Search results for: routine activities

Authors: Dayana Amira R., Roshanida A.R., Rosli M.I.

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Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB) and Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) are two main wastes from oil palm industries which contain rich lignocellulose. Degradation of EFB and POME by microorganisms will produce hydrolytic enzyme which will degrade cellulose and hemicellulose during composting process. However, normal composting takes about four to six months to reach maturity. Hence, application of fungi into compost can shorten the period of composting. This study identifies the effect of xylanase and cellulase produced by Aspergillus niger and Trichoderma virens on composting process using EFB and POME. The degradation of EFB and POME indicates the lignocellulolytic capacity of Aspergillus niger and Trichoderma virens with more than 7% decrease in hemicellulose and more than 25% decrease in cellulose for both inoculated compost. Inoculation of Aspergillus niger and Trichoderma virens also increased the enzyme activities during the composting period compared to the control compost by 21% for both xylanase and cellulase. Rapid rise in the activities of cellulase and xylanase was observed by Aspergillus niger with the highest activities of 14.41 FPU/mg and 3.89 IU/mg, respectively. Increased activities of cellulase and xylanase also occurred in inoculation of Trichoderma virens with the highest activities obtained at 13.21 FPU/mg and 4.43 IU/mg, respectively. Therefore, it is evident that the inoculation of fungi can increase the enzyme activities hence effectively degrading the EFB and POME.

Keywords: EFB, cellulase, POME, xylanase

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Authors: Ammar S. M. Moohialdin, Bambang T. Suhariadi, Mohsin Siddiqui

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This paper addresses the application of physiological status monitoring (PSM) for assessing the impact of harsh weather conditions on sports activities in universities in Saudi Arabia. Real sports measurement was conducted during sports activities such that the physiological status (HR and BR) of five students were continuously monitored by using Zephyr BioHarness^TM 3.0 sensors in order to identify the physiological bonds and zones. These bonds and zones were employed as indicators of the associated physiological risks of the performed sports activities. Furthermore, a short yes/no questionnaire was applied to collect information on participants’ health conditions and opinions of the applied PSM sensors. The results show the absence of a warning system as a protective aid for the hazardous levels of extremely hot and humid weather conditions that may cause dangerous and fatal circumstances. The applied formulas for estimating maximum HR provides accurate estimations for Maximum Heart Rate (HR_max). The physiological results reveal that the performed activities by the participants are considered the highest category (90–100%) in terms of activity intensity. This category is associated with higher HR, BR and physiological risks including losing the ability to control human body behaviors. Therefore, there is a need for immediate intervention actions to reduce the intensity of the performed activities to safer zones. The outcomes of this study assist the safety improvement of sports activities inside universities and athletes performing their sports activities. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to represent a special case of the application of PSM technology for assessing sports activities in universities considering the impacts of harsh weather conditions on students’ health and safety.

Keywords: PSM, heart rate, HR, breathing rate, BR.

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Authors: Yoon- Ho Shin, Jin-Seung Choi, Dong-Won Kang, Jeong-Woo Seo, Joo-Hack Lee, Ju-Young Kim, Dae-Hyeok Kim, Seung-Tae Yang, Gye-Rae Tack

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It is difficult to study the effect of various variables on cycle fitting through actual experiment. To overcome such difficulty, the forward dynamics of a musculoskeletal model was applied to cycle fitting in this study. The measured EMG data weres compared with the muscle activities of the musculoskeletal model through forward dynamics. EMG data were measured from five cyclists who do not have musculoskeletal diseases during three minutes pedaling with a constant load (150 W) and cadence (90 RPM). The muscles used for the analysis were the Vastus Lateralis (VL), Tibialis Anterior (TA), Bicep Femoris (BF), and Gastrocnemius Medial (GM). Person’s correlation coefficients of the muscle activity patterns, the peak timing of the maximum muscle activities, and the total muscle activities were calculated and compared. BIKE3D model of AnyBody (Anybodytech, Denmark) was used for the musculoskeletal model simulation. The comparisons of the actual experiments with the simulation results showed significant correlations in the muscle activity patterns (VL: 0.789, TA: 0.503, BF: 0.468, GM: 0.670). The peak timings of the maximum muscle activities were distributed at particular phases. The total muscle activities were compared with the normalized muscle activities, and the comparison showed about 10% difference in the VL (+10%), TA (+9.7%), and BF (+10%), excluding the GM (+29.4%). Thus, it can be concluded that muscle activities of model & experiment showed similar results. The results of this study indicated that it was possible to apply the simulation of further improved musculoskeletal model to cycle fitting.

Keywords: Cycle fitting, EMG, Musculoskeletal modeling, Simulation.

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Authors: E. Hosseini, M. Kadivar, M. Shahedi

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Malting is usually carried out on intact barley seed, while hull is still attached to it. In this study, oat grain with and without hull was subjected to controlled germination to optimize its enzymes activity, in such a way that lipase has the lowest and α- amylase and proteinase the highest activities. Since pH has a great impact on the activity of the enzymes, the pH of germination media was set up to 3 to 8. In dehulled oats, lipase and α-amylase had the lowest and highest activities in pHs 3 and 6, respectively whereas the highest proteinase activity was evidenced at pH 7 and 4 in the oats with and without hull respectively. While measurements indicated that the effect of hull on the enzyme activities particularly in lipase and amylase at each level of the pH are significantly different, the best results were obtained in those samples in which their hull had been removed. However, since the similar lipase activity in germinated dehulled oat were recorded at the pHs 4 and 5, therefore it was concluded that pH 5 in dehulled oat seed may provide the optimum enzyme activity for all the enzymes.

Keywords: Enzyme activity, malting, oat, optimization.

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Authors: Porntipa Taksin, Jutamas Wongchan, Amornrat Karamee

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The researchers’ experience of student affairs in 2011-2013, we found that few undergraduate nursing students become student association members who participated in co-curricular activities, they have limited skill of self-directed-learning and leadership. We developed “A Leadership Promoting Program” using Self-Directed Learning concept. The program included six activities: 1) Breaking the ice, Decoding time, Creative SMO, Know me-Understand you, Positive thinking, and Creative dialogue, which include four aspects of these activities: decision-making, implementation, benefits, and evaluation. The one-group, pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research was designed to examine the effects of the program on participation in co-curricular activities. Thirty five students participated in the program. All were members of the board of undergraduate nursing student association of Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Chonburi. All subjects completed the questionnaire about participation in the activities at beginning and at the end of the program. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and dependent t-test. The results showed that the posttest scores of all four aspects mean were significantly higher than the pretest scores (t=3.30, p<.01). Three aspects had high mean scores, Benefits (Mean = 3.24, S.D. = 0.83), Decision-making (Mean = 3.21, S.D. = 0.59), and Implementation (Mean=3.06, S.D.=0.52). However, scores on evaluation falls in moderate scale (Mean = 2.68, S.D. = 1.13). Therefore, the Leadership Promoting Program based on Self-Directed Learning Approach could be a method to improve students’ participation in co-curricular activities and leadership.

Keywords: Participation in co-curricular activities, undergraduate nursing students, leadership promoting program, self-directed learning.

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Authors: Guenther Schuh, Christina Koenig, Nico Schoen, Markus Wellensiek

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Identification and selection of appropriate product and manufacturing technologies are key factors for competitiveness and market success of technology-based companies. Therefore, many companies perform technology intelligence (TI) activities to ensure the identification of evolving technologies at the right time. Technology monitoring is one of the three base activities of TI, besides scanning and scouting. As the technological progress is accelerating, more and more technologies are being developed. Against the background of limited resources it is therefore necessary to focus TI activities. In this paper we propose a concept for defining appropriate search fields for technology monitoring. This limitation of search space leads to more concentrated monitoring activities. The concept will be introduced and demonstrated through an anonymized case study conducted within an industry project at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT. The described concept provides a customized monitoring approach, which is suitable for use in technology-oriented companies. It is shown in this paper that the definition of search fields and search tasks are suitable methods to define topics of interest and thus to align monitoring activities. Current as well as planned product, production and material technologies and existing skills, capabilities and resources form the basis for derivation of relevant search areas. To further improve the concept of technology monitoring the proposed concept should be extended during future research e.g. by the definition of relevant monitoring parameters.

Keywords: Monitoring radar, search field, technology intelligence, technology monitoring.

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Authors: Sasitorn Chetanont

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The objectives of this study are to find out the approaches to promote healthy recreation activities for elderly tourists and develop Bang Nam Phueng Floating Market to be a health tourism attraction. The research methodology was to analyze internal and external situations according to MP-MF and the MCSTEPS principles. As for the results of this study the researcher found that the healthy recreational activities for elderly tourists could be divided in 7 groups; travelling Bang Nam Phueng Floating Market activity, homestay relaxation, arts center platform activity, healthy massage activity, paying homage to a Buddha image activity, herbal joss-stick home activity, making local desserts and food activity.

Keywords: Elderly tourists, recreational activities, Bang Nam Phueng Floating Market.

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Authors: Sanaa K. Bardaweel, Mohammad M. Hudaib, Khaled A. Tawaha, Rasha M. Bashatwah

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Eucalyptus species are well reputed for their traditional use in Asia as well as in other parts of the world; therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities associated with essential oils from different Eucalyptus species. Essential oils from the leaves of six Eucalyptus species, including: Eucalyptus woodwardi, Eucalyptus stricklandii, Eucalyptus salubris, Eucalyptus sargentii, Eucalyptus torquata and Eucalyptus wandoo were separated by hydrodistillation and dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate. DPPH, ferric reducing antioxidant power, and hydroxyl radical scavenging activity assays were carried out to evaluate the antioxidant potential of the oils. The results indicate that examined oils exhibit substantial antioxidant activities relative to ascorbic acid. Previously, these oils were evaluated for their antimicrobial activities, against wide range of bacterial and fungal strains, and they were shown to possess significant antimicrobial activities. In this study, further investigation into the growth kinetics of oil-treated microbial cultures was conducted. The results clearly demonstrate that the microbial growth was markedly inhibited when treated with sub-MIC concentrations of the oils. Taken together, the results obtained indicate a high potential of the examined essential oils as bioactive oils, for nutraceutical and medical applications, possessing significant antioxidant and anti microbial activities.

Keywords: Antimicrobial, antioxidants, essential (volatile) oil, Eucalyptus.

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Authors: Mohammed Almohammedali, Peter Duncan, David Edgar

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The aim of this exploratory research is to understand further how organisations can evaluate their activities, which generate knowledge creation, to meet changing stakeholder expectations. A Scale of Knowledge (SoK) Framework is proposed which links knowledge management and organisational activities to changing stakeholder expectations. The framework was informed by the knowledge management literature, as well as empirical work conducted via a single case study of a multi-site hospital organisation in Saudi Arabia. Eight in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers from across the organisation regarding current and future stakeholder expectations, organisational strategy/activities and knowledge management. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and a hierarchical value map technique to identify activities that can produce further knowledge and consequently impact on how stakeholder expectations are met. The SoK Framework developed may be useful to practitioners as an analytical aid to determine if current organisational activities produce organisational knowledge which helps them meet (increasingly higher levels of) stakeholder expectations. The limitations of the research and avenues for future development of the proposed framework are discussed.

Keywords: Knowledge creation, knowledge management, organisational knowledge, scale of knowledge, knowledge impact.

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Authors: Mei L. Lin, Pi-Yueh Cheng

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Classes on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship are becoming quite popular at universities throughout the world. However, it is not easy for business students to get involved to innovative activities, especially patent application. The present study investigated how to enhance business students- intention to participate in innovative activities and which incentives universities should consider. A 22-item research scale was used, and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to verify its reliability and validity. Multiple regression and discriminant analyses were also conducted. The results demonstrate the effect of growth-need strength on innovative behavior and indicate that the theory of planned behavior can explain and predict business students- intention to participate in innovative activities. Additionally, the results suggest that applying our proposed model in practice would effectively strengthen business students- intentions to engage in innovative activities.

Keywords: discriminant analysis, growth need strength, innovative behavior, TPB model

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Authors: Haytham Yassine

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This article mainly aims to detect and understand how money laundering activities are executed by transport of cash, identifying the underlying factors and separating legitimate from illegitimate usage of cash and how it is being used. This research provides academics with additional literature and provides bank supervisors and practitioners with a better understanding of sources and uses of cash in criminal activities and how cash is used in the laundering mechanism. Data are gathered through survey in the Middle East and North Africa region and review of the available research. The results of the analysis will help distinguish the factors affecting preference for cash rather other payment instruments in the region, identify what causes the tendency to launder illegal proceeds through cash transportation and how illegal cash is being laundered and moved. On the other hand, this paper sheds the light on major cash generating criminal activities, its sources and main destinations.

Keywords: Illegitimate activities, cash, money laundering, terrorism financing.

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Authors: Loke Mun Sei

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Software testing has become a mandatory process in assuring the software product quality. Hence, test management is needed in order to manage the test activities conducted in the software test life cycle. This paper discusses on the challenges faced in the software test life cycle, and how the test processes and test activities, mainly on test cases creation, test execution, and test reporting is being managed and automated using several test automation tools, i.e. Jira, Robot Framework, and Jenkins.

Keywords: Test automation tools, test case, test execution, test reporting.

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Authors: Hyeyoung Cho, Sungho Kim, Sik Lee

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I/O workload is a critical and important factor to analyze I/O pattern and to maximize file system performance. However to measure I/O workload on running distributed parallel file system is non-trivial due to collection overhead and large volume of data. In this paper, we measured and analyzed file system activities on two large-scale cluster systems which had TFlops level high performance computation resources. By comparing file system activities of 2009 with those of 2006, we analyzed the change of I/O workloads by the development of system performance and high-speed network technology.

Keywords: I/O workload, Lustre, GPFS, Cluster File System

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Authors: Entela Haloci, Stefano Manfredini, Vilma Toska, Silvia Vertuani, Paola Ziosi, Irma Topi, Henri Kolani

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Antifungal activities of ether and methanolic extracts of volatiles oils of Nigella Sativa seeds were tested against pathogenic bacterias and fungies strains.The volatile oil were found to have significant antifungal and antibacterial activities compare to tetracycline, cefuroxime and ciprofloxacin positive controls.The ether and methanolic esxtracts were compared to each other for antifungal and antibacterial activities and ether extracts showed stonger activity than methanolic one.

Keywords: Antifungal, antibacterial, essential oils, extraction, Nigella Sativa.

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Authors: Maurício Covolan Rosito, Ricardo Melo Bastos

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Software projects are very dynamic and require recurring adjustments of their project plans. These settings can be understood as reconfigurations in the schedule, in the resources allocation and other design elements. Yet, during the planning and execution of a software project, the integration of specific activities in the projects with the activities that take part in the organization-s common activity flow should be considered. This article presents the results from a systematic review of aspects related to software projects- dynamic reconfiguration emphasizing the integration of project management with the organizational flows. A series of studies was analyzed from the year 2000 to the present. The results of this work show that there is a diversity of techniques and strategies for dynamic reconfiguration of software projects-. However, few approaches consider the integration of software project activities with the activities that take part in the organization-s common workflow.

Keywords: Dynamic Reconfiguration, Organizational workflows, Project Management, Systematic Review

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Authors: Yu-Mi Song, Sung-Ah Kim, Dongyoun Shin

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Cities are complex systems of diverse and inter-tangled activities. These activities and their complex interrelationships create diverse urban phenomena. And such urban phenomena have considerable influences on the lives of citizens. This research aimed to develop a method to reveal the causes and effects among diverse urban elements in order to enable better understanding of urban activities and, therefrom, to make better urban planning strategies. Specifically, this study was conducted to solve a data-recommendation problem found on a Korean public data homepage. First, a correlation analysis was conducted to find the correlations among random urban data. Then, based on the results of that correlation analysis, the weighted data network of each urban data was provided to people. It is expected that the weights of urban data thereby obtained will provide us with insights into cities and show us how diverse urban activities influence each other and induce feedback.

Keywords: Big data, correlation analysis, data recommendation system, urban data network.

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Authors: Jadwiga Klukow, Anna Ksykiewicz-Dorota

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An analysis of the distribution of nurses’ working time constitutes vital information for the management in planning employment. The objective of the study was to analyze the distribution of nurses’ working time in an emergency department. The study was conducted in an emergency department of a teaching hospital in Lublin, in Southeast Poland. The catalogue of activities performed by nurses was compiled by means of continuous observation. Identified activities were classified into four groups: Direct care, indirect care, coordination of work in the department and personal activities. Distribution of nurses’ working time was determined by work sampling observation (Tippett) at random intervals. The research project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee by the Medical University of Lublin (Protocol 0254/113/2010). On average, nurses spent 31% of their working time on direct care, 47% on indirect care, 12% on coordinating work in the department and 10% on personal activities. The most frequently performed direct care tasks were diagnostic activities – 29.23% and treatment-related activities – 27.69%. The study has provided information on the complexity of performed activities and utilization of nurses’ working time. Enhancing the effectiveness of nursing actions requires working out a strategy for improved management of the time nurses spent at work. Increasing the involvement of auxiliary staff and optimizing communication processes within the team may lead to reduction of the time devoted to indirect care for the benefit of direct care.

Keywords: Emergency nurses, nursing care, workload, work sampling.

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Authors: Suttipong Boonphadung, Thassanant Unnanantn

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This research focused on comparing the critical thinking of the teacher students before and after using Miller’s Model learning activities and investigating their opinions. The sampling groups were (1) fourth year 33 student teachers majoring in Early Childhood Education and enrolling in semester 1 of academic year 2013 (2) third year 28 student teachers majoring in English and enrolling in semester 2 of academic year 2013 and (3) third year 22 student teachers majoring in Thai and enrolling in semester 2 of academic year 2013. The research instruments were (1) lesson plans where the learning activities were settled based on Miller’s Model (2) critical thinking assessment criteria and (3) a questionnaire on opinions towards Miller’s Model based learning activities. The statistical treatment was mean, deviation, different scores and T-test. The result unfolded that (1) the critical thinking of the students after the assigned activities was better than before and (2) the students’ opinions towards the critical thinking improvement activities based on Miller’s Model ranged from the level of high to highest.

Keywords: Critical thinking, Miller’s model, Opinions.

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

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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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Authors: Chaiwat Waree, Kalanyoo Petcharaporn

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This research aims to develop and evaluate a training course to promote learning activities of 2nd year, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, faculty of education students using multiple intelligences theory. The process is divided into two phases: Phase 1 development of training course to promote learning activities consisting of principles, objectives of the course, structure, training duration, content, training materials, training activities, media training, monitoring, measurement and evaluation quality of the course. Phase 2 evaluation efficiency of training course was to use the improved curriculum with experimental group which is 2nd year, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, faculty of education students was drawn randomly 152 students. The experimental pattern was randomized Control Group Pre-Test Post-Test Design, Analysis Data by t-Test with the software SPFSS for Windows. Research has shown that: 1). the ability of teaching and learning according to the theory of multiple intelligences after training is higher than before training significantly in statistic at .01 level, 2). The satisfaction of students to the training courses was overall at the highest level.

Keywords: A training course, learning activities, multiple intelligences.

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Authors: Sadık Kartal

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This study was carried out to determine the feedback from the primary school headmasters on in-service training activities. 384 primary school headmasters were asked to give feedback on the in-service training facilities organized by the Ministry of Education through an open –ended question. The study group was formed by 359 primary school headmasters who attended “Management Skills" seminars which were organized in March, April and May in the extent of 2006 In-service Training Facilities Plan by the Ministry of Education and were also volunteers to give feedback on the inservice training activities. The qualitative research method was used in the analysis of the data since the primary school headmasters gave written feedback on the in-service training activities. Having analyzed the feedback, certain categories were formed by coding it. Certain frequencies and percentages were determined according to the codes. It was made obvious that the primary school headmasters benefitted from those facilities by sharing their experiences, problems and their possible solutions mutually

Keywords: In-service training, primary school principles, educates.

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Authors: A. Tomruk, G. Guler, B. Tandogan, E. Ozgur, N.N. Ulusu, N. Seyhan

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In the present study, we aimed to design the intrauterine and extrauterine exposure to 1800 MHz GSM-like RF radiation and investigate its possible bio-effects on infant female rabbits. Totally thirty-six New Zealand White female rabbits, onemonth old, were randomly divided into four groups which are composed of 9 rabbits; i. Group I [Intrauterine (IU) exposure(-); Extrauterine (EU) exposure (-)], Group II [IU exposure (-); EU exposure (+)], Group III [IU exposure(+);EU exposure(-)], Group IV [IU exposure (+);EU exposure(+)]. The master regulatory enzymes activities of pentose phosphate pathway (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, G-6PD; 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, 6- PGDH) and glutathione-dependent metabolism (glutathione peroxidase, GSH-Px; glutathione reductase, GR; glutathione Stransferase, GST, thioredoxin reductase, TRx) were analyzed in liver tissues of young female rabbits. Decreased G-6PD, 6-PGD, GSH-Px, GR activities were found in Group III compared to Group I (p<0.05, Mann Whitney). Increased GSH-px and TRx activities were found in Group IV compared to Group I (p<0.05, Mann Whitney). It can be concluded that the intrauterine and extrauterine exposure to GSMlike RF radiation may influence the liver regulatory enzymes activities.

Keywords: Radiofrequency (RF), intrauterine (IU) andextrauterine (EU) exposure, infant female rabbits.

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Authors: J. Kaabi, Y. Harrath

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This paper studied the flow shop scheduling problem under machine availability constraints. The machines are subject to flexible preventive maintenance activities. The nonresumable scenario for the jobs was considered. That is, when a job is interrupted by an unavailability period of a machine it should be restarted from the beginning. The objective is to minimize the total tardiness time for the jobs and the advance/tardiness for the maintenance activities. To solve the problem, a genetic algorithm was developed and successfully tested and validated on many problem instances. The computational results showed that the new genetic algorithm outperforms another earlier proposed algorithm. 

Keywords: Flow shop scheduling, maintenance, genetic algorithm, priority rules.

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Authors: Saima Hirani, Emmanuela Ojukwu, Nilanga Aki Bandara

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Mental health challenges that begin during the youth age period may continue across the entire life course. One way to support youth mental health is to encourage youth engagement in prosocial activities. This study aimed to explore youth’s perceptions about helping others and mental wellbeing, barriers, and enablers for youth to initiate and continue prosocial activities, and strategies for developing the attribute of helping others in youth. We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured, virtual interviews with 18 young individuals (aged 16-24 years) living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Youth perceived helping others as a source of feeling peace and calm, finding meaning in life, experiencing social connection and promoting self-care, and relieving stress. Participants reported opportunities to learn new skills, the role of religion, social connections, previous positive experiences, and role modeling as enablers for their prosocial behavior. Heavy time commitment, negative behavior from others, self-doubt, and late exposure to such activities were considered barriers by youth when participating in prosocial activities. Youth also brought forward key recommendations for engaging youth in helping others. The findings of this study support the notion that youth have positive experiences when engaging in helping others and that involving young people in prosocial activities could be used as a protective intervention for promoting youth mental health and overall wellbeing.

Keywords: Helping others, prosocial behavior, youth, mental wellbeing.

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Authors: K. Okubo, Y. Kurihara, T. Kaburagi, K. Watanabe

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Many of the ever-growing elderly population require exercise, such as running, for health management. One important element of a runner’s training is the choice of shoes for exercise; shoes are important because they provide the interface between the feet and road. When we purchase shoes, we may instinctively choose a pair after trying on many different pairs of shoes. Selecting the shoes instinctively may work, but it does not guarantee a suitable fit for running activities. Therefore, if we could select suitable shoes for each runner from the viewpoint of brain activities, it would be helpful for validating shoe selection. In this paper, we describe how brain activities show different characteristics during particular task, corresponding to different properties of shoes. Using five subjects, we performed a verification experiment, applying weight, softness, and flexibility as shoe properties. In order to affect the shoe property’s differences to the brain, subjects run for 10 min. Before and after running, subjects conducted a paced auditory serial addition task (PASAT) as the particular task; and the subjects’ brain activities during the PASAT are evaluated based on oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin relative concentration changes, measured by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). When the brain works actively, oxihemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin concentration drastically changes; therefore, we calculate the maximum values of concentration changes. In order to normalize relative concentration changes after running, the maximum value are divided by before running maximum value as evaluation parameters. The classification of the groups of shoes is expressed on a self-organizing map (SOM). As a result, deoxyhemoglobin can make clusters for two of the three types of shoes.

Keywords: Brain activities, NIRS, PASAT, running shoes.

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Authors: Nafise Fareghzadeh

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Service identification is one of the main activities in the modeling of a service-oriented solution, and therefore errors made during identification can flow down through detailed design and implementation activities that may necessitate multiple iterations, especially in building composite applications. Different strategies exist for how to identify candidate services that each of them has its own benefits and trade offs. The approach presented in this paper proposes a selective identification of services approach, based on in depth business process analysis coupled with use cases and existing assets analysis and goal service modeling. This article clearly emphasizes the key activities need for the analysis and service identification to build a optimized service oriented architecture. In contrast to other approaches this article mentions some best practices and steps, wherever appropriate, to point out the vagueness involved in service identification.

Keywords: SOA, service identification, service taxonomy, service layer.

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Authors: T. Teo, S. W. Lye, Y. F. Li, Z. Zakaria

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Wearable devices such as Electroencephalography (EEG) hold immense potential in the monitoring and assessment of a person’s task engagement. This is especially so in remote or online sites. Research into its use in measuring an individual's cognitive state while performing task activities is therefore expected to increase. Despite the growing number of EEG research into brain functioning activities of a person, key challenges remain in adopting EEG for real-time operations. These include limited portability, long preparation time, high number of channel dimensionality, intrusiveness, as well as level of accuracy in acquiring neurological data. This paper proposes an approach using a 4-6 EEG channels to determine the cognitive states of a subject when undertaking a set of passive and active monitoring tasks of a subject. Air traffic controller (ATC) dynamic-tasks are used as a proxy. The work found that using a developed channel reduction and identifier algorithm, good trend adherence of 89.1% can be obtained between a commercially available brain computer interface (BCI) 14 channel Emotiv EPOC+ EEG headset and that of a carefully selected set of reduced 4-6 channels. The approach can also identify different levels of engagement activities ranging from general monitoring, ad hoc and repeated active monitoring activities involving information search, extraction, and memory activities.

Keywords: Neurophysiology, monitoring, EEG, outliers, electroencephalography.

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Authors: Mawarni Mohamed, Sharifah Shahira A. Hamid

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Leisure time is an important component to offset the sedentary lifestyle of the people. Women tend to benefit from leisure activities not only to reduce stress but also to provide opportunities for well-being and self-satisfaction. This study was conducted to investigate body composition and leisure time use among women in Selangor from the influences of community settlement. A total of 419 women aged 18-65 years were selected to participate in this study. Descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA were used to analyze the level of physical activity and the relationship between leisure-time use and body composition were made to analyze the physical lifestyles. The results showed that women with normal body composition seem to be involved in more passive activities than women with less weight gain and obesity. Thus, the study recommended that the government and other health and recreational agencies should develop more places and activities suitable for leisure preference for women in their community settlement so they become more interested to engage in more active recreational and physical activities.

Keywords: Body composition, community settlement, leisure time, lifestyles.

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Authors: J. Nisar, S. Halim

Abstract:

The additional relationships i.e., start-to-start, finish-to-finish, and start-to-finish, between activity in Precedence Diagram Method (PDM) provides a more flexible schedule than traditional Critical Path Method (CPM). But, changing the duration of critical activities in the PDM network will have an anomalous effect on the critical path and the project completion date. In this study, we classified the critical activities in two groups i.e., 1. activity on single critical path and 2. activity on multi-critical paths, and six classes i.e., normal, reverse, neutral, perverse, decrease-reverse and increase-normal, based on their effects on project duration in PDM. Furthermore, we determined the maximum float of time by which the duration each type of critical activities can be changed without effecting the project duration. This study would help the project manager to clearly understand the behavior of each critical activity on critical path, and he/she would be able to change the project duration by shortening or lengthening activities based on project budget and project deadline.

Keywords: Construction project management, critical path method, project scheduling, precedence diagram method.

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Authors: H. M. Haytham, E. A. Azza, E.S. Mohamed, E. G. Nesreen

Abstract:

Thoracotomy is a great surgery that has serious pulmonary complications, so purpose of this study was to determine the response of diaphragmatic excursion to inspiratory muscle trainer post thoracotomy. Thirty patients of both sexes (16 men and 14 women) with age ranged from 20 to 40 years old had done thoracotomy participated in this study. The practical work was done in cardiothoracic department, Kasr-El-Aini hospital at faculty of medicine for individuals 3 days Post operatively. Patients were assigned into two groups: group A (study group) included 15 patients (8 men and 7 women) who received inspiratory muscle training by using inspiratory muscle trainer for 20 minutes and routine chest physiotherapy (deep breathing, cough and early ambulation) twice daily, 3 days per week for one month. Group B (control group) included 15 patients (8 men and 7 women) who received the routine chest physiotherapy only (deep breathing, cough and early ambulation) twice daily, 3 days per week for one month. Ultrasonography was used to evaluate the changes in diaphragmatic excursion before and after training program. Statistical analysis revealed a significant increase in diaphragmatic excursion in the study group (59.52%) more than control group (18.66%) after using inspiratory muscle trainer post operatively in patients post thoracotomy. It was concluded that the inspiratory muscle training device increases diaphragmatic excursion in patients post thoracotomy through improving inspiratory muscle strength and improving mechanics of breathing and using of inspiratory muscle trainer as a method of physical therapy rehabilitation to reduce post-operative pulmonary complications post thoracotomy.

Keywords: Diaphragmatic excursion, inspiratory muscle trainer, ultrasonography, thoracotomy.

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