Search results for: instruction level parallelism
2918 Robot Task-Level Programming Language and Simulation
Authors: M. Samaka
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This paper presents the development of a software application for Off-line robot task programming and simulation. Such application is designed to assist in robot task planning and to direct manipulator motion on sensor based programmed motion. The concept of the designed programming application is to use the power of the knowledge base for task accumulation. In support of the programming means, an interactive graphical simulation for manipulator kinematics was also developed and integrated into the application as the complimentary factor to the robot programming media. The simulation provides the designer with useful, inexpensive, off-line tools for retain and testing robotics work cells and automated assembly lines for various industrial applications.Keywords: Robot programming, task-level programming, robot languages, robot simulation, robotics software.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 32462917 Effects of Audit Quality and Corporate Governance on Earnings Management of Quoted Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria
Authors: Joel S. Akintayo, Ramat T. Salman
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The stakeholders’ pressure on corporate managers to maintain firm’s profitability has created economic incentives for management to engage in earnings management practices. Therefore, this study examines the effects of audit quality and corporate governance on earnings management of quoted deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. This study specifically investigates the influence of audit tenure, audit fee, board independence, and board size on earnings management of DMBs. Explanatory research design was employed in carrying out the study while secondary data were sourced from the annual reports and accounts of all the 15 quoted DMBs in Nigerian Stock Exchange as at December 31, 2015 for a period of 10 years covering from 2006 to 2015. The data obtained for the study were analyzed using panel regression analysis approach. The findings reveal that board independence has a negative significant effect on earnings management at a 5% level of significance (p=0.002), while audit fee has a positive significant effect on earnings management at a 5% level of significance (p=0.013) and audit tenure has a negative significant effect on earnings management of DMBs at a 5% level of significance (p=0.003). Surprisingly, board size was statistically not significant at a 5% level of significance (p=0.086). The study concludes that high audit quality and sound corporate governance could improve the earnings quality of DMBs. Hence, the study recommends that the authorities saddled with the responsibility of banking supervision in Nigeria such the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and CBN to advise the National Assembly in Nigeria to pass into law the three years professional requirement for audit tenure.
Keywords: Audit quality, audit tenure, audit fee, board independence, corporate governance, earnings management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13192916 Immobilization of Simulated High Level Nuclear Wastes with Li2O-CeO2-Fe2O3-P2O5 Glasses
Authors: Toshinori Okura, Naoya Yoshida
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The leaching behavior and structure of Li2O-CeO2- Fe2O3-P2O5 glasses incorporated with simulated high level nuclear wastes (HLW) were studied. The leach rates of gross and each constituent element were determined from the total weight loss of the specimen and the leachate analyses by inductively coupled argon plasma spectroscopy (ICP). The gross leach rate of the 4.5Li2O- 9.7CeO2-34.7Fe2O3-51.5P2O5 glass waste form containing 45 mass% simulated HLW is of the order of 10
Keywords: FT-IR spectra, Leach rates, Li2O-CeO2-Fe2O3-P2O5 glasses, Nuclear waste immobilization, Thermal properties
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20712915 A Microscopic Simulation Model for Earthmoving Operations
Authors: Jiali Fu
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Earthmoving operations are a major part of many construction projects. Because of the complexity and fast-changing environment of such operations, the planning and estimating are crucial on both planning and operational levels. This paper presents the framework ofa microscopic discrete-event simulation system for modeling earthmoving operations and conducting productivity estimations on an operational level.A prototype has been developed to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed framework, and this simulation system is presented via a case study based on an actual earthmoving project. The case study shows that the proposed simulation model is capable of evaluating alternative operating strategies and resource utilization at a very detailed level.Keywords: Earthmoving operation, microscopic simulation, discrete-event simulation
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19672914 The Impact of the Interest Rates on Investments in the Context of Financial Crisis
Authors: Joanna Stawska
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The main objective of this article is to examine the impact of interest rates on investments in Poland in the context of financial crisis. The paper also investigates the dependence of bank loans to enterprises on interbank market rates. The article studies the impact of interbank market rate on the level of investments in Poland. Besides, this article focuses on the research of the correlation between the level of corporate loans and the amount of investments in Poland in order to determine the indirect impact of central bank interest rates through the transmission mechanism of monetary policy on the real economy. To achieve the objective we have used econometric and statistical research methods like: econometric model and Pearson correlation coefficient. This analysis suggests that the central bank reference rate inversely proportionally affects the level of investments in Poland and this dependence is moderate. This is also important issue because it is related to preparing of Poland to accession to euro area. The research is important from both theoretical and empirical points of view. The formulated conclusions and recommendations determine the practical significance of the paper which may be used in the decision making process of monetary and economic authorities of the country.Keywords: Central bank, financial crisis, interest rate, investments.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15832913 Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Profiles among Students’ Representative Council of Malaysian Public Universities
Authors: R. A. Harun, N. M. Ishak, N. Yusoff, S. Amat
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This quantitative research is aimed to identify the level of leadership quality and emotional intelligence for members of Students' Representatives Council (SRC) of Malaysian Public Universities (MPU). The variables include the leadership quality and emotional quotient (EQ). 238 SRC members in MPU were selected as subjects of the study. Data were collected using two instruments i.e. Malaysian Emotional Quotient Inventory (MEQI) and Ayu-Noriah Leadership Audit Trail Inventory (Ayu-Noriah, LATI). Data were analyzed using descriptive (mean and percentage). Research findings showed that the subjects scored highly in four out of five EQ domains (Self-Regulations, Self-Motivation, Empathy and Social Skills). However, the subjects scored medium to low in Self-Awareness. Analysis on the sub domains (a total of 28 sub domains) showed that the subjects scored high in 17 sub domains for EQ, whilst another 11 were at medium level. The overall analysis indicates that the subjects have high level of EQ. Findings on their leadership qualities showed that they obtained high scores in all seven factors that were measured i.e. Strategy and Leadership Model, Recruit, Review Performance and Honor, Deploy Strategically, Developing, Engage and Retain and Built HR Capabilities/Line Ownership. The overall score for leadership qualities was found to be high.
Keywords: Emotional intelligence, leadership, students.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11742912 Training Undergraduate Engineering Students in Robotics and Automation through Model-Based Design Training: A Case Study at Assumption University of Thailand
Authors: Sajed A. Habib
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Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy that originated in the medical field and has also been used extensively in other knowledge disciplines with recognized advantages and limitations. PBL has been used in various undergraduate engineering programs with mixed outcomes. The current fourth industrial revolution (digital era or Industry 4.0) has made it essential for many science and engineering students to receive effective training in advanced courses such as industrial automation and robotics. This paper presents a case study at Assumption University of Thailand, where a PBL-like approach was used to teach some aspects of automation and robotics to selected groups of undergraduate engineering students. These students were given some basic level training in automation prior to participating in a subsequent training session in order to solve technical problems with increased complexity. The participating students’ evaluation of the training sessions in terms of learning effectiveness, skills enhancement, and incremental knowledge following the problem-solving session was captured through a follow-up survey consisting of 14 questions and a 5-point scoring system. From the most recent training event, an overall 70% of the respondents indicated that their skill levels were enhanced to a much greater level than they had had before the training, whereas 60.4% of the respondents from the same event indicated that their incremental knowledge following the session was much greater than what they had prior to the training. The instructor-facilitator involved in the training events suggested that this method of learning was more suitable for senior/advanced level students than those at the freshmen level as certain skills to effectively participate in such problem-solving sessions are acquired over a period of time, and not instantly.
Keywords: Automation, industry 4.0, model-based design training, problem-based learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10762911 Development of a Support Tool for Cost and Schedule Integration Managment at Program Level
Authors: H. J. Yang, R. Z. Jin, I. J. Park, C. T. Hyun
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There has been gradual progress of late in construction projects, particularly in big-scale megaprojects. Due to the long-term construction period, however, with large-scale budget investment, lack of construction management technologies, and increase in the incomplete elements of project schedule management, a plan to conduct efficient operations and to ensure business safety is required. In particular, as the project management information system (PMIS) is meant for managing a single project centering on the construction phase, there is a limitation in the management of program-scale businesses like megaprojects. Thus, a program management information system (PgMIS) that includes program-level management technologies is needed to manage multiple projects. In this study, a support tool was developed for managing the cost and schedule information occurring in the construction phase, at the program level. In addition, a case study on the developed support tool was conducted to verify the usability of the system. With the use of the developed support tool program, construction managers can monitor the progress of the entire project and of the individual subprojects in real time.
Keywords: Cost∙Schedule integration management, Supporting Tool, UI, WBS, CBS, introduce PgMIS (Program Management Information System), PMIS (Project Management Information System)
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14402910 An Empirical Analysis of the Board Composition Concerning Logistics Competencies
Authors: Ingrid Göpfert, Michael Stephan, Wanja Wellbrock, Malte Ackermann
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Empirical insights into the implementation of logistics competencies at the top management level are scarce. This paper addresses this issue with an explorative approach which is based on a dataset of 872 observations in the years 2000, 2004 and 2008 using quantitative content analysis from annual reports of the 500 publicly listed firms with the highest global research and development expenditures according to the British Department for Business Innovation and Skills. We find that logistics competencies are more pronounced in Asian companies than in their European or American counterparts. On an industrial level the results are quite mixed. Using partial point-biserial correlations we show that logistics competencies are positively related to financial performance.
Keywords: Logistics, supply chain management, content analysis, executive boards, multinational corporations.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21052909 Effect of Various Concentrations of Humic Acid on Growth and Development of Eggplant Seedlings in Tissue Cultures at Low Nutrient Level
Authors: Kullanart Obsuwan, Suluck Namchote, Natdhera Sanmanee, Kamolchanok Panishkan, Sirichai Dharmvanij
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Humic acids (HAs) have been shown to activate some ion uptakes along with stimulating the lateral roots at effective concentration of micronutrients. However, the effects of HA on ion adsorption by plant roots are not easily explainable due to the varieties of HAs that differ from origins. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the effect of various concentrations of HA obtained from the compost derived from mix manures and some agricultural wastes on the growth of eggplant seedlings (Solanum melongena L. cv. Chao Praya) in tissue cultures at low nutrient level. Egg plant seeds were surfaced sterilized and germinated in ½ Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) without HA added or in ¼ MS supplemented with 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 ppm of HAs. Then, they were cultured for 4 weeks under the controlled environment. The results showed that seedlings grown on ¼MS supplemented with HAs at the concentration of 25 and 50 ppm had the average plant heights (2.49 and 2.28 cm, respectively) higher than the other treatments. Both treatments also significantly showed the maximum average fresh and dry weights (p<0.05). Also the later yielded the highest average number of leaves and the longest average root length (p<0.05). However, there was no statistically different in the number of roots among treatments (p>0.05). This suggested that HAs at the concentration of 25 and 50 ppm could improve the growth of egg plant seedlings in tissue cultures at low nutrient level (¼ MS).Keywords: growth, seedling, humic acid, fresh weght, dry weight, tissue culture
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24762908 Integration of CMOS Biosensor into a Polymeric Lab-on-a-Chip System
Authors: T. Brettschneider, C. Dorrer, H. Suy, T. Braun, E. Jung, R. Hoofman, M. Bründel, R. Zengerle, F. Lärmer
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We present an integration approach of a CMOS biosensor into a polymer based microfluidic environment suitable for mass production. It consists of a wafer-level-package for the silicon die and laser bonding process promoted by an intermediate hot melt foil to attach the sensor package to the microfluidic chip, without the need for dispensing of glues or underfiller. A very good condition of the sensing area was obtained after introducing a protection layer during packaging. A microfluidic flow cell was fabricated and shown to withstand pressures up to Δp = 780 kPa without leakage. The employed biosensors were electrically characterized in a dry environment.
Keywords: CMOS biosensor, laser bonding, silicon polymer integration, wafer level packaging.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 30142907 Community Participation for Sustainable Development Tourism in Bang Noi Floating Market, Bangkonti District, Samutsongkhram Province
Authors: Bua Srikos, Phusit Phukamchanoad, Suwaree Yordchim
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The purpose is to study the model and characteristic of participation of the suitable community to lead to develop permanent water marketing in Bang Noi Floating Market, Bangkonti District, Samutsongkhram Province. A total of 342 survey questionnaire was administered to potential respondents. The researchers interviewed the leader of the community. Appreciation Influence Control (AIC) was used to talk with 20 villagers on arena. The findings revealed that overall, most people had the middle level of the participation in developing the durable Bang Noi Floating Market, Bangkonti, Samutsongkhram Province and in aspects of gaining benefits from developing it with atmosphere and a beautiful view for tourism. For example, the landscape is beautiful with public utilities. The participation in preserving and developing Bang Noi Floating Market remains in the former way of life. The basic factor of person affects to the participation of people such as age, level of education, career, and income per month. Most participants are the original hosts that have houses and shops located in the marketing and neighbor. These people involve with the benefits and have the power to make a water marketing strategy, the major role to set the information database. It also found that the leader and the villagers play the important role in setting a five-physical database. Data include level of information such as position of village, territory of village, road, river, and premises. Information of culture consists of a two-level of information, interesting point, and Itinerary. The information occurs from presenting and practicing by the leader and villagers in the community.All of phases are presented for listening and investigating database together in both the leader and villagers in the process of participation.
Keywords: Community Participation, Sustainable Development, Encouragement Tourism.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18902906 Business Process Orientation: Case of Croatia
Authors: Ljubica Milanović Glavan
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Because of the increasing business pressures, companies must be adaptable and flexible in order to withstand them. Inadequate business processes and low level of business process orientation, that in its core accentuates business processes as opposed to business functions and focuses on process performance and customer satisfaction, hider the ability to adapt to changing environment. It has been shown in previous studies that the companies which have reached higher business process maturity level consistently outperform those that have not reached them. The aim of this paper is to provide a basic understanding of business process orientation concept and business process maturity model. Besides that the paper presents the state of business process orientation in Croatia that has been captured with a study conducted in 2013. Based on the results some practical implications and guidelines for managers are given.
Keywords: Business process orientation, business process maturity, Croatia, maturity score.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16652905 Design of Direct Power Controller for a High Power Neutral Point Clamped Converter Using Real Time Simulator
Authors: Amin Zabihinejad, Philippe Viarouge
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In this paper, a direct power control (DPC) strategies have been investigated in order to control a high power AC/DC converter with time variable load. This converter is composed of a three level three phase neutral point clamped (NPC) converter as rectifier and an H-bridge four quadrant current control converter. In the high power application, controller not only must adjust the desire outputs but also decrease the level of distortions which are injected to the network from the converter. Regarding to this reason and nonlinearity of the power electronic converter, the conventional controllers cannot achieve appropriate responses. In this research, the precise mathematical analysis has been employed to design the appropriate controller in order to control the time variable load. A DPC controller has been proposed and simulated using Matlab/ Simulink. In order to verify the simulation result, a real time simulator- OPAL-RT- has been employed. In this paper, the dynamic response and stability of the high power NPC with variable load has been investigated and compared with conventional types using a real time simulator. The results proved that the DPC controller is more stable and has more precise outputs in comparison with conventional controller.
Keywords: Direct Power Control, Three Level Rectifier, Real Time Simulator, High Power Application.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19612904 Preliminary Study of the Phonological Development in Three- and Four-Year-Old Bulgarian Children
Authors: Tsvetomira Braynova, Miglena Simonska
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The article presents the results of a research of phonological processes in three- and four-year-old children. A test, created for the purpose of the study, was developed and conducted among 120 children. The study included three areas of research - at the level of words (96 words), at the level of sentence repetition (10 sentences) and at the level of generating own speech from a picture (15 pictures). The test also gives us additional information about the articulation errors of the assessed children. The main purpose of the research is to analyze all phonological processes that occur at this age in Bulgarian children and to identify which are typical and atypical for this age. The results show that the most common phonology errors that children make are: sound substitution, elision of sound, metathesis of sound, elision of syllable, elision of consonants clustered in a syllable. Measuring the correlation between average length of repeated speech and average length of generated speech, the analysis does not prove that the more words a child can repeat in part “repeated speech”, the more words they can be expected to generate in part “generating sentence”. The results of this study show that the task of naming a word provides sufficient and representative information to assess the child's phonology.
Keywords: Articulation, phonology, speech, language development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3572903 Family and Young Learners´ Scholastic Success
Authors: Helena Vomackova
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This contribution examines the relationship between the family environment and the level of young pupils’ scholastic success. It comments on the partial results of a research probe carried out in the year 2012 on a sample of 412 Czech Republic primary school pupils of the fourth, fifth and sixths forms within the Project IGA 43 201 15 0004 01. The key links of this project were monitored in relation to the highest education level achieved by the learners´ parents, as well as to the type of family it is (in particular its ability to function), to component factors specific to the family climate (their willingness to share information, communication, parental control) and, finally, to the number of children in the family as an important socialization constituent.
Keywords: Family environment factors, scholastic success, parents’ education, family type, family climate.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14392902 Urdu Nastaleeq Optical Character Recognition
Authors: Zaheer Ahmad, Jehanzeb Khan Orakzai, Inam Shamsher, Awais Adnan
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This paper discusses the Urdu script characteristics, Urdu Nastaleeq and a simple but a novel and robust technique to recognize the printed Urdu script without a lexicon. Urdu being a family of Arabic script is cursive and complex script in its nature, the main complexity of Urdu compound/connected text is not its connections but the forms/shapes the characters change when it is placed at initial, middle or at the end of a word. The characters recognition technique presented here is using the inherited complexity of Urdu script to solve the problem. A word is scanned and analyzed for the level of its complexity, the point where the level of complexity changes is marked for a character, segmented and feeded to Neural Networks. A prototype of the system has been tested on Urdu text and currently achieves 93.4% accuracy on the average.Keywords: Cursive Script, OCR, Urdu.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27602901 Mining User-Generated Contents to Detect Service Failures with Topic Model
Authors: Kyung Bae Park, Sung Ho Ha
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Online user-generated contents (UGC) significantly change the way customers behave (e.g., shop, travel), and a pressing need to handle the overwhelmingly plethora amount of various UGC is one of the paramount issues for management. However, a current approach (e.g., sentiment analysis) is often ineffective for leveraging textual information to detect the problems or issues that a certain management suffers from. In this paper, we employ text mining of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) on a popular online review site dedicated to complaint from users. We find that the employed LDA efficiently detects customer complaints, and a further inspection with the visualization technique is effective to categorize the problems or issues. As such, management can identify the issues at stake and prioritize them accordingly in a timely manner given the limited amount of resources. The findings provide managerial insights into how analytics on social media can help maintain and improve their reputation management. Our interdisciplinary approach also highlights several insights by applying machine learning techniques in marketing research domain. On a broader technical note, this paper illustrates the details of how to implement LDA in R program from a beginning (data collection in R) to an end (LDA analysis in R) since the instruction is still largely undocumented. In this regard, it will help lower the boundary for interdisciplinary researcher to conduct related research.Keywords: Latent Dirichlet allocation, R program, text mining, topic model, user generated contents, visualization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12052900 Towards a Competence Management Approach Based on Continuous Improvement
Authors: N. Sefiani, C. Fikri Benbrahim, A. Boumane, K. Reklaoui
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Nowadays, the reflection on competence management is the basic for new competitive strategies. It is considered as the core of the problems of the global supply chain. It interact a variety of actors: information, physical and activities flows, etc. Even though competence management is seen as the key factor for any business success, the existing approaches demonstrate the deficiencies and limitations of the competence concept. This research has two objectives: The first is to make a contribution by focusing on the development of a competence approach, based on continuous improvement. It allows the enterprise to spot key competencies, mobilize them in order to serve its strategic objectives and to develop future competencies. The second is to propose a method to evaluate the Level of Collective Competence. The approach was confirmed through an application carried out at an automotive company.Keywords: Competencies, approach, continuous improvement, collective competence level, performance indicator.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15132899 A Comparative Analysis of Multicarrier SPWM Strategies for Five-Level Flying Capacitor Inverter
Authors: Bachir Belmadani, Rachid Taleb, Zinelaabidine Boudjema, Adil Yahdou
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Carrier-based methods have been used widely for switching of multilevel inverters due to their simplicity, flexibility and reduced computational requirements compared to space vector modulation (SVM). This paper focuses on Multicarrier Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (MCSPWM) strategy for the three phase Five-Level Flying Capacitor Inverter (5LFCI). The inverter is simulated for Induction Motor (IM) load and Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) for output waveforms is observed for different controlling schemes.Keywords: Flying capacitor inverter, multicarrier sinusoidal pulse width modulation, space vector modulation, total harmonic distortion, induction motor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17162898 Analysis of the Impact of NVivo and EndNote on Academic Research Productivity
Authors: Sujit K. Basak
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The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of literature review software on researchers. The aim of this study was achieved by analyzing models in terms of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and acceptance level. Collected data were analyzed using WarpPLS 4.0 software. This study used two theoretical frameworks, namely, Technology Acceptance Model and the Training Needs Assessment Model. The study was experimental and was conducted at a public university in South Africa. The results of the study showed that acceptance level has a high impact on research productivity followed by perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use.Keywords: Technology acceptance model, training needs assessment model, literature review software, research productivity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29682897 Development of Performance Indicators in Operational Level for Pre-hospital EMS in Thailand
Authors: Napisporn Memongkol, Runchana Sinthavalai, Nattapong Seneeratanaprayune Weerawat Ounsaneha, Chanisada Choosuk
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The objective of this research is to develop the performance indicators (PIs) in operational level for the Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Service (EMS) system employing in Thailand. This research started with ascertaining the current pre-hospital care system. The team analyzed the strategies of Narerthorn, a government unit under the ministry of public health, and the existing PIs of the pre-hospital care. Afterwards, the current National Strategic Plan of EMS development (2008-2012) of the Emergency Medical Institute of Thailand (EMIT) was considered using strategic analysis to developed Strategy Map (SM) and identified the Success Factors (SFs). The analysis results from strategy map and SFs were used to develop the Performance Indicators (PIs). To verify the set of PIs, the team has interviewed with the relevant practitioners for the possibilities to implement the PIs. To this paper, it was to ascertain that all the developed PIs support the objectives of the strategic plan. Nevertheless, the results showed that the operational level PIs suited only with the first dimension of National Strategic Plan (infrastructure and information technology development). Besides, the SF was the infrastructure development (to contribute the EMS system to people throughout with standard and efficiency both in normally and disaster conditions). Finally, twenty-nine indicators were developed from the analysis results of SM and SFs.Keywords: Emergency Medical Service, Performance Indicator, Success Factor, Thailand
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22582896 Investigation of Behavior on the Contact Surface of the Tire and Ground by CFD Simulation
Authors: M. F. Sung, Y.D. Kuan, R.J. Shyu, S.M. Lee
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Tread design has evolved over the years to achieve the common tread pattern used in current vehicles. However, to meet safety and comfort requirements, tread design considers more than one design factor. Tread design must consider the grip and drainage, and the manner in which to reduce rolling noise, which is one of the main factors considered by manufacturers. The main objective of this study was the application the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique to simulate the contact surface of the tire and ground. The results demonstrated an air-Pumping and large pressure drop effect in the process of contact surface. The results also revealed that the pressure can be used to analyze sound pressure level (SPL).
Keywords: Air-pumping, computational fluid dynamics, sound pressure level, tire.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23592895 The Impact of Market-Related Variables on Forward-Looking Disclosure in the Annual Reports of Non-Financial Egyptian Companies
Authors: Bassam Baroma
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The main objective of this study is to test the relationship between numbers of variables representing the firm characteristics (market-related variables) and the extent of voluntary disclosure levels (forward-looking disclosure) in the annual reports of Egyptian firms listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange. The results show that audit firm size is significantly positively correlated (in all the three years) with the level of forward-looking disclosure. However, industry type variable (which divided to: industries, cement, construction, petrochemicals and services), is found being insignificantly association with the level of forward-looking information disclosed in the annual reports for all the three years.Keywords: Forward-looking disclosure, market-related variables, annual reports, Egyptian Stock Exchange.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24492894 Developing Leadership and Teamwork Skills of Pre-Service Teacher through Learning Camp
Authors: Sirimanee Banjong
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This study aimed to 1) develop pre-service teachers’ leadership skills through camp-based learning, and 2) develop preservice teachers’ teamwork skills through camp-based learning. An applied research methodology was used. The target group was derived from a purposive selection. It involved 32 fourth-year students in Early Childhood Education Program enrolling a course entitled Seminar in Early Childhood Education provided during second semester of academic year 2013. The treatment was camp-based learning activities which applied a PDCA process including four stages: 1) plan, 2) do, 3) check, and 4) act. Research instruments were a learning camp program, a camp-based learning management plan, a 5-level assessment form for leadership skills and a 5-level assessment form for assessing teamwork skills. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results were: 1) pre-service teachers’ leadership skills yielded the before treatment average score at x= 3.4, S.D.=0.6 2and the after-treatment average score at x 4.29 , S.D.=0.66 pre-service teachers’ teamwork skills yielded the before-treatment average score at x=3.31, S.D.=0.60 and the after-treatment average score at x=4.42, S.D.=0.66 Both differences were statistically significant at the .05 level. Thus, the pre-service teachers’ leadership and teamwork skills were significantly improved through the camp-based learning approach.Keywords: Learning camp, leadership skills, teamwork skills.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13412893 Decision Location and Resource Requirement for Relief Goods Assembly
Authors: Glenda Minguito, Jenith Banluta
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One of the critical aspects of humanitarian operations is the distribution of relief goods to an affected community. The common assumption is that relief goods are prepositioned during disasters which are not applicable in developing countries like the Philippines. During disasters, the on-the-ground government agencies and responders have to procure, sort, weigh and pack the relief goods. There is a need to review the relief goods preparation as it seriously affects the delivery of necessary aid for human survival. This study also identifies the ideal location of the assembly hub to minimize the distance to the affected community. This paper reveals that location and resources are dependent on the type of disasters encountered at the local level. The Center-of-Gravity method and Multiple Activity Chart were applied in the analysis.
Keywords: Humanitarian supply chain, location decision, resource allocation, local level.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4252892 In Search of a Suitable Neural Network Capable of Fast Monitoring of Congestion Level in Electric Power Systems
Authors: Pradyumna Kumar Sahoo, Prasanta Kumar Satpathy
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This paper aims at finding a suitable neural network for monitoring congestion level in electrical power systems. In this paper, the input data has been framed properly to meet the target objective through supervised learning mechanism by defining normal and abnormal operating conditions for the system under study. The congestion level, expressed as line congestion index (LCI), is evaluated for each operating condition and is presented to the NN along with the bus voltages to represent the input and target data. Once, the training goes successful, the NN learns how to deal with a set of newly presented data through validation and testing mechanism. The crux of the results presented in this paper rests on performance comparison of a multi-layered feed forward neural network with eleven types of back propagation techniques so as to evolve the best training criteria. The proposed methodology has been tested on the standard IEEE-14 bus test system with the support of MATLAB based NN toolbox. The results presented in this paper signify that the Levenberg-Marquardt backpropagation algorithm gives best training performance of all the eleven cases considered in this paper, thus validating the proposed methodology.
Keywords: Line congestion index, critical bus, contingency, neural network.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17752891 The Quality of Working Life and the Organizational Commitment of Municipal Employee in Samut Sakhon Province
Authors: Mananya Meenakorn
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This research aims to investigate: (1) Relationship between the quality of working life and organizational commitment of municipal employee in Samut Sakhon Province. (2) To compare the quality of working life and the organizational commitment of municipal employee in Samut Sakhon Province by the gender, age, education, official experience, position, division, and income. This study is a quantitative research; data was collected by questionnaires distributed to the municipal employee in Samut Sakhon province for 241 sample by stratified random sampling. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistic including percentage, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistic including t-test, F-test and Pearson correlation for hypothesis testing. Finding showed that the quality of working life and the organizational commitment of municipal Employee in Samut Sakhon province in terms of compensation and fair has a positive correlation (r = 0.673) and the comparison of the quality of working life and organizational commitment of municipal employees in Samut Sakhon province by gender. We found that the overall difference was statistically significant at the 0.05 level and we also found stability and progress in career path and the characteristics are beneficial to society has a difference was statistically significant at the 0.01 level, and the participation and social acceptance has a difference was statistically significant at the 0.05 level.
Keywords: Quality of working life, organizational commitment, municipal employee, Samut Sakhon province.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8622890 Low Power Bus Binding Based on Dynamic Bit Reordering
Authors: Jihyung Kim, Taejin Kim, Sungho Park, Jun-Dong Cho
Abstract:
In this paper, the problem of reducing switching activity in on-chip buses at the stage of high-level synthesis is considered, and a high-level low power bus binding based on dynamic bit reordering is proposed. Whereas conventional methods use a fixed bit ordering between variables within a bus, the proposed method switches a bit ordering dynamically to obtain a switching activity reduction. As a result, the proposed method finds a binding solution with a smaller value of total switching activity (TSA). Experimental result shows that the proposed method obtains a binding solution having 12.0-34.9% smaller TSA compared with the conventional methods.Keywords: bit reordering, bus binding, low power, switching activity matrix
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12892889 Algorithmic Skills Transferred from Secondary CSI Studies into Tertiary Education
Authors: Piroska Biró, Mária Csernoch, János Máth, Kálmán Abari
Abstract:
Testing the first year students of Informatics at the University of Debrecen revealed that students start their tertiary studies in programming with a low level of programming knowledge and algorithmic skills. The possible reasons which lead the students to this very unfortunate result were examined. The results of the test were compared to the students’ results in the school leaving exams and to their self-assessment values. It was found that there is only a slight connection between the students’ results in the test and in the school leaving exams, especially at intermediate level. Beyond this, the school leaving exams do not seem to enable students to evaluate their own abilities.
Keywords: Deep and surface approaches, metacognitive abilities, programming and algorithmic skills, school leaving exams, tracking code.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1757