Search results for: Quality of Research
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 8216

Search results for: Quality of Research

3356 Block-Based 2D to 3D Image Conversion Method

Authors: S. Sowmyayani, V. Murugan

Abstract:

With the advent of three-dimension (3D) technology, there are lots of research in converting 2D images to 3D images. The main difference between 2D and 3D is the visual illusion of depth in 3D images. In the recent era, there are more depth estimation techniques. The objective of this paper is to convert 2D images to 3D images with less computation time. For this, the input image is divided into blocks from which the depth information is obtained. Having the depth information, a depth map is generated. Then the 3D image is warped using the original image and the depth map. The proposed method is tested on Make3D dataset and NYU-V2 dataset. The experimental results are compared with other recent methods. The proposed method proved to work with less computation time and good accuracy.

Keywords: Depth map, 3D image warping, image rendering, bilateral filter, minimum spanning tree.

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3355 Improving Knowledge Management Practices in the South African Healthcare System

Authors: Kgabo H. Badimo, Sheryl Buckley

Abstract:

Knowledge is increasingly recognised in this, the knowledge era, as a strategic resource, by public sector organisations, in view of the public sector reform initiatives. People and knowledge play a vital role in attaining improved organisational performance and high service quality. Many government departments in the public sector have started to realise the importance of knowledge management in streamlining their operations and processes. This study focused on knowledge management in the public healthcare service organisations, where the concept of service provider competitiveness pales to insignificance, considering the huge challenges emanating from the healthcare and public sector reforms. Many government departments are faced with challenges of improving organisational performance and service delivery, improving accountability, making informed decisions, capturing the knowledge of the aging workforce, and enhancing partnerships with stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to examine the knowledge management practices of the Gauteng Department of Health in South Africa, in order to understand how knowledge management practices influence improvement in organisational performance and healthcare service delivery. This issue is explored through a review of literature on dominant views on knowledge management and healthcare service delivery, as well as results of interviews with, and questionnaire responses from, the general staff of the Gauteng Department of Health. Web-based questionnaires, face-to-face interviews and organisational documents were used to collect data. The data were analysed using both the quantitative and qualitative methods. The central question investigated was: To what extent can the conditions required for successful knowledge management be observed, in order to improve organisational performance and healthcare service delivery in the Gauteng Department of Health. The findings showed that the elements of knowledge management capabilities investigated in this study, namely knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and knowledge application, have a positive, significant relationship with all measures of organisational performance and healthcare service delivery. These findings thus indicate that by employing knowledge management principles, the Gauteng Department of Health could improve its ability to achieve its operational goals and objectives, and solve organisational and healthcare challenges, thereby improving organisational performance and enhancing healthcare service delivery in Gauteng.

Keywords: Knowledge Management, Healthcare Service Delivery, Public Healthcare, Public Sector.

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3354 Electrodermal Activity Measurement Using Constant Current AC Source

Authors: Cristian Chacha, David Asiain, Jesús Ponce de León, José Ramón Beltrán

Abstract:

This work explores and characterizes the behavior of the AFE AD5941 in impedance measurement using an embedded algorithm that allows using a constant current AC source. The main aim of this research is to improve the exact measurement of impedance values for their application in EDA-focused wearable devices. Through comprehensive study and characterization, it has been observed that employing a measurement sequence with a constant current source produces results with increased dispersion but higher accuracy and a more linear behavior with respect to error. As a result, this approach leads to a more accurate system for impedance measurement.

Keywords: Electrodermal Activity, constant current AC source, wearable, precision, accuracy, impedance.

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3353 Evaluation of Japanese Kyoto Park in Terms of User Satisfaction

Authors: Ruhugül Özge Gemici

Abstract:

The need for open space, which is an important problem especially since the 19th century, has become more important in today's conditions. The most important factor in increasing the livability of cities is the open and green areas. Parks are the most important of the urban open and green space elements that provide the most benefit to users. In this context, the user satisfaction of the Japanese Kyoto Park, which is the subject of the research, was evaluated in the light of the questionnaires. With this analysis, the satisfaction level of the user using the park was determined. Suggestions have been developed for the park to be handled and regulated according to the user requests and requirements changing over time.

Keywords: Japanese park, landscape, landscape design, open and green areas.

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3352 Failure Analysis of a 304 Stainless Steel Flange Crack at Pipeline Transportation of Ethylene

Authors: Parisa Hasanpour, Bahram Borooghani, Vahid Asadi

Abstract:

In the current research, a catastrophic failure of a 304 stainless steel flange at pipeline transportation of ethylene in a petrochemical refinery was studied. Cracking was found in the flange after about 78840h service. Through the chemical analysis and tensile tests, in addition to microstructural analysis such as optical microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) on the failed part, it found that the fatigue was responsible for the fracture of the flange, which originated from bumps and depressions on the outer surface and propagated by vibration caused by the working condition.

Keywords: Failure analysis, 304 stainless steel, fatigue, flange, petrochemical refinery.

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3351 Visual-Graphical Methods for Exploring Longitudinal Data

Authors: H. W. Ker

Abstract:

Longitudinal data typically have the characteristics of changes over time, nonlinear growth patterns, between-subjects variability, and the within errors exhibiting heteroscedasticity and dependence. The data exploration is more complicated than that of cross-sectional data. The purpose of this paper is to organize/integrate of various visual-graphical techniques to explore longitudinal data. From the application of the proposed methods, investigators can answer the research questions include characterizing or describing the growth patterns at both group and individual level, identifying the time points where important changes occur and unusual subjects, selecting suitable statistical models, and suggesting possible within-error variance.

Keywords: Data exploration, exploratory analysis, HLMs/LMEs, longitudinal data, visual-graphical methods.

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3350 Noise Factors of RFID-Aided Positioning

Authors: Weng Ian Ho, Seng Fat Wong

Abstract:

In recent years, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is followed with interest by many researches, especially for the purpose of indoor positioning as the innate properties of RFID are profitable for achieving it. A lot of algorithms or schemes are proposed to be used in the RFID-based positioning system, but most of them are lack of environmental consideration and it induces inaccuracy of application. In this research, a lot of algorithms and schemes of RFID indoor positioning are discussed to see whether effective or not on application, and some rules are summarized for achieving accurate positioning. On the other hand, a new term “Noise Factor" is involved to describe the signal loss between the target and the obstacle. As a result, experimental data can be obtained but not only simulation; and the performance of the positioning system can be expressed substantially.

Keywords: Indoor positioning, LANDMARC, noise factors, RFID.

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3349 Primary School Principals in Turkey: Their Working Conditions and Professional Profiles

Authors: Ali I. Gumuseli

Abstract:

In order to achieve effective management, the professional and individual characteristics and qualifications of school principals and their system-oriented perception is very important. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct regular comprehensive studies into the profiles of school principals. The purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of primary school principals about their working conditions and to present their professional profiles. The questionnaire was distributed to 1475 respondents and 1428 valid questionnaires were evaluated. The results of the research were discussed and compared to other similar studies.Keywordseducation, education management, primary school principal, principals profiles

Keywords: education, education management, primary school principal, principals profiles

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3348 A Framework for the Analysis of the Stereotypes in Accounting

Authors: Nadia Albu, Cătălin Nicolae Albu, Mădălina Maria Gîrbină, Maria Iuliana Sandu

Abstract:

Professions are concerned about the public image they have, and this public image is represented by stereotypes. Research is needed to understand how accountants are perceived by different actors in the society in different contexts, which would allow universities, professional bodies and employers to adjust their strategies to attract the right people to the profession and their organizations. We aim to develop in this paper a framework to be used in empirical testing in different environments to determine and analyze the accountant-s stereotype. This framework will be useful in analyzing the nuances associated to the accountant-s image and in understanding the factors that may lead to uniformity in the profession and of those leading to diversity from one context (country, type of countries, region) to another.

Keywords: accounting profession, accounting stereotype, framework, public image

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3347 MovieReco: A Recommendation System

Authors: Dipankaj G Medhi, Juri Dakua

Abstract:

Recommender Systems act as personalized decision guides, aiding users in decisions on matters related to personal taste. Most previous research on Recommender Systems has focused on the statistical accuracy of the algorithms driving the systems, with no emphasis on the trustworthiness of the user. RS depends on information provided by different users to gather its knowledge. We believe, if a large group of users provide wrong information it will not be possible for the RS to arrive in an accurate conclusion. The system described in this paper introduce the concept of Testing the knowledge of user to filter out these “bad users". This paper emphasizes on the mechanism used to provide robust and effective recommendation.

Keywords: Collaborative Filtering, Content Based Filtering, Intelligent Agent, Level of Interest, Recommendation System.

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3346 Performance of Nine Different Types of PV Modules in the Tropical Region

Authors: Jiang Fan

Abstract:

With growth of PV market in tropical region, it is necessary to investigate the performance of different types of PV technology under the tropical weather conditions. Singapore Polytechnic was funded by Economic Development Board (EDB) to set up a solar PV test-bed for the research on performance of different types of PV modules in the country. The PV test-bed installed the nine different types of PV systems that are integrated to power utility grid for monitoring and analyzing their operating performances. This paper presents the 12 months operational data of nine different PV systems and analyses on performances of installed PV systems using energy yield and performance ratio. The nine types of PV systems under test have shown their energy yields ranging from 2.67 to 3.36 kWh/kWp and their performance ratios (PRs) ranging from 70% to 88%.

Keywords: Monocrystalline, Multicrystalline, Amorphous Silicon, Cadmium Telluride and thin film PV.

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3345 Knowledge Management Model for Modern Retail Business: A Conceptual Framework

Authors: M. W. Yip, H. H. Ng, S. Din, N. Abu Bakar

Abstract:

This paper reviewed the relationships between the Knowledge Management (KM) activities and its perceived benefits in the knowledge based organisations. KM activities include: knowledge identification, knowledge acquisition, knowledge application, knowledge sharing, knowledge creation and knowledge preservation. And the perceived benefits of KM are fast customer responsiveness, operation excellence and high innovative intensity.  Based on the above review, a conceptual framework for KM implementation in retail business organisations has been proposed. Finally the paper forwarded some limitations of the framework and based on which, directions for future research had been suggested.

Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Management Activities, Retail Business, Knowledge Economy.

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3344 Application of Computational Intelligence for Sensor Fault Detection and Isolation

Authors: A. Jabbari, R. Jedermann, W. Lang

Abstract:

The new idea of this research is application of a new fault detection and isolation (FDI) technique for supervision of sensor networks in transportation system. In measurement systems, it is necessary to detect all types of faults and failures, based on predefined algorithm. Last improvements in artificial neural network studies (ANN) led to using them for some FDI purposes. In this paper, application of new probabilistic neural network features for data approximation and data classification are considered for plausibility check in temperature measurement. For this purpose, two-phase FDI mechanism was considered for residual generation and evaluation.

Keywords: Fault detection and Isolation, Neural network, Temperature measurement, measurement approximation and classification.

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3343 Thai Prosody Problems with First Year Students

Authors: Jiraporn Adchariyaprasit

Abstract:

Thai language is difficult in all four language skills, especially reading. The first year students may have different abilities in reading, so a teacher is required to find out a student’s reading level so that the teacher can help and support them till they can develop and resolve each problem themselves. This research is aimed to study the prosody problem among Thai students and will be focused on first year Thai students in the second semester. A total of 58 students were involved in this study. Four obstacles were found: 1. Interpretation from what they read and write 2. Incorrectness Pronunciation of Prosody 3. Incorrectness in Rhythm of the Poem 4. Incorrectness of the Thai Poem Pronunciation

Keywords: Interpretation, Pronunciation, Prosody, Reading.

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3342 Comparative Approach of Measuring Price Risk on Romanian and International Wheat Market

Authors: Larisa N. Pop, Irina M. Ban

Abstract:

This paper aims to present the main instruments used in the economic literature for measuring the price risk, pointing out on the advantages brought by the conditional variance in this respect. The theoretical approach will be exemplified by elaborating an EGARCH model for the price returns of wheat, both on Romanian and on international market. To our knowledge, no previous empirical research, either on price risk measurement for the Romanian markets or studies that use the ARIMA-EGARCH methodology, have been conducted. After estimating the corresponding models, the paper will compare the estimated conditional variance on the two markets.

Keywords: conditional variance, GARCH models, price risk, volatility

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3341 Investigation on Behavior of Fixed-Ended Reinforced Concrete Deep Beams

Authors: Y. Heyrani Birak, R. Hizaji, J. Shahkarami

Abstract:

Reinforced Concrete (RC) deep beams are special structural elements because of their geometry and behavior under loads. For example, assumption of strain- stress distribution is not linear in the cross section. These types of beams may have simple supports or fixed supports. A lot of research works have been conducted on simply supported deep beams, but little study has been done in the fixed-end RC deep beams behavior. Recently, using of fixed-ended deep beams has been widely increased in structures. In this study, the behavior of fixed-ended deep beams is investigated, and the important parameters in capacity of this type of beams are mentioned.

Keywords: Deep beam, capacity, reinforced concrete, fixed-ended.

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3340 Efficient Web Usage Mining Based on K-Medoids Clustering Technique

Authors: P. Sengottuvelan, T. Gopalakrishnan

Abstract:

Web Usage Mining is the application of data mining techniques to find usage patterns from web log data, so as to grasp required patterns and serve the requirements of Web-based applications. User’s expertise on the internet may be improved by minimizing user’s web access latency. This may be done by predicting the future search page earlier and the same may be prefetched and cached. Therefore, to enhance the standard of web services, it is needed topic to research the user web navigation behavior. Analysis of user’s web navigation behavior is achieved through modeling web navigation history. We propose this technique which cluster’s the user sessions, based on the K-medoids technique.

Keywords: Clustering, K-medoids, Recommendation, User Session, Web Usage Mining.

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3339 Risk Allocation in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Projects for Wastewater Treatment Plants

Authors: Samuel Capintero, Ole H. Petersen

Abstract:

This paper examines the utilization of public-private partnerships for the building and operation of wastewater treatment plants. Our research focuses on risk allocation in this kind of projects. Our analysis builds on more than hundred wastewater treatment plants built and operated through PPP projects in Aragon (Spain). The paper illustrates the consequences of an inadequate management of construction risk and an unsuitable transfer of demand risk in wastewater treatment plants. It also shows that the involvement of many public bodies at local, regional and national level further increases the complexity of this kind of projects and make time delays more likely.

Keywords: Wastewater, treatment plants, PPP, construction.

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3338 Model of Obstacle Avoidance on Hard Disk Drive Manufacturing with Distance Constraint

Authors: Rawinun Praserttaweelap, Somyot Kiatwanidvilai

Abstract:

Obstacle avoidance is the one key for the robot system in unknown environment. The robots should be able to know their position and safety region. This research starts on the path planning which are SLAM and AMCL in ROS system. In addition, the best parameters of the obstacle avoidance function are required. In situation on Hard Disk Drive Manufacturing, the distance between robots and obstacles are very serious due to the manufacturing constraint. The simulations are accomplished by the SLAM and AMCL with adaptive velocity and safety region calculation.

Keywords: Obstacle avoidance, simultaneous localization and mapping, adaptive Monte Carlo localization, KLD sampling.

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3337 Selection of Relevant Servers in Distributed Information Retrieval System

Authors: Benhamouda Sara, Guezouli Larbi

Abstract:

Nowadays, the dissemination of information touches the distributed world, where selecting the relevant servers to a user request is an important problem in distributed information retrieval. During the last decade, several research studies on this issue have been launched to find optimal solutions and many approaches of collection selection have been proposed. In this paper, we propose a new collection selection approach that takes into consideration the number of documents in a collection that contains terms of the query and the weights of those terms in these documents. We tested our method and our studies show that this technique can compete with other state-of-the-art algorithms that we choose to test the performance of our approach.

Keywords: Distributed information retrieval, relevance, server selection, collection selection.

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3336 Factors of English Language Learning and Acquisition at Bisha College of Technology

Authors: Khalid Albishi

Abstract:

This paper participates in giving new vision and explains the learning and acquisition processes of English language by analyzing a certain context. Five important factors in English language acquisition and learning are discussed and suitable solutions are provided. The factors are compared with the learners' linguistic background at Bisha College of Technology BCT attempting to link the issues faced by students and the research done on similar situations. These factors are phonology, age of acquisition, motivation, psychology and courses of English. These factors are very important; because they interfere and affect specific learning processes at BCT context and general English learning situations.

Keywords: Acquisition, age, factors, language, learning.

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3335 The Effect of a Muscarinic Antagonist on the Lipase Activity

Authors: Zohreh Bayat, Dariush Minai-Tehrani

Abstract:

Lipases constitute one of the most important groups of industrial enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of triacylglycerol to glycerol and fatty acids. Muscarinic antagonist relieves smooth muscle spasm of the gastrointestinal tract and effect on the cardiovascular system. In this research the effect of a muscarinic antagonist on the lipase activity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was studied. Lineweaver–Burk plot showed that the drug inhibited the enzyme by competitive inhibition. The IC50 value (0.16 mM) and Ki (0.03 mM) of the drug revealed the drug bound to enzyme with high affinity. Determination of enzyme activity in various pH and temperature showed that the maximum activity of lipase was at pH 8 and 60oC both in presence and absence of the drug.

Keywords: Bacteria, inhibition, kinetics, lipase.

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3334 Attentiveness of Building Commissioning in the Malaysian Construction Industry

Authors: Kho Mei Ye, Hamzah Abdul Rahman

Abstract:

This paper provides some thoughts about the lack of attentiveness of building commissioning in the construction industry and the lack of handling in project commissioning as an integral part of the project life-cycle. Many have perceived commissioning as the problem solving process of a project, rather than the start up of the equipment, or the handing over of the project to the client. Therefore, there is a lack of proper attention in the planning of commissioning as a vital part of the project life-cycle. This review paper aims to highlight the benefits of building commissioning and to propose the lacking of knowledge gap on building commissioning. Finally, this paper hopes to propose the shift of focus on this matter in future research.

Keywords: building, commissioning, construction, delay

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3333 An Overview of Energy Efficient Routing Protocols for Acoustic Sensor Network

Authors: V. P. Dhivya, R. Arthi

Abstract:

Underwater acoustic network is one of the rapidly growing areas of research and finds different applications for monitoring and collecting various data for environmental studies. The communication among dynamic nodes and high error probability in an acoustic medium forced to maximize energy consumption in Underwater Sensor Networks (USN) than in traditional sensor networks. Developing energy-efficient routing protocol is the fundamental and a curb challenge because all the sensor nodes are powered by batteries, and they cannot be easily replaced in UWSNs. This paper surveys the various recent routing techniques that mainly focus on energy efficiency.

Keywords: Acoustic channels, Energy efficiency, Routing in sensor networks, Underwater Sensor Network.

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3332 Development of an Automatic Calibration Framework for Hydrologic Modelling Using Approximate Bayesian Computation

Authors: A. Chowdhury, P. Egodawatta, J. M. McGree, A. Goonetilleke

Abstract:

Hydrologic models are increasingly used as tools to predict stormwater quantity and quality from urban catchments. However, due to a range of practical issues, most models produce gross errors in simulating complex hydraulic and hydrologic systems. Difficulty in finding a robust approach for model calibration is one of the main issues. Though automatic calibration techniques are available, they are rarely used in common commercial hydraulic and hydrologic modelling software e.g. MIKE URBAN. This is partly due to the need for a large number of parameters and large datasets in the calibration process. To overcome this practical issue, a framework for automatic calibration of a hydrologic model was developed in R platform and presented in this paper. The model was developed based on the time-area conceptualization. Four calibration parameters, including initial loss, reduction factor, time of concentration and time-lag were considered as the primary set of parameters. Using these parameters, automatic calibration was performed using Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC). ABC is a simulation-based technique for performing Bayesian inference when the likelihood is intractable or computationally expensive to compute. To test the performance and usefulness, the technique was used to simulate three small catchments in Gold Coast. For comparison, simulation outcomes from the same three catchments using commercial modelling software, MIKE URBAN were used. The graphical comparison shows strong agreement of MIKE URBAN result within the upper and lower 95% credible intervals of posterior predictions as obtained via ABC. Statistical validation for posterior predictions of runoff result using coefficient of determination (CD), root mean square error (RMSE) and maximum error (ME) was found reasonable for three study catchments. The main benefit of using ABC over MIKE URBAN is that ABC provides a posterior distribution for runoff flow prediction, and therefore associated uncertainty in predictions can be obtained. In contrast, MIKE URBAN just provides a point estimate. Based on the results of the analysis, it appears as though ABC the developed framework performs well for automatic calibration.

Keywords: Automatic calibration framework, approximate Bayesian computation, hydrologic and hydraulic modelling, MIKE URBAN software, R platform.

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3331 Optimizing Machine Vision System Setup Accuracy by Six-Sigma DMAIC Approach

Authors: Joseph C. Chen

Abstract:

Machine vision system provides automatic inspection to reduce manufacturing costs considerably. However, only a few principles have been found to optimize machine vision system and help it function more accurately in industrial practice. Mostly, there were complicated and impractical design techniques to improve the accuracy of machine vision system. This paper discusses implementing the Six Sigma Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) approach to optimize the setup parameters of machine vision system when it is used as a direct measurement technique. This research follows a case study showing how Six Sigma DMAIC methodology has been put into use.

Keywords: DMAIC, machine vision system, process capability, Taguchi parameter design.

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3330 Ontology-Based Systemizing of the Science Information Devoted to Waste Utilizing by Methanogenesis

Authors: Ye. Shapovalov, V. Shapovalov, O. Stryzhak, A. Salyuk

Abstract:

Over the past decades, amount of scientific information has been growing exponentially. It became more complicated to process and systemize this amount of data. The approach to systematization of scientific information on the production of biogas based on the ontological IT platform “T.O.D.O.S.” has been developed. It has been proposed to select semantic characteristics of each work for their further introduction into the IT platform “T.O.D.O.S.”. An ontological graph with a ranking function for previous scientific research and for a system of selection of microorganisms has been worked out. These systems provide high performance of information management of scientific information.

Keywords: Ontology-based analysis, analysis of scientific data, methanogenesys, microorganism hierarchy, T.O.D.O.S.

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3329 Effects of Dust on the Performance of PV Panels

Authors: Shaharin A. Sulaiman, Haizatul H. Hussain, Nik Siti H. Nik Leh, Mohd S. I. Razali

Abstract:

Accumulation of dust from the outdoor environment on the panels of solar photovoltaic (PV) system is natural. There were studies that showed that the accumulated dust can reduce the performance of solar panels, but the results were not clearly quantified. The objective of this research was to study the effects of dust accumulation on the performance of solar PV panels. Experiments were conducted using dust particles on solar panels with a constant-power light source, to determine the resulting electrical power generated and efficiency. It was found from the study that the accumulated dust on the surface of photovoltaic solar panel can reduce the system-s efficiency by up to 50%.

Keywords: Dust, Photovoltaic, Solar Energy.

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3328 Transaction Costs in Institutional Environment and Entry Mode Choice

Authors: K. D. Mroczek

Abstract:

In the study presented institutional context is discussed in terms of companies’ entry mode choice. In contrary to many previous analyses, instead of using one or two aggregated variables, a set of eleven determinants is used to establish equity and non-equity internationalization friendly conditions. Based on secondary data, 140 countries are analyzed and grouped into clusters revealing similar framework. The range of the economies explored is wide as it covers all regions distinguished by The World Bank. The results can prove a useful alternative for operationalization of institutional variables in further research concerning entry modes or strategic management in international markets.

Keywords: Clustering, entry mode choice, institutional environment, transaction costs.

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3327 Theoretical Investigation of Steel Plated Girder Resistance

Authors: J. Kala, J. Melcher, M. Škaloud, Z. Kala

Abstract:

In the paper, the results of sensitivity analysis of the influence of initial imperfections on the web stress state of a thinwalled girder are presented. The results of the study corroborate a very good and effective agreement of experiments with theory. Most input random quantities were found experimentally. The change of sensitivity coefficients in dependence on working load value is analysed. The stress was analysed by means of a geometrically and materially non-linear solution by applying the program ANSYS. This research study offers important background for theoretical studies of stability problems, post-critical effects and limit states of thin-walled steel structures.

Keywords: Buckling, Fatigue, Imperfection, Steel, Sensitivity analysis.

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