foreign policy of Thailand is a friendly foreign policy with all states. The policy of Indonesia is more opened because of a change in leader, allowing more democratic development in the country; the government has proceeded with friendly foreign policy with the states in order to bring funds into the state. The foreign policy of Malaysia is not much changed as there is no changing in the leader; the policy of Malaysia has reconciled relations with main city of Indian and Chinese residing in the country in order to bring investments into the country and to relieve tensions in the country. The foreign policy of the Philippines has proceeded with policy under the ASEAN framework and emphasized on international Islam communities. The foreign policy of Singapore has the least changed as the Singapore's policy focuses on internal trade since the state was found. As for the foreign policy of Brunei Darussalam, Brunei has a little role in the international stage; the state having closest relationship as from the view of history is Singapore as the Singaporean has invested in retailing business in Brunei. The foreign policy of Vietnam has emphasized on an omnidirectional foreign policy in order to compete with several states in global stage. The foreign policy of Myanmar has proceeded with a friendly foreign policy with all ASEAN member states, the East-west Corridor transportation line from Myanmar through Thailand and Lao to Vietnam has been developed. As for the foreign policy of Lao, In 2001, the Thai government and Lao government held a discussion which Thailand reaffirmed the position not to support the anti-Lao group. The foreign policy of Cambodia has proceeded with more openness, having good relation with China, Russia and USA as these states has invested in the state, especially the US company.

Keywords: Globalization, Public Policy Analysis, Foreign Policy, ASEAN Member States.

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Authors: Rabih Joseph Nabhan

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This case study explores the impact of two major computer software programs Learn to Speak English and Learn English Spelling and Pronunciation, and some Internet search engines such as Google on mending the decoding and spelling deficiency of Simon X, a dyslexic student. The improvement in decoding and spelling may result in better reading comprehension and composition writing. Some computer programs and Internet materials can help regain the missing awareness and consequently restore his self-confidence and self-esteem. In addition, this study provides a systematic plan comprising a set of activities (four computer programs and Internet materials) which address the problem from the lowest to the highest levels of phoneme and phonological awareness. Four methods of data collection (accounts, observations, published tests, and interviews) create the triangulation to validly and reliably collect data before the plan, during the plan, and after the plan. The data collected are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Sometimes the analysis is either quantitative or qualitative, and some other times a combination of both. Tables and figures are utilized to provide a clear and uncomplicated illustration of some data. The improvement in the decoding, spelling, reading comprehension, and composition writing skills that occurred is proved through the use of authentic materials performed by the student under study. Such materials are a comparison between two sample passages written by the learner before and after the plan, a genuine computer chat conversation, and the scores of the academic year that followed the execution of the plan. Based on these results, the researcher recommends further studies on other Lebanese dyslexic learners using the computer to mend their language problem in order to design and make a most reliable software program that can address this disability more efficiently and successfully.

Keywords: Analysis, awareness, dyslexic, software.

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Authors: Eva Tvrdá, Boris Botman, Marek Halenár, Tomáš Slanina, Norbert Lukáč

Abstract:

In vitro storage and processing of animal semen represents a risk factor to spermatozoa vitality, potentially leading to reduced fertility. A variety of substances isolated from natural sources may exhibit protective or antioxidant properties on the spermatozoon, thus extending the lifespan of stored ejaculates. This study compared the ability of different concentrations of the Salvia officinalis extract on the motility, mitochondrial activity, viability and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production by bovine spermatozoa during different time periods (0, 2, 6 and 24 h) of in vitro culture. Spermatozoa motility was assessed using the Computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) system. Cell viability was examined using the metabolic activity MTT assay, the eosin-nigrosin staining technique was used to evaluate the sperm viability and ROS generation was quantified using luminometry. The CASA analysis revealed that the motility in the experimental groups supplemented with 0.5-2 µg/mL Salvia extract was significantly lower in comparison with the control (P<0.05; Time 24 h). At the same time, a long-term exposure of spermatozoa to concentrations ranging between 0.05 µg/mL and 2 µg/mL had a negative impact on the mitochondrial metabolism (P<0.05; Time 24 h). The viability staining revealed that 0.001-1 µg/mL Salvia extract had no effects on bovine male gametes, however 2 µg/mL Salvia had a persisting negative effect on spermatozoa (P<0.05). Furthermore 0.05-2 µg/mL Salvia exhibited an immediate ROS-promoting effect on the sperm culture (P>0.05; Time 0 h and 2 h), which remained significant throughout the entire in vitro culture (P<0.05; Time 24 h). Our results point out to the necessity to examine specific effects the biomolecules present in Salvia officinalis may have individually or collectively on the in vitro sperm vitality and oxidative profile.

Keywords: Bulls, CASA, MTT test, reactive oxygen species, sage, Salvia officinalis, spermatozoa.

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Authors: Raif Parlakkaya, Mustafa Nihat Demirci, Mehmet Nuri Salur

Abstract:

Environmental pollution has detrimental effects on the quality of our life and its scope has reached such an extent that measures are being taken both at the national and international levels to reduce, prevent and mitigate its impact on social, economic and political spheres. Therefore, awareness of environmental problems has been increasing among stakeholders and accordingly among companies. It is seen that corporate reporting is expanding beyond environmental performance. Primary purpose of publishing an environmental report is to provide specific audiences with useful, meaningful information. This paper is intended to analyze the extent and qualification of environmental disclosures of Turkish publicly quoted firms and see how it varies from one sector to another. The data for the study were collected from annual activity reports of companies, listed on the corporate governance index (BIST-XKURY) of Istanbul Stock Exchange. Content analysis was the research methodology used to measure the extent of environmental disclosure. Accordingly, 2015 annual activity reports of companies that carry out business in some particular fields were acquired from Capital Market Board, websites of Public Disclosure Platform and companies’ own websites. These reports were categorized into five main aspects: Environmental policies, environmental management systems, environmental protection and conservation activities, environmental awareness and information on environmental lawsuits. Subsequently, each component was divided into several variables related to what each firm is supposed to disclose about environmental information. In this context, the nature and scope of the information disclosed on each item were assessed according to five different ways (N.I: No Information; G.E.: General Explanations; Q.E.: Qualitative Detailed Explanations; N.E.: Quantitative (numerical) Detailed Explanations; Q.&N.E.: Both Qualitative and Quantitative Explanations).

Keywords: Environmental accounting, disclosure, corporate governance, content analysis.

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Authors: Levent Basayigit, Sinan Demir, Yusuf Ucar, Burhan Kara

Abstract:

Many research projects require accurate delineation of the different land cover type of the agricultural area. Especially it is critically important for the definition of specific plants like cannabis. However, the complexity of vegetation stands structure, abundant vegetation species, and the smooth transition between different seconder section stages make vegetation classification difficult when using traditional approaches such as the maximum likelihood classifier. Most of the time, classification distinguishes only between trees/annual or grain. It has been difficult to accurately determine the cannabis mixed with other plants. In this paper, a mixed distribution models approach is applied to classify pure and mix cannabis parcels using Worldview-2 imagery in the Lakes region of Turkey. Five different land use types (i.e. sunflower, maize, bare soil, and cannabis) were identified in the image. A constrained Gaussian mixture discriminant analysis (GMDA) was used to unmix the image. In the study, 255 reflectance ratios derived from spectral signatures of seven bands (Blue-Green-Yellow-Red-Rededge-NIR1-NIR2) were randomly arranged as 80% for training and 20% for test data. Gaussian mixed distribution model approach is proved to be an effective and convenient way to combine very high spatial resolution imagery for distinguishing cannabis vegetation. Based on the overall accuracies of the classification, the Gaussian mixed distribution model was found to be very successful to achieve image classification tasks. This approach is sensitive to capture the illegal cannabis planting areas in the large plain. This approach can also be used for monitoring and determination with spectral reflections in illegal cannabis planting areas.

Keywords: Gaussian mixture discriminant analysis, spectral mixture model, World View-2, land parcels.

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Authors: Anatoli Torokhti, Stan Miklavcic

Abstract:

We study a new technique for optimal data compression subject to conditions of causality and different types of memory. The technique is based on the assumption that some information about compressed data can be obtained from a solution of the associated problem without constraints of causality and memory. This allows us to consider two separate problem related to compression and decompression subject to those constraints. Their solutions are given and the analysis of the associated errors is provided.

Keywords: stochastic signals, optimization problems in signal processing.

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