Search results for: sustainable development
3902 Strategic Leadership and Sustainable Project Management in Enugu, Nigeria
Authors: Nnadi Ezekiel Ejiofor
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The study investigates the connection between strategic leadership and project management sustainability, with an emphasis on building projects Nigeria. The study set out to accomplish two specific goals: first, it sought to establish a link between creative project management and resource efficiency in construction projects in Nigeria; and second, it sought to establish a link between innovative thinking and waste minimization in those same projects. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 45 registered construction enterprises in the study area as part of the study's descriptive research approach. Due to the nonparametric nature of the data, Spearman Rank Order Correlation was used to evaluate the acquired data. The findings demonstrate that creative project management had a significant positive impact on resource efficiency in construction projects carried out by project management firms (r =.849; p.001), and that innovative thinking had a significant impact on waste reduction in those same projects (r =.849; p.001). It was determined that strategic leadership had a significant impact on the sustainability of project management, and it was thus advised that project managers should foresee, prepare for, and effectively communicate present and future developments to project staff in order to ensure that the objective of sustainable initiatives, such as recycling and reuse, is implemented in construction projects.
Keywords: Construction, project management, strategic leadership, sustainability, waste reduction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 683901 Manipulator Development for Telediagnostics
Authors: Adam Kurnicki, Bartłomiej Stanczyk, Bartosz Kania
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This paper presents development of the light-weight manipulator with series elastic actuation for medical telediagnostics (USG examination). General structure of realized impedance control algorithm was shown. It was described how to perform force measurements based mainly on elasticity of manipulator links.
Keywords: Telediagnostics, elastic manipulator, impedance control, force measurement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20083900 Towards a New Methodology for Developing Web-Based Systems
Authors: Omer Ishag Eldai, Ahmed Hassan M. H. Ali, S. Raviraja
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Web-based systems have become increasingly important due to the fact that the Internet and the World Wide Web have become ubiquitous, surpassing all other technological developments in our history. The Internet and especially companies websites has rapidly evolved in their scope and extent of use, from being a little more than fixed advertising material, i.e. a "web presences", which had no particular influence for the company's business, to being one of the most essential parts of the company's core business. Traditional software engineering approaches with process models such as, for example, CMM and Waterfall models, do not work very well since web system development differs from traditional development. The development differs in several ways, for example, there is a large gap between traditional software engineering designs and concepts and the low-level implementation model, many of the web based system development activities are business oriented (for example web application are sales-oriented, web application and intranets are content-oriented) and not engineering-oriented. This paper aims to introduce Increment Iterative extreme Programming (IIXP) methodology for developing web based systems. In difference to the other existence methodologies, this methodology is combination of different traditional and modern software engineering and web engineering principles.Keywords: Web based systems, Web engineering.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18383899 Targeting the Life Cycle Stages of the Diamond Back Moth (Plutella xylostella) with Three Different Parasitoid Wasps
Authors: F. O. Faithpraise, J. Idung, C. R. Chatwin, R. C. D. Young, P. Birch
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A continuous time model of the interaction between crop insect pests and naturally beneficial pest enemies is created using a set of simultaneous, non-linear, ordinary differential equations incorporating natural death rates based on the Weibull distribution. The crop pest is present in all its life-cycle stages of: egg, larva, pupa and adult. The beneficial insects, parasitoid wasps, may be present in either or all parasitized: eggs, larva and pupa. Population modelling is used to estimate the quantity of the natural pest enemies that should be introduced into the pest infested environment to suppress the pest population density to an economically acceptable level within a prescribed number of days. The results obtained illustrate the effect of different combinations of parasitoid wasps, using the Pascal distribution to estimate their success in parasitizing different pest developmental stages, to deliver pest control to a sustainable level. Effective control, within a prescribed number of days, is established by the deployment of two or all three species of wasps, which partially destroy pest: egg, larvae and pupae stages. The selected scenarios demonstrate effective sustainable control of the pest in less than thirty days.
Keywords: Biological control, Diamondback moth, Parasitoid wasps, Population modeling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 30393898 Sustainable Ship Management
Authors: Gorana Jelic Mrcelic, Merica Sliskovic
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Environmental responsibility includes improvement of environmental performance in order to reduce environmental impact. This paper gives a short review of some important environmental objectives, targets and actions that modern shipping company should follow.
Keywords: Environment, MARPOL, ships, pollutants.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17903897 Evaluation of New Product Development Projects using Artificial Intelligence and Fuzzy Logic
Authors: Orhan Feyzioğlu, Gülçin Büyüközkan
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As a vital activity for companies, new product development (NPD) is also a very risky process due to the high uncertainty degree encountered at every development stage and the inevitable dependence on how previous steps are successfully accomplished. Hence, there is an apparent need to evaluate new product initiatives systematically and make accurate decisions under uncertainty. Another major concern is the time pressure to launch a significant number of new products to preserve and increase the competitive power of the company. In this work, we propose an integrated decision-making framework based on neural networks and fuzzy logic to make appropriate decisions and accelerate the evaluation process. We are especially interested in the two initial stages where new product ideas are selected (go/no go decision) and the implementation order of the corresponding projects are determined. We show that this two-staged intelligent approach allows practitioners to roughly and quickly separate good and bad product ideas by making use of previous experiences, and then, analyze a more shortened list rigorously.Keywords: Decision Making, Neural Networks, Fuzzy Theory and Systems, Choquet Integral, New Product Development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28233896 Cost Valuation Method for Development Concurrent Phase Appropriate Requirement Valuation Using the Example of Load Carrier Development in the Lithium-Ion-Battery Production
Authors: Achim Kampker, Christoph Deutskens, Heiner Hans Heimes, Mathias Ordung, Felix Optehostert
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In the past years electric mobility became part of a public discussion. The trend to fully electrified vehicles instead of vehicles fueled with fossil energy has notably gained momentum. Today nearly every big car manufacturer produces and sells fully electrified vehicles, but electrified vehicles are still not as competitive as conventional powered vehicles. As the traction battery states the largest cost driver, lowering its price is a crucial objective. In addition to improvements in product and production processes a nonnegligible, but widely underestimated cost driver of production can be found in logistics, since the production technology is not continuous yet and neither are the logistics systems. This paper presents an approach to evaluate cost factors on different designs of load carrier systems. Due to numerous interdependencies, the combination of costs factors for a particular scenario is not transparent. This is effecting actions for cost reduction negatively, but still cost reduction is one of the major goals for simultaneous engineering processes. Therefore a concurrent and phase appropriate cost valuation method is necessary to serve cost transparency. In this paper the four phases of this cost valuation method are defined and explained, which based upon a new approach integrating the logistics development process in to the integrated product and process development.Keywords: Research and development, technology and Innovation, lithium-ion-battery production, load carrier development process, cost valuation method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22643895 Deficits and Solutions in the Development of Modular Factory Systems
Authors: Achim Kampker, Peter Burggräf, Moritz Krunke, Hanno Voet
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As a reaction to current challenges in factory planning, many companies think about introducing factory standards to lower planning times and decrease planning costs. If these factory standards are set-up with a high level of modularity, they are defined as modular factory systems. This paper deals with the main current problems in the application of modular factory systems in practice and presents a solution approach with its basic models. The methodology is based on methods from factory planning but also uses the tools of other disciplines like product development or technology management to deal with the high complexity, which the development of modular factory systems implies. The four basic models that such a methodology has to contain are introduced and pointed out.
Keywords: Factory planning, modular factory systems, factory standards, cost-benefit analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9723894 Appraisal of Energy Efficiency of Urban Development Plans: The Fidelity Concept on Izmir-Balcova Case
Authors: Y. Duvarci, A. K. Kutluca
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Design and land use are closely linked to the energy efficiency levels for an urban area. The current city planning practice does not involve an effective land useenergy evaluation in its 'blueprint' urban plans. The study proposed an appraisal method that can be embedded in GIS programs using five planning criteria as how far a planner can give away from the planning principles (criteria) for the most energy output s/he can obtain. The case of Balcova, a district in the Izmir Metropolitan area, is used conformingly for evaluating the proposed master plan and the geothermal energy (heating only) use for the concern district. If the land use design were proposed accordingly at-most energy efficiency (a 30% obtained), mainly increasing the density around the geothermal wells and also proposing more mixed use zones, we could have 17% distortion (infidelity to the main planning principles) from the original plan. The proposed method can be an effective tool for planners as simulation media, of which calculations can be made by GIS ready tools, to evaluate efficiency levels for different plan proposals, letting to know how much energy saving causes how much deviation from the other planning ideals. Lower energy uses can be possible for different land use proposals for various policy trials.Keywords: Sustainable Urban Planning, Energy Efficiency, Geothermal Energy, District Heating Systems (DHS), EnergyPlanning
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19093893 On Innovation and Knowledge Economy in Russia
Authors: Zhanna Mingaleva, Irina Mirskikh
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Innovational development of regions in Russia is generally faced with the essential influence from federal and local authorities. The organization of effective mechanism of innovation development (and self-development) is impossible without establishment of defined institutional conditions in the analyzed field. Creative utilization of scientific concepts and information should merge, giving rise to continuing innovation and advanced production. The paper presents an analysis of institutional conditions in the field of creation and development of innovation activity infrastructure and transferring of knowledge and skills between different economic agents in Russia. Knowledge is mainly privately owned, developed through R&D investments and incorporated into technology or a product. Innovation infrastructure is a strong concentration mechanism of advanced facilities, which are mainly located inside large agglomerations or city-regions in order to benefit from scale effects in both input markets (human capital, private financial capital) and output markets (higher education services, research services). The empirical results of the paper show that in the presence of more efficient innovation and knowledge transfer and transcoding system and of a more open attitude of economic agents towards innovation, the innovation and knowledge capacity of regional economy is much higher.
Keywords: knowledge economy, innovational development, transfer of knowledge, institutional preconditions, innovation andknowledge capacity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22663892 The Project of Three Photovoltaic Systems in an Italian Natural Park
Authors: M.Paroncini, F.Corvaro, G.Nardini, S.Pistolesi
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The development of renewable energies - particularly energy from wind, water, solar power and biomass - is a central aim of the European Commission's energy policy. There are several reasons for this choice: renewable energies are sustainable, nonpolluting, widely available and clean. Increasing the share of renewable energy in the energy balance enhances sustainability. It also helps to improve the security of energy supply by reducing the Community's growing dependence on imported energy sources.In this paper it was studied the possibility to realize three photovoltaic systems in the Italian Natural Park “Gola della Rossa e di Frasassi". The first photovoltaic system is a grid-connected system for Services and Documentation Center of Castelletta with a nominal power of about 6 kWp. The second photovoltaic system is a grid-connected integrated system on the ticket office-s roof with a nominal power of about 4 kWp. The third project is set up by five grid-connected systems integrated on the roofs of the bungalows in Natural Park-s tourist camping with a nominal power of about 10 kWp. The electricity which is generated by all these plants is purchased according to the Italian program called “Conto Energia". Economical analysis and the amount of the avoided CO2 emissions are elaborated for these photovoltaic systems.
Keywords: CO2 emissions, conto energia, photovoltaic systems.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16023891 Seismic Behavior of Suction Caisson Foundations
Authors: Mohsen Saleh Asheghabadi, Alireza Jafari Jebeli
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Increasing population growth requires more sustainable development of energy. This non-contaminated energy has an inexhaustible energy source. One of the vital parameters in such structures is the choice of foundation type. Suction caissons are now used extensively worldwide for offshore wind turbine. Considering the presence of a number of offshore wind farms in earthquake areas, the study of the seismic behavior of suction caisson is necessary for better design. In this paper, the results obtained from three suction caisson models with different diameter (D) and skirt length (L) in saturated sand were compared with centrifuge test results. All models are analyzed using 3D finite element (FE) method taking account of elasto-plastic Mohr–Coulomb constitutive model for soil which is available in the ABAQUS library. The earthquake load applied to the base of models with a maximum acceleration of 0.65g. The results showed that numerical method is in relative good agreement with centrifuge results. The settlement and rotation of foundation decrease by increasing the skirt length and foundation diameter. The sand soil outside the caisson is prone to liquefaction due to its low confinement.
Keywords: Liquefaction, suction caisson foundation, offshore wind turbine, numerical analysis, seismic behavior.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11763890 Identifying Mitigation Plans in Reducing Usability Risk Using Delphi Method
Authors: Jayaletchumi T. Sambantha Moorthy, Suhaimi bin Ibrahim, Mohd Naz’ri Mahrin
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Most quality models have defined usability as a significant factor that leads to improving product acceptability, increasing user satisfaction, improving product reliability, and also financially benefitting companies. Usability is also the best factor that balances both the technical and human aspects of a software product, which is an important aspect in defining quality during software development process. A usability risk consist risk factors that could impact the usability of a software product thereby contributing to negative user experiences and causing a possible software product failure. Hence, it is important to mitigate and reduce usability risks in the software development process itself. By managing possible usability risks in software development process, failure of software product could be reduced. Therefore, this research uses the Delphi method to identify mitigation plans for reducing potential usability risks. The Delphi method is conducted with seven experts from the field of risk management and software development.
Keywords: Usability, Usability Risk, Risk Management, Risk Mitigation, Delphi Method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22163889 Research on the Development and Space Optimization of Rental-Type Public Housing in Hangzhou
Authors: Xuran Zhang, Huiru Chen
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In recent years, China has made great efforts to cultivate and develop the housing rental market, especially the rental-type public housing, which has been paid attention to by all sectors of the society. This paper takes Hangzhou rental-type public housing as the research object, and divides it into three development stages according to the different supply modes of rental-type public housing. Through data collection and field research, the paper summarizes the spatial characteristics of rental-type public housing from the five perspectives of spatial planning, spatial layout, spatial integration, spatial organization and spatial configuration. On this basis, the paper proposes the optimization of the spatial layout. The study concludes that the spatial layout of rental-type public housing should be coordinated with the development of urban planning. When planning and constructing, it is necessary to select more mixed construction modes, to be properly centralized, and to improve the surrounding transportation service facilities. It is hoped that the recommendations in this paper will provide a reference for the further development of rental-type public housing in Hangzhou.
Keywords: Hangzhou, rental-type public housing, spatial distribution, spatial optimization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7893888 ARCS for Critical Information Retrieval Development
Authors: Suttipong Boonphadung
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The research on ARCS for critical information retrieval development aimed to (1) investigate conditions of critical information retrieval skill of the Mathematics pre-service teachers before applying ARCS model in learning activities, (2) study and analyze the development of critical information retrieval skill of the Mathematics pre-service teachers after utilizing ARCS model in learning activities, and (3) evaluate the Mathematics pre-service teachers’ satisfaction on using ARCS model in learning activities as a tool to development critical information retrieval skill. Forty-one of 4th year Mathematics pre-service teachers who have enrolled in the subject of Research for Learning Development of semester 2 in 2012 were purposively selected as the research cohort. The research tools were self-report and interview questionnaire that was approved as content validity and reliability (IOC=.66-1.00, α =.834). The research found that critical information retrieval skill of the research samples before using ARCS model in learning activities was in the normal high level. According to the in-depth interview and focus group, the result however showed that the pre-service teachers still lack inadequate and effective knowledge in information retrieval. Additionally, critical information retrieval skill of the research cohort after applying ARCS model in learning activities appeared to be high level. The result revealed that the pre-service teachers are able to explain the method of searching, extraction, and selecting information as well as evaluating quality of information, and effectively making decision in accepting information. Moreover, the research discovered that the pre-service teachers showed normal high to highest level of satisfaction on using ARCS model in learning activities as a tool to development their critical information retrieval skill.
Keywords: Critical information retrieval skill, ARCS model, Satisfaction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15113887 Using Wiki for Enhancing the Knowledge Transfer to Newcomers: An Experience Report
Authors: H. O. Barbosa, A. C. R. da Silva, C. M. de Almeida, E. M. dos Santos, F. O. de Sousa, F. B. da S. Souza, F. B. da S. Souza, F. de O. Lima, L. H. Albuquerque, R. F. do Valle Cunha
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Software development is intrinsic human-based knowledge-intensive. Due to globalization, software development has become a complex challenge and we usually face barriers related to knowledge management, team building, costly testing processes, especially in distributed settings. In this paper, we present the use of experimental studies to improve our knowledge management process using the Wiki system. According to the results, it was possible to identify learning preferences from our software projects leader team, organize and improve the learning experience of our Wiki, and facilitate collaboration by newcomers to improve Wiki with new contents available in the Wiki.
Keywords: Mobile products, knowledge management process, Wiki system, Global Software Development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6313886 Level of Behavioral Development for Hepatitis C Virus Cases versus Their Contacts: Does Infection Make a Difference and What Is Beyond?
Authors: Ammal M. Metwally, Lobna A. El Etreby, Rehan M. Saleh, Ghada Abdrabou, Somia I. Salama, Amira Orabi, Mohamed Abdelrahman
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Hepatitis C virus infection is a public health threat in Egypt. To control infection, efforts should be spent to encourage healthy behavior. This study aimed to assess the level of behavioral development in order to create a positive environment for the adoption of the recommended behaviors. The study was conducted over one year from Jan. 2011 till Jan. 2012.Knowledge, attitude and behavior of 540 HCV patients and 102 of their contacts were assessed and the level of behavioral development was determined. The study revealed that the majority of patients and contacts knew that HCV infection is dangerous with perceived concern for early diagnosis and treatment. More than 75% knew the correct modes of transmission. The assessment showed positive attitudes towards the recommended practices with intention to adopt those practices. Strategies of creating opportunities to continue the recommended behaviors should be adopted together with the reinforcement of social support.
Keywords: Hepatitis C virus, Level of behavioral development, recommended behaviors.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17123885 Economic Assessment Methodology to Support Decisions for Transport Infrastructure Development
Authors: Dimitrios J. Dimitriou
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The decades after the end of the second War provide evidence that infrastructures investments contibute to economic development, on terms of productivity and income growth. In order to force productivity and increase competitiveness the financing of large transport infrastructure projects are on the top of the agenda in strategic planning process. Such a decision may take form some days to some decades and stakeholders as well as decision makers need tools in order to estimate the economic impact on natioanl economy of such an investment. The key question in such decisions is if the effects caused by the new infrastructure could be able to boost economic development on one hand, and create new jobs and activities on the other. This paper deals with the review of estimation of the mega transport infrastructure projects economic effects in economy.
Keywords: Economic impact, transport infrastructure, strategic planning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10613884 The Coverage of the Object-Oriented Framework Application Class-Based Test Cases
Authors: Jehad Al Dallal, Paul Sorenson
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An application framework provides a reusable design and implementation for a family of software systems. Frameworks are introduced to reduce the cost of a product line (i.e., family of products that share the common features). Software testing is a time consuming and costly ongoing activity during the application software development process. Generating reusable test cases for the framework applications at the framework development stage, and providing and using the test cases to test part of the framework application whenever the framework is used reduces the application development time and cost considerably. Framework Interface Classes (FICs) are classes introduced by the framework hooks to be implemented at the application development stage. They can have reusable test cases generated at the framework development stage and provided with the framework to test the implementations of the FICs at the application development stage. In this paper, we conduct a case study using thirteen applications developed using three frameworks; one domain oriented and two application oriented. The results show that, in general, the percentage of the number of FICs in the applications developed using domain frameworks is, on average, greater than the percentage of the number of FICs in the applications developed using application frameworks. Consequently, the reduction of the application unit testing time using the reusable test cases generated for domain frameworks is, in general, greater than the reduction of the application unit testing time using the reusable test cases generated for application frameworks.Keywords: FICs, object-oriented framework, object-orientedframework application, software testing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14383883 Acoustic and Thermal Isolation Performance Comparison between Recycled and Ceramic Roof Tiles Using Digital Holographic Interferometry
Authors: A. Araceli Sánchez, I. Manuel H. De la Torre, S. Fernando Mendoza, R. Cesar Tavera, R. Manuel de J. Briones
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Recycling, as part of any sustainable environment, is continuously evolving and impacting on new materials in manufacturing. One example of this is the recycled solid waste of Tetra Pak ™ packaging, which is a highly pollutant waste as it is not biodegradable since it is manufactured with different materials. The Tetra Pak ™ container consists of thermally joined layers of paper, aluminum and polyethylene. Once disposed, this packaging is recycled by completely separating the paperboard from the rest of the materials. The aluminum and the polyethylene remain together and are used to create the poly-aluminum, which is widely used to manufacture roof tiles. These recycled tiles have different thermal and acoustic properties compared with traditional manufactured ceramic and cement tiles. In this work, we compare a group of tiles using nondestructive optical testing to measure the superficial micro deformations of the tiles under well controlled experiments. The results of the acoustic and thermal tests show remarkable differences between the recycled tile and the traditional ones. These results help to determine which tile could be better suited to the specific environmental conditions in countries where extreme climates, ranging from tropical, desert-like, to very cold are experienced throughout the year.Keywords: Digital holographic interferometry, nondestructive testing, recycled, sustainable, thermal study.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21313882 Applications of Mobile Aluminum Light Structure Housing System in Sustainable Building Process
Authors: Haining Wang, Hong Zhang
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Problems exist in the present construction industry in China. Conflicts hinder the development of the whole society, such as contradictions between resource reservation and a huge population, living space needs and low building production efficiency, as well as environment protection and high pollution production pattern. In order to solve the problems and find a solution, research is needed to explore a building system. By investigating the whole architectural process and contrasting analysis of light structures and heavy structures, the paper raised the concepts to cope with the existing challenges, such as design conception based on product and real construction processes, design methods focusing on components, and maximum utilization of the temporary building by optimizing the construction speed and building performance. The project was not only designed in virtual reality, but was also physically constructed in the real world. A series of aluminum light structure housing systems were dictated at last, with the characteristics of high performance, extremely rapid construction speed and also flexible function. It can be used in lots of aspects ranging from a single building in a remote area to a large residential community.
Keywords: Aluminum house, light structure, rapid assembly, repeat construction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15143881 Knowledge and Skills Requirements for Software Developer Students
Authors: J. Liebenberg, M. Huisman, E. Mentz
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It is widely acknowledged that there is a shortage of software developers, not only in South Africa, but also worldwide. Despite reports on a gap between industry needs and software education, the gap has mostly been explored in quantitative studies. This paper reports on the qualitative data of a mixed method study of the perceptions of professional software developers regarding what topics they learned from their formal education and the importance of these topics to their actual work. The analysis suggests that there is a gap between industry’s needs and software development education and the following recommendations are made: 1) Real-life projects must be included in students’ education; 2) Soft skills and business skills must be included in curricula; 3) Universities must keep the curriculum up to date; 4) Software development education must be made accessible to a diverse range of students.
Keywords: Software development education, Software industry, IT workforce, Computing curricula.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24643880 Social Network Based Decision Support System for Smart U-Parking Planning
Authors: Jun-Ho Park, Kwang-Woo Nam, Seung-Mo Hong, Tae-Heon Moon, Sang-Ho Lee, Youn-Taik Leem
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The aim of this study was to build ‘Ubi-Net’, a decision-making support system for systematic establishment in U-City planning. We have experienced various urban problems caused by high-density development and population concentrations in established urban areas. To address these problems, a U-Service contributes to the alleviation of urban problems by providing real-time information to citizens through network connections and related information. However, technology, devices, and information for consumers are required for systematic U-Service planning in towns and cities where there are many difficulties in this regard, and a lack of reference systems. Thus, this study suggests methods to support the establishment of sustainable planning by providing comprehensive information including IT technology, devices, news, and social networking services (SNS) to U-City planners through intelligent searches. In this study, we targeted Smart U-Parking Planning to solve parking problems in an ‘old’ city. Through this study, we sought to contribute to supporting advances in U-Space and the alleviation of urban problems.
Keywords: Design and decision support system, smart U-parking planning, social network analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22643879 Development of A Jacobean Model for A 4-Axes Indigenously Developed SCARA System
Authors: T.C.Manjunath, C. Ardil
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This paper deals with the development of a Jacobean model for a 4-axes indigenously developed scara robot arm in the laboratory. This model is used to study the relation between the velocities and the forces in the robot while it is doing the pick and place operation.
Keywords: SCARA, Jacobean, Tool Configuration Vector, Computer Control , Visual Basic , Interfacing , Drivers,
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 32523878 Technology Integrated Education – Shaping the Personality and Social Development of the Young
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There has been a strong link between computermediated education and constructivism learning and teaching theory.. Acknowledging how well the constructivism doctrine would work online, it has been established that constructivist views of learning would agreeably correlate with the philosophy of open and distance learning. Asynchronous and synchronous communications have placed online learning on the right track of a constructive learning path. This paper is written based on the social constructivist framework, where knowledge is constructed from social communication and interaction. The study explores the possibility of practicing this theory through incorporating online discussion in the syllabus and the ways it can be implemented to contribute to young people-s personality and social development by addressing some aspects that may contribute to the social problem such as prejudice, ignorance and intolerance.
Keywords: Educational Technology, Internet, Personal Development, Student Exchange
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17983877 Hemocompatible Thin-Film Materials Recreating the Structure of the Cell Niches with High Potential for Endothelialization
Authors: Roman Major, Klaudia Trembecka-Wojciga, Juergen Markus Lackner, Boguslaw Major
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The future and the development of science is therefore seen in interdisciplinary areas such as biomedical engineering. Selfassembled structures, similar to stem cell niches would inhibit fast division process and subsequently capture the stem cells from the blood flow. By means of surface topography and the stiffness as well as microstructure progenitor cells should be differentiated towards the formation of endothelial cells monolayer which effectively will inhibit activation of the coagulation cascade. The idea of the material surface development met the interest of the clinical institutions, which support the development of science in this area and are waiting for scientific solutions that could contribute to the development of heart assist systems. This would improve the efficiency of the treatment of patients with myocardial failure, supported with artificial heart assist systems. Innovative materials would enable the redesign, in the post project activity, construction of ventricular heart assist.Keywords: Bio-inspired materials, electron microscopy, haemocompatibility, niche-like structures, thin coatings.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18253876 Tourism Policy Challenges in Post-Soviet Georgia
Authors: Merab Khokhobaia
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Within the framework of this research, the regulatory documents, which are in force in relation to this industry, were analyzed. The main attention is turned to their modernization and necessity of their compliance with European standards. It is a current issue to direct the efforts of state policy on support of business by implementing infrastructural projects, as well as by development of human resources, which may be possible by supporting the relevant higher and vocational studying-educational programs.
Keywords: Regional Development, Tourism Industry, Tourism Policy, Transition.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26053875 Impact of Disposed Drinking Water Sachets in Damaturu, Yobe State, Nigeria
Authors: Meeta Ratawa Tiwary
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Damaturu is the capital of Yobe State in northeastern Nigeria where civic amenities and facilities are not adequate even after 24 years of its existence. The volatile security and political situations are most significant causes for the same. The basic facility for the citizens in terms of drinking water and electricity are not available. For the drinking water, they have to rely on personal boreholes or the filtered borehole waters available in packaged sachets in market. The present study is concerned with environmental impact of indiscriminate disposal of drinking synthetic polythene water sachets in Damaturu. The sachet water is popularly called as “pure water”, but its purity is questionable. Increased production and consumption of sachet water has led to indiscriminate dumping and disposal of empty sachets leading to serious environmental threat. The evidence of this is seen for sachets littering the streets and the drainages blocked by ‘blocks’ of water sachet waste. Sachet water gained much popularity in Nigeria because the product is convenient for use, affordable and economically viable. The present study aims to find out the solution to this environmental problem. The fieldbased study has found some significant factors that cause environmental and socio economic effect due to this. Some recommendations have been made based on research findings regarding sustainable waste management, recycling and re-use of the non-biodegradable products in society.Keywords: Civic amenities, non-biodegradable, pure water, sustainable environment, waste disposal.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 34853874 Testing Object-Oriented Framework Applications Using FIST2 Tool: A Case Study
Authors: Jehad Al Dallal
Abstract:
An application framework provides a reusable design and implementation for a family of software systems. Frameworks are introduced to reduce the cost of a product line (i.e., a family of products that shares the common features). Software testing is a timeconsuming and costly ongoing activity during the application software development process. Generating reusable test cases for the framework applications during the framework development stage, and providing and using the test cases to test part of the framework application whenever the framework is used reduces the application development time and cost considerably. This paper introduces the Framework Interface State Transition Tester (FIST2), a tool for automated unit testing of Java framework applications. During the framework development stage, given the formal descriptions of the framework hooks, the specifications of the methods of the framework-s extensible classes, and the illegal behavior description of the Framework Interface Classes (FICs), FIST2 generates unitlevel test cases for the classes. At the framework application development stage, given the customized method specifications of the implemented FICs, FIST2 automates the use, execution, and evaluation of the already generated test cases to test the implemented FICs. The paper illustrates the use of the FIST2 tool for testing several applications that use the SalesPoint framework.Keywords: Automated testing, class testing, FICs, FIST2, object-oriented framework, object-oriented testing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16093873 Capacity Building of Extension Agents for Sustainable Dissemination of Agricultural Information and Technologies in Developing Countries
Authors: Michael T. Ajayi, Oluwakemi E. Fapojuwo
Abstract:
Farmers are in need of regular and relevant information relating to new technologies. Production of extension materials has been found to be useful in facilitating the process. Extension materials help to provide information to reach large numbers of farmers quickly and economically. However, as good as extension materials are, previous materials produced are not used by farmers. The reasons for this include lack of involvement of farmers in the production of the extension materials, most of the extension materials are not relevant to the farmers’ environments, the agricultural extension agents lack capacity to prepare the materials, and many extension agents lack commitment. These problems led to this innovative capacity building of extension agents. This innovative approach involves five stages. The first stage is the diagnostic survey of farmers’ environment to collect useful information. The second stage is the development and production of draft extension materials. The third stage is the field testing and evaluation of draft materials by the same famers that were involved at the diagnostic stage. The fourth stage is the revision of the draft extension materials by incorporating suggestions from farmers. The fifth stage is the action plans. This process improves the capacity of agricultural extension agents in the preparation of extension materials and also promotes engagement of farmers and beneficiaries in the process. The process also makes farmers assume some level of ownership of the exercise and the extension materials.
Keywords: Capacity building, dissemination, extension agents, information/technologies.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2440