Search results for: Social class

Authors: Martin H¨ausl, Maximilian Auch, Johannes Forster, Peter Mandl, Alexander Schill

Abstract:

In order to survive on the market, companies must constantly develop improved and new products. These products are designed to serve the needs of their customers in the best possible way. The creation of new products is also called innovation and is primarily driven by a company’s internal research and development department. However, a new approach has been taking place for some years now, involving external knowledge in the innovation process. This approach is called open innovation and identifies customer knowledge as the most important source in the innovation process. This paper presents a concept of using social media posts as an external source to support the open innovation approach in its initial phase, the Ideation phase. For this purpose, the social media posts are semantically structured with the help of an ontology and the authors are evaluated using graph-theoretical metrics such as density. For the structuring and evaluation of relevant social media posts, we also use the findings of Natural Language Processing, e. g. Named Entity Recognition, specific dictionaries, Triple Tagger and Part-of-Speech-Tagger. The selection and evaluation of the tools used are discussed in this paper. Using our ontology and metrics to structure social media posts enables users to semantically search these posts for new product ideas and thus gain an improved insight into the external sources such as customer needs.

Keywords: Idea ontology, innovation management, open innovation, semantic search.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 785

Authors: Zixin Liu, Fangwei Chen

Abstract:

In this Letter, a class of impulsive switched cellular neural networks with time-varying delays is investigated. At the same time, parametric uncertainties assumed to be norm bounded are considered. By dividing the network state variables into subgroups according to the characters of the neural networks, some sufficient conditions guaranteeing exponential stability for all admissible parametric uncertainties are derived via constructing appropriate Lyapunov functional. One numerical example is provided to illustrate the validity of the main results obtained in this paper.

Keywords: Switched systems, exponential stability, cellular neural networks.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1418

Authors: A. Thabet, G. B. H. Frej, M. Boutayeb

Abstract:

This paper presents a design of dynamic feedback control based on observer for a class of large scale Lipschitz nonlinear systems. The use of Differential Mean Value Theorem (DMVT) is to introduce a general condition on the nonlinear functions. To ensure asymptotic stability, sufficient conditions are expressed in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). High performances are shown through real time implementation with ARDUINO Duemilanove board to the one-link flexible joint robot.

Keywords: Feedback stabilization, DMVT, Lipschitz nonlinear systems, nonlinear observer, real time implementation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1361

Authors: R. Khaldi, N. Benamrouche, M. Bouheraoua

Abstract:

The ability to predict an accurate temperature distribution requires the knowledge of the losses, the thermal characteristics of the materials, and the cooling conditions, all of which are very difficult to quantify. In this paper, the impact of the effects of iron and copper losses are investigated separately and their effects on the heating in various points of the stator of an induction motor, is highlighted by using two simple tests. In addition, the effect of a defect, such as an open circuit in a phase of the stator, on the heating is also obtained by a no-load test. The squirrel cage induction motor is rated at 2.2 kW; 380 V; 5.2 A; Δ connected; 50 Hz; 1420 rpm and the class of insulation F, has been thermally tested under several load conditions. Several thermocouples were placed in strategic points of the stator.

Keywords: induction motor, temperature, heating, losses

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1849

Authors: Natta Changchutoe

Abstract:

This research aimed to study employees- perceptions and expectations toward their organization-s corporate social responsibility (CSR), to study the differences between employees- personal factors and level of perceptions and expectations toward CSR, and to study the relationship between employees- perceptions and expectations toward CSR. Purposive sampling and questionnaire were applied to collect information from 400 private company employees in Bangkok metropolitan area. The results revealed that employees had “high" level of perceptions and expectations toward CSR, of which the highest level were given on the area of “corporate governance and transparency". It was found that there was different level of expectations of employees with different period of employment, position and employment (by listed and non-listed companies). Employees of different age and period of employment also had different level of expectations. Employees- perceptions were correlated with their expectations toward CSR.

Keywords: Employees, Perceptions, Expectations, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4123

Authors: Vasileios Anastopoulos

Abstract:

Cyber threat intelligence assists organisations in understanding the threats they face and helps them make educated decisions on preparing their defences. Sharing of threat intelligence and threat information is increasingly leveraged by organisations and enterprises, and various software solutions are already available, with the open-source malware information sharing platform (MISP) being a popular one. In this work, a methodology for the production of cyber threat intelligence using the threat information stored in MISP is proposed. The methodology leverages the discipline of social network analysis and the diamond model, a model used for intrusion analysis, to produce cyber threat intelligence. The workings of the proposed methodology are demonstrated with a case study on a production MISP instance of a real organisation. The paper concludes with a discussion on the proposed methodology and possible directions for further research.

Keywords: Cyber threat intelligence, diamond model, malware information sharing platform, social network analysis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 513

Authors: Yang Liu, Jinfeng Wang, Hong Li, Wei Gao, Siriguleng He

Abstract:

A new numerical scheme based on the H1-Galerkin mixed finite element method for a class of second-order pseudohyperbolic equations is constructed. The proposed procedures can be split into three independent differential sub-schemes and does not need to solve a coupled system of equations. Optimal error estimates are derived for both semidiscrete and fully discrete schemes for problems in one space dimension. And the proposed method dose not requires the LBB consistency condition. Finally, some numerical results are provided to illustrate the efficacy of our method.

Keywords: Pseudo-hyperbolic equations, splitting system, H1-Galerkin mixed method, error estimates.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1503

Authors: Asia Majeed

Abstract:

This paper will investigate a form of learning mathematics by integrating technology in mathematics specifically for the university first-year calculus class to support students’ engagement in learning which influences students' conceptual and procedural understanding of the calculus content in a better way. The students with good grades in high school calculus generally struggle in first-year university calculus classes in learning mathematical analysis concepts. This problem has to be addressed. If this problem is not resolved, then most likely students with less ability to do mathematics might not able to complete their degrees. In this work, MATLAB is used to help students in learning and in improving calculus concepts.

Keywords: Calculus, first-year university students, teaching strategies, MATLAB.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 398

Authors: Zixin Liu

Abstract:

The problem of robust stability and robust stabilization for a class of discrete-time uncertain systems with time delay is investigated. Based on Tchebychev inequality, by constructing a new augmented Lyapunov function, some improved sufficient conditions ensuring exponential stability and stabilization are established. These conditions are expressed in the forms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), whose feasibility can be easily checked by using Matlab LMI Toolbox. Compared with some previous results derived in the literature, the new obtained criteria have less conservatism. Two numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the improvement and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Keywords: Robust stabilization, robust stability, discrete-time system, time delay.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1531

Authors: Chao Wang, Yongkun Li

Abstract:

In this paper, the discrete-time fuzzy BAM neural network with delays and impulses is studied. Sufficient conditions are obtained for the existence and global stability of a unique equilibrium of this class of fuzzy BAM neural networks with Lipschitzian activation functions without assuming their boundedness, monotonicity or differentiability and subjected to impulsive state displacements at fixed instants of time. Some numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.

Keywords: Discrete-time fuzzy BAM neural networks, ımpulses, global exponential stability, global asymptotical stability, equilibrium point.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1508

Authors: Mohammad Akbarpour, Reza Nasiri Mahalati, Caro Lucas

Abstract:

The existence of many biological systems, especially human societies, is based on cooperative behavior [1, 2]. If natural selection favors selfish individuals, then what mechanism is at work that we see so many cooperative behaviors? One answer is the effect of network structure. On a graph, cooperators can evolve by forming network bunches [2, 3, 4]. In a research, Ohtsuki et al used the idea of iterated prisoners- dilemma on a graph to model an evolutionary game. They showed that the average number of neighbors plays an important role in determining whether cooperation is the ESS of the system or not [3]. In this paper, we are going to study the dynamics of evolution of cooperation in a social network. We show that during evolution, the ratio of cooperators among individuals with fewer neighbors to cooperators among other individuals is greater than unity. The extent to which the fitness function depends on the payoff of the game determines this ratio.

Keywords: Evolution of cooperation, Iterated prisoner's dilemma, Model dynamics, Social network structure, Intensity of selection.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1356

Authors: Cheng-Lung Huang, Cheng-Wei Lin

Abstract:

This study proposes a new recommender system based on the collaborative folksonomy. The purpose of the proposed system is to recommend Internet resources (such as books, articles, documents, pictures, audio and video) to users. The proposed method includes four steps: creating the user profile based on the tags, grouping the similar users into clusters using an agglomerative hierarchical clustering, finding similar resources based on the user-s past collections by using content-based filtering, and recommending similar items to the target user. This study examines the system-s performance for the dataset collected from “del.icio.us," which is a famous social bookmarking website. Experimental results show that the proposed tag-based collaborative and content-based filtering hybridized recommender system is promising and effectiveness in the folksonomy-based bookmarking website.

Keywords: Collaborative recommendation, Folksonomy, Social tagging

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2248

Authors: Zeeshan Hamid, Sarwar Mehmood Azhar, Hammad Basir

Abstract:

In today’s era, it is no news that organizations should demonstrate honest conduct as well as ethical administration. Therefore, the concept of corporate social responsibility (subsequently CSR) has created its tag upon the company’s focal point as well as marketing communications, and will continue in the future. The importance of CSR has increased in the last decade, and this concept has attracted global attention. The notion of CSR has strategic significance for many organizations. However, businesses are not adapting the activities of CSR that benefit to all of its stakeholders (including society). The main reason is the practitioners are unfortunately unable to comprehend its importance; and therefore, the activities of the CSR are so detached from the business activities. Hence, it is required to develop an understanding that the activities of CSR are not only beneficial for the society but it also benefit to business. This paper focuses on the concept of strategic CSR, and develops a theoretical framework that will help practitioners to filter and chose the activities of CSR that are strategic in nature.

Keywords: Economic responsibility, ethical responsibility, legal responsibility, philanthropic responsibility, strategic corporate social responsibility, value chain activities filter.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3836

Authors: K. Durairaj, I. N. Umar

Abstract:

The asynchronous discussion forum is one of the most widely used activities in learning management system environment. Online forum allows participants to interact, construct knowledge, and can be used to complement face to face sessions in blended learning courses. However, to what extent do the students perceive the benefits or advantages of forum remain to be seen. Through content and social network analyses, instructors will be able to gauge the students’ engagement and knowledge construction level. Thus, this study aims to analyze the students’ level of knowledge construction and their participation level that occur through online discussion. It also attempts to investigate the relationship between the level of knowledge construction and their social interaction patterns. The sample involves 23 students undertaking a master course in one public university in Malaysia. The asynchronous discussion forum was conducted for three weeks as part of the course requirement. The finding indicates that the level of knowledge construction is quite low. Also, the density value of 0.11 indicating the overall communication among the participants in the forum is low. This study reveals that strong and significant correlations between SNA measures (in-degree centrality, out-degree centrality) and level of knowledge construction. Thus, allocating these active students in different group aids the interactive discussion takes place. Finally, based upon the findings, some recommendations to increase students’ level of knowledge construction and also for further research are proposed.

Keywords: Asynchronous Discussion Forums, Content Analysis, Knowledge Construction, Social Network Analysis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2211

Authors: Salsabil Trabelsi, Zied Elouedi, Khaled Mellouli

Abstract:

The belief decision tree (BDT) approach is a decision tree in an uncertain environment where the uncertainty is represented through the Transferable Belief Model (TBM), one interpretation of the belief function theory. The uncertainty can appear either in the actual class of training objects or attribute values of objects to classify. In this paper, we develop a post-pruning method of belief decision trees in order to reduce size and improve classification accuracy on unseen cases. The pruning of decision tree has a considerable intention in the areas of machine learning.

Keywords: machine learning, uncertainty, belief function theory, belief decision tree, pruning.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1910

Authors: J. G. Batista, T. S. Santiago, E. A. Ribeiro, ¬G. A. P. Thé

Abstract:

This work deals with parameter identification of permanent magnet motors, a class of ac motor which is particularly important in industrial automation due to characteristics like applications high performance, are very attractive for applications with limited space and reducing the need to eliminate because they have reduced size and volume and can operate in a wide speed range, without independent ventilation. By using experimental data and genetic algorithm we have been able to extract values for both the motor inductance and the electromechanical coupling constant, which are then compared to measure and/or expected values.

Keywords: Modeling, AC servomotor, Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor-PMSM, Genetic Algorithm, Vector Control, Robotic Manipulator, Control.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2485

Authors: Melis Inalpulat, Levent Genc

Abstract:

Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes due to human activities and natural causes have become a major environmental concern. Assessment of temporal remote sensing data provides information about LULC impacts on environment. Land Surface Temperature (LST) is one of the important components for modeling environmental changes in climatological, hydrological, and agricultural studies. In this study, LULC changes (September 7, 1984 and July 8, 2014) especially in agricultural lands together with population changes (1985-2014) and LST status were investigated using remotely sensed and census data in South Marmara Watershed, Turkey. LULC changes were determined using Landsat TM and Landsat OLI data acquired in 1984 and 2014 summers. Six-band TM and OLI images were classified using supervised classification method to prepare LULC map including five classes including Forest (F), Grazing Land (G), Agricultural Land (A), Water Surface (W), Residential Area-Bare Soil (R-B) classes. The LST image was also derived from thermal bands of the same dates. LULC classification results showed that forest areas, agricultural lands, water surfaces and residential area-bare soils were increased as 65751 ha, 20163 ha, 1924 ha and 20462 ha respectively. In comparison, a dramatic decrement occurred in grazing land (107985 ha) within three decades. The population increased 29% between years 1984-2014 in whole study area. Along with the natural causes, migration also caused this increase since the study area has an important employment potential. LULC was transformed among the classes due to the expansion in residential, commercial and industrial areas as well as political decisions. In the study, results showed that agricultural lands around the settlement areas transformed to residential areas in 30 years. The LST images showed that mean temperatures were ranged between 26-32°C in 1984 and 27-33°C in 2014. Minimum temperature of agricultural lands was increased 3°C and reached to 23°C. In contrast, maximum temperature of A class decreased to 41°C from 44°C. Considering temperatures of the 2014 R-B class and 1984 status of same areas, it was seen that mean, min and max temperatures increased by 2°C. As a result, the dynamism of population, LULC and LST resulted in increasing mean and maximum surface temperatures, living spaces/industrial areas and agricultural lands.

Keywords: Census data, landsat, land surface temperature (LST), land use land cover (LULC).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2121

Authors: Salim Ibrir

Abstract:

Sufficient linear matrix inequalities (LMI) conditions for regularization of discrete-time singular systems are given. Then a new class of regularizing stabilizing controllers is discussed. The proposed controllers are the sum of predictive and memoryless state feedbacks. The predictive controller aims to regularizing the singular system while the memoryless state feedback is designed to stabilize the resulting regularized system. A systematic procedure is given to calculate the controller gains through linear matrix inequalities.

Keywords: Singular systems, Discrete-time systems, Regularization, LMIs

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1594

Authors: N. K. Satybaldina, A. G. Karabayeva, Z. N. Ismagambetova

Abstract:

The modern Kazakh society is characterized by strengthen cross-cultural communication, the emergence of new powerful subcultures, accelerated change in social systems and values. The socio-political reforms in all fields have changed the quality of social relationships and spiritual life.Cross-cultural approach involves the analysis of different types of behavior and communication, including the manifestation of the conflict, and the formation of marginal destructive stereotypes.

Keywords: Attitudes, Ethnic, Communication, Cross-cultural, Multiethnic, Multicultural, Society, Stereotype, Strategy, Tolerance

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1553

Authors: Christian Meinecke, Bernd Scholz-Reiter

Abstract:

The integrated problem of production and distribution scheduling is relevant in many industrial applications. Thus, many heuristics to solve this integrated problem have been developed in the last decade. Most of these heuristics use a sequential working principal or a single decomposition and integration approach to separate and solve subproblems. A heuristic using a multi step decomposition and integration approach is presented in this paper and evaluated in a case study. The result show significant improved results compared with sequential scheduling heuristics.

Keywords: Production and outbound distribution, integrated planning, heuristic, decomposition and integration.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2467

Authors: Hana Almakky, Reza Sahandi, Jacqui Taylor

Abstract:

Social media continues to grow, and user interfaces may become more appealing if cultural characteristics are incorporated into their design. Facebook was designed in the west, and the original language was English. Subsequently, the words in the user interface were translated to other languages, including Arabic. Arabic words are written from right to left, and English is written from left to right. The translated version may misrepresent the original design and users’ preferences may be influenced by their culture, which should be considered in the user interface design. Previous research indicates that users are more comfortable when interacting with a user interface, which relates to their own culture. Therefore, this paper, using a survey, investigates the preferences of Saudi Arabians on the Arabic version of the user interface of Facebook.

Keywords: Culture, Facebook, Saudi Arabia, Social media, User Interface Design.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3655

Authors: Kanda Runapongsa Saikaew, Patcharaporn Jiranuwattanawong, Patinya Taearak

Abstract:

Currently, there is excessively growing information about places on Facebook, which is the largest social network but such information is not explicitly organized and ranked. Therefore users cannot exploit such data to recommend places conveniently and quickly. This paper proposes a Facebook application and an Android application that recommend places based on the number of check-ins of those places, the distance of those places from the current location, the number of people who like Facebook page of those places, and the number of talking about of those places. Related Facebook data is gathered via Facebook API requests. The experimental results of the developed applications show that the applications can recommend places and rank interesting places from the most to the least. We have found that the average satisfied score of the proposed Facebook application is 4.8 out of 5. The users’ satisfaction can increase by adding the app features that support personalization in terms of interests and preferences.

Keywords: Mobile computing, location-based services, recommendation system, social network analysis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1780

Authors: Lianglin Xiong, Shouming Zhong, Mao Ye

Abstract:

This paper addresses the stabilization issues for a class of uncertain switched neutral systems with nonlinear perturbations. Based on new classes of piecewise Lyapunov functionals, the stability assumption on all the main operators or the convex combination of coefficient matrices is avoid, and a new switching rule is introduced to stabilize the neutral systems. The switching rule is designed from the solution of the so-called Lyapunov-Metzler linear matrix inequalities. Finally, three simulation examples are given to demonstrate the significant improvements over the existing results.

Keywords: Switched neutral system, piecewise Lyapunov functional, nonlinear perturbation, Lyapunov-Metzler linear matrix inequality.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1656

Authors: Julia Moehrmann, Gunter Heidemann, Oliver Siemoneit, Christoph Hubig, Uwe-Philipp Kaeppeler, Paul Levi

Abstract:

Image data holds a large amount of different context information. However, as of today, these resources remain largely untouched. It is thus the aim of this paper to present a basic technical framework which allows for a quick and easy exploitation of context information from image data especially by non-expert users. Furthermore, the proposed framework is discussed in detail concerning important social and ethical issues which demand special requirements in system design. Finally, a first sensor prototype is presented which meets the identified requirements. Additionally, necessary implications for the software and hardware design of the system are discussed, rendering a sensor system which could be regarded as a good, acceptable and justifiable technical and thereby enabling the extraction of context information from image data.

Keywords: Context-aware computing, ethical and social issues, image recognition, requirements in system design.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1667

Authors: Carrie Ho, Choo Bo Quan

Abstract:

Urban non-point source (NPS) pollution for a residential catchment in Miri, Sarawak was investigated for two storm events in 2011. Runoff from two storm events were sampled and tested for water quality parameters including TSS, BOD5, COD, NH3-N, NO3-N, NO2-N, P and Pb. Concentration of the water quality parameters was found to vary significantly between storms and the pollutant of concern was found to be NO3-N, TSS, COD and Pb. Results were compared to the Interim National Water Quality Standards for Malaysia (INWQS),and the stormwater runoff from the study can be classified as polluted, exceeding class III water quality, especially in terms of TSS, COD, and NH3-N with maximum EMCs of 158, 135, and 2.17 mg/L, respectively.

Keywords: Residential land-use, urban runoff, water quality.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2494

Authors: Bhaskar Basu

Abstract:

Universities and higher education institutes are finding it increasingly difficult to engage students fruitfully through traditional pedagogic tools. Web 2.0 technologies comprising social networking sites (SNSs) offer a platform for students to collaborate and share information, thereby enhancing their learning experience. Despite the potential and reach of SNSs, its use has been limited in academic settings promoting higher education. The purpose of this paper is to assess the perception of social networking sites among business school students in India and analyze its role in enhancing quality of student experiences in a business school leading to the proposal of an agenda for future research. In this study, more than 300 students of a reputed business school were involved in a survey of their preferences of different social networking sites and their perceptions and attitudes towards these sites. A questionnaire with three major sections was designed, validated and distributed among  a sample of students, the research method being descriptive in nature. Crucial questions were addressed to the students concerning time commitment, reasons for usage, nature of interaction on these sites, and the propensity to share information leading to direct and indirect modes of learning. It was further supplemented with focus group discussion to analyze the findings. The paper notes the resistance in the adoption of new technology by a section of business school faculty, who are staunch supporters of the classical “face-to-face” instruction. In conclusion, social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn provide new avenues for students to express themselves and to interact with one another. Universities could take advantage of the new ways  in which students are communicating with one another. Although interactive educational options such as Moodle exist, social networking sites are rarely used for academic purposes. Using this medium opens new ways of academically-oriented interactions where faculty could discover more about students' interests, and students, in turn, might express and develop more intellectual facets of their lives. hitherto unknown intellectual facets.  This study also throws up the enormous potential of mobile phones as a tool for “blended learning” in business schools going forward.

Keywords: Business school, India, learning, social media, social networking, university.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1428

Authors: Mary A. Bisi-Johnson, Kehinde A. Adediran, Saheed A. Akinola, Hamzat A. Oyelade

Abstract:

Some of the main problems man contends with are the quantity (source and amount) and quality of water in Nigeria. Scarcity leads to water being obtained from various sources and microbiological contamination of the water may thus occur between the collection point and the point of usage. This study thus aims to assess the general and microbiological quality of domestic water sources and household stored water used within selected areas in Ile-Ife, South-Western part of Nigeria for microbial contaminants.             Physicochemical and microbiological examination were carried out on 45 source and stored water samples collected from well and spring in three different local government areas i.e. Ife east, Ife-south and Ife-north. Physicochemical analysis included pH value, temperature, total dissolved solid, dissolved oxygen and biochemical oxygen demand. Microbiology involved most probable number analysis, total coliform, heterotrophic plate, faecal coliform and streptococcus count.

The result of the physicochemical analysis of samples showed anomalies compared to acceptable standards with the pH value of 7.20-8.60 for stored and 6.50-7.80 for source samples. The total dissolved solids (TDS of stored 20-70mg/L, source 352-691mg/L), dissolved oxygen (DO of stored 1.60-9.60mg/L, source 1.60-4.80mg/L), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD stored 0.80-3.60mg/L, source 0.60-5.40mg/L). General microbiological quality indicated that both stored and source samples with the exception of a sample were not within acceptable range as indicated by analysis of the MPN/100ml which ranges between (stored 290-1100mg/L, source 9-1100mg/L). Apart from high counts, most samples did not meet the World Health Organization standard for drinking water with the presence of some pathogenic bacteria and fungi such as Salmonella and Aspergillus spp. To annul these constraints, standard treatment methods should be adopted to make water free from contaminants. This will help identify common and likely water related infection origin within the communities and thus help guide in terms of interventions required to prevent the general populace from such infections.

Keywords: Domestic, microbiology, physicochemical, quality, water.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2713

Authors: Sheel Chakraborty

Abstract:

Modern society in developed countries has distanced itself from the earlier norm of joint family living, and with the increase of economic pressure, parents' availability for their children during their infant years has been consistently decreasing over the past three decades. This has been promoted in the US through the legislature and funding. Early care and education may have a positive impact on young minds, but a growing number of kids facing social challenges in making friendships in their teenage years raises serious concerns about its effectiveness. The survey-based primary research presented here shows that a statistically significant number of millennials between the ages of 10 and 25 years prefer to build friendships virtually than face-to-face interactions. Moreover, many teenagers depend more on their virtual friends whom they never met. Contrary to the belief that early social interactions in a non-home setup make the kids confident and more prepared for the real world, many shy-natured kids seem to develop a sense of shakiness in forming social relationships, resulting in loneliness by the time they are young adults. Reflecting on George Mead’s theory of self that is made up of “I” and “Me”, most functioning homes provide the required freedom and forgivable, congenial environment for building the "I" of a toddler; however, daycare or preschools can barely match that. It seems social images created from the “Me” perspective in preschoolers in a daycare environment has interfered and greatly overpowered the formation of a confident "I" thus created a crisis around the inability to form friendships face to face when they grow older. Though the pervasive nature of social media cannot be ignored, the non-parental early care and education practices adopted largely by the urban population have created a favorable platform of teen psychology on which social media popularity thrived, especially providing refuge to shy Gen-Z teenagers. This can explain why young adults today perceive social media as their preferred outlet of expression and a place to form dependable friendships, despite the risk of being cyberbullied.

Keywords: Digital socialization, shyness, developmental psychology, friendship, early education.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 668

Authors: V.P.Subramanyam Rallabandi, S.K.Sett

Abstract:

An unsupervised classification algorithm is derived by modeling observed data as a mixture of several mutually exclusive classes that are each described by linear combinations of independent non-Gaussian densities. The algorithm estimates the data density in each class by using parametric nonlinear functions that fit to the non-Gaussian structure of the data. This improves classification accuracy compared with standard Gaussian mixture models. When applied to textures, the algorithm can learn basis functions for images that capture the statistically significant structure intrinsic in the images. We apply this technique to the problem of unsupervised texture classification and segmentation.

Keywords: Gaussian Mixture Model, Independent Component Analysis, Segmentation, Unsupervised Classification.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1593

Authors: K. D. Mroczek

Abstract:

In the study presented institutional context is discussed in terms of companies’ entry mode choice. In contrary to many previous analyses, instead of using one or two aggregated variables, a set of eleven determinants is used to establish equity and non-equity internationalization friendly conditions. Based on secondary data, 140 countries are analyzed and grouped into clusters revealing similar framework. The range of the economies explored is wide as it covers all regions distinguished by The World Bank. The results can prove a useful alternative for operationalization of institutional variables in further research concerning entry modes or strategic management in international markets.

Keywords: Clustering, entry mode choice, institutional environment, transaction costs.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3014