Search results for: Quality of Research

Authors: Anil Kumar Tripathi, Ratneshwer

Abstract:

All the software engineering researches and best industry practices aim at providing software products with high degree of quality and functionality at low cost and less time. These requirements are addressed by the Component Based Software Engineering (CBSE) as well. CBSE, which deals with the software construction by components’ assembly, is a revolutionary extension of Software Engineering. CBSE must define and describe processes to assure timely completion of high quality software systems that are composed of a variety of pre built software components. Though these features provide distinct and visible benefits in software design and programming, they also raise some challenging problems. The aim of this work is to summarize the pertinent issues and considerations in CBSE to make an understanding in forms of concepts and observations that may lead to development of newer ways of dealing with the problems and challenges in CBSE.

Keywords: Software Component, Component Based Software Engineering, Software Process, Testing, Maintenance.

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Authors: S. Sookpeng, C. J. Martin, D. J. Gentle

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Automatic tube current modulation (ATCM) systems are available for all CT manufacturers and are used for the majority of patients. Understanding how the systems work and their influence on patient dose and image quality is important for CT users, in order to gain the most effective use of the systems. In the present study, a new phantom was used for evaluating dose distribution and image quality under the ATCM operation for the Toshiba Aquilion 64 CT scanner using different ATCM options and a fixed mAs technique. A routine chest, abdomen and pelvis (CAP) protocol was selected for study and Gafchromic film was used to measure entrance surface dose (ESD), peripheral dose and central axis dose in the phantom. The results show the dose reductions achievable with various ATCM options, in relation with the target noise. The doses and image noise distribution were more uniform when the ATCM system was implemented compared with the fixed mAs technique. The lower limit set for the tube current will affect the modulations especially for the lower dose option. This limit prevented the tube current being reduced further and therefore the lower dose ATCM setting resembled a fixed mAs technique. Selection of a lower tube current limit is likely to reduce doses for smaller patients in scans of chest and neck regions.

Keywords: Computed Tomography (CT), Automatic Tube Current Modulation (ATCM), Automatic Exposure Control (AEC).

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Authors: Cláudio Santos, Madalena Araújo, Nuno Correia

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The inherent complexity in nowadays- business environments is forcing organizations to be attentive to the dynamics in several fronts. Therefore, the management of technological innovation is continually faced with uncertainty about the future. These issues lead to a need for a systemic perspective, able to analyze the consequences of interactions between different factors. The field of technology foresight has proposed methods and tools to deal with this broader perspective. In an attempt to provide a method to analyze the complex interactions between events in several areas, departing from the identification of the most strategic competencies, this paper presents a methodology based on the Delphi method and Quality Function Deployment. This methodology is applied in a sheet metal processing equipment manufacturer, as a case study.

Keywords: Competencies, Delphi Method, Quality Function Deployment, Technology Foresight.

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Authors: B. Terzioglu, E.S.K. Chan

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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview on methodological aspects of the information technology outsourcing (ITO) surveys, in an attempt to improve the data quality and reporting in survey research. It is based on a review of thirty articles on ITO surveys and focuses on two commonly explored dimensions of ITO, namely what are outsourced and why should there be ITO. This study highlights weaknesses in ITO surveys including lack of a clear definition of population, lack of information regarding the sampling method used, not citing the response rate, no information pertaining to pilot testing of survey instrument and absence of information on internal validity in the use or reporting of surveys. This study represents an attempt with a limited scope to point to shortfalls in the use survey methodology in ITO, and thus raise awareness among researchers in enhancing the reliability of survey findings.

Keywords: ITO, information technology outsourcing, survey methodology

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Authors: Mahmoud Shaker, Ala'a Imran

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Greenhouse is a building, which provides controlled climate conditions to the plants to keep them from external hard conditions. Greenhouse technology gives freedom to the farmer to select any crop type in any time during year. The quality and productivity of plants inside greenhouse is highly dependent on the management quality and a good management scheme is defined by the quality of the information collected from the greenhouse environment. Therefore, Continuous monitoring of environmental variables such as temperature, humidity, and soil moisture gives information to the grower to better understand, how each factor affects growth and how to manage maximal crop productiveness. In this piper, we designed and implemented climate monitoring with irrigation control system based on Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technology. The designed system is characterized with friendly to use, easy to install by any greenhouse user, multi-sensing nodes, multi-PAN ID, low cast, water irrigation control and low operation complexity. The system consists of two node types (sensing and control) with star topology on one PAN ID. Moreover, greenhouse manager can modifying system parameters such as (sensing node addresses, irrigation upper and lower control limits) by updating corresponding data in SDRAM memory. In addition, the designed system uses 2*16 characters. LCD to display the micro climate parameters values of each plants row inside the greenhouse.

Keywords: ZigBee, WSN, Arduino platform, Greenhouse automation, micro climate monitoring, smart Irrigation control.

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Authors: Horng-Yuan Wu, Chin-Yuan Hsu, Tsair-Fwu Lee

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A novel three-phase active power filter (APF) circuit with photovoltaic (PV) system to improve the quality of service and to reduce the capacity of energy storage capacitor is presented. The energy balance concept and sampling technique were used to simplify the calculation algorithm for the required utility source current and to control the voltage of the energy storage capacitor. The feasibility was verified by using the Pspice simulations and experiments. When the APF mode was used during non-operational period, not only the utilization rate, power factor and power quality could be improved, but also the capacity of energy storage capacitor could sparing. As the results, the advantages of the APF circuit are simplicity of control circuits, low cost, and good transient response.

Keywords: active power filter, sampling, energy-storagecapacitor, harmonic current, energy balance.

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Authors: Yi-Pin Hsu, Shin-Yu Lin

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In order to protect original data, watermarking is first consideration direction for digital information copyright. In addition, to achieve high quality image, the algorithm maybe can not run on embedded system because the computation is very complexity. However, almost nowadays algorithms need to build on consumer production because integrator circuit has a huge progress and cheap price. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm which efficient inserts watermarking on digital image and very easy to implement on digital signal processor. In further, we select a general and cheap digital signal processor which is made by analog device company to fit consumer application. The experimental results show that the image quality by watermarking insertion can achieve 46 dB can be accepted in human vision and can real-time execute on digital signal processor.

Keywords: watermarking, digital signal processor, embedded system

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Authors: Sz. Klátyik, B. Darvas, M. Mörtl, M. Ottucsák, E. Takács, H. Bánáti, L. Simon, G. Gyurcsó, A. Székács

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Environmental and health safety of condiments used for spicing food products in food processing or by culinary means receive relatively low attention, even though possible contamination of spices may affect food quality and safety. Contamination surveys mostly focus on microbial contaminants or their secondary metabolites, mycotoxins. Chemical contaminants, particularly pesticide residues, however, are clearly substantial factors in the case of given condiments in the Capsicum family including spice paprika and chilli. To assess food safety and support the quality of the Hungaricum product spice paprika, the pesticide residue status of spice paprika and chilli is assessed on the basis of reported pesticide contamination cases and non-compliances in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed of the European Union since 1998.

Keywords: Spice paprika, Capsicum, pesticide residues, RASFF.

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Authors: Sharareh Mohseni, Reihaneh Ahmadzadeh Ghavidel

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Tomato powder has good potential as substitute of tomato paste and other tomato products. In order to protect physicochemical properties and nutritional quality of tomato during dehydration process, investigation was carried out using different drying methods and pretreatments. Solar drier and continuous conveyor (tunnel) drier were used for dehydration where as calcium chloride (CaCl2), potassium metabisulphite (KMS), calcium chloride and potassium metabisulphite (CaCl2 +KMS), and sodium chloride (NaCl) selected for treatment.. lycopene content, dehydration ratio, rehydration ratio and non-enzymatic browning in addition to moisture, sugar and titrable acidity were studied. Results show that pre-treatment with CaCl2 and NaCl increased water removal and moisture mobility in tomato slices during drying of tomatoes. Where CaCl2 used along with KMS the NEB was recorded the least compared to other treatments and the best results were obtained while using the two chemicals in combination form. Storage studies in LDPE polymeric and metalized polyesters films showed less changes in the products packed in metallized polyester pouches and even after 6 months lycopene content did not decrease more than 20% as compared to the control sample and provide extension of shelf life in acceptable condition for 6 months. In most of the quality characteristics tunnel drier samples presented better values in comparison to solar drier.

Keywords: Dehydration, Tomato powder, Lycopene, Browning

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Authors: Supatchalee Sirichokworrakit

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Fishbone of Nile Tilapia (Tilapia nilotica), waste from the frozen Nile Tilapia fillet factory, is one of calcium sources. In order to increase fish bone powder value, this study aimed to investigate the effect of Tilapia bone flour (TBF) addition (5, 10, 15% by flour weight) on cooking quality, texture and sensory attributes of noodles. The results indicated that tensile strength, color value (a*) and water absorption of noodles significantly decreased (p£0.05) as the levels of TBF increased from 0-15%. While cooking loss, cooking time and color values (L* and b*) of noodles significantly increased (p£0.05). Sensory evaluation indicated that noodles with 5% TBF received the highest overall acceptability score.

Keywords: Tilapia bone flour, Noodles, Cooking quality, Calcium.

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Authors: PeiWen Liao, Tsung Hau Jen

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This study was conducted to explore the effects of two countries model comparison program in Taiwan and Singapore in TIMSS database. The researchers used Multi-Group Hierarchical Linear Modeling techniques to compare the effects of two different country models and we tested our hypotheses on 4,046 Taiwan students and 4,599 Singapore students in 2007 at two levels: the class level and student (individual) level. Design quality is a class level variable. Student level variables are achievement and self-confidence. The results challenge the widely held view that retention has a positive impact on self-confidence. Suggestions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: Teaching approach, self-confidence, achievement, multi-group HLM.

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Authors: Liang-Ta Cheng, Ching-Yu Yang

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Based on fast discrete cosine transform (FDCT), the authors present a high capacity and high perceived quality method for electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. By using a simple adjusting policy to the 1-dimentional (1-D) DCT coefficients, a large volume of secret message can be effectively embedded in an ECG host signal and be successfully extracted at the intended receiver. Simulations confirmed that the resulting perceived quality is good, while the hiding capability of the proposed method significantly outperforms that of existing techniques. In addition, our proposed method has a certain degree of robustness. Since the computational complexity is low, it is feasible for our method being employed in real-time applications.

Keywords: Data hiding, ECG steganography, fast discrete cosine transform, 1-D DCT bundle, real-time applications.

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Authors: Pimporn Thongmuang

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The purpose of this research is to study sport and exercise behavior of students in Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University in September of 2012. The sample group used in this research was a group of regular students in undergraduate school enrolled in faculty of science and technology. This sample group consisted of 1,858 students. The research tool used to collect result was the checklist. The data was calculated by statistical percentage. From the research, it was discovered that most students did exercise in previous month. 71.6% of students exercised by running. 61.1% of students exercised in their neighborhood. 60.4% of students exercised in order to keep fit. 60.2% of students agreed that the result from this research can be educational and inspirational for students in campus in terms of living healthily by exercise.

Keywords: Exercise behavior, sport behavior, students.

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Authors: Pedram Behyar, Maryam Heidari, Zahra Bayat

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the purpose of this research is to identify and clarify factors which have positive effect among user satisfaction and their social networking through websites. The examined factors in this research are; innovation, ease of use, trustworthy and customer support which are defined as satisfaction factors. To obtain reliable research approaches and to have better result in this research four hypothesizes used to test. This hypothesis testing has been done by correlation, regression and test of normality by using “SPSS16" also the data which was analyzed by this software. this data was gathered from prepaid questionnaire.

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction, Social Network Website

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Authors: Kadry M. Sadek, Tarek K. Abouzed, Mousa A. Ayoub

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The presence of endocrine-disrupting compounds, such as bisphenol A (BPA), in the environment can cause serious health problems. However, there are controversial opinions. This study investigated the reproductive, metabolic, oxidative and immunologic-disrupting effects of bisphenol A in male rabbits. Rabbits were divided into five groups. The first four rabbit groups were administered oral BPA (1, 10, 50, or 100 mg/kg/day) for ten weeks. The fifth group was administered corn oil as the vehicle. BPA significantly decreased serum testosterone, estradiol and the free androgen index (FAI) and significantly increased sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) compared with the placebo group. The higher doses of BPA showed a significant decrease in follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). A significant increase in blood glucose levels was identified in the BPA groups. The non-significant difference in insulin levels is a novel finding. The cumulative testicular toxicity of BPA was clearly demonstrated by the dose-dependent decrease in absolute testes weight, primary measures of semen quality and a significant increase in testicular malonaldehyde (MDA). Moreover, BPA significantly decreased total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and significantly increased immunoglobulin G (IgG) at the highest concentration. Our results suggest that BPA, especially at higher doses, is associated with many adverse effects on metabolism, oxidative stress, immunity, sperm quality and markers of androgenic action.

Keywords: Bisphenol A, oxidative stress, rabbits, semen quality, steroidogenesis.

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Authors: Noor Azlina Mohd Salleh, Salmiah Kasolang, Ahmed Jaffar

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Integrated Total Quality Management (TQM) with Lean Manufacturing (LM) is a system comprises of TQM with LM principles and is associated with financial and nonfinancial performance measurement indicators. The ultimate goal of this system is to focus on achieving total customer satisfaction by removing eight wastes available in any process in an organization. A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to 30 highly active automotive vendors in Malaysia and analyzed by PASW Statistics 18. It was found out that these vendors have been practicing and measuring the effectiveness TQM and LM implementation. More involvement of all Malaysian automotive vendors will represent the exact status of current Malaysian automotive industry in implementing TQM and LM and can determine whether the industry is ready for integrated TQM and LM system. This is the first study that combined 4 awards practices, ISO/TS16949, Toyota Production System and SAEJ4000.

Keywords: Automotive Industry, Lean Manufacturing, Operational Engineering Management, Total Quality Management

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Authors: J. Silvestre, L. Almeida, R. Marau, P. Pedreiras

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Currently, there are many local area industrial networks that can give guaranteed bandwidth to synchronous traffic, particularly providing CBR channels (Constant Bit Rate), which allow improved bandwidth management. Some of such networks operate over Ethernet, delivering channels with enough capacity, specially with compressors, to integrate multimedia traffic in industrial monitoring and image processing applications with many sources. In these industrial environments where a low latency is an essential requirement, JPEG is an adequate compressing technique but it generates VBR traffic (Variable Bit Rate). Transmitting VBR traffic in CBR channels is inefficient and current solutions to this problem significantly increase the latency or further degrade the quality. In this paper an R(q) model is used which allows on-line calculation of the JPEG quantification factor. We obtained increased quality, a lower requirement for the CBR channel with reduced number of discarded frames along with better use of the channel bandwidth.

Keywords: Industrial Networks, Multimedia.

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Authors: Abimbola Motunrayo Folami, Ibironke Titilayo Enitan, Feroz Mohomed Swalaha

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Water is a vital resource that is important in ensuring the growth and development of any country. To sustain the basic human needs and the demands for agriculture, industry, conservational and ecosystem, enough quality and quantity water is needed. Contamination of water resources is now a global and public health concern. Hence, this study assessed the water quality of Ndawuse River by measuring the physicochemical parameters and heavy metals concentrations of the river using standard methods. In total, 16 surface water samples were obtained from five locations along the river, from upstream to downstream as well as samples from the dumpsite. The results obtained were compared with the standard limits set by both the World Health Organization and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency for domestic purposes. The results of the measured parameters indicated that biological oxygen demand (85.88 mg/L), turbidity (44.51 NTU), Iron (0.014 - 3.511 mg /L) and chromium (0.078 - 0.14 mg /L) were all above the standard limits. The results further showed that the quality of surface water is being significantly affected by human activities around the Ndawuse River which could pose an adverse health risk to several communities that rely on this river as their primary source of water. Therefore, there is a need for strict enforcement of environmental laws to protect the aquatic ecosystem and to avoid long term cumulative exposure risk that heavy metals may pose on human health.

Keywords: Abuja, contaminants, heavy metals, Ndawuse River, Nigeria, surface water.

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Authors: Pongthep Bunrueng

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This action research accentuates the outcome of a development in English pronunciation, using principles of phonetics for English major students at Loei Rajabhat University. The research is split into 5 separate modules: 1) Organs of Speech and How to Produce Sounds, 2) Monopthongs, 3) Diphthongs, 4) Consonant sounds, and 5) Suprasegmental Features. Each module followed a 4 step action research process, 1) Planning, 2) Acting, 3) Observing, and 4) Reflecting. The research targeted 2nd year students who were majoring in English Education at Loei Rajabhat University during the academic year of 2011. A mixed methodology employing both quantitative and qualitative research was used, which put theory into action, taking segmental features up to suprasegmental features. Multiple tools were employed which included the following documents: pre-test and post-test papers, evaluation and assessment papers, group work assessment forms, a presentation grading form, an observation of participants form and a participant self-reflection form.

All 5 modules for the target group showed that results from the post-tests were higher than those of the pre-tests, with 0.01 statistical significance. All target groups attained results ranging from low to moderate and from moderate to high performance. The participants who attained low to moderate results had to re-sit the second round. During the first development stage, participants attended classes with group participation, in which they addressed planning through mutual co-operation and sharing of responsibility. Analytic induction of strong points for this operation illustrated that learner cognition, comprehension, application, and group practices were all present whereas the participants with weak results could be attributed to biological differences, differences in life and learning, or individual differences in responsiveness and self-discipline.

Participants who were required to be re-treated in Spiral 2 received the same treatment again. Results of tests from the 5 modules after the 2^nd treatment were that the participants attained higher scores than those attained in the pre-test. Their assessment and development stages also showed improved results. They showed greater confidence at participating in activities, produced higher quality work, and correctly followed instructions for each activity. Analytic induction of strong and weak points for this operation remains the same as for Spiral 1, though there were improvements to problems which existed prior to undertaking the second treatment.

Keywords: Action research, English pronunciation, phonetics, segmental features, suprasegmental features.

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Authors: Maissom Qanber Abbasi, Philip Lew, Irfan Rafique, Zhang Li

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Perceptions of quality from both designers and users perspective have now stretched beyond the traditional usability, incorporating abstract and subjective concepts. This has led to a shift in human computer interaction research communities- focus; a shift that focuses on achieving user experience (UX) by not only fulfilling conventional usability needs but also those that go beyond them. The term UX, although widely spread and given significant importance, lacks consensus in its unified definition. In this paper, we survey various UX definitions and modeling frameworks and examine them as the foundation for proposing a UX evolution lifecycle framework for understanding UX in detail. In the proposed framework we identify the building blocks of UX and discuss how UX evolves in various phases. The framework can be used as a tool to understand experience requirements and evaluate them, resulting in better UX design and hence improved user satisfaction.

Keywords: Usability, user experience lifecycle, user satisfaction

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Authors: EL-Sayed M. M. EL-Refaie, Mohamed R. Salem, Wael A. Ahmed

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Power systems and transformer are intrinsic apparatus, therefore its reliability and safe operation is important to determine their operation conditions, and the industry uses quality control tests in the insulation design of oil filled transformers. Hence the service period effect on AC dielectric strength is significant. The effect of aging on transformer oil physical, chemical and electrical properties was studied using the international testing methods for the evaluation of transformer oil quality. The study was carried out on six transformers operate in the field and for monitoring periods over twenty years. The properties which are strongly time dependent were specified and those which have a great impact on the transformer oil acidity, breakdown voltage and dissolved gas analysis were defined. Several tests on the transformers oil were studied to know the time of purifying or changing it, moreover prediction of the characteristics of it under different operation conditions.

Keywords: Dissolved Gas Analysis, Prediction, Purifying and Changing.

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Authors: Adithya Nadig

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In the field of production, characterization of surface roughness plays a vital role in assessing the quality of a manufactured product. The defined parameters for this assessment, each, have their own drawbacks in describing a profile surface. From the purview of small-scale and medium-scale industries, an increase in time spent for manual inspection of a product for various parameters adds to the cost of the product. In order to reduce this, a uniform and established standard is necessary for quantifying a profile of a manufactured product. The inspection procedure in the small and medium-scale manufacturing units at Jigani Industrial area, Bangalore, was observed. The parameters currently in use in those industries are described in the paper and a change in the inspection method is proposed.

Keywords: Efficiency of quality assessment, areal profiling technique, manufacturing, standardization, Surface Roughness Characterization.

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Authors: Rim Messaoudi, Nogaye-Gueye Gning, François Azelart

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Automatic text classification applies mostly natural language processing (NLP) and other artificial intelligence (AI)-guided techniques to automatically classify text in a faster and more accurate manner. This paper discusses the subject of using predictive maintenance to manage incident tickets inside the sociality. It focuses on proposing a tool that treats and analyses comments and notes written by administrators after resolving an incident ticket. The goal here is to increase the quality of these comments. Additionally, this tool is based on NLP and machine learning techniques to realize the textual analytics of the extracted data. This approach was tested using real data taken from the French National Railways (SNCF) company and was given a high-quality result.

Keywords: Machine learning, text classification, NLP techniques, semantic representation.

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Authors: Y. Duvarci, S. Mizokami

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Today, the preferences and participation of the TD groups such as the elderly and disabled is still lacking in decision-making of transportation planning, and their reactions to certain type of policies are not well known. Thus, a clear methodology is needed. This study aimed to develop a method to extract the preferences of the disabled to be used in the policy-making stage that can also guide to future estimations. The method utilizes the combination of cluster analysis and data filtering using the data of the Arao city (Japan). The method is a process that follows: defining the TD group by the cluster analysis tool, their travel preferences in tabular form from the household surveys by policy variableimpact pairs, zones, and by trip purposes, and the final outcome is the preference probabilities of the disabled. The preferences vary by trip purpose; for the work trips, accessibility and transit system quality policies with the accompanying impacts of modal shifts towards public mode use as well as the decreasing travel costs, and the trip rate increase; for the social trips, the same accessibility and transit system policies leading to the same mode shift impact, together with the travel quality policy area leading to trip rate increase. These results explain the policies to focus and can be used in scenario generation in models, or any other planning purpose as decision support tool.

Keywords: Transportation Disadvantaged, Disabled, Mixed Preference, Stated Preference Data.

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Authors: Taruna Katyal Arora, Geeta Kumari, Hari Shankar, Neelima Mishra

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Substandard and counterfeit antimalarials is a major problem in malaria endemic areas. The availability of counterfeit/ substandard medicines is not only decreasing the efficacy in patients, but it is also one of the contributing factors for developing antimalarial drug resistance. Owing to this, a pilot study was conducted to survey quality of drugs collected from different malaria endemic areas of India. Artesunate+Sulphadoxine-Pyrimethamine (AS+SP), Artemether-Lumefantrine (AL), Chloroquine (CQ) tablets were randomly picked from public health facilities in selected states of India. The quality of antimalarial drugs from these areas was assessed by using Global Pharma Health Fund Minilab test kit. This includes physical/visual inspection and disintegration test. Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) was carried out for semi-quantitative assessment of active pharmaceutical ingredients. A total of 45 brands, out of which 21 were for CQ, 14 for AL and 10 for AS+SP were tested from Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), Mizoram, Meghalaya and Gujrat states. One out of 45 samples showed variable disintegration and retension factor. The variable disintegration and retention factor which would have been due to substandard quality or other factors including storage. However, HPLC analysis confirms standard active pharmaceutical ingredient, but may be due to humid temperature and moisture in storage may account for the observed result.

Keywords: Antimalarial medicines, counterfeit, substandard, thin layer chromatography.

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Authors: Sakshi Kausha, R.K Sharma

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High speed networks provide realtime variable bit rate service with diversified traffic flow characteristics and quality requirements. The variable bit rate traffic has stringent delay and packet loss requirements. The burstiness of the correlated traffic makes dynamic buffer management highly desirable to satisfy the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. This paper presents an algorithm for optimization of adaptive buffer allocation scheme for traffic based on loss of consecutive packets in data-stream and buffer occupancy level. Buffer is designed to allow the input traffic to be partitioned into different priority classes and based on the input traffic behavior it controls the threshold dynamically. This algorithm allows input packets to enter into buffer if its occupancy level is less than the threshold value for priority of that packet. The threshold is dynamically varied in runtime based on packet loss behavior. The simulation is run for two priority classes of the input traffic – realtime and non-realtime classes. The simulation results show that Adaptive Partial Buffer Sharing (ADPBS) has better performance than Static Partial Buffer Sharing (SPBS) and First In First Out (FIFO) queue under the same traffic conditions.

Keywords: Buffer Management, Consecutive packet loss, Quality-of-Service, Priority based packet discarding, partial buffersharing.

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Authors: M. K. Pradhan, Mayank Meena, Shubham Sen, Arvind Singh

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In this study, a multi objective optimization for end milling of Al 6061 alloy has been presented to provide better surface quality and higher Material Removal Rate (MRR). The input parameters considered for the analysis are spindle speed, depth of cut and feed. The experiments were planned as per Taguchis design of experiment, with L27 orthogonal array. The Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) has been used for transforming multiple quality responses into a single response and the weights of the each performance characteristics are determined by employing the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), so that their relative importance can be properly and objectively described. The results reveal that Taguchi based G-PCA can effectively acquire the optimal combination of cutting parameters.

Keywords: Material Removal Rate, Surface Roughness, Taguchi Method, Grey Relational Analysis, Principal Component Analysis.

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Authors: Babakina Alexandra, Yong Soo Kim

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In this study, we analyzed the factors that affect research funds using linear regression analysis to increase the effectiveness of investments in national research projects. We collected 7,916 items of data on research projects that were in the process of being finished or were completed between 2010 and 2011. Data pre-processing and visualization were performed to derive statistically significant results. We identified factors that affected funding using analysis of fit distributions and estimated increasing or decreasing tendencies based on these factors.

Keywords: R&D funding, Cost estimation, Linear regression, Preliminary feasibility study.

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Authors: Marko Čular

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The aim of this paper is to raise general awareness of transparency importance for audit firms and for audit services’ users. This paper analyzes transparency of audit firms that audited financial statements of listed companies, for year 2011 and 2012. We use this two years because in the meantime Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants has been adopted. This paper investigates whether transparency reports of audit firms are in accordance with the Croatian Audit Act and whether there is a difference on transparency in observed years. For this paper quality index of transparency report and financial indicators of audit firms are used to get conclusion about condition of audit firms transparency reporting. Results of our study indicate that audit firms are not fully transparent, looking for both years. Transparency of audit firms in 2012 has improved significantly, compared with transparency in 2011.

Keywords: Transparency report, Index quality of transparency report, Croatian Audit Act, Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants.

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Authors: X. Gu, K. L. Blackmore

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The impact factor was introduced to measure the quality of journals. Various impact measures exist from multiple bibliographic databases. In this research, we aim to provide a broader understanding of the relationship between scholarly impact and other characteristics of academic journals. Data used for this research were collected from Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory (Ulrichs), Cabell’s (Cabells), and SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) from 1999 to 2015. A master journal dataset was consolidated via Journal Title and ISSN. We adopted a two-step analysis process to study the quantitative relationships between scholarly impact and other journal characteristics. Firstly, we conducted a correlation analysis over the data attributes, with results indicating that there are no correlations between any of the identified journal characteristics. Secondly, we examined the quantitative relationship between scholarly impact and other characteristics using quartile analysis. The results show interesting patterns, including some expected and others less anticipated. Results show that higher quartile journals publish more in both frequency and quantity, and charge more for subscription cost. Top quartile journals also have the lowest acceptance rates. Non-English journals are more likely to be categorized in lower quartiles, which are more likely to stop publishing than higher quartiles. Future work is suggested, which includes analysis of the relationship between scholars and their publications, based on the quartile ranking of journals in which they publish.

Keywords: Academic journal, acceptance rate, impact factor, journal characteristics.

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