Search results for: effective length
2750 A Study of Primary School Parents’ Interaction with Teachers’ in Malaysia
Authors: Shireen Simon
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This study explores the interactions between primary school parents-teachers in Malaysia. Schools in the country are organized to promote participation between parents and teachers. Exchanges of dialogue are most valued between parents and teachers because teachers are in daily contact with pupils’ and the first line of communication with parents. Teachers are considered by parents as the most important connection to improve children learning and well-being. Without a good communication, interaction or involvement between parent-teacher might tarnish a pupils’ performance in school. This study tries to find out multiple emotions among primary school parents-teachers, either estranged or cordial, when they communicate in a multi-cultured society in Malaysia. Important issues related to parent-teacher interactions are discussed further. Parents’ involvement in an effort to boost better education in school is significantly more effective with parents’ involvement. Lastly, this article proposes some suggestions for parents and teachers to build a positive relationship with effective communication and establish more democratic open door policy.
Keywords: Multi-cultured society, parental involvement, parent-teacher relationships, parents’ interaction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26712749 The Efficacy of Self-Administered Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy for a 50-year Old Woman with a 20 Year History of Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder: A Case Study
Authors: Mairwen K. Jones, Lynne Harris, Lisa D. Vaccaro
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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common and disabling condition. Therapist-delivered treatments that use exposure and response prevention have been found to be very effective in treating OCD, although they are costly and associated with high rates of attrition. Effective treatments that can be made widely available without the need for therapist contact are urgently needed. This case study represents the first published investigation of a self-administered cognitive treatment for OCD in a 50-year old female with a 20 year history of OCD. The treatment evaluation occurred over 27 weeks, including 12 weeks of self-administration of the Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy (DIRT) program. Decreases of between 23% to 33% on measures from pre-treatment to follow-up were observed. Bearing in mind the methodological limitations associated with a case study, we conclude that the results reported here are encouraging and indicate that further research effort evaluating the effectiveness of self-administered DIRT is warranted.Keywords: Anxiety Treatment, Cognitive Therapy, Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy, Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder, Self- Administered Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17542748 Synchrotron X-ray Based Investigation of Fe Environment in Porous Anode of Shewanella oneidensis Microbial Fuel Cell
Authors: Sunil Dehipawala, Gayathrie Amarasuriya, N. Gadura, G. Tremberger Jr, D. Lieberman, Harry Gafney, Todd Holden, T. Cheung
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The iron environment in Fe-doped Vycor Anode was investigated with EXAFS using Brookhaven Synchrotron Light Source. The iron-reducing Shewanella oneidensis culture was grown in a microbial fuel cell under anaerobic respiration. The Fe bond length was found to decrease and correlate with the amount of biofilm growth on the Fe-doped Vycor Anode. The data suggests that Fe-doped Vycor Anode would be a good substrate to study the Shewanella oneidensis nanowire structure using EXAFS.Keywords: EXAFS, Fourier Transform, Microbial Fuel Cell, Shewanella oneidensis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19472747 Automatic Building an Extensive Arabic FA Terms Dictionary
Authors: El-Sayed Atlam, Masao Fuketa, Kazuhiro Morita, Jun-ichi Aoe
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Field Association (FA) terms are a limited set of discriminating terms that give us the knowledge to identify document fields which are effective in document classification, similar file retrieval and passage retrieval. But the problem lies in the lack of an effective method to extract automatically relevant Arabic FA Terms to build a comprehensive dictionary. Moreover, all previous studies are based on FA terms in English and Japanese, and the extension of FA terms to other language such Arabic could be definitely strengthen further researches. This paper presents a new method to extract, Arabic FA Terms from domain-specific corpora using part-of-speech (POS) pattern rules and corpora comparison. Experimental evaluation is carried out for 14 different fields using 251 MB of domain-specific corpora obtained from Arabic Wikipedia dumps and Alhyah news selected average of 2,825 FA Terms (single and compound) per field. From the experimental results, recall and precision are 84% and 79% respectively. Therefore, this method selects higher number of relevant Arabic FA Terms at high precision and recall.
Keywords: Arabic Field Association Terms, information extraction, document classification, information retrieval.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17212746 Reversible Medical Image Watermarking For Tamper Detection And Recovery With Run Length Encoding Compression
Authors: Siau-Chuin Liew, Siau-Way Liew, Jasni Mohd Zain
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Digital watermarking in medical images can ensure the authenticity and integrity of the image. This design paper reviews some existing watermarking schemes and proposes a reversible tamper detection and recovery watermarking scheme. Watermark data from ROI (Region Of Interest) are stored in RONI (Region Of Non Interest). The embedded watermark allows tampering detection and tampered image recovery. The watermark is also reversible and data compression technique was used to allow higher embedding capacity.Keywords: data compression, medical image, reversible, tamperdetection and recovery, watermark.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20642745 Multi-board Run-time Reconfigurable Implementation of Intrinsic Evolvable Hardware
Authors: Cyrille Lambert, Tatiana Kalganova, Emanuele Stomeo, Manissa Wilson
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A multi-board run-time reconfigurable (MRTR) system for evolvable hardware (EHW) is introduced with the aim to implement on hardware the bidirectional incremental evolution (BIE) method. The main features of this digital intrinsic EHW solution rely on the multi-board approach, the variable chromosome length management and the partial configuration of the reconfigurable circuit. These three features provide a high scalability to the solution. The design has been written in VHDL with the concern of not being platform dependant in order to keep a flexibility factor as high as possible. This solution helps tackling the problem of evolving complex task on digital configurable support.Keywords: Evolvable Hardware, Evolutionary Strategy, multiboardFPGA system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15572744 An Effective Method of Head Lamp and Tail Lamp Recognition for Night Time Vehicle Detection
Authors: Hyun-Koo Kim, Sagong Kuk, MinKwan Kim, Ho-Youl Jung
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This paper presents an effective method for detecting vehicles in front of the camera-assisted car during nighttime driving. The proposed method detects vehicles based on detecting vehicle headlights and taillights using techniques of image segmentation and clustering. First, to effectively extract spotlight of interest, a segmentation process based on automatic multi-level threshold method is applied on the road-scene images. Second, to spatial clustering vehicle of detecting lamps, a grouping process based on light tracking and locating vehicle lighting patterns. For simulation, we are implemented through Da-vinci 7437 DSP board with near infrared mono-camera and tested it in the urban and rural roads. Through the test, classification performances are above 97% of true positive rate evaluated on real-time environment. Our method also has good performance in the case of clear, fog and rain weather.
Keywords: Assistance Driving System, Multi-level Threshold Method, Near Infrared Mono Camera, Nighttime Vehicle Detection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29232743 Hazards Assessment of Radon Exhalation Rate and Radium Content in the Soil Samples in Iraqi Kurdistan Using Passive and Active Detecting Methods
Authors: Asaad H. Ismail, Mohamad S. Jaafar
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This study aims to assess the environmental hazards from radon exhalation rate in the soil samples in selected locations in Iraqi Kurdistan, using passive (CR-39NTDs) and active (RAD7) detecting method. Radon concentration, effective radium content and radon exhalation rate were estimated in soil samples that collected at the depth level of 30 cm inside 124 houses. The results show that the emanation rate for radon gas was variation from location to other, depending on the geological formation. Most health risks come from emanation of radon and its daughter due to its contribution for indoor radon, so the results showed that there is a linear relationship between the ratio of soil and indoor radon concentration (CSoil Rn222/ Cindoor Rn222) and the effective radium content in soil samples. The results show that radon concentration has high and low values in Hajyawa city and Er. Tyrawa Qr, respectively. A comparison between our results with that mentioned in international reports was done.Keywords: Radon, CR-39NTDs, RAD7, Soil, Iraqi Kurdistan.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23902742 Computation of Induction Current in a Set of Dendrites
Authors: Sudhakar Tripathi, R. B. Mishra
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In this paper, the cable model of dendrites have been considered. The dendrites are cylindrical cables of various segments having variable length and reducing radius from start point at synapse and end points. For a particular event signal being received by a neuron in response only some dendrite are active at a particular instance. Initial current signals with different current flows in dendrite are assumed. Due to overlapping and coupling of active dendrite, they induce currents in the dendrite segments of each other at a particular instance. But how these currents are induced in the various segments of active dendrites due to coupling between these dendrites, It is not presented in the literature. Here the paper presents a model for induced currents in active dendrite segments due to mutual coupling at the starting instance of an activity in dendrite. The model is as discussed further.Keywords: Currents, dendrites, induction, simulation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14982741 An Overview on Aluminum Matrix Composites: Liquid State Processing
Authors: S. P. Jordan, G. Christian, S. P. Jeffs
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Modern composite materials are increasingly being chosen in replacement of heavier metallic material systems within many engineering fields including aerospace and automotive industries. The increasing push towards satisfying environmental targets are fuelling new material technologies and manufacturing processes. This paper will introduce materials and manufacturing processes using metal matrix composites along with manufacturing processes optimized at Alvant Ltd., based in Basingstoke in the UK which offers modern, cost effective, selectively reinforced composites for light-weighting applications within engineering. An overview and introduction into modern optimized manufacturing methods capable of producing viable replacements for heavier metallic and lower temperature capable polymer composites are offered. A review of the capabilities and future applications of this viable material is discussed to highlight the potential involved in further optimization of old manufacturing techniques, to fully realize the potential to lightweight material using cost-effective methods.Keywords: Aluminum matrix composites, light-weighting, hybrid squeeze casting, strategically placed reinforcements.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7002740 Development of an Efficient CVT using Electromecanical System
Authors: A. A. Shafie, M. H. Ali
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Continuously variable transmission (CVT) is a type of automatic transmission that can change the gear ratio to any arbitrary setting within the limits. The most common type of CVT operates on a pulley system that allows an infinite variability between highest and lowest gears with no discrete steps. However, the current CVT system with hydraulic actuation method suffers from the power loss. It needs continuous force for the pulley to clamp the belt and hold the torque resulting in large amount of energy consumption. This study focused on the development of an electromechanical actuated control CVT to eliminate the problem that faced by the existing CVT. It is conducted with several steps; computing and selecting the appropriate sizing for stroke length, lead screw system and etc. From the visual observation it was found that the CVT system of this research is satisfactory.Keywords: CVT, Hydraulic Actuator, Discrete shifts, Electromechanical system, Lead screws.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22142739 Assesing Extension of Meeting System Performance in Information Technology in Defense and Aerospace Project
Authors: Hakan Gürkan, Ahmet Denker
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The Ministry of Defense (MoD) spends hundreds of millions of dollars on software to support its infrastructure, operate its weapons and provide command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) functions. These and other all new advanced systems have a common critical component is information technology. Defense and Aerospace environment is continuously striving to keep up with increasingly sophisticated Information Technology (IT) in order to remain effective in today-s dynamic and unpredictable threat environment. This makes it one of the largest and fastest growing expenses of Defense. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent a year on IT projects. But, too many of those millions are wasted on costly mistakes. Systems that do not work properly, new components that are not compatible with old once, trendily new applications that do not really satisfy defense needs or lost though poorly managed contracts. This paper investigates and compiles the effective strategies that aim to end exasperation with low returns and high cost of Information Technology Acquisition for defense; it tries to show how to maximize value while reducing time and expenditure.Keywords: Iterative Process, Acquisition Management, Project management, Software Economics, Requirement analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12312738 Optimization and Determination of Process Parameters in Thin Film SOI Photo-BJMOSFET
Authors: Hai-Qing Xie, Yun Zeng, Yong-Hong Yan, Guo-Liang Zhang, Tai-Hong Wang
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We propose photo-BJMOSFET (Bipolar Junction Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) fabricated on SOI film. ITO film is adopted in the device as gate electrode to reduce light absorption. I-V characteristics of photo-BJMOSFET obtained in dark (dark current) and under 570nm illumination (photo current) are studied furthermore to achieve high photo-to-dark-current contrast ratio. Two variables in the calculation were the channel length and the thickness of the film which were set equal to six different values, i.e., L=2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12μm and three different values, i.e., dsi =100, 200 and 300nm, respectively. The results indicate that the greatest photo-to-dark-current contrast ratio is achieved with L=10μm and dsi=200 nm at VGK=0.6V.
Keywords: Photo-to-dark-current contrast ratio, Photo-current, Dark-current, Process parameter
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14402737 On a Discrete-Time GIX/Geo/1/N Queue with Single Working Vacation and Partial Batch Rejection
Authors: Shan Gao
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This paper treats a discrete-time finite buffer batch arrival queue with a single working vacation and partial batch rejection in which the inter-arrival and service times are, respectively, arbitrary and geometrically distributed. The queue is analyzed by using the supplementary variable and the imbedded Markov-chain techniques. We obtain steady-state system length distributions at prearrival, arbitrary and outside observer-s observation epochs. We also present probability generation function (p.g.f.) of actual waiting-time distribution in the system and some performance measures.
Keywords: Discrete-time, finite buffer, single working vacation, batch arrival, partial rejection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15852736 Role of Acoustic Pressure on the Dynamics of Moving Single-Bubble Sonoluminescence
Authors: Reza Rezaei-Nasirabad, Zeinab Galavani, Rasoul Sadighi-Bonabi, Mohammad Asgarian
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Role of acoustic driving pressure on the translational-radial dynamics of a moving single bubble sonoluminescence (m-SBSL) has been numerically investigated. The results indicate that increase in the amplitude of the driving pressure leads to increase in the bubble peak temperature. The length and the shape of the trajectory of the bubble depends on the acoustic pressure and because of the spatially dependence of the radial dynamics of the moving bubble, its peak temperature varies during the acoustical pulses. The results are in good agreement with the experimental reports on m-SBSL.Keywords: Bubble dynamics, Equation of the gas state, Hydrodynamic force, Moving sonoluminescence.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17602735 Load Transfer Mechanism Based Unified Strut-and-Tie Modeling for Design of Concrete Beams
Authors: Ahmed, M., Yasser A., Mahmoud H., Ahmed, A., Abdulla M. S., Nazar, S.
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Strut-and-Tie Models (STM) for the design of concrete beams, comprising of struts, ties, nodes as the basic tools, is conceptually simple, but its realization for complex concrete structure is not straightforward and depends on flow of internal forces in the structure. STM technique has won wide acceptance for deep member and shear design. STM technique is a unified approach that considers all load effects (bending, axial, shear, and torsion) simultaneously, not just applicable to shear loading only. The present study is to portray Strut-and-Tie Modeling based on Load-Transfer-Mechanisms as a unified method to analyze, design and detailing for deep and slender concrete beams. Three shear span- effective depth ratio (a/ d) are recommended for the modeling of STM elements corresponding to dominant load paths. The study also discusses the research work conduct on effective stress of concrete, tie end anchorage, and transverse reinforcement demand under different load transfer mechanism. It is also highlighted that to make the STM versatile tool for design of beams applicable to all shear spans, the effective stress of concrete and, transverse reinforcement demand, inclined angle of strut, and anchorage requirements of tie bars is required to be correlated with respect to load transfer mechanism. The country code provisions are to be modified and updated to apply for generalized design of concrete deep and slender member using load transfer mechanism based STM technique. Examples available in literature are reanalyzed with refined STM based on load transfer mechanisms and results are compared. It is concluded from the results that proposed approach will require true reinforcement demand depending on dominant force transfer action in concrete beam.
Keywords: Deep member, Load transfer mechanism, Strut-and-Tie Model, Strut, Truss.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 59682734 Structural Health Monitoring of Buildings and Infrastructure
Authors: Mojtaba Valinejadshoubi, Ashutosh Bagchi, Osama Moselhi
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Structures such as buildings, bridges, dams, wind turbines etc. need to be maintained against various factors such as deterioration, excessive loads, environment, temperature, etc. Choosing an appropriate monitoring system is important for determining any critical damage to a structure and address that to avoid any adverse consequence. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has emerged as an effective technique to monitor the health of the structures. SHM refers to an ongoing structural performance assessment using different kinds of sensors attached to or embedded in the structures to evaluate their integrity and safety to help engineers decide on rehabilitation measures. Ability of SHM in identifying the location and severity of structural damages by considering any changes in characteristics of the structures such as their frequency, stiffness and mode shapes helps engineers to monitor the structures and take the most effective corrective actions to maintain their safety and extend their service life. The main objective of this study is to review the overall SHM process specifically determining the natural frequency of an instrumented simply-supported concrete beam using modal testing and finite element model updating.
Keywords: Structural Health Monitoring, Natural Frequency, FFT analysis, Finite element model updating.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24282733 A Simple Epidemiological Model for Typhoid with Saturated Incidence Rate and Treatment Effect
Authors: Steady Mushayabasa
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Typhoid fever is a communicable disease, found only in man and occurs due to systemic infection mainly by Salmonella typhi organism. The disease is endemic in many developing countries and remains a substantial public health problem despite recent progress in water and sanitation coverage. Globally, it is estimated that typhoid causes over 16 million cases of illness each year, resulting in over 600,000 deaths. A mathematical model for assessing the impact of educational campaigns on controlling the transmission dynamics of typhoid in the community, has been formulated and analyzed. The reproductive number has been computed. Stability of the model steady-states has been examined. The impact of educational campaigns on controlling the transmission dynamics of typhoid has been discussed through the basic reproductive number and numerical simulations. At its best the study suggests that targeted education campaigns, which are effective at stopping transmission of typhoid more than 40% of the time, will be highly effective at controlling the disease in the community.
Keywords: Mathematical model, Typhoid, saturated incidence rate, treatment, reproductive number, sensitivity analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 35012732 Experimental Study of Tunable Layout Printed Fresnel Lens Structure Based on Dye Doped Liquid Crystal
Authors: M. Javadzadeh, H. Khoshsima
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In this article, we present a layout printing way for producing Fresnel zone on 1294-1b doped liquid crystal with Methyl-Red azo dye. We made a Fresnel zone mask with 25 zones and radius of 5 mm using lithography technique. With layout printing way, we recorded mask’s pattern on cell with λ=532 nm solid-state diode pump laser. By recording Fresnel zone pattern on cell and making Fresnel pattern on the surface of cell, odd and even zones, will form. The printed pattern, because of Azo dye’s photoisomerization, was permanent. Experimentally, we saw focal length tunability from 32 cm to 43 cm.
Keywords: Liquid crystal, lens, Fresnel zone, diffraction, Fresnel lens.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12432731 Corporate Governance Mechanisms, Whistle-Blowing Policy and Earnings Management Practices of Firms in Malaysia
Authors: Mujeeb Saif Mohsen Al-Absy, Ku Nor Izah Ku Ismail, Sitraselvi Chandren
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This study examines whether corporate governance (CG) mechanisms in firms that have a whistle-blowing policy (WHBLP) are more effective in constraining earnings management (EM), than those without. A sample of 288 Malaysian firms for the years 2013 to 2015, amounting to 864 firm-years were grouped into firms with and without WHBLP. Results show that for firms without WHBLP, the board chairman tenure would minimize EM activities. Meanwhile, for firms with WHBLP, board chairman independence, board chairman tenure, audit committee size, audit committee meeting and women in the audit committees are found to be associated with less EM activities. Further, it is found that ownership concentration and Big 4 auditing firms help to reduce EM activities in firms with WHBLP, while not in firms without WHBLP. Hence, functional and effective governance can be achieved by having a WHBLP, which is in line with agency and resource dependent theories. Therefore, this study suggests that firms should have a WHBLP in place, and policymakers should come up with enhanced criteria to strengthen the mechanisms of WHBLP.
Keywords: Corporate governance, earnings management, whistle-blowing policy, audit committee, board of directors.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12402730 Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Downward Bubbly Flows
Authors: Mahmood Reza Rahimi, Hajir Karimi
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Downward turbulent bubbly flows in pipes were modeled using computational fluid dynamics tools. The Hydrodynamics, phase distribution and turbulent structure of twophase air-water flow in a 57.15 mm diameter and 3.06 m length vertical pipe was modeled by using the 3-D Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase flow approach. Void fraction, liquid velocity and turbulent fluctuations profiles were calculated and compared against experimental data. CFD results are in good agreement with experimental data.Keywords: CFD, Bubbly flow, Vertical pipe, Population balance modeling, Gas void fraction, Liquid velocity, Normal turbulent stresses.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24672729 Stop Consonants in Chinese and Slovak: Contrastive Analysis by Using Praat
Authors: Maria Istvanova
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The acquisition of the correct pronunciation in Chinese is closely linked to the initial phase of the study. Based on the contrastive analysis, we determine the differences in the pronunciation of stop consonants in Chinese and Slovak taking into consideration the place and manner of articulation to gain a better understanding of the students' main difficulties in the process of acquiring correct pronunciation of Chinese stop consonants. We employ the software Praat for the analysis of the recorded samples with an emphasis on the pronunciation of the students with a varying command of Chinese. The comparison of the voice onset time (VOT) length for the individual consonants in the students' pronunciation and the pronunciation of the native speaker exposes the differences between the correct pronunciation and the deviant pronunciation of the students.
Keywords: Chinese, contrastive analysis, Praat, pronunciation, Slovak.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4952728 Multiple Sequence Alignment Using Three- Dimensional Fragments
Authors: Layal Al Ait, Eduardo Corel, Kifah Tout, Burkhard Morgenstern
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Background: Dialign is a DNA/Protein alignment tool for performing pairwise and multiple pairwise alignments through the comparison of gap-free segments (fragments) between sequence pairs. An alignment of two sequences is a chain of fragments, i.e local gap-free pairwise alignments, with the highest total score. METHOD: A new approach is defined in this article which relies on the concept of using three-dimensional fragments – i.e. local threeway alignments -- in the alignment process instead of twodimensional ones. These three-dimensional fragments are gap-free alignments constituting of equal-length segments belonging to three distinct sequences. RESULTS: The obtained results showed good improvments over the performance of DIALIGN.Keywords: DIALIGN, Multiple sequence alignment, Threedimensional fragments.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15392727 Performance Evaluation of the OCDM/WDM Technique for Optical Packet Switches
Authors: V. Eramo, L. Piazzo, M. Listanti, A. Germoni, A Cianfrani
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The performance of the Optical Code Division Multiplexing/ Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM/OCDM) technique for Optical Packet Switch is investigated. The impact on the performance of the impairment due to both Multiple Access Interference and Beat noise is studied. The Packet Loss Probability due to output packet contentions is evaluated as a function of the main switch and traffic parameters when Gold coherent optical codes are adopted. The Packet Loss Probability of the OCDM/WDM switch can reach 10-9 when M=16 wavelengths, Gold code of length L=511 and only 24 wavelength converters are used in the switch.
Keywords: Optical code division multiplexing, bufferless optical packet switch, performance evaluation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14312726 A Study of Current Maintenance Strategies and the Reliability of Critical Medical Equipment in Hospitals in Relation to Patient Outcomes
Authors: Khelood A. Mkalaf, Peter Gibson, John Flanagan
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This study investigates the relationship between the reliability of critical medical equipment (CME) and the effectiveness of CME maintenance management strategies in relation to patient outcomes in 84 public hospitals of a top 20 OECD country. The work has examined the effectiveness of CME maintenance management strategies used by the public hospital system of a large state run health organization. The conceptual framework was designed to examine the significance of the relationship between six variables: (1) types of maintenance management strategies, (2) maintenance services, (3) maintenance practice, (4) medical equipment reliability, (5) maintenance costs and (6) patient outcomes. The results provide interesting insights into the effectiveness of the maintenance strategies used. For example, there appears to be about a 1 in 10 000 probability of failure of anesthesia equipment, but these seem to be confined to specific maintenance situations. There are also some findings in relation to outsourcing of maintenance. For each of the variables listed, results are reported in relation to the various types of maintenance strategies and services. Decision-makers may use these results to evaluate more effective maintenance strategies for their CME and generate more effective patient outcomes.
Keywords: Critical medical equipment, maintenance strategy, patient outcomes, reliability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 48992725 The Effectiveness of National Fiscal Rules in the Asia-Pacific Countries
Authors: Chiung-Ju Huang, Yuan-Hong Ho
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This study utilizes the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Fiscal Rules Dataset focusing on four specific fiscal rules such as expenditure rule, revenue rule, budget balance rule, and debt rule and five main characteristics of each fiscal rule those are monitoring, enforcement, coverage, legal basis, and escape clause to construct the Fiscal Rule Index for nine countries in the Asia-Pacific region from 1996 to 2015. After constructing the fiscal rule index for each country, we utilize the Panel Generalized Method of Moments (Panel GMM) by using the constructed fiscal rule index to examine the effectiveness of fiscal rules in reducing procyclicality. Empirical results show that national fiscal rules have a significantly negative impact on procyclicality of government expenditure. Additionally, stricter fiscal rules combined with high government effectiveness are effective in reducing procyclicality of government expenditure. Results of this study indicate that for nine Asia-Pacific countries, policymakers’ use of fiscal rules and government effectiveness to reducing procyclicality of fiscal policy are effective.
Keywords: Counter-cyclical policy, fiscal rules, government effectiveness, procyclical policy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8102724 Sustainability as a Criterion in the Reconstruction of Libya’s Public Transport Infrastructure
Authors: Haitam Emhemad, Brian Agnew, David Greenwood
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Amongst the many priorities facing Libya following the 2011 uprising is the provision of a transport infrastructure that will meet the nation’s needs and not undermine its prospects for economic prosperity as with many developing economies non-technical issues such as management, planning and financing are the major barriers to the efficient and effective provision of transport infrastructure. This is particularly true in the case of the effective incorporation of sustainability criteria, and the research upon which this paper is based involves the examination of alternative ways of approaching this problem. It is probably fair to say that criteria that relate to sustainability have not, historically, featured strongly in Libya’s approach to the development of its transport infrastructure. However, the current reappraisal of how best to redevelop the country’s transport infrastructure that has been afforded by recent events may offer the opportunity to alter this. The research examines recent case studies from a number of countries to explore ways in which sustainability has been included as a criterion for planning and procurement decisions. There will also be an in-depth investigation into the Libyan planning and legislative context to examine the feasibility of the introduction of such sustainability criteria into the process of planning and procurement of Libya’s transport infrastructure.
Keywords: Libya Reconstruction, Sustainability criteria, Transport Infrastructure.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22562723 A Cross-Layer Approach for Cooperative MIMO Multi-hop Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Jain-Shing Liu
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In this work, we study the problem of determining the minimum scheduling length that can satisfy end-to-end (ETE) traffic demand in scheduling-based multihop WSNs with cooperative multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission scheme. Specifically, we present a cross-layer formulation for the joint routing, scheduling and stream control problem by incorporating various power and rate adaptation schemes, and taking into account an antenna beam pattern model and the signal-to-interference-and-noise (SINR) constraint at the receiver. In the context, we also propose column generation (CG) solutions to get rid of the complexity requiring the enumeration of all possible sets of scheduling links.Keywords: Wireless Sensor Networks, Cross-Layer Design, CooperativeMIMO System, Column Generation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16342722 The Effect of Surface Conditions on Wear of a Railway Wheel and Rail
Authors: A. Shebani, S. Iwnicki
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Understanding the nature of wheel and rail wear in the railway field is of fundamental importance to the safe and cost effective operation of the railways. Twin disc wear testing is used extensively for studying wear of wheel and rail materials. The University of Huddersfield twin disc rig was used in this paper to examine the effect of surface conditions on wheel and rail wear measurement under a range of wheel/rail contact conditions, with and without contaminants. This work focuses on an investigation of the effect of dry, wet, and lubricated conditions and the effect of contaminants such as sand on wheel and rail wear. The wheel and rail wear measurements were carried out by using a replica material and an optical profilometer that allows measurement of wear in difficult location with high accuracy. The results have demonstrated the rate at which both water and oil reduce wheel and rail wear. Scratches and other damage were seen on the wheel and rail surfaces after the addition of sand and consequently both wheel and rail wear damage rates increased under these conditions. This work introduced the replica material and an optical instrument as effective tools to study the effect of surface conditions on wheel and rail wear.Keywords: Railway wheel/rail wear, surface conditions, twin disc test rig, replica material, Alicona profilometer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11902721 Mechanical Properties of Die-Cast Nonflammable Mg Alloy
Authors: Myoung-Gon Yoon, Jung-Ho Moon, Tae Kwon Ha
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Tensile specimens of nonflammable AZ91D Mg alloy were fabricated in this study via cold chamber die-casting process. Dimensions of tensile specimens were 25mm in length, 4mm in width, and 0.8 or 3.0mm in thickness. Microstructure observation was conducted before and after tensile tests at room temperature. In the die casting process, various injection distances from 150 to 260mm were employed to obtain optimum process conditions. Distribution of Al12Mg17 phase was the key factor to determine the mechanical properties of die-cast Mg alloy. Specimens with 3mm of thickness showed superior mechanical properties to those with 0.8mm of thickness. Closed networking of Al12Mg17 phase along grain boundary was found to be detrimental to mechanical properties of die-cast Mg alloy.
Keywords: Non-flammable magnesium alloy, AZ91D, die-casting, microstructure, mechanical properties.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2558