Search results for: eGov Simplification measure

Authors: Aseela Alhinaai, Suliman Abdullah, Adil Albusaidi

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Knowledge has been considered an important asset in private and public organizations. It is utilized in the libraries sector to run different operations of technical services and administrative works. This study aims to identify the impact of the knowledge-sharing factors (technology, collaboration, management support) to improve decision-making at Sultan Qaboos University Libraries. This study conducted a quantitative method using a questionnaire instrument to measure the impact of technology, collaboration, and management support on knowledge sharing that lead to improved decision-making. The study population is the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) libraries (Main Library, Medical Library, College of Economic and Political Science Library, and Art Library). The results showed that management support, collaboration, and technology use have a positive impact on the knowledge-sharing process, and knowledge sharing positively affects decision making process.

Keywords: Knowledge sharing, decision making, information technology, management support, corroboration, Sultan Qaboos University.

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Authors: Siti Nor Hafizah binti Mohd Zaid, Mohamed Abdel-Maguid, Abdel-Hamid Soliman

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Because road traffic accidents are a major source of death worldwide, attempts have been made to create Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) able to detect vehicle, driver and environmental conditions that are cues for possible potential accidents. This paper presents continued work on a novel Nonintrusive Intelligent Driver Assistance and Safety System (Ni-DASS) for assessing driver attention and hazard awareness. It uses two onboard CCD cameras – one observing the road and the other observing the driver-s face. The windscreen is divided into cells and analysis of the driver-s eye-gaze patterns allows Ni-DASS to determine the windscreen cell the driver is focusing on using eye-gesture templates. Intersecting the driver-s field of view through the observed windscreen cell with subsections of the camera-s field of view containing a potential hazard allows Ni-DASS to estimate the probability that the driver has actually observed the hazard. Results have shown that the proposed technique is an accurate enough measure of driver observation to be useful in ADAS systems.

Keywords: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Driver Hazard Awareness, Driver Vigilance, Eye Tracking

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Authors: L. Mirtskhulava, M. Khunjgurua, N. Lomineishvili, K. Bakuria

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Software reliability prediction gives a great opportunity to measure the software failure rate at any point throughout system test. A software reliability prediction model provides with the technique for improving reliability. Software reliability is very important factor for estimating overall system reliability, which depends on the individual component reliabilities. It differs from hardware reliability in that it reflects the design perfection. Main reason of software reliability problems is high complexity of software. Various approaches can be used to improve the reliability of software. We focus on software reliability model in this article, assuming that there is a time redundancy, the value of which (the number of repeated transmission of basic blocks) can be an optimization parameter. We consider given mathematical model in the assumption that in the system may occur not only irreversible failures, but also a failure that can be taken as self-repairing failures that significantly affect the reliability and accuracy of information transfer. Main task of the given paper is to find a time distribution function (DF) of instructions sequence transmission, which consists of random number of basic blocks. We consider the system software unreliable; the time between adjacent failures has exponential distribution.

Keywords: Exponential distribution, conditional mean time to failure, distribution function, mathematical model, software reliability.

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Authors: H. Akbari Khorami, P. Wild, N. Djilali

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This paper reports on the response of a fiber-optic sensing probe to small concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) vapor at room temperature. H2O2 has extensive applications in industrial and medical environments. Conversely, H2O2 can be a health hazard by itself. For example, H2O2 induces cellular damage in human cells and its presence can be used to diagnose illnesses such as asthma and human breast cancer. Hence, development of reliable H2O2 sensor is of vital importance to detect and measure this species. Ferric ferrocyanide, referred to as Prussian Blue (PB), was deposited on the tip of a multimode optical fiber through the single source precursor technique and served as an indicator of H2O2 in a spectroscopic manner. Sensing tests were performed in H2O2-H2O vapor mixtures with different concentrations of H2O2. The results of sensing tests show the sensor is able to detect H2O2 concentrations in the range of 50.6 ppm to 229.5 ppm. Furthermore, the sensor response to H2O2 concentrations is linear in a log-log scale with the adjacent R-square of 0.93. This sensing behavior allows us to detect and quantify the concentration of H2O2 in the vapor phase.

Keywords: Chemical deposition, fiber-optic sensors, hydrogen peroxide vapor, prussian blue.

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Authors: Mohamed S. El-Mahallawy, Attalah Hashad, Hazem Hassan Ali, Heba Sami Zaky

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This paper presents an evaluation for a wavelet-based digital watermarking technique used in estimating the quality of video sequences transmitted over Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel in terms of a classical objective metric, such as Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) without the need of the original video. In this method, a watermark is embedded into the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) domain of the original video frames using a quantization method. The degradation of the extracted watermark can be used to estimate the video quality in terms of PSNR with good accuracy. We calculated PSNR for video frames contaminated with AWGN and compared the values with those estimated using the Watermarking-DWT based approach. It is found that the calculated and estimated quality measures of the video frames are highly correlated, suggesting that this method can provide a good quality measure for video frames transmitted over AWGN channel without the need of the original video.

Keywords: AWGN, DWT, PSNR, Watermarking, VideoQuality.

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Authors: Wan-Yu Liu, Yen-Hsiang Liu, Shing-Yi Huang, Hao-Zhi Wen

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The private theme parks are gradually surpassing public-owned scenic areas after many years of development and have become a mainstream choice for domestic tourists. Previous studies show that visitors from different backgrounds differ in consumer behavior and satisfaction factors. An understanding of visitor satisfaction is therefore of extreme importance to operators of privately-owned theme parks. Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) is used to measure consumer's potential satisfaction with services and has become a widely used management tool for strength and weakness analysis for brands, products, services and point of sales. As IPA has so far not been used to evaluate the visitor satisfaction with privately-owned theme parks, in this study the IPA method is used to analyze visitor satisfaction with Janfusun Fancyworld (one of the most popular private theme parks in Taiwan) and to rank visitor focus and satisfaction on/in theme park facilities and services. Results of the analysis provide private theme park operators with an understanding of user or consumer demands as well as an assessment of the quality of services currently offered.

Keywords: Satisfaction, Importance-Performance Analysis, Theme Parks, Janfusun Fancyworld.

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Authors: Bokyung Sung, Kwanghyo Koo, Jungsoo Kim, Myung-Bum Jung, Jinman Kwon, Ilju Ko

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In this paper, we propose effective system for digital music retrieval. We divided proposed system into Client and Server. Client part consists of pre-processing and Content-based feature extraction stages. In pre-processing stage, we minimized Time code Gap that is occurred among same music contents. As content-based feature, first-order differentiated MFCC were used. These presented approximately envelop of music feature sequences. Server part included Music Server and Music Matching stage. Extracted features from 1,000 digital music files were stored in Music Server. In Music Matching stage, we found retrieval result through similarity measure by DTW. In experiment, we used 450 queries. These were made by mixing different compression standards and sound qualities from 50 digital music files. Retrieval accurate indicated 97% and retrieval time was average 15ms in every single query. Out experiment proved that proposed system is effective in retrieve digital music and robust at various user environments of web.

Keywords: Music Retrieval, Content-based, Music Feature and Digital Music.

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Authors: Agus Sahri, Cahya Putra Dinata, Faishal Andhi Rokhman

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Intersection is a critical area on a highway which is a place of conflict points and congestion due to the meeting of two or more roads. Conflicts that occur at the intersection include diverging, merging, weaving, and crossing. To deal with these conflicts, a crossing control system is needed, at a plot of intersection there are two control systems namely signal intersections and non-signalized intersections. The control system at a plot of intersection can affect the intersection performance. In Indonesia there are still many intersections with poor intersection performance. In analyzing the parameters to measure the performance of a plot of intersection in Indonesia, it is guided by the 1997 Indonesian Road Capacity Manual. For this reason, this study aims to develop laboratory diagnostics at plot intersections to analyze parameters that can affect the performance of an intersection. The research method used is research and development. The laboratory diagnosis includes anamnesis, differential diagnosis, inspection, diagnosis, prognosis, specimens, analysis and sample data analysts. It is expected that this research can encourage the development and application of laboratory diagnostics at a plot of intersection in Indonesia so that intersections can function optimally.

Keywords: Intersection, laboratory diagnostic, control systems, Indonesia.

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Authors: Ali Roozbahani, Aref Mardani, Roohollah Jokar, Hamid Taghavifar

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Evaluating and measuring the performance parameters of wheels and tillage equipments under controlled conditions obligates the use of soil bin facility. In this research designing, constructing and evaluating a single-wheel tester has been studied inside a soil bin. The tested wheel was directly driven by the electric motor. Vertical load was applied by a power bolt on wheel. This tester can measure required draft force, the depth of tire sinkage, contact area between wheel and soil, and soil stress at different depths and in the both alongside and perpendicular to the direction of traversing. In order to evaluate the system preparation, traction force was measured by the connected S-shaped load cell as arms between the wheel-tester and carriage. Treatments of forward speed, slip, and vertical load at a constant pressure were investigated in a complete randomized block design. The results indicated that the traction force increased at constant wheel load. The results revealed that the maximum traction force was observed within the %15 of slip.

Keywords: Slip, single wheel-tester, soil bin, soil–machine, speed, traction.

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Authors: Hu-Hsiao Hsu, Po-Ren Chung, Ming-Chin Ho, Chieh-Feng Tsai, Che-Ming Chiang, Shin-Ku Lee

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Lighting upgrades involve relatively lower costs which allow the benefits to be spread more widely than is possible with any other energy efficiency measure. In order to popularize the adoption of CFL in Taiwan, the authority proposes to implement a new energy efficient lamp comparative label system. The current study was accordingly undertaken to investigate the factors affecting the performance and the deviation of actual and labeled performance of commercially available integrated CFLs. In this paper, standard test methods to determine the electrical and photometric performances of CFL were developed based on CIE 84-1989 and CIE 60901-1987, then 55 selected CFLs from market were tested. The results show that with higher color temperature of CFLs lower efficacy are achieved. It was noticed that the most packaging of CFL often lack the information of Color Rendering Index. Also, there was no correlation between price and performance of the CFLs was indicated in this work. The results of this paper might help consumers to make more informed CFL-purchasing decisions.

Keywords: Compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), Efficacy, Color Rendering Index (CRI), Energy saving.

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Authors: Amirali Ebrahimi, T. A. G. Langrish

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The effect of various humidities on process yields and degrees of crystallinity for spray-dried powders from spray drying of lactose with humid air in a straight-through system have been studied. It has been suggested by Williams–Landel–Ferry kinetics (WLF) that a higher particle temperature and lower glass-transition temperature would increase the crystallization rate of the particles during the spray-drying process. Freshly humidified air produced by a Buchi-B290 spray dryer as a humidifier attached to the main spray dryer decreased the particle glass-transition temperature (Tg), while allowing the particle temperature (Tp) to reach higher values by using an insulated drying chamber. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and moisture sorption analysis were used to measure the degree of crystallinity for the spray-dried lactose powders. The results showed that higher Tp-Tg, as a result of applying humid air, improved the process yield from 21 ± 4 to 26 ± 2% and crystallinity of the particles by decreasing the latent heat of crystallization from 43 ± 1 to 30 ± 11 J/g and the sorption peak height from 7.3 ± 0.7% to 6 ± 0.7%.

Keywords: Lactose, crystallization, spray drying, humid air.

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Authors: Hironobu Murayama, Shohei Shimizu, Masakazu Ohnuki, Hisanori Mihara, Tohru Kanada

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Disordered function of maniphalanx and difficulty with ambulation will occur insofar as a human has a failure in the spinal marrow. Cervical spondylotic myelopathy as one of the myelopathy emanates from not only external factors but also increased age. In addition, the diacrisis is difficult since cervical spondylotic myelopathy is evaluated by a doctor-s neurological remark and imaging findings. As a quantitative method for measuring the degree of disability, hand-operated triangle step test (for short, TST) has formulated. In this research, a full automatic triangle step counter apparatus is designed and developed to measure the degree of disability in an accurate fashion according to the principle of TST. The step counter apparatus whose shape is a low triangle pole displays the number of stepping upon each corner. Furthermore, the apparatus has two modes of operation. Namely, one is for measuring the degree of disability and the other for rehabilitation exercise. In terms of usefulness, clinical practice should be executed before too long.

Keywords: Cervical spondylotic myelopathy, disorder of lower limbs, measuringfunction, rehabilitation function, full automatic apparatus, triangle step test.

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Authors: S. Rezaei, Z. Mirzaei, M. Khalighi, J. Bahrami

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Bridges, as an essential part of road infrastructures, are affected by various deterioration mechanisms over time due to the changes in their performance. As changes in performance can have many negative impacts on society, it is essential to be able to evaluate and measure the performance of bridges throughout their life. This evaluation includes the development or the choice of the appropriate performance indicators, which, in turn, are measured based on the selection of appropriate models for the existing deterioration mechanism. The purpose of this article is a statistical study of indicators and deterioration mechanisms of bridges in order to discover further research capacities in bridges performance assessment. For this purpose, some of the most common indicators of bridge performance, including reliability, risk, vulnerability, robustness, and resilience, were selected. The researches performed on each index based on the desired deterioration mechanisms and hazards were comprehensively reviewed. In addition, the formulation of the indicators and their relationship with each other were studied. The research conducted on the mentioned indicators were classified from the point of view of deterministic or probabilistic method, the level of study (element level, object level, etc.), and the type of hazard and the deterioration mechanism of interest. For each of the indicators, a number of challenges and recommendations were presented according to the review of previous studies.

Keywords: Bridge, deterioration mechanism, lifecycle, performance indicator.

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Authors: Amir Azizi, Amir Yazid B. Ali, Loh Wei Ping

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Throughput is an important measure of performance of production system. Analyzing and modeling of production throughput is complex in today-s dynamic production systems due to uncertainties of production system. The main reasons are that uncertainties are materialized when the production line faces changes in setup time, machinery break down, lead time of manufacturing, and scraps. Besides, demand changes are fluctuating from time to time for each product type. These uncertainties affect the production performance. This paper proposes Bayesian inference for throughput modeling under five production uncertainties. Bayesian model utilized prior distributions related to previous information about the uncertainties where likelihood distributions are associated to the observed data. Gibbs sampling algorithm as the robust procedure of Monte Carlo Markov chain was employed for sampling unknown parameters and estimating the posterior mean of uncertainties. The Bayesian model was validated with respect to convergence and efficiency of its outputs. The results presented that the proposed Bayesian models were capable to predict the production throughput with accuracy of 98.3%.

Keywords: Bayesian inference, Uncertainty modeling, Monte Carlo Markov chain, Gibbs sampling, Production throughput

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Authors: Inwon Lee, Victor M. Kulik, Andrey V. Boiko, Ho Hwan Chun

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A specially designed flat plate was mounted vertically over the axial line in the wind tunnel of the Aerospace Department of the Pusan National University. The plate is 2 m long, 0.8 m high and 8 cm thick. The measurements were performed in velocity range from 15 to 60 m/s. A sand paper turbulizer was placed close to the plate nose to provide fully developed turbulent boundary layer over the most part of the plate. Strain balances were mounted in the trailing part of the plate to measure the skin friction drag over removable insertions of 0.55×0.25m2 size. A set of the insertions was designed and manufactured: 3mm thick polished metal surface and three compliant surfaces. The compliant surfaces were manufactured of a silicone rubber Silastic® S2 (Dow Corning company). To modify the viscoelastic properties of the rubber, its composition was varied: 90% of the rubber + 10% catalyst (standard), 92.5% + 7.5% (weak), 85% + 15% (strong). Modulus of elasticity and the loss tangent were measured accurately for these materials in the frequency range from 40 Hz to 3 KHz using the unique proposed technique.

Keywords: boundary layer, compliant coating, drag reduction, hot wire, wind tunnel.

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Authors: Jamal Abdi

Abstract:

This paper is largely a response/critique of Samuel P. Huntington´s Clash of Civilizations thesis. The overriding argument is that Huntington´s thesis is characterized by failure to distinguish between ´groups´ and ´categories´. Multinational civilizations overcoming their internal collective action problems, which would enable them to pursue a unified strategy vis-à-vis the West, is a rather foundational assumption in his theory. Without assigning sufficient intellectual attention to the processes through which multinational civilizations may gain capacity for concerted action i.e. become a group, he contended that the post-cold-war world would be shaped in large measure by interactions among seven or eight major civilizations. Thus, failure in providing a convincing analysis of multi-national civilizations´ transition from categories to groups is a significant weakness in Huntington´s clash theory. It is also suggested that so-called Islamic terrorism and the war on terror is not to be taken as an expression of presence of clash between a Western and an Islamic civilization, as terrorist organizations would be superfluous in a world characterized by clash of civilizations. Consequences of multinational civilizations becoming a group are discussed in relation to contemporary Western superiority.

Keywords: Clash of civilizations, groups, categories, groupism.

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Authors: Mahdi Mazinani, S. D. Qanadli, Rahil Hosseini, Tim Ellis, Jamshid Dehmeshki

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Segmentation and quantification of stenosis is an important task in assessing coronary artery disease. One of the main challenges is measuring the real diameter of curved vessels. Moreover, uncertainty in segmentation of different tissues in the narrow vessel is an important issue that affects accuracy. This paper proposes an algorithm to extract coronary arteries and measure the degree of stenosis. Markovian fuzzy clustering method is applied to model uncertainty arises from partial volume effect problem. The algorithm employs: segmentation, centreline extraction, estimation of orthogonal plane to centreline, measurement of the degree of stenosis. To evaluate the accuracy and reproducibility, the approach has been applied to a vascular phantom and the results are compared with real diameter. The results of 10 patient datasets have been visually judged by a qualified radiologist. The results reveal the superiority of the proposed method compared to the Conventional thresholding Method (CTM) on both datasets.

Keywords: 3D coronary artery tree extraction, segmentation, quantification, fuzzy clustering, and Markov random field

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Authors: Joaquin Navarro Perales, Ana Lidia Franzoni Velázquez, Francisco Cervantes Pérez

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The Mexican educational system faces diverse challenges related with the quality and coverage of education. The development of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) may help to solve some of them by helping teachers to customize their classes according to the performance of the students in online courses. In this work, we propose the adaptation of a functional ITS based on Bloom’s taxonomy called Sistema de Apoyo Generalizado para la Enseñanza Individualizada (SAGE), to measure student’s metacognition and their emotional response based on Marzano’s taxonomy. The students and the system will share the control over the advance in the course, so they can improve their metacognitive skills. The system will not allow students to get access to subjects not mastered yet. The interaction between the system and the student will be implemented through Natural Language Processing techniques, thus avoiding the use of sensors to evaluate student’s response. The teacher will evaluate student’s knowledge utilization, which is equivalent to the last cognitive level in Marzano’s taxonomy.

Keywords: Intelligent tutoring systems, student modelling, metacognition, affective computing, natural language processing.

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Authors: Marzieh Ebrahimi, Vahid Changizi, Mohammad Reza Kardan, Seyed Mahdi Hosseini Pooya, Parham Geramifar

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Radiation exposure to the patient's family members is one of the major concerns during thyroid cancer radionuclide therapy. The aim of this study was to measure the total effective dose of the family members by means of thermoluminescence personal dosimeter, and compare with those calculated by analytical methods. Eighty-five adult family members of fifty-one patients volunteered to participate in this research study. Considering the minimum and maximum range of dose rate from 15 µsv/h to 120 µsv/h at patients' release time, the calculated mean and median dose values of family members were 0.45 mSv and 0.28 mSv, respectively. Moreover, almost all family members’ doses were measured to be less than the dose constraint of 5 mSv recommended by Basic Safety Standards. Considering the influence parameters such as patient dose rate and administrated activity, the total effective doses of family members were calculated by TEDE and NRC formulas and compared with those of experimental results. The results indicated that, it is fruitful to use the quantitative calculations for releasing patients treated with I-131 and correct estimation of patients' family doses.

Keywords: Effective dose, thermoluminescence, I-131, Thyroid cancer.

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Authors: Manjie Li, Xiangju Cheng, Yongcan Chen

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With rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, water environmental deterioration is widespread in majority of urban rivers, which seriously affects city image and life satisfaction of residents. As an emergency measure to improve water quality, clean water diversion is introduced for water environmental management. Lubao River and Southwest River, two urban rivers in typical plain tidal river network, are identified as technically and economically feasible for the application of clean water diversion. One-dimensional hydrodynamic-water quality model is developed to simulate temporal and spatial variations of water level and water quality, with satisfactory accuracy. The mathematical model after calibration is applied to investigate hydrodynamic and water quality variations in rivers as well as determine the optimum operation scheme of water diversion. Assessment system is developed for evaluation of positive and negative effects of water diversion, demonstrating the effectiveness of clean water diversion and the necessity of pollution reduction.

Keywords: Assessment system, clean water diversion, hydrodynamic-water quality model, tidal river network, urban rivers, water environment improvement.

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Authors: Ezenwa Chinenye Amanamba

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There is a call to ensure that the issues of safety and efficient throughput are considered during design; the solutions to these issues can also be retrofitted at locations where they were not captured during design, but have become problems to road users over time. This paper adopts several methods to analyze the performance of an intersection which was formerly a ‘priority-controlled’ intersection, but has now been converted to a ‘signal-controlled’ intersection. Extensive review of literature helped form the basis for result analysis and discussion. The Ikot-Ekpene/Anagha-Ezikpe intersection, located at the heart of Umuahia was adopted as case study; considering the high traffic volume on the route. Anecdotal evidence revealed that traffic signals imposed enormous delays at the intersection, especially for traffic on the major road. The major road has arrival flow which surpasses the saturation flow obtained from modelling of the isolated signalized intersection. Similarly, there were several geometric elements that did not agree with the specific function of the road. A roundabout, particularly flower roundabout was recommended as a better traffic control measure.

Keywords: Highway function, level of service, roundabout, traffic delays, Umuahia.

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Authors: Stella Y. Ng, John B. Peacock, Kay Chuan Tan

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This paper discusses the use of a computerized test to measure the decision-making abilities of teenage basketball players in Singapore. There are five sections in this test – Competitive state anxiety inventory-2 (CSAI-2) questionnaire (measures player’s cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and self-confidence), Corsi block-tapping task (measures player’s short-term spatial memory), situation awareness global assessment technique (SAGAT) (measures players’ situation awareness in a basketball game), multiple choice questions on basketball knowledge (measures players’ knowledge of basketball rules and concepts), and lastly, a learning test that requires participants to recall and recognize basketball set plays (measures player’s ability to learn and recognize set plays). A total of 25 basketball players, aged 14 to 16 years old, from three secondary school teams participated in this experiment. The results that these basketball players obtained from this cognitive test were then used to compare with their physical fitness and basketball performance.

Keywords: Basketball, cognitive abilities, computerized test, decision-making.

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Authors: Takuya Sumi, Syoko Nukaya, Takashi Kaburagi, Hiroshi Tanaka, Kajiro Watanabe, Yosuke Kurihara

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We propose an unconstrained measurement system for scratching motion based on mathematical model of unconstrained bed sensing method which could measure the bed vibrations due to the motion of the person on the bed. In this paper, we construct mathematical model of the unconstrained bed monitoring system; and we apply the unconstrained bed sensing method to the system for detecting scratching motion. The proposed sensors are placed under the three bed feet. When the person is lying on the bed, the output signals from the sensors are proportional to the magnitude of the vibration due to the scratching motion. Hence, we could detect the subject’s scratching motion from the output signals from ceramic sensors. We evaluated two scratching motions using the proposed system in the validity experiment as follows: 1st experiment is the subject’s scratching the right side cheek with his right hand, and; 2nd experiment is the subject’s scratching the shin with another foot. As the results of the experiment, we recognized the scratching signals that enable the determination when the scratching occurred. Furthermore, the difference among the amplitudes of the output signals enabled us to estimate where the subject scratched.

Keywords: Unconstrained bed sensing method, scratching, body movement, itchy, piezoceramics.

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Authors: A. Salsabili, M.Aghajani Mir, S.Saheri, Noor Ezlin Ahmad Basri

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The main aims in this research are to study the solid waste generation in the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment in the UKM and at the same time to determine composition and some of the waste characteristics likewise: moisture content, density, pH and C/N ratio. For this purpose multiple campaigns were conducted to collect the wastes produced in all hostels, faculties, offices and so on, during 24th of February till 2nd of March 2009, measure and investigate them with regard to both physical and chemical characteristics leading to highlight the necessary management policies. Research locations are Faculty of Engineering and the Canteen nearby that. From the result gained, the most suitable solid waste management solution will be proposed to UKM. The average solid waste generation rate in UKM is 203.38 kg/day. The composition of solid waste generated are glass, plastic, metal, aluminum, organic and inorganic waste and others waste. From the laboratory result, the average moisture content, density, pH and C/N ratio values from the solid waste generated are 49.74%, 165.1 kg/m3, 5.3, and 7:1 respectively. Since, the food waste (organic waste) were the most dominant component, around 62% from the total waste generated hence, the most suitable solid waste management solution is composting.

Keywords: Solid Waste, Waste Management, Characterizationand Composition

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Authors: Sergey I. Shtork, Aleksey P. Vinokurov, Sergey V. Alekseenko

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The paper reports on the results of experimental and numerical study of nonstationary swirling flow in an isothermal model of vortex burner. It has been identified that main source of the instability is related to a precessing vortex core (PVC) phenomenon. The PVC induced flow pulsation characteristics such as precession frequency and its variation as a function of flowrate and swirl number have been explored making use of acoustic probes. Additionally pressure transducers were used to measure the pressure drops on the working chamber and across the vortex flow. The experiments have been included also the mean velocity measurements making use of a laser-Doppler anemometry. The features of instantaneous flowfield generated by the PVC were analyzed employing a commercial CFD code (Star-CCM+) based on Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) approach. Validity of the numerical code has been checked by comparison calculated flowfield data with the obtained experimental results. It has been confirmed particularly that the CFD code applied correctly reproduces the flow features.

Keywords: Acoustic probes, detached eddy simulation (DES), laser-Doppler anemometry (LDA), precessing vortex core (PVC).

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Authors: Tru C. Le, France Cheong

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Although the Vietnamese catfish farming has grown at very high rates in recent years, the industry has also faced many problems affecting its sustainability. This paper studies the perceptions of catfish farmers regarding risk and risk management strategies in their production activities. Specifically, the study aims to measure the consequences, likelihoods, and levels of risks as well as the efficacy of risk management in Vietnamese catfish farming. Data for the study were collected through a sample of 261 catfish farmers in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam using a questionnaire survey in 2008. Results show that, in general, price and production risks were perceived as the most important risks. Farm management and technical measures were perceived more effective than other kinds of risk management strategies in risk reduction. Although price risks were rated as important risks, price risk management strategies were not perceived as important measures for risk mitigation. The results of the study are discussed to provide implications for various industry stakeholders, including policy makers, processors, advisors, and developers of new risk management strategies.

Keywords: Aquaculture, catfish farming, sources of risk, riskmanagement, risk strategies, risk mitigation.

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Authors: Hamed.Vezvaei, Sepideh.Ordibeheshti, Mehdi.Ardjmand

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Gasoline Octane Number is the standard measure of the anti-knock properties of a motor in platforming processes, that is one of the important unit operations for oil refineries and can be determined with online measurement or use CFR (Cooperative Fuel Research) engines. Online measurements of the Octane number can be done using direct octane number analyzers, that it is too expensive, so we have to find feasible analyzer, like ANFIS estimators. ANFIS is the systems that neural network incorporated in fuzzy systems, using data automatically by learning algorithms of NNs. ANFIS constructs an input-output mapping based both on human knowledge and on generated input-output data pairs. In this research, 31 industrial data sets are used (21 data for training and the rest of the data used for generalization). Results show that, according to this simulation, hybrid method training algorithm in ANFIS has good agreements between industrial data and simulated results.

Keywords: Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems, GasolineOctane Number, Soft-sensor, Catalytic Naphtha Reforming

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Authors: Amit Bhattacharyya

Abstract:

The economic scenario of any region does not show the real picture for the measurement of overall development. Therefore, economic development must be accompanied by social development to be able to make an assessment to measure the level of development. The spatial variation with respect to social development has been discussed taking into account the quality of functioning of a social system in a specific area. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study the spatial distribution of social infrastructural facilities and analyze the magnitude of regional disparities at inter- block level in Barddhman district. It starts with the detailed account of the selection process of social infrastructure indicators and describes the methodology employed in the empirical analysis. Analyzing the block level data, this paper tries to identify the disparity among the blocks in the levels of social development. The results have been subsequently explained using both statistical analysis and geo spatial technique. The paper reveals that the social development is not going on at the same rate in every part of the district. Health facilities and educational facilities are concentrated at some selected point. So overall development activities come to be concentrated in a few centres and the disparity is seen over the blocks.

Keywords: Disparity, inter-block, social development, spatial variation.

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Authors: A. S. Jambhale, B. V. Barbadekar

Abstract:

Microwave energy can be used for drying purpose. It is unique process. It is distinctly different from conventional drying process. It is advantageous over conventional drying / heating processes. When microwave energy is used for drying purpose, the process can be accelerated with a better control to achieve uniform heating, more conversion efficiency, selective drying and ultimately improved product quality of the output. Also, less floor space and compact system are the added advantages. Existing low power microwave drying system is to be modified with suitable applicator. Appropriate sensors are to be used to measure parameters like moisture, temperature, weight of sample. Suitable high tech controller is to be used to control microwave power continuously from minimum to maximum. Phase - controller, cycle - controller and PWM - controller are some of the advanced power control techniques. It has been proposed to work on turmeric using high-tech phase controller to control the microwave power conveniently. The drying of turmeric with microwave energy employing phase controller gives better results as formulated in this paper and hence new approach of processing turmeric will open future doors of profit making to allied industries and the farmers.

Keywords: Applicator, microwave drying, phase controller.

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Authors: Rosnani Jusoh, Afifuddin Husairi Hussain, Fadzilah Abdul Rahman, Adi Irfan Che Ani, Haziyah Hussin

Abstract:

New conceptualizations were introduced to address the emerging need to develop innovativeness and creativity attitudes in future engineering professional. Thus, entrepreneurial engineering education needs an environment where future engineers can be formed through practical learning and the interaction with forces, ideas and inspirations, in the final perspective of effectively identifying, acquiring, developing, and transferring technology into new business products and services. This paper aims to investigate the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur for engineering students. A questionnaire was used to measure the level of entrepreneurial competencies. The questionnaire was based on the Personal Entrepreneurial Competence Model, developed by McClelland Individual. Participants were recruited from the final year students of eight programs under the Faculty of Engineering. Of the 432 questionnaires distributed, 210 were collected back, giving a response rate of approximately 49%. Findings suggest that final year engineering students have respectable entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviors, and are competent to be engineerpreneur. The study also recommended that we need an environment that does not insist that engineers become entrepreneurs, but one where the two can meet, and business leaders can organize our nation effectively.

Keywords: Engineerpreneur, entrepreneurship, engineering students, higher education institutions.

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