Search results for: random testing

Authors: Malee Santikunaporn, Tattep Techopittayakul, Channarong Asavatesanupap

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Biofuel production especially that of biodiesel has gained tremendous attention during the last decade due to environmental concerns and shortage in petroleum oil reservoir. This research aims to investigate the influences of operating parameters, such as the alcohol-to-oil molar ratio (4:1, 6:1, and 9:1) and the amount of catalyst (1, 1.5, and 2 wt.%) on the trans esterification of refined palm oil (RPO) in a medium-scale oscillatory baffle reactor.  It has been shown that an increase in the methanol-to-oil ratio resulted in an increase in fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) content. The amount of catalyst has an insignificant effect on the FAMEs content. Engine testing was performed on B0 (100 v/v% diesel) and blended fuel or B50 (50 v/v% diesel). Combustion of B50 was found to give lower torque compared to pure diesel. Exhaust gas from B50 was found to contain lower concentration of CO and CO₂.

Keywords: Biodiesel, oscillatory baffled reactor, palm oil, transesterification, fatty acid methyl esters.

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Authors: A. Zanaz, S. Yotte, F. Fouchal, A. Chateauneuf

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This paper presents a methodology for probabilistic assessment of bearing capacity and prediction of failure mechanism of masonry vaults at the ultimate state with consideration of the natural variability of Young’s modulus of stones. First, the computation model is explained. The failure mode corresponds to the four-hinge mechanism. Based on this consideration, the study of a vault composed of 16 segments is presented. The Young’s modulus of the segments is considered as random variable defined by a mean value and a coefficient of variation. A relationship linking the vault bearing capacity to the voussoirs modulus variation is proposed. The most probable failure mechanisms, in addition to that observed in the deterministic case, are identified for each variability level as well as their probability of occurrence. The results show that the mechanism observed in the deterministic case has decreasing probability of occurrence in terms of variability, while the number of other mechanisms and their probability of occurrence increases with the coefficient of variation of Young’s modulus. This means that if a significant change in the Young’s modulus of the segments is proven, taking it into account in computations becomes mandatory, both for determining the vault bearing capacity and for predicting its failure mechanism.

Keywords: Masonry, mechanism, probability, variability, vault.

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Authors: Farzana Sharmin, Mohammad Tipu Sultan, Benqian Li

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Advancement of new media technology and consumption of social media have altered the way of communication in the tourism industry, mostly for consumers’ travel planning, online purchase, and experience sharing activity. There is an accelerating trend among young consumers’ to utilize this new media technology. This paper aims to analyze the attitude of young consumers’ about social media use for travel purposes. The convenience random sample method used to collect data from an urban area of Shanghai (China), consists of 225 young consumers’. This survey identified behavioral determinants of social media consumption by the extended theory of planned behavior (TPB). The instrument developed support on previous research to test hypotheses. The results of structural analyses indicate that attitude towards the use of social media is affected by external factors such as availability and accessibility of technology. In addition, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control have partially influenced the attitude of respondents’. The results of this study could help to improve social media travel marketing and promotional strategies for respective groups.

Keywords: Social media, theory of planned behavior, travel behavior, young consumer.

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Authors: Philomena Ibuh Adzongo, Margaret U. Oluwole, Justina Nguveren Jor.

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This paper investigated the need for the development of entrepreneurial skills for Benue State University students. The population consisted of all 1,500 final year students in Benue State University. A sample of 100 students was selected using simple random sampling. A 12-item self-constructed and content validated questionnaire by research experts titled, the Need for the Development of Entrepreneurial Skills in Benue State University Students (NDECBSUS) was used to collect the data. The questionnaire items were rated using a 4-point modified rating scale of Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree, assigned the following scores of 4,3,2 and 1, respectively. The questionnaire was administered by the researcher with the help of two research assistants through the primary source. Simple percentages and chi-square were used to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses, respectively. The findings revealed that in business management, business management skills, personal skills, and technical skills need to be developed in students for them to become effective and efficient entrepreneurs and concluded that the acquisition of these skills will reduce the challenge of unemployment. The study recommended that funds should be made available by all education stakeholders for such programmes to remain functional.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial skill, entrepreneurship, need for development, university students.

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Authors: Ahmed Kayad Abdourazak, Abderafi Souad, Zejli Driss, Idriss Abdoulkader Ibrahim

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In this paper Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used to predict the solar irradiation in Djibouti for the first Time that is useful to the integration of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and sites selections for new or future solar plants as part of solar energy development. An ANN algorithm was developed to establish a forward/reverse correspondence between the latitude, longitude, altitude and monthly solar irradiation. For this purpose the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) data of eight Djibouti sites were used as training and testing in a standard three layers network with the back propagation algorithm of Lavenber-Marquardt. Results have shown a very good agreement for the solar irradiation prediction in Djibouti and proves that the proposed approach can be well used as an efficient tool for prediction of solar irradiation by providing so helpful information concerning sites selection, design and planning of solar plants.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, solar irradiation, concentrated solar power, Lavenberg-Marquardt.

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Authors: Renáta Iváncsy, István Vajk

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The various types of frequent pattern discovery problem, namely, the frequent itemset, sequence and graph mining problems are solved in different ways which are, however, in certain aspects similar. The main approach of discovering such patterns can be classified into two main classes, namely, in the class of the levelwise methods and in that of the database projection-based methods. The level-wise algorithms use in general clever indexing structures for discovering the patterns. In this paper a new approach is proposed for discovering frequent sequences and tree-like patterns efficiently that is based on the level-wise issue. Because the level-wise algorithms spend a lot of time for the subpattern testing problem, the new approach introduces the idea of using automaton theory to solve this problem.

Keywords: Frequent pattern discovery, graph mining, pushdownautomaton, sequence mining, state machine, tree mining.

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Authors: Norazah Mohd Suki, Norbayah Mohd Suki

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Online shopping enables consumers to search for information and purchase products or services through direct interaction with online store. This study aims to examine the effect of Internet marketing environment, product characteristics, familiarity and confidence, and promotional offers on consumer online shopping behavior. 200 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents, who are students and staff at a public university in the Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia, following simple random sampling as a means of data collection. Multiple regression analysis was used as a statistical measure to determine the strength of the relationship between one dependent variable and a series of other independent variables. Results revealed that familiarity and confidence was found to greatly influence consumer online shopping behavior followed by promotional offers. A clear understanding of consumer online shopping behavior can help marketing managers predict the online shopping rate and evaluate the future growth of online commerce.

Keywords: Internet Marketing Environment, Product Characteristics, Multiple Regression Analysis, Malaysia.

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Authors: T.S.Balasubramanian, V.Balasubramanian, M.A.Muthumanikkam

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This paper reports the fatigue crack growth behaviour of gas tungsten arc, electron beam and laser beam welded Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy. Centre cracked tensile specimens were prepared to evaluate the fatigue crack growth behaviour. A 100kN servo hydraulic controlled fatigue testing machine was used under constant amplitude uniaxial tensile load (stress ratio of 0.1 and frequency of 10 Hz). Crack growth curves were plotted and crack growth parameters (exponent and intercept) were evaluated. Critical and threshold stress intensity factor ranges were also evaluated. Fatigue crack growth behaviour of welds was correlated with mechanical properties and microstructural characteristics of welds. Of the three joints, the joint fabricated by laser beam welding exhibited higher fatigue crack growth resistance due to the presence of fine lamellar microstructure in the weld metal.

Keywords: Fatigue, Non ferrous metals and alloys, welding

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Authors: Anne-Margré C. Vink

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Background. Food-related allergies and intolerances are frequently occurring in dogs. Diagnosis and monitoring according ‘Golden Standard’ of elimination efficiency is, however, time consuming, expensive, and requires expert clinical setting. In order to facilitate rapid and robust, quantitative testing of intolerance, and determining the individual offending foods, a serological test is implicated for Alimentary Induced Diseases and manifestations. Method. As we developed Medisynx IgG Human Screening Test ELISA before and the dog’ immune system is most similar to humans, we were able to develop Medisynx IgG Dog Screening Test ELISA as well. In this randomized, double-blind, split-sample, retro perspective study 47 dogs suffering from Canine Atopic Dermatitis (CAD) and several secondary induced reactions were included to participate in serological Medisynx IgG Dog Screening Test ELISA (within < 0,02 % SD). Results were expressed as titers relative to the standard OD readings to diagnose alimentary induced diseases and monitoring efficacy of an individual eliminating diet in dogs. Split sample analysis was performed by independently sending 2 times 3 ml serum under two unique codes. Results. The veterinarian monitored these dogs to check dog’ results at least at 3, 7, 21, 49, 70 days and after period of 6 and 12 months on an individual negative diet and a positive challenge (retrospectively) at 6 months. Data of each dog were recorded in a screening form and reported that a complete recovery of all clinical manifestations was observed at or less than 70 days (between 50 and 70 days) in the majority of dogs (44 out of 47 dogs =93.6%). Conclusion. Challenge results showed a significant result of 100% in specificity as well as 100% positive predicted value. On the other hand, sensitivity was 95,7% and negative predictive value was 95,7%. In conclusion, an individual diet based on IgG ELISA in dogs provides a significant improvement of atopic dermatitis and pruritus including all other non-specific defined allergic skin reactions as erythema, itching, biting and gnawing at toes, as well as to several secondary manifestations like chronic diarrhoea, chronic constipation, otitis media, obesity, laziness or inactive behaviour, pain and muscular stiffness causing a movement disorders, excessive lacrimation, hyper behaviour, nervous behaviour and not possible to stay alone at home, anxiety, biting and aggressive behaviour and disobedience behaviour. Furthermore, we conclude that a relatively more severe systemic candidiasis, as shown by relatively higher titer (class 3 and 4 IgG reactions to Candida albicans), influence the duration of recovery from clinical manifestations in affected dogs. These findings are consistent with our preliminary human clinical studies.

Keywords: Allergy, canine atopic dermatitis (CAD), food allergens, IgG-ELISA, food-incompatibility.

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Authors: Chia-Yu Yao

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This paper presents experimental results on testing the symbol-error-rate (SER) performance of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) systems employing symmetric pulse-shaping square-root (SR) filters designed by minimizing the roughness function and by minimizing the peak-to-average power ratio (PAR). The device used in the experiments is the 'bladeRF' software-defined-radio platform. PAR is a well-known measurement, whereas the roughness function is a concept for measuring the jitter-induced interference. The experimental results show that the system employing minimum-roughness pulse-shaping SR filters outperforms the system employing minimum-PAR pulse-shaping SR filters in the sense of SER performance.

Keywords: Pulse-shaping filters, jitter, inter-symbol interference, symmetric FIR filters, QAM

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Authors: Barath Kumar, Oliver Niggemann, Juergen Jasperneite

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Model-based approaches have been applied successfully to a wide range of tasks such as specification, simulation, testing, and diagnosis. But one bottleneck often prevents the introduction of these ideas: Manual modeling is a non-trivial, time-consuming task. Automatically deriving models by observing and analyzing running systems is one possible way to amend this bottleneck. To derive a model automatically, some a-priori knowledge about the model structure–i.e. about the system–must exist. Such a model formalism would be used as follows: (i) By observing the network traffic, a model of the long-term system behavior could be generated automatically, (ii) Test vectors can be generated from the model, (iii) While the system is running, the model could be used to diagnose non-normal system behavior. The main contribution of this paper is the introduction of a model formalism called 'probabilistic regression automaton' suitable for the tasks mentioned above.

Keywords: Model-based approach, Probabilistic regression automata, Statistical models and Timed automata.

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Authors: Devin Atkin, Orly Yadid-Pecht

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The continual demands for increasing resolution and dynamic range in complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors have resulted in exponential increases in the amount of data that need to be read out of an image sensor, and existing readouts cannot keep up with this demand. Interesting approaches such as sparse and burst readouts have been proposed and show promise, but at considerable trade-offs in other specifications. To this end, we have begun designing and evaluating various readout topologies centered around an attempt to parallelize the sensor readout. In this paper, we have designed, simulated, and started testing a light-controlled oscillator topology with dual column and row readouts. We expect the parallel readout structure to offer greater speed and alleviate the trade-off typical in this topology, where slow pixels present a major framerate bottleneck.

Keywords: CMOS image sensors, high-speed capture, wide dynamic range, light controlled oscillator.

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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: S. Dabiran

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Chest pain is one of the most prevalent complaints among adults that cause the people to attend to medical centers. The aim was to determine the prevalence and risk factors of chest pain among over 30 years old people in Tehran. In this cross-sectional study, 787 adults took part from Apr 2005 until Apr 2006. The sampling method was random cluster sampling and there were 25 clusters. In each cluster, interviews were performed with 32 over 30 years old, people lived in those houses. In cases with chest pain, extra questions asked. The prevalence of CP was 9% (71 cases). Of them 21 cases (6.5%) were in 41-60 year age ranges and the remainders were over 61 year old. 19 cases (26.8%) mentioned CP in resting state and all of the cases had exertion onset CP. The CP duration was 10 minutes or less in all of the cases and in most of them (84.5%), the location of pain mentioned left anterior part of chest, left anterior part of sternum and or left arm. There was positive history of myocardial infarction in 12 cases (17%). There was significant relation between CP and age, sex and between history of myocardial infarction and marital state of study people. Our results are similar to other studies- results in most parts, however it is necessary to perform supplementary tests and follow up studies to differentiate between cardiac and non-cardiac CP exactly.

Keywords: Chest pain, myocardial infarction, risk factor, prevalence

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Authors: Ng Yee Luon, Mohd Zamri Yusoff, Norshah Hafeez Shuaib

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Meshing is the process of discretizing problem domain into many sub domains before the numerical calculation can be performed. One of the most popular meshes among many types of meshes is tetrahedral mesh, due to their flexibility to fit into almost any domain shape. In both 2D and 3D domains, triangular and tetrahedral meshes can be generated by using Delaunay triangulation. The quality of mesh is an important factor in performing any Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations as the results is highly affected by the mesh quality. Many efforts had been done in order to improve the quality of the mesh. The paper describes a mesh generation routine which has been developed capable of generating high quality tetrahedral cells in arbitrary complex geometry. A few test cases in CFD problems are used for testing the mesh generator. The result of the mesh is compared with the one generated by a commercial software. The results show that no sliver exists for the meshes generated, and the overall quality is acceptable since the percentage of the bad tetrahedral is relatively small. The boundary recovery was also successfully done where all the missing faces are rebuilt.

Keywords: Mesh generation, tetrahedral, CFD, Delaunay.

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Authors: Gamze Uslu, Sebnem Baydere, Alper K. Demir

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In this study, data loss tolerance of Support Vector Machines (SVM) based activity recognition model and multi activity classification performance when data are received over a lossy wireless sensor network is examined. Initially, the classification algorithm we use is evaluated in terms of resilience to random data loss with 3D acceleration sensor data for sitting, lying, walking and standing actions. The results show that the proposed classification method can recognize these activities successfully despite high data loss. Secondly, the effect of differentiated quality of service performance on activity recognition success is measured with activity data acquired from a multi hop wireless sensor network, which introduces  high data loss. The effect of number of nodes on the reliability and multi activity classification success is demonstrated in simulation environment. To the best of our knowledge, the effect of data loss in a wireless sensor network on activity detection success rate of an SVM based classification algorithm has not been studied before.

Keywords: Activity recognition, support vector machines, acceleration sensor, wireless sensor networks, packet loss.

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Authors: M. Sitoe, O. Zacarias

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University education is influenced by several factors that range from the adoption of strategies to strengthen the whole process to the academic performance improvement of the students themselves. This work uses data mining techniques to develop a predictive model to identify students with a tendency to evasion and retention. To this end, a database of real students’ data from the Department of University Admission (DAU) and the Department of Mathematics and Informatics (DMI) was used. The data comprised 388 undergraduate students admitted in the years 2009 to 2014. The Weka tool was used for model building, using three different techniques, namely: K-nearest neighbor, random forest, and logistic regression. To allow for training on multiple train-test splits, a cross-validation approach was employed with a varying number of folds. To reduce bias variance and improve the performance of the models, ensemble methods of Bagging and Stacking were used. After comparing the results obtained by the three classifiers, Logistic Regression using Bagging with seven folds obtained the best performance, showing results above 90% in all evaluated metrics: accuracy, rate of true positives, and precision. Retention is the most common tendency.

Keywords: Evasion and retention, cross validation, bagging, stacking.

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Authors: Prateep Wajeetongratana

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This study is a descriptive-normative research. It attempted to investigate the restaurants’ firm performance in terms of the customers and restaurant personnel’s degree of satisfaction. A total of 12 restaurants in Bangkok, Thailand that offer Thai cuisine were included in this study. It involved 24 stockholders/managers, 120 subordinates and 360 customers. General Managers and restaurants’ stockholders, 10 staffs, and 30 costumers for each restaurant were chosen for random sampling. This study found that respondents are slightly satisfied with their work environment but are generally satisfied with the accessibility to transportation, to malls, convenience, safety, recreation, noise-free, and attraction; customers find the Quality of Food in most Thai Cuisines like services, prices of food, sales promotion, and capital and length of service satisfactory. Therefore, both stockholder-related and personnel-related factors which are influenced by restaurant, personnel, and customer-related factors are partially accepted whereas; customer-related factors which are influenced by restaurant, personnel and customer-related factors are rejected.

Keywords: Firm performance, Thai Cuisine, Tourism industry.

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Authors: René Čechmánek, Jiří Junek, Bohdan Nešpor, Pavel Šteffan

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Regarding previous research studies it was concluded that thin-walled fiber-cement composites are able to conduct electric current under specific conditions. This property is ensured by using of various kinds of carbon materials. Though carbon fibers are less conductive than metal fibers, composites with carbon fibers were evaluated as better current conductors than the composites with metal fibers. The level of electric conductivity is monitored by the means of impedance measurement of designed samples. These composites could be used for a range of applications such as heating of trafficable surfaces or shielding of electro-magnetic fields. The aim of the present research was to design an element with the ability to monitor internal processes in building structures and prevent them from collapsing. As a typical element for laboratory testing there was chosen a concrete column, which was repeatedly subjected to load by simple pressure with continual monitoring of changes in electrical properties.

Keywords: Carbon, conductivity, loading, monitoring.

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Authors: Paula Simões, Isabel Natário

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This paper reviews a number of theoretical aspects for implementing an explicit spatial perspective in econometrics for modelling non-continuous data, in general, and count data, in particular. It provides an overview of the several spatial econometric approaches that are available to model data that are collected with reference to location in space, from the classical spatial econometrics approaches to the recent developments on spatial econometrics to model count data, in a Bayesian hierarchical setting. Considerable attention is paid to the inferential framework, necessary for structural consistent spatial econometric count models, incorporating spatial lag autocorrelation, to the corresponding estimation and testing procedures for different assumptions, to the constrains and implications embedded in the various specifications in the literature. This review combines insights from the classical spatial econometrics literature as well as from hierarchical modeling and analysis of spatial data, in order to look for new possible directions on the processing of count data, in a spatial hierarchical Bayesian econometric context.

Keywords: Spatial data analysis, spatial econometrics, Bayesian hierarchical models, count data.

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Authors: Lawrence N. Ngeh, John D. Orbell, Stephen W. Bigger, Kasup Munaweera, Peter Dann

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This research is part of a broad program aimed at advancing the science and technology involved in the rescue and rehabilitation of oiled wildlife. One aspect of this research involves the use of oil-sequestering magnetic particles for the removal of contaminants from plumage – so-called “magnetic cleansing". This treatment offers a number of advantages over conventional detergent-based methods including portability - which offers the possibility of providing a “quick clean" to the animal upon first encounter in the field. This could be particularly advantageous when the contaminant is toxic and/or corrosive and/or where there is a delay in transporting the victim to a treatment centre. The method could also be useful as part of a stabilization protocol when large numbers of affected animals are awaiting treatment. This presentation describes the design, development and testing of a prototype field kit for providing a “quick clean" to contaminated wildlife in the field.

Keywords: Magnetic Particles, Oiled Wildlife, Quick Clean, Wildlife Rehabilitation.

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Authors: J. P. Dubois, O. M. Abdul-Latif

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Support Vector Machine (SVM) is a statistical learning tool that was initially developed by Vapnik in 1979 and later developed to a more complex concept of structural risk minimization (SRM). SVM is playing an increasing role in applications to detection problems in various engineering problems, notably in statistical signal processing, pattern recognition, image analysis, and communication systems. In this paper, SVM was applied to the detection of medical ultrasound images in the presence of partially developed speckle noise. The simulation was done for single look and multi-look speckle models to give a complete overlook and insight to the new proposed model of the SVM-based detector. The structure of the SVM was derived and applied to clinical ultrasound images and its performance in terms of the mean square error (MSE) metric was calculated. We showed that the SVM-detected ultrasound images have a very low MSE and are of good quality. The quality of the processed speckled images improved for the multi-look model. Furthermore, the contrast of the SVM detected images was higher than that of the original non-noisy images, indicating that the SVM approach increased the distance between the pixel reflectivity levels (detection hypotheses) in the original images.

Keywords: LS-SVM, medical ultrasound imaging, partially developed speckle, multi-look model.

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Authors: Norazah Mohd Suki, T Ramayah

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e-Government structures permits the government to operate in a more transparent and accountable manner of which it increases the power of the individual in relation to that of the government. This paper identifies the factors that determine customer-s attitude towards e-Government services using a theoretical model based on the Technology Acceptance Model. Data relating to the constructs were collected from 200 respondents. The research model was tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques via the Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS 16) computer software. SEM is a comprehensive approach to testing hypotheses about relations among observed and latent variables. The proposed model fits the data well. The results demonstrated that e- Government services acceptance can be explained in terms of compatibility and attitude towards e-Government services. The setup of the e-Government services will be compatible with the way users work and are more likely to adopt e-Government services owing to their familiarity with the Internet for various official, personal, and recreational uses. In addition, managerial implications for government policy makers, government agencies, and system developers are also discussed.

Keywords: E-government, structural equation modelling, attitude, service.

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Authors: Kechida Ahmed, Drai Redouane, Khelil Mohamed

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In this paper we present a new approach to detecting a flaw in T.O.F.D (Time Of Flight Diffraction) type ultrasonic image based on texture features. Texture is one of the most important features used in recognizing patterns in an image. The paper describes texture features based on 2D Gabor functions, i.e., Gaussian shaped band-pass filters, with dyadic treatment of the radial spatial frequency range and multiple orientations, which represent an appropriate choice for tasks requiring simultaneous measurement in both space and frequency domains. The most relevant features are used as input data on a Fuzzy c-mean clustering classifier. The classes that exist are only two: 'defects' or 'no defects'. The proposed approach is tested on the T.O.F.D image achieved at the laboratory and on the industrial field.

Keywords: 2D Gabor Functions, flaw detection, fuzzy c-mean clustering, non destructive testing, texture analysis, T.O.F.D Image (Time of Flight Diffraction).

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Authors: Zulaikha Reesha Rashaad

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One of the major factors which can contribute greatly to success of catering businesses is to employ food and beverage staff having sound hygiene knowledge. Individuals having sound knowledge of hygiene has a higher chance of following safe food practices in food production. One of the leading causes of food poisoning and food borne illnesses has been identified as lack of hygiene knowledge among food and beverage staff working in catering establishments and restaurants. This research aims to analyze the hygiene knowledge among food and beverage staff working in top five restaurants of Male’, in relation to their age, educational background, occupation and training. The research uses quantitative and descriptive methods in data collection and in data analysis. Data was obtained through random sampling technique with self-administered survey questionnaires which was completed by 60 respondents working in 5 different restaurants operating at top level in Male’. The respondents of the research were service staff and chefs working in these restaurants. The responses to the questionnaires have been analyzed by using SPSS. The results of the research indicated that age, education level, occupation and training correlated with hygiene knowledge perception scores.

Keywords: Food and beverage staff, food poisoning, food production, hygiene knowledge.

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Authors: V. Fuis, T. Navrat

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The paper deals with calculation of the parameters of ceramic material from a set of destruction tests of ceramic heads of total hip joint endoprosthesis. The standard way of calculation of the material parameters consists in carrying out a set of 3 or 4 point bending tests of specimens cut out from parts of the ceramic material to be analysed. In case of ceramic heads, it is not possible to cut out specimens of required dimensions because the heads are too small (if the cut out specimens were smaller than the normalised ones, the material parameters derived from them would exhibit higher strength values than those which the given ceramic material really has). On that score, a special testing jig was made, in which 40 heads were destructed. From the measured values of circumferential strains of the head-s external spherical surface under destruction, the state of stress in the head under destruction was established using the final elements method (FEM). From the values obtained, the sought for parameters of the ceramic material were calculated using Weibull-s weakest-link theory.

Keywords: Hip joint endoprosthesis, ceramic head, FEM analysis, Weibull's weakest-link theory, failure probability, material parameters

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Authors: Hidir S. Nogay

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In this study, two systems were created to predict interior temperature in induction motor. One of them consisted of a simple ANN model which has two layers, ten input parameters and one output parameter. The other one consisted of eight ANN models connected each other as cascaded. Cascaded ANN system has 17 inputs. Main reason of cascaded system being used in this study is to accomplish more accurate estimation by increasing inputs in the ANN system. Cascaded ANN system is compared with simple conventional ANN model to prove mentioned advantages. Dataset was obtained from experimental applications. Small part of the dataset was used to obtain more understandable graphs. Number of data is 329. 30% of the data was used for testing and validation. Test data and validation data were determined for each ANN model separately and reliability of each model was tested. As a result of this study, it has been understood that the cascaded ANN system produced more accurate estimates than conventional ANN model.

Keywords: Cascaded neural network, internal temperature, three-phase induction motor, inverter.

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Authors: M. Mottaghi, F. Ghalichi, H. Badri Ghavifekr, H. Niroomand Oskui

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This paper presents design and characterization of a microaccelerometer designated for integration into cataract surgical probe to detect hardness of different eye tissues during cataract surgery. Soft posterior lens capsule of eye can be easily damaged in comparison with hard opaque lens since the surgeon can not see directly behind cutting needle during the surgery. Presence of microsensor helps the surgeon to avoid rupturing posterior lens capsule which if occurs leads to severe complications such as glaucoma, infection, or even blindness. The microsensor having overall dimensions of 480 μm x 395 μm is able to deliver significant capacitance variations during encountered vibration situations which makes it capable to distinguish between different types of tissue. Integration of electronic components on chip ensures high level of reliability and noise immunity while minimizes space and power requirements. Physical characteristics and results on performance testing, proves integration of microsensor as an effective tool to aid the surgeon during this procedure.

Keywords: Cataract surgery, MEMS, Microsensor, Phacoemulsification.

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Authors: S. Jedari Salami

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In this paper the effects of adding an extra layer within a sandwich panel and core- types in top and bottom cores on quasi- static loading are studied experimentally. The panel includes polymer composite laminated sheets for faces and the internal laminated sheet called extra layer sheet, and two types of crushable foams are selected as the core material. Quasi- static tests were done by ZWICK testing machine on fully backed specimens with two foam cores, Poly Urethane Rigid (PUR) and Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC). It was found that the core material type has made significant role on improving the sandwich panel’s behavior compared with the effect of extra layer location.

Keywords: Multi-layer sandwich structures, Internal sheet, Crushable foam, Top core, Bottom core.

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Authors: J. Nesleha, H. Florianova

Abstract:

The goal of the study is to provide results of a conducted study devoted to financial literacy in the Czech Republic and to introduce a project related to financial education in the Czech Republic. Financial education has become an important part of education in the country, yet it is still neglected on the lowest level of formal education–primary schools. The project is based on investigation of financial literacy on primary schools in the Czech Republic. Consequently, the authors aim to formulate possible amendments related to this type of education. The gained dataset is intended to be used for analysis concerning financial education in the Czech Republic. With regard to used methods, the most important one is regression analysis for disclosure of predictors causing different levels of financial literacy. Furthermore, comparison of different groups is planned, for which t-tests are intended to be used. The study also employs descriptive statistics to introduce basic relationship in the data file.

Keywords: Czech Republic, financial education, financial literacy, primary school, regression analysis.

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