Search results for: Environmental Awareness Training
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2762

Search results for: Environmental Awareness Training

1952 Development of a Low Cost Haptic Knob

Authors: Tan Ping Hua, Yeong Che Fai, Ricky Yap, Eileen Su Lee Ming

Abstract:

Haptics has been used extensively in many applications especially in human machine interaction and virtual reality systems. Haptic technology allows user to perceive virtual reality as in real world. However, commercially available haptic devices are expensive and may not be suitable for educational purpose. This paper describes the design and development of a low cost haptic knob, with only one degree of freedom, for use in rehabilitation or training hand pronation and supination. End-effectors can be changed to suit different applications or variation in hand sizes and hand orientation.

Keywords: haptic, microcontroller, real time, virtual reality, rehabilitation

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1951 An Exhaustive Investigation of Green Building Certification on the Productivity and Mental and Physical Health of Buildings Occupants in Tehran, Iran

Authors: Armin Samarghandi, Amirreza Jafari, Mohamad Ghiasi

Abstract:

Since individuals spend the majority of their time indoors, this immediately affects their productivity and health. An essential factor in occupational health and public health is the influence of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in buildings on occupant welfare and productivity. Since then, empirical data have been equivocal, indicating either that the studies are inaccurate or that the research has just scratched the surface of green buildings in offices, accommodation, and hospital settings and not taken the aforementioned holistically. This study compared three green-certified buildings — a residential green building, a green hospital, and a green school — with conventional structures in Tehran, Iran by means of a questionnaire spread among those utilizing these buildings, and assessing their productivity and health rate as opposed to the time they resided, worked in conventional buildings. The results demonstrated higher scores pertaining to productivity, physical and mental wellness as a consequence of better indoor environmental quality (IEQ), natural lighting, design, and sustainability of these building against non-green buildings. In addition, ancillary matters — environmental, financial, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual dimensions of participants — were indirectly evaluated, and the same results are produced.

Keywords: Green building, Iran, productivity, physical and mental health, Tehran.

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1950 Engineering Education for Sustainable Development in China: Perceptions Bias between Experienced Engineers and Engineering Students

Authors: Liang Wang, Wei Zhang

Abstract:

Nowadays sustainable development has increasingly become an important research topic of engineering education all over the world. Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (EESD) highlighted the importance of addressing sustainable development in engineering practice. However, whether and how the professional engineering learning and experience affect those perceptions is an interesting research topic especially in Chinese context. Our study fills this gap by investigating perceptions bias of EESD among first-grade engineering students, fourth-grade engineering students and experienced engineers using a triple-dimensional model. Our goal is to find the effect of engineering learning and experience on sustainable development and make these learning and experiences more accessible for students and engineers in school and workplace context. The data (n = 138) came from a Likert questionnaire based on the triple-dimensional model of EESD adopted from literature reviews and the data contain 48 first-grade students, 56 fourth-grade students and 34 engineers with rich working experience from Environmental Engineering, Energy Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Civil Engineering in or graduated from Zhejiang University, China. One-way ANOVA analysis was used to find the difference in different dimensions among the three groups. The statistical results show that both engineering students and engineers have a well understanding of sustainable development in ecology dimension of EESD while there are significant differences among three groups as to the socio-economy and value rationality dimensions of EESD. The findings provide empirical evidence that both engineering learning and professional engineering experience are helpful to cultivate the cognition and perception of sustainable development in engineering education. The results of this work indicate that more practical content should be added to students’ engineering education while more theoretical content should be added to engineers’ training in order to promote the engineering students’ and engineers’ perceptions of sustainable development. In addition, as to the design of engineering courses and professional practice system for sustainable development, we should not only pay attention to the ecological aspects, but also emphasize the coordination of ecological, socio-economic and human-centered sustainable development (e.g., engineer's ethical responsibility).

Keywords: Engineering education, sustainable development, experienced engineers, engineering students.

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1949 Electrochemical Response Transductions of Graphenated-Polyaniline Nanosensor for Environmental Anthracene

Authors: O. Tovide, N. Jahed, N. Mohammed, C. E. Sunday, H. R. Makelane, R. F. Ajayi, K. M. Molapo, A. Tsegaye, M. Masikini, S. Mailu, A. Baleg, T. Waryo, P. G. Baker, E. I. Iwuoha

Abstract:

A graphenated–polyaniline (GR-PANI) nanocomposite sensor was constructed and used for the determination of anthracene. The direct electro-oxidation behavior of anthracene on the GR-PANI modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was used as the sensing principle. The results indicate thatthe response profile of the oxidation of anthracene on GR-PANI-modified GCE provides for the construction of sensor systems based onamperometric and potentiometric signal transductions. A dynamic linear range of 0.12- 100 µM anthracene and a detection limit of 0.044 µM anthracene were established for the sensor system.

Keywords: Electrochemical sensors, environmental pollutants, graphenated-polymers, polyaromatic hydrocarbon.

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1948 An ensemble of Weighted Support Vector Machines for Ordinal Regression

Authors: Willem Waegeman, Luc Boullart

Abstract:

Instead of traditional (nominal) classification we investigate the subject of ordinal classification or ranking. An enhanced method based on an ensemble of Support Vector Machines (SVM-s) is proposed. Each binary classifier is trained with specific weights for each object in the training data set. Experiments on benchmark datasets and synthetic data indicate that the performance of our approach is comparable to state of the art kernel methods for ordinal regression. The ensemble method, which is straightforward to implement, provides a very good sensitivity-specificity trade-off for the highest and lowest rank.

Keywords: Ordinal regression, support vector machines, ensemblelearning.

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1947 The Need for a More Robust Legal Framework to Curb the Rise in Violence against Game Officials

Authors: A. Roomy

Abstract:

The dramatic rise in violence against game officials has affected all levels of sports including recreational, amateur, and professional sports. One way to combat this rise in violence is through the creation of laws specifically aimed at preventing and punishing this kind of violence. This paper will use related legal cases as a starting point to explore possible ways of better protecting the safety of game officials. It will do this by looking at relevant cases, related legal issues, and two specific ways of reducing violence against game officials. In closing, it will be argued that there needs to be a more robust legal approach with emphasis on criminal and civil penalties for assault and battery, and a more comprehensive social approach with emphasis on raising social awareness on the need to protect game officials from violence.

Keywords: Violence, game officials, legal issues, protection.

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1946 Corporate Social Responsibility and Its Impact on Corporate Governance: Comparative Study between Listed Companies on Bucharest and Bombay Stock Exchange

Authors: L. Feleagă, M. Dumitrașcu, N. Feleagă

Abstract:

This article is a research on corporate governance. The aim of the study is to focus a special attention on the importance of corporate social responsibility and corporate governance, which are relevant, indeed necessary, for organizations. In this regard, we analyzed the corporate social responsibility in the context of corporate governance for companies listed on Bucharest and Bombay Stock Exchange. Therefore, we bring into the spotlight some differences between India and Romania linked with the importance ascribed to corporate social responsibility of a company. We presented the results of the demarche and we concluded suggestions regarding further research in this area. The study increases the awareness, identifies and articulates desirable behaviors, which are not intended to be exhaustive.

Keywords: Corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, disclosure, listed companies.

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1945 Smartphone-Based Human Activity Recognition by Machine Learning Methods

Authors: Yanting Cao, Kazumitsu Nawata

Abstract:

As smartphones are continually upgrading, their software and hardware are getting smarter, so the smartphone-based human activity recognition will be described more refined, complex and detailed. In this context, we analyzed a set of experimental data, obtained by observing and measuring 30 volunteers with six activities of daily living (ADL). Due to the large sample size, especially a 561-feature vector with time and frequency domain variables, cleaning these intractable features and training a proper model become extremely challenging. After a series of feature selection and parameters adjustments, a well-performed SVM classifier has been trained. 

Keywords: smart sensors, human activity recognition, artificial intelligence, SVM

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1944 Experience of the Formation of Professional Competence of Students of IT – Specialties

Authors: B. I. Zhumagaliyev, L. Sh. Balgabayeva, G. S. Nabiyeva, B. A. Tulegenova, P. Oralkhan, B. S. Kalenova, S. S. Akhmetov

Abstract:

The article describes an approach to build competence in research of Bachelor and Master, which is now an important feature of modern specialist in the field of engineering. We provide an example of methodical teaching methods with the research aspect, including the formulation of the problem, the method of conducting experiments, analysis of the results. Implementation of methods allows the student to better consolidate their knowledge and skills at the same time to get research. Knowledge on the part of the media requires some training in the subject area and teaching methods.

Keywords: Professional competence, its model–specialties, teaching methods, educational technology, decision making.

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1943 Neuro-Fuzzy System for Equalization Channel Distortion

Authors: Rahib H. Abiyev

Abstract:

In this paper the application of neuro-fuzzy system for equalization of channel distortion is considered. The structure and operation algorithm of neuro-fuzzy equalizer are described. The use of neuro-fuzzy equalizer in digital signal transmission allows to decrease training time of parameters and decrease the complexity of the network. The simulation of neuro-fuzzy equalizer is performed. The obtained result satisfies the efficiency of application of neurofuzzy technology in channel equalization.

Keywords: Neuro-fuzzy system, noise equalization, neuro-fuzzy equalizer, neural system.

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1942 Improving Teacher Profesionalism through Certification Program: An Indonesia Case Study

Authors: Triyanto

Abstract:

Government of Indonesia held a certification program to enhance the professionalism of teachers by using portfolio assessment. This research discusses about the effectiveness of certification programs to enhance the professionalism of teacher in Indonesia. Portfolio assessment method has drawbacks. The certified teachers do not show significant performance improvement. Therefore, the government changes the portfolio assessment method to the education and training for teachers.

Keywords: Profesionalism, Teacher, Certification, Indonesia

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1941 A Study on the Relation of Corporate Governance and Pricing for Initial Public Offerings

Authors: Chei-Chang Chiou, Sen-Wei Wang, Yu-Min Wang

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between corporate governance and pricing for initial public offerings (IPOs). Empirical result finds that the prediction of pricing of IPOs with corporate governance added can have a rather higher degree of predicting accuracy than that of non governance added during the training and testing samples. Therefore, it can be observed that corporate governance mechanism can affect the pricing of IPOs

Keywords: Artificial neural networks, corporate governance, initial public offerings.

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1940 Comparative Effect of Self-Myofascial Release as a Warm-Up Exercise on Functional Fitness of Young Adults

Authors: Gopal Chandra Saha, Sumanta Daw

Abstract:

Warm-up is an essential component for optimizing performance in various sports before a physical fitness training session. This study investigated the immediate comparative effect of Self-Myofascial Release through vibration rolling (VR), non-vibration rolling (NVR), and static stretching as a part of a warm-up treatment on the functional fitness of young adults. Functional fitness is a classification of training that prepares the body for real-life movements and activities. For the present study 20male physical education students were selected as subjects. The age of the subjects was ranged from 20-25 years. The functional fitness variables undertaken in the present study were flexibility, muscle strength, agility, static and dynamic balance of the lower extremity. Each of the three warm-up protocol was administered on consecutive days, i.e. 24 hr time gap and all tests were administered in the morning. The mean and SD were used as descriptive statistics. The significance of statistical differences among the groups was measured by applying ‘F’-test, and to find out the exact location of difference, Post Hoc Test (Least Significant Difference) was applied. It was found from the study that only flexibility showed significant difference among three types of warm-up exercise. The observed result depicted that VR has more impact on myofascial release in flexibility in comparison with NVR and stretching as a part of warm-up exercise as ‘p’ value was less than 0.05. In the present study, within the three means of warm-up exercises, vibration roller showed better mean difference in terms of NVR, and static stretching exercise on functional fitness of young physical education practitioners, although the results were found insignificant in case of muscle strength, agility, static and dynamic balance of the lower extremity. These findings suggest that sports professionals and coaches may take VR into account for designing more efficient and effective pre-performance routine for long term to improve exercise performances. VR has high potential to interpret into an on-field practical application means.

Keywords: Self-myofascial release, functional fitness, foam roller, physical education.

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1939 MFCA: An Environmental Management Accounting Technique for Optimal Resource Efficiency in Production Processes

Authors: Omolola A. Tajelawi, Hari L. Garbharran

Abstract:

Revenue leakages are one of the major challenges manufacturers face in production processes, as most of the input materials that should emanate as products from the lines are lost as waste. Rather than generating income from material input which is meant to end-up as products, losses are further incurred as costs in order to manage waste generated. In addition, due to the lack of a clear view of the flow of resources on the lines from input to output stage, acquiring information on the true cost of waste generated have become a challenge. This has therefore given birth to the conceptualization and implementation of waste minimization strategies by several manufacturing industries. This paper reviews the principles and applications of three environmental management accounting tools namely Activity-based Costing (ABC), Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) in the manufacturing industry and their effectiveness in curbing revenue leakages. The paper unveils the strengths and limitations of each of the tools; beaming a searchlight on the tool that could allow for optimal resource utilization, transparency in production process as well as improved cost efficiency. Findings from this review reveal that MFCA may offer superior advantages with regards to the provision of more detailed information (both in physical and monetary terms) on the flow of material inputs throughout the production process compared to the other environmental accounting tools. This paper therefore makes a case for the adoption of MFCA as a viable technique for the identification and reduction of waste in production processes, and also for effective decision making by production managers, financial advisors and other relevant stakeholders.

Keywords: MFCA, environmental management accounting, resource efficiency, waste reduction, revenue losses.

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1938 Fuzzy Control of a Three Phase ThyristorizedInduction Motor

Authors: Abolfazl Jalilvand, Mohammad Reza Feyzi, Sohrab Khanmohammad, Mohammad Bagher Bana Sharifian, Ali Sajjadi

Abstract:

Nowadays the control of stator voltage at a constant frequency is one of the traditional and low expense methods in order to control the speed of induction motors near its nominal speed. The torque of induction motor is a nonlinear function of the firing angle, phase angle and speed. In this paper the speed control of induction motor regarding various load torque and under different conditions will be investigated based on a fuzzy controller with inverse training.

Keywords: Three phase induction motor, AC converter, speedcontrol, fuzzy control.

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1937 Hierarchical Clustering Analysis with SOM Networks

Authors: Diego Ordonez, Carlos Dafonte, Minia Manteiga, Bernardino Arcayy

Abstract:

This work presents a neural network model for the clustering analysis of data based on Self Organizing Maps (SOM). The model evolves during the training stage towards a hierarchical structure according to the input requirements. The hierarchical structure symbolizes a specialization tool that provides refinements of the classification process. The structure behaves like a single map with different resolutions depending on the region to analyze. The benefits and performance of the algorithm are discussed in application to the Iris dataset, a classical example for pattern recognition.

Keywords: Neural networks, Self-organizing feature maps, Hierarchicalsystems, Pattern clustering methods.

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1936 Recycling Behavior in a Multicultural Urban Area in Sweden

Authors: Krushna Mahapatra, Atefeh Dadvar, Brijesh Mainali

Abstract:

Alabastern, a multicultural rental housing area in the Växjö city of Sweden, was identified as poor at recycling household waste compared to other housing areas in the town. In this paper, a qualitative and quantitative analysis is conducted to understand the underlying causes of waste recycling behavior of the tenants. Results showed that majority of the studied participants perceived themselves to be environmentally friendly. They reported that they recycled household waste quite often, but it was the other tenants who did not sort their waste properly. The respondents identified the causes of the improper waste recycling as lack of attitude and awareness, limitation of communication, sense of insecurity, lack of means to transport bulky waste, limitation of the recycling room, and inadequate action by the housing company Växjöbostäder.

Keywords: Household behavior, multicultural, waste management, waste recycling.

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1935 How to Use E-Learning to Increase Job Satisfaction in Large Commercial Bank in Bangkok

Authors: Teerada Apibunyopas, Nithinant Thammakoranonta

Abstract:

Many organizations bring e-Learning to use as a tool in their training and human development department. It is getting more popular because it is easy to access to get knowledge all the time and also it provides a rich content, which can develop the employees’ skill efficiently. This study is focused on the factors that affect using e-Learning efficiently, so it will make job satisfaction increasing. The questionnaires were sent to employees in large commercial banks, which use e-Learning located in Bangkok, the results from multiple linear regression analysis showed that employee’s characteristics, characteristics of e-Learning, learning and growth have influence on job satisfaction.

Keywords: e-Learning, Job Satisfaction, Learning and growth.

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1934 The Environmental Impact of Wireless Technologies in Nigeria: An Overview of the IoT and 5G Network

Authors: Powei Happiness Kerry

Abstract:

Introducing wireless technologies in Nigeria have improved the quality of lives of Nigerians, however, not everyone sees it in that light. The paper on the environmental impact of wireless technologies in Nigeria summarizes the scholarly views on the impact of wireless technologies on the environment, beaming its searchlight on 5G and internet of things in Nigeria while also exploring the theory of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The study used a qualitative research method to gather important data from relevant sources and contextually draws inference from the derived data. The study concludes that the Federal Government of Nigeria, before agreeing to any latest development in the world of wireless technologies, should weigh the implications and deliberate extensively with all stalk holders putting into consideration the confirmation it will receive from the National Assembly.  

Keywords: IoT, 5G, ICT, electromagnetic radiation, wave, field, radiofrequency.

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1933 An Environmentally Friendly Approach towards the Conservation of Vernacular Architecture

Authors: M. Philokyprou, A. Michael

Abstract:

Contemporary theories of sustainability, concerning the natural and built environment, have recently introduced an environmental attitude towards the architectural design that, in turn, affects the practice of conservation and reuse of the existing building stock. This paper presents an environmentally friendly approach towards the conservation of vernacular architecture and it is based on the results of a research program which involved the investigation of sustainable design elements of traditional buildings in Cyprus. The research in question showed that Cypriot vernacular architecture gave more emphasis on cooling rather than heating strategies. Another notable finding of the investigation was the great importance given to courtyards as they enhance considerably, and in various ways, the microclimatic conditions of the immediate environment with favorable results throughout the year. Moreover, it was shown that the reduction in temperature fluctuation observed in the closed and semi-open spaces, compared to the respective temperature fluctuation of the external environment -due to the thermal inertia of the building envelope- helps towards the achievement of more comfortable living conditions within traditional dwellings. This paper concludes with a proposal of a sustainable approach towards the conservation of the existing environment and the introduction of new environmental criteria for the conservation of traditional buildings, beyond the aesthetic, morphological and structural ones that are generally applied.

Keywords: Bioclimatic, conservation, environmental, traditional dwellings, vernacular architecture.

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1932 Stability of Electrical Motor Supplied by a Five Level Inverter

Authors: Kelaiaia Mounia Samira, Labar Hocine, Bounaya Kamel, Kelaiaia Samia

Abstract:

The development of the power electronics has allowed increasing the precision and reliability of the electrical trainings, thanks to the adjustable inverters, as the Pulse Wide Modulation (PWM) five level inverters, which is the object of study in this article.The authors treat the relation between the law order adopted for a given system and the oscillations of the electrical and mechanical parameters of which the tolerance depends on the process with which they are integrated (paper factory, lifting of the heavy loads, etc.).Thus the best choice of the regulation indexes allows us to achieve stability and safety training without investment (management of existing equipment).

Keywords: multi level inverter, PWM, Harmonics, oscillation, control

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1931 Prospective Use of Rice Husk Ash to Produce Concrete in India

Authors: Kalyan Kumar Moulick

Abstract:

In this paper, the author studied the possibilities of using Rice Husk Ash (RHA) available in India; to produce concrete. Experiments conducted with RHA obtained from West Bengal, India; to replace cement partially to produce concrete of grade M10, M15, M20, M25 and M30. The concrete produced in the laboratory by replacing cement by 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30% RHA. Compressive strength tests carried out to determine the strength of concrete. Cost analysis and comparison done to show the cost effectiveness of RHA Concrete. Traditional uses of Rice Husk in India pointed out and the advantages of using RHA in making concrete highlighted. Suggestion provided regarding prospective application of RHA concrete in India; which in turn will definitely reduce the cost of concrete and environmental friendly due to utilization of waste and replacement of Cement.

Keywords: Cement replacement, Concrete, Environmental friendly, Rice Husk Ash.

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1930 Study on Diversified Developments Improving Environmental Values-In Case of University Campus -

Authors: Kuriko Iwai, Michihiro Kita

Abstract:

This study aims to clarify constructions which enable to improve socio-cultural values of environments and also to obtain new knowledge on selecting development plans. CVM is adopted as a method of evaluation. As a case of the research, university campus (CP; the following) is selected on account of its various environments, institutions and many users. Investigations were conducted from 4 points of view, total value and utility value of whole CP environments, values of each environment existing in CP or development plan assumed in CP. Furthermore, respondents- attributes were also investigated. In consequence, the following is obtained. 1) Almost all of total value of CP is composed of utility value of direct use. 2) Each of environment and development plans whose value is the highest is clarified. 3) Moreover, development plan to improve environmental value the most is specified.

Keywords: CVM, Development Plans, University Campus, Improvement of Environments Value.

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1929 Nonlinear Multivariable Analysis of CO2 Emissions in China

Authors: Hsiao-Tien Pao, Yi-Ying Li, Hsin-Chia Fu

Abstract:

This paper addressed the impacts of energy consumption, economic growth, financial development, and population size on environmental degradation using grey relational analysis (GRA) for China, where foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows is the proxy variable for financial development. The more recent historical data during the period 2004–2011 are used, because the use of very old data for data analysis may not be suitable for rapidly developing countries. The results of the GRA indicate that the linkage effects of energy consumption–emissions and GDP–emissions are ranked first and second, respectively. These reveal that energy consumption and economic growth are strongly correlated with emissions. Higher economic growth requires more energy consumption and increasing environmental pollution. Likewise, more efficient energy use needs a higher level of economic development. Therefore, policies to improve energy efficiency and create a low-carbon economy can reduce emissions without hurting economic growth. The finding of FDI–emissions linkage is ranked third. This indicates that China do not apply weak environmental regulations to attract inward FDI. Furthermore, China’s government in attracting inward FDI should strengthen environmental policy. The finding of population–emissions linkage effect is ranked fourth, implying that population size does not directly affect CO2 emissions, even though China has the world’s largest population, and Chinese people are very economical use of energy-related products. Overall, the energy conservation, improving efficiency, managing demand, and financial development, which aim at curtailing waste of energy, reducing both energy consumption and emissions, and without loss of the country’s competitiveness, can be adopted for developing economies. The GRA is one of the best way to use a lower data to build a dynamic analysis model.

Keywords: Grey relational analysis, foreign direct investment, CO2 emissions, China.

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1928 MEAL Project: Modifying Eating Attitudes and Actions through Learning

Authors: E. Oliver, A. Cebolla, A. Dominguez, A. Gonzalez-Segura, E. de la Cruz, S. Albertini, L. Ferrini, K. Kronika, T. Nilsen, R. Baños

Abstract:

The main objective of MEAL is to develop a pedagogical tool aimed to help teachers and nutritionists (students and professionals) to acquire, train, promote and deliver to children basic nutritional education and healthy eating behaviours competencies. MEAL is focused on eating behaviours and not only in nutritional literacy, and will use new technologies like Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and serious games (SG) platforms to consolidate the nutritional competences and habits.

Keywords: Nutritional Education, Pedagogical ICT Platform, Serious Games, Teachers and Nutritionists, Training Course.

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1927 The Issues of Effectiveness of Advertisement Communication Process: A Case Study of Lithuania Consumers

Authors: Laimona Sliburyte

Abstract:

The goal of this study was to disclose the core of the advertising research based on the psychological aspects by acquainting with the nature of advertising research and revealing the importance of psychological aspects of advertising during the advertising research. The growing interest in consumer response to advertisement served as an encouragement to make the analysis of psychological aspects of the advertising research, because the information obtained during the advertising research helps to answer the question how advertising really works. In the research analysis focuses on the nature of advertising research. The place of advertising research in advertisement planning process and the advertising research process are unfolded. Moreover, the importance of psychological aspects in the advertising research is being examined. The certain psychological aspects like the particularities of advertising communication process, psychological process that are active at advertising acceptance and awareness process as well as the advertising effects are analysed in more detail.

Keywords: Advertising, communication process, advertising message, advertising psychology.

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1926 An Intelligent Text Independent Speaker Identification Using VQ-GMM Model Based Multiple Classifier System

Authors: Cheima Ben Soltane, Ittansa Yonas Kelbesa

Abstract:

Speaker Identification (SI) is the task of establishing identity of an individual based on his/her voice characteristics. The SI task is typically achieved by two-stage signal processing: training and testing. The training process calculates speaker specific feature parameters from the speech and generates speaker models accordingly. In the testing phase, speech samples from unknown speakers are compared with the models and classified. Even though performance of speaker identification systems has improved due to recent advances in speech processing techniques, there is still need of improvement. In this paper, a Closed-Set Tex-Independent Speaker Identification System (CISI) based on a Multiple Classifier System (MCS) is proposed, using Mel Frequency Cepstrum Coefficient (MFCC) as feature extraction and suitable combination of vector quantization (VQ) and Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) together with Expectation Maximization algorithm (EM) for speaker modeling. The use of Voice Activity Detector (VAD) with a hybrid approach based on Short Time Energy (STE) and Statistical Modeling of Background Noise in the pre-processing step of the feature extraction yields a better and more robust automatic speaker identification system. Also investigation of Linde-Buzo-Gray (LBG) clustering algorithm for initialization of GMM, for estimating the underlying parameters, in the EM step improved the convergence rate and systems performance. It also uses relative index as confidence measures in case of contradiction in identification process by GMM and VQ as well. Simulation results carried out on voxforge.org speech database using MATLAB highlight the efficacy of the proposed method compared to earlier work.

Keywords: Feature Extraction, Speaker Modeling, Feature Matching, Mel Frequency Cepstrum Coefficient (MFCC), Gaussian mixture model (GMM), Vector Quantization (VQ), Linde-Buzo-Gray (LBG), Expectation Maximization (EM), pre-processing, Voice Activity Detection (VAD), Short Time Energy (STE), Background Noise Statistical Modeling, Closed-Set Tex-Independent Speaker Identification System (CISI).

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1925 The Alignment of Information Systems and Environmental Organizations Model in Perspective Capability

Authors: Wartika, Kridanto Surendro, Husni Sastramiharja, Iping Supriana S.

Abstract:

The condition of the market is currently very dynamic, demanding organizations which is use system information to support the achievement of objectives should be necessarily improve the ability of information systems in accordance with the changes. Improved information systems capabilities need to align with the resource capabilities in internal environment of the organization, and vice versa. Alignment model between information systems and environment organizational in this capability perspective is expected can assist management in making the strategy for enhance the capability of information systems in accordance with resources internally within the organization, efficiency in the process of development, and optimization of contributions information systems in achieving organizational goals.

Keywords: Capability, alignment, information system, environmental organizations.

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1924 Positioning Analysis of Atlantic Canadian Provinces as Travel Destinations by Americans

Authors: Dongkoo Yun, Melissa James-MacEachern

Abstract:

This study analyzes Americans’ views of four Atlantic Canadian provinces as travel destinations regarding specific destination attributes for a pleasure trip, awareness (heard) of the destinations, past visit to the destinations during the prior two years, and intention to visit in the next two years. Results indicate that American travellers perceived the four Atlantic Canadian provinces as separate and distinct when rating best-fit destination attributes to each destination. The results suggest that travel destinations, specifically the four selected destinations, must be prepared to differentiate their destination’s image and the range of experiences and services to appeal and attract more American travellers.

Keywords: Atlantic Canadian provinces (travel destinations), American perceptions, competitiveness, positioning analysis.

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1923 Current Trends in Eco-Friendly Reconstruction after the Great East Japan Earthquake

Authors: Ayaka Kamiyama, Akihiro Iijima

Abstract:

On March 11, 2011, the East coast of Japan was hit by one of the strongest earthquakes in history, followed by a devastating tsunami. Although most lifelines, infrastructure, and public facilities have been restored gradually, recovery efforts in terms of disposal of disaster waste and revival of primary industry are lagging. This study presents a summary of the damage inflicted by the earthquake and the current status of reconstruction in the disaster area. Moreover, we discuss the current trends and future perspectives on recently implemented eco-friendly reconstruction projects and focus on the pro-environmental behavior of disaster victims which is emerging as a result of the energy shortage after the earthquake. Finally, we offer ideas for initiatives for the next stage of the reconstruction policies.

Keywords: Agriculture, Disaster wastes, Pro-environmental behavior, Reconstruction policies.

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