Search results for: environmental variables

Authors: Vanda Lucia Zammuner

Abstract:

Subjective loneliness describes people who feel a disagreeable or unacceptable lack of meaningful social relationships, both at the quantitative and qualitative level. The studies to be presented tested an Italian 18-items self-report loneliness measure, that included items adapted from scales previously developed, namely a short version of the UCLA (Russell, Peplau and Cutrona, 1980), and the 11-items Loneliness scale by De Jong-Gierveld & Kamphuis (JGLS; 1985). The studies aimed at testing the developed scale and at verifying whether loneliness is better conceptualized as a unidimensional (so-called 'general loneliness') or a bidimensional construct, namely comprising the distinct facets of social and emotional loneliness. The loneliness questionnaire included 2 singleitem criterion measures of sad mood, and social contact, and asked participants to supply information on a number of socio-demographic variables. Factorial analyses of responses obtained in two preliminary studies, with 59 and 143 Italian participants respectively, showed good factor loadings and subscale reliability and confirmed that perceived loneliness has clearly two components, a social and an emotional one, the latter measured by two subscales, a 7-item 'general' loneliness subscale derived from UCLA, and a 6–item 'emotional' scale included in the JGLS. Results further showed that type and amount of loneliness are related, negatively, to frequency of social contacts, and, positively, to sad mood. In a third study data were obtained from a nation-wide sample of 9.097 Italian subjects, 12 to about 70 year-olds, who filled the test on-line, on the Italian web site of a large-audience magazine, Focus. The results again confirmed the reliability of the component subscales, namely social, emotional, and 'general' loneliness, and showed that they were highly correlated with each other, especially the latter two. Loneliness scores were significantly predicted by sex, age, education level, sad mood and social contact, and, less so, by other variables – e.g., geographical area and profession. The scale validity was confirmed by the results of a fourth study, with elderly men and women (N 105) living at home or in residential care units. The three subscales were significantly related, among others, to depression, and to various measures of the extension of, and satisfaction with, social contacts with relatives and friends. Finally, a fifth study with 315 career-starters showed that social and emotional loneliness correlate with life satisfaction, and with measures of emotional intelligence. Altogether the results showed a good validity and reliability in the tested samples of the entire scale, and of its components.

Keywords: Emotional loneliness, social loneliness, scale development and testing, life span and cultural differences.

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Authors: Abimbola M. Enitan, Josiah Adeyemo, Sheena Kumari, Feroz M. Swalaha, Faizal Bux

Abstract:

Industries produce millions of cubic meters of effluent every year and the wastewater produced may be released into the surrounding water bodies, treated on-site or at municipal treatment plants. The determination of organic matter in the wastewater generated is very important to avoid any negative effect on the aquatic ecosystem. The scope of the present work is to assess the physicochemical composition of the wastewater produced from one of the brewery industry in South Africa. This is to estimate the environmental impact of its discharge into the receiving water bodies or the municipal treatment plant. The parameters monitored for the quantitative analysis of brewery wastewater include biological oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids, volatile suspended solids, ammonia, total oxidized nitrogen, nitrate, nitrite, phosphorus and alkalinity content. In average, the COD concentration of the brewery effluent was 5340.97 mg/l with average pH values of 4.0 to 6.7. The BOD5 and the solids content of the wastewater from the brewery industry were high. This means that the effluent is very rich in organic content and its discharge into the water bodies or the municipal treatment plant could cause environmental pollution or damage the treatment plant. In addition, there were variations in the wastewater composition throughout the monitoring period. This might be as a result of different activities that take place during the production process, as well as the effects of peak period of beer production on the water usage.

Keywords: Brewery wastewater, environmental pollution, industrial effluents, physicochemical composition.

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Authors: Kamalpreet Kaur, Harjit Pal Singh, Vikas Khullar

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In Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), the main limitation is generally inimitable energy consumption during processing of the sensor nodes. Cluster head (CH) election is one of the main issues that can reduce the energy consumption. Therefore, discovering energy saving routing protocol is the focused area for research. In this paper, fuzzy-based energy aware routing protocol is presented, which enhances the stability and network lifetime of the network. Fuzzy logic ensures the well-organized selection of CH by taking four linguistic variables that are concentration, energy, centrality, and distance to base station (BS). The results show that the proposed protocol shows better results in requisites of stability and throughput of the network.

Keywords: ERA, fuzzy logic, network model, WSN.

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Authors: Shaikha AlSanad , Andrew Gale, Rodger Edwards

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Buildings and associated construction methods have a significant impact on the environment. As construction activity increases in Kuwait, there is a need to create design and construction strategies which will minimize the environmental impact of new buildings. Green construction is a design philosophy intended to improve the sustainability of construction by the minimization of resource depletion and CO2 emissions throughout the life cycle of buildings. This paper presents and discusses the results of a survey that was conducted in Kuwait, with the objective of investigating the awareness of developers and other stakeholders regarding their understanding and use of green construction strategies. The results of the survey demonstrate that whilst there seems to be a reasonable level of awareness amongst the stakeholders, this awareness is not currently well reflected in the design and construction practices actually being applied. It is therefore concluded is there is a pressing need for intervention from Government in order that the use of sustainable green design and construction strategies becomes the norm in Kuwait.

Keywords: Sustainability, Sustainable construction, Green Building, Environmental assessment

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Authors: Sarit Rashkovits, Yael Livne

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The study investigates the relationship between education level, workplace learning behaviors, psychological empowerment and burnout in a sample of 191 teachers. We hypothesized that education level will positively affect psychological state of increased empowerment and decreased burnout, and we purposed that these effects will be mediated by workplace learning behaviors. We used multiple regression analyses to test the model that included also the 6 following control variables: The teachers' age, gender, and teaching tenure; the schools' religious level, the pupils' needs: regular/ special needs, and the class level: elementary/ high school. The results support the purposed mediating model.

Keywords: Education level, Learning behaviors, Psychological empowerment, Burnout.

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Authors: Nazirah Zainul Abidin

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The creation of a sustainable future depends on the knowledge and involvement of the people, as well as an understanding of the consequences of individual actions. Construction industry has long been associated with the detrimental effects to our mother earth. In Malaysia, the government, professional bodies and private companies are beginning to take heed in the necessity to reduce this environmental problem without restraining the need for development. This paper focuses on the actions undertaken by the Malaysian government, non-government organizations and construction players in promoting sustainability in construction. To ensure that those concerted efforts are not only skin deep in its impact, a survey was conducted to investigate the awareness of the developers regarding this issue and whether those developers has absorb the concept of sustainable construction in their current practices. The survey revealed that although the developers are aware of the rising issues on sustainability, little efforts are generated from them in implementing it. More effort is necessary to boost this application and further stimulate actions and strategies towards a sustainable built environment.

Keywords: Environmental sustainability, Malaysian construction industry, Malaysian developers, Sustainable construction.

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Authors: V. Vassiliou, M. Menicou, M. Charalambides, J. DeCew, I. Tsukrov

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Cyprus- offshore aquaculture industry has promising prospects taking into account that Cyprus is an island. Its production trend is increasing overtaking bigger countries such Greece and Italy. However, current mooring systems seem to be under-performing acting as obstacles for its future development. Furthermore, shallow coastal waters scarcity due to competing industries dictates future development to come by moving further from shore exposing fish farms and subsequently mooring systems to harsher environmental loadings. It is, therefore, of paramount importance to design mooring systems based on engineering and scientific principles and leave behind the present “trial and error" methods. This paper presents the current state of Cyprus- offshore aquaculture industry and focuses of its mooring designs by proposing a new methodology for designing more reliable systems, hence ensuring its future.

Keywords: Environmental loadings, mooring systems design, numerical modeling, offshore aquaculture

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Authors: Amir Ngah, Masita Abdul Jalil, Zailani Abdullah

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The aim of software maintenance is to maintain the software system in accordance with advancement in software and hardware technology. One of the early works on software maintenance is to extract information at higher level of abstraction. In this paper, we present the process of how to design an information extraction tool for software maintenance. The tool can extract the basic information from old programs such as about variables, based classes, derived classes, objects of classes, and functions. The tool have two main parts; the lexical analyzer module that can read the input file character by character, and the searching module which users can get the basic information from the existing programs. We implemented this tool for a patterned sub-C++ language as an input file.

Keywords: Extraction tool, software maintenance, reverse engineering, C++.

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Authors: Mukesh Singh Boori, Venerando Eustáquio Amaro

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The objective of this study was to improve our understanding of vulnerability and environmental change; it's causes basically show the intensity, its distribution and human-environment effect on the ecosystem in the Apodi Valley Region, This paper is identify, assess and classify vulnerability and environmental change in the Apodi valley region using a combined approach of landscape pattern and ecosystem sensitivity. Models were developed using the following five thematic layers: Geology, geomorphology, soil, vegetation and land use/cover, by means of a Geographical Information Systems (GIS)-based on hydro-geophysical parameters. In spite of the data problems and shortcomings, using ESRI-s ArcGIS 9.3 program, the vulnerability score, to classify, weight and combine a number of 15 separate land cover classes to create a single indicator provides a reliable measure of differences (6 classes) among regions and communities that are exposed to similar ranges of hazards. Indeed, the ongoing and active development of vulnerability concepts and methods have already produced some tools to help overcome common issues, such as acting in a context of high uncertainties, taking into account the dynamics and spatial scale of asocial-ecological system, or gathering viewpoints from different sciences to combine human and impact-based approaches. Based on this assessment, this paper proposes concrete perspectives and possibilities to benefit from existing commonalities in the construction and application of assessment tools.

Keywords: Vulnerability, Land use/cover, Ecosystem, Remotesensing, GIS.

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Authors: Asmita Shukla, Soma Parija

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The present study examines the mediating effect of online flow experience on the relationship between extraversionintroversion, locus of control and loneliness, and depression and satisfaction with life. The data was obtained using a structured questionnaire prepared by adapting standardized scales available from a sample of 102 engineering students from different technical institutions at Bhubaneswar, India. The results indicate that there is a positive significant relationship between introversion, external locus of control, loneliness, depression and online flow experience, and extraversion, internal locus of control and satisfaction with life. The results also suggest that online flow experience mediates the relationship between the aforementioned variables.

Keywords: Life satisfaction and depression, loneliness, online flow experience, personality.

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Authors: Yousra Zakaria Ahmed, Ahmed El Gendy, Salah El Haggar

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In this paper, our methodology to assess sustainability of wastewater treatment technologies in Egypt is presented. The preliminary list of factors to be considered, as well as their ranking listed. The factors include, but are not limited to pollutants removal efficiency and energy consumption under the environmental dimension, construction cost, operation and maintenance costs and required land area cost under the economic dimension and public acceptance, noise and generating job opportunities for local residents. This methodology is intended to be a user-friendly screening tool to support the decision making process when investigating different wastewater treatment technologies in Egypt. Based on the research work results presented in this paper, it can be generally concluded that the categorization of some of the social and environmental aspects of sustainability is subjective and highly dependent on the local conditions and researchers’ background.

Keywords: Sustainability, wastewater treatment, sustainability assessment, Egypt.

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Authors: Moustafa Osman Mohammed

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This paper will explore formation of HCl aerosol at atmospheric boundary layers and encourages the uptake of environmental modeling systems (EMSs) as a practice evaluation of gaseous emissions (“framework measures”) from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The conceptual model predicts greenhouse gas emissions to ecological points beyond landfill site operations. It focuses on incorporation traditional knowledge into baseline information for both measurement data and the mathematical results, regarding parameters influence model variable inputs. The paper has simplified parameters of aerosol processes based on the more complex aerosol process computations. The simple model can be implemented to both Gaussian and Eulerian rural dispersion models. Aerosol processes considered in this study were (i) the coagulation of particles, (ii) the condensation and evaporation of organic vapors, and (iii) dry deposition. The chemical transformation of gas-phase compounds is taken into account photochemical formulation with exposure effects according to HCl concentrations as starting point of risk assessment. The discussion set out distinctly aspect of sustainability in reflection inputs, outputs, and modes of impact on the environment. Thereby, models incorporate abiotic and biotic species to broaden the scope of integration for both quantification impact and assessment risks. The later environmental obligations suggest either a recommendation or a decision of what is a legislative should be achieved for mitigation measures of landfill gas (LFG) ultimately.

Keywords: Air dispersion model, landfill management, spatial analysis, environmental impact and risk assessment.

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Authors: Dayananda Pai, Shrikantha S. Rao, Savitha G.Kini

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In this study, the effects of machining parameters on specific energy during surface grinding of 6061Al-SiC35P composites are investigated. Vol% of SiC, feed and depth of cut were chosen as process variables. The power needed for the calculation of the specific energy is measured from the two watt meter method. Experiments are conducted using standard RSM design called Central composite design (CCD). A second order response surface model was developed for specific energy. The results identify the significant influence factors to minimize the specific energy. The confirmation results demonstrate the practicability and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Keywords: ANOVA, Metal matrix composites, Response surface methodology, Specific energy, Two watt meter method.

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Authors: Boonorm Chomtee, John J. Borkowski

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The objective of the research is to study and compare response surface designs: Central composite designs (CCD), Box- Behnken designs (BBD), Small composite designs (SCD), Hybrid designs, and Uniform shell designs (USD) over sets of reduced models when the design is in a spherical region for 3 and 4 design variables. The two optimality criteria ( D and G ) are considered which larger values imply a better design. The comparison of design optimality criteria of the response surface designs across the full second order model and sets of reduced models for 3 and 4 factors based on the two criteria are presented.

Keywords: design optimality criteria, reduced models, response surface design, spherical design region

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Authors: Pradeep Kumar K

Abstract:

We propose the use of magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) to realize single-qubit quantum gates. We consider longitudinal and polar MOKE in reflection geometry in which the magnetic field is parallel to both the plane of incidence and surface of the film. MOKE couples incident TE and TM polarized photons and the Hamiltonian that represents this interaction is isomorphic to that of a canonical two-level quantum system. By varying the phase and amplitude of the magnetic field, we can realize Hadamard, NOT, and arbitrary phase-shift single-qubit quantum gates. The principal advantage is operation with magnetically non-transparent materials.

Keywords: Quantum computing, qubit, magneto-optic kerr effect (MOKE), magneto-optical interactions, continuous variables.

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Authors: S. Abdallah, A. Khalil, A. Divine

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The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between knowledge sharing and innovation capability, by examining the influence of individual, organizational and technological factors on knowledge sharing. The research is based on a survey of 103 employees from different organizations in the United Arab Emirates. The study is based on a model and a questionnaire that was previously tested by Lin [1]. Thus, the study aims at examining the validity of that model in UAE context. The results of the research show varying degrees of correlation between the different variables, with ICT use having the strongest relationship with the innovation capabilities of organizations. The study also revealed little evidence of knowledge collecting and knowledge sharing among UAE employees.

Keywords: Knowledge sharing, Organization Innovation, Technology Use, Innovation Capabilities.

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Authors: Norwati Mustapha, Manijeh Jalali, Abolghasem Bozorgniya, Mehrdad Jalali

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Web usage mining algorithms have been widely utilized for modeling user web navigation behavior. In this study we advance a model for mining of user-s navigation pattern. The model makes user model based on expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm.An EM algorithm is used in statistics for finding maximum likelihood estimates of parameters in probabilistic models, where the model depends on unobserved latent variables. The experimental results represent that by decreasing the number of clusters, the log likelihood converges toward lower values and probability of the largest cluster will be decreased while the number of the clusters increases in each treatment.

Keywords: Web Usage Mining, Expectation maximization, navigation pattern mining.

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Authors: Alexander B. Bichkov, Alla A. Mityureva, Valery V. Smirnov

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In present work are considered the scheme of evaluation the transition probability in quantum system. It is based on path integral representation of transition probability amplitude and its evaluation by means of a saddle point method, applied to the part of integration variables. The whole integration process is reduced to initial value problem solutions of Hamilton equations with a random initial phase point. The scheme is related to the semiclassical initial value representation approaches using great number of trajectories. In contrast to them from total set of generated phase paths only one path for each initial coordinate value is selected in Monte Karlo process.

Keywords: Path integral, saddle point method, semiclassical approximation, transition probability

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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

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Authors: Shiuh-Jer Huang, Yu-Sheng Hsu

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On-board available parking space detecting system, parking trajectory planning and tracking control mechanism are the key components of vehicle backward auto-parking system. Firstly, pair of ultrasonic sensors is installed on each side of vehicle body surface to detect the relative distance between ego-car and surrounding obstacle. The dimension of a found empty space can be calculated based on vehicle speed and the time history of ultrasonic sensor detecting information. This result can be used for constructing the 2D vehicle environmental map and available parking type judgment. Finally, the auto-parking controller executes the on-line optimal parking trajectory planning based on this 2D environmental map, and monitors the real-time vehicle parking trajectory tracking control. This low cost auto-parking system was tested on a model car.

Keywords: Vehicle auto-parking, parking space detection, parking path tracking, intelligent fuzzy controller.

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Authors: Thella Babu Rao, A. Gopala Krishna

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This investigation presents the formulation of kerf (width of slit) and optimal control parameter settings of wire electrochemical discharge machining which results minimum possible kerf while machining Al7075/SiCp MMCs. WEDM is proved its efficiency and effectiveness to cut the hard ceramic reinforced MMCs within the permissible budget. Among the distinct performance measures of WEDM process, kerf is an important performance characteristic which determines the dimensional accuracy of the machined component while producing high precision components. The lack of available of the machinability information such advanced MMCs result the more experimentation in the manufacturing industries. Therefore, extensive experimental investigations are essential to provide the database of effect of various control parameters on the kerf while machining such advanced MMCs in WEDM. Literature reviled the significance some of the electrical parameters which are prominent on kerf for machining distinct conventional materials. However, the significance of reinforced particulate size and volume fraction on kerf is highlighted in this work while machining MMCs along with the machining parameters of pulse-on time, pulse-off time and wire tension. Usually, the dimensional tolerances of machined components are decided at the design stage and a machinist pay attention to produce the required dimensional tolerances by setting appropriate machining control variables. However, it is highly difficult to determine the optimal machining settings for such advanced materials on the shop floor. Therefore, in the view of precision of cut, kerf (cutting width) is considered as the measure of performance for the model. It was found from the literature that, the machining conditions of higher fractions of large size SiCp resulting less kerf where as high values of pulse-on time result in a high kerf. A response surface model is used to predict the relative significance of various control variables on kerf. Consequently, a powerful artificial intelligence called genetic algorithms (GA) is used to determine the best combination of the control variable settings. In the next step the conformation test was conducted for the optimal parameter settings and found good agreement between the GA kerf and measured kerf. Hence, it is clearly reveal that the effectiveness and accuracy of the developed model and program to analyze the kerf and to determine its optimal process parameters. The results obtained in this work states that, the resulted optimized parameters are capable of machining the Al7075/SiCp MMCs more efficiently and with better dimensional accuracy.

Keywords: Al7075SiCP MMC, kerf, WEDM, optimization.

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Authors: D. H. Kim, Y. H. Kim, T. Kim

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A new method identifies coupled fluid-structure system with a reduced set of state variables is presented. Assuming that the structural model is known a priori either from an analysis or a test and using linear transformations between structural and aeroelastic states, it is possible to deduce aerodynamic information from sampled time histories of the aeroelastic system. More specifically given a finite set of structural modes the method extracts generalized aerodynamic force matrix corresponding to these mode shapes. Once the aerodynamic forces are known, an aeroelastic reduced-order model can be constructed in discrete-time, state-space format by coupling the structural model and the aerodynamic system. The resulting reduced-order model is suitable for constant Mach, varying density analysis.

Keywords: ROM (Reduced-Order Model), aero elasticity, AGARD 445.6 wing.

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Authors: Poo Bee Tin, Rahmah Ismail, Norasmah Othman

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Globalisation is a phenomenon that cannot be avoided. As globalisation allowed free flow of inputs including labour, it may affect job opportunities for the locals. Therefore, investigate the determinants of labour supply is essential in understanding the structure of labour market in the new era of globalization. The objective of this article is to examine labour supply by taking into account the globalisation effect. The study covers 3885 households in Peninsular Malaysia who are chosen using stratified random sampling. The labour supply model will be the basis for the analysis. The basic labour supply determinants are own wage and non-labour income. However, the extended labour supply model incorporates other variables like spouse wage，number of children and individuals characteristics like education level and age. Besides, the globalization indicator will also be incorporated as another independent variable.

Keywords: globalization, head of households, labour supply, wage

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Authors: Wann-Ming Wey

Abstract:

In recent years, in addition to face the external threats such as energy shortages and climate change, traffic congestion and environmental pollution have become anxious problems for many cities. Considering private automobile-oriented urban development had produced many negative environmental and social impacts, the transit-oriented development (TOD) has been considered as a sustainable urban model. TOD encourages public transport combined with friendly walking and cycling environment designs, however, non-motorized modes help improving human health, energy saving, and reducing carbon emissions. Due to environmental changes often affect the planners’ decision-making; this research applies dynamic network process (DNP) which includes the time dependent concept to promoting friendly walking and cycling environmental designs as an advanced planning support system for environment improvements.

This research aims to discuss what kinds of design strategies can improve a friendly walking and cycling environment under TOD. First of all, we collate and analyze environment designing factors by reviewing the relevant literatures as well as divide into three aspects of “safety”, “convenience”, and “amenity” from fifteen environment designing factors. Furthermore, we utilize fuzzy Delphi Technique (FDT) expert questionnaire to filter out the more important designing criteria for the study case. Finally, we utilized DNP expert questionnaire to obtain the weights changes at different time points for each design criterion. Based on the changing trends of each criterion weight, we are able to develop appropriate designing strategies as the reference for planners to allocate resources in a dynamic environment. In order to illustrate the approach we propose in this research, Taipei city as one example has been used as an empirical study, and the results are in depth analyzed to explain the application of our proposed approach.

Keywords: Environment Planning Support Systems, Walking and Cycling, Transit-oriented Development (TOD), Dynamic Network Process (DNP).

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Authors: Li Xinyao, Hong Jianzhong, Wu Wenkai

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In order to make environmental test centrifuge balance automatically and accurately, reduce unbalance centrifugal force, balance adjusting system of centrifuge is designed. The new balance adjusting system comprises motor-reducer, timing belt, screw pair, slider-guideway and four rocker force sensors. According to information obtained by the four rocker force sensors, unbalanced value at both ends of the big arm is computed and heavy block is moved to achieve balance adjusting. In this paper, motor power and torque to move the heavy block is calculated. In full load running progress of centrifuge, the stress-strain of screw pair composed by adjusting nut and big arm are analyzed. A successful application of the balance adjusting system is also put forwarded. The results show that the balance adjusting system can satisfy balance require of environmental test centrifuge.

Keywords: balance adjusting system, centrifuge, screw pair, timing belt

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Authors: S. Niksarlioglu, F. Kulahci

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Earthquakes are natural phenomena that occur with influence of a lot of parameters such as seismic activity, changing in the ground waters' motion, changing in the water-s temperature, etc. On the other hand, the radon gas concentrations in soil vary as nonlinear generally with earthquakes. Continuous measurement of the soil radon gas is very important for determination of characteristic of the seismic activity. The radon gas changes as continuous with strain occurring within the Earth-s surface during an earthquake and effects from the physical and the chemical processes such as soil structure, soil permeability, soil temperature, the barometric pressure, etc. Therefore, at the modeling researches are notsufficient to knowthe concentration ofradon gas. In this research, we determined relationships between radon emissions based on the environmental parameters and earthquakes occurring along the East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ), Turkiye and predicted magnitudes of some earthquakes with the artificial neural network (ANN) model.

Keywords: Earthquake, Modeling, Prediction, Radon.

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Authors: L. Mota, O. Frausto

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Marine Protected Areas can benefit from nature based tourism, monitoring environmental impacts and also become target for human presence. From more than 3 million tourists visiting Cozumel Island every year, an average of 2,8 million arrive by cruise ship, and 41% are estimated to have motivation for water activities. The destination is relying so much on the tourism activity, that scuba diving and snorkeling in the National Park Reef of Cozumel sustain the major economic activity. In order to achieve the sustainable development indicator designed for regional environmental development, the PNAC offers a training course to tourism providers to access the protected area. This way, the update of the last 5 years of such training is directed to diving staff, boat crew and professionals, making them able to assist in managing the natural resource. Moreover, the case study is an example to be used for raising awareness among tourists visiting protected areas.

Keywords: Education, Marine Protected Area, scuba diving, sustainability, tourism.

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Authors: Asim Tanvir, Numera Rafaqat

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This study discusses the stumbling blocks stifling the adoption of GPS technology in the public sector of Pakistan. This study has been carried out in order to describe the value of GPS technology and its adoption at various public sector organisations in Pakistan. Sample size for the research conducted was 200; personnel working in public sector having age above 29 years were surveyed. Data collected for this research has been quantitatively analysed with the help of SPSS. Regression analysis, correlation and cross tabulation were the techniques used to determine the strength of relationship between key variables. Findings of this research indicate that main hurdles in GPS adoption in the public sector of Pakistan are lack of awareness about GPS among masses in general and the stakeholders in particular, lack of initiative on part of government in promoting new technologies, unavailability of GPS infrastructure in Pakistan and prohibitions on map availability because of security reasons.

Keywords: Adoptability issues, Growth of GPS, GPSinfrastructure, Public sectors in Pakistan

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Authors: Jihye Jeon

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This paper analyzes the conceptual framework of three statistical methods, multiple regression, path analysis, and structural equation models. When establishing research model of the statistical modeling of complex social phenomenon, it is important to know the strengths and limitations of three statistical models. This study explored the character, strength, and limitation of each modeling and suggested some strategies for accurate explaining or predicting the causal relationships among variables. Especially, on the studying of depression or mental health, the common mistakes of research modeling were discussed.

Keywords: Multiple regression, path analysis, structural equation models, statistical modeling, social and psychological phenomenon.

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Authors: Weihua Ruan, Kuan-Chou Chen

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This paper is concerned with a system of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations coupled with an autonomous dynamical system. The mathematical system arises in the differential game formulation of political economy models as an infinite-horizon continuous-time differential game with discounted instantaneous payoff rates and continuously and discretely varying state variables. The existence of a weak solution of the PDE system is proven and a computational scheme of approximate solution is developed for a class of such systems. A model of democratization is mathematically analyzed as an illustration of application.

Keywords: Differential games, Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations, infinite horizon, political-economy models.

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