Search results for: Research and development

Authors: Kayun Chantarasathaporn, Chonawat Srisa-an

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Low power consumption is a major constraint for battery-powered system like computer notebook or PDA. In the past, specialists usually designed both specific optimized equipments and codes to relief this concern. Doing like this could work for quite a long time, however, in this era, there is another significant restraint, the time to market. To be able to serve along the power constraint while can launch products in shorter production period, objectoriented programming (OOP) has stepped in to this field. Though everyone knows that OOP has quite much more overhead than assembly and procedural languages, development trend still heads to this new world, which contradicts with the target of low power consumption. Most of the prior power related software researches reported that OOP consumed much resource, however, as industry had to accept it due to business reasons, up to now, no papers yet had mentioned about how to choose the best OOP practice in this power limited boundary. This article is the pioneer that tries to specify and propose the optimized strategy in writing OOP software under energy concerned environment, based on quantitative real results. The language chosen for studying is C# based on .NET Framework 2.0 which is one of the trendy OOP development environments. The recommendation gotten from this research would be a good roadmap that can help developers in coding that well balances between time to market and time of battery.

Keywords: Low power consumption, object oriented programming, power conscious system, software.

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Authors: Salem Alajmi, Bader Altaweel

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Kuwait, like many parts of the world, has started facing the dangerous growth of electrical and electronic waste. This growth has been noted in last two decades, emerging with the development of mobile phones, computers, TVs, as well as other electronic devices and electrical equipment. Kuwait is already among the highest global producers of electronic waste (e-waste) in kg per capita. Furthermore, Kuwait is among the global countries that set high-level future targets in renewable energy projects. Accumulation of this electronic waste, as well as accelerated renewable energy projects, will lead to the increase of future threats to the country. In this research, factors that lead to the increase the e-waste in Kuwait are presented. Also, the current situations of dealing with e-waste in the country as well as the associated challenges are examined. The impact of renewable energy projects on future e-waste accumulation is considered. Moreover, this research proposes the best strategies and practices toward successfully dealing with the waste of electronic devices and renewable energy technologies.

Keywords: E-waste, landfill, environmental management, valuable metals, hazardous materials.

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Authors: C. A. Oloo, C. Ojwang

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The performances of small and medium enterprises have stagnated in the last two decades. This has mainly been due to the emergence of HIV / Aids. The disease has had a detrimental effect on the general economy of the country leading to morbidity and mortality of the Kenyan workforce in their primary age. The present study sought to establish the economic impact of HIV / Aids on the micro-enterprise development in Obunga slum – Kisumu, in terms of production loss, increasing labor related cost and to establish possible strategies to address the impact of HIV / Aids on microenterprises. The study was necessitated by the observation that most micro-enterprises in the slum are facing severe economic and social crisis due to the impact of HIV / Aids, they get depleted and close down within a short time due to death of skilled and experience workforce. The study was carried out between June 2008 and June 2009 in Obunga slum. Data was subjected to computer aided statistical analysis that included descriptive statistic, chi-squared and ANOVA techniques. Chi-squared analysis on the micro-enterprise owners opinion on the impact of HIV / Aids on depletion of microenterprise compared to other diseases indicated high levels of the negative effects of the disease at significance levels of P<0.01. Analysis of variance on the impact of HIV / Aids on the performance and productivity of micro-enterprises also indicated a negative effect on the general performance of micro-enterprise at significance levels of P<0.01. Therefore reducing the negative impacts of HIV/Aids on micro-enterprise development, there is need to improve the socioeconomic environment, mobilize donors and stake holders in training and funding, and review the current strategies for addressing the disease. Further conclusive research should also be conducted on a bigger scale.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, HIV-AIDS, Micro-enterprise, Poverty.

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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.

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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.

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Authors: S. Ahmed Sinthia

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Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is one of the densely populated cities in the world. Due to rapid urbanization 60% of its population lives in slum and squatter settlements. The reason behind this poverty is low economic growth, inequitable distribution of income, unequal distribution of productive assets, unemployment and underemployment, high rate of population growth, low level of human resource development, natural disasters, and limited access to public services. Along with poverty, creating pressure on urban land, shelter, plots, open spaces this creates environmental and ecological degradation. These constraints are mostly resulted from the failures of the government policies and measures and only Government can solve this problem. This is now prime time to establish planning and environmental management policy and sustainable urban development for the city and for the urban slum dwellers which are free from eviction, criminals, rent seekers and other miscreants.

Keywords: Economic and resource constraints, environmental degradation and management, government policy, land management and policy, sustainable development.

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Authors: Huafeng Wang, Yunhong Wang, Yuan Cao

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During the past several years, face recognition in video has received significant attention. Not only the wide range of commercial and law enforcement applications, but also the availability of feasible technologies after several decades of research contributes to the trend. Although current face recognition systems have reached a certain level of maturity, their development is still limited by the conditions brought about by many real applications. For example, recognition images of video sequence acquired in an open environment with changes in illumination and/or pose and/or facial occlusion and/or low resolution of acquired image remains a largely unsolved problem. In other words, current algorithms are yet to be developed. This paper provides an up-to-date survey of video-based face recognition research. To present a comprehensive survey, we categorize existing video based recognition approaches and present detailed descriptions of representative methods within each category. In addition, relevant topics such as real time detection, real time tracking for video, issues such as illumination, pose, 3D and low resolution are covered.

Keywords: Face recognition, video-based, survey

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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.

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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.

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Authors: Chanin Yoopetch, Natcha Toemtemsab

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The purpose of this study was to explore the demographic differences of international tourists according to three main factors, including the value of time, shopping behavior and shopping motivation. The Chatuchak Weekend Market is known as one of the biggest weekend markets in the world. Too little academic studies had been conducted in this area of weekend market, despite its growth and continuous development. In general, both domestic visitors and international tourists are attracted to the perception of cheap and bargaining prices the weekend market. However, systematic research study can provide reliable understanding of the perception of the visitors. This study focused on the group of international tourists who visited the market and aimed to provide better insights based on the differences in their demographic factors. Findings indicated that several differences in value of time, shopping behavior, and shopping motivation were identified by gender, income and age. Research implications and directions for further studies were discussed.

Keywords: Value of Time, Shopping Behavior, Shopping Motivation, Chatuchak Weekend Market.

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Authors: Han-Gook Kim, Dong-Suk Hong

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As the latest advancement and trend in IT field, Green & Smart IT has attracted more and more attentions from researchers. This study focuses on the development of assessing tools which can be used for evaluating Green & Smart IT level within an organization. In order to achieve meaningful results, a comprehensive review of relevant literature was performed in advance, then, Delphi survey and other processes were also employed to develop the assessment tools for Green & Smart IT level. Two rounds of Delphi questionnaire survey were conducted with 20 IT experts in public sector. The results reveal that the top five weighted KPIs to evaluate maturity of Green & Smart IT were: (1) electronic execution of business process; (2) shutdown of unused IT devices; (3) virtualization of severs; (4) automation of constant temperature and humidity; and (5) introduction of smart-work system. Finally, these tools were applied to case study of a public research institute in Korea. The findings presented in this study provide organizations with useful implications for the introduction and promotion of Green & Smart IT in the future

Keywords: Assessment, Case Study, Delphi, Green & Smart

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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.

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Authors: M. M. Pawade, S. S. Banwait

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Electrical Discharge Machine (EDM) is especially used for the manufacturing of 3-D complex geometry and hard material parts that are extremely difficult-to-machine by conventional machining processes. In this paper authors review the research work carried out in the development of die-sinking EDM within the past decades for the improvement of machining characteristics such as Material Removal Rate, Surface Roughness and Tool Wear Ratio. In this review various techniques reported by EDM researchers for improving the machining characteristics have been categorized as process parameters optimization, multi spark technique, powder mixed EDM, servo control system and pulse discriminating. At the end, flexible machine controller is suggested for Die Sinking EDM to enhance the machining characteristics and to achieve high-level automation. Thus, die sinking EDM can be integrated with Computer Integrated Manufacturing environment as a need of agile manufacturing systems.

Keywords: Electrical Discharge Machine, Flexible Machine Controller, Material Removal Rate, Tool Wear Ratio.

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Authors: Dubbale Daniel A., Tsutsumi J.

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This research work takes a different approach in the discussion of urban form impacts on transport planning and auto dependency. Concentrated density represented by effective density explains auto dependency better than the conventional density and it is proved to be a realistic density representative for the urban transportation analysis. Model analysis reveals that effective density is influenced by the shopping accessibility index as well as job density factor. It is also combined with the job access variable to classify four levels of Transport Activity Centers (TACs) in Okinawa, Japan. Trip attraction capacity and levels of the newly classified TACs was found agreeable with the amount of daily trips attracted to each center. The trip attraction data set was drawn from a 2007 Okinawa personal trip survey. This research suggests a planning methodology which guides logical transport supply routes and concentrated local development schemes.

Keywords: Effective density, urban form, auto-dependency, transport activity centers

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Authors: Kai-Chieh Lin, Chih-Fu Wu, Hsiang Ling Hsu, Yung-Hsiang Tu, Chia-Chen Wu

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With the rapid development of computer technology, the design of computers and keyboards moves towards a trend of slimness. The change of mobile input devices directly influences users’ behavior. Although multi-touch applications allow entering texts through a virtual keyboard, the performance, feedback, and comfortableness of the technology is inferior to traditional keyboard, and while manufacturers launch mobile touch keyboards and projection keyboards, the performance has not been satisfying. Therefore, this study discussed the design factors of slim pressure-sensitive keyboards. The factors were evaluated with an objective (accuracy and speed) and a subjective evaluation (operability, recognition, feedback, and difficulty) depending on the shape (circle, rectangle, and L-shaped), thickness (flat, 3mm, and 6mm), and force (35±10g, 60±10g, and 85±10g) of the keyboard. Moreover, MANOVA and Taguchi methods (regarding signal-to-noise ratios) were conducted to find the optimal level of each design factor. The research participants, by their typing speed (30 words/ minute), were divided in two groups. Considering the multitude of variables and levels, the experiments were implemented using the fractional factorial design. A representative model of the research samples were established for input task testing. The findings of this study showed that participants with low typing speed primarily relied on vision to recognize the keys, and those with high typing speed relied on tactile feedback that was affected by the thickness and force of the keys. In the objective and subjective evaluation, a combination of keyboard design factors that might result in higher performance and satisfaction was identified (L-shaped, 3mm, and 60±10g) as the optimal combination. The learning curve was analyzed to make a comparison with a traditional standard keyboard to investigate the influence of user experience on keyboard operation. The research results indicated the optimal combination provided input performance to inferior to a standard keyboard. The results could serve as a reference for the development of related products in industry and for applying comprehensively to touch devices and input interfaces which are interacted with people.

Keywords: Input performance, mobile device, slim keyboard, tactile feedback.

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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,

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Authors: Luciana Montera

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DNA shuffling is a powerful method used for in vitro evolute molecules with specific functions and has application in areas such as, for example, pharmaceutical, medical and agricultural research. The success of such experiments is dependent on a variety of parameters and conditions that, sometimes, can not be properly pre-established. Here, two computational models predicting DNA shuffling results is presented and their use and results are evaluated against an empirical experiment. The in silico and in vitro results show agreement indicating the importance of these two models and motivating the study and development of new models.

Keywords: Computer simulation, DNA shuffling, in silico andin vitro comparison.

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Authors: Donglan Zha, Jiansong Si

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Because of its flexibility, CES attracts much interest in economic growth and programming models, and the macroeconomics or micro-macro models. This paper focuses on the development, estimating methods of CES production function considering energy as an input. We leave for future research work of relaxing the assumption of constant returns to scale, the introduction of potential input factors, and the generalization method of the optimal nested form of multi-factor production functions.

Keywords: Bias of technical change, CES production function, elasticity of substitution, energy input.

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Authors: P. Wlodarczak, J. Soar, M. Ally

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The dramatic rise in the use of Social Media (SM) platforms such as Facebook and Twitter provide access to an unprecedented amount of user data. Users may post reviews on products and services they bought, write about their interests, share ideas or give their opinions and views on political issues. There is a growing interest in the analysis of SM data from organisations for detecting new trends, obtaining user opinions on their products and services or finding out about their online reputations. A recent research trend in SM analysis is making predictions based on sentiment analysis of SM. Often indicators of historic SM data are represented as time series and correlated with a variety of real world phenomena like the outcome of elections, the development of financial indicators, box office revenue and disease outbreaks. This paper examines the current state of research in the area of SM mining and predictive analysis and gives an overview of the analysis methods using opinion mining and machine learning techniques.

Keywords: Social Media, text mining, knowledge discovery, predictive analysis, machine learning.

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Authors: Nwangwu Florence Chinyere, Ene Rosemary Ndidiamaka

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This research work is an experimental study, through development of an adhesive from Prosopis africana endosperm. The prosopis seed for this work were obtained from Enugu State in the South East part of Nigeria. The seeds were prepared by separating the endosperm from the seed coat and cotyledon. Three methods were used to separate them, which are acidic method, roasting method and boiling method. 20g of seed were treated with different concentrations (25, 40, 55, 70, and 85% w/w) at 100°C and constant time (30 minutes), under continuous stirring with magnetic stirrer. Also 20g of seed were treated with sulphuric acid of concentrations 40% w/w at 100°C with different time (10, 15, 20, 25, 30 minutes), under continuous stirring with magnetic stirrer. Finally, 20g of seed were treated with sulphuric acid of concentrations 40% w/w at different temperature (20°C, 40°C, 60°C, 80°C, and 100°C) with constant time (30 minutes), under continuous stirring with magnetic stirrer. The whole endosperm extracted was adhesive. The physical properties of the adhesive were determined (appearance, odour, taste, solubility, pH, size, and binding strength). The percentage of the adhesive yield makes the commercialization of the seed in Nigeria possible and profitable. The very high viscosity attained at low concentrations makes prosopis adhesive an excellent thickener in the food industry.

Keywords: Endosperm, adhesive, ethanol, Prosopis africana seed.

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Authors: Z. Dedovets, M. Rodionov

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The goal of the modern education system is to prepare students to be able to adapt to ever-changing life situations. They must be able to acquire required knowledge independently; apply such knowledge in practice to solve various problems by using modern technologies; think critically and creatively; competently use information; be communicative, work in a team; and develop their own moral values, intellect and cultural awareness. As a result, the status of education significantly increases; new requirements to its quality have been formed. In recent years the competency-based approach in education has become of significant interest. This approach is a strengthening of applied and practical characteristics of a school education and leads to the forming of the key students’ competencies which define their success in future life. In this article, the authors’ attention focuses on a range of key competencies, educational, informational and communicative and on the possibility to develop such competencies via STEM education. This research shows the change in students’ attitude towards scientific disciplines such as mathematics, general science, technology and engineering as a result of STEM education. Two staged analyzed questionnaires completed by students of forms II to IV in the republic of Trinidad and Tobago allowed the authors to categorize students between two levels that represent students’ attitude to various disciplines. The significance of differences between selected levels was confirmed with the use of Pearson’s chi-squared test. In summary, the analysis of obtained data makes it possible to conclude that STEM education has a great potential for development of core students’ competencies and encourage the development of positive student attitude towards the above mentioned above scientific disciplines.

Keywords: STEM-science, technology, engineering, mathematics, students’ competency, Pearson's chi-squared test.

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Authors: M. A. Ahmadi, O. Alidoust, I. Sadrinejad, M. Nayeri

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Self-compacting concrete (SCC), a new kind of high performance concrete (HPC) have been first developed in Japan in 1986. The development of SCC has made casting of dense reinforcement and mass concrete convenient, has minimized noise. Fresh self-compacting concrete (SCC) flows into formwork and around obstructions under its own weight to fill it completely and self-compact (without any need for vibration), without any segregation and blocking. The elimination of the need for compaction leads to better quality concrete and substantial improvement of working conditions. SCC mixes generally have a much higher content of fine fillers, including cement, and produce excessively high compressive strength concrete, which restricts its field of application to special concrete only. To use SCC mixes in general concrete construction practice, requires low cost materials to make inexpensive concrete. Rice husk ash (RHA) has been used as a highly reactive pozzolanic material to improve the microstructure of the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between the cement paste and the aggregate in self compacting concrete. Mechanical experiments of RHA blended Portland cement concretes revealed that in addition to the pozzolanic reactivity of RHA (chemical aspect), the particle grading (physical aspect) of cement and RHA mixtures also exerted significant influences on the blending efficiency. The scope of this research was to determine the usefulness of Rice husk ash (RHA) in the development of economical self compacting concrete (SCC). The cost of materials will be decreased by reducing the cement content by using waste material like rice husk ash instead of. This paper presents a study on the development of Mechanical properties up to 180 days of self compacting and ordinary concretes with rice-husk ash (RHA), from a rice paddy milling industry in Rasht (Iran). Two different replacement percentages of cement by RHA, 10%, and 20%, and two different water/cementicious material ratios (0.40 and 0.35), were used for both of self compacting and normal concrete specimens. The results are compared with those of the self compacting concrete without RHA, with compressive, flexural strength and modulus of elasticity. It is concluded that RHA provides a positive effect on the Mechanical properties at age after 60 days. Base of the result self compacting concrete specimens have higher value than normal concrete specimens in all test except modulus of elasticity. Also specimens with 20% replacement of cement by RHA have the best performance.

Keywords: Self compacting concrete (SCC), Rice husk ash(RHA), Mechanical properties.

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Authors: Tanzeel bin Abdul Rauf Patker, Saba Mateen

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This research investigates the impact of Brand Loyalty on the product performance and the factors those are considered more important in brand reputation. Variables selected for this research are Brand quality, Brand Equity, Brand Reputation to explore the impact of these variables on Product performance. For this purpose, primary research has been conducted. The questionnaire survey for this research study was administered among the population mainly at the shopping malls. For this research study, a sample size of 250 respondents has been taken into consideration. Customers from the shopping malls and university students constitute the sample for this research study using random sampling (non-probabilistic) used as a sampling technique for conducting the research survey. According to the results obtained from the collected data, it is interpreted that product performance shares a direct relationship with brand quality, brand quality, and brand reputation. Result also showed that brand quality and brand equity has a significant effect on product performance, whereas brand reputation has an insignificant effect on product performance.

Keywords: Product performance, brand quality, brand equity and brand reputation.

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Authors: R. Ramli, S. Sameon

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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

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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.

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Authors: Jung-Hun Cho, Tae-Heon Moon, Jin-Hak Lee

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Land price contains the comprehensive characteristics of urban space, representing the social and economic features of the city. Accordingly, land price can be utilized as an indicator, which can identify the changes of spatial structure and socioeconomic variations caused by urban development. This study attempted to explore the changes in land price by a new road construction. Methodologically, it adopted Space Syntax, which can interpret urban spatial structure comprehensively, to identify the relationship between the forms of road networks and land price. The result of the regression analysis showed the ‘integration index’ of Space Syntax is statistically significant and has a strong correlation with land price. If the integration value is high, land price increases proportionally. Subsequently, using regression equation, it tried to predict the land price changes of each of the lots surrounding the roads that are newly opened. The research methods or study results have the advantage of predicting the changes in land price in an easy way. In addition, it will contribute to planners and project managers to establish relevant polices and smoothing urban regeneration projects through enhancing residents’ understanding by providing possible results and advantages in their land price before the execution of urban regeneration and development projects.

Keywords: Space syntax, urban regeneration, spatial structure, official land price.

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Authors: E. Happ, A. Albert Tóth

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The aim of the research is to investigate the forms of the demands of leisure tourism in a West-Hungarian industrial city, Győr. Today, Győr is still a traditional industrial city, its industry is mainly based on vehicle industry, but the role of tourism is increasing in the life of the city as well. Because of the industrial nature and the strong economy of the city, the ratio of business tourists is high. It can be stated that MICE tourism is dominating in Győr. Developments of the last decade can help the city with new tourism products to increase the leisure tourism. The new types of tourism – besides business tourism – can help the providers to increase the occupancy rates and the demand at the weekends. The research demonstrates the theoretical background of the topic, and it shows the present situation of the tourism in Győr with secondary data. The secondary research contains statistical data from the Hungarian Statistical Office and the city council, and it is based on the providers’ data. The next part of the paper shows the potential types of leisure tourism with the help of primary research. The primary research contains the results of an online questionnaire with a sample of 1000 potential customers. It is completed with 10 in-depth interviews with tourism experts, who explained their opinions about the opportunities of leisure tourism in Győr from the providers’ side. The online questionnaire was filled out in spring 2017 by customers, who have already stayed in Győr or plan to visit the city. At the same time in-depth interviews were made with hotel managers, head of touristic institutions and employees at the council. Based on the research it can be stated that the touristic supply of Győr allows the increase of the leisure tourism ratio in the city. Primarily, the cultural and health tourism show potential development, but the supply side of touristic services can be developed in order to increase the number of guest nights. The tourism marketing needs to be strengthened in the city, and a distinctive marketing activity - from other cities - is needed as well. To conclude, although Győr is an industrial city, it has a transforming industrial part, and tourism is also strongly present in its economy. Besides the leading role of business tourism, different types of leisure tourism have the opportunity to take place in the city.

Keywords: Business Tourism, Győr, industrial city, leisure tourism, touristic demand.

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Authors: Xiaoyun Zhao, Rami Darwish, Anna Pernestål

Abstract:

Automated vehicles (AVs) have the potential to enhance road capacity, improving road safety and traffic efficiency. Research and development on AVs have been going on for many years. However, when the complicated traffic rules and real situations interacted, AVs fail to make decisions on contradicting situations, and are not able to have control in all conditions due to highly dynamic driving scenarios. This limits AVs’ usage and restricts the full potential benefits that they can bring. Furthermore, regulations, infrastructure development, and public acceptance cannot keep up at the same pace as technology breakthroughs. Facing these challenges, this paper proposes automated vehicle traffic control tower (AVTCT) acting as a safe, efficient and integrated solution for AV control. It introduces a concept of AVTCT for control, management, decision-making, communication and interaction with various aspects in transportation. With the prototype demonstrations and simulations, AVTCT has the potential to overcome the control challenges with AVs and can facilitate AV reaching their full potential. Possible functionalities, benefits as well as challenges of AVTCT are discussed, which set the foundation for the conceptual model, simulation and real application of AVTCT.

Keywords: Automated vehicle, connectivity and automation, intelligent transport system, traffic control, traffic safety.

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Authors: Mikako Nishimuko

Abstract:

This paper aims to argue that religion and Faith-based Organizations (FBOs) contribute to building democratic process through the provision of education in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone experienced a civil war from 1991 to 2002 and about 70 percent of the population lives in poverty. While the government has been in the process of rebuilding the nation, many forms of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), including FBOs, have played a significant role in promoting social development. Education plays an important role in supporting people-s democratic movements through knowledge acquisition, spiritual enlightenment and empowerment. This paper discusses religious tolerance in Sierra Leone and how FBOs have contributed to the provision of primary education in Sierra Leone. This study is based on the author-s field research, which involved interviews with teachers and development stakeholders, notably government officials, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and FBOs, as well as questionnaires completed by pupils, parents and teachers.

Keywords: Civil society, democracy, faith-based organizations (FBOs), religious tolerance, universal primary education (UPE)

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Authors: Mikako Nishimuko

Abstract:

This paper aims to argue that religion and Faith-based Organizations (FBOs) contribute to building democratic process through the provision of education in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone experienced a civil war from 1991 to 2002 and about 70 percent of the population lives in poverty. While the government has been in the process of rebuilding the nation, many forms of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), including FBOs, have played a significant role in promoting social development. Education plays an important role in supporting people-s democratic movements through knowledge acquisition, spiritual enlightenment and empowerment. This paper discusses religious tolerance in Sierra Leone and how FBOs have contributed to the provision of primary education in Sierra Leone. This study is based on the author-s field research, which involved interviews with teachers and development stakeholders, notably government officials, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and FBOs, as well as questionnaires completed by pupils, parents and teachers.

Keywords: Civil society, democracy, faith-based organizations (FBOs), religious tolerance, universal primary education (UPE).

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