Search results for: knowledge management process

Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah

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The adoption and application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in government administration through e-government is expected to permeate all sectors of state/ public institutions as well as democratic institutions. One of such public institutions is the Electoral Commission of Ghana mandated by the 1992 Constitution to hold all public elections including presidential and parliamentary elections. As Ghana holds its 7th General Elections since 1992, on 7th November 2016, there are demands from key stakeholders for the Election Management Body, which is the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana to adopt and implement an electronic voting system. This case study, therefore, attempts to contribute significantly to the debate by examining influencing factors that would impact on citizen’s readiness to adopt and use an electronic voting system in Ghana. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used as a theoretical framework for this study, out of which a research model and hypotheses were developed. Importantly, the outcome of this research finding would form a basis for appropriate policy recommendation for consideration of Government and EC of Ghana.

Keywords: Citizens readiness, e-government, electronic voting, technology acceptance model (TAM).

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Authors: Clarissa L. de Araujo, Kátia N. Suzuki, Wilson T. V. Machado, Luis F. Bellido, Alfredo V.B. Bellido

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This study aims at contributing to the characterization of the process of biological incorporation of chromium by two benthonic species, the macroalgae Ulva sp. and the aquatic macrophyte Ruppia maritima, to subsidize future activities of monitoring the contamination of aquatic biota. This study is based on laboratory experiments to characterize the incorporation kinetics of the radiotracer ⁵¹Cr in two oxidation states (III and VI), under different salinities (7, 15, and 21 ‰). Samples of two benthonic species were collected on the margins of Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), acclimated in the laboratory and subsequently subjected to experiments. In tests with 51Cr (III and IV), it was observed that accumulation of the metal in Ulva sp. has inverse relationship with salinity, while for R. maritima, the maximum accumulation occurs in salinity 21‰. In experiments with Cr(III), increases in the uptake of ion by both species were verified. The activity of Cr(III) was up to 19 times greater than the Cr(VI). As regards the potential for accumulation of metals, a better sensitivity of Ulva sp. for any chromium tri or hexavalent forms was verified, while for the Cr(VI) it will require low salinities and longer exposure (>24h). For R. maritima, the results showed the uptake of Cr(VI) increase along with time (>20h), because this species is more resistant for the hexavalent form and useful for any salinity as well.

Keywords: Chromium, Cr-51, macroalgae, macrophyte, uptake.

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Authors: Manisha Dubey, Aalok Dubey

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This paper presents an approach for the design of fuzzy logic power system stabilizers using genetic algorithms. In the proposed fuzzy expert system, speed deviation and its derivative have been selected as fuzzy inputs. In this approach the parameters of the fuzzy logic controllers have been tuned using genetic algorithm. Incorporation of GA in the design of fuzzy logic power system stabilizer will add an intelligent dimension to the stabilizer and significantly reduces computational time in the design process. It is shown in this paper that the system dynamic performance can be improved significantly by incorporating a genetic-based searching mechanism. To demonstrate the robustness of the genetic based fuzzy logic power system stabilizer (GFLPSS), simulation studies on multimachine system subjected to small perturbation and three-phase fault have been carried out. Simulation results show the superiority and robustness of GA based power system stabilizer as compare to conventionally tuned controller to enhance system dynamic performance over a wide range of operating conditions.

Keywords: Dynamic stability, Fuzzy logic power systemstabilizer, Genetic Algorithms, Genetic based power systemstabilizer

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Authors: Lara F. Horani

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Design is one of the most important stages in the process of product development. Product design has experienced significant changes over the years ranging from concentrating on cost and performance to combining economic, environmental and social considerations in customer requirements. Its evolution is in accordance with rapidly changing technology, economic situations, and climate change and environmental issues, as well as social context. Within product design, sustainability is a concept that balances economic, social and environmental aspects. This research aims to express changes in customer requirements over time from the viewpoint of sustainable design. It does so by systematically reviewing a broad scope of sustainable design literature. There is a need for a model to consider the changes that take place in customer requirements over time to build a successful relationship with customers which has been presented. Today’s literature does very little to even mention it, let alone present any progress in it. Systematic literature reviews are conducted primarily to: summarize the existing literature around a subject, highlight commonalities to build consensus, illuminate differences, identify gaps that can be filled, provide a background to position future research, and build a framework that can help designers meet the challenges of sustainable design.

Keywords: Sustainable design, customer requirements for sustainable design, changing customer requirements for sustainable design, systematic literature reviews.

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Authors: Assal E. Haddad

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Food waste samples from Irbid were collected from 5 different sources for 12 weeks to characterize their composition in terms of four food categories; rice, meat, fruits and vegetables, and bread. Average food type compositions were 39% rice, 6% meat, 34% fruits and vegetables, and 23% bread. Methane yield was also measured for all food types and was found to be 362, 499, 352, and 375 mL/g VS for rice, meat, fruits and vegetables, and bread, respectively. A representative food waste sample was created to test the actual methane yield and compare it to calculated one. Actual methane yield (414 mL/g VS) was greater than the calculated value (377 mL/g VS) based on food type proportions and their specific methane yield. This study emphasizes the effect of the types of food and their proportions in food waste on the final biogas production. Findings in this study provide representative methane emission factors for Irbid’s food waste, which represent as high as 68% of total Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in Irbid, and also indicate the energy and economic value within the solid waste stream in Irbid.

Keywords: Food waste, solid waste management, anaerobic digestion, methane yield.

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Authors: Shan Ding, Lijia Zhang, Hongming Xu

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this paper presents a novel scheme which is capable of reducing the error rate and improves the transmission performance in the asynchronous cooperative MIMO systems. A case study of image transmission is applied to prove the efficient of scheme. The linear dispersion structure is employed to accommodate the cooperative wireless communication network in the dynamic topology of structure, as well as to achieve higher throughput than conventional space–time codes based on orthogonal designs. The LDPC encoder without girth-4 and the STBC encoder with guard intervals are respectively introduced. The experiment results show that the combined coder of LDPC-STBC with guard intervals can be the good error correcting coders and BER performance in the asynchronous cooperative communication. In the case study of image transmission, the results show that in the transmission process, the image quality which is obtained by applied combined scheme is much better than it which is not applied the scheme in the asynchronous cooperative MIMO systems.

Keywords: Cooperative MIMO, image transmission, lineardispersion codes, Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC)

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Authors: Samy M. El-Behery, W. A. El-Askary, K. A. Ibrahim, Mofreh H. Hamed

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A steady two-phase flow model has been developed to simulate the drying process of porous particle in a pneumatic conveying dryer. The model takes into account the momentum, heat and mass transfer between the continuous phase and the dispersed phase. A single particle model was employed to calculate the evaporation rate. In this model the pore structure is simplified to allow the dominant evaporation mechanism to be readily identified at all points within the duct. The predominant mechanism at any time depends upon the pressure, temperature and the diameter of pore from which evaporating is occurring. The model was validated against experimental studies of pneumatic transport at low and high speeds as well as pneumatic drying. The effects of operating conditions on the dryer parameters are studied numerically. The present results show that the drying rate is enhanced as the inlet gas temperature and the gas flow rate increase and as the solid mass flow rate deceases. The present results also demonstrate the necessity of measuring the inlet gas velocity or the solid concentration in any experimental analysis.

Keywords: Two-phase, gas-solid, pneumatic drying, pneumatic conveying, heat and mass transfer

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Authors: A. Kablan

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The prediction of financial time series is a very complicated process. If the efficient market hypothesis holds, then the predictability of most financial time series would be a rather controversial issue, due to the fact that the current price contains already all available information in the market. This paper extends the Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System for High Frequency Trading which is an expert system that is capable of using fuzzy reasoning combined with the pattern recognition capability of neural networks to be used in financial forecasting and trading in high frequency. However, in order to eliminate unnecessary input in the training phase a new event based volatility model was proposed. Taking volatility and the scaling laws of financial time series into consideration has brought about the development of the Intraday Seasonality Observation Model. This new model allows the observation of specific events and seasonalities in data and subsequently removes any unnecessary data. This new event based volatility model provides the ANFIS system with more accurate input and has increased the overall performance of the system.

Keywords: Adaptive Neuro-fuzzy Inference system, High Frequency Trading, Intraday Seasonality Observation Model.

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Authors: Chiao-Chen Chang, Yang-Chieh Chin

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This study examines the issue of recommendation sources from the perspectives of gender and consumers- perceived risk, and validates a model for the antecedents of consumer online purchases. The method of obtaining quantitative data was that of the instrument of a survey questionnaire. Data were collected via questionnaires from 396 undergraduate students aged 18-24, and a multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify causal relationships. Empirical findings established the link between recommendation sources (word-of-mouth, advertising, and recommendation systems) and the likelihood of making online purchases and demonstrated the role of gender and perceived risk as moderators in this context. The results showed that the effects of word-of-mouth on online purchase intentions were stronger than those of advertising and recommendation systems. In addition, female consumers have less experience with online purchases, so they may be more likely than males to refer to recommendations during the decision-making process. The findings of the study will help marketers to address the recommendation factor which influences consumers- intention to purchase and to improve firm performances to meet consumer needs.

Keywords: Recommendation sources, Online purchaseintentions, Gender differences, Perceived risk.

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Authors: Henrik Prinzhorn, Peter Nyhuis, Johannes Wagner, Peter Burggräf, Torben Schmitz, Christina Reuter

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Assembling large-scale products, such as airplanes, locomotives, or wind turbines, involves frequent process interruptions induced by e.g. delayed material deliveries or missing availability of resources. This leads to a negative impact on the logistical performance of a producer of xxl-products. In industrial practice, in case of interruptions, the identification, evaluation and eventually the selection of an alternative order of assembly activities (‘assembly alternative’) leads to an enormous challenge, especially if an optimized logistical decision should be reached. Therefore, in this paper, an innovative, optimization model for the identification of assembly alternatives that addresses the given problem is presented. It describes make-to-order, large-scale product assembly processes as a resource constrained project scheduling (RCPS) problem which follows given restrictions in practice. For the evaluation of the assembly alternative, a cost-based definition of the logistical objectives (delivery reliability, inventory, make-span and workload) is presented.

Keywords: Assembly scheduling, large-scale products, make-to-order, rescheduling, optimization.

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Authors: W. Wanmolee, W. Sornlake, N. Laosiripojana, V. Champreda

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Conversion of lignocellulosic biomass is the basis process for production of fuels, chemicals and materials in the sustainable biorefinery industry. Saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass is an essential step which produces sugars for further conversion to target value-added products e.g. bio-ethanol, bio-plastic, g-valerolactone (GVL), 5-hydroxymethylfuroic acid (HMF), levulinic acid, etc. The goal of this work was to develop an efficient enzyme for conversion of biomass to reducing sugar based on crude fungal enzyme from Chaetomium globosum BCC5776 produced by submerged fermentation and evaluate its activity comparing to a commercial Acremonium cellulase. Five local biomasses in Thailand: rice straw, sugarcane bagasse, corncobs, corn stovers, and palm empty fruit bunches were pretreated and hydrolyzed with varying enzyme loadings. Saccharification of the biomass led to different reducing sugar levels from 115 mg/g to 720 mg/g from different types of biomass using cellulase dosage of 9 FPU/g. The reducing sugar will be further employed as sugar feedstock for production of ethanol or commodity chemicals. This work demonstrated the use of promising enzyme candidate for conversion of local lignocellulosic biomass in biorefinery industry.

Keywords: Biomass, Cellulase, Chaetomiun glubosum, Saccharification.

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Authors: Sayed Hadi Sadeghi

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This research study examines the current state of support services for e-network practice in an Australian and an American university. It identifies information that will be of assistance to Australian and American universities to improve their existing online programs. The study investigated the two universities using a quantitative methodological approach. Participants were students, lecturers and admins of universities engaged with online courses and learning management systems. The support services for e-network practice variables, namely academic support services, administrative support and technical support, were investigated for e-practice. Evaluations of e-network support service and its sub factors were above average and excellent in both countries, although the American admins and lecturers tended to evaluate this factor higher than others did. Support practice was evaluated higher by all participants of an American university than by Australians. One explanation for the results may be that most suppliers of the Australian university e-learning system were from eastern Asian cultural backgrounds with a western networking support perspective about e-learning.

Keywords: Support services, e-network practice, Australian universities, United States universities.

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Zamani Kouhpanji

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This paper presents a MEMS/NEMS device for fatigue and fracture characterization of nanomaterials. This device can apply static loads, cyclic loads, and their combinations in nanomechanical experiments. It is based on the electromagnetic force induced between paired parallel wires carrying electrical currents. Using this concept, the actuator and sensor parts of the device were designed and analyzed while considering the practical limitations. Since the PWCC device only uses two wires for actuation part and sensing part, its fabrication process is extremely easier than the available MEMS/NEMS devices. The total gain and phase shift of the MEMS/NEMS device were calculated and investigated. Furthermore, the maximum gain and sensitivity of the MEMS/NEMS device were studied to demonstrate the capability and usability of the device for wide range of nanomaterials samples. This device can be readily integrated into SEM/TEM instruments to provide real time study of the mechanical behaviors of nanomaterials as well as their fatigue and fracture properties, softening or hardening behaviors, and initiation and propagation of nanocracks.

Keywords: Sensors and actuators, MEMS/NEMS devices, fatigue and fracture nanomechanical testing device, static and cyclic nanomechanical testing device.

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Authors: Suresh Shirgave, Prakash Kulkarni, José Borges

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The continuous growth in the size of the World Wide Web has resulted in intricate Web sites, demanding enhanced user skills and more sophisticated tools to help the Web user to find the desired information. In order to make Web more user friendly, it is necessary to provide personalized services and recommendations to the Web user. For discovering interesting and frequent navigation patterns from Web server logs many Web usage mining techniques have been applied. The recommendation accuracy of usage based techniques can be improved by integrating Web site content and site structure in the personalization process.

Herein, we propose semantically enriched Web Usage Mining method for Personalization (SWUMP), an extension to solely usage based technique. This approach is a combination of the fields of Web Usage Mining and Semantic Web. In the proposed method, we envisage enriching the undirected graph derived from usage data with rich semantic information extracted from the Web pages and the Web site structure. The experimental results show that the SWUMP generates accurate recommendations and is able to achieve 10-20% better accuracy than the solely usage based model. The SWUMP addresses the new item problem inherent to solely usage based techniques.

Keywords: Prediction, Recommendation, Semantic Web Usage Mining, Web Usage Mining.

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Authors: Diriba T. Balcha, Boris Kulig, Oliver Hensel, Eyassu Woldesenbet

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Enset fiber is agricultural waste and available in a surplus amount in Ethiopia. However, the hypothesized variation in properties of this fiber due to diversity of its plant source breed, fiber position within plant stem and chemical treatment duration had not proven that its application for the development of composite products is problematic. Currently, limited data are known on the functional properties of the fiber as a potential functional fiber. Thus, an effort is made in this study to narrow the knowledge gaps by characterizing it. The experimental design was conducted using Design-Expert software and the tensile test was conducted on Enset fiber from 10 breeds: Dego, Dirbo, Gishera, Itine, Siskela, Neciho, Yesherkinke, Tuzuma, Ankogena, and Kucharkia. The effects of 5% Na-OH surface treatment duration and fiber location along and across the plant pseudostem was also investigated. The test result shows that the rupture stress variation is not significant among the fibers from 10 Enset breeds. However, strain variation is significant among the fibers from 10 Enset breeds that breed Dego fiber has the highest strain before failure. Surface treated fibers showed improved rupture strength and elastic modulus per 24 hours of treatment duration. Also, the result showed that chemical treatment can deteriorate the load-bearing capacity of the fiber. The raw fiber has the higher load-bearing capacity than the treated fiber. And, it was noted that both the rupture stress and strain increase in the top to bottom gradient, whereas there is no significant variation across the stem. Elastic modulus variation both along and across the stem was insignificant. The rupture stress, elastic modulus, and strain result of Enset fiber are 360.11 ± 181.86 MPa, 12.80 ± 6.85 GPa and 0.04 ± 0.02 mm/mm, respectively. These results show that Enset fiber is comparable to other natural fibers such as abaca, banana, and sisal fibers and can be used as alternatives natural fiber for composites application. Besides, the insignificant variation of properties among breeds and across stem is essential for all breeds and all leaf sheath of the Enset fiber plant for fiber extraction. The use of short natural fiber over the long is preferable to reduce the significant variation of properties along the stem or fiber direction. In conclusion, Enset fiber application for composite product design and development is mechanically feasible.

Keywords: Agricultural waste, chemical treatment, fiber characteristics, natural fiber.

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Authors: Hanita Daud, Noorhana Yahya, Vijanth Sagayan, Muizuddin Talib

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This paper discusses on the use of Spline Interpolation and Mean Square Error (MSE) as tools to process data acquired from the developed simulator that shall replicate sea bed logging environment. Sea bed logging (SBL) is a new technique that uses marine controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) sounding technique and is proven to be very successful in detecting and characterizing hydrocarbon reservoirs in deep water area by using resistivity contrasts. It uses very low frequency of 0.1Hz to 10 Hz to obtain greater wavelength. In this work the in house built simulator was used and was provided with predefined parameters and the transmitted frequency was varied for sediment thickness of 1000m to 4000m for environment with and without hydrocarbon. From series of simulations, synthetics data were generated. These data were interpolated using Spline interpolation technique (degree of three) and mean square error (MSE) were calculated between original data and interpolated data. Comparisons were made by studying the trends and relationship between frequency and sediment thickness based on the MSE calculated. It was found that the MSE was on increasing trends in the set up that has the presence of hydrocarbon in the setting than the one without. The MSE was also on decreasing trends as sediment thickness was increased and with higher transmitted frequency.

Keywords: Spline Interpolation, Mean Square Error, Sea Bed Logging, Controlled Source Electromagnetic

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Authors: O. Altuntaş, A. Güral

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The hardness-microstructure relationships of spherical cementite in bainitic matrix obtained by a different heat treatment cycles carried out to high carbon powder metallurgy (P/M) steel were investigated. For this purpose, 1.5 wt.% natural graphite powder admixed in atomized iron powders and the mixed powders were compacted under 700 MPa at room temperature and then sintered at 1150 °C under a protective argon gas atmosphere. The densities of the green and sintered samples were measured via the Archimedes method. A density of 7.4 g/cm³ was obtained after sintering and a density of 94% was achieved. The sintered specimens having primary cementite plus lamellar pearlitic structures were fully quenched from 950 ^°C temperature and then over-tempered at 705 °C temperature for 60 minutes to produce spherical-fine cementite particles in the ferritic matrix. After by this treatment, these samples annealed at 735 °C temperature for 3 minutes were austempered at 300 °C salt bath for a period of 1 to 5 hours. As a result of this process, it could be able to produced spherical cementite particle in the bainitic matrix. This microstructure was designed to improve wear and toughness of P/M steels. The microstructures were characterized and analyzed by SEM and micro and macro hardness.

Keywords: Powder metallurgy steel, heat treatment, bainite, spherical cementite.

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Authors: Arash Derakhshanmehr

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Nowadays, efficiency, effectiveness and economy are regarded as the main objectives of managers and the secret of the continuity of an organization in competing economy. In such competing settings, it is essential that the management of an organization has not been neglected and been obliged to identify quickly the opportunities for improving the operation of organization and remove the shortcomings of their managed system in order to use the opportunities for development. Operational auditing is a useful tool for system adjustment and leading an organization toward its objectives. Operational auditing is indeed a viewpoint which identifies the causes of insufficiencies, weaknesses and deficiencies of system and plans to eliminate them. Operational auditing is useful in the effectiveness and optimization of executive managers- decisions and increasing the efficiency and economy of their performance in the future and prevents the waste and incorrect use of resources. Evidence shows that operational auditing is used at a limited level in Iran. This matter raises some questions like the following ones in the minds. Why do a limited number of corporations use operational auditing? Which factors can guarantee its full implementation? What obstacles are there in its implementation? The purpose of this article is to determine executive objectives, the operation domain of operational auditing, the components of operational auditing and the executive obstacles to operational auditing in Iran.

Keywords: Operational Auditing, Iran

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Authors: Moorthi S., Meganathan D., Janarthanan D., Praveen Kumar P., J. Raja paul perinbam

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An efficient architecture for low jitter All Digital Phase Locked Loop (ADPLL) suitable for high speed SoC applications is presented in this paper. The ADPLL is designed using standard cells and described by Hardware Description Language (HDL). The ADPLL implemented in a 90 nm CMOS process can operate from 10 to 200 MHz and achieve worst case frequency acquisition in 14 reference clock cycles. The simulation result shows that PLL has cycle to cycle jitter of 164 ps and period jitter of 100 ps at 100MHz. Since the digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) can achieve both high resolution and wide frequency range, it can meet the demands of system-level integration. The proposed ADPLL can easily be ported to different processes in a short time. Thus, it can reduce the design time and design complexity of the ADPLL, making it very suitable for System-on-Chip (SoC) applications.

Keywords: All Digital Phase Locked Loop (ADPLL), Systemon-Chip (SoC), Phase Locked Loop (PLL), Very High speedIntegrated Circuit (VHSIC) Hardware Description Language(VHDL), Digitally Controlled Oscillator (DCO), Phase frequencydetector (PFD) and Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO).

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Authors: Mohammed A. Elhaj, Jamal S. Yassin

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This paper presents the exergy analysis of a desalination unit using humidification-dehumidification process. Here, this unit is considered as a thermal system with three main components, which are the heating unit by using a solar collector, the evaporator or the humidifier, and the condenser or the dehumidifier. In these components the exergy is a measure of the quality or grade of energy and it can be destroyed in them. According to the second law of thermodynamics this destroyed part is due to irreversibilities which must be determined to obtain the exergetic efficiency of the system. In the current paper a computer program has been developed using visual basic to determine the exergy destruction and the exergetic efficiencies of the components of the desalination unit at variable operation conditions such as feed water temperature, outlet air temperature, air to feed water mass ratio and salinity, in addition to cooling water mass flow rate and inlet temperature, as well as quantity of solar irradiance. The results obtained indicate that the exergy efficiency of the humidifier increases by increasing the mass ratio and decreasing the outlet air temperature. In the other hand the exergy efficiency of the condenser increases with the increase of this ratio and also with the increase of the outlet air temperature.

Keywords: Exergy analysis, desalination, solar, humidifier, condenser.

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Authors: Omar Boutkhoum, Mohamed Hanine, Tarik Agouti, Abdessadek Tikniouine

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This paper discusses the intake of combining multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) with OLAP systems, to generate an integrated analysis process dealing with complex multi-criteria decision-making situations. In this context, a multi-agent modeling is presented for decision support systems by combining multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) with OLAP systems. The proposed modeling which consists in performing the multi-agent system (MAS) architecture, procedure and protocol of the negotiation model is elaborated as a decision support tool for complex decision-making environments. Our objective is to take advantage from the multi-agent system which distributes resources and computational capabilities across interconnected agents, and provide a problem modeling in terms of autonomous interacting component-agents. Thus, the identification and evaluation of criteria as well as the evaluation and ranking of alternatives in a decision support situation will be performed by organizing tasks and user preferences between different agents in order to reach the right decision. At the end, an illustrative example is conducted to demonstrate the function and effectiveness of our MAS modeling.

Keywords: Multidimensional Analysis, OLAP Analysis, Multi-criteria Decision Analysis, Multi-Agent System, Decision Support System.

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Authors: S. Jursová, P. Pustějovská, S. Brožová, J. Bilík

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The paper deals with possibilities of interpretation of iron ore reducibility tests. It presents a mathematical model developed at Centre ENET, VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic for an evaluation of metallurgical material of blast furnace feedstock such as iron ore, sinter or pellets. According to the data from the test, the model predicts its usage in blast furnace technology and its effects on production parameters of shaft aggregate. At the beginning, the paper sums up the general concept and experience in mathematical modelling of iron ore reduction. It presents basic equation for the calculation and the main parts of the developed model. In the experimental part, there is an example of usage of the mathematical model. The paper describes the usage of data for some predictive calculation. There are presented material, method of carried test of iron ore reducibility. Then there are graphically interpreted effects of used material on carbon consumption, rate of direct reduction and the whole reduction process.

Keywords: Blast furnace technology, iron ore reduction, mathematical model, prediction of iron ore reduction.

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Authors: Giovane Gurgel, Cristina S. Rodrigues, Filipa D. Vieira

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IFRN – Mossoró is a Brazilian technical education institute that develops several activities to encourage entrepreneurship, such as a curricular discipline about enterprise management and the existence of a business incubator. Despite efforts, the business incubator does not produce the expected effects. Therefore, what predisposes students to start their own business? If literature review explores determinant factors like the family and personal characteristics, it can be sustained that entrepreneurship skills can be taught since primary level, until university level. This paper presents the results of research project “Empreende IFRN” to understand the entrepreneurial predisposition and intention of the students from technical level courses. Data from 365 students from technical level courses reveal an increased entrepreneurial intention of students during time (from a 2 years period to someday in the future). The entrepreneurial behavior of parents affects students’ perception about starting their own business. Students also present a cautions behavior, preferring bank deposit and investment fund instead starting a business.

Keywords: Brazil, Entrepreneurial intention, Entrepreneurship, Secondary technical students.

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Authors: Duy M. P. Vo, Cornelia Sennewald, Gerald Hoffmann, Chokri Cherif

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The development of solutions to improve the resistance of buildings to short-term dynamic loads, particularly impact load, is driven by the urgent demand worldwide on securing human life and critical infrastructures. The research training group GRK 2250/1 aims to develop mineral-bonded composites that allow the fabrication of thin-layered strengthening layers providing available concrete members with enhanced impact resistance. This paper presents the development of 3D woven wire cellular structures that can be used as innovative reinforcement for targeted composites. 3D woven wire cellular structures are truss-like architectures that can be fabricated in an automatized process with a great customization possibility. The specific architecture allows this kind of structures to have good load bearing capability and forming behavior, which is of great potential to give strength against impact loading. An appropriate combination of topology and material enables an optimal use of thin-layered reinforcement in concrete constructions.

Keywords: 3D woven cellular structures, ductile behavior, energy absorption, fiber-based reinforced concrete, impact resistant.

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Authors: Jiwon Lee, Chanho Jung, Si-Hwan Jang, Kyung-Ill Kim, Sanghyun Joo, Wook-Ho Son

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Since the advances in digital imaging technologies have led to development of high quality digital devices, there are a lot of illegal copies of copyrighted video content on the Internet. Also, unauthorized editing is occurred frequently. Thus, we propose an editing prevention technique for high-quality (HQ) video that can prevent these illegally edited copies from spreading out. The proposed technique is applied spatial and temporal gradient methods to improve the fidelity and detection performance. Also, the scheme duplicates the embedding signal temporally to alleviate the signal reduction caused by geometric and signal-processing distortions. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme achieves better performance than previously proposed schemes and it has high fidelity. The proposed scheme can be used in unauthorized access prevention method of visual communication or traitor tracking applications which need fast detection process to prevent illegally edited video content from spreading out.

Keywords: Editing prevention technique, gradient method, high-quality video, luminance change, visual communication.

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Authors: Ilkay Turk Cakir, Murat Altinli, Zekeriya Uysal, Abdulkadir Senol, Olcay Bolukbasi Yalcinkaya, Ali Yilmaz

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The Higgs boson was discovered by the ATLAS and CMS experimental groups in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Production and decay properties of the Higgs boson, Standard Model (SM) couplings, and limits on effective scale of the Higgs boson’s couplings with other bosons are investigated at particle colliders. Deviations from SM estimates are parametrized by effective Lagrangian terms to investigate Higgs couplings. This is a model-independent method for describing the new physics. In this study, sensitivity to neutral gauge boson anomalous couplings with the Higgs boson is investigated using the parameters of the Large Hadron electron Collider (LHeC) and the Future Circular electron-hadron Collider (FCC-eh) with a model-independent approach. By using MadGraph5_aMC@NLO multi-purpose event generator with the parameters of LHeC and FCC-eh, the bounds on the anomalous Hγγ, HγZ and HZZ couplings in e− p → e− q H process are obtained. Detector simulations are also taken into account in the calculations.

Keywords: Anomalous Couplings, Effective Lagrangian, Electron-Proton Colliders, Higgs Boson.

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Authors: Rujira Kongnuy, Puntani Pongsumpun, I-Ming Tang

Abstract:

Dengue fever is an important human arboviral disease. Outbreaks are now reported quite often from many parts of the world. The number of cases involving pregnant women and infant cases are increasing every year. The illness is often severe and complications may occur. Deaths often occur because of the difficulties in early diagnosis and in the improper management of the diseases. Dengue antibodies from pregnant women are passed on to infants and this protects the infants from dengue infections. Antibodies from the mother are transferred to the fetus when it is still in the womb. In this study, we formulate a mathematical model to describe the transmission of this disease in pregnant women. The model is formulated by dividing the human population into pregnant women and non-pregnant human (men and non-pregnant women). Each class is subdivided into susceptible (S), infectious (I) and recovered (R) subclasses. We apply standard dynamical analysis to our model. Conditions for the local stability of the equilibrium points are given. The numerical simulations are shown. The bifurcation diagrams of our model are discussed. The control of this disease in pregnant women is discussed in terms of the threshold conditions.

Keywords: Dengue disease, local stability, mathematical model, pregnancy.

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Authors: Piyush Pal, Rahul Dev

Abstract:

Water is essential for life and fresh water is a finite resource that is becoming scarce day by day even though it is recycled by hydrological cycle. The fresh water reserves are being polluted due to expanding irrigation, industries, urban population and its development. Contaminated water leads to several health problems. With the increasing demand of fresh water, solar distillation is an alternate solution which uses solar energy to evaporate water and then to condense it, thereby collecting distilled water within or outside the same system to use it as potable water. The structure that houses the process is known as a 'solar still'. In this paper, ‘Modified double slope solar still (MDSSS)’ & 'Modified double slope basin type multiwick solar still (MDSBMSS)' have been designed to convert saline, brackish water into drinking water. In this work two different modified solar stills are fabricated to study the performance of these solar stills. For modification of solar stills, Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) and Acrylic sheets are used. The experiments in MDSBMSS and MDSSS was carried on 10 September 2015 & 5 November 2015 respectively. Performances of the stills were investigated. The amount of distillate has been found 3624 Ml/day in MDSBMSS on 10 September 2015 and 2400 Ml/day in MDSSS on 5 November 2015.

Keywords: Contaminated water, Conventional solar still, Modified solar still, Wick.

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Authors: Amadi Ugwulo Chinyere, Lewis D. Gbarayorks, Emem N. H. Inamete

Abstract:

In this paper, the mandatory contribution, additional voluntary contribution (AVC) and administrative charges are merged together to determine the optimal investment strategy (OIS) for a pension plan member (PPM) in a defined contribution (DC) pension scheme under the modified constant elasticity of variance (M-CEV) model. We assume that the voluntary contribution is a stochastic process and a portfolio consisting of one risk free asset and one risky asset modeled by the M-CEV model is considered. Also, a stochastic differential equation consisting of PPM’s monthly contributions, voluntary contributions and administrative charges is obtained. More so, an optimization problem in the form of Hamilton Jacobi Bellman equation which is a nonlinear partial differential equation is obtained. Using power transformation and change of variables method, an explicit solution of the OIS and the value function are obtained under constant absolute risk averse (CARA). Furthermore, numerical simulations on the impact of some sensitive parameters on OIS were discussed extensively. Finally, our result generalizes some existing result in the literature.

Keywords: DC pension fund, modified constant elasticity of variance, optimal investment strategies, voluntary contribution, administrative charges.

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Authors: Gry M, Bergström J, Lengquist J, Lindberg J, Drobin K, Schwenk J, Nilsson P, Schuppe-Koistinen I.

Abstract:

Sensitive and predictive DILI (Drug Induced Liver Injury) biomarkers are needed in drug R&D to improve early detection of hepatotoxicity. The discovery of DILI biomarkers that demonstrate the predictive power to identify individuals at risk to DILI would represent a major advance in the development of personalized healthcare approaches. In this healthy volunteer acetaminophen study (4g/day for 7 days, with 3 monitored nontreatment days before and 4 after), 450 serum samples from 32 subjects were analyzed using protein profiling by antibody suspension bead arrays. Multiparallel protein profiles were generated using a DILI target protein array with 300 antibodies, where the antibodies were selected based on previous literature findings of putative DILI biomarkers and a screening process using pre dose samples from the same cohort. Of the 32 subjects, 16 were found to develop an elevated ALT value (2Xbaseline, responders). Using the plasma profiling approach together with multivariate statistical analysis some novel findings linked to lipid metabolism were found and more important, endogenous protein profiles in baseline samples (prior to treatment) with predictive power for ALT elevations were identified.

Keywords: DILI, Plasma profiling, PLSDA, Randomforest.

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