Search results for: least square regression

Authors: Cameron Hamilton, Walter Potter, Gerrit Hoogenboom, Ronald McClendon, Will Hobbs

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A model was constructed to predict the amount of solar radiation that will make contact with the surface of the earth in a given location an hour into the future. This project was supported by the Southern Company to determine at what specific times during a given day of the year solar panels could be relied upon to produce energy in sufficient quantities. Due to their ability as universal function approximators, an artificial neural network was used to estimate the nonlinear pattern of solar radiation, which utilized measurements of weather conditions collected at the Griffin, Georgia weather station as inputs. A number of network configurations and training strategies were utilized, though a multilayer perceptron with a variety of hidden nodes trained with the resilient propagation algorithm consistently yielded the most accurate predictions. In addition, a modeled direct normal irradiance field and adjacent weather station data were used to bolster prediction accuracy. In later trials, the solar radiation field was preprocessed with a discrete wavelet transform with the aim of removing noise from the measurements. The current model provides predictions of solar radiation with a mean square error of 0.0042, though ongoing efforts are being made to further improve the model’s accuracy.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Networks, Resilient Propagation, Solar Radiation, Time Series Forecasting.

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Authors: Eggertson, E.C. Kapulla, R, Fokken, J, Prasser, H.M.

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The turbulent mixing of coolant streams of different temperature and density can cause severe temperature fluctuations in piping systems in nuclear reactors. In certain periodic contraction cycles these conditions lead to thermal fatigue. The resulting aging effect prompts investigation in how the mixing of flows over a sharp temperature/density interface evolves. To study the fundamental turbulent mixing phenomena in the presence of density gradients, isokinetic (shear-free) mixing experiments are performed in a square channel with Reynolds numbers ranging from 2-500 to 60-000. Sucrose is used to create the density difference. A Wire Mesh Sensor (WMS) is used to determine the concentration map of the flow in the cross section. The mean interface width as a function of velocity, density difference and distance from the mixing point are analyzed based on traditional methods chosen for the purposes of atmospheric/oceanic stratification analyses. A definition of the mixing layer thickness more appropriate to thermal fatigue and based on mixedness is devised. This definition shows that the thermal fatigue risk assessed using simple mixing layer growth can be misleading and why an approach that separates the effects of large scale (turbulent) and small scale (molecular) mixing is necessary.

Keywords: Concentration measurements, Mixedness, Stablystratified turbulent isokinetic mixing layer, Wire mesh sensor

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Authors: Zahra Amirhosseini, Alireza Bashiri

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The aim of this study was to examine and identify the type of Iranian financial market in terms of being symmetrical or asymmetrical and to measure relationship between type of market and the market's indices. In this study, daily information on the market-s Share Price Index, Industrial Index and Top Fifty Most Active Companies during the years 1999-2010 has been used. In addition, to determine type of the financial market, rate of return on Security is taken into account. In this research, by using logistic regression analysis methods, relationship of the market type with the above mentioned indices have been examined. The results showed that the type of the financial market has a positive significant association with market share price index and Industrial Index. Index of Top Fifty Most Active Companies is significantly associated with type of financial market, however this relationship is inverse.

Keywords: All Share Price Index, Asymmetrical Market, Industrial Index, Symmetrical Market, Top Fifty Most Active Companies Index

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Authors: Hansung Wan, Hyungkwan Cho, Kiho Sung, Hongkyu Kim

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The amount of urban artificial heat which affects the urban temperature rise in urban meteorology was investigated in order to clarify the relationships between urbanization and urban meteorology in this study. The results of calculation to identify how urban temperate was increased through the establishment of a model for measuring the amount of urban artificial heat and theoretical testing revealed that the amount of urban artificial heat increased urban temperature by plus or minus 0.23 ˚ C in 2007 compared with 1996, statistical methods (correlation and regression analysis) to clarify the relationships between urbanization and urban weather were as follows. New design techniques and urban growth management are necessary from urban growth management point of view suggested from this research at city design phase to decrease urban temperature rise and urban torrential rain which can produce urban disaster in terms of urban meteorology by urbanization.

Keywords: The amount of urban artificial heat, Urban growth management, Urbanization, Urban meteorology

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Authors: N.M. Museisi

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This is a cross-cultural study that determines South African multinational enterprises (MNEs) entry strategies as they invest in Africa. An integrated theoretical framework comprising the transaction cost theory, Uppsala model, eclectic paradigm and the distance framework was adopted. A sample of 40 South African MNEs with 415 existing FDI entries in Africa was drawn. Using an ordered logistic regression model, the impact of culture on the choice of degree of control by South African MNEs in Africa was determined. Cultural distance was one of significant factors that influenced South African MNEs- choice of degree of control. Furthermore, South African MNEs are risk averse in all countries in Africa but minimize the risks differently across sectors. Service sectors chooses to own their subsidiaries 100% and avoid dealing with the locals while manufacturing, resources and construction choose to have a local partner to share the risk.

Keywords: Cross-cultural, emerging MNEs, entry strategies, internationalization.

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Authors: Sahar Dehyouri, Seyed Jamal Farajollah Hosseini

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Perspective of food security in 21 century showed shortage of food that production is faced to vital problem. Food security strategy is applied longtime method to assess required food. Meanwhile, nanotechnology revolution changes the world face. Nanotechnology is adequate method utilize of its characteristics to decrease environmental problems and possible further access to food for small farmers. This article will show impact of production and adoption of nanocrops on food security. Population is researchers of agricultural research center of Esfahan province. The results of study show that there was a relationship between uses, conversion, distribution, and production of nanocrops, operative human resources, operative circumstance, and constrains of usage of nanocrops and food security. Multivariate regression analysis by enter model shows that operative circumstance, use, production and constrains of usage of nanocrops had positive impact on food security and they determine in four steps 20 percent of it.

Keywords: adoption, food safety, food security, nanocrops

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Authors: Javadi Alimohammad, Javadi Maryam

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The purpose of this study attempts to emphasize the factors relating to intra-family relationships (order point of view) on violence against the women, For this purpose a survey technique on the sample size amounted 100 women of married of city of Ilam in country of Iran were considered. For measurement of violence against the women , the CTS scaled has been used .violence against the women be measured in four dimension ( emotional violence, psycho violence, physical violence, neglect violence). highest violence was related to emotional violence and after are as follow respectively : physical violence and neglect violence. The results showed that women have experienced the violence more than once during the last year, degree of order in family is high. Explanation result indicated that the order variables in family including collective thinking, empathy and communal co-circumstance have significant effects on violence against the women. Via multiple regression analysis variables of empathy, religious tenet and education of husband had significant effect on violence against women. In other words relationships among family effect on violence in family.

Keywords: violence, domestic violence, violence against women, family.

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Authors: H. Nouri, I. E. Achouri, A. Grimes, H. Ait Said, M. Aissou, Y. Zebboudj

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This paper aims to analysis the behavior of DC corona discharge in wire-to-plate electrostatic precipitators (ESP). Currentvoltage curves are particularly analyzed. Experimental results show that discharge current is strongly affected by the applied voltage. The proposed method of current identification is to use the method of least squares. Least squares problems that of into two categories: linear or ordinary least squares and non-linear least squares, depending on whether or not the residuals are linear in all unknowns. The linear least-squares problem occurs in statistical regression analysis; it has a closed-form solution. A closed-form solution (or closed form expression) is any formula that can be evaluated in a finite number of standard operations. The non-linear problem has no closed-form solution and is usually solved by iterative.

Keywords: Electrostatic precipitator, current-voltage characteristics, Least Squares method, electric field, magnetic field.

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Authors: Somphoom Sawaengkun

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The purpose of this study was primarily assessing how important economic factors namely: The Thai export price of white rice, the exchange rate, and the world rice consumption affect the overall Thai white rice export, using historical data during the period 1989-2013 from the Thai Rice Exporters Association, and Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. The co-integration method, regression analysis, and error correction model were applied to investigate the econometric model. The findings indicated that in the long-run, the world rice consumption, the exchange rate, and the Thai export price of white rice were the important factors affecting the export quantity of Thai white rice respectively, as indicated by their significant coefficients. Meanwhile, the rice export price was an important factor affecting the export quantity of Thai white rice in the short-run. This information is useful in the business, export opportunities, price competitiveness, and policymaker in Thailand.

Keywords: Economic Factors, Rice Export, White Rice.

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Authors: A. Karimzad Ghavidel, M. Zadshakouyan

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Laser cutting is a very common production method for cutting 2D polymeric parts. Developing of polymer composites with nano-fibers makes important their other properties like laser workability. The aim of this research is investigation of the influence different laser cutting conditions on the dimensional accuracy of parts and holes from poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA)/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) material. Experiments were carried out by considering of CNTs (in four level 0,0.5, 1 and 1.5% wt.%), laser power (60, 80, and 100 watt) and cutting speed 20, 30, and 40 mm/s as input variable factors. The results reveal that CNTs adding improves the laser workability of PMMA and the increasing of power has a significant effect on the part and hole size. The findings also show cutting speed is effective parameter on the size accuracy. Eventually, the statistical analysis of results was done, and calculated mathematical equations by the regression are presented for determining relation between input and output factor.

Keywords: Dimensional accuracy-PMMA-CNTs-laser cutting.

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Authors: O. Zarrin, M. Ramezanshirazi

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The Semi Interlocking Masonry (SIM) system has been developed in Masonry Research Group at the University of Newcastle, Australia. The main purpose of this system is to enhance the seismic resistance of framed structures with masonry panels. In this system, SIM panels dissipate energy through the sliding friction between rows of SIM units during earthquake excitation. This paper aimed to find the applicability of artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the displacement behaviour of the SIM panel under out-of-plane loading. The general concept of ANN needs to be trained by related force-displacement data of SIM panel. The overall data to train and test the network are 70 increments of force-displacement from three tests, which comprise of none input nodes. The input data contain height and length of panels, height, length and width of the brick and friction and geometry angle of brick along the compressive strength of the brick with the lateral load applied to the panel. The aim of designed network is prediction displacement of the SIM panel by Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP). The mean square error (MSE) of network was 0.00042 and the coefficient of determination (R2) values showed the 0.91. The result revealed that the ANN has significant agreement to predict the SIM panel behaviour.

Keywords: Semi interlocking masonry, artificial neural network, ANN, multi-layer perceptron, MLP, displacement, prediction.

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Authors: Alhaji M. H. Conteh, Xiangbin Yan, Alfred V. Gborie

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The goal of this study was to increase the awareness of the description and assessments of rice acreage response and to offer mechanisms for agricultural policy scrutiny. The ordinary least square (OLS) technique was utilized to determine the coefficients of acreage response models for the rice varieties. The magnitudes of the coefficients (λ) of both the ROK lagged and NERICA lagged acreages were found positive and highly significant, which indicates that farmers’ adjustment rate was very low. Regarding lagged actual price for both the ROK and NERICE rice varieties, the short-run price elasticitieswere lower than long-run, which is suggesting a long term adjustment of the acreage under the crop.

However, the apparent recommendations for policy transformation are to open farm gate prices and to decrease government’s involvement in agricultural sector especially in the acquisition of agricultural inputs. Impending research have to be centered on how this might be better realized. Necessary conditions should be made available to the private sector by means of minimizing price volatility. In accordance with structural reforms, it is necessary to convey output prices to farmers with minimum distortion. There is need to eradicate price subsidies and control, which generate distortion in the market in addition to huge financial costs.

Keywords: Acreage response, rate of adjustment, rice varieties, Sierra Leone.

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Authors: Turan Çalban, Nursel Keskin, Sabri Çolak, Soner Kuşlu

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Gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) is a mineral that is found in large quantities in the Turkey and in the World. In this study, the dissolution of this mineral in the diammonium hydrogen phosphate solutions has been studied. The dissolution and dissolution kinetics of gypsum in diammonium hydrogen phosphate solutions will be useful for evaluating of solid wastes containing gypsum. Parameters such as diammonium hydrogen phosphate concentration, temperature and stirring speed affecting on the dissolution rate of the gypsum in diammonium hydrogen phosphate solutions were investigated. In experimental studies have researched effectiveness of the selected parameters. The dissolution of gypsum were examined in two parts at low and high temperatures. The experimental results were successfully correlated by linear regression using Statistica program. Dissolution curves were evaluated shrinking core models for solidfluid systems. The activation energy was found to be 34.58 kJ/mol and 44.45 kJ/mol for the low and the high temperatures. The dissolution of gypsum was controlled by chemical reaction both low temperatures and high temperatures.

Keywords: Diammonium hydrogen phosphate, Dissolution, Gypsum, Kinetics.

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Authors: Maria C. Proença, Marco Aniceto, Pedro N. Santos, José C. Freitas

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A methodology based on wavelets is proposed for the automatic location and delimitation of defects in limestone plates. Natural defects include dark colored spots, crystal zones trapped in the stone, areas of abnormal contrast colors, cracks or fracture lines, and fossil patterns. Although some of these may or may not be considered as defects according to the intended use of the plate, the goal is to pair each stone with a map of defects that can be overlaid on a computer display. These layers of defects constitute a database that will allow the preliminary selection of matching tiles of a particular variety, with specific dimensions, for a requirement of N square meters, to be done on a desktop computer rather than by a two-hour search in the storage park, with human operators manipulating stone plates as large as 3 m x 2 m, weighing about one ton. Accident risks and work times are reduced, with a consequent increase in productivity. The base for the algorithm is wavelet decomposition executed in two instances of the original image, to detect both hypotheses – dark and clear defects. The existence and/or size of these defects are the gauge to classify the quality grade of the stone products. The tuning of parameters that are possible in the framework of the wavelets corresponds to different levels of accuracy in the drawing of the contours and selection of the defects size, which allows for the use of the map of defects to cut a selected stone into tiles with minimum waste, according the dimension of defects allowed.

Keywords: Automatic detection, wavelets, defects, fracture lines.

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Authors: Tayebeh Saghapour, Sara Moridpour, Russell George Thompson

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One of the common aims of transport policy makers is to switch people’s travel to active transport. For this purpose, a variety of transport goals and investments should be programmed to increase the propensity towards active transport mode choice. This paper aims to investigate whether built environment features in neighbourhoods could enhance the odds of active transportation. The present study introduces an index measuring public transport accessibility (PTAI), and a walkability index along with socioeconomic variables to investigate mode choice behaviour. Using travel behaviour data, an ordered logit regression model is applied to examine the impacts of explanatory variables on walking trips. The findings indicated that high rates of active travel are consistently associated with higher levels of walking and public transport accessibility.

Keywords: Active transport, public transport accessibility, walkability, ordered logit model.

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Authors: Eui Jun Jeong, Hye Rim Lee

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This study examined whether big five personality traits affect game addiction with control of psychological, social, and demographic factors. Specifically, using data from a survey of 789 game users in Korea, we conducted a regression analysis to see the associations of psychological (loneliness/depression), social (activities with family/friends), self-efficacy (game/general), gaming (daily gaming time/perception), demographic (age/gender), and personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism conscientiousness, agreeableness, & openness) with the degree of game addiction. Results showed that neuroticism increase game addiction with no effect of extraversion on the addiction. General self-efficacy negatively affected game addiction, whereas game self-efficacy increased the degree of game addiction. Loneliness enhanced game addiction while depression showed a negative effect on the addiction. Results and implications are discussed.

Keywords: Game addiction, big five personality, social activities, self-efficacy, loneliness, depression.

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Authors: Jee-Sang Kim, Jong Ho Park

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Geopolymer concretes are new class of construction materials that have emerged as an alternative to Ordinary Portland cement concrete. Considerable researches have been carried out on material development of geopolymer concrete; however, a few studies have been reported on the structural use of them. This paper presents the bond behaviors of reinforcement embedded in fly ash based geopolymer concrete. The development lengths of reinforcement for various compressive strengths of concrete, 20, 30 and 40 MPa, and reinforcement diameters, 10, 16 and 25 mm, are investigated. Total 27 specimens were manufactured and pull-out test according to EN 10080 was applied to measure bond strength and slips between concrete and reinforcements. The average bond strengths decreased from 23.06MPa to 17.26 MPa, as the diameters of reinforcements increased from 10mm to 25mm. The compressive strength levels of geopolymer concrete showed no significant influence on bond strengths in this study. Also, the bond-slip relations between geopolymer concrete and reinforcement are derived using non-linear regression analysis for various experimental conditions.

Keywords: Bond-slip relation, bond strength, geopolymer concrete, pull-out test.

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Authors: M. Capocelli, A. Caputo, M. De Falco, D. Mazzei, V. Piemonte

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This paper presents the experimental results and the related modeling of a thermal energy storage (TES) facility, ideated and realized by ENEA and realizing the thermocline with an innovative geometry. Firstly, the thermal energy exchange model of an equivalent shell & tube heat exchanger is described and tested to reproduce the performance of the spiral exchanger installed in the TES. Through the regression of the experimental data, a first-order thermocline model was also validated to provide an analytical function of the thermocline, useful for the performance evaluation and the comparison with other systems and implementation in simulations of integrated systems (e.g. power plants). The experimental data obtained from the plant start-up and the short-cut modeling of the system can be useful for the process analysis, for the scale-up of the thermal storage system and to investigate the feasibility of its implementation in actual case-studies.

Keywords: Thermocline, modelling, heat exchange, spiral, shell, tube.

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Authors: Taner Ersoz, Filiz Ersoz, Seyma Ozbilge

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In this study, the clients who applied to a bank branch for loan were analyzed through data mining. The study was composed of the information such as amounts of loans received by personal and SME clients working with the bank branch, installment numbers, number of delays in loan installments, payments available in other banks and number of banks to which they are in debt between 2010 and 2013. The client risk profile was examined through Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis, one of the decision tree classification methods. At the end of the study, 5 different types of customers have been determined on the decision tree. The classification of these types of customers has been created with the rating of those posing a risk for the bank branch and the customers have been classified according to the risk ratings.

Keywords: Client classification, loan suitability, risk rating, CART analysis, decision tree.

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Authors: Monika Jain, Shikhar Puri, Shivali Unishree

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This paper presents the ‘Eye Ball Motion Controlled Wheelchair using IR Sensors’ for the elderly and differently abled people. In this eye tracking based technology, three Proximity Infrared (IR) sensor modules are mounted on an eye frame to trace the movement of the iris. Since, IR sensors detect only white objects; a unique sequence of digital bits is generated corresponding to each eye movement. These signals are then processed via a micro controller IC (PIC18F452) to control the motors of the wheelchair. The potential and efficiency of previously developed rehabilitation systems that use head motion, chin control, sip-n-puff control, voice recognition, and EEG signals variedly have also been explored in detail. They were found to be inconvenient as they served either limited usability or non-affordability. After multiple regression analyses, the proposed design was developed as a cost-effective, flexible and stream-lined alternative for people who have trouble adopting conventional assistive technologies.

Keywords: Eye tracking technology, Intelligent wheelchair, IR module, rehabilitation technology.

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Authors: M. T. Tsepav, Y. Adamu, M. A. Umar

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A geoelectric survey was carried out in some parts of Angwan Gwari, an outskirt of Lapai Local Government Area on Niger State which belongs to the Nigerian Basement Complex, with the aim of evaluating the soil corrosivity, aquifer transmissivity and protective capacity of the area from which aquifer characterisation was made. The G41 Resistivity Meter was employed to obtain fifteen Schlumberger Vertical Electrical Sounding data along profiles in a square grid network. The data were processed using interpex 1-D sounding inversion software, which gives vertical electrical sounding curves with layered model comprising of the apparent resistivities, overburden thicknesses, and depth. This information was used to evaluate longitudinal conductance and transmissivities of the layers. The results show generally low resistivities across the survey area and an average longitudinal conductance variation from 0.0237Siemens in VES 6 to 0.1261Siemens in VES 15 with almost the entire area giving values less than 1.0 Siemens. The average transmissivity values range from 96.45 Ω.m2 in VES 4 to 299070 Ω.m2 in VES 1. All but VES 4 and VES14 had an average overburden greater than 400 Ω.m2, these results suggest that the aquifers are highly permeable to fluid movement within, leading to the possibility of enhanced migration and circulation of contaminants in the groundwater system and that the area is generally corrosive.

Keywords: Geoelectric survey, corrosivity, protective capacity, transmissivity.

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Authors: Rouzbeh Ramezani, Renzo Di Felice

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Nowadays, removal of CO₂ as one of the major contributors to global warming using alternative solvents with high CO₂ absorption efficiency, is an important industrial operation. In this study, three amines, including 2-methylpiperazine, potassium sarcosinate and potassium lysinate as potential additives, were added to the potassium carbonate solution as a base solvent for CO₂ capture. In order to study the absorption performance of CO₂ in terms of loading capacity of CO₂ and absorption rate, the absorption experiments in a blend of additives with potassium carbonate were carried out using the vapor-liquid equilibrium apparatus at a temperature of 313.15 K, CO₂ partial pressures ranging from 0 to 50 kPa and at mole fractions 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4. Furthermore, the performance of CO₂ absorption in these blend solutions was compared with pure monoethanolamine and with pure potassium carbonate. Finally, a correlation with good accuracy was developed using the nonlinear regression analysis in order to predict CO₂ loading capacity.

Keywords: Absorption rate, carbon dioxide, CO2 capture, global warming, loading capacity.

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Authors: N. Šarlija, S. Pfeifer, M. Jeger, A. Bilandžić

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Enterprise growth is generally considered as a key driver of competitiveness, employment, economic development and social inclusion. As such, it is perceived to be a highly desirable outcome of entrepreneurship for scholars and decision makers. The huge academic debate resulted in the multitude of theoretical frameworks focused on explaining growth stages, determinants and future prospects. It has been widely accepted that enterprise growth is most likely nonlinear, temporal and related to the variety of factors which reflect the individual, firm, organizational, industry or environmental determinants of growth. However, factors that affect growth are not easily captured, instruments to measure those factors are often arbitrary, causality between variables and growth is elusive, indicating that growth is not easily modeled. Furthermore, in line with heterogeneous nature of the growth phenomenon, there is a vast number of measurement constructs assessing growth which are used interchangeably. Differences among various growth measures, at conceptual as well as at operationalization level, can hinder theory development which emphasizes the need for more empirically robust studies. In line with these highlights, the main purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to compare structure and performance of three growth prediction models based on the main growth measures: Revenues, employment and assets growth. Secondly, to explore the prospects of financial indicators, set as exact, visible, standardized and accessible variables, to serve as determinants of enterprise growth. Finally, to contribute to the understanding of the implications on research results and recommendations for growth caused by different growth measures. The models include a range of financial indicators as lag determinants of the enterprises’ performances during the 2008-2013, extracted from the national register of the financial statements of SMEs in Croatia. The design and testing stage of the modeling used the logistic regression procedures. Findings confirm that growth prediction models based on different measures of growth have different set of predictors. Moreover, the relationship between particular predictors and growth measure is inconsistent, namely the same predictor positively related to one growth measure may exert negative effect on a different growth measure. Overall, financial indicators alone can serve as good proxy of growth and yield adequate predictive power of the models. The paper sheds light on both methodology and conceptual framework of enterprise growth by using a range of variables which serve as a proxy for the multitude of internal and external determinants, but are unlike them, accessible, available, exact and free of perceptual nuances in building up the model. Selection of the growth measure seems to have significant impact on the implications and recommendations related to growth. Furthermore, the paper points out to potential pitfalls of measuring and predicting growth. Overall, the results and the implications of the study are relevant for advancing academic debates on growth-related methodology, and can contribute to evidence-based decisions of policy makers.

Keywords: Growth measurement constructs, logistic regression, prediction of growth potential, small and medium-sized enterprises.

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Authors: Deniz Deryakulu, Şener Büyüköztürk Hüseyin Özçınar

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The main purpose of this study was to determine the predictors of academic achievement of student Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) teachers with different learning styles. Participants were 148 student ICT teachers from Ankara University. Participants were asked to fill out a personal information sheet, the Turkish version of Kolb-s Learning Style Inventory, Weinstein-s Learning and Study Strategies Inventory, Schommer's Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire, and Eysenck-s Personality Questionnaire. Stepwise regression analyses showed that the statistically significant predictors of the academic achievement of the accommodators were attitudes and high school GPAs; of the divergers was anxiety; of the convergers were gender, epistemological beliefs, and motivation; and of the assimilators were gender, personality, and test strategies. Implications for ICT teaching-learning processes and teacher education are discussed.

Keywords: Academic achievement, student ICT teachers, Kolb learning styles, experiential learning.

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Authors: Fengxia Zheng, Shouming Zhong

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ANNARIMA that combines both autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model and artificial neural network (ANN) model is a valuable tool for modeling and forecasting nonlinear time series, yet the over-fitting problem is more likely to occur in neural network models. This paper provides a hybrid methodology that combines both radial basis function (RBF) neural network and auto regression (AR) model based on binomial smoothing (BS) technique which is efficient in data processing, which is called BSRBFAR. This method is examined by using the data of Canadian Lynx data. Empirical results indicate that the over-fitting problem can be eased using RBF neural network based on binomial smoothing which is called BS-RBF, and the hybrid model–BS-RBFAR can be an effective way to improve forecasting accuracy achieved by BSRBF used separately.

Keywords: Binomial smoothing (BS), hybrid, Canadian Lynx data, forecasting accuracy.

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Authors: K. Petcharaporn, S. Kumchoo

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The acidity (citric acid) is the one of chemical content that can be refer to the internal quality and it’s a maturity index of tomato, The titratable acidity (%TA) can be predicted by a non-destructive method prediction by using the transmittance short wavelength (SW-NIR) spectroscopy in the wavelength range between 665-955 nm. The set of 167 tomato samples divided into groups of 117 tomatoes sample for training set and 50 tomatoes sample for test set were used to establish the calibration model to predict and measure %TA by partial least squares regression (PLSR) technique. The spectra were pretreated with MSC pretreatment and it gave the optimal result for calibration model as (R = 0.92, RMSEC = 0.03%) and this model obtained high accuracy result to use for %TA prediction in test set as (R = 0.81, RMSEP = 0.05%). From the result of prediction in test set shown that the transmittance SW-NIR spectroscopy technique can be used for a non-destructive method for %TA prediction of tomato.

Keywords: Tomato, quality, prediction, transmittance, titratable acidity, citric acid.

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Authors: Rose Shayeghi, Pejman Hosseinioun

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The Multiple Intelligences theory characterizes human intelligence as a multifaceted entity that exists in all human beings with varying degrees. The most important contribution of this theory to the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) is its role in identifying individual differences and designing more learnercentered programs. The present study aims at investigating the relationship between different elements of multiple intelligence and grammar scores. To this end, 63 female Iranian EFL learner selected from among intermediate students participated in the study. The instruments employed were a Nelson English language test, Michigan Grammar Test, and Teele Inventory for Multiple Intelligences (TIMI). The results of Pearson Product-Moment Correlation revealed a significant positive correlation between grammatical accuracy and linguistic as well as interpersonal intelligence. The results of Stepwise Multiple Regression indicated that linguistic intelligence contributed to the prediction of grammatical accuracy.

Keywords: Multiple intelligence, grammar, ELT, EFL, TIMI.

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Authors: Shilpi Tyagi, D. K. Nauriyal

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This study investigates the firm level determinants of profitability of Indian drug and pharmaceutical industry. The study uses inflation adjusted panel data for a period 2000-2013 and applies OLS regression model with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors. It has been found that export intensity, A&M intensity, firm’s market power and stronger patent regime dummy have exercised positive influence on profitability. The negative and statistically significant influence of R&D intensity and raw material import intensity points to the need for firms to adopt suitable investment strategies. The study suggests that firms are required to pay far more attention to optimize their operating expenditures, advertisement and marketing expenditures and improve their export orientation, as part of the long term strategy.

Keywords: Indian drug and pharmaceutical industry, trade related intellectual property rights, research and development, food and drug administration.

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Authors: Md. Z. Alam, Devi R. Asih, Md. N. Salleh

Abstract:

Immobilization of lipase enzyme produced from palm oil mill effluent (POME) by the activated carbon (AC) among the low cost support materials was optimized. The results indicated that immobilization of 94% was achieved by AC as the most suitable support material. A sequential optimization strategy based on a statistical experimental design, including one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) method was used to determine the equilibrium time. Three components influencing lipase immobilization were optimized by the response surface methodology (RSM) based on the face-centered central composite design (FCCCD). On the statistical analysis of the results, the optimum enzyme concentration loading, agitation rate and carbon active dosage were found to be 30 U/ml, 300 rpm and 8 g/L respectively, with a maximum immobilization activity of 3732.9 U/g-AC after 2 hrs of immobilization. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a high regression coefficient (R²) of 0.999, which indicated a satisfactory fit of the model with the experimental data. The parameters were statistically significant at p<0.05.

Keywords: Activated carbon, adsorption, immobilization, POME based lipase.

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Authors: Amr R. El-Gamal, Ashraf Essa, Ayman Ismail

Abstract:

The tension leg platform (TLP) is a vertically moored structure with excess buoyancy. The TLP is regarded as moored structure in horizontal plan, while inherit stiffness of fixed platform in vertical plane. In this paper, a numerical study using modified Morison equation was carried out in the time domain to investigate the influence of nonlinearities due to hydrodynamic forces and the coupling effect between surge, sway, heave, roll, pitch and yaw degrees of freedom on the dynamic behavior of TLP's. The stiffness of the TLP was derived from a combination of hydrostatic restoring forces and restoring forces due to cables and the nonlinear equations of motion were solved utilizing Newmark’s beta integration scheme. The effect of tethers length and wave characteristics such as wave period and wave height on the response of TLP's was evaluated.

Only uni-directional waves in the surge direction was considered in the analysis. It was found that for short wave periods (i.e. 10 sec.), the surge response consisted of small amplitude oscillations about a displaced position that is significantly dependent on tether length, wave height; whereas for longer wave periods, the surge response showed high amplitude oscillations about that is significantly dependent on tether length.

Keywords: Hydrodynamic wave forces, tension leg platforms, tethers length, wave characteristic.

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