Search results for: oxidation activity

Authors: Liubov Evstigneeva

Abstract:

In this paper an attempt is made to establish causal nexuses between innovation and international trade in Russia. The topicality of this issue is determined by the necessity of choosing policy instruments for economic modernization and transition to innovative development. The vector auto regression (VAR) model and Granger test are applied for the Russian monthly data from 2005 until the second quartile of 2015. Both lagged import and export at the national level cause innovation, the latter starts to stimulate foreign trade since it is a remote lag. In comparison to aggregate data, the results by patent’s categories are more diverse. Importing technologies from foreign countries stimulates patent activity, while innovations created in Russia are only Granger causality for import to Commonwealth of Independent States.

Keywords: Export, import, innovation, patents.

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Authors: M. Rodionov, Z. Dedovets

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This article discusses plausible reasoning use for solution to practical problems. Such reasoning is the major driver of motivation and implementation of mathematical, scientific and educational research activity. A general, practical problem solving algorithm is presented which includes an analysis of specific problem content to build, solve and interpret the underlying mathematical model. The author explores the role of practical problems such as the stimulation of students' interest, the development of their world outlook and their orientation in the modern world at the different stages of learning mathematics in secondary school. Particular attention is paid to the characteristics of those problems which were systematized and presented in the conclusions.

Keywords: Mathematics, motivation, secondary school, student, practical problem.

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Authors: L. Nekoozad, M. Salehi Barough, B. Salmasian

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Introduction: Some parameters should be considered to investigate the chronic effects of radiation absorption in radiation workers. Trace elements are parameters which small changes in them can cause significant effects on live systems. The role of trace element concentration in human health is significant. These elements play an important role in the developing and functioning of the immune system, cellular respiration, and oxidation processes. Considering the importance and necessity of this issue and few studies, measurements of concentration changes of these elements due to the absorbed dose are important. Purpose: This study aimed to determine the biological effects of occupational dose absorption on plasma and erythrocyte concentration of Zn and Cu in the radiology staff of Tehran Oil Hospital. Material and methods: In this analytical-comparative study, 72 people have entered. 36 people (18 males and 18 females) were selected as radiology staff in the diagnostic and therapeutic departments of Tehran Oil Hospital. And 36 people (18 males and 18 females) were selected as general section staff in the same hospital as a control group. Radiology and control groups’ age and sex were matched. 10 ml of venous blood was taken from all people.  An atomic absorption spectrometer was used to obtain zinc and copper plasma concentrations. Levine test was used to compare these results validity. Results: The mean concentrations of copper and zinc were measured as 0.951 and 0.754 mg/L in the plasma phase and 3.2  and 0.401 mg/L in the RBC phase for the radiology group.  Copper and zinc average concentrations, respectively 0.976 and 0.813 mg/L in the plasma phase and 2.906 and 0.476 mg/L in the RBC phase, were measured for the control group. These elements Concentrations in the plasma phase were significantly different from that of the control group, but the concentrations in the red blood cell phase did not show a significant difference compared to the control group. In comparison, a separate comparison between men and women in the experimental and control groups showed a significant difference in the values of the elements mentioned. With a significant increase in samples, a better justification than the available statistical results can be extracted. Conclusions: Within this study results, chronic occupational probabilistic absorption destructive effects (even within the permitted range) on blood trace element concentration have been confirmed.

Keywords: Chronic absorption, atomic absorption spectrometry, radiology staff, trace element concentration.

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Authors: R. Croitoru, L. A. M. van den Broek, A. E. Frissen, C. M. Davidescu, F. Peter, C. G. Boeriu

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Commercially available lipases (Candida antarctica lipase B, Novozyme 435, Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase, and Lipozyme TL IM), as well as sol-gel immobilized lipases, have been screened for their ability to acylate regioselectively xylitol, sorbitol, and mannitol with a phenolic ester in a binary mixture of t-butanol and dimethylsulfoxide. HPLC and MALDI-TOF MS analysis revealed the exclusive formation of monoesters for all studied sugar alcohols. The lipases immobilized by the sol-gel entrapment method proved to be efficient catalysts, leading to high conversions (up to 60%) in the investigated acylation reactions. From a sequence of silane precursors with different nonhydrolyzable groups in their structure, the presence of octyl and i-butyl group was most beneficial for the catalytic activity of sol-gel entrapped lipases in the studied process.

Keywords: Lipase, phenolic ester, specificity, sugar alcohol, transesterification.

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Authors: H. Sagha, S. Kasaei, E. Enayati, M. Dehghani

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Although Face detection is not a recent activity in the field of image processing, it is still an open area for research. The greatest step in this field is the work reported by Viola and its recent analogous is Huang et al. Both of them use similar features and also similar training process. The former is just for detecting upright faces, but the latter can detect multi-view faces in still grayscale images using new features called 'sparse feature'. Finding these features is very time consuming and inefficient by proposed methods. Here, we propose a new approach for finding sparse features using a genetic algorithm system. This method requires less computational cost and gets more effective features in learning process for face detection that causes more accuracy.

Keywords: Face Detection, Genetic Algorithms, Sparse Feature.

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Authors: P. Valdiviezo, G. Riofrio, R. Reategui

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This article describes the implementation of an intelligent agent that provides recommendations for educational resources in a virtual learning environment (VLE). It aims to support pending (undeveloped) student learning activities. It begins by analyzing the proposed VLE data model entities in the recommender process. The pending student activities are then identified, which constitutes the input information for the agent. By using the attribute-based recommender technique, the information can be processed and resource recommendations can be obtained. These serve as support for pending activity development in the course. To integrate this technique, we used an ontology. This served as support for the semantic annotation of attributes and recommended files recovery.

Keywords: Learning activities, educational resource, recommender agent, recommendation technique, ontology.

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Authors: Md. Ashraful Islam, Rahat Sharif

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Chittagong is the Commercial Capital of Bangladesh. The study area at GEC in Chittagong is one of the most commercial activity centers of Chittagong. This paper first analyzes the parking demand of the commercial centers, based on the parking survey. Further, it analyzes the relationship between the parking demand of the commercial buildings and the public transport accessibility. The conclusion is that the parking demand rate of the shopping centre and supermarkets decreases with the increasing of the public transport accessibility. This paper also provides the parking demand rate under the different levels of the public transport accessibility and the parking demand model with the accessibility. The conclusions are valuable for the researches on the parking demand and the making of the parking index for the commercial buildings.

Keywords: Parking, accumulation, inventory, demand, supply, occupancy.

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Authors: P. Chaijak, M. Lertworapreecha, C. Sukkasem

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Extracellular laccases are copper-containing microbial enzymes with many industrial biotechnological applications. This study evaluated the ability of nutrients in coconut coir to enhance the yield of extracellular laccase of Galactomyces reesii IFO 10823 and develop a co-culture between this yeast and other filamentous fungi isolated from the fungus comb of Macrotermes sp. The co-culture between G. reesii IFO 10823 and M. indicus FJ-M-5 (G3) gave the highest activity at 580.20 U/mL. When grown in fermentation media prepared from coconut coir and distilled water at 70% of initial moisture without supplement addition, G3 produced extracellular laccase of 113.99 U/mL.

Keywords: Extracellular laccase, production, yeast, natural inducer.

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Authors: Mansoureh Naderipour, Susan Bastani, Mohammad Fazel Zarandi

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Predicting links that may occur in the future and missing links in social networks is an attractive problem in social network analysis. Granular computing can help us to model the relationships between human-based system and social sciences in this field. In this paper, we present a model based on granular computing approach and Type-2 fuzzy logic to predict links regarding nodes’ activity and the relationship between two nodes. Our model is tested on collaboration networks. It is found that the accuracy of prediction is significantly higher than the Type-1 fuzzy and crisp approach.

Keywords: Social Network, link prediction, granular computing, Type-2 fuzzy sets.

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Authors: L. Zehtaban, D. Roller

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Apart from geometry, functionality is one of the most significant hallmarks of a product. The functionality of a product can be considered as the fundamental justification for a product existence. Therefore a functional analysis including a complete and reliable descriptor has a high potential to improve product development process in various fields especially in knowledge-based design. One of the important applications of the functional analysis and indexing is in retrieval and design reuse concept. More than 75% of design activity for a new product development contains reusing earlier and existing design know-how. Thus, analysis and categorization of product functions concluded by functional indexing, influences directly in design optimization. This paper elucidates and evaluates major classes for functional analysis by discussing their major methods. Moreover it is finalized by presenting a noble hybrid approach for functional analysis.

Keywords: Functional analysis, design reuse, functionalindexing and representation.

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Authors: Ceren Ince, Berkay Z. Erdem, Shahram Derogar, Nabi Yuzer

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Fibre cement plates, often used in construction, generally are made using quartz as an inert material, cement as a binder and cellulose as a fibre. This paper, first of all, investigates the mechanical properties and durability of fibre cement plates when quartz is both partly and fully replaced with diatomite. Diatomite does not only have lower density compared to quartz but also has high pozzolanic activity. The main objective of this paper is the investigation of the effects of supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) on the short and long term mechanical properties and durability characteristics of fibre cement plates prepared using diatomite. Supplementary cementing materials such as ground granulated blast furnace slug (GGBS) and fly ash (FA) are used in this study. Volume proportions of 10, 20, 30 and 40% of GGBS and FA are used as partial replacement materials to cement. Short and long term mechanical properties such as compressive and flexural strengths as well as sorptivity characteristics and mass were investigated. Consistency and setting time at each replacement levels of SCMs were also recorded. The effects of using supplementary cementing materials on the carbonation and sulphate resistance of fibre cement plates were then experimented. The results, first of all, show that the use of diatomite as a full or partial replacement to quartz resulted in a systematic decrease in total mass of the fibre cement plates. The reduction of mass was largely due to the lower density and finer particle size of diatomite compared to quartz. The use of diatomite did not only reduce the mass of these plates but also increased the compressive strength significantly as a result of its high pozzolanic activity. The replacement levels of both GGBS and FA resulted in a systematic decrease in short term compressive strength with increasing replacement levels. This was essentially expected as the total rate of hydration is much lower in GGBS and FA than that of cement. Long term results however, indicated that the compressive strength of fibre cement plates prepared using both GGBS and FA increases with time and hence the compressive strength of plates prepared using SCMs is either equivalent or more than the compressive strength of plates prepared using cement alone. Durability characteristics of fibre cement plates prepared using SCMs were enhanced significantly. Measurements of sopritivty characteristics were also indicated that the plates prepared using SCMs has much lower water absorption capacities compared to plates prepared cement alone. Much higher resistance to carbonation and sulphate attach were observed with plates prepared using SCMs. The results presented in this paper show that the use of SCMs does not only support the production of more sustainable construction materials but also enhances the mechanical properties and durability characteristics of fibre cement plates.

Keywords: Diatomite, fibre, strength, supplementary cementing materials.

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Authors: A. Kerfah, K. Taïbi, S. Omeiri, M. Trari.

Abstract:

New lead-free ferroelectric relaxor ceramics were prepared by conventional solid-state synthesis in the BaTiO3-Bi2O3- Y2O3 systems. Some of these ceramics present a ferroelectric relaxor with transition temperature close to room temperature. These new materials are very interesting for applications and can replace leadbased ceramic to prevent the toxic pollutions during the preparation state. In the other hand, the energy band diagram shows the potentiality of these compounds for the solar energy conversion. Thus, some compositions have been tested successfully for H2 production upon visible light. The best activity occurs in alkaline media with a rate evolution of about 0.15 mL g-1 mn-1 and a quantum yield of 1% under polychromatic light.

Keywords: Ferroelectric, Hydrogen production, Lead-free, Photocatalysis.

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Authors: Kevin McDaid, Simon P. Wilson

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Software developed for a specific customer under contract typically undergoes a period of testing by the customer before acceptance. This is known as user acceptance testing and the process can reveal both defects in the system and requests for changes to the product. This paper uses nonhomogeneous Poisson processes to model a real user acceptance data set from a recently developed system. In particular a split Poisson process is shown to provide an excellent fit to the data. The paper explains how this model can be used to aid the allocation of resources through the accurate prediction of occurrences both during the acceptance testing phase and before this activity begins.

Keywords: User acceptance testing. Software reliability growth modelling. Split Poisson process. Bayesian methods.

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Authors: A. Kourou, S. Kyriakopoulos, N. Anyfanti

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A lot of children under the age of five spend their daytime hours away from their home, in a kindergarten. Caring for children is a serious subject, and their safety in case of earthquake is the first priority. Being aware of earthquakes helps to prioritize the needs and take the appropriate actions to limit the effects. Earthquakes occurring anywhere at any time require emergency planning. Earthquake planning is a cooperative effort and childcare providers have unique roles and responsibilities. Greece has high seismicity and Ionian Islands Region has the highest seismic activity of the country. Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization (EPPO) is a national organization in Greece. The mission of EPPO is the seismic risk reduction by designing an earthquake management program of mitigation and preparedness. Among other actions EPPO has analyzed the needs and requirements of kindergartens on earthquake protection issues and has designed specific activities to familiarize the day care centers staff being prepared for earthquakes.  This research presents the results of a survey that detects the level of earthquake preparedness of kindergartens in all over the country and Ionian Islands too. A closed-form questionnaire of 20 main questions was developed for the survey in order to detect the aspects of participants concerning the earthquake preparedness actions at individual, family and day care environment level. 2668 questionnaires were gathered from March 2014 to May 2019, and analyzed by EPPO’s Department of Education. Moreover, this paper presents the EPPO’s educational activities targeted to the Ionian Islands Region that implemented in the framework of “Telemachus” Project. To provide safe environment for children to learn, and staff to work is the foremost goal of any State, community and kindergarten. This project is funded under the Priority Axis “Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development” of Operational Plan “Ionian Islands 2014-2020”. It is increasingly accepted that emergency preparedness should be thought of as an ongoing process rather than a one-time activity. Creating an earthquake safe daycare environment that facilitates learning is a challenging task. Training, drills, and update of emergency plan should take place throughout the year at kindergartens to identify any gaps and to ensure the emergency procedures. EPPO will continue to work closely with regional and local authorities to actively address the needs of children and kindergartens before, during and after earthquakes.

Keywords: Child care centers, education on earthquake issues, emergency planning, Ionian Islands Region of Greece, kindergartens, preparedness.

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Authors: Juliana A. Knocikova, Yann Bouret, Médéric Argentina, Laurent Counillon

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Cell volume, together with membrane potential and intracellular hydrogen ion concentration, is an essential biophysical parameter for normal cellular activity. Cell volumes can be altered by osmotically active compounds and extracellular tonicity. In this study, a simple mathematical model of osmotically induced cell swelling and shrinking is presented. Emphasis is given to water diffusion across the membrane. The mathematical description of the cellular behavior consists in a system of coupled ordinary differential equations. We compare experimental data of cell volume alterations driven by differences in osmotic pressure with mathematical simulations under hypotonic and hypertonic conditions. Implications for a future model are also discussed.

Keywords: Eukaryotic cell, mathematical modeling, osmosis, volume alterations.

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Authors: N. Hachemi, A. Nouani, A. Benchabane

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The influence of cultivation factors such as content of ammonium sulfate, glucose and water in the culture medium and particle size of dry orange waste, on their bioconversion for pectinase production was studied using complete factorial design. A polygalacturonase (PG) was isolated using ion exchange chromatography under gradient elution 0-0,5 m/l NaCl (column equilibrate with acetate buffer pH 4,5), subsequently by sephadex G75 column chromatography was applied and the molecular weight was obtained about 51,28 KDa. Purified PG enzyme exhibits a pH and temperature optima of activity at 5 and 35°C respectively. Treatment of apple juice by purified enzyme extract yielded a clear juice, which was competitive with juice yielded by pure Sigma Aldrich Aspergillus niger enzyme.

Keywords: Bioconversion, orange wastes, optimization, pectinase.

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Authors: Lotfi Admane

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This paper presents a model of case based corporate memory named ReCaRo (REsource, CAse, ROle). The approach suggested in ReCaRo decomposes the domain to model through a set of components. These components represent the objects developed by the company during its activity. They are reused, and sometimes, while bringing adaptations. These components are enriched by knowledge after each reuse. ReCaRo builds the corporate memory on the basis of these components. It models two types of knowledge: 1) Business Knowledge, which constitutes the main knowledge capital of the company, refers to its basic skill, thus, directly to the components and 2) the Experience Knowledge which is a specialised knowledge and represents the experience gained during the handling of business knowledge. ReCaRo builds corporate memories which are made up of five communicating ones.

Keywords: Corporate memories, meta-model, reuse, ReCaRo.

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Authors: Qasim Khan, Furkan Ahmad, Asfar A. Khan, M. Saad Alam, Faiz Ahmad

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In this paper, partial discharge analysis is performed in cavities artificially created in insulation. The setup is according with Cigre-II Method. Circular Samples created from Perspex Sheet with different configuration with changing number of cavities. Assessment of insulation health can be performed by Partial Discharge measurement as this has been found to be important means of condition monitoring. The experiments are done using MPD 540, which is a modern partial discharge measurement system. By analyzing the PD activity obtained for various voids/cavities, it is observed that the PD voltages show variation for cavity’s diameter, depth even for its ratios. This can be employed for scrutiny of insulation system.

Keywords: Partial discharges, condition monitoring, MPD 540, cavities/defects, degradation and corrosion, PMMA.

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Authors: W. Paraguassu, S. Guerini, C. M. R. Remédios, P. T. C. Freire

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High Pressure Raman scattering measurements of KDP:Mn were performed at room temperatures. The X-ray powder diffraction patterns taken at room temperature by Rietveld refinement showed that doped samples of KDP-Mn have the same tetragonal structure of a pure KDP crystal, but with a contraction of the crystalline cell. The behavior of the Raman spectra, in particular the emergence of a new modes at 330 cm-1, indicates that KDP:Mn undergoes a structural phase transition with onset at around 4 GP. First principle density-functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that tetrahedral rotation with pressure is predominantly around the c crystalline direction. Theoretical results indicates that pressure induced tetrahedral rotations leads to change tetrahedral neighborhood, activating librations/bending modes observed for high pressure phase of KDP:Mn with stronger Raman activity.

Keywords: Dipotassium molybdate, High pressure, Raman scattering, Phase transition, ab initio

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Authors: Neeraj Mohan, Parvinder S. Sandhu, Hardeep Singh

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Software maintenance is extremely important activity in software development life cycle. It involves a lot of human efforts, cost and time. Software maintenance may be further subdivided into different activities such as fault prediction, fault detection, fault prevention, fault correction etc. This topic has gained substantial attention due to sophisticated and complex applications, commercial hardware, clustered architecture and artificial intelligence. In this paper we surveyed the work done in the field of software maintenance. Software fault prediction has been studied in context of fault prone modules, self healing systems, developer information, maintenance models etc. Still a lot of things like modeling and weightage of impact of different kind of faults in the various types of software systems need to be explored in the field of fault severity.

Keywords: Fault prediction, Software Maintenance, Automated Fault Prediction, and Failure Mode Analysis

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Authors: Philip Semaha, Zhongfang Lei, Ziwen Zhao, Sen Liu, Zhenya Zhang, Kazuya Shimizu

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The increasing generation of saline wastewater through various industrial activities is becoming a global concern for activated sludge (AS) based biological treatment which is widely applied in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). As for the AS process, an increase in wastewater salinity has negative impact on its overall performance. The advent of conventional aerobic granular sludge (AGS) or bacterial AGS biotechnology has gained much attention because of its superior performance. The development of algal-bacterial AGS could enhance better nutrients removal, potentially reduce aeration cost through symbiotic algae-bacterial activity, and thus, can also reduce overall treatment cost. Nonetheless, the potential of salt stress to decrease biomass growth, microbial activity and nutrient removal exist. Up to the present, little information is available on saline wastewater treatment by algal-bacterial AGS. To the authors’ best knowledge, a comparison of the two AGS systems has not been done to evaluate nutrients removal capacity in the context of salinity increase. This study sought to figure out the impact of salinity on the algal-bacterial AGS system in comparison to bacterial AGS one, contributing to the application of AGS technology in the real world of saline wastewater treatment. In this study, the salt concentrations tested were 0 g/L, 1 g/L, 5 g/L, 10 g/L and 15 g/L of NaCl with 24-hr artificial illuminance of approximately 97.2 µmol m¯²s¯¹, and mature bacterial and algal-bacterial AGS were used for the operation of two identical sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) with a working volume of 0.9 L each, respectively. The results showed that salinity increase caused no apparent change in the color of bacterial AGS; while for algal-bacterial AGS, its color was progressively changed from green to dark green. A consequent increase in granule diameter and fluffiness was observed in the bacterial AGS reactor with the increase of salinity in comparison to a decrease in algal-bacterial AGS diameter. However, nitrite accumulation peaked from 1.0 mg/L and 0.4 mg/L at 1 g/L NaCl in the bacterial and algal-bacterial AGS systems, respectively to 9.8 mg/L in both systems when NaCl concentration varied from 5 g/L to 15 g/L. Almost no ammonia nitrogen was detected in the effluent except at 10 g/L NaCl concentration, where it averaged 4.2 mg/L and 2.4 mg/L, respectively, in the bacterial and algal-bacterial AGS systems. Nutrients removal in the algal-bacterial system was relatively higher than the bacterial AGS in terms of nitrogen and phosphorus removals. Nonetheless, the nutrient removal rate was almost 50% or lower. Results show that algal-bacterial AGS is more adaptable to salinity increase and could be more suitable for saline wastewater treatment. Optimization of operation conditions for algal-bacterial AGS system would be important to ensure its stably high efficiency in practice.

Keywords: Algal-bacterial aerobic granular sludge, bacterial aerobic granular sludge, nutrients removal, saline wastewater, sequencing batch reactor.

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Authors: Glenda Minguito, Jenith Banluta

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One of the critical aspects of humanitarian operations is the distribution of relief goods to an affected community. The common assumption is that relief goods are prepositioned during disasters which are not applicable in developing countries like the Philippines. During disasters, the on-the-ground government agencies and responders have to procure, sort, weigh and pack the relief goods. There is a need to review the relief goods preparation as it seriously affects the delivery of necessary aid for human survival. This study also identifies the ideal location of the assembly hub to minimize the distance to the affected community. This paper reveals that location and resources are dependent on the type of disasters encountered at the local level. The Center-of-Gravity method and Multiple Activity Chart were applied in the analysis.

Keywords: Humanitarian supply chain, location decision, resource allocation, local level.

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Authors: F. Nejati Hafdani, N. Sadeghinia

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In recent years application of natural antimicrobials instead of conventional ones, due to their hazardous effects on health, has got serious attentions. On the basis of the results of different studies, chitosan, a natural bio-degradable and non-toxic biopolysaccharide derived from chitin, has potential to be used as a natural antimicrobial. Chitosan has exhibited high antimicrobial activity against a wide variety of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms, including fungi, and Gram-positive and Gramnegative bacteria. The antimicrobial action is influenced by intrinsic factors such as the type of chitosan, the degree of chitosan polymerization and extrinsic factors such as the microbial organism, the environmental conditions and presence of the other components. The use of chitosan in food systems should be based on sufficient knowledge of the complex mechanisms of its antimicrobial mode of action. In this article we review a number of studies on the investigation of chitosan antimicrobial properties and application of them in culture and food mediums.

Keywords: Antimicrobial, Chitosan, Preservative

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Authors: Joanna Nieżurawska, Hanna Karaszewska, Anna Dziadkiewicz

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Contemporary conditions force companies to constantly implement changes and improvements, which is connected with plasticization of their activity in all spheres. Cafeteria systems are a good example of flexible remuneration systems. Cafeteria systems are well-known and often used in the United States, Great Britain and in Western Europe. In Poland, they are hardly ever used and greater flexibility in remuneration packages refers mainly to senior managers and executives. The main aim of this article is to research the attractiveness of the cafeteria system as viewed by generation Z. The additional aim of the article is to prioritize using the importance index of particular types of cafeteria systems from the generation Z’s perspective, as well as to identify the factors which determine the development of cafeteria systems in Poland. The research was conducted in June 2015 among 185 young employees (generation Z). The paper presents some of the results.

Keywords: Cafeteria, generation X, generation Y, generation Z, flexible remuneration systems, plasticization of remuneration.

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Authors: Yasuhiro Sato, Kodai Noma, Kenta Sawada, Kazumasa Adachi, Yoshinori Matruura, Saori Iwanaga

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RFID system is used to identify objects such as passenger identification in public transportation, instead of linear or 2-dimensional barcodes. Key advantages of RFID system are to identify objects without physical contact, and to write arbitrary information into RFID tag. These advantages may help to improve maritime safety and efficiency of activity on the sea. However, utilization of RFID system for maritime scenes has not been considered. In this paper, we evaluate the availability of a generic RFID system operating on the sea. We measure RSSI between RFID tag floating on the sea and RFID antenna, and check whether a RFID reader can access a tag or not, while the distance between a floating buoy and the ship, and the angle are changed. Finally, we discuss the feasibility and the applicability of RFID system on the sea through the results of our preliminary experiment.

Keywords: RFID, Experimental Evaluation, RSSI, Maritime use.

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Authors: Yvonne T. Haigh

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Public sector corruption has long-term and damaging effects that are deep and broad. Addressing corruption relies on understanding the drivers that precipitate acts of corruption and developing educational programs that target areas of vulnerability. This paper provides an innovative approach to explore the nature of corruption by drawing on the perceptions and ideas of a group of public servants who have been part of a corruption investigation. The paper examines these reflections through the ideas of Pierre Bourdieu and Alfred Schutz to point to some of the steps that can lead to corrupt activity. The paper demonstrates that phenomenological inquiry is useful in the exploration of corruption and, as a theoretical framework, it highlights that corruption emerges through a combination of conflict, doubt and uncertainty. The paper calls for anti-corruption education programs to be attentive to way in which these conditions can influence the steps into corruption.

Keywords: Phenomenology, choice, conflict, corruption.

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Authors: Jordan Georgiev Deliversky

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Human trafficking and smuggling of migrants are criminal activities, which are on the rise over recent years. The number of legal migrants arrived in Europe from outside the European Union are far less than those who want to come and settle in Europe. The objective of this paper is to present the impact on economic and social life of significant measures influencing the smuggling of migrants. The analysis is focused on various complex factors which have multiple origins and are highly influential as regard to the process of migration and the smuggling of migrants. The smuggling of migrants is a criminal activity, directly related to migration. The main results show that often the routes chosen for smuggling of migrants are circuitous, as smugglers carefully avoid strictly controlled roads, checkpoints, and countries or jurisdictions where there is efficiency of justice, with particular emphasis on the law on trafficking of persons and smuggling of migrants.

Keywords: Corruption, migration, security, smuggling.

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Authors: Sandy Daley, Sandra Jones, Don Iverson

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The benefits of physical activity for children are promoted widely and well understood; however factors which impact on children-s beliefs and attitudes towards physical education need to be explored in more detail. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how primary school children value and perceive their involvement in physical education (PE) classes through the use of drawings. While this type of data collection has been used previously to determine a child-s response to specific health education classes, such as drug education, to the best of our knowledge it has not been used in the context of PE. Results from this study showed that kindergarten children found PE classes fun and engaging. Children in Year 4 and Year 6 were less satisfied with PE classes because of the activities offered, the lack of opportunity to play sport, and perception that teachers did not appear to value this area of the curriculum.

Keywords: attitudes, physical education, primary school children, write and draw

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Authors: Martin Juhas, Bohuslava Juhasova, Igor Halenar, Andrej Elias

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This article deals with the possibility of increasing efficiency, reliability and safety of the system for teledosimetric data collection management and their evaluation as a part of complex study for activity “Research of data collection, their measurement and evaluation with mobile and autonomous units” within project “Research of monitoring and evaluation of non-standard conditions in the area of nuclear power plants”. Possible weaknesses in existing system are identified. A study of available cluster solutions with possibility of their deploying to analysed system is presented

Keywords: Teledosimetric data, efficiency, reliability, safety, cluster solution.

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Authors: Liberty L Mguni, Reinout Meijboom, Kalala Jalama

Abstract:

The effect of calcination temperature and MgO crystallite sizes on the structure and catalytic performance of TiO2 supported nano-MgO catalyst for the trans-esterification of soybean oil has been studied. The catalyst has been prepared by deposition precipitation method, characterised by XRD and FTIR and tested in an autoclave at 225oC. The soybean oil conversion after 15 minutes of the trans-esterification reaction increased when the calcination temperature was increased from 500 to 600oC and decreased with further increase in calcination temperature. Some glycerolysis activity was also detected on catalysts calcined at 600 and 700oC after 45 minutes of reaction. The trans-esterification reaction rate increased with the decrease in MgO crystallite size for the first 30 min.

Keywords: Calcination temperature, crystallite size, MgO/TiO2, transesterification

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