Search results for: emission factors
2205 Public Squares and Their Potential for Social Interactions: A Case Study of Historical Public Squares in Tehran
Authors: Asma Mehan
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Under the thrust of technological changes, population growth and vehicular traffic, Iranian historical squares have lost their significance and they are no longer the main social nodes of the society. This research focuses on how historical public squares can inspire designers to enhance social interactions among citizens in Iranian urban context. Moreover, the recent master plan of Tehran demonstrates the lack of public spaces designed for the purpose of people’s social gatherings. For filling this gap, first the current situation of 7 selected primary historical public squares in Tehran including Sabze Meydan, Arg, Topkhaneh, Baherstan, Mokhber-al-dole, Rah Ahan and Hassan Abad have been compared. Later, the influencing elements on social interactions of the public squares such as subjective factors (human relationships and memories) and objective factors (natural and built environment) have been investigated. As a conclusion, some strategies are proposed for improving social interactions in historical public squares like; holding cultural, national, athletic and religious events, defining different and new functions in public squares’ surrounding, increasing pedestrian routs, reviving the collective memory, demonstrating the historical importance of square, eliminating visual obstacles across the square, organization the natural elements of the square, appropriate pavement for social activities. Finally, it is argued that the combination of all influencing factors which are: human interactions, natural elements and built environment criteria will lead to enhance the historical public squares’ potential for social interaction.
Keywords: Historical Square, Iranian Public Square, Social Interaction, Tehran.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29142204 Investigation of Monochromatization Light Effect at Molecular/Atomic Level in Electronegative-Electropositive Gas Mixtures Plasma
Authors: L.C. Ciobotaru
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In electronegative-electropositive gas mixtures plasma, at a total pressure varying in the range of ten to hundred Torr, the appearance of a quasi-mochromatization effect of the emitted radiation was reported. This radiation could be the result of the generating mechanisms at molecular level, which is the case of the excimer radiation but also at atomic level. Thus, in the last case, in (Ne+1%Ar/Xe+H2) gas mixtures plasma in a dielectric barrier discharge, this effect, called M-effect, consists in the reduction of the discharge emission spectrum practice at one single, strong spectral line with λ = 585.3 nm. The present paper is concerned with the characteristics comparative investigation of the principal reaction mechanisms involved in the quasi-monochromatization effect existence in the case of the excimer radiation, respectively of the Meffect. Also, the paper points out the role of the metastable electronegative atoms in the appearance of the monochromatization – effect at atomic level.
Keywords: Colombian forces, Direct Harpoon reaction, Monochromatization – effect, Resonant polar three-body reaction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13992203 Modeling Reaction Time in Car-Following Behaviour Based on Human Factors
Authors: Atif Mehmood, Said M. Easa
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This paper develops driver reaction-time models for car-following analysis based on human factors. The reaction time was classified as brake-reaction time (BRT) and acceleration/deceleration reaction time (ADRT). The BRT occurs when the lead vehicle is barking and its brake light is on, while the ADRT occurs when the driver reacts to adjust his/her speed using the gas pedal only. The study evaluates the effect of driver characteristics and traffic kinematic conditions on the driver reaction time in a car-following environment. The kinematic conditions introduced urgency and expectancy based on the braking behaviour of the lead vehicle at different speeds and spacing. The kinematic conditions were used for evaluating the BRT and are classified as normal, surprised, and stationary. Data were collected on a driving simulator integrated into a real car and included the BRT and ADRT (as dependent variables) and driver-s age, gender, driving experience, driving intensity (driving hours per week), vehicle speed, and spacing (as independent variables). The results showed that there was a significant difference in the BRT at normal, surprised, and stationary scenarios and supported the hypothesis that both urgency and expectancy had significant effects on BRT. Driver-s age, gender, speed, and spacing were found to be significant variables for the BRT in all scenarios. The results also showed that driver-s age and gender were significant variables for the ADRT. The research presented in this paper is part of a larger project to develop a driversensitive in-vehicle rear-end collision warning system.Keywords: Brake reaction time, car-following, human factors, modeling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 42972202 Contribution of Vitaton (Β-Carotene) to the Rearing Factors Survival Rate and Visual Flesh Color of Rainbow Trout Fish in Comparison With Astaxanthin
Authors: M.Ghotbi, M.Ghotbi, Gh. Azari Takami
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In this study Vitaton (an organic supplement which contains fermentative β-carotene) and synthetic astaxanthin (CAROPHYLL® Pink) were evaluated as pro-growth factors in Rainbow trout diet. An 8 week feeding trial was conducted to determine the effects of Vitaton versus astaxanthin on rearing factors, survival rate and visual flesh color of Rainbow trout (Oncorhnchynchus mykiss) with initial weight of 196±5. Four practical diets were formulated to contain 50 and 80 (ppm) of β- carotene and astaxanthin and also a control diet was prepared without any pigment. Each diet was fed to triplicate groups of fish rearing in fresh water. Fish were fed twice daily. The water temperature fluctuated from 12 to 15 (C˚) and also dissolved oxygen content was between 7 to 7.5 (mg/lit) during the experimental period. At the end of the experiment, growth and food utilization parameters and survival rate were unaffected by dietary treatments (p>0.05). Also, there was no significant difference between carcass yield within treatments (p>0.05). No significant difference recognized between visual flesh color (SalmoFan score) of fish fed Vitaton-containing diets. On the contrary, feeding on diets containing 50 and 80 (ppm) of astaxanthin, increased SalmoFan score (flesh astaxanthin concentration) from <20 (<1 mg/kg) to 23.33 (2.03 mg/kg) and 27.67 (5.74 mg/kg), respectively. Ultimately, a significant difference was seen between flesh carotenoid concentrations of fish feeding on astaxanthin containing treatments and control treatment (P<0.05). It should be mentioned that just raw fillet color of fish belonged to 80 (ppm) of astaxanthin treatment was seen to be close to color targets (SalmoFan scores) adopted for harvest-size fish.Keywords: Astaxanthin, Flesh color, Rainbow trout, Vitaton, β- carotene,
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 34142201 Traditional Grocery Stores and Business Management in Bangkok
Authors: Suppara Charoenpoom
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This paper was aimed to survey the level of awareness of traditional grocery stores in Bangkok in these categories: location, service quality, risk, shopping, worthwhile, shopping satisfaction, and future shopping intention. The paper was also aimed to survey factors influencing the decision to shop at traditional grocery stores in Bangkok in the future. The findings revealed that consumers had a high level of awareness of traditional grocery stores in Bangkok. Consumers were aware that the price was higher and it was riskier to buy goods and services at traditional grocery stores but they still had a high level of preference to patronage traditional grocery stores. This was due to the reasons that there was a high level of satisfaction from the factors of the friendliness of the owner, the ability to negotiate the price, the ability to buy on credit, free delivery, and the enjoyment to meet with other customers in the same neighborhood.Keywords: Business Management, Thai Economy, Traditional Grocery Store.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25232200 Waste Management, Strategies and Situation in South Africa: An Overview
Authors: Edison Muzenda, Freeman Ntuli, Tsietsi Jefrey Pilusa
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This paper highlights some interesting facts on South African-s waste situation and management strategies, in particular the Integrated Waste Management. South Africa supports a waste hierarchy by promoting cleaner production, waste minimisation, reuse, recycling and waste treatment with disposal and remediation as the last preferred options in waste management. The drivers for waste management techniques are identified as increased demand for waste service provision; increased demand for waste minimisation; recycling and recovery; land use, physical and environmental limitations; and socio-economic and demographic factors. The South African government recognizes the importance of scientific research as outlined on the white paper on Integrated Pollution and Waste Management (IP and WM) (DEAT, 2000).
Keywords: Cleaner production, demographic factors, environmental quality, integrated waste management, hierarchy, recycling
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 39952199 An Acerbate Psychotics Symptoms, Social Support, Stressful Life Events, Medication Use Self-Efficacy Impact on Social Dysfunction: A Cross Sectional Self-Rated Study of Persons with Schizophrenia Patient and Misusing Methamphetamines
Authors: Ek-Uma Imkome, Jintana Yunibhand, Waraporn Chaiyawat
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Background: Persons with schizophrenia patient and misusing methamphetamines suffering from social dysfunction that impact on their quality of life. Knowledge of factors related to social dysfunction will guide the effective intervention. Objectives: To determine the direct effect, indirect effect and total effect of an acerbate Psychotics’ Symptoms, Social Support, Stressful life events, Medication use self-efficacy impact on social dysfunction in Thai schizophrenic patient and methamphetamine misuse. Methods: Data were collected from schizophrenic and methamphetamine misuse patient by self report. A linear structural relationship was used to test the hypothesized path model. Results: The hypothesized model was found to fit the empirical data and explained 54% of the variance of the psychotic symptoms (X2 = 114.35, df = 92, p-value = 0.05, X2 /df = 1.24, GFI = 0.96, AGFI = 0.92, CFI = 1.00, NFI = 0.99, NNFI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.02). The highest total effect on social dysfunction was psychotic symptoms (0.67, p<0.05). Medication use self-efficacy had a direct effect on psychotic symptoms (-0.25, p<0.01), and social support had direct effect on medication use self efficacy (0.36, p <0.01). Conclusions: Psychotic symptoms and stressful life events were the significance factors that influenced direct on social dysfunctioning. Therefore, interventions that are designed to manage these factors are crucial in order to enhance social functioning in this population.
Keywords: Psychotic symptoms, methamphetamine, schizophrenia, stressful life events, social dysfunction, social support, medication use self-efficacy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10142198 What Factors Contributed to the Adaptation Gap during School Transition in Japan?
Authors: What Factors Contributed to the Adaptation Gap during School Transition in Japan?
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The present study was aimed to examine the structure of children’s adaptation during school transition and to identify a commonality and dissimilarity at the elementary and junior high school. 1,983 students in the 6th grade and 2,051 students in the 7th grade were extracted by stratified two-stage random sampling and completed the ASSESS that evaluated the school adaptation from the view point of ‘general satisfaction’, ‘teachers’ support’, ‘friends’ support’, ‘anti-bullying relationship’, ‘prosocial skills’, and ‘academic adaptation’. The 7th graders tend to be worse adaptation than the 6th graders. A structural equation modeling showed the goodness of fit for each grades. Both models were very similar but the 7th graders’ model showed a lower coefficient at the pass from ‘teachers’ support’ to ‘friends’ support’. The role of ‘teachers’ support’ was decreased to keep a good relation in junior high school. We also discussed how we provide a continuous assistance for prevention of the 7th graders’ gap.Keywords: School transition, social support, psychological adaptation, K-12.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13602197 Analysis of Initial Entry-Level Technology Course Impacts on STEM Major Selection
Authors: Ethan Shafer, Timothy Graziano, Jay Fisher
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This research seeks to answer whether first-year courses at institutions of higher learning can impact STEM major selection. Unlike many universities, an entry-level technology course (often referred to as CS0) is required for all United States Military Academy (USMA) students–regardless of major–in their first year of attendance. Students at the Academy choose their major at the end of their first year of studies. Through student responses to a multi-semester survey, this paper identifies a number of factors that potentially influence STEM major selection. Student demographic data, pre-existing exposure and access to technology, perceptions of STEM subjects, and initial desire for a STEM major are captured before and after taking a CS0 course. An analysis of factors that contribute to student perception of STEM and major selection are presented. This work provides recommendations and suggestions for institutions currently providing or looking to provide CS0-like courses to their students.
Keywords: STEM major, STEM, pedagogy, digital literacy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1922196 Characterization of Aluminium Alloy 6063 Hybrid Metal Matrix Composite by Using Stir Casting Method
Authors: Balwinder Singh
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The present research is a paper on the characterization of aluminum alloy-6063 hybrid metal matrix composites using three different reinforcement materials (SiC, red mud, and fly ash) through stir casting method. The red mud was used in solid form, and particle size range varies between 103-150 µm. During this investigation, fly ash is received from Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP), Bathinda. The study has been done by using Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array by taking fraction wt.% (SiC 5%, 7.5%, and 10% and Red Mud and Fly Ash 2%, 4%, and 6%) as input parameters with their respective levels. The study of the mechanical properties (tensile strength, impact strength, and microhardness) has been done by using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with the help of MINITAB 17 software. It is revealed that silicon carbide is the most significant parameter followed by red mud and fly ash affecting the mechanical properties, respectively. The fractured surface morphology of the composites using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) shows that there is a good mixing of reinforcement particles in the matrix. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was performed to know the presence of the phases of the reinforced material.
Keywords: Reinforcement, silicon carbide, fly ash, red mud.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7222195 User-Perceived Quality Factors for Certification Model of Web-Based System
Authors: Jamaiah H. Yahaya, Aziz Deraman, Abdul Razak Hamdan, Yusmadi Yah Jusoh
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One of the most essential issues in software products is to maintain it relevancy to the dynamics of the user’s requirements and expectation. Many studies have been carried out in quality aspect of software products to overcome these problems. Previous software quality assessment models and metrics have been introduced with strengths and limitations. In order to enhance the assurance and buoyancy of the software products, certification models have been introduced and developed. From our previous experiences in certification exercises and case studies collaborating with several agencies in Malaysia, the requirements for user based software certification approach is identified and demanded. The emergence of social network applications, the new development approach such as agile method and other varieties of software in the market have led to the domination of users over the software. As software become more accessible to the public through internet applications, users are becoming more critical in the quality of the services provided by the software. There are several categories of users in web-based systems with different interests and perspectives. The classifications and metrics are identified through brain storming approach with includes researchers, users and experts in this area. The new paradigm in software quality assessment is the main focus in our research. This paper discusses the classifications of users in web-based software system assessment and their associated factors and metrics for quality measurement. The quality model is derived based on IEEE structure and FCM model. The developments are beneficial and valuable to overcome the constraints and improve the application of software certification model in future.
Keywords: Software certification model, user centric approach, software quality factors, metrics and measurements, web-based system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21382194 Analysis of Endovascular Graft Features Affecting Endotension Following Endovascular Aneurysm Repair
Authors: Zeinab Hooshyar, Alireza Mehdizadeh
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Endovascular aneurysm repair is a new and minimally invasive repair for patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). This method has potential advantages that are incomparable with other repair methods. However, the enlargement of aneurysm in the absence of endoleak, which is known as endotension, may occur as one of post-operative compliances of this method. Typically, endotension is mainly as a result of pressure transmitted to aneurysm sac by endovascular installed graft. After installation of graft the aneurysm sac reduces significantly but remains non-zero. There are some factors which affect this pressure transmitted. In this study, the geometry features of installed vascular graft have been considered. It is inferred that graft neck angle and iliac bifurcation angle are two factors which can affect the drag force on graft and consequently the pressure transmitted to aneurysm.
Keywords: Endovascular graft, transmitted pressure, Drag force, Finite Element Modeling, neck angle, iliac bifurcation angle.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15592193 Improving Injection Moulding Processes Using Experimental Design
Authors: Yousef Amer, Mehdi Moayyedian, Zeinab Hajiabolhasani, Lida Moayyedian
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Moulded parts contribute to more than 70% of components in products. However, common defects particularly in plastic injection moulding exist such as: warpage, shrinkage, sink marks, and weld lines. In this paper Taguchi experimental design methods are applied to reduce the warpage defect of thin plate Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) and are demonstrated in two levels; namely, orthogonal arrays of Taguchi and the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Eight trials have been run in which the optimal parameters that can minimize the warpage defect in factorial experiment are obtained. The results obtained from ANOVA approach analysis with respect to those derived from MINITAB illustrate the most significant factors which may cause warpage in injection moulding process. Moreover, ANOVA approach in comparison with other approaches like S/N ratio is more accurate and with the interaction of factors it is possible to achieve higher and the better outcomes.Keywords: Analysis of variance, ANOVA, plastic injection mould, Taguchi methods, Warpage.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 38822192 The Effect of the National Culture on the International Business
Authors: Phatthanan Chaiyabut
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The aim for this research is to deliberately discuss how and why the contexts of culture are the main significant factors which need to be considered when conducting the international business oversea. As a consequence of understanding these various factors, the researcher would be able to infer some suggestions to the international organizations. With this in mind, the results of the understanding in a national culture environment can support the organizations to settle its international strategies which may be useful to develop the national export and import effectiveness. This data collecting methods will be concentrated upon 5-10 interviews from the senior members and business officers in the international company in Thailand by e-mail interview and analyses the individual manager’s viewpoint. As well as, focus on the questionnaires which the respondents were selected randomly around 100 samples from UK and Thailand, together with providing a functional sample size and comparable to data. The results of the study question the role of national culture, which contributed to in international business effectiveness and emphasize the positive and negative aspects, as well as suggestions to business investors are informed.
Keywords: Contexts of culture, International business effectiveness, International strategies, National Culture.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 72272191 Effect of UV Radiation to Change the Properties of the Composite PA+GF
Authors: Lenka Markovičová, Viera Zatkalíková, Tomasz Garbacz
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The development of composite materials and the related design and manufacturing technologies is one of the most important advances in the history of materials. Composites are multifunctional materials having unprecedented mechanical and physical properties that can be tailored to meet the requirements of a particular application. Some composites also exhibit great resistance to high-temperature corrosion, oxidation, and wear. Polymers are widely used indoors and outdoors, therefore they are exposed to a chemical environment which may include atmospheric oxygen, acidic fumes, acidic rain, moisture heat and thermal shock, ultra-violet light, high energy radiation, etc. Different polymers are affected differently by these factors even though the amorphous polymers are more sensitive. Ageing is also important and it is defined as the process of deterioration of engineering materials resulting from the combined effects of atmospheric radiation, heat, oxygen, water, microorganisms and other atmospheric factors.Keywords: Composites with glass fibres, mechanical properties, polyamides, UV degradation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21652190 Experimental Characterization of the Color Quality and Error Rate for an Red, Green, and Blue-Based Light Emission Diode-Fixture Used in Visible Light Communications
Authors: Juan F. Gutierrez, Jesus M. Quintero, Diego Sandoval
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An important feature of Lighting Emitting Diodes (LED) technology is the fast on-off commutation. This fact allows data transmission using modulation formats such as On-Off Keying (OOK) and Color Shift Keying (CSK). Since, CSK based on three color bands uses red, green, and blue monochromatic LED (RGB-LED) to define a pattern of chromaticities; this type of CSK provides poor color quality on the illuminated area. In this work, we present the design and implementation of a VLC system using RGB-based CSK with 16, 8, and 4 color points, mixing with a steady baseline of a phosphor white-LED, to improve the color quality of the LED-Fixture. The experimental system was assessed in terms of the Symbol Error Rate (SER) and the Color Rendering Index (CRI). Good color quality performance of the LED-Fixture was obtained with an acceptable SER. We describe the laboratory setup used to characterize and calibrate an LED-Fixture.
Keywords: Color rendering index, symbol error rate, color shift keying, visible light communications.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1492189 On the Optimality of Blocked Main Effects Plans
Authors: Rita SahaRay, Ganesh Dutta
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In this article, experimental situations are considered where a main effects plan is to be used to study m two-level factors using n runs which are partitioned into b blocks, not necessarily of same size. Assuming the block sizes to be even for all blocks, for the case n ≡ 2 (mod 4), optimal designs are obtained with respect to type 1 and type 2 optimality criteria in the class of designs providing estimation of all main effects orthogonal to the block effects. In practice, such orthogonal estimation of main effects is often a desirable condition. In the wider class of all available m two level even sized blocked main effects plans, where the factors do not occur at high and low levels equally often in each block, E-optimal designs are also characterized. Simple construction methods based on Hadamard matrices and Kronecker product for these optimal designs are presented.Keywords: Design matrix, Hadamard matrix, Kronecker product, type 1 criteria, type 2 criteria.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10472188 Power Distance and Knowledge Management from a Post-Taylorist Perspective
Authors: John Walton, Vishal Parikh
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Contact centres have been exemplars of scientific management in the discipline of operations management for more than a decade now. With the movement of industries from a resource based economy to knowledge based economy businesses have started to realize the customer eccentricity being the key to sustainability amidst high velocity of the market. However, as technologies have converged and advanced, so have the contact centres. Contact Centres have redirected the supply chains and the concept of retailing is highly diminished due to over exaggeration of cost reduction strategies. In conditions of high environmental velocity together with services featuring considerable information intensity contact centres will require up to date and enlightened agents to satisfy the demands placed upon them by those requesting their services. In this paper we examine salient factors such as Power Distance, Knowledge structures and the dynamics of job specialisation and enlargement to suggest critical success factors in the domain of contact centres.
Keywords: Post Taylorism, Knowledge Management, Power Distance, Organisational Learning
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18562187 A Post Processing Method for Quantum Prime Factorization Algorithm based on Randomized Approach
Authors: Mir Shahriar Emami, Mohammad Reza Meybodi
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Prime Factorization based on Quantum approach in two phases has been performed. The first phase has been achieved at Quantum computer and the second phase has been achieved at the classic computer (Post Processing). At the second phase the goal is to estimate the period r of equation xrN ≡ 1 and to find the prime factors of the composite integer N in classic computer. In this paper we present a method based on Randomized Approach for estimation the period r with a satisfactory probability and the composite integer N will be factorized therefore with the Randomized Approach even the gesture of the period is not exactly the real period at least we can find one of the prime factors of composite N. Finally we present some important points for designing an Emulator for Quantum Computer Simulation.Keywords: Quantum Prime Factorization, RandomizedAlgorithms, Quantum Computer Simulation, Quantum Computation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14842186 Corrosion Protection of Structural Steel by Surfactant Containing Reagents
Authors: D. Erdenechimeg, T. Bujinlkham, N. Erdenepurev
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The anti-corrosion performance of fatty acid coated mild steel samples is studied. Samples of structural steel coated with collector reagents deposited from surfactant in ethanol solution and overcoated with an epoxy barrier paint. A quantitative corrosion rate was determined by linear polarization resistance method using biopotentiostat/galvanostat 400. Coating morphology was determined by scanning electronic microscopy. A test for hydrophobic surface of steel by surfactant was done. From the samples, the main component or high content iron was determined by chemical method and other metal contents were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) method. Prior to measuring the corrosion rate, mechanical and chemical treatments were performed to prepare the test specimens. Overcoating the metal samples with epoxy barrier paint after exposing them with surfactant the corrosion rate can be inhibited by 34-35 µm/year.
Keywords: Corrosion, linear polarization resistance, coating, surfactant.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6282185 The Direct and Indirect Effects of the Achievement Motivation on Nurturing Intellectual Giftedness
Authors: Al-Shabatat, M. Ahmad, Abbas, M., Ismail, H. Nizam
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Achievement motivation is believed to promote giftedness attracting people to invest in many programs to adopt gifted students providing them with challenging activities. Intellectual giftedness is founded on the fluid intelligence and extends to more specific abilities through the growth and inputs from the achievement motivation. Acknowledging the roles played by the motivation in the development of giftedness leads to an effective nurturing of gifted individuals. However, no study has investigated the direct and indirect effects of the achievement motivation and fluid intelligence on intellectual giftedness. Thus, this study investigated the contribution of motivation factors to giftedness development by conducting tests of fluid intelligence using Cattell Culture Fair Test (CCFT) and analytical abilities using culture reduced test items covering problem solving, pattern recognition, audio-logic, audio-matrices, and artificial language, and self report questionnaire for the motivational factors. A number of 180 highscoring students were selected using CCFT from a leading university in Malaysia. Structural equation modeling was employed using Amos V.16 to determine the direct and indirect effects of achievement motivation factors (self confidence, success, perseverance, competition, autonomy, responsibility, ambition, and locus of control) on the intellectual giftedness. The findings showed that the hypothesized model fitted the data, supporting the model postulates and showed significant and strong direct and indirect effects of the motivation and fluid intelligence on the intellectual giftedness.Keywords: Achievement motivation, Intellectual Giftedness, Fluid Intelligence, Analytical Giftedness, CCFT, Structural EquationModeling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21602184 Functional Decomposition Based Effort Estimation Model for Software-Intensive Systems
Authors: Nermin Sökmen
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An effort estimation model is needed for softwareintensive projects that consist of hardware, embedded software or some combination of the two, as well as high level software solutions. This paper first focuses on functional decomposition techniques to measure functional complexity of a computer system and investigates its impact on system development effort. Later, it examines effects of technical difficulty and design team capability factors in order to construct the best effort estimation model. With using traditional regression analysis technique, the study develops a system development effort estimation model which takes functional complexity, technical difficulty and design team capability factors as input parameters. Finally, the assumptions of the model are tested.
Keywords: Functional complexity, functional decomposition, development effort, technical difficulty, design team capability, regression analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22692183 Effect of Inlet Valve Variable Timing in the Spark Ignition Engine on Achieving Greener Transport
Authors: Osama H. Ghazal, Yousef S. Najjar, Kutaeba J. AL-Khishali
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The current emission legislations and the large concern about the environment produced very numerous constraints on both governments and car manufacturers. Also the cost of energy increase means a reduction in fuel consumption must be met, without largely affecting the current engine production and performance. It is the intension to contribute towards the development and pursuing, among others on variable valve timing (VVT), for improving the engine performance. The investigation of the effect of (IVO) and (IVC) to optimize engine torque and volumetric efficiency for different engine speeds was considered. Power, BMEP and BSFC were calculated and presented to show the effect of varying inlet valve timing on them for all cases. A special program used to carry out the calculations. The analysis of the results shows that the reduction of 10% of (IVO) angle gave an improvement of around 1.3% in torque, BSFC, and volumetric efficiency, while a 10% decrease in (IVC) caused a 0.1% reduction in power, torque, and volumetric efficiency.
Keywords: Green transportation, inlet valve variable timing, performance, spark ignition engines.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28522182 Technology Diffusion and Inclusive Development in Africa: A System Dynamics Perspective
Authors: M. Kaggwa
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Technology or lack of it will play an important role in Africa-s effort to achieve inclusive development. Although a key determinant of competitiveness, new technology can exacerbate exclusion of the majority from the mainstream economic activities. To minimise potential technology exclusion while leveraging its critical role in African-s development, requires insight into technology diffusion process. Using system dynamics approach, a technology diffusion model is presented. The frequency of interaction of people exposed to and those not exposed to technology, and the technology adoption rate - the fraction of people who embrace new technologies once they are exposed, are identified as the broad factors critical to technology diffusion to wider society enabling more people to be part of the economic growth process. Based on simulation results, it is recommends that these two broad factors should form part of national policy aimed at achieving inclusive and sustainable development in Africa.
Keywords: Inclusive Development, System Dynamics, Technology, Technology diffusion.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17292181 Dynamics Simulation Approach in Analyzing Pension Expenditure
Authors: Hasimah Sapiri, Anton Abdulbasah Kamil, Razman Mat Tahar, Hanafi Tumin
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Salary risk and demographic risk have been identified as main risks in analyzing pension expenditure particularly in Defined Benefit pension plan. Therefore, public pension plan in Malaysia is studied to analyze pension expenditure due to salary and demographic risk. Through the literature review and interview session with several officers in public sector, factors affecting pension expenditure are determined. Then, the inter-relationships between these factors are analyzed through causal loop diagram. The System Dynamics model is later developed using iThink software to show how demographic and salary changes affect the pension expenditure. Then, by using actual data, the impact of different policy scenarios on pension expenditure is analyzed. It is shown that dynamics simulation model of pension expenditure is useful to evaluate the impact of changes and policy decisions on risk particularly involving demographic and salary risk.Keywords: Demographic and Salary risk, Pension Expenditure, Public Policy, System Dynamics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26992180 Spray Combustion Dynamics under Thermoacoustic Oscillations
Authors: Wajid A. Chishty, Stephen D. Lepera, Uri Vandsburger
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Thermoacoustic instabilities in combustors have remained a topic of investigation for over a few decades due to the challenges it posses to the operation of low emission gas turbines. For combustors burning liquid fuel, understanding the cause-andeffect relationship between spray combustion dynamics and thermoacoustic oscillations is imperative for the successful development of any control methodology for its mitigation. The paper presents some very unique operating characteristics of a kerosene-fueled diffusion type combustor undergoing limit-cycle oscillations. Combustor stability limits were mapped using three different-sized injectors. The results show that combustor instability depends on the characteristics of the fuel spray. A simple analytic analysis is also reported in support of a plausible explanation for the unique combustor behavior. The study indicates that high amplitude acoustic pressure in the combustor may cause secondary breakdown of fuel droplets resulting in premixed pre-vaporized type burning of the diffusion type combustor.Keywords: Secondary droplet breakup, Spray dynamics, Taylor Analogy Breakup Model, Thermoacoustic instabilities.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18452179 Application of Gamma Frailty Model in Survival of Liver Cirrhosis Patients
Authors: Elnaz Saeedi, Jamileh Abolaghasemi, Mohsen Nasiri Tousi, Saeedeh Khosravi
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Goals and Objectives: A typical analysis of survival data involves the modeling of time-to-event data, such as the time till death. A frailty model is a random effect model for time-to-event data, where the random effect has a multiplicative influence on the baseline hazard function. This article aims to investigate the use of gamma frailty model with concomitant variable in order to individualize the prognostic factors that influence the liver cirrhosis patients’ survival times. Methods: During the one-year study period (May 2008-May 2009), data have been used from the recorded information of patients with liver cirrhosis who were scheduled for liver transplantation and were followed up for at least seven years in Imam Khomeini Hospital in Iran. In order to determine the effective factors for cirrhotic patients’ survival in the presence of latent variables, the gamma frailty distribution has been applied. In this article, it was considering the parametric model, such as Exponential and Weibull distributions for survival time. Data analysis is performed using R software, and the error level of 0.05 was considered for all tests. Results: 305 patients with liver cirrhosis including 180 (59%) men and 125 (41%) women were studied. The age average of patients was 39.8 years. At the end of the study, 82 (26%) patients died, among them 48 (58%) were men and 34 (42%) women. The main cause of liver cirrhosis was found hepatitis 'B' with 23%, followed by cryptogenic with 22.6% were identified as the second factor. Generally, 7-year’s survival was 28.44 months, for dead patients and for censoring was 19.33 and 31.79 months, respectively. Using multi-parametric survival models of progressive and regressive, Exponential and Weibull models with regard to the gamma frailty distribution were fitted to the cirrhosis data. In both models, factors including, age, bilirubin serum, albumin serum, and encephalopathy had a significant effect on survival time of cirrhotic patients. Conclusion: To investigate the effective factors for the time of patients’ death with liver cirrhosis in the presence of latent variables, gamma frailty model with parametric distributions seems desirable.
Keywords: Frailty model, latent variables, liver cirrhosis, parametric distribution.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10452178 Construct Pairwise Test Suites Based on the Bak-Sneppen Model of Biological Evolution
Authors: Jianjun Yuan, Changjun Jiang
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Pairwise testing, which requires that every combination of valid values of each pair of system factors be covered by at lease one test case, plays an important role in software testing since many faults are caused by unexpected 2-way interactions among system factors. Although meta-heuristic strategies like simulated annealing can generally discover smaller pairwise test suite, they may cost more time to perform search, compared with greedy algorithms. We propose a new method, improved Extremal Optimization (EO) based on the Bak-Sneppen (BS) model of biological evolution, for constructing pairwise test suites and define fitness function according to the requirement of improved EO. Experimental results show that improved EO gives similar size of resulting pairwise test suite and yields an 85% reduction in solution time over SA.Keywords: Covering Arrays, Extremal Optimization, Simulated Annealing, Software Testing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17702177 Small Signal Stability Assessment of MEPE Test System in Free and Open Source Software
Authors: Kyaw Myo Lin
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This paper presents small signal stability study carried over the 140-Bus, 31-Machine, 5-Area MEPE system and validated on free and open source software: PSAT. Well-established linearalgebra analysis, eigenvalue analysis, is employed to determine the small signal dynamic behavior of test system. The aspects of local and interarea oscillations which may affect the operation and behavior of power system are analyzed. Eigenvalue analysis is carried out to investigate the small signal behavior of test system and the participation factors have been determined to identify the participation of the states in the variation of different mode shapes. Also, the variations in oscillatory modes are presented to observe the damping performance of the test system.
Keywords: Eigenvalue analysis, Mode shapes, MEPE test system, Participation factors, Power System oscillations.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24192176 Information System Integration after Merger and Acquisition in the Banking Industry
Authors: Shang-Ping Lin, Shi-Hwa Lo, Ho-Li Yang
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Company mergers and acquisitions reached their peak in the twenty-first century. Mergers and acquisitions have become one of the competitive strategies for external growth. In general, it is believed that mergers and acquisitions can create synergies. However, they require complete information technology system and service integration, especially in the banking industry. Much of the research has focused on performance evaluation, shareholder equity allocation, or even the increase of company market value after the merger and acquisition, whereas few scholars have focused on information system integration post merger and acquisition. This study indicates the role of information systems after a merger and acquisition, explaining the benefits of information system integration using a merger and acquisition case in the banking industry as an example. In addition, we discuss factors that affect the performance of information system integration, and utilize system dynamics to interpret the relationship among factors that affect information system integration performance in the banking industry after a merger and acquisition.Keywords: Merger and Acquisition, Information SystemIntegration, System Dynamics
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5263