Search results for: local weighting scheme in level sets

Authors: Amr A. Fouad, Waleed H. Albuali, Iyad Jresat

Abstract:

The protective effect of thymoquinone (TQ) was investigated in rats exposed to testicular injury induced by sodium arsenite (10mg/kg/day, orally, for two days). TQ treatment (10mg/kg/day, intraperitoneal injection) was applied for five days, starting three day before arsenic administration. TQ significantly attenuated the arsenic-induced decreases of serum testosterone, and testicular reduced glutathione level, and significantly decreased the elevations of testicular malondialdehyde and nitric oxide levels resulted from arsenic administration. Also, TQ ameliorated the arsenic-induced testicular tissue injury observed by histopathological examination. In addition, TQ decreased the arsenic-induced expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase and caspase-3 in testicular tissue. It was concluded that TQ may represent a potential candidate to protect against arsenic-induced testicular injury. 

Keywords: Thymoquinone, arsenic, testes, rats.

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Authors: Mohie Eldin Mohamed Afifiy Elmashad

Abstract:

Desert regions around the Nile valley in Upper Egypt contain great extent of swelling soil. Many different comment procedures of treatment of the swelling soils for construction such as pre-swelling, load balance OR soil replacement. One of the measure factors which affect the level of the aggressiveness of the swelling soil is the direction of the infiltration water directions within the swelling soils. In this paper a physical model was installed to measure the effect of water on the swelling soil with replacement using fatty acid distillation residuals (FADR) mixed with sand as thick sand-FADR mixture to prevent the water pathway arrive to the swelling soil. Testing program have been conducted on different artificial samples with different sand to FADR contents ratios (4%, 6%, and 9%) to get the optimum value fulfilling the impermeable replacement. The tests show that a FADR content of 9% is sufficient to produce impermeable replacement.

Keywords: Swelling soil, FADR, soil improvement, permeability

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Authors: Hossein Sahoolizadeh, Mahdi Rahimi, Hamid Dehghani

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We introduce an algorithm based on the morphological shared-weight neural network. Being nonlinear and translation-invariant, the MSNN can be used to create better generalization during face recognition. Feature extraction is performed on grayscale images using hit-miss transforms that are independent of gray-level shifts. The output is then learned by interacting with the classification process. The feature extraction and classification networks are trained together, allowing the MSNN to simultaneously learn feature extraction and classification for a face. For evaluation, we test for robustness under variations in gray levels and noise while varying the network-s configuration to optimize recognition efficiency and processing time. Results show that the MSNN performs better for grayscale image pattern classification than ordinary neural networks.

Keywords: Face recognition, Neural Networks, Multi-layer Perceptron, masking.

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Authors: Igor Astrov, Andrus Pedai

Abstract:

This paper focuses on a critical component of the situational awareness (SA), the neural control of depth flight of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Constant depth flight is a challenging but important task for AUVs to achieve high level of autonomy under adverse conditions. With the SA strategy, we proposed a multirate neural control of an AUV trajectory for a nontrivial mid-small size AUV “r2D4" stochastic model. This control system has been demonstrated and evaluated by simulation of diving maneuvers using software package Simulink. From the simulation results it can be seen that the chosen AUV model is stable in the presence of noises, and also can be concluded that the proposed research technique will be useful for fast SA of similar AUV systems in real-time search-and-rescue operations.

Keywords: Autonomous underwater vehicles, multirate systems, neurocontrollers, situational awareness.

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Authors: Nima Jahandar, Amin Hosseinpour, Mohammad Ali Sahraei

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Whit the increasing of traffic, noise emanated from motor vehicles increases as well, which subsequently causes adding to the stress of modern city. Thus, it is needed to look for most critical areas in terms of environmental and social impact of noise. There are several critical situations for noise emanated from motor vehicles such as stop and go situation which usually occurs near junctions or at-grade intersections. This study was conducted in two locations, most common types of intersections, crossroads and Tjunctions. The highest average noise levels are recorded during Go phase for T-junction, 64.4 dB, and Drive phase for crossroad, 64 dB. It implies that the existence of intersection caused the noise level to increase. The vehicles starting to move produce more sound than when they travel at a constant speed along the intersection. It is suggested that special considerations and priority of allocating funds should be given to these critical spots.

Keywords: Crossroad, T-junction, Traffic Noise, Stop and Go, Urban noise

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Authors: G. Tamanza, A. Bossoni

Abstract:

84 deaf students (from primary school to college) and their families participated in this inclusion project in cooperation with numerous institutions in northern Italy (Brescia-Lombardy). Participants were either congenitally deaf or their deafness was related to other pathologies. This research promoted the integration of deaf students as they pass from primary school to high school to college. Learning methods and processes were studied that focused on encour­aging individual autonomy and socialization. The research team and its collaborators included school teachers, speech ther­apists, psychologists and home tutors, as well as teaching assistants, child neuropsychiatrists and other external authorities involved with deaf persons social inclusion programs. Deaf children and their families were supported, in terms of inclusion, and were made aware of the research team that focused on the Bisogni Educativi Speciali (BES or Special Educational Needs) (L.170/2010 - DM 5669/2011). This project included a diagnostic and evaluative phase as well as an operational one. Results demonstrated that deaf children were highly satisfied and confident; academic performance improved and collaboration in school increased. Deaf children felt that they had access to high school and college. Empowerment for the families of deaf children in terms of networking among local services that deal with the deaf also improved while family satisfaction also improved. We found that teachers and those who gave support to deaf children increased their professional skills. Achieving autonomy, instrumental, communicative and relational abilities were also found to be crucial. Project success was determined by temporal continuity, clear theoretical methodology, strong alliance for the project direction and a resilient team response.

Keywords: Autonomy, inclusion, skills, well-being.

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Authors: Fauziah Noordin, Rahmah Mohd Rashid, Rohani Ghani, Rasimah Aripin, , Zabani Darus

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Overall, the findings of the present study suggest that teachers have low to moderate levels of professionalisation, high level of career identity and moderate levels of career resilience, and career planning. From the T-tests and F-tests conducted, it was found that gender has a significant impact on career identity whereas age and marital status have significant impact on career planning and also on career identity. The results indicate that there is a higher possibility of male teachers to leave the teaching profession than the female teachers. The result of the T-test on career identity in relation to gender supports this deduction in which female teachers have significantly higher career identity than their male counterparts. Marital status was also found to have a significant impact on career identity.

Keywords: Professionalisation, career identity, career resilience, career planning

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Authors: Jheng-Long Wu, Pei-Chann Chang, Hsuan-Ming Chen

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This research focus on the intrusion detection system (IDS) development which using artificial immune system (AIS) with population based incremental learning (PBIL). AIS have powerful distinguished capability to extirpate antigen when the antigen intrude into human body. The PBIL is based on past learning experience to adjust new learning. Therefore we propose an intrusion detection system call PBIL-AIS which combine two approaches of PBIL and AIS to evolution computing. In AIS part we design three mechanisms such as clonal selection, negative selection and antibody level to intensify AIS performance. In experimental result, our PBIL-AIS IDS can capture high accuracy when an intrusion connection attacks.

Keywords: Artificial immune system, intrusion detection, population-based incremental learning, evolution computing.

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Authors: Panagiotis Tsarchopoulos, Nicos Komninos, Christina Kakderi

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Smart cities are high on the political agenda around the globe. However, planning smart cities and deploying applications dealing with the complex problems of the urban environment is a very challenging task that is difficult to be undertaken solely by the cities. We argue that the uptake of smart city strategies is facilitated, first, through the development of smart city application repositories allowing re-use of already developed and tested software, and, second, through cloud computing which disengages city authorities from any resource constraints, technical or financial, and has a higher impact and greater effect at the city level The combination of these two solutions allows city governments and municipalities to select and deploy a large number of applications dedicated to different city functions, which collectively could create a multiplier effect with a greater impact on the urban environment.

Keywords: Smart cities, applications, cloud computing, migration to the cloud, application repositories.

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Authors: Halabi Hasbullah, Irshad Ahmed Soomro, Jamalul-lail Ab Manan

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Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is taking more attention in automotive industry due to the safety concern of human lives on roads. Security is one of the safety aspects in VANET. To be secure, network availability must be obtained at all times since availability of the network is critically needed when a node sends any life critical information to other nodes. However, it can be expected that security attacks are likely to increase in the coming future due to more and more wireless applications being developed and deployed onto the well-known expose nature of the wireless medium. In this respect, the network availability is exposed to many types of attacks. In this paper, Denial of Service (DOS) attack on network availability is presented and its severity level in VANET environment is elaborated. A model to secure the VANET from the DOS attacks has been developed and some possible solutions to overcome the attacks have been discussed.

Keywords: Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANET); security;availability; security attack; Denial of Service (DOS).

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Authors: Dariusz Dymek, Leszek Kotulski

Abstract:

Modeling of the distributed systems allows us to represent the whole its functionality. The working system instance rarely fulfils the whole functionality represented by model; usually some parts of this functionality should be accessible periodically. The reporting system based on the Data Warehouse concept seams to be an intuitive example of the system that some of its functionality is required only from time to time. Analyzing an enterprise risk associated with the periodical change of the system functionality, we should consider not only the inaccessibility of the components (object) but also their functions (methods), and the impact of such a situation on the system functionality from the business point of view. In the paper we suggest that the risk attributes should be estimated from risk attributes specified at the requirements level (Use Case in the UML model) on the base of the information about the structure of the model (presented at other levels of the UML model). We argue that it is desirable to consider the influence of periodical changes in requirements on the enterprise risk estimation. Finally, the proposition of such a solution basing on the UML system model is presented.

Keywords: Risk assessing, software maintenance, UML, graph grammars.

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Authors: K. E. McPHEE, A. Kahraman, M. Onder, E. Ceyhan, B. Tashtemirov

Abstract:

Water is the main component of biological processes. Water management is important to obtain higher productivity. In this study, some of the yield components were investigated together with different drought levels. Four chickpea genotypes (CDC Frontier, CDC Luna, Sawyer and Sierra) were grown in pots with 3 different irrigation levels (a dose of 17.5 ml, 35 ml and 70 ml for each pot per day) after three weeks from sowing. In the research, flowering, pod set, pod per plant, fertile pod, double seed/pod, stem diameter, plant weight, seed per plant, 1000 seed weight, seed diameter, vegetation length and weekly plant height were measured. Consequently, significant differences were observed on all the investigated characteristics owing to genotypes (except double seed/pod and stem diameter), water levels (except first pod, seed weight and height on 3rd week) and genotype x water level interaction (except first pod, double seed/pod, seed weight and height).

Keywords: Agronomical characteristics, Cicer arietinum, water levels.

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Authors: Muhammad Jamaluddin Thaheem, Alberto De Marco

Abstract:

The area of Project Risk Management (PRM) has been extensively researched, and the utilization of various tools and techniques for managing risk in several industries has been sufficiently reported. Formal and systematic PRM practices have been made available for the construction industry. Based on such body of knowledge, this paper tries to find out the global picture of PRM practices and approaches with the help of a survey to look into the usage of PRM techniques and diffusion of software tools, their level of maturity, and their usefulness in the construction sector. Results show that, despite existing techniques and tools, their usage is limited: software tools are used only by a minority of respondents and their cost is one of the largest hurdles in adoption. Finally, the paper provides some important guidelines for future research regarding quantitative risk analysis techniques and suggestions for PRM software tools development and improvement.

Keywords: Construction industry, Project risk management, Software tools, Survey study.

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Authors: Esmail Limouzade, Mahmood.Joorabian, Najaf Hedayat

Abstract:

This paper undertakes the problem of optimal capacitor placement in a distribution system. The problem is how to optimally determine the locations to install capacitors, the types and sizes of capacitors to he installed and, during each load level,the control settings of these capacitors in order that a desired objective function is minimized while the load constraints,network constraints and operational constraints (e.g. voltage profile) at different load levels are satisfied. The problem is formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem with a nondifferentiable objective function. Four solution mythologies based on algorithms (GA),tabu search (TS), and hybrid GA-SA algorithms are presented.The solution methodologies are preceded by a sensitivity analysis to select the candidate capacitor installation locations.

Keywords: Genetic Algorithm (GA) , capacitor placement, voltage profile, network losses, Simulated Annealing, distribution network.

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Authors: S. M. Tavakoli Sani, M. Sabbet Moghadam, Y. Khorram Farhadi, Iraj Rezayi Nejad

Abstract:

The concept of national security in Iran is a permanently effective factor in acceptance or rejection of many international obligations. These obligations had been defined according to the type of legislation of Iran in many aspects. Therefore, there are several treaties at international level which requires Iran’s security to come in contact with obligations in these treaties in a way that an obstacle to join to them and their passage in parliament. This issue is a typical category which every country pays attention to be accepted in treaties or to include their national security in that treaties and also they can see the related treaties from this perspective, but this issue that 'what is the concept of Iran’s national security', and 'To what extent it is changed in recent years, especially after Islamic Revolution' are important issues that can be criticized. Thus, this study is trying to assess singed treaties from the perspective of Iran’s national security according of the true meaning of treaty and to investigate how the international treaties may be in conflict with Iran’s national security.

Keywords: Treaties, national security, Iran, Islamic Revolution.

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Authors: Mona Masood, Zakiah Zain

Abstract:

This study was conducted in Malaysia to discover how meaning and appreciation were construed among 35 Form Five students. Panofsky-s theory was employed to discover the levels of reasoning among students when various types of posters were displayed. The independent variables used were posters that carried explicit and implicit meanings; the moderating variable was students- visual literacy levels while the dependent variable was the implicit interpretation level. One-way ANOVA was applied for the data analysis. The data showed that before students were exposed to Panofsky-s theory, there were differences in thinking between boys, who did not think abstractly or implicit in comparison to girls. The study showed that students- visual literacy in posters depended on the use of visual texts and illustration. This paper discuss further on posters with text only have a tendency to be too abstract as opposed to posters with visuals plus text.

Keywords: explicit visual, implicit visual, visual interpretation, visual literacy

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Authors: Svetlana Saksonova

Abstract:

Every commercial bank optimises its asset portfolio depending on the profitability of assets and chosen or imposed constraints. This paper proposes and applies a stylized model for optimising banks' asset and liability structure, reflecting profitability of different asset categories and their risks as well as costs associated with different liability categories and reserve requirements. The level of detail for asset and liability categories is chosen to create a suitably parsimonious model and to include the most important categories in the model. It is shown that the most appropriate optimisation criterion for the model is the maximisation of the ratio of net interest income to assets. The maximisation of this ratio is subject to several constraints. Some are accounting identities or dictated by legislative requirements; others vary depending on the market objectives for a particular bank. The model predicts variable amount of assets allocated to loan provision.

Keywords: asset structure, commercial bank, model, optimisation

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Authors: Juhan Kim, Howon Kim

Abstract:

EPC Class-1 Generation-2 UHF tags, one of Radio frequency identification or RFID tag types, is expected that most companies are planning to use it in the supply chain in the short term and in consumer packaging in the long term due to its inexpensive cost. Because of the very cost, however, its resources are extremely scarce and it is hard to have any valuable security algorithms in it. It causes security vulnerabilities, in particular cloning the tags for counterfeits. In this paper, we propose a product authentication solution for anti-counterfeiting at application level in the supply chain and mobile RFID environment. It aims to become aware of distribution of spurious products with fake RFID tags and to provide a product authentication service to general consumers with mobile RFID devices like mobile phone or PDA which has a mobile RFID reader. We will discuss anti-counterfeiting mechanisms which are required to our proposed solution and address requirements that the mechanisms should have.

Keywords: EPC, RFID, Anti-Counterfeiting, Mobile RFIDenvironment.

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Authors: D. Mirauda, M. Greco, P. Moscarelli

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The river flow forecasting represents a crucial point to employ for improving a management policy addressed to the right use of water resources as well as for conjugating prevention and defense actions against environmental degradation. The difficulties occurring during the field activities encourage the development and implementation of operative computation and measuring methods addressed to time reduction for data acquisition and processing maintaining a good level of accuracy. Therefore, the aim of the present work is to test a new entropy based expeditive methodology for the evaluation of the rating curves on three gauged sections with different geometric and morphological characteristics. The methodology requires the choice of only three verticals along the measure section and the sampling of only the maximum velocity. The results underline how in most conditions the rating curves drawn can replace those built with classic methodologies, simplifying thus the procedures of data monitoring and calculation.

Keywords: gauged station, entropic approach, expeditive methodology, rating curves.

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Authors: Karakulov Y., Baizakova K.

Abstract:

Kazakhstan attaches the great importance to cooperation with European countries within the framework of multilateral security organizations such as NATO. Cooperation of Kazakhstan with the NATO is a prominent aspect of strengthening of regional security of republic. It covers a wide spectrum of areas, such as reform of sector of defense and security, military operative compatibility of armed forces of NATO member-countries and Kazakhstan, civil emergency planning and scientific cooperation. The cooperation between Kazakhstan and NATO is based on the mutual interests of neighboring republics in the region so that the existing forms of cooperation between Kazakhstan and NATO will not be negatively perceived both in Asia as well as among CIS countries. Kazakhstan tailors its participation in the PfP programme through an annual Individual Partnership Programme, selecting those activities that will help achieve the goals it has set in the IPAP. Level of cooperation within the limits of PfP essentially differs on each republic. Cooperation with Kazakhstan progressed most of all since has been signed IPAP from the NATO

Keywords: Central Asia, Kazakhstan, NATO cooperation, regional security

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Authors: J. Palecek, R. Hajkova, A. Oulehlova, H. Malachova

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Increase of emergency incidents and crisis situations requires proactive crisis management of authorities and for its solution. Application Business Continuity Management helps the crisis management authorities to quickly and responsibly respond to threats. It also helps effectively and efficiently planning powers and resources. The main goal of this article is describing Military Continuity Management System (MCMS) based on the principles of Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) for dealing with floods in the territory of the selected municipalities. There are explained steps of loading, running and evaluating activities in the software application MCMS. Software MCMS provides complete control over the tasks, contribute a comprehensive and responsible approach solutions to solution floods in the municipality.

Keywords: Business Continuity Management, Floods Plan, Flood Activity, Level of Flood Activity.

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Authors: Somtop Keawchuer

Abstract:

The objectives of this research are to compare the satisfaction of students, towards the happiness learning, sorted by their personal profiles, and to figure out the factors that affect the students’ happiness learning. This paper used survey method to collect data from 362 students. The survey was mainly conducted in the Faculty of Management Science, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, including 3,443 students. The statistics used for interpreting the results included the frequencies, percentages, standard deviations and One-way ANOVA. The findings revealed that the students are aware and satisfaction that all the factors in 3 categories (knowledge, skill and attitude) influence the happiness learning at the highest levels. The comparison of the satisfaction levels of the students toward their happiness learning leads to the results that the students with different genders, ages, years of study, and majors of the study have the similar satisfaction at the high level.

Keywords: Happiness Learning, Satisfaction, Students.

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Authors: H. Motameni, M. Norouzi, M. Jahandar, A. Hatami

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In this paper a way of hiding text message (Steganography) in the gray image has been presented. In this method tried to find binary value of each character of text message and then in the next stage, tried to find dark places of gray image (black) by converting the original image to binary image for labeling each object of image by considering on 8 connectivity. Then these images have been converted to RGB image in order to find dark places. Because in this way each sequence of gray color turns into RGB color and dark level of grey image is found by this way if the Gary image is very light the histogram must be changed manually to find just dark places. In the final stage each 8 pixels of dark places has been considered as a byte and binary value of each character has been put in low bit of each byte that was created manually by dark places pixels for increasing security of the main way of steganography (LSB).

Keywords: Binary image, labeling, low bit, neighborhood, RGB image, steganography, threshold.

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Authors: Hachaichi Mohamed Nour El-Islem, Baouni Tahar

Abstract:

Environmental sustainability rather than a trans-disciplinary and a scientific issue, is the main problem that characterizes all modern cities nowadays. In developing countries, this concern is expressed in a plethora of critical urban ills: traffic congestion, air pollution, noise, urban decay, increase in energy consumption and CO₂ emissions which blemish cities’ landscape and might threaten citizens’ health and welfare. As in the same manner as developing world cities, the rapid growth of Algiers’ human population and increasing in city scale phenomena lead eventually to increase in daily trips, energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. In addition, the lack of proper and sustainable planning of the city’s infrastructure is one of the most relevant issues from which Algiers suffers. The aim of this contribution is to estimate the carbon deficit of the City of Algiers, Algeria, using the Ecological Footprint Model (carbon footprint). In order to achieve this goal, the amount of CO₂ from fuel combustion has been calculated and aggregated into five sectors (agriculture, industry, residential, tertiary and transportation); as well, Algiers’ biocapacity (CO₂ uptake land) has been calculated to determine the ecological overshoot. This study shows that Algiers’ transport system is not sustainable and is generating more than 50% of Algiers total carbon footprint which cannot be sequestered by the local forest land. The aim of this research is to show that the Carbon Footprint Assessment might be a relevant indicator to design sustainable strategies/policies striving to reduce CO₂ by setting in motion the energy consumption in the transportation sector and reducing the use of fossil fuels as the main energy input.

Keywords: Biocapacity, carbon footprint, ecological footprint assessment, energy consumption.

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Authors: Kartini, K., Rohaidah, M.N., Zuraini, ZA.

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Demolitions of buildings have created a lot of waste and one of it is clay bricks. The waste clay bricks were ground to roughly cement fineness and used to partially replaced cement at 10%, 20% and 30% with w/b ratio of 0.6 and tested at 7, 28, 60, 90 and 120 days. The result shows that the compressive strength of GCB concrete increases over age however, decreases as the level of replacements increases. It was also found that 10% replacement of GCB gave the highest compressive strength, however for optimum replacement, 30% was chosen as it still attained strength of grade 30 concrete. In terms of durability performances, results show that GCB replacement up to 30% was found to be efficient in reducing water absorption as well as water permeability. These studies show that GCB has the potential to be used as partial cement replacement in making concrete.

Keywords: Compressive Strength, Ground Clay Bricks, Partial Cement Replacement, Water Absorption and Permeability

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Authors: Emma Dwi Ariyani, Dini Hadiani

Abstract:

This article reports the descriptive analysis of self-compassion in polytechnic students. It has been long believed that self-compassion can improve students’ motivation in completing their studies. This research was conducted with the aim to see the degree of self-compassion in polytechnic students in Indonesia by using Neff's Self-Compassion Scale (short form) measurement tool consisting of 12 items. The research method used was descriptive study with survey technique on 255 students. The results showed that 78% of students had low self-compassion and 22% had high self-compassion. This revealed that polytechnic students still criticize themselves harshly, make a poor judgment and bad self-appraisal, and they also cannot accept their imperfection and consider it as a self-judgment. The students also tend to think that they are the only ones that experience failure and suffering. This can lead to a sense of isolation (self-isolation). Furthermore, the students are often too concerned with aspects that are not liked both in themselves and in life (over-identification). Improving the students’ level of self-compassion can be done by building an educational climate that not only criticizes the students but provides feedback as well. This should focus on the students’ real behavior rather than the students’ general character.

Keywords: Descriptive study, polytechnic students, Indonesia, self-compassion.

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Authors: Ruey-Yu Chen, Yao-Tsung Chang, Ching-Ying Yeh, Yu-Ting Huang

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Musculoskeletal problems in the hotel sector have been little studied. The aim of this study was to examine relationships of musculoskeletal pain and work characteristics with presenteeism, i.e., feeling sick but going to work anyway. Data of a self-reported questionnaire were collected from 1,101 employees, who joined the study on a voluntary basis from four hotels in northern Taiwan. The results showed that respondents who were female, were younger, had a higher educational level, and worked in the real-service department had higher presenteeism. There were significant positive associations between presenteeism and heavy loads, frequent beatings or hits of hard objects, improper bench height, employees’ lower limb and lower back pain. Our study results imply that knowledge of work characteristics and employees' musculoskeletal problems could be advantageously used to reduce presenteeism in the workplace.

Keywords: Musculoskeletal pain, absenteeism, presenteeism, hotel employees.

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Authors: B. Zvirbule, I. Vilka

Abstract:

The Baltic States regained independence and started the pathway from command economy to market economy and entered European Union at the same time. Latter internationally recognized evaluations for the countries are diverse. The present diversity of the Baltic States -Economic Development is a subject of interest because of the similarities – all three are small, open economies, countries have similar geographic location and initially likewise historical and political backgrounds. This article explains relationship between social environment, business environment and economic growth. It argues that the elements of social environment underlie more successful economic development. It researches the causes, why Estonia has performed better in economic outcomes and development. The article analyses selection of socio-economic indicators of all three Baltic States – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia for the time period of ten years to include the influence of economic cycles.

Keywords: Baltic States, economic development, economic growth, level of education, social environment.

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Authors: Mingaleva Zhanna, Gayfutdinova Oksana, Podgornova Evgenia

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The regional innovative competitiveness is an integrating characteristic of the innovative sphere of the region. It depends on a big variety of different parameters connected with all kinds of economic entities- activities. But management parameters shouldn't be irregular, so in order to avoid it, an institutional system should be formed. This system should carry out strategic management of factors having the greatest influence on the region's innovative development. This article is devoted to different aspects of organization of the region's development institutional mechanism, which is based on management of regional innovative competitiveness parameters. The base of the analysis is innovatively-active Russian regions which were compared according to the level of the innovative competitiveness. After that the most important parameters of successful innovative development of the region were revealed with the help of the correlation-regression analysis. The results of the research could be used for investigation of the region's innovative policy.

Keywords: Regional innovative competitiveness, institutional mechanism, innovative region development, correlation-regression analysis.

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Authors: Abolghasem Yazdani, Sara Pourjafar

Abstract:

This study has applied the L16 orthogonal array of the Taguchi method to determine the optimized polymeric Nanocomposite asphalt binder. Three control factors are defined as polypropylene plastomer (PP), styrene-butadiene-styrene elastomer (SBS) and Nanoclay. Four level of concentration contents are introduced for prepared asphalt binder samples. all samples were prepared with 4.5% of bitumen 60/70 content. Compressive strength tests were carried out for defining the optimized sample via QUALITEK-4 software. SBS with 3%, PP with 5 % and Nanoclay with 1.5% of concentrations are defined as the optimized Nanocomposite asphalt binders. The confirmation compressive strength and also softening point tests showed that modification of asphalt binders with this method, improved the compressive strength and softening points of asphalt binders up to 55%.

Keywords: modified asphalt, Polypropylene, SBS, Nanoclay, Taguchi method

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