Search results for: Comparison of political issue dimensions

Authors: Marco Antonio Lara De la Calleja, María Catalina Ovando Chico, Eduardo Lopez Ruiz

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Community empowerment has been proved to be a key element in the solution of the food security problem. As a result of a conceptual analysis, it was found that agricultural production, economic development and governance, are the traditional basis of food security models. Although the literature points to social inclusion as an important factor for food security, no model has considered it as the basis of it. The aim of this research is to identify different dimensions that make an integral model for food security, with emphasis on community empowerment. A diagnosis was made in the study community (Tatoxcac, Zacapoaxtla, Puebla), to know the aspects that impact the level of food insecurity. With a statistical sample integrated by 200 families, the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA) was applied, finding that: in households composed by adults and children, have moderated food insecurity, (ELCSA scale has three levels, low, moderated and high); that result is produced mainly by the economic income capacity and the diversity of the diet on its food. With that being said, a model was developed to promote food security through five dimensions: 1. Regional context of the community; 2. Structure and system of local food; 3. Health and nutrition; 4. Information and technology access; and 5. Self-awareness and empowerment. The specific actions on each axis of the model, allowed a systemic approach needed to attend food security in the community, through the empowerment of society. It is concluded that the self-awareness of local communities is an area of extreme importance, which must be taken into account for participatory schemes to improve food security. In the long term, the model requires the integrated participation of different actors, such as government, companies and universities, to solve something such vital as food security.

Keywords: Community empowerment, food security, model, systemic approach.

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Authors: Mamidi Ramakrishna Rao

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Doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) is currently the choice for many wind turbines. These generators, when connected to the grid through a converter, is subjected to varied power system conditions like voltage variation, frequency variation, short circuit fault conditions, etc. Further, many countries like Canada, Germany, UK, Scotland, etc. have distinct grid codes relating to wind turbines. Accordingly, following the network faults, wind turbines have to supply a definite reactive current. To satisfy the requirements including reactive current capability, an optimum electrical design becomes a mandate for DFIG to function. This paper intends to optimize the equivalent circuit parameters of an electrical design for satisfactory DFIG performance. Direct search method has been used for optimization of the parameters. The variables selected include electromagnetic core dimensions (diameters and stack length), slot dimensions, radial air gap between stator and rotor and winding copper cross section area. Optimization for 2 MW DFIG has been executed separately for three objective functions - maximum reactive power capability (Case I), maximum efficiency (Case II) and minimum weight (Case III). In the optimization analysis program, voltage variations (10%), power factor- leading and lagging (0.95), speeds for corresponding to slips (-0.3 to +0.3) have been considered. The optimum designs obtained for objective functions were compared. It can be concluded that direct search method of optimization helps in determining an optimum electrical design for each objective function like efficiency or reactive power capability or weight minimization.

Keywords: Direct search, DFIG, equivalent circuit parameters, optimization.

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Authors: P. Meethum, C. Suvanjumrat

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Many aluminum motorcycle parts produced by a high pressure die casting. Some parts such as fuel caps were a thin and complex shape. This part risked for porosities and blisters on surface if it only depended on an experience of mold makers for mold design. This research attempted to use CAST-DESIGNER software simulated the high pressure die casting process with the same process parameters of a motorcycle fuel cap production. The simulated results were compared with fuel cap products and expressed the same porosity and blister locations on cap surface. An average of absolute difference of simulated results was obtained 0.094 mm when compared the simulated porosity and blister defect sizes on the fuel cap surfaces with the experimental micro photography. This comparison confirmed an accuracy of software and will use the setting parameters to improve fuel cap molds in the further work.

Keywords: Aluminum, die casting, fuel cap, motorcycle.

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Authors: Pimmada Wichasin, Nuntiya Doungphummes

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While service quality is acceptably most valued in the tourism industry, the issue of safety and security plays a key role in sustaining the industry success. Such an issue has been part of Thailand-s tourism development and promotion for several years. Evidently, the Tourist Police Department was set up for this purpose. Its main responsibility is to deal with international tourists- safety and confidence in travelling within Thai territory. However, to strengthen the tourism safety of the country, it is important to better understand international tourists- safety concerns about Thailand. This article seeks to compare international tourists- safety needs and Thai tourist polices- perception towards the tourists- safety concern to determine what measure should be taken to assure the tourist of Thailand-s secure environment. Through the employment of quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches, the tourism safety need of international tourists from Europe, North America and Asia was excavated, how Thai tourist polices and local polices perceived the international tourist-s safety concern was investigated, and opinion and experiences about how the police deal with international tourists- problems in eight touristic areas were also explored. A comparative result reveals a certain degrees of differences in international tourists- safety needs and Thai polices- perception towards their needs. The tourism safety prevention and protection measure and practice are also suggested.

Keywords: Tourism risk, Tourism safety, Travel safety need, Travelling in Thailand

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Authors: Michal Mardiak, Jaroslav Polec

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In this paper we proposed comparison of four content based objective metrics with results of subjective tests from 80 video sequences. We also include two objective metrics VQM and SSIM to our comparison to serve as “reference” objective metrics because their pros and cons have already been published. Each of the video sequence was preprocessed by the region recognition algorithm and then the particular objective video quality metric were calculated i.e. mutual information, angular distance, moment of angle and normalized cross-correlation measure. The Pearson coefficient was calculated to express metrics relationship to accuracy of the model and the Spearman rank order correlation coefficient to represent the metrics relationship to monotonicity. The results show that model with the mutual information as objective metric provides best result and it is suitable for evaluating quality of video sequences.

Keywords: Objective quality metrics, mutual information, region recognition, content based metrics

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Authors: Stamatios A. Theocharis, George A. Tsihrintzis

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e-Government is already in its second decade. Prerequisite for further development and adaptation to new realities is the optimal management of administrative information and knowledge production by those involved, i.e. the public sector, citizens and businesses. Nowadays, the amount of information displayed or distributed on the Internet has reached enormous dimensions, resulting in serious difficulties when extracting and managing knowledge. The semantic web is expected to play an important role in solving this problem and the technologies that support it. In this article, we address some relevant issues.

Keywords: e-Government, semantic web, ontologies

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Authors: Roman Graf, Sergiu Gordea, Heather M. Ryan

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This paper presents an approach for easy creation and classification of institutional risk profiles supporting endangerment analysis of file formats. The main contribution of this work is the employment of data mining techniques to support set up of the most important risk factors. Subsequently, risk profiles employ risk factors classifier and associated configurations to support digital preservation experts with a semi-automatic estimation of endangerment group for file format risk profiles. Our goal is to make use of an expert knowledge base, accuired through a digital preservation survey in order to detect preservation risks for a particular institution. Another contribution is support for visualisation of risk factors for a requried dimension for analysis. Using the naive Bayes method, the decision support system recommends to an expert the matching risk profile group for the previously selected institutional risk profile. The proposed methods improve the visibility of risk factor values and the quality of a digital preservation process. The presented approach is designed to facilitate decision making for the preservation of digital content in libraries and archives using domain expert knowledge and values of file format risk profiles. To facilitate decision-making, the aggregated information about the risk factors is presented as a multidimensional vector. The goal is to visualise particular dimensions of this vector for analysis by an expert and to define its profile group. The sample risk profile calculation and the visualisation of some risk factor dimensions is presented in the evaluation section.

Keywords: linked open data, information integration, digital libraries, data mining.

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Authors: Wei Zhang, Su-Yan Tang, Yi-Fan Zhu, Wei-Ping Wang

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Support vector regression (SVR) has been regarded as a state-of-the-art method for approximation and regression. The importance of kernel function, which is so-called admissible support vector kernel (SV kernel) in SVR, has motivated many studies on its composition. The Gaussian kernel (RBF) is regarded as a “best" choice of SV kernel used by non-expert in SVR, whereas there is no evidence, except for its superior performance on some practical applications, to prove the statement. Its well-known that reproducing kernel (R.K) is also a SV kernel which possesses many important properties, e.g. positive definiteness, reproducing property and composing complex R.K by simpler ones. However, there are a limited number of R.Ks with explicit forms and consequently few quantitative comparison studies in practice. In this paper, two R.Ks, i.e. SV kernels, composed by the sum and product of a translation invariant kernel in a Sobolev space are proposed. An exploratory study on the performance of SVR based general R.K is presented through a systematic comparison to that of RBF using multiple criteria and synthetic problems. The results show that the R.K is an equivalent or even better SV kernel than RBF for the problems with more input variables (more than 5, especially more than 10) and higher nonlinearity.

Keywords: admissible support vector kernel, reproducing kernel, reproducing kernel Hilbert space, support vector regression.

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Authors: V. Girondel, L. Bonnaud, A. Caplier, M. Rombaut

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This paper presents various classifiers results from a system that can automatically recognize four different static human body postures in video sequences. The considered postures are standing, sitting, squatting, and lying. The three classifiers considered are a naïve one and two based on the belief theory. The belief theory-based classifiers use either a classic or restricted plausibility criterion to make a decision after data fusion. The data come from the people 2D segmentation and from their face localization. Measurements consist in distances relative to a reference posture. The efficiency and the limits of the different classifiers on the recognition system are highlighted thanks to the analysis of a great number of results. This system allows real-time processing.

Keywords: Belief theory, classifiers comparison, data fusion, human motion analysis, real-time processing, static posture recognition.

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Authors: G. Sai Kiran , A. Kailasa Rao, R . Pradeep Kumar

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In recent years, the introduction of Pre Engineered Building (PEB) concept in the design of structures has helped in optimizing design. The adoptability of PEB in the place of Conventional Steel Building (CSB) design concept resulted in many advantages, including economy and easier fabrication. In this study, an industrial structure (Ware House) is analyzed and designed according to the Indian standards, IS 800-1984, IS 800-2007 and also by referring MBMA-96 and AISC-89. In this study, a structure with length 187m,width 40m,with clear height 8m and having R-Slope 1:10,isconsidered to carry out analysis& design for 2D frames (End frame, frame without crane and frame with 3 module cranes). The economy of the structure is discussed in terms of its weight comparison, between Indian codes (IS800-1984, IS800-2007) & American code (MBMA-96), & between Indian codes (IS800-1984, IS800-2007).

Keywords: AISC, Crane Beam, MBMA, Pre-Engineered-Buildings, Staad Pro, Utilization Ratio.

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Authors: Shekhar Parajulee

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Nepal practiced a centralized unitary governing system for long and has gone through the federal system after the promulgation of the new constitution on 20 September 2015. There is a big paradigm shift in terms of governance after it. Now, there are three levels of governments, one federal government in the center, seven provincial governments and 753 local governments. Federalism refers to a political governing system with multiple tiers of government working together with coordination. It is preferred for self and shared rule. Though it has opened the door for rights of the people, political stability, state restructuring, and sustainable peace and development, there are many prospects and challenges for its proper implementation. This research analyzes the discourses of federalism implementation in Nepal with special reference to one of seven provinces, Gandaki. Federalism is a new phenomenon in Nepali politics and informed debates on it are required for its right evolution. This research will add value in this regard. Moreover, tracking its evolution and the exploration of the attitudes and behaviors of key actors and stakeholders in a new experiment of a new governing system is also important. The administrative and political system of Gandaki province in terms of service delivery and development will critically be examined. Besides demonstrating the performances of the provincial government and assembly, it will analyze the inter-governmental relation of Gandaki with the other two tiers of government. For this research, people from provincial and local governments (elected representatives and government employees), provincial assembly members, academicians, civil society leaders and journalists are being interviewed. The interview findings will be analyzed by supplementing with published documents. Just going into the federal structure is not the solution. As in the case of other provincial governments, Gandaki also had to start from scratch. It gradually took a shape of government and has been functioning sluggishly. The provincial government has many challenges ahead, which has badly hindered its plans and actions. Additionally, fundamental laws, infrastructures and human resources are found to be insufficient at the sub-national level. Lack of clarity in the jurisdiction is another main challenge. The Nepali Constitution assumes cooperation, coexistence and coordination as the fundamental principles of federalism which, unfortunately, appear to be lacking among the three tiers of government despite their efforts. Though the devolution of power to sub-national governments is essential for the successful implementation of federalism, it has apparently been delayed due to the centralized mentality of bureaucracy as well as a political leader. This research will highlight the reasons for the delay in the implementation of federalism. There might be multiple underlying reasons for the slow pace of implementation of federalism and identifying them is very tough. Moreover, the federal spirit is found to be absent in the main players of today's political system, which is a big irony. So, there are some doubts about whether the federal system in Nepal is just a keepsake or a substantive achievement.

Keywords: federalism, inter-governmental relations, Nepal, provincial government

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Authors: V. Musalimov, I. Stepanov, Y. Monahov, A. Safonov

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This report examines the current state of human gait simulator development based on the human hip joint model. This unit will create a database of human gait types, useful for setting up and calibrating Mechano devices, as well as the creation of new systems of rehabilitation, exoskeletons and walking robots. The system has many opportunities to configure the dimensions and stiffness, while maintaining relative simplicity.

Keywords: Hip joint, human gait, physiotherapy, simulation.

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Authors: M. Raciti Castelli, G. Grandi, E. Benini

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This paper presents a study of laminar to turbulent transition on a profile specifically designed for wind turbine blades, the DU91-W2-250, which belongs to a class of wind turbine dedicated airfoils, developed by Delft University of Technology. A comparison between the experimental behavior of the airfoil studied at Delft wind tunnel and the numerical predictions of the commercial CFD solver ANSYS FLUENT® has been performed. The prediction capabilities of the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model and of the γ-θ Transitional model have been tested. A sensitivity analysis of the numerical results to the spatial domain discretization has also been performed using four different computational grids, which have been created using the mesher GAMBIT®. The comparison between experimental measurements and CFD results have allowed to determine the importance of the numerical prediction of the laminar to turbulent transition, in order not to overestimate airfoil friction drag due to a fully turbulent-regime flow computation.

Keywords: CFD, wind turbine, DU91-W2-250, laminar to turbulent transition.

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Authors: James Dunia, Bakari M. M. Mwinyiwiwa

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Photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the most important energy resources since it is clean, pollution free, and endless. Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is used in photovoltaic (PV) systems to maximize the photovoltaic output power, irrespective the variations of temperature and radiation conditions. This paper presents a comparison between Ćuk and SEPIC converter in maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of photovoltaic (PV) system. In the paper, advantages and disadvantages of both converters are described. Incremental conductance control method has been used as maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm. The two converters and MPPT algorithm were modelled using MATLAB/Simulink software for simulation. Simulation results show that both Ćuk and SEPIC converters can track the maximum power point with some minor variations. 

Keywords: Ćuk Converter, Incremental Conductance, Maximum Power Point Tracking, PV Module, SEPIC Converter.

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Authors: Cesar Hernández, Diego Giral, Fernando Santa

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Spectrum handover is a significant topic in the cognitive radio networks to assure an efficient data transmission in the cognitive radio user’s communications. This paper proposes a comparison between three spectrum handover models: VIKOR, SAW and MEW. Four evaluation metrics are used. These metrics are, accumulative average of failed handover, accumulative average of handover performed, accumulative average of transmission bandwidth and, accumulative average of the transmission delay. As a difference with related work, the performance of the three spectrum handover models was validated with captured data of spectrum occupancy in experiments performed at the GSM frequency band (824 MHz - 849 MHz). These data represent the actual behavior of the licensed users for this wireless frequency band. The results of the comparison show that VIKOR Algorithm provides a 15.8% performance improvement compared to SAW Algorithm and, it is 12.1% better than the MEW Algorithm.

Keywords: Cognitive radio, decision making, MEW, SAW, spectrum handover, VIKOR.

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Authors: D. M. Cocârță, I. A. Istrate, C. Streche, D. M. Dumitru

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Soil contamination phenomena are a wide world issue that has received the important attention in the last decades. The main pollutants that have affected soils are especially those resulted from the oil extraction, transport and processing. This paper presents results obtained in the framework of a research project focused on the management of contaminated sites with petroleum products/ REMPET. One of the specific objectives of the REMPET project was to assess the electrochemical treatment (improved with polarity change respect to the typical approach) as a treatment option for the remediation of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) from contaminated soils. Petroleum hydrocarbon compounds attach to soil components and are difficult to remove and degrade. Electrochemical treatment is a physicochemical treatment that has gained acceptance as an alternative method, for the remediation of organic contaminated soils comparing with the traditional methods as bioremediation and chemical oxidation. This type of treatment need short time and have high removal efficiency, being usually applied in heterogeneous soils with low permeability. During the experimental tests, the following parameters were monitored: pH, redox potential, humidity, current intensity, energy consumption. The electrochemical method was applied in an experimental setup with the next dimensions: 450 mm x 150 mm x 150 mm (L x l x h). The setup length was devised in three electrochemical cells that were connected at two power supplies. The power supplies configuration was provided in such manner that each cell has a cathode and an anode without overlapping. The initial value of TPH concentration in soil was of 1420.28 mg/kg_dw. The remediation method has been applied for only 21 days, when it was already noticed an average removal efficiency of 31 %, with better results in the anode area respect to the cathode one (33% respect to 27%). The energy consumption registered after the development of the experiment was 10.6 kWh for exterior power supply and 16.1 kWh for the interior one. Taking into account that at national level, the most used methods for soil remediation are bioremediation (which needs too much time to be implemented and depends on many factors) and thermal desorption (which involves high costs in order to be implemented), the study of electrochemical treatment will give an alternative to these two methods (and their limitations).

Keywords: Electrochemical remediation, pollution, soil contamination, total petroleum hydrocarbons

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Authors: Ezinne M. Igwe

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Statements of facts have been made about Nollywood, a segment of the Nigerian film industry that has in recent times become phenomenal due largely to its quantity of production and specific production style. In the face of recent transformations reshaping the industry, matters have been arising which have not been given due academic attention from an industry player perspective. While re-addressing such issues like structure, policy and informality, this study benefits from a new perspective – that of a community member adopting participant observation to research into a familiar culture. With data drawn from an extensive ethnographic study of the industry, this paper examines these matters with an emphasis on structure and the industry’s overall political economy. Drawing from discourses on the new and old Nollywood labels and other current matters arising within the industry such as the MOPICON bill redraft, corporate financing and possibilities of regeneration, this paper examines structure and power struggle within Nollywood. These are championing regenerative processes that bring about formalization, professionalism and the quest for a transnational presence, which have only been superficially evaluated. Focused essentially on Nollywood’s political economy, this study critically analyses the transforming face of an informal industry, the consistent quest for structure, quality and standard, and issues of corporate sponsorship as possible trends of regeneration. It evaluates them as indicators of regeneration, questioning the possibilities of their sustenance in an industry experiencing increased interactions with the formal economy and an influx of young professionals. With findings that make sustained regeneration both certain (due to increased formal economy interaction) and uncertain (due to the dysfunctionality of the society and its political system), it concludes that the transforming face of the industry suggests impending gentrification of the industry.

Keywords: Formalization, MOPICON, Nollywood, Structure.

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Authors: Daniel Tarrazó-Serrano, Sergio Pérez-López, Sergio Castiñeira-Ibáñez, Pilar Candelas, Constanza Rubio

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Zone Plates (ZPs) are used in many areas of physics where planar fabrication is advantageous in comparison with conventional curved lenses. There are several types of ZPs, such as the well-known Fresnel ZPs or the more recent Fractal ZPs and Fibonacci ZPs. The material selection of the lens plays a very important role in the beam modulation control. This work presents a comparison between two Fresnel ZP made from different materials in the ultrasound domain: Polylactic Acid (PLA) and brass. PLA is the most common material used in commercial 3D-printers due to its high design flexibility and low cost. Numerical simulations based on Finite Element Method (FEM) and experimental results are shown, and they prove that the focusing capabilities of brass ZPs and PLA ZPs are similar. For this reason, PLA is proposed as a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) compatible material with great potential for therapeutic ultrasound focusing applications.

Keywords: Fresnel zone plate, magnetic resonance imaging polylactic acid, ultrasound focusing.

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Authors: Bahareh Aghasi, Ahmad Jalalian, Naser Honarjoo

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Land use change, if not based on proper scientific investigation affects other physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil and leading to increased destruction and erosion. It was imperative to study the effects of changing rangelands to farmlands on some Soil quality indexes. Undisturbed soil samples were collected from the depths of 0-10 and 10-30 centimeter in pasture with good vegetation cover(GP), pasture with medium vegetation cover(MP), abandoned dry land farming(ADF) and degraded dry land farming(DDF) land uses in Ghareh Aghaj watershed of Isfahan province. The results revealed that organic matter(OM), cation exchange capacity(CEC) and available potassium(AK) decreasing in the depth of 0-10 centimeter were 66.6, 38.8 and 70 percent and in the depth of 10-30 centimeter were 58, 61.4 and 83.5 percent respectively in DDF comparison with GP. Concerning to the results, it seems that land use change can decrease soil quality and increase soil degradation and lead in undesirable consequences.

Keywords: Land use change, Soil degradation, Soil quality

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Authors: Syamsul Syafiq, Maslina Daud, Hafizah Hasan, Ahmad Zairi, Shazil Imri, Ezaini Akmar, Norbazilah Rahim

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Over recent years, web development has changed significantly. Driven largely by the rise of trends like mobiles, the world of development is rapidly evolving. The rise of the Internet makes web applications crucial nowadays. The web application has been an interface for a company and one of the ways they present their portfolio to the client. On the other hand, the web has become part of the file management system which takes over the role of paper. Due to high demand in web applications, developers are required to develop a web application that are cost-effective, secure and well coded. A framework has been proposed to develop an application rather than using library style development. The framework is helping the developer in creating the structure of a web automatically. This paper will compare the advantages and disadvantages of web development using framework against library-style development. This comparison is based on a previous research paper focusing on two main indicators, which are the impact to management and impact to the developer.

Keywords: Framework, library Style development, web application development, traditional web, static web, dynamic web.

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Authors: Ora Geiger

Abstract:

This paper discusses the question whether a person diagnosed with dyslexia will necessarily have difficulty in reading musical notes. The author specifies the characteristics of alphabet reading in comparison to musical notation reading, and concludes that there should be no contra-indication for teaching standard music reading to children with dyslexia if an appropriate process is offered. This conclusion is based on a long term case study and relies on two main characteristics of music reading: (1) musical notation system is a systematic, logical, relative set of symbols written on a staff; and (2) music reading learning connected with playing a musical instrument is a multi-sensory activity that combines sight, hearing, touch, and movement. The paper describes music reading teaching procedures, using soprano recorders, and provides unique teaching methods that have been found to be effective for students who were diagnosed with dyslexia. It provides theoretical explanations in addition to guidelines for music education practices.

Keywords: Alphabet reading, music reading, multisensory teaching method, dyslexia, recorder playing.

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Authors: Mohamed I. Mahmoud, Moawad I. M. Dessouky, Salah Deyab, Fatma H. Elfouly

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Recently, the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology offers the potential of designing high performance systems at low cost. The discrete wavelet transform has gained the reputation of being a very effective signal analysis tool for many practical applications. However, due to its computation-intensive nature, current implementation of the transform falls short of meeting real-time processing requirements of most application. The objectives of this paper are implement the Haar and Daubechies wavelets using FPGA technology. In addition, the comparison between the Haar and Daubechies wavelets is investigated. The Bit Error Rat (BER) between the input audio signal and the reconstructed output signal for each wavelet is calculated. It is seen that the BER using Daubechies wavelet techniques is less than Haar wavelet. The design procedure has been explained and designed using the stat-of-art Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools for system design on FPGA. Simulation, synthesis and implementation on the FPGA target technology has been carried out.

Keywords: Daubechies wavelet, discrete wavelet transform, Haar wavelet, Xilinx FPGA.

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Authors: Constantia Achilleos, Diofantos G. Hadjimitsis

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Road industry has challenged the prospect of ecoconstruction. Pavements may fit within the framework of sustainable development. Hence, research implements assessments of conventional pavements impacts on environment in use of life cycle approach. To meet global, and often national, targets on pollution control, newly introduced pavement designs are under study. This is the case of Cyprus demonstration, which occurred within EcoLanes project work. This alternative pavement differs on concrete layer reinforced with tire recycling product. Processing of post-consumer tires produces steel fibers improving strength capacity against cracking. Thus maintenance works are relevantly limited in comparison to flexible pavement. This enables to be more ecofriendly, referenced to current study outputs. More specific, proposed concrete pavement life cycle processes emits 15 % less air pollutants and consumes 28 % less embodied energy than those of the asphalt pavement. In addition there is also a reduction on costs by 0.06 %.

Keywords: Environmental impact assessment, life cycle, tirerecycling, transportation pavement.

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Authors: Tamer ElSerafi

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In recent approaches to heritage conservation, the whole context of historic areas becomes as important as the single historic building. This makes the provision of infrastructure and network of mobility an effective element in the urban conservation. Sustainable urban conservation projects consider the high density of activities, the need for a good quality access system to the transit system, and the importance of the configuration of the mobility network by identifying the best way to connect the different districts of the urban area through a complex unique system that helps the synergic development to achieve a sustainable mobility system. A sustainable urban mobility is a key factor in maintaining the integrity between socio-cultural aspects and functional aspects. This paper illustrates the mobility aspects, mobility problems in historic districts, and the needs of the mobility systems in the first part. The second part is a practical analysis for different mobility plans. It is challenging to find innovative and creative conservation solutions fitting modern uses and needs without risking the loss of inherited built resources. Urban mobility management is becoming an essential and challenging issue in the urban conservation projects. Depending on literature review and practical analysis, this paper tries to define and clarify the guidelines for mobility management in historic districts as a key element in sustainability of urban conservation and development projects. Such rules and principles could control the conflict between the socio–cultural and economic activities, and the different needs for mobility in these districts in a sustainable way. The practical analysis includes a comparison between mobility plans which have been implemented in four different cities; Freiburg in Germany, Zurich in Switzerland and Bray Town in Ireland. This paper concludes with a matrix of guidelines that considers both principles of sustainability and livability factors in urban historic districts.

Keywords: Sustainable mobility, urban mobility, mobility management, historic districts.

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Authors: Hongkun Zhang, Hermann Winner, Wenjun Li

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This paper describes the development, modeling, and testing of skyhook and MiniMax control strategies of semi-active suspension. The control performances are investigated using Matlab/Simulink [1], with a two-degree-of-freedom quarter car semiactive suspension system model. The comparison and evaluation of control result are made using software-in-the-loop simulation (SILS) method. This paper also outlines the development of a hardware-inthe- loop simulation (HILS) system. The simulation results show that skyhook strategy can significantly reduce the resonant peak of body and provide improvement in vehicle ride comfort. Otherwise, MiniMax strategy can be employed to effectively improve drive safety of vehicle by influencing wheel load. The two strategies can be switched to control semi-active suspension system to fulfill different requirement of vehicle in different stages.

Keywords: Hardware-in-the-loop simulation, Semi-active suspension, Skyhook control, MiniMax control.

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Authors: N. Samarinas, C. Evangelides, C. Vrekos

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The aim of this paper is the comparison of three different methods, in order to produce fuzzy tolerance relations for rainfall data classification. More specifically, the three methods are correlation coefficient, cosine amplitude and max-min method. The data were obtained from seven rainfall stations in the region of central Greece and refers to 20-year time series of monthly rainfall height average. Three methods were used to express these data as a fuzzy relation. This specific fuzzy tolerance relation is reformed into an equivalence relation with max-min composition for all three methods. From the equivalence relation, the rainfall stations were categorized and classified according to the degree of confidence. The classification shows the similarities among the rainfall stations. Stations with high similarity can be utilized in water resource management scenarios interchangeably or to augment data from one to another. Due to the complexity of calculations, it is important to find out which of the methods is computationally simpler and needs fewer compositions in order to give reliable results.

Keywords: Classification, fuzzy logic, tolerance relations, rainfall data.

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Authors: Ahmadu Girgiri, Lawan Gana Ali, Mamman M. Baba

Abstract:

Environmental security clearly articulates the perfections and developments of various communities around the world irrespective of the region, culture, religion or social inclination. Although, the present state of insecurity has become serious issue devastating the peace, unity, stability and progress of man and his physical environment particularly in developing countries. Recently, measure of security and it management in Nigeria has been a bottle-neck to the effectiveness and advancement of various sectors that include; business, education, social relations, politics and above all an economy. Several measures have been considered on mitigating environment insecurity such as surveillance, demarcation, security personnel empowerment and the likes, but still the issue remains disturbing. In this paper, we present the application of new technology that contributes to the improvement of security surveillance known as “Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)”. The system is new, smart and emerging technology that provides monitoring, detection and aggregation of information using sensor nodes and wireless network. WSN detects, monitors and stores information or activities in the deployed area such as schools, environment, business centers, public squares, industries, and outskirts and transmit to end users. This will reduce the cost of security funding and eases security surveillance depending on the nature and the requirement of the deployment.

Keywords: Wireless sensor network, node, application, monitoring, insecurity, environment.

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Authors: S. Abdi Goudazri, R. Ziaie Moayed, A. Nazeri

Abstract:

Loose soils normally are of weak bearing capacity due to their structural nature. Being exposed to heavy traffic loads, they would fail in most cases. To tackle the aforementioned issue, geotechnical engineers have come up with different approaches; one of which is making use of geosynthetic-reinforced soil-aggregate systems. As these polymeric reinforcements have highlighted economic and environmentally-friendly features, they have become widespread in practice during the last decades. The present research investigates the efficiency of four different types of these reinforcements in increasing the bearing capacity of two-layered soil sections using a series California Bearing Ratio (CBR) test. The studied sections are comprised of a 10 cm-thick layer of no. 161 Firouzkooh sand (weak subgrade) and a 10 cm-thick layer of compacted aggregate materials (base course) classified as SP and GW according to the United Soil Classification System (USCS), respectively. The aggregate layer was compacted to the relative density (Dr) of 95% at the optimum water content (Wopt) of 6.5%. The applied reinforcements were including two kinds of geocomposites (type A and B), a geotextile, and a geogrid that were embedded at the interface of the lower and the upper layers of the soil-aggregate system. As the standard CBR mold was not appropriate in height for this study, the mold used for soaked CBR tests were utilized. To make a comparison between the results of stress-settlement behavior in the studied specimens, CBR values pertinent to the penetrations of 2.5 mm and 5 mm were considered. The obtained results demonstrated 21% and 24.5% increments in the amount of CBR value in the presence of geocomposite type A and geogrid, respectively. On the other hand, the effect of both geotextile and geocomposite type B on CBR values was generally insignificant in this research.

Keywords: Geosynthetics, geogrid, geotextile, CBR test, increasing bearing capacity.

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Authors: Jaroslav Polec, Lenka Krulikovská, Natália Helešová, Tomáš Hirner

Abstract:

In this paper we present a novel approach for face image coding. The proposed method makes a use of the features of video encoders like motion prediction. At first encoder selects appropriate prototype from the database and warps it according to features of encoding face. Warped prototype is placed as first I frame. Encoding face is placed as second frame as P frame type. Information about features positions, color change, selected prototype and data flow of P frame will be sent to decoder. The condition is both encoder and decoder own the same database of prototypes. We have run experiment with H.264 video encoder and obtained results were compared to results achieved by JPEG and JPEG2000. Obtained results show that our approach is able to achieve 3 times lower bitrate and two times higher PSNR in comparison with JPEG. According to comparison with JPEG2000 the bitrate was very similar, but subjective quality achieved by proposed method is better.

Keywords: Triangulation, H.264, Model-based coding, Average face

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Authors: Peyman Amini Motlagh, Ali Pak

Abstract:

Seismic retrofitting of important structures is essential in seismological active zones. The importance is doubled when it comes to some buildings like schools, hospitals, bridges etc. because they are required to continue their serviceability even after a major earthquake. Generally, seismic retrofitting codes have paid little attention to retrofitting of foundations due to its construction complexity. In this paper different methods for seismic retrofitting of tall buildings’ foundations will be discussed and evaluated. Foundations are considered in three different categories. First, foundations those are in danger of liquefaction of their underlying soil. Second, foundations located on slopes in seismological active regions. Third, foundations designed according to former design codes and may show structural defects under earthquake loads. After describing different methods used in different countries for retrofitting of the existing foundations in seismological active regions, comprehensive comparison between these methods with regard to the above mentioned categories is carried out. This paper gives some guidelines to choose the best method for seismic retrofitting of tall buildings’ foundations in retrofitting projects.

Keywords: Existing foundation, landslide, liquefaction, seismic retrofitting.

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