Search results for: gray level connectivity
2854 Online Learning Activities Kit on Plants in Thai Literature in Compliance with the School Botanical Garden of Plant Genetic Conservation Project under the Royal Initiative of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn
Authors: Pornpapatsorn Princhankol, Kannika Udnunkarn
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This research was aimed to develop and determine the quality of online learning activities kit as well as to examine the learning achievement of students and their satisfaction towards the kit through authentic assessment. The tools in this research contained online learning activities kit on plant in Thai literature in compliance with the School Botanical Garden of Plant Genetic Conservation Project under the Royal Initiative of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the assessment form, the learning achievement test, the satisfaction form and the authentic assessment form. The population consisted of 40 students in the second range of primary years (Prathomsuksa 4 to 6) at Ban Khao Rak School, Suratthani Province, Thailand. The research results showed that the content quality of the developed online learning activities kit as assessed by the experts was 4.70 on average or at very high level. The pre-test and post-test comparison was made to examine the learning achievement and it revealed that the post-test score was higher than the pre-test score with statistical significance at the .01 level. The satisfaction of the sampling group towards the online learning activities kit was 4.74 or at the highest level. The authentic assessment showed an average of 1.69 or at good level. Therefore, the online learning activities kit on plant in Thai literature in compliance with the School Botanical Garden of Plant Genetic Conservation Project under the Royal Initiative of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn could be used in real classroom situations.Keywords: Online learning activities kit, Plants in Thai literature, School Botanical garden
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13762853 Blind Speech Separation Using SRP-PHAT Localization and Optimal Beamformer in Two-Speaker Environments
Authors: Hai Quang Hong Dam, Hai Ho, Minh Hoang Le Ngo
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This paper investigates the problem of blind speech separation from the speech mixture of two speakers. A voice activity detector employing the Steered Response Power - Phase Transform (SRP-PHAT) is presented for detecting the activity information of speech sources and then the desired speech signals are extracted from the speech mixture by using an optimal beamformer. For evaluation, the algorithm effectiveness, a simulation using real speech recordings had been performed in a double-talk situation where two speakers are active all the time. Evaluations show that the proposed blind speech separation algorithm offers a good interference suppression level whilst maintaining a low distortion level of the desired signal.Keywords: Blind speech separation, voice activity detector, SRP-PHAT, optimal beamformer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13882852 The Impact Evaluation of the Innovation Implementation within the EU Funds on the SMEs Performance Results
Authors: Beata Ślusarczyk, Sebastian Kot
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In subjective terms, Polish SME sector occupies a prominent position in the national economic development, in which planning of the management strategies should be primarily based on identifying and meeting the innovation needs. As a research sample, there is chosen a printing sector of industry. SMEs share in printing sector in Poland is estimated at the level of 81% of all enterprises. In recent years, the printing industry achieved one of the highest levels of EU support in Poland. There is a relatively high increase in the development of technological innovations in equipment and the associated significant increase in production capacity. It can be also noticed that on average, every third enterprise belonging to the printing industry has implemented innovations, but not all of them effected in better economic results. Therefore, the aim of this article is to evaluate the impact of the implementation of innovation projects financed from the EU funds for performance of SMEs in the printing industry. As the results of research of EU funds co-financing effects on the development of innovation in the printing industry, it was specified that examined SMEs prefer to implement product innovation to receive a grant to the project at a level between 40% to 60%, the remaining part of the investment is usually covered with equity. The most common type of innovation had indicated a single implementation, related only to the change in process, technology, or organization. The relationship between variables of the EU funds and management of innovative activities was verified. It has been observed that the identified variables arising from the support in a form of the EU funds had a positive effect on the level of earned revenue, the increase in margin and in increase in employment as well. It was confirmed that the implemented innovations supported by the European funds have a positive impact on the performance of the printing companies. Although there is a risk that due to the decreasing demand for printing services such a high level of funding the companies in this sector will significantly increase competition in the long term, that may also contribute to the economic problems of the enterprises belonging to the analyzed branch.Keywords: Innovations, SMEs, performance, results.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15772851 Distributed Coordination of Connected and Automated Vehicles at Multiple Interconnected Intersections
Authors: Zhiyuan Du, Baisravan Hom Chaudhuri, Pierluigi Pisu
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In connected vehicle systems where wireless communication is available among the involved vehicles and intersection controllers, it is possible to design an intersection coordination strategy that leads the connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) travel through the road intersections without the conventional traffic light control. In this paper, we present a distributed coordination strategy for the CAVs at multiple interconnected intersections that aims at improving system fuel efficiency and system mobility. We present a distributed control solution where in the higher level, the intersection controllers calculate the road desired average velocity and optimally assign reference velocities of each vehicle. In the lower level, every vehicle is considered to use model predictive control (MPC) to track their reference velocity obtained from the higher level controller. The proposed method has been implemented on a simulation-based case with two-interconnected intersection network. Additionally, the effects of mixed vehicle types on the coordination strategy has been explored. Simulation results indicate the improvement on vehicle fuel efficiency and traffic mobility of the proposed method.
Keywords: Connected vehicles, automated vehicles, intersection coordination systems, multiple interconnected intersections, model predictive control.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18482850 Interest Rate of Managers and Tourism Officials over e-Tourism (Electronic Tourism) Development (Case Study of Lenjan City)
Authors: Akram Shahriyari, Reza Mokhtari Malek Abadi
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E-tourism is among the issues that have recently been entered into the field of tourism. In order to achieve this type of tourism, Information and Communications Technology or ICT infrastructures as well as Co-governmental organizations and tourism resources are important. In this study, the opinions of managers and tourism officials about the e-tourism in Lenjan city were measured; it also surveyed the impact of level of digital literacy of managers and tourism officials on attracting tourists in Lenjan city. This study was conducted in Lenjan, one of the environs of the Esfahan province. This study is a documentary – survey and the sources include library resources and also questionnaires. The results obtained indicate that if managers use ICT, it may help E-tourism to be developed in the region, and increasing managers’ beliefs on e-tourism and upgrading their level of digital literacy may affect e-tourism development.
Keywords: ICT, e-tourism, opinion of managers and officials.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14712849 Effect of Depression, Self-Regulation Control and Characteristics of ADHD as the Cause of School Brawl in Jakarta, Indonesia
Authors: Melani Arnaldi, Suzy Yusna Dewi
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School brawls have taken casualties to the life of students in Jakarta. In the last time, school brawl studies investigate the cause with groups approach such as cognitive dissonance that provocation and resentment among student in the schools. This research focus on individual factors as the cause of school brawls, where the characteristics of children with ADHD, lack of self-control regulation, and level of depression. The results show that in fact the lower influence of individual factor to be come conduct disorder. The meaning students have good self-regulation control, insignificant characteristics of children with ADHD, and moderate of depression level. Concluded group factor more significant than individual factor to caused school brawl.Keywords: ADHD, depression, school brawl, self-regulation control.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25292848 Water Quality Determination of River Systems in Antalya Basin by Biomonitoring
Authors: Hasan Kalyoncu, Füsun Kılçık, Hatice Gülboy Akyıldırım, Aynur Özen, Mehmet Acar, Nur Yoluk
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For evaluation of water quality of the river systems in Antalya Basin, macrozoobenthos samples were taken from 22 determined stations by a hand net and identified at family level. Water quality of Antalya Basin was determined according to Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) system, by using macrozoobenthic invertebrates and physicochemical parameters. As a result of the evaluation, while Aksu Stream was determined as the most polluted stream in Antalya Basin, Isparta Stream was determined as the most polluted tributary of Aksu Stream. Pollution level of the Isparta Stream was determined as quality class V and it is the extremely polluted part of stream. Pollution loads at the sources of the streams were determined in low levels in general. Due to some parts of the streams have passed through deep canyons and take their sources from nonresidential and non-arable regions, majority of the streams that take place in Antalya Basin are at high quality level. Waste water, which comes from agricultural and residential regions, affects the lower basins of the streams. Because of the waste water, lower parts of the stream basins exposed to the pollution under anthropogenic effects. However, in Aksu Stream, which differs by being exposed to domestic and industrial wastes of Isparta City, extreme pollution was determined, particularly in the Isparta Stream part.Keywords: Antalya Basin, biomonitoring, BMWP, water quality.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15172847 The Effect of Entrepreneurship on Foreign Direct Investment
Authors: Wissam B. Fahed
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Entrepreneurship has become an important and extensively researched concept in business studies. Research on foreign direct investment (FDI) has become widespread due to the growth of FDI and its importance in globalization. Most entrepreneurship studies examined the importance and influence of entrepreneurial orientation in a micro-level context. On the other hand, studies and research concerning FDI used statistical techniques to analyze the effect, determinants, and motives of FDI on a macroeconomic level, ignoring empirical studies on other noneconomic determinants. In order to bridge the gap between the theory and empirical evidence on FDI and the theory and research on entrepreneurship, this study examines the impact of entrepreneurship on inward foreign direct investment. The relationship between entrepreneurship and foreign direct investment is investigated through regression analysis of pooled time-series and cross-sectional data. The results suggest that entrepreneurship has a significant effect on FDI.Keywords: Entrepreneurship, foreign direct investment, globalization, economic freedom.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 38862846 3D Printing Technology in Housing Projects Construction
Authors: Mohammed F. Haddad, Mohammad A. Albenayyan
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Realistically, 3-D printing as a technology has not yet reached the required maturity level to handle construction housing projects for citizens on a country scale. However, potentially, it has all of the required elements for addressing this issue. There are two main high-level elements of this technology that need to be capitalized on in order for the technology to reach its full potential: technical and logistical. This paper aims to cover how 3-D printing can be a viable technical solution for housing projects and describes the impact of 3-D printing technical features on the logistical aspects of completing a housing project. Additionally, a perspective about 3-D printing in Saudi Arabia will be presented in order to give the reader an idea of where the Kingdom stands in the deployment of this technology. Finally, a glimpse will be given regarding the potential utilization of this technology for space applications.
Keywords: Large-scale 3-D printing, additive manufacturing, D-shape, contour crafting.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7772845 Complex Network Approach to International Trade of Fossil Fuel
Authors: Semanur Soyyiğit Kaya, Ercan Eren
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Energy has a prominent role for development of nations. Countries which have energy resources also have strategic power in the international trade of energy since it is essential for all stages of production in the economy. Thus, it is important for countries to analyze the weaknesses and strength of the system. On the other side, international trade is one of the fields that are analyzed as a complex network via network analysis. Complex network is one of the tools to analyze complex systems with heterogeneous agents and interaction between them. A complex network consists of nodes and the interactions between these nodes. Total properties which emerge as a result of these interactions are distinct from the sum of small parts (more or less) in complex systems. Thus, standard approaches to international trade are superficial to analyze these systems. Network analysis provides a new approach to analyze international trade as a network. In this network, countries constitute nodes and trade relations (export or import) constitute edges. It becomes possible to analyze international trade network in terms of high degree indicators which are specific to complex networks such as connectivity, clustering, assortativity/disassortativity, centrality, etc. In this analysis, international trade of crude oil and coal which are types of fossil fuel has been analyzed from 2005 to 2014 via network analysis. First, it has been analyzed in terms of some topological parameters such as density, transitivity, clustering etc. Afterwards, fitness to Pareto distribution has been analyzed via Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Finally, weighted HITS algorithm has been applied to the data as a centrality measure to determine the real prominence of countries in these trade networks. Weighted HITS algorithm is a strong tool to analyze the network by ranking countries with regards to prominence of their trade partners. We have calculated both an export centrality and an import centrality by applying w-HITS algorithm to the data. As a result, impacts of the trading countries have been presented in terms of high-degree indicators.Keywords: Complex network approach, fossil fuel, international trade, network theory.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23862844 Analysis of the Development Strategies of Cultural and Creative Industry in Small Towns of Western Zhejiang
Authors: Dandong Ge, Lei Tong
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This paper studies the cultural creative industry's characteristics between the eastern and western of Zhejiang Province. Through the Comparative analysis, this paper works out that the cultural creative industry in western Zhejiang Province is mainly promoted by the inside force, and its level of development is obviously much lower than the eastern Zhejiang Province whose cultural creative industry is mainly pulled by outside forces. So this paper worked out some strategies for the development of cultural creative industry in western Zhejiang Province, which are based on the economic foundation and the cultural resource endowments. Finally these strategies will help to improve the whole development level of western Zhejiang Province, and contribute to the balance development between the west and east of Zhejiang Province.
Keywords: Cultural creative industry, underdeveloped, western Zhejiang, strategies.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19922843 Vitamin D Deficiency and Insufficiency in Postmenopausal Women with Obesity
Authors: Vladyslav Povoroznyuk, Anna Musiienko, Nataliia Dzerovych, Roksolana Povoroznyuk, Oksana Ivanyk
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Deficiency and insufficiency of Vitamin D is a pandemic of the 21st century. Obesity patients have a lower level of vitamin D, but the literature data are contradictory. The purpose of this study is to investigate deficiency and insufficiency vitamin D in postmenopausal women with obesity. We examined 1007 women aged 50-89 years. Mean age was 65.74±8.61 years; mean height was 1.61±0.07 m; mean weight was 70.65±13.50 kg; mean body mass index was 27.27±4.86 kg/m2, and mean 25(OH) D levels in serum was 26.00±12.00 nmol/l. The women were divided into the following six groups depending on body mass index: I group – 338 women with normal body weight, II group – 16 women with insufficient body weight, III group – 382 women with excessive body weight, IV group – 199 women with obesity of class I, V group – 60 women with obesity of class II, and VI group – 12 women with obesity of class III. Level of 25(OH)D in serum was measured by means of an electrochemiluminescent method - Elecsys 2010 analyzer (Roche Diagnostics, Germany) and cobas test-systems. 34.4% of the examined women have deficiency of vitamin D and 31.4% insufficiency. Women with obesity of class I (23.60±10.24 ng/ml) and obese of class II (22.38±10.34 ng/ml) had significantly lower levels of 25 (OH) D compared to women with normal body weight (28.24±12.99 ng/ml), p=0.00003. In women with obesity, BMI significantly influences vitamin D level, and this influence does not depend on the season.
Keywords: Obesity, body mass index, vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency, postmenopausal women, age.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10592842 The Measurement of Endogenous Higher-Order Formative Composite Variables in PLS-SEM: An Empirical Application from CRM System Development
Authors: Samppa Suoniemi, Harri Terho, Rami Olkkonen
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In recent methodological articles related to structural equation modeling (SEM), the question of how to measure endogenous formative variables has been raised as an urgent, unresolved issue. This research presents an empirical application from the CRM system development context to test a recently developed technique, which makes it possible to measure endogenous formative constructs in structural models. PLS path modeling is used to demonstrate the feasibility of measuring antecedent relationships at the formative indicator level, not the formative construct level. Empirical results show that this technique is a promising approach to measure antecedent relationships of formative constructs in SEM.
Keywords: CRM system development, formative measures, PLS path modeling, research methodology.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22622841 Innovation and Analysis of Vibrating Fork Level Switch
Authors: Kuen-Ming Shu, Cheng-Yu Chen
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A vibrating-fork sensor can measure the level height of solids and liquids and operates according to the principle that vibrations created by piezoelectric ceramics are transmitted to the vibrating fork, which produces resonance. When the vibrating fork touches an object, its resonance frequency changes and produces a signal that returns to a controller for immediate adjustment, so as to effectively monitor raw material loading. The design of the vibrating fork in a vibrating-fork material sensor is crucial. In this paper, ANSYS finite element analysis software is used to perform modal analysis on the vibrations of the vibrating fork. In addition, to design and produce a superior vibrating fork, the dimensions and welding shape of the vibrating fork are compared in a simulation performed using the Taguchi method.Keywords: Vibrating fork, piezoelectric ceramics, sound wave, ANSYS, Taguchi method, modal analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13372840 CMOS Solid-State Nanopore DNA System-Level Sequencing Techniques Enhancement
Authors: Syed Islam, Yiyun Huang, Sebastian Magierowski, Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh
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This paper presents system level CMOS solid-state nanopore techniques enhancement for speedup next generation molecular recording and high throughput channels. This discussion also considers optimum number of base-pair (bp) measurements through channel as an important role to enhance potential read accuracy. Effective power consumption estimation offered suitable range of multi-channel configuration. Nanopore bp extraction model in statistical method could contribute higher read accuracy with longer read-length (200 < read-length). Nanopore ionic current switching with Time Multiplexing (TM) based multichannel readout system contributed hardware savings.
Keywords: DNA, Nanopore, Amplifier, ADC, Multichannel.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29322839 Dynamic Data Partition Algorithm for a Parallel H.264 Encoder
Authors: Juntae Kim, Jaeyoung Park, Kyoungkun Lee, Jong Tae Kim
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The H.264/AVC standard is a highly efficient video codec providing high-quality videos at low bit-rates. As employing advanced techniques, the computational complexity has been increased. The complexity brings about the major problem in the implementation of a real-time encoder and decoder. Parallelism is the one of approaches which can be implemented by multi-core system. We analyze macroblock-level parallelism which ensures the same bit rate with high concurrency of processors. In order to reduce the encoding time, dynamic data partition based on macroblock region is proposed. The data partition has the advantages in load balancing and data communication overhead. Using the data partition, the encoder obtains more than 3.59x speed-up on a four-processor system. This work can be applied to other multimedia processing applications.Keywords: H.264/AVC, video coding, thread-level parallelism, OpenMP, multimedia
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17952838 Virtual Conciliation in Colombia: Evaluation of Maturity Level within the Framework of E-Government
Authors: Jenny Paola Forero Pachón, Sonia Cristina Gamboa Sarmiento, Luis Carlos Gómez Flórez
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The Colombian government has defined an e-government strategy to take advantage of Information Technologies (IT) in order to contribute to the building of a more efficient, transparent and participative State that provides better services to citizens and businesses. In this regard, the Justice sector is one of the government sectors where IT has generated more expectation considering that the country has a judicial processes backlog. This situation has led to the search for alternative forms of access to justice that speed up the process while providing a low cost for citizens. To this end, the Colombian government has authorized the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution methods (ADR), a remedy where disputes can be resolved more quickly compared to judicial processes while facilitating greater communication between the parties, without recourse to judicial authority. One of these methods is conciliation, which includes a special modality that takes advantage of IT for the development of itself known as virtual conciliation. With this option the conciliation is supported by information systems, applications or platforms and communications are provided through it. This paper evaluates the level of maturity in how the service of virtual conciliation is under the framework of this strategy. This evaluation is carried out considering Shahkooh's 5-phase model for e-government. As a result, it is evident that in the context of conciliation, maturity does not reach the necessary level in the model so that it can be considered as virtual conciliation; therefore, it is necessary to define strategies to maximize the potential of IT in this context.
Keywords: Alternative dispute resolution, e-government, evaluation of maturity, Shahkooh model, virtual conciliation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9482837 Relationship between Functionality and Cognitive Impairment in Older Adult Women from the Southeast of Mexico
Authors: Estrella C. Damaris, Ingrid A. Olais, Gloria P. Uicab
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This study explores the relationship between the level of functionality and cognitive impairment in older adult women from the south-east of Mexico. It is a descriptive, cross-sectional study; performed with 172 participants in total who attended a health institute and live in Merida, Yucatan Mexico. After a non-probabilistic sampling, Barthel and Pfeiffer scales were applied. The results show statistically significant correlation between the cognitive impairment (Pfeiffer) and the levels of independence and function (Barthel) (r =0.489; p =0.001). Both determine a dependence level so they need either a little or a lot of help. Society needs that the older woman be healthy and that the professionals of mental health develop activities to prevent and rehabilitate because cognitive impairment and function are directly related with the quality of life.
Keywords: Functionality, cognition, routine activities, cognitive impairment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9022836 The Improvement of Environmental Protection through Motor Vehicle Noise Abatement
Authors: Z. Jovanovic, Z. Masonicic, S. Dragutinovic, Z. Sakota
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In this paper, a methodology for noise reduction of motor vehicles in use is presented. The methodology relies on synergic model of noise generation as a function of time. The arbitrary number of motor vehicle noise sources act in concert yielding the generation of the overall noise level of motor vehicle thereafter. The number of noise sources participating in the overall noise level of motor vehicle is subjected to the constraint of the calculation of the acoustic potential of each noise source under consideration. It is the prerequisite condition for the calculation of the acoustic potential of the whole vehicle. The recast form of pertinent set of equations describing the synergic model is laid down and solved by dint of Gauss method. The bunch of results emerged and some of them i.e. those ensuing from model application to MDD FAP Priboj motor vehicle in use are particularly elucidated.
Keywords: Noise abatement, MV noise sources, noise source identification, muffler.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12922835 Comparison of Traditional and Green Building Designs in Egypt: Energy Saving
Authors: Hala M. Abdel Mageed, Ahmed I. Omar, Shady H. E. Abdel Aleem
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This paper describes in details a commercial green building that has been designed and constructed in Marsa Matrouh, Egypt. The balance between homebuilding and the sustainable environment has been taken into consideration in the design and construction of this building. The building consists of one floor with 3 m height and 2810 m2 area while the envelope area is 1400 m2. The building construction fulfills the natural ventilation requirements. The glass curtain walls are about 50% of the building and the windows area is 300 m2. 6 mm greenish gray tinted temper glass as outer board lite, 6 mm safety glass as inner board lite and 16 mm thick dehydrated air spaces are used in the building. Visible light with 50% transmission, 0.26 solar factor, 0.67 shading coefficient and 1.3 W/m2.K thermal insulation U-value are implemented to realize the performance requirements. Optimum electrical distribution for lighting system, air conditions and other electrical loads has been carried out. Power and quantity of each type of the lighting system lamps and the energy consumption of the lighting system are investigated. The design of the air conditions system is based on summer and winter outdoor conditions. Ventilated, air conditioned spaces and fresh air rates are determined. Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) is the air conditioning system used in this building. The VRF outdoor units are located on the roof of the building and connected to indoor units through refrigerant piping. Indoor units are distributed in all building zones through ducts and air outlets to ensure efficient air distribution. The green building energy consumption is evaluated monthly all over one year and compared with the consumed energy in the non-green conditions using the Hourly Analysis Program (HAP) model. The comparison results show that the total energy consumed per year in the green building is about 1,103,221 kWh while the non-green energy consumption is about 1,692,057 kWh. In other words, the green building total annual energy cost is reduced from 136,581 $ to 89,051 $. This means that, the energy saving and consequently the money-saving of this green construction is about 35%. In addition, 13 points are awarded by applying one of the most popular worldwide green energy certification programs (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design “LEED”) as a rating system for the green construction. It is concluded that this green building ensures sustainability, saves energy and offers an optimum energy performance with minimum cost.
Keywords: Energy consumption, energy saving, green building, leadership in energy and environmental design, sustainability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15452834 A Signal Driven Adaptive Resolution Short-Time Fourier Transform
Authors: Saeed Mian Qaisar, Laurent Fesquet, Marc Renaudin
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The frequency contents of the non-stationary signals vary with time. For proper characterization of such signals, a smart time-frequency representation is necessary. Classically, the STFT (short-time Fourier transform) is employed for this purpose. Its limitation is the fixed timefrequency resolution. To overcome this drawback an enhanced STFT version is devised. It is based on the signal driven sampling scheme, which is named as the cross-level sampling. It can adapt the sampling frequency and the window function (length plus shape) by following the input signal local variations. This adaptation results into the proposed technique appealing features, which are the adaptive time-frequency resolution and the computational efficiency.Keywords: Level Crossing Sampling, Activity Selection, Adaptive Resolution Analysis, Computational Complexity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15712833 Factors Affecting the Work Efficiency of Employees of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University
Authors: Unnop Panpuang
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The objectives of this project are to study on the work efficiency of the employees, sorted by their profiles, and to study on the relation between job attributes and work efficiency of employees of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The samples used for this study are 292 employees. The statistics used in this study are frequencies, standard deviations, One-way ANOVA and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Majority of respondent were male with an undergraduate degree, married and lives together. The average age of respondents was between 31-41 years old, married and the educational background are higher than bachelor’s degree. The job attribute is correlated to the work efficiency with the statistical significance level of.o1. This concurs with the predetermined hypothesis. The correlation between the two main factors is in the moderate level. All the categories of job attributes such as the variety of skills, job clarity, job importance, freedom to do work are considered separately.
Keywords: Employees, Job Attributes, Work Efficiency.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 36492832 Decoupled Scheduling in Meta Environment
Authors: Ponsy R.K. Sathia Bhama, Thamarai Selvi Soma Sundaram, R. Sivakama Sundari, R. Bakiyalakshmi, K. Thamizharasi
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Grid scheduling is the process of mapping grid jobs to resources over multiple administrative domains. Traditionally, application-level schedulers have been tightly integrated with the application itself and were not easily applied to other applications. This design is generic that decouples the scheduler core (the search procedure) from the application-specific (e.g. application performance models) and platform-specific (e.g. collection of resource information) components used by the search procedure. In this decoupled approach the application details are not revealed completely to broker, but customer will give the application to resource provider for execution. In a decoupled approach, apart from scheduling, the resource selection can be performed independently in order to achieve scalability.Keywords: Meta, grid scheduling, application-level scheduler, decouple, scheduler core and performance model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12772831 Extension and Evaluation of Interface “2D-RIB“ for Impression-Based Retrieval
Authors: S. Kikuchi, Y. Hashimoto, T. Takayama, T. Ikeda, Y. Murata
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Recently, lots of researchers are attracted to retrieving multimedia database by using some impression words and their values. Ikezoe-s research is one of the representatives and uses eight pairs of opposite impression words. We had modified its retrieval interface and proposed '2D-RIB'. In '2D-RIB', after a retrieval person selects a single basic music, the system visually shows some other music around the basic one along relative position. He/she can select one of them fitting to his/her intention, as a retrieval result. The purpose of this paper is to improve his/her satisfaction level to the retrieval result in 2D-RIB. One of our extensions is to define and introduce the following two measures: 'melody goodness' and 'general acceptance'. We implement them in different five combinations. According to an evaluation experiment, both of these two measures can contribute to the improvement. Another extension is three types of customization. We have implemented them and clarified which customization is effective.Keywords: Multimedia database, impression-based retrieval, interface, satisfaction level.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12992830 Worth of Sick Building Syndrome and Enhance the Quality of Life in Green Building
Authors: Kamyar Kabirifar, Majid Azarniush, Behbood Maashkar
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A proper house is a suitable residential area which provides comfort, proper accessibility, security, stability and permanence of structure, enough lighting, proper initial infrastructures and ventilation for its inhabitants and the most important of all, it should be proportional to the family’s financial power .
Saving energy and making optimal usage of it and also taking advantage of stable energies are the bases of green buildings. Making green building will help the health of a person living in it and in its surrounding. It will support the people and provoke their satisfaction. Not only it will bring about the raise of level of the quality of life for building inhabitants, but it will cause the promotion of quality level of life of the people living in the surrounding area and in general the society.
Keywords: Quality of Life, Green Building, environment pollution, Sick Building.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18312829 Customer Satisfaction and Effective HRM Policies: Customer and Employee Satisfaction
Authors: S. Anastasiou, C. Nathanailides
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The purpose of this study is to examine the possible link between employee and customer satisfaction. The service provided by employees, help to build a good relationship with customers and can help at increasing their loyalty. Published data for job satisfaction and indicators of customer services of banks were gathered from relevant published works which included data from five different countries. The scores of customers and employees satisfaction of the different published works were transformed and normalized to the scale of 1 to 100. The data were analyzed and a regression analysis of the two parameters was used to describe the link between employee’s satisfaction and customer’s satisfaction. Assuming that employee satisfaction has a significant influence on customer’s service and the resulting customer satisfaction, the reviewed data indicate that employee’s satisfaction contributes significantly on the level of customer satisfaction in the Banking sector. There was a significant correlation between the two parameters (Pearson correlation R2=0.52 P<0.05). The reviewed data indicate that published data support the hypothesis that practical evidence link these two parameters. During the recent global economic crisis, the financial services sector was affected severely and job security, remuneration and recruitment of personnel of banks was in many countries, including Greece, significantly reduced. Nevertheless, modern organizations should always consider their personnel as a capital, which is the driving force for success in the future. Appropriate human resource management policies can increase the level of job satisfaction of the personnel with positive consequences for the level of customer’s satisfaction.
Keywords: Job satisfaction, job performance, customer service, banks, human resources management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 51212828 Assessment of Sediment Quality According To Heavy Metal Status in the West Port of Malaysia
Authors: B.Tavakoly Sany, A.H .Sulaiman, GH. Monazami, A. Salleh
Abstract:
Eight heavy metals (Cu, Cr, Zn, Hg, Pb, Cd, Ni and As) were analyzed in sediment samples in the dry and wet seasons from November 2009 to October 2010 in West Port of Peninsular Malaysia. The heavy metal concentrations (mg/kg dry weight) were ranged from 23.4 to 98.3 for Zn, 22.3 to 80 for Pb, 7.4 to 27.6 Cu, 0.244 to 3.53 for Cd, 7.2 to 22.2 for Ni, 20.2 to 162 for As, 0.11 to 0.409 for Hg and 11.5 to 61.5 for Cr. Metals concentrations in dry season were higher than the rainy season except in cupper and chromium. Analysis of variance with Statistical Analysis System (SAS) shows that the mean concentration of metals in the two seasons (α level=0.05) are not significantly different which shows that the metals were held firmly in the matrix of sediment. Also there are significant differences between control point station with other stations. According to the Interim Sediment Quality guidelines (ISQG), the metal concentrations are moderately polluted, except in arsenic which shows the highest level of pollution.
Keywords: Heavy metals, sediment quality guidelines, west port.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 37982827 The Effect of Ageing Treatment of Aluminum Alloys for Fuselage Structure-Light Aircraft
Authors: Shwe Wut Hmon Aye, Kay Thi Lwin, Waing Waing Kay Khine Oo
Abstract:
As the material used for fuselage structure must possess low density, high strength to weight ratio, the selection of appropriate materials for fuselage structure is one of the most important tasks. Aluminum metal itself is soft and low in strength. It can be made stronger by giving proper combination of suitable alloy addition, mechanical treatment and thermal treatment. The usual thermal treatment given to aluminum alloys is called age-hardening or precipitation hardening. In this paper, the studies are carried out on 7075 aluminum alloy which is how to improve strength level for fuselage structure. The marked effect of the strength on the ternary alloy is clearly demonstrated at several ageing times and temperatures. It is concluded that aluminum-zinc-magnesium alloy can get the highest strength level in natural ageing.Keywords: Aluminum alloy, ageing, heat treatment, strength.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23212826 An Interactive Tool for Teaching and Learning English at Upper Primary Level for Mauritius
Authors: Sameerchand Pudaruth, Avinash Mantaye
Abstract:
E-learning refers to the specific kind of learning experienced within the domain of educational technology, which can be used in or out of the classroom. In this paper, we give an overview of an e-learning platform 'An Innovative Interactive and Online English Platform for Upper Primary Students' is an interactive web-based application which will serve as an aid to the primary school students in Mauritius. The objectives of this platform are to offer quality learning resources for the English subject at our primary level of education, encourage self-learning and hence promote e-learning. The platform developed consists of several interesting features, for example, the English Verb Conjugation tool, Negative Form tool, Interrogative Form tool and Close Test Generator. Thus, this learning platform will be useful at a time where our country is looking for an alternative to private tuition and also, looking forward to increase the pass rate.Keywords: educational technology, e-learning, Mauritius.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22232825 Investigating Sustainable Neighborhood Development in Jahanshahr
Authors: Khashayar Kashani Jou, Ilnaz Fathololoomi
Abstract:
Nowadays, access to sustainable development in cities is assumed as one of the most important goals of urban managers. In the meanwhile, neighborhood as the smallest unit of urban spatial organization has a substantial effect on urban sustainability. Hence, attention to and focus on this subject is highly important in urban development plans. The objective of this study is evaluation of the status of Jahanshahr Neighborhood in Karaj city based on sustainable neighborhood development indicators. This research has been applied based on documentary method and field surveys. Also, evaluating of Jahanshahr Neighborhood of Karaj shows that it has a high level in sustainability in physical and economical dimension while a low level in cultural and social dimension. For this purpose, this neighborhood as a semi-sustainable neighborhood must take measures for development of collective spaces and efficiency of utilizing the public neighborhood spaces via collaboration of citizens and officials.
Keywords: Neighborhood, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Neighborhood Development, Jahanshahr Neighborhood.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1878