Search results for: Digital content strategy

Authors: Syed Salman Ahmed, Zahid Halim, Rauf Baig, Shariq Bashir

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With the rapid growth in business size, today's businesses orient towards electronic technologies. Amazon.com and e-bay.com are some of the major stakeholders in this regard. Unfortunately the enormous size and hugely unstructured data on the web, even for a single commodity, has become a cause of ambiguity for consumers. Extracting valuable information from such an everincreasing data is an extremely tedious task and is fast becoming critical towards the success of businesses. Web content mining can play a major role in solving these issues. It involves using efficient algorithmic techniques to search and retrieve the desired information from a seemingly impossible to search unstructured data on the Internet. Application of web content mining can be very encouraging in the areas of Customer Relations Modeling, billing records, logistics investigations, product cataloguing and quality management. In this paper we present a review of some very interesting, efficient yet implementable techniques from the field of web content mining and study their impact in the area specific to business user needs focusing both on the customer as well as the producer. The techniques we would be reviewing include, mining by developing a knowledge-base repository of the domain, iterative refinement of user queries for personalized search, using a graphbased approach for the development of a web-crawler and filtering information for personalized search using website captions. These techniques have been analyzed and compared on the basis of their execution time and relevance of the result they produced against a particular search.

Keywords: Data mining, web mining, search engines, knowledge discovery.

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Authors: Idoko J. O., Nwajiaku I.

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Unripe and ripe plantain were dried and milled into flour and used with wheat flour in biscuit production to determine the best plantain-wheat composite flour for biscuit production. The blends as follows: 100% wheat flour, 100% ripe plantain flour, 100% unripe plantain flour, 50% wheat flour and 50% ripe plantain flour and 50% wheat flour and 50% unripe plantain flour. The Biscuit samples were stored at ambient temperature for 8 weeks after which the equilibrium moisture content and water activity were determined. The sensory evaluation of the biscuit samples was also determined. The results of these analyses showed 100% unripe plantain flour as the most stable of the BISCUIT samples judging from its equilibrium moisture content level of 0.32% and water activity of 0.62. The sensory evaluation results showed Biscuit made from 150:50 ripe plantain and wheat flour as most generally accepted at 5% level of significance.

Keywords: Biscuit, equilibrium moisture content, performance, plantain, water activity.

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Authors: Hidehiko Okada, Jumpei Tokida

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Researchers have been applying tional intelligence (AI/CI) methods to computer games. In this research field, further researchesare required to compare AI/CI methods with respect to each game application. In th our experimental result on the comparison of three evolutionary algorithms – evolution strategy, genetic algorithm, and their hybrid applied to evolving controller agents for the CIG 2007 Simulated Car Racing competition. Our experimental result shows that, premature convergence of solutions was observed in the case of ES, and GA outperformed ES in the last half of generations. Besides, a hybrid which uses GA first and ES next evolved the best solution among the whole solutions being generated. This result shows the ability of GA in globally searching promising areas in the early stage and the ability of ES in locally searching the focused area (fine-tuning solutions).

Keywords: Evolutionary algorithm, autonomous agent, neuroevolutions, simulated car racing.

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Authors: P. Kumsawat, K. Pasitwilitham, K. Attakitmongcol, A. Srikaew

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In this paper, an artificial intelligent technique for robust digital image watermarking in multiwavelet domain is proposed. The embedding technique is based on the quantization index modulation technique and the watermark extraction process does not require the original image. We have developed an optimization technique using the genetic algorithms to search for optimal quantization steps to improve the quality of watermarked image and robustness of the watermark. In addition, we construct a prediction model based on image moments and back propagation neural network to correct an attacked image geometrically before the watermark extraction process begins. The experimental results show that the proposed watermarking algorithm yields watermarked image with good imperceptibility and very robust watermark against various image processing attacks.

Keywords: Watermarking, Multiwavelet, Quantization index modulation, Genetic algorithms, Neural networks.

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Authors: Igor Astrov, Andrus Pedai

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This paper focuses on a critical component of the situational awareness (SA), the control of autonomous vertical flight for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Autonomous vertical flight is a challenging but important task for tactical UAVs to achieve high level of autonomy under adverse conditions. With the SA strategy, we proposed a two stage flight control procedure using two autonomous control subsystems to address the dynamics variation and performance requirement difference in initial and final stages of flight trajectory for a nontrivial nonlinear trirotor mini-UAV model. This control strategy for chosen mini-UAV model has been verified by simulation of hovering maneuvers using software package Simulink and demonstrated good performance for fast SA in realtime search-and-rescue operations.

Keywords: Flight control, trirotor aircraft, situational awareness, unmanned aerial vehicle.

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Authors: R. Sarathi, G. Nagesh, K. Vasudevan

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In the present work, an attempt has been made to understand the feasibility of using UHF technique for identification of any corona discharges/ arcing in insulating material due to water droplets. The sensors of broadband type are useful for identification of such discharges. It is realised that arcing initiated by liquid droplet radiates UHF signals in the entire bandwidth up to 2 GHz. The frequency content of the UHF signal generated due to corona/arcing is not much varied in epoxy nanocomposites with different weight percentage of clay content. The exfoliated/intercalated properties were analysed through TEM studies. It is realized that corona initiated discharges are of intermittent process. The hydrophobicity of the material characterized through contact angle measurement. It is realized that low Wt % of nanoclay content in epoxy resin reduces the surface carbonization due to arcing/corona discharges. The results of the study with gamma irradiated specimen indicates that contact angle, discharge inception time and evaporation time of the liquid are much lower than the virgin epoxy nanocomposite material.

Keywords: Arcing, Corona, epoxy resin, insulation, nanocomposites, UHF signal, water droplet.

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Authors: S. J. Mitchual, K. Frimpong-Mensah, N. A. Darkwa

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The fuel potential of six tropical hardwood species namely: Triplochiton scleroxylon, Ceiba pentandra, Aningeria robusta, Terminalia superba, Celtis mildbreadii and Piptadenia africana were studied. Properties studied included species density, gross calorific value, volatile matter, ash content, organic carbon and elemental composition. Fuel properties were determined using standard laboratory methods. The result indicates that the gross calorific value (GCV) of the species ranged from 20.16 to 22.22 MJ/kg and they slightly varied from each other. Additionally, the GCV of the biomass materials were higher than that of other biomass materials like; wheat straw, rice straw, maize straw and sugar cane. The ash and volatile matter content varied from 0.6075 to 5.0407%, and 75.23% to 83.70% respectively. The overall rating of the properties of the six biomass materials suggested that Piptadenia africana has the best fuel property to be used as briquettes and Aningeria robusta the worse. This study therefore suggests that a holistic assessment of a biomass material needs to be done before selecting it for fuel purpose.

Keywords: Ash content, Briquette, Calorific value, Elemental composition, Species, Volatile matter.

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Authors: Dejan Prvulović, Djordje Malenčić, Milan Popović, Mirjana Ljubojević, Vladislav Ognjanov

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Sweet cherries (Prunus avium L.) contain various phenolic compounds which contribute to total antioxidant activity. Total polyphenols, tannins, flavonoids and anthocyanins, and antioxidant capacity in a fruits of a number of selected sweet cherry genotypes were investigated. Total polyphenols content ranged from 4.12 to 8.34 mg gallic acid equivantents/g dry fruit weight and total tannins content ranged from 0.19 to 1.95 mg gallic acid equivalent/g dry fruit weight. Total flavonoids were within the range 0.42-1.56 mg of rutin equivalents/g dry fruit weight and total anthocyanins content were between 0.35 and 0.69 mg cyanidin 3-glucoside equivalent/ g dry fruit weight. Although sweet cherry fruits are a significant source of different phenolic compounds, antioxidant activity of sweet cherries is not related only with the total polyphenolics, flavonoids or anthocyanins.

Keywords: antioxidant activity, polyphenols, Prunus avium L., sweet cherry

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Authors: Bella Llego

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The purpose of this research is: a) to investigate how the HR practices influence psychological contracts, b) to examine the influence of psychological contracts to individual behavior and to contribute individually, c) to study the psychological contact through leadership. This research using mixed methods, qualitative and quantitative research methods were utilized to gather the data collected using a qualitative method by the HR Manager who is in charge of the trainings from the staffs and quantitative method (survey) by using questionnaire was utilized to draw upon and to elaborate on the recurring themes present during the interviews. The survey was done to 400 staffs of the company. The study found that leadership styles supporting the firm’s HR strategy is the key in making psychological contracts that benefit both the firm and its members.

Keywords: Human Resource Performance Practice, and Leadership, Psychological Contacts, Relationship of Managers and staffs.

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Authors: Anita Kéri

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Higher education marketing has been a widely researched field in recent years. Due to the increasing competition among higher education institutions worldwide, it has become crucial to target foreign students with effective marketing tools. Online marketing tools became central to attracting, retaining, and satisfying the needs of foreign students. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to reveal how the online marketing tools of a Hungarian university are perceived visually by its first-year foreign students, with special emphasis on the university webpage content. Eye-camera tracking and retrospective think aloud interviews were used to measure visual perceptions. Results show that freshmen students remember those online marketing content more that have familiar content on them. Pictures of real-life students and their experiences attract students’ attention more, and they also remember information on these webpage elements more, compared to designs with stock photos. This research uses eye camera tracking in the field of higher education marketing, thereby providing insight into the perception of online higher education marketing for foreign students.

Keywords: Higher education, marketing, eye-camera, visual perception.

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Authors: Jan Sedlacek

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The paper focuses on the implementation phase of the strategy of the European Union and the national strategy of the Czech Republic to promote academic and research staff with the potential to produce results that provide innovation useful for economic growth. It deals with the use of financial resources of the Operational Program Education for Competitiveness at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. The author presents an example of two strategic projects in the field of human resources – Excellence in Human Resources as a Source of Competitiveness and New Excellence of Human Resources. The subject of this paper is the potential contribution of newly recruited postdoctoral within these projects for the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and its internal environment.

Keywords: EU funds, public universities, human resources, results of research, funding.

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Authors: Igor Astrov, Andrus Pedai

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This paper focuses on a critical component of the situational awareness (SA), the control of autonomous vertical flight for tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (TUAV). With the SA strategy, we proposed a two stage flight control procedure using two autonomous control subsystems to address the dynamics variation and performance requirement difference in initial and final stages of flight trajectory for a nontrivial nonlinear eight-rotor helicopter model. This control strategy for chosen model of mini-TUAV has been verified by simulation of hovering maneuvers using software package Simulink and demonstrated good performance for fast stabilization of engines in hovering, consequently, fast SA with economy in energy of batteries can be asserted during search-andrescue operations.

Keywords: Flight control, eight-rotor helicopter, situational awareness, tactical unmanned aerial vehicle

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Authors: Raghav Lakhotia, Chandra Kanth Nagesh, Krishna Madgula

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A lot has been said and discussed regarding the rationale and significance of the Bechdel Score. It became a digital sensation in 2013, when Swedish cinemas began to showcase the Bechdel test score of a film alongside its rating. The test has drawn criticism from experts and the film fraternity regarding its use to rate the female presence in a movie. The pundits believe that the score is too simplified and the underlying criteria of a film to pass the test must include 1) at least two women, 2) who have at least one dialogue, 3) about something other than a man, is egregious. In this research, we have considered a few more parameters which highlight how we represent females in film, like the number of female dialogues in a movie, dialogue genre, and part of speech tags in the dialogue. The parameters were missing in the existing criteria to calculate the Bechdel score. The research aims to analyze 342 movies scripts to test a hypothesis if these extra parameters, above with the current Bechdel criteria, are significant in calculating the female representation score. The result of the Principal Component Analysis method concludes that the female dialogue content is a key component and should be considered while measuring the representation of women in a work of fiction.

Keywords: Bechdel test, dialogue genre, parts of speech tags, principal component analysis.

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Authors: Sherin M. Youssef, Ahmed Abouelfarag, Noha M. Ghatwary

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An adaptive Fuzzy Inference Perceptual model has been proposed for watermarking of digital images. The model depends on the human visual characteristics of image sub-regions in the frequency multi-resolution wavelet domain. In the proposed model, a multi-variable fuzzy based architecture has been designed to produce a perceptual membership degree for both candidate embedding sub-regions and strength watermark embedding factor. Different sizes of benchmark images with different sizes of watermarks have been applied on the model. Several experimental attacks have been applied such as JPEG compression, noises and rotation, to ensure the robustness of the scheme. In addition, the model has been compared with different watermarking schemes. The proposed model showed its robustness to attacks and at the same time achieved a high level of imperceptibility.

Keywords: Watermarking, The human visual system (HVS), Fuzzy Inference System (FIS), Local Binary Pattern (LBP), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT).

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Authors: Khalid M. Albarkoly, Kenneth S. Park

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The substantial development of the construction industry has forced the cement industry, its major support, to focus on achieving maximum productivity to meet the growing demand for this material. This means that the reliability of a cement production system needs to be at the highest level that can be achieved by good maintenance. This paper studies the extent to which the implementation of RCM is needed as a strategy for increasing the reliability of the production systems component can be increased, thus ensuring continuous productivity. In a case study of four Libyan cement factories, 80 employees were surveyed and 12 top and middle managers interviewed. It is evident that these factories usually breakdown more often than once per month which has led to a decline in productivity. In many times they cannot achieve the minimum level of production amount. This has resulted from the poor reliability of their production systems as a result of poor or insufficient maintenance. It has been found that most of the factories’ employees misunderstand maintenance and its importance. The main cause of this problem is the lack of qualified and trained staff, but in addition it has been found that most employees are not found to be motivated as a result of a lack of management support and interest. In response to these findings, it has been suggested that the RCM strategy should be implemented in the four factories. The results show the importance of the development of maintenance strategies through the implementation of RCM in these factories. The purpose of it would be to overcome the problems that could secure the reliability of the production systems. This study could be a useful source of information for academic researchers and the industrial organizations which are still experiencing problems in maintenance practices.

Keywords: Libyan cement industry, maintenance, production, reliability centered maintenance, reliability.

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Authors: Ziyad Aljarboua

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In this paper, we present a technical and an economic assessment of several sources of renewable energy in Saudi Arabia; mainly solar, wind, hydro and biomass. We analyze the environmental and climatic conditions in relation to these sources and give an overview of some of the existing clean energy technologies. Using standardized cost and efficiency data, we carry out a cost benefit analysis to understand the economic factors influencing the sustainability of energy production from renewable sources in light of the energy cost and demand in the Saudi market. Finally, we take a look at the Saudi petroleum industry and the existing sources of conventional energy and assess the potential of building a successful market for renewable energy under the constraints imposed by the flow of subsidized cheap oil. We show that while some renewable energy resources are well suited for distributed or grid connected generation in the kingdom, their viability is greatly undercut by the well developed and well capitalized oil industry.

Keywords: Energy strategy, energy policy, renewable energy, Saudi Arabia, oil.

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Authors: J.L. Higuera Trujillo, F.J. Montero Fernández

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Based on different experiences in the historic centers of Spain, we propose an global strategy for the regeneration of the pre-tertiary fabrics and its application to the specific case of San Mateo neighborhood, in Jerez de la Frontera (Andalusia), through a diagnosis that focus particularly on the punishments the last-decade economic situation (building boom and crisis) and shows the tragic transition from economic center to an imminent disappearance with an image similar to the ruins of war, due to the loss of their traditional roles. From it we will learn their historically-tested mechanisms of environment adaptation, which distill the vernacular architecture essence and that we will apply to our strategy of action based on a dotacional-and-free-space rhizome which rediscovers its hidden character. The architectural fact will be crystallized in one of the example-pieces proposed: The Artistic Revitalization Center.

Keywords: Jerez de la Frontera, pre-tertiary fabrics, sustainable architecture, urban regeneration

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Authors: Jun Luo, Weiguo Zhang., Dabin Qin

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It is important to retain customer satisfaction in information technology services. When a service failure occurs, companies need to take service recovery action to recover their customer satisfaction. Although companies cannot avoid all problems and complaints, they should try to make up. Therefore, service failure and service recovery have become an important and challenging issue for companies. In this paper, the literature and the problems in the information technology services were reviewed. An integrated model of profit driven for the service failure and service recovery was established in view of the benefit of customer and enterprise. Moreover, the interaction between service failure and service recovery strategy was studied, the result of which verified the matching principles of the service recovery strategy and the type of service failure. In addition, the relationship between the cost of service recovery and customer-s cumulative value of service after recovery was analyzed with the model. The result attributes to managers in deciding on appropriate resource allocations for recovery strategies.

Keywords: service failure, service recovery, informationtechnology services

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Authors: Ayşin Sev, Görkem Aslan

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Sustainable tall buildings that provide comfortable, healthy and efficient indoor environments are clearly desirable as the densification of living and working space for the world’s increasing population proceeds. For environmental concerns, these buildings must also be energy efficient. One component of these tasks is the provision of indoor air quality and thermal comfort, which can be enhanced with natural ventilation by the supply of fresh air. Working spaces can only be naturally ventilated with connections to the outdoors utilizing operable windows, double facades, ventilation stacks, balconies, patios, terraces and skygardens. Large amounts of fresh air can be provided to the indoor spaces without mechanical air-conditioning systems, which are widely employed in contemporary tall buildings. This paper tends to present the concept of natural ventilation for sustainable tall office buildings in order to achieve healthy and comfortable working spaces, as well as energy efficient environments. Initially the historical evolution of ventilation strategies for tall buildings is presented, beginning with natural ventilation and continuing with the introduction of mechanical airconditioning systems. Then the emergence of natural ventilation due to the health and environmental concerns in tall buildings is handled, and the strategies for implementing this strategy are revealed. In the next section, a number of case studies that utilize this strategy are investigated. Finally, how tall office buildings can benefit from this strategy is discussed.

Keywords: Tall office building, natural ventilation, energy efficiency, double-skin façade, stack ventilation, air conditioning.

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Authors: Towfeeq Fairooz, Salim Istyaq

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The passive electrical properties of a tissue depends on the intrinsic constituents and its structure, therefore by measuring the complex electrical impedance of the tissue it might be possible to obtain indicators of the tissue state or physiological activity [1]. Complete bio-impedance information relative to physiology and pathology of a human body and functional states of the body tissue or organs can be extracted by using a technique containing a fourelectrode measurement setup. This work presents the estimation measurement setup based on the four-electrode technique. First, the complex impedance is estimated by three different estimation techniques: Fourier, Sine Correlation and Digital De-convolution and then estimation errors for the magnitude, phase, reactance and resistance are calculated and analyzed for different levels of disturbances in the observations. The absolute values of relative errors are plotted and the graphical performance of each technique is compared.

Keywords: Electrical Impedance, Fast Fourier Transform, Additive White Gaussian Noise, Total Least Square, Digital De-Convolution, Sine-Correlation.

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Authors: Brett E. Shelton, Joel Duffin, Yuxuan Wang, Justin Ball

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With a growing number of digital libraries and other open education repositories being made available throughout the world, effective search and retrieval tools are necessary to access the desired materials that surpass the effectiveness of traditional, allinclusive search engines. This paper discusses the design and use of Folksemantic, a platform that integrates OpenCourseWare search, Open Educational Resource recommendations, and social network functionality into a single open source project. The paper describes how the system was originally envisioned, its goals for users, and data that provides insight into how it is actually being used. Data sources include website click-through data, query logs, web server log files and user account data. Based on a descriptive analysis of its current use, modifications to the platform's design are recommended to better address goals of the system, along with recommendations for additional phases of research.

Keywords: Digital libraries, open education, recommendation system, social networks

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Authors: Bing Song, Kexi Han, Xuewei Lv

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Titania slag is a high quality raw material containing titanium in the subsequent process of titanium pigment. The effects of cooling approaches of granulating, water cooling, and air cooling on chemical, phases, and acidolysis of Panzhihua titania slag were investigated. Compared to the original slag which was prepared by the conventional processing route, the results show that the titania slag undergoes oxidation of Ti³⁺during different cooling ways. The Ti₂O₃ content is 17.50% in the original slag, but it is 16.55% and 16.84% in water cooled and air-cooled slag, respectively. Especially, the Ti₂O₃ content in granulated slag is decreased about 27.6%. The content of Fe₂O₃ in granulated slag is approximately 2.86% also obviously higher than water (<0.5%) or air-cooled slag (<0.5%). Rutile in cooled titania slag was formed because of the oxidation of Ti³⁺. The rutile phase without a noticeable change in water cooled and air-cooled slag after the titania slag was cooled, but increased significantly in the granulated slag. The rate of sulfuric acid acidolysis of cooled slag is less than the original slag. The rate of acidolysis is 90.61% and 92.46% to the water-cooled slag and air-cooled slag, respectively. However, the rate of acidolysis of the granulated slag is less than that of industry slag about 20%, only 74.72%.

Keywords: Cooling approaches, titania slag, granulating, sulfuric acid acidolysis,

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Authors: Igor Astrov, Mikhail Pikkov, Rein Paluoja

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This paper focuses on a critical component of the situational awareness (SA), the control of autonomous vertical flight for vectored thrust aerial vehicle (VTAV). With the SA strategy, we proposed a flight control procedure to address the dynamics variation and performance requirement difference of flight trajectory for an unmanned helicopter model with vectored thrust configuration. This control strategy for chosen model of VTAV has been verified by simulation of take-off and forward maneuvers using software package Simulink and demonstrated good performance for fast stabilization of motors, consequently, fast SA with economy in energy can be asserted during search-and-rescue operations.

Keywords: Neural network predictive controller, situational awareness, vectored thrust aerial vehicle.

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Authors: Asaad H. Ismail, Mohamad S. Jaafar

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This study aims to assess the environmental hazards from radon exhalation rate in the soil samples in selected locations in Iraqi Kurdistan, using passive (CR-39NTDs) and active (RAD7) detecting method. Radon concentration, effective radium content and radon exhalation rate were estimated in soil samples that collected at the depth level of 30 cm inside 124 houses. The results show that the emanation rate for radon gas was variation from location to other, depending on the geological formation. Most health risks come from emanation of radon and its daughter due to its contribution for indoor radon, so the results showed that there is a linear relationship between the ratio of soil and indoor radon concentration (CSoil Rn222/ Cindoor Rn222) and the effective radium content in soil samples. The results show that radon concentration has high and low values in Hajyawa city and Er. Tyrawa Qr, respectively. A comparison between our results with that mentioned in international reports was done.

Keywords: Radon, CR-39NTDs, RAD7, Soil, Iraqi Kurdistan.

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Authors: W. S. Barber, S. L. King

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This paper reports on a pilot project to develop a collaborative partnership between a community college in rural northern Ontario, Canada, and an urban university in the greater Toronto area in Oshawa, Canada. Partner institutions will collaborate to address learning needs of university applicants whose goals are to attain an undergraduate university BA in Educational Studies and Digital Technology degree, but who may not live in a geographical location that would facilitate this pathways process. The UOIT BA degree is attained through a 2+2 program, where students with a 2 year college diploma or equivalent can attain a four year undergraduate degree. The goals reported on the project are as: 1. Our aim is to expand the BA program to include an additional stream which includes serious educational games, simulations and virtual environments, 2. Develop fully (using both synchronous and asynchronous technologies) online learning modules for use by university applicants who otherwise are not geographically located close to a physical university site, 3. Assess the digital competencies of all students, including members of local, distance and Indigenous communities using a validated tool developed and tested by UOIT across numerous populations. This tool, the General Technical Competency Use and Scale (GTCU) will provide the collaborating institutions with data that will allow for analyzing how well students are prepared to succeed in fully online learning communities. Philosophically, the UOIT BA program is based on a fully online learning communities model (FOLC) that can be accessed from anywhere in the world through digital learning environments via audio video conferencing tools such as Adobe Connect. It also follows models of adult learning and mobile learning, and makes a university degree accessible to the increasing demographic of adult learners who may use mobile devices to learn anywhere anytime. The program is based on key principles of Problem Based Learning, allowing students to build their own understandings through the co-design of the learning environment in collaboration with the instructors and their peers. In this way, this degree allows students to personalize and individualize the learning based on their own culture, background and professional/personal experiences. Using modified flipped classroom strategies, students are able to interrogate video modules on their own time in preparation for one hour discussions occurring in video conferencing sessions. As a consequence of the program flexibility, students may continue to work full or part time. All of the partner institutions will co-develop four new modules, administer the GTCU and share data, while creating a new stream of the UOIT BA degree. This will increase accessibility for students to bridge from community colleges to university through a fully digital environment. We aim to work collaboratively with Indigenous elders, community members and distance education instructors to increase opportunities for more students to attain a university education.

Keywords: Aboriginal, college, competencies, digital, universities.

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Authors: Samee Ullah Khan, C. Ardil

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Fine-grained data replication over the Internet allows duplication of frequently accessed data objects, as opposed to entire sites, to certain locations so as to improve the performance of largescale content distribution systems. In a distributed system, agents representing their sites try to maximize their own benefit since they are driven by different goals such as to minimize their communication costs, latency, etc. In this paper, we will use game theoretical techniques and in particular auctions to identify a bidding mechanism that encapsulates the selfishness of the agents, while having a controlling hand over them. In essence, the proposed game theory based mechanism is the study of what happens when independent agents act selfishly and how to control them to maximize the overall performance. A bidding mechanism asks how one can design systems so that agents- selfish behavior results in the desired system-wide goals. Experimental results reveal that this mechanism provides excellent solution quality, while maintaining fast execution time. The comparisons are recorded against some well known techniques such as greedy, branch and bound, game theoretical auctions and genetic algorithms.

Keywords: Internet, data content replication, static allocation, mechanism design, equilibrium.

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Authors: M. Nikafrooz, J. Darsareh

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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its impacts on education all over the world, and the problems arising from the use of traditional methods in education during the pandemic, it was necessary to apply alternative solutions to achieve educational goals. In this regard, electronic content production through screen recording became popular among many teachers. However, the production of screen-recorded videos requires special technical and pedagogical considerations. The purpose of this study was to extract and present the technical and pedagogical considerations for producing screen-recorded videos to provide a useful and comprehensive guideline for e-content producers. This study was applied research, the design was descriptive, and data collection has been done using qualitative method. In order to collect the data, 524 previously produced screen-recorded videos were evaluated by using an open-ended questionnaire. After collecting the data, they were categorized, and finally, 83 items as technical and pedagogical considerations in the form of 5 domains were determined. By applying such considerations, it is expected to decrease producing and editing time, increase the technical and pedagogical quality, and finally facilitate and enhance the processes of teaching and learning.

Keywords: E-learning, e-content, screen recorded-videos, screen recording software, technical and pedagogical considerations.

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Authors: Ching-Yi Lee, Dyi-Cheng Chen, Bo-Yan Lai, Chin-Pin Chen

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Creative design requires new approaches to assessment in vocational and technological education. To date, there has been little discussion on instruments used to evaluate dies produced by students in vocational and technological education. Developing a generic instrument has been very difficult due to the diversity of creative domains, the specificity of content, and the subjectivity involved in judgment. This paper presents an instrument for measuring the creativity in the design of products by expanding the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT). The content-based scale was evaluated for content validity by 5 experts. The scale comprises 5 criteria: originality; practicability; precision; aesthetics; and exchangeability. Nine experts were invited to evaluate the dies produced by 38 college students who enrolled in a Product Design and Development course. To further explore the degree of rater agreement, inter-rater reliability was calculated for each dimension using Kendall's coefficient of concordance test. The inter-judge reliability scores achieved significance, with coefficients ranging from 0.53 to 0.71.

Keywords: Design education, die creative product, vocational and technological education, Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT).

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Authors: Valentina Ndou, Laura Schina, Giuseppina Passiante, Pasquale Del Vecchio, Marco De Maggio

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to propose a dynamic integrated approach, based on modularity concept and on the business ecosystem approach, that exploit different eBusiness services for SMEs under an open business network platform. The adoption of this approach enables firms to collaborate locally for delivering the best product/service to the customers as well as globally by accessing international markets, interrelate directly with the customers, create relationships and collaborate with worldwide actors. The paper will be structured as following: We will start by offering an overview of the state of the art of eBusiness platforms among SME of food and tourism firms and then we discuss the main drawbacks that characterize them. The digital business ecosystem approach and the modularity concept will be described as the theoretical ground in which our proposed integrated model is rooted. Finally, the proposed model along with a discussion of the main value creation potentialities it might create for SMEs will be presented.

Keywords: component, Complexity; Digital Business Ecosystem, e Business Platforms, Modularity, Networks.

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Authors: Atefeh Heydari, Mohammadali Tavakoli, Zuriati Ismail, Naomie Salim

Abstract:

Seeking and sharing knowledge on online forums have made them popular in recent years. Although online forums are valuable sources of information, due to variety of sources of messages, retrieving reliable threads with high quality content is an issue. Majority of the existing information retrieval systems ignore the quality of retrieved documents, particularly, in the field of thread retrieval. In this research, we present an approach that employs various quality features in order to investigate the quality of retrieved threads. Different aspects of content quality, including completeness, comprehensiveness, and politeness, are assessed using these features, which lead to finding not only textual, but also conceptual relevant threads for a user query within a forum. To analyse the influence of the features, we used an adopted version of voting model thread search as a retrieval system. We equipped it with each feature solely and also various combinations of features in turn during multiple runs. The results show that incorporating the quality features enhances the effectiveness of the utilised retrieval system significantly.

Keywords: Content quality, Forum search, Thread retrieval, Voting techniques.

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