Search results for: ontological view.

Authors: H. Alnajajra, A. Touqan, M. Dwaikat

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The vast majority of the Middle East countries are prone to earthquakes. Despite that and from a seismic hazard point of view, the higher values of the superimposed dead load intensity of partitions and wearing materials of the constructed reinforced concrete slabs in these countries can increase the earthquake vulnerability of the structures. The primary objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of reducing superimposed dead load on the lateral seismic deformations of structures, the inter-story drifts and the seismic pounding damages. The study utilizes a group of three reinforced concrete structures at three different site conditions. These structures are assumed to be constructed in Nablus city of Palestine, and having superimposed dead load value as 1 kN/m², 3 kN/m², and 5 kN/m², respectively. SAP2000 program, Version 18.1.1, is used to perform the response spectrum analysis to obtain the potential lateral seismic deformations of the studied models. Amazingly, the study points that, at the same site, superimposed dead load has a minor effect on the lateral deflections of the models. This, however, promotes the hypothesis that buildings failed during earthquakes mainly because they were not designed appropriately against gravity loads.

Keywords: Gravity loads, inter-story drifts, lateral seismic deformations, reinforced concrete slabs, response spectrum method, SAP2000, seismic design, seismic pounding, superimposed dead load.

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Authors: Rachid Ait daoud, Abdellah Amine, Belaid Bouikhalene, Rachid Lbibb

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Given the increase in the number of e-commerce sites, the number of competitors has become very important. This means that companies have to take appropriate decisions in order to meet the expectations of their customers and satisfy their needs. In this paper, we present a case study of applying LRFM (length, recency, frequency and monetary) model and clustering techniques in the sector of electronic commerce with a view to evaluating customers’ values of the Moroccan e-commerce websites and then developing effective marketing strategies. To achieve these objectives, we adopt LRFM model by applying a two-stage clustering method. In the first stage, the self-organizing maps method is used to determine the best number of clusters and the initial centroid. In the second stage, kmeans method is applied to segment 730 customers into nine clusters according to their L, R, F and M values. The results show that the cluster 6 is the most important cluster because the average values of L, R, F and M are higher than the overall average value. In addition, this study has considered another variable that describes the mode of payment used by customers to improve and strengthen clusters’ analysis. The clusters’ analysis demonstrates that the payment method is one of the key indicators of a new index which allows to assess the level of customers’ confidence in the company's Website.

Keywords: Customer value, LRFM model, Cluster analysis, Self-Organizing Maps method (SOM), K-means algorithm, loyalty.

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Authors: Taylan Kabbani, Ekrem Duman

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Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithms can scale to previously intractable problems. The automation of profit generation in the stock market is possible using DRL, by combining  the financial assets price ”prediction” step and the ”allocation” step of the portfolio in one unified process to produce fully autonomous systems capable of interacting with its environment to make optimal decisions through trial and error. This work represents a DRL model to generate profitable trades in the stock market, effectively overcoming the limitations of supervised learning approaches. We formulate the trading problem as a Partially observed Markov Decision Process (POMDP) model, considering the constraints imposed by the stock market, such as liquidity and transaction costs. We then solved the formulated POMDP problem using the Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3) algorithm and achieved a 2.68 Sharpe ratio on the test dataset. From the point of view of stock market forecasting and the intelligent decision-making mechanism, this paper demonstrates the superiority of DRL in financial markets over other types of machine learning and proves its credibility and advantages of strategic decision-making.

Keywords: Autonomous agent, deep reinforcement learning, MDP, sentiment analysis, stock market, technical indicators, twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient.

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Authors: Chong-Yang Qiao, Teeravarunyou Sakol

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Current production-oriented factories need maintenance operators to work in shifts monitoring and inspecting complex systems and different equipment in the situation of mechanical breakdown. Augmented reality (AR) is an emerging technology that embeds data into the environment for situation awareness to help maintenance operators make decisions and solve problems. An application was designed to identify the problem of steam generators and inspection centrifugal pumps. The objective of this research was to find the best medium of AR and type of problem solving strategies among analogy, focal object method and mean-ends analysis. Two scenarios of inspecting leakage were temperature and vibration. Two experiments were used in usability evaluation and future innovation, which included decision-making process and problem-solving strategy. This study found that maintenance operators prefer build-in magnifier to zoom the components (55.6%), 3D exploded view to track the problem parts (50%), and line chart to find the alter data or information (61.1%). There is a significant difference in the use of analogy (44.4%), focal objects (38.9%) and mean-ends strategy (16.7%). The marked differences between maintainers and operators are of the application of a problem solving strategy. However, future work should explore multimedia information retrieval which supports maintenance operators for decision-making.

Keywords: Augmented reality, situation awareness, decision-making, problem-solving.

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Authors: Rasha A. Salameh

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This research attempts to evaluate the treatment provided by the Qatari media to the decision to allow Saudi women to drive, and then activate this decision after a few months, that is, within the time frame between September 26, 2017 until June 30, 2018. This is through asking several questions, including whether the political dispute between Qatar and Saudi Arabia has cast a shadow over this handling, and if these Qatari media handlings are used to criticize the Saudi regime for delaying this step. Here emerges one of the research hypotheses that says that the coverage did not have the required professionalism, due to the fact that the decision and its activation took place in light of the political stalemate between Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which requires testing the media framing and agenda theories to know to what extent they apply to this case. The research dealt with a sample of five Qatari media read in this sample: Al-Jazeera Net, The New Arab Newspaper, Al-Sharq Newspaper, The Arab Newspaper, and Al-Watan Newspaper. The results showed that most of the authors who covered the decision to allow Saudi women to drive a car did not achieve a balance in their writing, and that almost half of them did not have objectivity, and this indicates the proof of the hypothesis that there is a defect in the professional competence in covering the decision to allow Saudi women to drive cars by means of Qatari media, and the researcher attributes this result to the political position between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, in addition to the fact that the Arab media in most of them are characterized by a low ceiling of freedom, and most of them are identical in their position with the position of the regime’s official view.

Keywords: Saudi women, stereotypes, hate speech, framing.

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Authors: Md. Zahangir Alom, Mei-Lan Piao, Md. Shariful Islam, Nam Kim, Jae-Hyeung Park

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The evaluation and measurement of human body dimensions are achieved by physical anthropometry. This research was conducted in view of the importance of anthropometric indices of the face in forensic medicine, surgery, and medical imaging. The main goal of this research is to optimization of facial feature point by establishing a mathematical relationship among facial features and used optimize feature points for age classification. Since selected facial feature points are located to the area of mouth, nose, eyes and eyebrow on facial images, all desire facial feature points are extracted accurately. According this proposes method; sixteen Euclidean distances are calculated from the eighteen selected facial feature points vertically as well as horizontally. The mathematical relationships among horizontal and vertical distances are established. Moreover, it is also discovered that distances of the facial feature follows a constant ratio due to age progression. The distances between the specified features points increase with respect the age progression of a human from his or her childhood but the ratio of the distances does not change (d = 1 .618 ) . Finally, according to the proposed mathematical relationship four independent feature distances related to eight feature points are selected from sixteen distances and eighteen feature point-s respectively. These four feature distances are used for classification of age using Support Vector Machine (SVM)-Sequential Minimal Optimization (SMO) algorithm and shown around 96 % accuracy. Experiment result shows the proposed system is effective and accurate for age classification.

Keywords: 3D Face Model, Face Anthropometrics, Facial Features Extraction, Feature distances, SVM-SMO

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Authors: Yoonjung An, Yongtae Park

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Offering a Product-Service System (PSS) is a well-accepted strategy that companies may adopt to provide a set of systemic solutions to customers. PSSs were initially provided in a simple form but now take diversified and complex forms involving multiple services, products and technologies. With the growing interest in the PSS, frameworks for the PSS development have been introduced by many researchers. However, most of the existing frameworks fail to examine various relations existing in a complex PSS. Since designing a complex PSS involves full integration of multiple products and services, it is essential to identify not only product-service relations but also product-product/ service-service relations. It is also equally important to specify how they are related for better understanding of the system. Moreover, as customers tend to view their purchase from a more holistic perspective, a PSS should be developed based on the whole system’s requirements, rather than focusing only on the product requirements or service requirements. Thus, we propose a framework to develop a complex PSS that is coordinated fully with the requirements of both worlds. Specifically, our approach adopts a multi-domain matrix (MDM). A MDM identifies not only inter-domain relations but also intra-domain relations so that it helps to design a PSS that includes highly desired and closely related core functions/ features. Also, various dependency types and rating schemes proposed in our approach would help the integration process.

Keywords: Inter-domain relations, intra-domain relations, multi-domain matrix, product-service system design.

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Authors: Parmjit S. Panesar, Rupinder Kaur, Ram S. Singh

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Enzymes are the biocatalysts which catalyze the biochemical processes and thus have a wide variety of applications in the industrial sector. β-Galactosidase (E.C. 3.2.1.23) also known as lactase, is one of the prime enzymes, which has significant potential in the dairy and food processing industries. It has the capability to catalyze both the hydrolytic reaction for the production of lactose hydrolyzed milk and transgalactosylation reaction for the synthesis of prebiotics such as lactulose and galactooligosaccharides. These prebiotics have various nutritional and technological benefits. Although, the enzyme is naturally present in almonds, peaches, apricots and other variety of fruits and animals, the extraction of enzyme from these sources increases the cost of enzyme. Therefore, focus has been shifted towards the production of low cost enzyme from the microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast and fungi. As compared to yeast and bacteria, fungal β-galactosidase is generally preferred as being extracellular and thermostable in nature. Keeping the above in view, the present study was carried out for the isolation of the β-galactosidase producing fungal strain from the food as well as the agricultural wastes. A total of more than 100 fungal cultures were examined for their potential in enzyme production. All the fungal strains were screened using X-gal and IPTG as inducers in the modified Czapek Dox Agar medium. Among the various isolated fungal strains, the strain exhibiting the highest enzyme activity was chosen for further phenotypic and genotypic characterization. The strain was identified as Rhizomucor pusillus on the basis of 5.8s RNA gene sequencing data.

Keywords: β-galactosidase, enzyme, fungus, isolation.

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Authors: Marwah Mohsin, Thomas Beach, Alan Kwan, Mahdi Ismail

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This paper describes the differences in views on sustainable development between the general public and experts in a developing country, Iraq. This paper will answer the question: How do the views of the public differ from the generally accepted view of experts in the context of sustainable urban development in Iraq? In order to answer this question, the views of both the public and the experts will be analysed. These results are taken from a public survey and a Delphi questionnaire. These will be analysed using statistical methods in order to identify the significant differences. This will enable investigation of the different perceptions between the public perceptions and the experts’ views towards urban sustainable development factors. This is important due to the fact that different viewpoints between policy-makers and the public will impact on the acceptance by the public of any future sustainable development work that is undertaken. The brief findings of the statistical analysis show that the views of both the public and the experts are considered different in most of the variables except six variables show no differences. Those variables are ‘The importance of establishing sustainable cities in Iraq’, ‘Mitigate traffic congestion’, ‘Waste recycling and separating’, ‘Use wastewater recycling’, ‘Parks and green spaces’, and ‘Promote investment’.

Keywords: Urban sustainable development, experts’ views, public views, statistical analysis.

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Authors: A. Miss May Thu Zar Myint, B. Dr. Kay Thi Lwin

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This research focuses on the effect of weight percentage variation and size variation of MgFeSi added, gating system design and reaction chamber design on inmold process. By using inmold process, well-known problem of fading is avoided because the liquid iron reacts with magnesium in the mold and not, as usual, in the ladle. During the pouring operation, liquid metal passes through the chamber containing the magnesium, where the reaction of the metal with magnesium proceeds in the absence of atmospheric oxygen [1].In this paper, the results of microstructural characteristic of ductile iron on this parameters are mentioned. The mechanisms of the inmold process are also described [2]. The data obtained from this research will assist in producing the vehicle parts and other machinery parts for different industrial zones and government industries and in transferring the technology to all industrial zones in Myanmar. Therefore, the inmold technology offers many advantages over traditional treatment methods both from a technical and environmental, as well as an economical point of view. The main objective of this research is to produce ductile iron castings in all industrial sectors in Myanmar more easily with lower costs. It will also assist the sharing of knowledge and experience related to the ductile iron production.

Keywords: ductile iron, inmold process, magnesiumtreatment, microstructural characteristics.

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Authors: Tuti Haryati Jasimin, Hishamuddin Mohd Ali

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Malaysia’s green building development is gaining momentum and green buildings have become a key focus area, especially within the commercial sector with the encouragement of government legislation and policy. Due to the emerging awareness among the market players’ views of the benefits associated with the ownership of green buildings in Malaysia, there is a need for valuers to incorporate consideration of sustainability into their assessments of property market value to ensure the green buildings continue to increase in the market. This paper analyses the valuers’ current perception on the valuation practices with regard to the green issues in Malaysia. The study was based on a survey of registered real estate valuers and the experts whose work related to valuation in the Klang Valley area to rate their view regarding the perception on valuation of green building. The findings present evidence that even though Malaysian valuers have limited knowledge of green buildings, they recognise the importance of incorporating the green features in the valuation process. The inclusion of incorporating the green features in valuations in practice was hindered by the inadequacy of sufficient transaction data in the market. Furthermore, valuers experienced difficulty in identifying what are the various input parameters of green building and how to adjust it in order to reflect the benefit of sustainability features correctly in the valuation process. This paper focuses on the present challenges confronted by Malaysian valuers with regards to incorporating the green features in their valuation.

Keywords: Green commercial office building, Malaysia, valuers’ perception, valuation.

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Authors: M. Kosacka, I. Kudelska

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Vehicle is one of the most influential and complex product worldwide, which affects people’s life, state of the environment and condition of the economy (all aspects of sustainable development concept) during each stage of lifecycle. With the increase of vehicles’ number, there is growing potential for management of End of Life Vehicle (ELV), which is hazardous waste. From one point of view, the ELV should be managed to ensure risk elimination, but from another point, it should be treated as a source of valuable materials and spare parts. In order to obtain materials and spare parts, there are established recycling networks, which are an example of sustainable policy realization at the national level. The basic object in the polish recycling network is dismantling facility. The output material streams in dismantling stations include waste, which very often generate costs and spare parts, that have the biggest potential for revenues creation. Both outputs are stored into warehouses, according to the law. In accordance to the revenue creation and sustainability potential, it has been placed a strong emphasis on storage process. We present the concept of storage method, which takes into account the specific of the dismantling facility in order to support decision-making process with regard to the principles of sustainable development. The method was developed on the basis of case study of one of the greatest dismantling facility in Poland.

Keywords: Dismantling, end of life vehicle, sustainability, storage.

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Authors: Ntokozo C. Mthembu

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The notion of sustainable chemistry has become significant in the discourse for a global post-colonial era, including South Africa, especially when it comes to access to the general health system and related policies in relation to disease or ease of human life. In view of the stubborn vestiges of coloniality in the daily lives of indigenous African people in general, the fundamentals of present Western medical and traditional medicine systems and related policies in the democratic era were examined in this study. The situation of traditional healers in relation to current policy was also reviewed. The advent of democracy in South Africa brought about a variety of development opportunities and limitations, particularly with respect to indigenous African knowledge systems such as traditional medicine. There were high hopes that the limitations of previous narrow cultural perspectives would be rectified in the democratic era through development interventions, but some sections of society, such as traditional healers, remain marginalised. The Afrocentric perspective was explored in dissecting government interventions related to traditional medicine. This article highlights that multiple medical systems should be adopted and that health policies should be aligned in order to guarantee mutual respect and to address the remnants of colonialism in South Africa, Africa and the broader global community.

Keywords: Traditional healing system, healers, pluralist healthcare system, post-colonial era.

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Authors: M. Yadegari

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The thyroid gland is the largest classic endocrine organ that effects many organs of the body and plays a significant role in the process of Metabolism in animals. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of thyroid disorders diagnosed by ultrasound and microscopic Lesions of the thyroid during the slaughter of apparently healthy One Humped Camels (Camelus dromedarius) in Iran. Randomly, 520 male camels (With an age range of 4 to 8 years), were studied in 2012 to 2013. The Camels’ thyroid glands were evaluated by sonographic examination. In both longitudinal and transverse view and then tissue sections were provide and stained with H & E and finally examined by light microscopy. The results obtained indicated the following: hyperplastic goiter (21%), degenerative changes (12%), follicular cysts (8%), follicular atrophy (4%), nodular hyperplasia (3%), adenoma (1%), carcinoma (1%) and simple goiter colloid (1%). Ultrasound evaluation of thyroid gland in adenoma and carcinoma showed enlargement and irregular of the gland, decreased echogenicity, and the heterogeneous thyroid parenchyma. Also, in follicular cysts were observed in the enlarged gland with no echo structures of different sizes and decreased echogenicity as a local or general. In nodular hyperplasia, increase echogenicity and heterogeneous parenchymal were seen. These findings suggest the use of sonography and pathology as a screening test in the diagnosis of complications of thyroid disorders.

Keywords: One humped camel, pathology, sonography, thyroid gland.

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Authors: Z. Mazrouei-Sebdani, A. Khoddami, H. Hadadzadeh, M. Zarrebini

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In this research, waterglass based aerogel powder was prepared by sol–gel process and ambient pressure drying. Inspired by limited dust releasing, aerogel powder was introduced to the PET electrospinning solution in an attempt to create required bulk and surface structure for the nanofibers to improve their hydrophobic and insulation properties. The samples evaluation was carried out by measuring density, porosity, contact angle, heat transfer, FTIR, BET, and SEM. According to the results, porous silica aerogel powder was fabricated with mean pore diameter of 24 nm and contact angle of 145.9º. The results indicated the usefulness of the aerogel powder confined into nanofibers to control surface roughness for manipulating superhydrophobic nanowebs with water contact angle of 147º. It can be due to a multi-scale surface roughness which was created by nanowebs structure itself and nanofibers surface irregularity in presence of the aerogels while a layer of fluorocarbon created low surface energy. The wettability of a solid substrate is an important property that is controlled by both the chemical composition and geometry of the surface. Also, a decreasing trend in the heat transfer was observed from 22% for the nanofibers without any aerogel powder to 8% for the nanofibers with 4% aerogel powder. The development of thermal insulating materials has become increasingly more important than ever in view of the fossil energy depletion and global warming that call for more demanding energysaving practices.

Keywords: Superhydrophobicity, Insulation, Sol-gel, Surface energy, Roughness.

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Authors: Fereshteh Afkari, Davood Bagheri

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The effect of teaching method on learning assistance Dunn Review .The study, to compare the effects of collaboration on teaching mathematics learning courses, including writing, science, experimental girl students by other methods of teaching basic first paid and the amount of learning students methods have been trained to cooperate with other students with other traditional methods have been trained to compare. The survey on 100 students in Tehran that using random sampling ¬ cluster of girl students between the first primary selections was performed. Considering the topic of semi-experimental research methods used to practice the necessary information by questionnaire, examination questions by the researcher, in collaboration with teachers and view authority in this field and related courses that teach these must have been collected. Research samples to test and control groups were divided. Experimental group and control group collaboration using traditional methods of mathematics courses, including writing and experimental sciences were trained. Research results using statistical methods T is obtained in two independent groups show that, through training assistance will lead to positive results and student learning in comparison with traditional methods, will increase also led to collaboration methods increase skills to solve math lesson practice, better understanding and increased skill level of students in practical lessons such as science and has been writing.

Keywords: method of teaching, learning, collaboration

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Authors: M. Pisol B Mat Isa, Asmak Ab Rahman, Hezlina Bt M Hashim, Abd Mutalib B Embong

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Al-Murabahah is an Islamic financing facility used in asset financing, the profit rate of the contract is determined by components which are also being used in the conventional banking. Such are cost of fund, overhead cost, risk premium cost and bank-s profit margin. At the same time, the profit rate determined by Islamic banking system also refers to Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) in London as a benchmark. This practice has risen arguments among Muslim scholars in term of its validity of the contract; whether the contract maintains the Shariah compliance or not. This paper aims to explore the view of Shariah towards the above components practiced by Islamic Banking in determining the profit rate of al-murabahah asset financing in Malaysia. This is a comparative research which applied the views of Muslim scholars from all major mazahibs in Islamic jurisprudence and examined the practices by Islamic banks in Malaysia for the above components. The study found that the shariah accepts all the components with conditions. The cost of fund is accepted as a portion of al-mudarabah-s profit, the overhead cost is accepted as a cost of product, risk premium cost consist of business risk and mitigation risk are accepted through the concept of alta-awun and bank-s profit margin is accepted as a right of bank after venturing in risky investment.

Keywords: Islamic banking, Islamic finance, al-murabahah and asset financing

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Authors: Abraham Undu, Stephen Akuma

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Websites are becoming a major component of an organization’s success in our ever globalizing competitive world. The website symbolizes an organization, interacting or projecting an organization’s principles, culture, values, vision, and perspectives. It is an interface connecting organizations and their clients. The university, as an academic institution, makes use of a website to communicate and offer computing services to its stakeholders (students, staff, host community, university management etc). Unfortunately, website designers often give more consideration to the technology, organizational structure and business objectives of the university than to the usability of the site. Website designers end up designing university websites which do not meet the needs of the primary users. This empirical study investigated the Benue State University website from the point view of students. This research was realized by using a standardized website usability questionnaire based on the five factors of usability defined by WAMMI (Website Analysis and Measurement Inventory): attractiveness, controllability, efficiency, learnability and helpfulness. The result of the investigation showed that the university website (https://portal.bsum.edu.ng/) has neutral usability level because of the usability issues associated with the website. The research recommended feasible solutions to improve the usability of the website from the users’ perspective and also provided a modified usability model that will be used for better evaluation of the Benue State University website.

Keywords: Usability, usability factors, university websites, user’s perspective, WAMMI, modified usability model, Benue State University.

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Authors: Takashi Shimizu, Tomoaki Hashimoto

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Controlling the flow of fluids is a challenging problem that arises in many fields. Burgers’ equation is a fundamental equation for several flow phenomena such as traffic, shock waves, and turbulence. The optimal feedback control method, so-called model predictive control, has been proposed for Burgers’ equation. However, the model predictive control method is inapplicable to systems whose all state variables are not exactly known. In practical point of view, it is unusual that all the state variables of systems are exactly known, because the state variables of systems are measured through output sensors and limited parts of them can be only available. In fact, it is usual that flow velocities of fluid systems cannot be measured for all spatial domains. Hence, any practical feedback controller for fluid systems must incorporate some type of state estimator. To apply the model predictive control to the fluid systems described by Burgers’ equation, it is needed to establish a state estimation method for Burgers’ equation with limited measurable state variables. To this purpose, we apply unscented Kalman filter for estimating the state variables of fluid systems described by Burgers’ equation. The objective of this study is to establish a state estimation method based on unscented Kalman filter for Burgers’ equation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by numerical simulations.

Keywords: State estimation, fluid systems, observer systems, unscented Kalman filter.

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Authors: Takashi Ueda, Shinichi Enoki

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Forging parts is used to automobiles; because, they have high strength and it is possible to press them into complicated shape. When itis possible to manufacture hollow forging parts, it leads to reduce weightof the automobiles. But, hollow forging parts are confined to axisymmetrical shape. Hollowforging parts that were pressed to complicated shape are expected. Therefore, we forge a blank that aluminum alloy was inserted in stainless steel. After that, we can providecomplex forging parts that are reduced weight,ifit is possible to be melted the aluminum alloy away by using different of melting points.It is necessary to establish heat forging analysis methodon blank consist of stainless steel and aluminum alloy. Because,this forging is different from conventional forging and this technology is not confirmed. In this study, we compared forging experiment with numerical analysis on the view point of forming load and shape after forming and establish how to set the material temperaturesof two metals and material property of stainless steel on the analysis method. Consequently, temperature difference of stainless steel and aluminum alloy was obtained by experiment. We got material property of stainless steel on forging experimental by compression tests. We had compared numerical analysis that was used the temperature difference of two metals and the material property of stainless steel on forging experimental with forging experiment. Forging analysis method on blankconsist of two metals was established by result of numerical analysis having agreedwith result of forging experiment.

Keywords: Forging, lightweight, analysis, hollow.

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Authors: Bingchun Liu, Pei-Chann Chang, Natasha Huang, Dun Li

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Machine Learning and Data Mining are the two important tools for extracting useful information and knowledge from large datasets. In machine learning, classification is a wildly used technique to predict qualitative variables and is generally preferred over regression from an operational point of view. Due to the enormous increase in air pollution in various countries especially China, Air Quality Classification has become one of the most important topics in air quality research and modelling. This study aims at introducing a hybrid classification model based on information theory and Support Vector Machine (SVM) using the air quality data of four cities in China namely Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Tianjin from Jan 1, 2014 to April 30, 2016. China's Ministry of Environmental Protection has classified the daily air quality into 6 levels namely Serious Pollution, Severe Pollution, Moderate Pollution, Light Pollution, Good and Excellent based on their respective Air Quality Index (AQI) values. Using the information theory, information gain (IG) is calculated and feature selection is done for both categorical features and continuous numeric features. Then SVM Machine Learning algorithm is implemented on the selected features with cross-validation. The final evaluation reveals that the IG and SVM hybrid model performs better than SVM (alone), Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and K-Nearest Neighbours (KNN) models in terms of accuracy as well as complexity.

Keywords: Machine learning, air quality classification, air quality index, information gain, support vector machine, cross-validation.

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Authors: Mohsen Noroozi, Maryam Khalili

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Creating cities, objects and spaces that are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable and which meet the challenge of social interaction and generation change will be one of the biggest tasks of designers. Social sustainability is about how individuals, communities and societies live with each other and set out to achieve the objectives of development model which they have chosen for themselves. Urban lightning as one of the most important elements of urban furniture that people constantly interact with it in public spaces; can be a significant object for designers. Using intelligence by internet of things for urban lighting makes it more interactive in public environments. It can encourage individuals to carry out appropriate behaviors and provides them the social awareness through new interactions. The greatest strength of this technology is its strong impact on many aspects of everyday life and users' behaviors. The analytical phase of the research is based on a multiple method survey strategy. Smart lighting proposed in this paper is an urban lighting designed on results obtained from a collective point of view about the social sustainability. In this paper, referring to behavioral design methods, the social behaviors of the people has been studied. Data show that people demands for a deeper experience of social participation, safety perception and energy saving with the meaningful use of interactive and colourful lighting effects. By using intelligent technology, some suggestions are provided in the field of future lighting to consider the new forms of social sustainability.

Keywords: Behavior model, internet of things, social sustainability, urban lighting.

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Authors: S. Dikmen Kucuk, A. Tozluoglu, Y. Guner

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In recent years, petroleum-based polymers began to be limited due to effects on human and environmental point of view in many countries. Thus, organic-based biodegradable materials have attracted much interest in the composite industry because of environmental concerns. As a result of this, it has been asked that inorganic and petroleum-based materials should be reduced and altered with biodegradable materials. In this point, in this study, it is aimed to investigate the potential of use of TEMPO (2,2,6,6- tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl)-mediated oxidation nano-fibrillated cellulose instead of EPDM (ethylene-propylene-diene monomer) rubber, which is a petroleum-based material. Thus, the exchange of petroleum-based EPDM rubber with organic based cellulose nanofibers, which are environmentally friendly (green) and biodegradable, will be realized. The effect of tempo-oxidized cellulose nanofibers (TCNF) instead of EPDM rubber was analyzed by rheological, mechanical, chemical, thermal and aging analyses. The aged surfaces were visually scrutinized and surface morphological changes were examined via scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results obtained showed that TEMPO oxidation nano-fibrillated cellulose can be used at an amount of 1.0 and 2.2 phr resulting the values stay within tolerance according to customer standard and without any chemical degradation, crack, colour change or staining.

Keywords: EPDM, cellulose, green materials, nanofibrillated cellulose, TCNF, tempo-oxidized nanofiber.

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Authors: Rajesh Kumar, Puneet Aggarwal

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In context of understanding problems faced by undergraduate students while carrying out laboratory experiments dealing with high voltages, it was found that most of the students are hesitant to work directly on machine. The reason is that error in the circuitry might lead to deterioration of machine and laboratory instruments. So, it has become inevitable to include modern pedagogic techniques for undergraduate students, which would help them to first carry out experiment in virtual system and then to work on live circuit. Further advantages include that students can try out their intuitive ideas and perform in virtual environment, hence leading to new research and innovations. In this paper, virtual environment used is of MATLAB/Simulink for three-phase induction machines. The performance analysis of three-phase induction machine is carried out using virtual environment which includes Direct Current (DC) Test, No-Load Test, and Block Rotor Test along with speed torque characteristics for different rotor resistances and input voltage, respectively. Further, this paper carries out computer aided teaching of basic Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) drive circuitry. Hence, this paper gave undergraduates a clearer view of experiments performed on virtual machine (No-Load test, Block Rotor test and DC test, respectively). After successful implementation of basic tests, VSI circuitry is implemented, and related harmonic distortion (THD) and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of current and voltage waveform are studied.

Keywords: Block rotor test, DC test, no-load test, virtual environment, VSI.

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Authors: Javad Razjouyan, Shahriar Gharibzadeh, Ali Fallah, Mehdi Moghaddasi, Mohsen Seyfi, Amir Kasaeian

Abstract:

Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) has been used as a common research tool for different neurological disorders like Multiple Sclerosis. Recently, technology let researchers to introduce a new versions of the visual test, the paced visual serial addition test (PVSAT). In this paper, the computerized version of these two tests is introduced. Beside the number of true responses are interpreted, the reaction time of subjects are calculated by the software. We hypothesize that paying attention to the reaction time may be valuable. For this purpose, sixty eight female normal subjects and fifty eight male normal subjects are enrolled in the study. We investigate the similarity between the PASAT3 and PVSAT3 in number of true responses and the new criterion (the average reaction time of each subject). The similarity between two tests were rejected (p-value = 0.000) which means that these two test differ. The effect of sex in the tests were not approved since the pvalues of different between PASAT3 and PVSAT3 in both sex is the same (p-value = 0.000) which means that male and female subjects performed the tests at no different level of performance. The new criterion shows a negative correlation with the age which offers aged normal subjects may have the same number of true responses as the young subjects but they have latent responses. This will give prove for the importance of reaction time.

Keywords: Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test, Pace Visual Serial Addition Test, reaction time.

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Authors: Nesli Aydin

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Waste management decision making in developing countries has moved towards being more pragmatic, transparent, sustainable and comprehensive. Turkey is required to make its waste related legislation compatible with European Legislation as it is a candidate country of the European Union. Improper Turkish practices such as open burning and open dumping practices must be abandoned urgently, and robust waste management systems have to be structured. The determination of an optimum waste management system in any region requires a comprehensive analysis in which many criteria are taken into account by stakeholders. In conducting this sort of analysis, there are two main criteria which are evaluated by waste management analysts; economic viability and environmentally friendliness. From an analytical point of view, a central characteristic of sustainable development is an economic-ecological integration. It is predicted that building a robust waste management system will need significant effort and cooperation between the stakeholders in developing countries such as Turkey. In this regard, this study aims to provide data regarding the cost and environmental burdens of waste treatment technologies such as an incinerator, an autoclave (with different capacities), a hydroclave and a microwave coupled with updated information on calculation methods, and a framework for comparing any proposed scenario performances on a cost and environmental basis.

Keywords: Decision making, economic viability, environmentally friendliness, stakeholder, waste management systems.

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Authors: T. P. Singh, Vijay Gautam

Abstract:

Gladiolus is an important cash crop and is grown mainly for its elegant spikes. Traditionally the gladiolus corms are planted manually which is very tedious, time consuming and labor intensive operation. So far, there is no planter available for planting of gladiolus corms. With a view to mechanize the planting operation of this horticultural crop, a prototype of 4-row gladiolus planter was developed and its performance was evaluated in-situ condition. Cupchain type metering device was used to place each single gladiolus corm in furrow at required spacing while planting. Three levels of corm spacing viz 15, 20 and 25 cm and four levels of forward speed viz 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 km/h was taken as evaluation parameter for the planter. The performance indicators namely corm spacing in each row, coefficient of uniformity, missing index, multiple index, quality of feed index, number of corms per meter length, mechanical damage to the corms etc. were determined during the field test. The data was statistically analyzed using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) for testing the significance of the parameters. The result indicated that planter was able to drop the corms at required nominal spacing with minor variations. The highest deviation from the mean corm spacing was observed as 3.53 cm with maximum coefficient of variation as 13.88%. The highest missing and quality of feed indexes were observed as 6.33% and 97.45% respectively with no multiples. The performance of the planter was observed better at lower forward speed and wider corm spacing. The field capacity of the planter was found as 0.103 ha/h with an observed field efficiency of 76.57%.

Keywords: Coefficient of uniformity, corm spacing, gladiolus planter, mechanization.

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Mobinipouya, Zahra Barzegar

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Accurate and comprehensive thermodynamic properties of pure and mixture of refrigerants are in demand by both producers and users of these materials. Information about thermodynamic properties is important initially to qualify potential candidates for working fluids in refrigeration machinery. From practical point of view, Refrigerants and refrigerant mixtures are widely used as working fluids in many industrial applications, such as refrigerators, heat pumps, and power plants The present work is devoted to evaluating seven cubic equations of state (EOS) in predicting gas and liquid phase volumetric properties of nine ozone-safe refrigerants both in super and sub-critical regions. The evaluations, in sub-critical region, show that TWU and PR EOS are capable of predicting PVT properties of refrigerants R32 within 2%, R22, R134a, R152a and R143a within 1% and R123, R124, R125, TWU and PR EOS's, from literature data are 0.5% for R22, R32, R152a, R143a, and R125, 1% for R123, R134a, and R141b, and 2% for R124. Moreover, SRK EOS predicts PVT properties of R22, R125, and R123 to within aforementioned errors. The remaining EOS's predicts volumetric properties of this class of fluids with higher errors than those above mentioned which are at most 8%.In general, the results are in favor of the preference of TWU and PR EOS over other remaining EOS's in predicting densities of all mentioned refrigerants in both super and sub critical regions. Typically, this refrigerant is known to offer advantages such as ozone depleting potential equal to zero, Global warming potential equal to 140, and no toxic.

Keywords: Refrigerant, cooling systems, Sub-CriticalRegions, volumetric properties, efficiency.

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Authors: Michael Gerges, Ograbe Ahiakwo, Martin Jaeger, Ahmad Asaad

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Recent advances of Building Information Modeling (BIM) especially in the Middle East have increased remarkably. Dubai has been taking a lead on this by making it mandatory for BIM to be adopted for all projects that involve complex architecture designs. This is because BIM is a dynamic process that assists all stakeholders in monitoring the project status throughout different project phases with great transparency. It focuses on utilizing information technology to improve collaboration among project participants during the entire life cycle of the project from the initial design, to the supply chain, resource allocation, construction and all productivity requirements. In view of this trend, the paper examines the extent of applying BIM in the State of Kuwait, by exploring practitioners’ perspectives on BIM, especially their perspectives on main barriers and main advantages. To this end structured interviews were carried out based on questionnaires and with a range of different construction professionals. The results revealed that practitioners perceive improved communication and mitigated project risks by encouraged collaboration between project participants. However, it was also observed that the full implementation of BIM in the State of Kuwait requires concerted efforts to make clients demanding BIM, counteract resistance to change among construction professionals and offer more training for design team members. This paper forms part of an on-going research effort on BIM and its application in the State of Kuwait and it is on this basis that further research on the topic is proposed.

Keywords: Building Information Modeling, BIM, construction industry, Kuwait.

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Authors: Paulina Pietrzyk-Kowalec

Abstract:

This paper presents the phenomenon of multilingualism becoming the norm rather than the exception in the European Union. It also seeks to describe the correlation between the command of foreign languages and employability. It is evident that the challenges of today's societies when it comes to employability are more and more complex. Thus, it is one of the crucial tasks of higher education to prepare its students to face this kind of complexity, understand its nuances, and have the capacity to adapt effectively to situations that are common in corporations based in the countries belonging to the EU. From this point of view, the assessment of the impact that the command of foreign languages of European university students could have on the numerous business sectors becomes vital. It also involves raising awareness of future professionals to make them understand the importance of mastering communicative skills in foreign languages that will meet the requirements of students' prospective employers. The direct connection between higher education institutions and the world of business also allows companies to realize that they should rethink their recruitment and human resources procedures in order to take into account the importance of foreign languages. This article focuses on the objective of the multilingualism policy developed by the European Commission, which is to enable young people to master at least two foreign languages, which is crucial in their future careers. The article puts emphasis on the existence of a crucial connection between the research conducted in higher education institutions and the business sector in order to reduce current qualification gaps.

Keywords: Cross-cultural communication, employability, human resources, language attitudes, multilingualism.

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