Search results for: location awareness

Authors: Katleho Daniel Makatjane, Diteboho Lawrence Xaba, Ntebogang Dinah Moroke

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The current study investigates the behaviour of time-varying parameters that are based on the score function of the predictive model density at time t. The mechanism to update the parameters over time is the scaled score of the likelihood function. The results revealed that there is high persistence of time-varying, as the location parameter is higher and the skewness parameter implied the departure of scale parameter from the normality with the unconditional parameter as 1.5. The results also revealed that there is a perseverance of the leptokurtic behaviour in stock returns which implies the returns are heavily tailed. Prior to model estimation, the White Neural Network test exposed that the stock price can be modelled by a GAS model. Finally, we proposed further researches specifically to model the existence of time-varying parameters with a more detailed model that encounters the heavy tail distribution of the series and computes the risk measure associated with the returns.

Keywords: Generalized autoregressive score model, stock returns, time-varying.

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Authors: Dorota Rucińska

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This theoretical paper combines the academic discourse regarding a specific part of dark tourism. Based on the literature analysis, distinction of natural disasters in thanatourism was investigated, which is connected with dynamic geographical conditions. Natural disasters used to play an important role in social life by their appearance in myths and religions. Nowadays, tourists pursuing natural hazards can be divided into three groups: Those interested in natural hazards themselves; those interested in landscape deformation and experiencing emotions shortly after extreme events - natural disasters - occur; and finally those interested in historic places log after an extreme event takes place. An important element of the natural disaster tourism is quick access to information on the location of a disaster and the destination of a potential excursion. Natural disaster tourism suits alternative tourism, yet it is opposed culture tourism, and sustainable tourism. The paper compares types and groups of tourists. It also considers the contradictions that describe dualism, which exists in dark tourism.

Keywords: Dark tourism, dualism, natural disasters, natural hazards, thanatoursim.

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Authors: W. Kiamouche, S. Lasmari, M. Benslama

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In order to derive important parameters concerning mobile subscriber MS with ongoing calls in Low Earth Orbit Mobile Satellite Systems LEO MSSs, a positioning system had to be integrated into MSS in order to localize mobile subscribers MSs and track them during the connection. Such integration is regarded as a complex implementation. We propose in this paper a novel method based on advantages of mobility model of Low Earth Orbit Mobile Satellite System LEO MSS which allows the evaluation of instant of subsequent handover of a MS even if its location is unknown. This method is utilized to propose a Dynamic Channel Reservation DCRlike scheme based on the DCR scheme previously proposed in literature. Results presented show that DCR-like technique gives different QoS performance than DCR. Indeed, an improve in handover blocking probability and an increase in new call blocking probability are observed for the DCR-like technique.

Keywords: cellular layout, DCR, LEO mobile satellite system, mobility model, positioning system

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Authors: H. Nejadriahi

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Traditional architecture is a valuable source of inspiration, which needs to be studied and integrated in the contemporary designs for achieving an identifiable contemporary architecture. Traditional architecture of Iran is among the distinguished examples of being contextually responsive, not only by considering the environmental conditions of a region, but also in terms of respecting the socio-cultural values of its context. In order to apply these valuable features to the current designs, they need to be adapted to today's condition, needs and desires. In this paper, the main features of the traditional architecture of Iran are explained to interrogate them in the formation of a contemporary house in Tehran, Iran. Also a table is provided to compare the utilization of the traditional design concepts in the traditional houses and the contemporary example of it. It is believed that such study would increase the awareness of contemporary designers by providing them some clues on maintaining the traditional values in the current design layouts particularly in the residential sector that would ultimately improve the quality of space in the contemporary architecture.

Keywords: Contemporary housing design, Iran, Tehran, traditional architecture.

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Authors: Atefeh Pourshafie, Mohsen. Saniei, S. S. Mortazavi, A. Saeedian

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In this paper optimal capacitor placement problem has been formulated in a restructured distribution network. In this scenario the distribution network operator can consider reactive energy also as a service that can be sold to transmission system. Thus search for optimal location, size and number of capacitor banks with the objective of loss reduction, maximum income from selling reactive energy to transmission system and return on investment for capacitors, has been performed. Results is influenced with economic value of reactive energy, therefore problem has been solved for various amounts of it. The implemented optimization technique is genetic algorithm. For any value of reactive power economic value, when reverse of investment index increase and change from zero or negative values to positive values, the threshold value of selling reactive power has been obtained. This increasing price of economic parameter is reasonable until the network losses is less than loss before compensation.

Keywords: capacitor placement, deregulated electric market, distribution network optimization.

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Authors: A. Kardi, R. Zagrouba, M. Alqahtani

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The Internet of Everything (IoE) presents today a very attractive and motivating field of research. It is basically based on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) in which the routing task is the major analysis topic. In fact, it directly affects the effectiveness and the lifetime of the network. This paper, developed from recent works and based on extensive researches, proposes a taxonomy of routing protocols in WSNs. Our main contribution is that we propose a classification model based on nine classes namely application type, delivery mode, initiator of communication, network architecture, path establishment (route discovery), network topology (structure), protocol operation, next hop selection and latency-awareness and energy-efficient routing protocols. In order to provide a total classification pattern to serve as reference for network designers, each class is subdivided into possible subclasses, presented, and discussed using different parameters such as purposes and characteristics.

Keywords: WSNs, sensor, routing protocols, survey.

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Authors: Maatoug Hassine, Mourad Hrizi

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In this paper, we consider a geometric inverse source problem for the heat equation with Dirichlet and Neumann boundary data. We will reconstruct the exact form of the unknown source term from additional boundary conditions. Our motivation is to detect the location, the size and the shape of source support. We present a one-shot algorithm based on the Kohn-Vogelius formulation and the topological gradient method. The geometric inverse source problem is formulated as a topology optimization one. A topological sensitivity analysis is derived from a source function. Then, we present a non-iterative numerical method for the geometric reconstruction of the source term with unknown support using a level curve of the topological gradient. Finally, we give several examples to show the viability of our presented method.

Keywords: Geometric inverse source problem, heat equation, topological sensitivity, topological optimization, Kohn-Vogelius formulation.

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Authors: Pawel P. Czapski, Andrzej Sluzek

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This paper presents preliminary results regarding system-level power awareness for FPGA implementations in wireless sensor networks. Re-configurability of field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) allows for significant flexibility in its applications to embedded systems. However, high power consumption in FPGA becomes a significant factor in design considerations. We present several ideas and their experimental verifications on how to optimize power consumption at high level of designing process while maintaining the same energy per operation (low-level methods can be used additionally). This paper demonstrates that it is possible to estimate feasible power consumption savings even at the high level of designing process. It is envisaged that our results can be also applied to other embedded systems applications, not limited to FPGA-based.

Keywords: Power optimization, FPGA, system-level designing, wireless sensor networks.

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Authors: N. Ullah, A. Haddad, F. Van Der Linde

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This paper investigates the effects of breaks in bonds, breaks in the earthing system and breaks in earth wire on the rise of the earth potential (EPR) in a substation and at the transmission tower bases using various models of an L6 tower. Different approaches were adopted to examine the integrity of the earthing system and the terminal towers. These effects were investigated to see the associated difference in the EPR magnitudes with respect to a healthy system at various locations. Comparisons of the computed EPR magnitudes were then made between the healthy and unhealthy system to detect any difference. The studies were conducted at power frequency for a uniform soil with different soil resistivities. It was found that full breaks in the double bond of the terminal towers increase the EPR significantly at the fault location, while they reduce EPR at the terminal tower bases. A fault on the isolated section of the grid can result in EPR values up to 8 times of those on a healthy system at higher soil resistivities, provided that the extended earthing system stays connected to the grid.

Keywords: Bonding, earthing, EPR, integrity, system.

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Authors: Nuha Omran Abokhdair, Azizah Bt Abdul Manaf

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Reversible watermarking is a special branch of image watermarking, that is able to recover the original image after extracting the watermark from the image. In this paper, an adaptive prediction-based reversible watermarking scheme is presented, in order to increase the payload capacity of MRI medical images. The scheme divides the image into two parts, Region of Interest (ROI) and Region of Non-Interest (RONI). Two bits are embedded in each embeddable pixel of RONI and one bit is embedded in each embeddable pixel of ROI. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is able to achieve high embedding capacity. This is mainly caused by two reasons. First, the pixels that were excluded from data embedding due to overflow/underflow are used for data embedding. Second, large location map that need to be added to watermark data as overhead is eliminated and thus lower data embedding capacity is prevented. Moreover, the scheme provides good visual quality to the watermarked image.

Keywords: Medical image watermarking, reversible watermarking, Difference Expansion, Prediction-Error Expansion.

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Authors: Minwoo Son, Seung-Hun Lee, Dongkyoo Shin, Dongil Shin

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The next stage of the home networking environment is supposed to be ubiquitous, where each piece of material is equipped with an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag. To fully support the ubiquitous environment, home networking middleware should be able to recommend home services based on a user-s interests and efficiently manage information on service usage profiles for the users. Therefore, USN (Ubiquitous Sensor Network) technology, which recognizes and manages a appliance-s state-information (location, capabilities, and so on) by connecting RFID tags is considered. The Intelligent Multi-Agent Middleware (IMAM) architecture was proposed to intelligently manage the mobile RFID-based home networking and to automatically supply information about home services that match a user-s interests. Evaluation results for personalization services for IMAM using Bayesian-Net and Decision Trees are presented.

Keywords: Intelligent Agents, Home Network, Mobile RFID, Intelligent Middleware.

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Authors: Sadia Afroza, Rakiba Rouf

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Road safety and associated behaviors have received significant attention in recent years, reflecting general public concern. This paper portrays a statistical scenario of the young drivers in UAE with emphasis on various concern points of young driver’s behavior and license issuance. Although there are many factors contributing to road accidents, statistically it is evident that age plays a major role in road accidents. Despite ensuring strict road safety laws enforced by the UAE government, there is a staggering correlation among road accidents and young driver’s at UAE. However, private organizations like BMW and RoadSafetyUAE have extended its support on conducting surveys on driver’s behavior with an aim to ensure road safety. Various strategies such as road safety law enforcement, license issuance, adapting new technologies like safety cameras and raising awareness can be implemented to improve the road safety concerns among young drivers.

Keywords: Driving behavior, GLDS, road safety, UAE drivers, young drivers.

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Authors: R. Khadim, M. Erritali, A. Maaden

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Localization of nodes is one of the key issues of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) that gained a wide attention in recent years. The existing localization techniques can be generally categorized into two types: range-based and range-free. Compared with rang-based schemes, the range-free schemes are more costeffective, because no additional ranging devices are needed. As a result, we focus our research on the range-free schemes. In this paper we study three types of range-free location algorithms to compare the localization error and energy consumption of each one. Centroid algorithm requires a normal node has at least three neighbor anchors, while DV-hop algorithm doesn’t have this requirement. The third studied algorithm is the amorphous algorithm similar to DV-Hop algorithm, and the idea is to calculate the hop distance between two nodes instead of the linear distance between them. The simulation results show that the localization accuracy of the amorphous algorithm is higher than that of other algorithms and the energy consumption does not increase too much.

Keywords: Wireless Sensor Networks, Node Localization, Centroid Algorithm, DV–Hop Algorithm, Amorphous Algorithm.

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Authors: Elias O. Tembe, Hussain A. Al-Salamin

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There is decagram of strategic decisions of operations and production/service management (POSM) within operational research (OR) which must collate, namely: design, inventory, quality, location, process and capacity, layout, scheduling, maintain ace, and supply chain. This paper presents an architectural configuration conceptual framework of a decagram of sets decisions in a form of mathematical complete graph and abelian graph. Mathematically, a complete graph is undirected (UDG), and directed (DG) a relationship where every pair of vertices is connected, collated, confluent, and holomorphic. There has not been any study conducted which, however, prioritizes the holomorphic sets which of POMS within OR field of study. The study utilizes OR structured technique known as The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis for organizing, sorting and prioritizing(ranking) the sets within the decagram of POMS according to their attribution (propensity), and provides an analysis how the prioritization has real-world application within the 21st century.

Keywords: AHP analysis, Decagram, Decagon, Holomorphic.

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Authors: Jittarat Satonsaowapak, Thanatchai. Kulworawanichpong., Ratchadaporn Oonsivilai, Anant Oonsivilai

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The use of renewable energy sources becomes more necessary and interesting. As wider applications of renewable energy devices at domestic, commercial and industrial levels has not only resulted in greater awareness, but also significantly installed capacities. In addition, biomass principally is in the form of woods, which is a form of energy by humans for a long time. Gasification is a process of conversion of solid carbonaceous fuel into combustible gas by partial combustion. Many gasifier models have various operating conditions; the parameters kept in each model are different. This study applied experimental data, which has three inputs, which are; biomass consumption, temperature at combustion zone and ash discharge rate. One output is gas flow rate. For this paper, neural network was used to identify the gasifier system suitable for the experimental data. In the result,neural networkis usable to attain the answer.

Keywords: Gasifier System, Identification, Neural Network

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Authors: Tanit P ruktara

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This research aims to study the preferable tourism and the elements of choosing tourist destination from domestic tourist in Bangkok and the nearby areas in Thailand.The data were collected by using 1249 set of questionnaires, in mid-August 2012. The result illustrates that religious destinations are the most preferable places for the tourist. The average expense per travel is approximately 47 USD a time. Travellers travel based on the advertisement in the television and internet and their decisions is based on the reputation of the destinations. The result on a place dimension demonstrates the neatness and well managed location play a crucial role on tourist destination. Gender, age, marriage status and their origins are affecting their spending and travelling behaviour. The researcher reckon that providing the area of arcade, selling the souvenir and promoting tourism among a young professional group would be an important key follow the income distribution policy, including managing the destination to welcome the family group, which the result is to identified as the highest spending.

Keywords: Domestic Tourist, Tourism, Tourist Behaviours, Tourism Place.

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Authors: Malika Yaici, Anis Oussayah, Mohamed Ahmed Takerrabet

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Security of context-aware ubiquitous systems is paramount, and authentication plays an important aspect in cloud computing and ubiquitous computing. Trust management has been identified as vital component for establishing and maintaining successful relational exchanges between trading partners in cloud and ubiquitous systems. Establishing trust is the way to build good relationship with both client and provider which positive activates will increase trust level, otherwise destroy trust immediately. We propose a new context-aware authentication system using a trust management system between client and server, and between servers, a trust which induces partnership, thus to a close cooperation between these servers. We defined the rules (algorithms), as well as the formulas to manage and calculate the trusting degrees depending on context, in order to uniquely authenticate a user, thus a single sign-on, and to provide him better services.

Keywords: Ubiquitous computing, context-awareness, authentication, trust management.

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Authors: Mohit Tyagi, Pradeep Kumar

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The objective of this research work is to identify and analyze the significant corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices with an aim to improve the supply chain performance of automobile industry located at National Capital Region (NCR) of India. To achieve the objective, 6 CSR practices have been considered and analyzed using expert’s preference rating (EPR) approach. The considered CSR practices are namely, Top management and employee awareness about CSR (P₁), Employee involvement in social and environmental problems (P₂), Protection of human rights (P₃), Waste reduction, energy saving and water conservation (P₄), Proper visibility of CSR guidelines (P₅) and Broad perception towards CSR initiatives (P₆). The outcomes of this research may help mangers in decision making processes and framing polices for SCP implementation under CSR context.

Keywords: Supply chain performance, corporate social responsibility, CSR practices, expert’s preference rating approach.

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Authors: A. Bagherzadhalimi, E. Di Maria

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The feedbacks obtained regarding the sense of presence from pilot users operating a Mobile Robotic presence (MRP) system to visit a simulated museum are reported in this paper. The aim is to investigate how much the perception of system’s usefulness and ease of use is affected by operators’ sense of social telepresence (presence) in the remote location. Therefore, scenarios of visiting a museum are simulated and the user operators are supposed to perform some regular tasks inside the remote environment including interaction with local users, navigation and visiting the artworks. Participants were divided into two groups, those who had previous experience of operation and interaction with a MRP system and those who never had experience. Based on the results, both groups provided different feedbacks. Moreover, there was a significant association between user’s sense of presence and their perception of system usefulness and ease of use.

Keywords: Mobile Robotic Telepresence, Museum, Social Telepresence, Usability test.

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Authors: Shweta Kumari, Parmjit S. Panesar, Manab B. Bera

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The hydrolysis of lactose using β-galactosidase is one of the most promising biotechnological applications, which has wide range of potential applications in food processing industries. However, due to intracellular location of the yeast enzyme, and expensive extraction methods, the industrial applications of enzymatic hydrolysis processes are being hampered. The use of permeabilization technique can help to overcome the problems associated with enzyme extraction and purification of yeast cells and to develop the economically viable process for the utilization of whole cell biocatalysts in food industries. In the present investigation, standardization of permeabilization process of novel yeast isolate was carried out using a statistical model approach known as Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to achieve maximal b-galactosidase activity. The optimum operating conditions for permeabilization process for optimal β-galactosidase activity obtained by RSM were 1:1 ratio of toluene (25%, v/v) and ethanol (50%, v/v), 25.0 ^oC temperature and treatment time of 12 min, which displayed enzyme activity of 1.71 IU /mg DW.

Keywords: β-galactosidase, optimization, permeabilization, response surface methodology, yeast.

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Authors: Y. Harold Robinson, E. Golden Julie

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Dynamic Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has played a significant task in research for the recent years. Energy consumption and data delivery in time are the major parameters with the usage of sensor nodes that are significant criteria for these networks. The location of sensor nodes must not be prearranged. Clustering in WSN is a key methodology which is used to enlarge the life-time of a sensor network. It consists of numerous real-time applications. The features of WSNs are minimized the consumption of energy. Soft computing techniques can be included to accomplish improved performance. This paper surveys the modern trends in routing enclose fuzzy logic and Neuro-fuzzy logic based on the clustering techniques and implements a comparative study of the numerous related methodologies.

Keywords: Wireless sensor networks, clustering, fuzzy logic, neuro-fuzzy logic, energy efficiency.

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Authors: Okan Özgönenel

Abstract:

This paper presents the development of a wavelet based algorithm, for distinguishing between magnetizing inrush currents and power system fault currents, which is quite adequate, reliable, fast and computationally efficient tool. The proposed technique consists of a preprocessing unit based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT) in combination with an artificial neural network (ANN) for detecting and classifying fault currents. The DWT acts as an extractor of distinctive features in the input signals at the relay location. This information is then fed into an ANN for classifying fault and magnetizing inrush conditions. A 220/55/55 V, 50Hz laboratory transformer connected to a 380 V power system were simulated using ATP-EMTP. The DWT was implemented by using Matlab and Coiflet mother wavelet was used to analyze primary currents and generate training data. The simulated results presented clearly show that the proposed technique can accurately discriminate between magnetizing inrush and fault currents in transformer protection.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, discrete wavelet transform, fault detection, magnetizing inrush current.

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Authors: K. Singh, T. P. Sharma

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In wireless sensor network (WSN) the use of mobile sink has been attracting more attention in recent times. Mobile sinks are more effective means of balancing load, reducing hotspot problem and elongating network lifetime. The sensor nodes in WSN have limited power supply, computational capability and storage and therefore for continuous data delivery reliability becomes high priority in these networks. In this paper, we propose a Reliable Energy-efficient Data Dissemination (REDD) scheme for WSNs with multiple mobile sinks. In this strategy, sink first determines the location of source and then directly communicates with the source using geographical forwarding. Every forwarding node (FN) creates a local zone comprising some sensor nodes that can act as representative of FN when it fails. Analytical and simulation study reveals significant improvement in energy conservation and reliable data delivery in comparison to existing schemes.

Keywords: Energy Efficient, REED, Sink Mobility, WSN.

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Authors: J. Carlos Frutos Dordelly, M. Coillot, M. El Mankibi, R. Enríquez Miranda, M. José Jimenez, J. Arce Landa

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Natural ventilation systems have increasingly been the subject of research due to rising energetic consumption within the building sector and increased environmental awareness. In the last two decades, the mounting concern of greenhouse gas emissions and the need for an efficient passive ventilation system have driven the development of new alternative passive technologies such as ventilated facades, trombe walls or solar chimneys. The objective of the study is the assessment of PCM panels in an in situ solar chimney for the establishment of a numerical model. The PCM integrated solar chimney shows slight performance improvement in terms of mass flow rate and external temperature and outlet temperature difference. An increase of 11.3659 m³/h can be observed during low wind speed periods. Additionally, the surface temperature across the chimney goes beyond 45 °C and allows the activation of PCM panels.

Keywords: Energy storage, passive ventilation, phase changing materials, solar chimney, solar energy.

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Authors: Asar Khan, Peter D. Widdop, Andrew J. Day, Aliaster S. Wood, Steve, R. Mounce, John Machell

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This paper describes an automated event detection and location system for water distribution pipelines which is based upon low-cost sensor technology and signature analysis by an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The development of a low cost failure sensor which measures the opacity or cloudiness of the local water flow has been designed, developed and validated, and an ANN based system is then described which uses time series data produced by sensors to construct an empirical model for time series prediction and classification of events. These two components have been installed, tested and verified in an experimental site in a UK water distribution system. Verification of the system has been achieved from a series of simulated burst trials which have provided real data sets. It is concluded that the system has potential in water distribution network management.

Keywords: Detection, leakage, neural networks, sensors, water distribution networks

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Authors: Bahloul Amel

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The present study debates students’ perceptions of the use of technology in learning English as a Foreign Language. Its aim is to explore and understand students’ preparation and presentation of Posters, PowerPoint and Animated Videos by drawing attention to visual and oral elements. The data is collected through observations and semi-structured interviews and analyzed through phenomenological data analysis steps. The themes emerged from the data, visual learning satisfaction in using information and communication technology, providing structure to oral presentation, learning from peers’ presentations, draw attention to using Posters, PowerPoint and Animated Videos as each supports visual learning and organization of thoughts in oral presentations.

Keywords: Animated Videos, EFL, Posters, PowerPoint presentations, Visual Learning.

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Authors: Hsiu-Fen Chen, Fang-Liu Su, Ya-Wen Chang

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purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of support services for students with special education needs (SEN) at colleges and universities in Taiwan. Seventy-two college and universities received a questionnaire on its resource room operation process and four resource room staffs each from different areas were interviewed through semi- structured interview forms. The main findings were (1) most colleges and universities did offer sufficient administrative resources; (2) more efforts on preventions for SEN students and establishment of disability awareness should be made for all campus faculties ; (3) more comprehensive services were required to help students to have better transition into post-school life; (4) most schools provided basic administrative resource requirements but qualities of the resource room programs needed to be enhanced; and (5) most resource room staffs lacked of professional knowledge in counseling the SEN students which needed to be strengthened in the future.

Keywords: support services, students with special education needs, higher education, resource room program

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Authors: Jonathan Sahu, Jill Aylott

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Individuals with Autism, Intellectual and Developmental disabilities (AIDD) are one of the most vulnerable groups in society, hampered not only by their own limitations to understand and interact with the wider society, but also societal limitations in perception and understanding. Communication to express their needs and wishes is fundamental to enable such individuals to live and prosper in society. This research project was designed as an organisational case study, in a large secondary health care hospital within the National Health Service (NHS), to assess the quality of care provided to people with AIDD and to review the role of advocacy to reduce health inequalities in these individuals. Methods: The research methodology adopted was as an “insider researcher”. Data collection included both quantitative and qualitative data i.e. a mixed method approach. A semi-structured interview schedule was designed and used to obtain qualitative and quantitative primary data from a wide range of interdisciplinary frontline health care workers to assess their understanding and awareness of systems, processes and evidence based practice to offer a quality service to people with AIDD. Secondary data were obtained from sources within the organisation, in keeping with “Case Study” as a primary method, and organisational performance data were then compared against national benchmarking standards. Further data sources were accessed to help evaluate the effectiveness of different types of advocacy that were present in the organisation. This was gauged by measures of user and carer experience in the form of retrospective survey analysis, incidents and complaints. Results: Secondary data demonstrate near compliance of the Organisation with the current national benchmarking standard (Monitor Compliance Framework). However, primary data demonstrate poor knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, poor knowledge of organisational systems, processes and evidence based practice applied for people with AIDD. In addition there was poor knowledge and awareness of frontline health care workers of advocacy and advocacy schemes for this group. Conclusions: A significant amount of work needs to be undertaken to improve the quality of care delivered to individuals with AIDD. An operational strategy promoting the widespread dissemination of information may not be the best approach to deliver quality care and optimal patient experience and patient advocacy. In addition, a more robust set of standards, with appropriate metrics, needs to be developed to assess organisational performance which will stand the test of professional and public scrutiny.

Keywords: Autism, intellectual developmental disabilities, advocacy, health inequalities, quality of care.

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Authors: Omid Ghassemi

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As a by-product of its "cyberspace" status, electronic commerce is global, encompassing a whole range of B2C relationships which need to be approached with solutions provided at a local level while remaining viable when applied to global issues. Today, the European Union seems to be endowed with a reliable legal framework for consumer protection. A question which remains, however, is enforcement of this protection. This is probably a matter of time and awareness from both parties in the B2C relationship. Business should realize that enhancing trust in the minds of consumers is more than a question of technology; it is a question of best practice. Best practice starts with the online service of high street banks as well as with the existence of a secure, user-friendly and cost-effective payment system. It also includes the respect of privacy and the use of smart cards as well as enhancing privacy technologies and fair information practice. In sum, only by offering this guarantee of privacy and security will the consumer be assured that, in cyberspace, his/her interests will be protected in the same manner as in a traditional commercial environment.

Keywords: Consumer, Electronic, Jurisdiction, Payment

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Authors: Milorad Pavlovic, Anna Manzato, Antonella Cecchi

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Cultural heritage conservation is a challenge for contemporary society. In recent decades, significant resources have been allocated for the conservation and restoration of architectural heritage. Historical buildings were restored, protected and reinforced with the intent to limit the risks of degradation or loss, due to phenomena of structural damage and to external factors such as differential settlements, earthquake effects, etc. The wide diffusion of historic masonry constructions in Italy, Europe and the Mediterranean area requires reliable tools for the evaluation of their structural safety. In this paper is presented a free modal analysis performed on a minor historical architecture located in the village of Bagno Grande, near the city of L’Aquila in Italy. The location is characterized by a complex urban context, seriously damaged by the earthquake of 2009. The aim of this work is to check the structural behavior of a masonry building characterized by several boundary conditions imposed by adjacent buildings and infrastructural facilities.

Keywords: FEM, masonry, minor historical architecture, modal analysis.

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