Search results for: Statistical Quality Control.
2548 Why Do Pakistani Customers Patronize Islamic Banks- An Empirical Analysis
Authors: Farjana Mumu, Jia Guozho
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Throughout the world, the Islamic way of banking and financing is increasing. The same trend is also visible in Pakistan, where the Islamic banking sector is increasing in size and volume each year. The question immediately arises as why the Pakistanis patronize the Islamic banking system? This study was carried out to find whether following the Islamic rules in finance is the main factor for such selection or whether other factors such as customer service, location, banking hour, physical facilities of the bank etc also have importance. The study was carried by distributing questionnaire and 200 responses were collected from the clients of Islamic banks. The result showed that the service quality and other factors are as important as following the Islamic rules for finance to retain old ustomers and catch new customers. The result is important and Islamic banks can take actions accordingly to look after both the factorsKeywords: Customers' perception, customer satisfaction, customer service, Islamic banking
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22002547 Circular Raft Footings Strengthened by Stone Columns under Static Loads
Authors: R. Ziaie Moayed, B. Mohammadi-Haji
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Stone columns have been widely employed to improve the load-settlement characteristics of soft soils. The results of two small scale displacement control loading tests on stone columns were used in order to validate numerical finite element simulations. Additionally, a series of numerical calculations of static loading have been performed on strengthened raft footing to investigate the effects of using stone columns on bearing capacity of footings. The bearing capacity of single and group of stone columns under static loading compares with unimproved ground.Keywords: Circular raft footing, numerical analysis, validation, vertically encased stone column.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16342546 Using Neural Network for Execution of Programmed Pulse Width Modulation (PPWM) Method
Authors: M. Tarafdar Haque, A. Taheri
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Application of neural networks in execution of programmed pulse width modulation (PPWM) of a voltage source inverter (VSI) is studied in this paper. Using the proposed method it is possible to cancel out the desired harmonics in output of VSI in addition to control the magnitude of fundamental harmonic, contineously. By checking the non-trained values and a performance index, the most appropriate neural network is proposed. It is shown that neural networks may solve the custom difficulties of practical utilization of PPWM such as large size of memory, complex digital circuits and controlling the magnitude of output voltage in a discrete manner.Keywords: Neural Network, Inverter, PPWM.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16922545 A Performance Analysis of Different Scheduling Schemes in WiMAX
Authors: A. Youseef
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IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) aims to present high speed wireless access to cover wide range coverage. The base station (BS) and the subscriber station (SS) are the main parts of WiMAX. WiMAX uses either Point-to-Multipoint (PMP) or mesh topologies. In the PMP mode, the SSs connect to the BS to gain access to the network. However, in the mesh mode, the SSs connect to each other to gain access to the BS. The main components of QoS management in the 802.16 standard are the admission control, buffer management and packet scheduling. In this paper, we use QualNet 5.0.2 to study the performance of different scheduling schemes, such as WFQ, SCFQ, RR and SP when the numbers of SSs increase. We find that when the number of SSs increases, the average jitter and average end-to-end delay is increased and the throughput is reduced.
Keywords: WiMAX, Scheduling Scheme, QoS, QualNet.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20802544 Power Line Carrier for Power Telemetering
Authors: Tosaphol Ratniyomchai, Uthai Jaithong, Thanatchai Kulworawanichpong
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This paper presents an application of power line carrier (PLC) for electrical power telemetering. This system has a special capability of transmitting the measured values to a centralized computer via power lines. The PLC modem as a passive high-pass filter is designed for transmitting and receiving information. Its function is to send the information carrier together with transmitted data by superimposing it on the 50 Hz power frequency signal. A microcontroller is employed to function as the main processing of the modem. It is programmed for PLC control and interfacing with other devices. Each power meter, connected via a PLC modem, is assigned with a unique identification number (address) for distinguishing each device from one another.Keywords: Power telemetering, Power line carrier, High-passfilter, Digital data transmission
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29692543 Interconnection of Autonomous PROFIBUS Segments through IEEE 802.16 WMAN
Authors: M. İskefiyeli, İ. Özçelik
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PROFIBUS (PROcess FIeld BUS) which is defined with international standarts (IEC61158, EN50170) is the most popular fieldbus, and provides a communication between industrial applications which are located in different control environment and location in manufacturing, process and building automation. Its communication speed is from 9.6 Kbps to 12 Mbps over distances from 100 to 1200 meters, and so it is to be often necessary to interconnect them in order to break these limits. Unfortunately this interconnection raises several issues and the solutions found so far are not very satisfactory. In this paper, we propose a new solution to interconnect PROFIBUS segments, which uses a wireless MAN based on the IEEE 802.16 standard as a backbone system. Also, the solution which is described a model for internetworking unit integrates the traffic generated by PROFIBUS segments into IEEE 802.16 wireless MAN using encapsulation technique.
Keywords: Internetworking Unit, PROFIBUS, WiMAX, WMAN, 802.16.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16952542 Bidirectional Pendulum Vibration Absorbers with Homogeneous Variable Tangential Friction: Modelling and Design
Authors: Emiliano Matta
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Passive resonant vibration absorbers are among the most widely used dynamic control systems in civil engineering. They typically consist in a single-degree-of-freedom mechanical appendage of the main structure, tuned to one structural target mode through frequency and damping optimization. One classical scheme is the pendulum absorber, whose mass is constrained to move along a curved trajectory and is damped by viscous dashpots. Even though the principle is well known, the search for improved arrangements is still under way. In recent years this investigation inspired a type of bidirectional pendulum absorber (BPA), consisting of a mass constrained to move along an optimal three-dimensional (3D) concave surface. For such a BPA, the surface principal curvatures are designed to ensure a bidirectional tuning of the absorber to both principal modes of the main structure, while damping is produced either by horizontal viscous dashpots or by vertical friction dashpots, connecting the BPA to the main structure. In this paper, a variant of BPA is proposed, where damping originates from the variable tangential friction force which develops between the pendulum mass and the 3D surface as a result of a spatially-varying friction coefficient pattern. Namely, a friction coefficient is proposed that varies along the pendulum surface in proportion to the modulus of the 3D surface gradient. With such an assumption, the dissipative model of the absorber can be proven to be nonlinear homogeneous in the small displacement domain. The resulting homogeneous BPA (HBPA) has a fundamental advantage over conventional friction-type absorbers, because its equivalent damping ratio results independent on the amplitude of oscillations, and therefore its optimal performance does not depend on the excitation level. On the other hand, the HBPA is more compact than viscously damped BPAs because it does not need the installation of dampers. This paper presents the analytical model of the HBPA and an optimal methodology for its design. Numerical simulations of single- and multi-story building structures under wind and earthquake loads are presented to compare the HBPA with classical viscously damped BPAs. It is shown that the HBPA is a promising alternative to existing BPA types and that homogeneous tangential friction is an effective means to realize systems provided with amplitude-independent damping.
Keywords: Amplitude-independent damping, Homogeneous friction, Pendulum nonlinear dynamics, Structural control, Vibration resonant absorbers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7312541 Spatial Variability in Human Development Patterns in Assiut, Egypt
Authors: Abdel-Samad M. Ali
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Given the motivation of maps impact in enhancing the perception of the quality of life in a region, this work examines the use of spatial analytical techniques in exploring the role of space in shaping human development patterns in Assiut governorate. Variations of human development index (HDI) of the governorate-s villages, districts and cities are mapped using geographic information systems (GIS). Global and local spatial autocorrelation measures are employed to assess the levels of spatial dependency in the data and to map clusters of human development. Results show prominent disparities in HDI between regions of Assiut. Strong patterns of spatial association were found proving the presence of clusters on the distribution of HDI. Finally, the study indicates several "hot-spots" in the governorate to be area of more investigations to explore the attributes of such levels of human development. This is very important for accomplishing the development plan of poorest regions currently adopted in Egypt.Keywords: Human development, Egypt, GIS, Spatial analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24452540 Role-Specific Target-Systems in Professional Bureaucracies: A Qualitative Analysis in the OR
Authors: Kirsten Hoeper, Maike Kriependorf
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This paper firstly discusses the initial situation and problems. Afterward, it defines professional bureaucracies and shows their impact for the OR-work. The OR-center and its actors are shown. Finally, the paper provides the empiric design for detecting the target systems of the different work groups within the OR, the quality criteria in qualitative research and empirical results. It is shown that different groups have different targets in their daily work and that helps for a better understanding. More precisely, by detecting the target systems of these experts, we can ‘bridge’ the different points of view to create a common basis for the work in the OR. One of the aims was to find bridges to overcome separating factors. This paper describes the situation in Germany focusing the Hannover Medical School. It can be assumed that the results can be transferred to other countries using the DRG-System (Diagnosis Related Groups).
Keywords: Hospital, OR, professional bureaucracies, target systems.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8092539 Research on Weakly Hard Real-Time Constraints and Their Boolean Combination to Support Adaptive QoS
Authors: Xiangbin Zhu
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Advances in computing applications in recent years have prompted the demand for more flexible scheduling models for QoS demand. Moreover, in practical applications, partly violated temporal constraints can be tolerated if the violation meets certain distribution. So we need extend the traditional Liu and Lanland model to adapt to these circumstances. There are two extensions, which are the (m, k)-firm model and Window-Constrained model. This paper researches on weakly hard real-time constraints and their combination to support QoS. The fact that a practical application can tolerate some violations of temporal constraint under certain distribution is employed to support adaptive QoS on the open real-time system. The experiment results show these approaches are effective compared to traditional scheduling algorithms.Keywords: Weakly Hard Real-Time, Real-Time, Scheduling, Quality of Service.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15792538 A Proposed Program for Postgraduates in Egypt to Acquire the Skills and Techniques for Producing Concept Cartoons for Kindergarten Children
Authors: Ahmed Amin Mousa, M. Abd El Salam
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The current study presents a proposed program for acquisition the skills and techniques needed to produce concept cartoon. The proposed program has been prepared for non-specialist students who have never used neither graphics nor animating software. It was presented to postgraduates in Faculty of Education for Early Childhood, Cairo University, during the spring term of the 2014-2015 academic year. The program works in three different aspects: Drawing and images editing, sound manipulation, and creating animation. In addition, the researchers have prepared a questionnaire for measuring the quality of the concept cartoons produced by the students. The questionnaire was used as a pre-test and post-test, and at the end of the study, a significant difference was determined in favour of post-test results.
Keywords: Cartoon, concept cartoon, kindergarten, animation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17422537 Observer Based Control of a Class of Nonlinear Fractional Order Systems using LMI
Authors: Elham Amini Boroujeni, Hamid Reza Momeni
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Design of an observer based controller for a class of fractional order systems has been done. Fractional order mathematics is used to express the system and the proposed observer. Fractional order Lyapunov theorem is used to derive the closed-loop asymptotic stability. The gains of the observer and observer based controller are derived systematically using the linear matrix inequality approach. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate validity and effectiveness of the proposed observer based controller.Keywords: Fractional order calculus, Fractional order observer, Linear matrix inequality, Nonlinear Systems, Observer based Controller.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28802536 Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Pregnant Women toward Antenatal Care at Public Hospitals in Sana'a City-Yemen
Authors: Abdulfatah Al-Jaradi, Marzoq Ali Odhah, Abdulnasser A. Haza’a
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Background: Antenatal care can be defined as the care provided by skilled healthcare professionals to pregnant women and adolescent girls to ensure the best health conditions for both mother and baby during pregnancy. The components of Antenatal Care (ANC) include risk identification; prevention and management of pregnancy-related or concurrent diseases; and health education and health promotion. The aim of this study: to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of pregnant women regarding ANC. Methodology: A descriptive knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) study was conducted in public hospitals in Sana'a City, Yemen. The study population included all pregnant women that intended to the prenatal department and clinical outpatient department; the final sample size was 371 pregnant women. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data, statistical package for social sciences SPSS was used to data analysis. The results: Most (79%) of pregnant women had correct answers in total knowledge regarding ANC, and about two-thirds (67%) of pregnant women had performance practice regarding ANC and two-third (68%) of pregnant women had a positive attitude. Conclusions: More than three quarter of pregnant women had good knowledge level, most of pregnant women had moderate practice level, and more than two-thirds of pregnant women had a positive attitude regarding antenatal care. There was a statistically significant association between overall knowledge and practice level toward ANC and demographic characteristics of pregnant women, at P-value ≤ 0.05. Recommendations: we recommended more education and training courses, lecturers, and education sessions in clinical facilitators focused on ANC, which relies on evidence-based interventions provided to women during pregnancy by skilled healthcare providers such as midwives, doctors, and nurses.
Keywords: Antenatal care, knowledge, practice, attitude, pregnant women.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7012535 Evaluation Factors of Clinical Decision Support System in u_Healthcare Service
Authors: Sun K. Yoo, Ki-Chang Nam, Hyun-Young Shin, Ho-Seong Moon, Hee Cheol Kang
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Automated intelligent, clinical decision support systems generally promote to help or to assist physicians and patients regarding to prevention of diseases or treatment of illnesses using computer represented knowledge and information. In this paper, assessment factors affecting the proper design of clinical decision support system were investigated. The required procedure steps for gathering the data from clinical trial and extracting the information from large volume of healthcare repositories were listed, which are necessary for validation and verification of evidence-based implementation of clinical decision support system. The goal of this paper is to extract useful evaluation factors affecting the quality of the clinical decision support system in the design, development, and implementation of a computer-based decision support system.
Keywords: Evaluation, Clinical Decision Support System.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22372534 Phytochemical Screening, Antioxidant Activity and Lipid Profile Effects of Citrus reticulata Fruit Peel, Zingiber officinale Rhizome and Sesamum indicum Seed Extracts
Authors: Samar Saadeldin Abdelmotalab Omer, Ikram Mohamed Eltayeb Elsiddig, Amna Beshir Medani Ahmed, Saad Mohamed Hussein Ayoub
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Many herbal medicinal products are considered potential anti-hypercholesterolemic agents with encouraging safety profiles, however only a limited amount of clinical research exists to support their efficacy. The present study was designed to compare the antihypercholesterolemic and antioxidant activities of the crude ethanolic extracts of Citrus reticulata fruit peel, Zingiber officinale rhizome and Sesamum indicum seeds. Forty-five rats were used throughout the experiment which are extended for four weeks. These were divided into nine groups, five rats per each group as follows; group 1 was the normal control group (rats only fed standard normal rat diet), group 2 was the hypercholesterolemic control group (rats fed only hypercholesterolemic diet which contained 1% cholesterol plus 10% saturated animal fat added to the normal rat diet), groups 3 and 4 were fed hypercholesterolemic diet in addition to Citrus reticulata ethanolic extract at doses of (250mg/kg (group 3) and 500mg/kg (group 4)) administered daily via oral route, groups 5 and 6 were given hypercholesterolemic diet in addition to Zingiber officinale ethanolic extract at doses of (250mg/kg (group 5) and 500mg/kg (group 6)) daily through oral route, groups 7 and 8 fed on hypercholesterolemic diet in addition to Sesamum indicum ethanolic extract at doses of (250mg/kg (group 7) and 500mg/kg (group 8)) daily orally; and group 9 rats were given hypercholesterolemic diet in addition to atorvastatin (0.18mg/kg) daily via oral route as a standard reference antihypercholesterolemic drug. Blood samples from all groups were drawn from the retro-orbital venous plexus four weeks following treatment after overnight fasting and the lipid profile (total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride levels) were measured and the risk ratio (TC/HDL-C) was assessed. The antioxidant activity of the three plants extracts was determined using DPPH free-radical antioxidant assay. Results of in vivo and in vitro antihypercholesterolemic and antioxidant assay respectively, revealed that the three extracts possess comparable antioxidant and antihypercholesterolemic activities.Keywords: Antihypercholesterolemic effects, Antioxidant activity, HDL, LDL, TC, TGs, Citrus reticulata, Sesamum indicum, Zingiber officinale.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26982533 Enhancement and Characterization of Titanium Surfaces with Sandblasting and Acid Etching for Dental Implants
Authors: Busra Balli, Tuncay Dikici, Mustafa Toparli
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Titanium and its alloys have been used extensively over the past 25 years as biomedical materials in orthopedic and dental applications because of their good mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility. It is known that the surface properties of titanium implants can enhance the cellular response and play an important role in Osseo integration. The rate and quality of Osseo integration in titanium implants are related to their surface properties. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effect of sandblasting and acid etching on surface morphology, roughness, the wettability of titanium. The surface properties will be characterized by scanning electron microscopy and contact angle and roughness measurements. The results show that surface morphology, roughness, and wettability were changed and enhanced by these treatments.Keywords: Dental implant, etching, surface modifications, surface morphology, surface roughness.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13252532 National Image in the Age of Mass Self-Communication: An Analysis of Internet Users' Perception of Portugal
Authors: L. Godinho, N. Teixeira
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Nowadays, massification of Internet access represents one of the major challenges to the traditional powers of the State, among which the power to control its external image. The virtual world has also sparked the interest of social sciences which consider it a new field of study, an immense open text where sense is expressed. In this paper, that immense text has been accessed to so as to understand the perception Internet users from all over the world have of Portugal. Ours is a quantitative and qualitative approach, as we have resorted to buzz, thematic and category analysis. The results confirm the predominance of sea stereotype in others' vision of the Portuguese people, and evidence that national image has adapted to network communication through processes of individuation and paganization.Keywords: Internet, national image, perception, web analytics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10562531 The Effectiveness of Tebuconazole and Chitosan in Inhibiting the Growth of Fusarium Species on Winter Wheat Grain under Field Conditions
Authors: Urszula Wachowska, Anna Daria Stasiulewicz-Paluch, Katarzyna Kucharska
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A three-year field experiment (2010-2012) was conducted to determine the abundance of epiphytic and endophytic filamentous fungi colonizing the grain of winter wheat cv. Bogatka. Wheat spikes were protected with tebuconazole or chitosan at the watery ripe stage. Untreated plants served as control. Tebuconazole exerted an inhibitory effect primarily on F. culmorum and F. graminearum, and its effectiveness was determined by the pressure from pathogens that infected wheat spikes during the growing season. Chitosan did not suppress the growth of Fusarium species and Alternaria alternata.
Keywords: Winter wheat, tebuconazole, chitosan, Fusarium.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23512530 Fuzzy Based Environmental System Approach for Impact Assessment - Case Studies
Authors: Marius Pislaru, Alexandru F. Trandabat
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Environmental studies have expanded dramatically all over the world in the past few years. Nowadays businesses interact with society and the environment in ways that put their mark on both sides. Efforts improving human standard living, through the control of nature and the development of new products, have also resulted in contamination of the environment. Consequently companies play an important role in environmental sustainability of a region or country. Therefore we can say that a company's sustainable development is strictly dependent on the environment. This article presents a fuzzy model to evaluate a company's environmental impact. Article illustrates an example of the automotive industry in order to prove the usefulness of using such a model.Keywords: fuzzy approach, environmental impact assessment, sustainability
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19542529 Model of Multi-Criteria Evaluation for Railway Lines
Authors: Juraj Camaj, Martin Kendra, Jaroslav Masek
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The paper is focused to the evaluation railway tracks in the Slovakia by using Multi-Criteria method. Evaluation of railway tracks has important impacts for the assessment of investment in technical equipment. Evaluation of railway tracks also has an important impact for the allocation of marshalling yards. Marshalling yards are in transport model as centers for the operation assigned catchment area. This model is one of the effective ways to meet the development strategy of the European Community's railways. By applying this model in practice, a transport company can guarantee a higher quality of service and then expect an increase in performance. The model is also applicable to other rail networks. This model supplements a theoretical problem of train formation problem of new ways of looking at evaluation of factors affecting the organization of wagon flows.Keywords: Railway track, multi-criteria methods, evaluation, transportation model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22122528 A Study of Geographic Information System Combining with GPS and 3G for Parking Guidance and Information System
Authors: Yu-Chi Shiue, Jyong Lin, Shih-Chang Chen
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With the increase of economic behavior and the upgrade of living standar, the ratio for people in Taiwan who own automobiles and motorcycles have recently increased with multiples. Therefore, parking issues will be a big challenge to facilitate traffic network and ensure urban life quality. The Parking Guidance and Information System is one of important systems for Advanced Traveler Information Services (ATIS). This research proposes a parking guidance and information system which integrates GPS and 3G network for a map on the Geographic Information System to solution inadequate of roadside information kanban. The system proposed in this study mainly includes Parking Host, Parking Guidance and Information Server, Geographic Map and Information System as well as Parking Guidance and Information Browser. The study results show this system can increase driver-s efficiency to find parking space and efficiently enhance parking convenience in comparison with roadside kanban system.Keywords: Geographic Information System, 3G, GPS, parkinginformation
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18142527 The Role of Thermo Priming on Improving Seedling Production Technology (Ispt) in Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] Seeds
Authors: Behzad Sani, Vida Jodaeian
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In order to determine the impact of thermo priming on germination of soybean seeds, an experiment was conducted as a completely randomized design with three replications. The factors of studied included different time thermo priming (control, 5 and 10 minutes) through the placing seeds were exposed to oven. The results showed that the effect of thermo priming was significant on germination percentage, seedling dry weight and seedling vigour in P ≤ 0.05. Mean comparison showed that the highest germination percentage (77%), seedling dry weight (1.39 g) and seedling vigour (107.03) were achieved by 10 minutes thermo priming.
Keywords: Thermo priming, seedling, seedling production, seedling growth, soybean.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24142526 Corporate Governance of Enterprise IT: Research Study on IT Governance Maturity
Authors: Mario Spremić
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Despite the financial crisis and ongoing need for cost cutting, companies all around the world heavily invest in Information Systems (IS) and underlying Information Technology (IT). Proliferation of governance of enterprise IT helps companies manage, or rather, governs IS as a primary business function with executive management involved in making decision about IS and IT. The business value of IT is raising with the involvement of the executive management in IT decision making process and quality IT governance mechanisms in place. In this paper the practice of governing the enterprise IT will be investigated on a sample of the largest 100 Croatian companies. Research questions posed here will reveal if there are some formal IT governance mechanisms, are there any differences in perceived role of IS and IT between CIOs (Chief Information Officers) and CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) of the sampled companies and what are the mechanisms to govern massive investment in enterprise IT.Keywords: IT governance, governance of enterprise IT, information system auditing, IT maturity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16892525 Cognitive Weighted Polymorphism Factor: A Comprehension Augmented Complexity Metric
Authors: T. Francis Thamburaj, A. Aloysius
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Polymorphism is one of the main pillars of objectoriented paradigm. It induces hidden forms of class dependencies which may impact software quality, resulting in higher cost factor for comprehending, debugging, testing, and maintaining the software. In this paper, a new cognitive complexity metric called Cognitive Weighted Polymorphism Factor (CWPF) is proposed. Apart from the software structural complexity, it includes the cognitive complexity on the basis of type. The cognitive weights are calibrated based on 27 empirical studies with 120 persons. A case study and experimentation of the new software metric shows positive results. Further, a comparative study is made and the correlation test has proved that CWPF complexity metric is a better, more comprehensive, and more realistic indicator of the software complexity than Abreu’s Polymorphism Factor (PF) complexity metric.Keywords: Cognitive complexity metric, cognitive weighted polymorphism factor, object-oriented metrics, polymorphism factor, software metrics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22262524 Iris Recognition Based On the Low Order Norms of Gradient Components
Authors: Iman A. Saad, Loay E. George
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Iris pattern is an important biological feature of human body; it becomes very hot topic in both research and practical applications. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed for iris recognition and a simple, efficient and fast method is introduced to extract a set of discriminatory features using first order gradient operator applied on grayscale images. The gradient based features are robust, up to certain extents, against the variations may occur in contrast or brightness of iris image samples; the variations are mostly occur due lightening differences and camera changes. At first, the iris region is located, after that it is remapped to a rectangular area of size 360x60 pixels. Also, a new method is proposed for detecting eyelash and eyelid points; it depends on making image statistical analysis, to mark the eyelash and eyelid as a noise points. In order to cover the features localization (variation), the rectangular iris image is partitioned into N overlapped sub-images (blocks); then from each block a set of different average directional gradient densities values is calculated to be used as texture features vector. The applied gradient operators are taken along the horizontal, vertical and diagonal directions. The low order norms of gradient components were used to establish the feature vector. Euclidean distance based classifier was used as a matching metric for determining the degree of similarity between the features vector extracted from the tested iris image and template features vectors stored in the database. Experimental tests were performed using 2639 iris images from CASIA V4-Interival database, the attained recognition accuracy has reached up to 99.92%.
Keywords: Iris recognition, contrast stretching, gradient features, texture features, Euclidean metric.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19652523 The Effect of Transformer’s Vector Group on Retained Voltage Magnitude and Sag Frequency at Industrial Sites Due to Faults
Authors: M. N. Moschakis, V. V. Dafopoulos, I. G. Andritsos, E. S. Karapidakis, J. M. Prousalidis
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This paper deals with the effect of a power transformer’s vector group on the basic voltage sag characteristics during unbalanced faults at a meshed or radial power network. Specifically, the propagation of voltage sags through a power transformer is studied with advanced short-circuit analysis. A smart method to incorporate this effect on analytical mathematical expressions is proposed. Based on this methodology, the positive effect of transformers of certain vector groups on the mitigation of the expected number of voltage sags per year (sag frequency) at the terminals of critical industrial customers can be estimated.
Keywords: Balanced and unbalanced faults, industrial design, phase shift, power quality, power systems, voltage sags (or dips).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 102212522 Biodiversity and Phytosociological Analysis of Plants around the Municipal Drains in Jaunpur
Authors: Ekta Singh, M. P. Singh
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The habitat where the present study has been carried out is productive in relation to nutrient quality and they may perform several useful functions, but are also threatened for their existence. Hence, the proposed work, will add much new information about biodiversity of macrophytes in drains and their embankment. All the species were identified with their different stages of growth which encountered on the three selected sites (I, II and III). The number of species occurring at each site is grouped seasonally, i.e. summer, rainy and winter season and the species were further recorded for the study of phytosociology. Phytosociological characters such as frequency, density and abundance were influenced by the climatic, anthropogenic and biotic stresses prevailing at the three study sites. All the species present at the study sites have shown maximum values of frequency, density and abundance in rainy season in comparison to that of summer and winter seasons.Keywords: Abundance, Biodiversity, Density, Frequency, Macrophytes, Phytosociology.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 32162521 Consumption Pattern and Dietary Practices of Pregnant Women in Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State
Authors: Ademuyiwa, M. O., Sanni, S. A.
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The importance of maternal nutritional practices during pregnancy cannot be overemphasized. This paper assessed the consumption pattern and dietary practices of 50 pregnant women selected using purposive sampling technique from three health care centres (Primary Health Care Centre, Obantoko; Primary Health Care Centre Alabata; and the General Hospital, Odeda) in Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State, Nigeria. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit information on socioeconomic status, consumption pattern and dietary practices. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, 17). The results indicated that about 58% of the pregnant women were below the age of 30 while 42% were ages 28-40 years. Only 16% had tertiary education while (38%) had secondary education, 52% earn income through petty trading. On food intake, 52% got their energy source from rice on a daily basis, followed by pap (38%) and eko (34%). For protein intake, 36% consumed bean cake on a daily basis while 66% consumed moinmoin 2-3 times a week. Orange (48%) and Green Leafy vegetable (40%) accounted for the mostly consumed fruit and vegetable on daily basis. In terms of animal origin, fish (76%), meat (58%) and eggs (30%) were consumed daily, while chicken and snail were consumed occasionally by 54% and 42%, respectively. Forty-six percent (46%) of the pregnant women eat more than three times daily; while 60% of the women eat outside their homes with 42% respondents eat out lunch and only two percent least eaten out dinner. It is important to increase in awareness campaign to sensitize the pregnant women on the importance of good nutrition especially fruits, vegetables and dairy products.
Keywords: Consumption Pattern, Dietary Practices, Pregnant, Women, Nigeria.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 49202520 Suitability of Black Box Approaches for the Reliability Assessment of Component-Based Software
Authors: Anjushi Verma, Tirthankar Gayen
Abstract:
Although, reliability is an important attribute of quality, especially for mission critical systems, yet, there does not exist any versatile model even today for the reliability assessment of component-based software. The existing Black Box models are found to make various assumptions which may not always be realistic and may be quite contrary to the actual behaviour of software. They focus on observing the manner in which the system behaves without considering the structure of the system, the components composing the system, their interconnections, dependencies, usage frequencies, etc.As a result, the entropy (uncertainty) in assessment using these models is much high.Though, there are some models based on operation profile yet sometimes it becomes extremely difficult to obtain the exact operation profile concerned with a given operation. This paper discusses the drawbacks, deficiencies and limitations of Black Box approaches from the perspective of various authors and finally proposes a conceptual model for the reliability assessment of software.
Keywords: Black Box, faults, failure, software reliability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13842519 Process Optimization Regarding Geometrical Variation and Sensitivity Involving Dental Drill- and Implant-Guided Surgeries
Authors: T. Kero, R. Söderberg, M. Andersson, L. Lindkvist
Abstract:
Within dental-guided surgery, there has been a lack of analytical methods for optimizing the treatment of the rehabilitation concepts regarding geometrical variation. The purpose of this study is to find the source of the greatest geometrical variation contributor and sensitivity contributor with the help of virtual variation simulation of a dental drill- and implant-guided surgery process using a methodical approach. It is believed that lower geometrical variation will lead to better patient security and higher quality of dental drill- and implant-guided surgeries. It was found that the origin of the greatest contributor to the most variation, and hence where the foci should be set, in order to minimize geometrical variation was in the assembly category (surgery). This was also the category that was the most sensitive for geometrical variation.Keywords: Variation Simulation, Process Optimization, Guided Surgeries, Dental Prosthesis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1285