Search results for: Performance analysis

Authors: D. Vlachopoulos, G. Tsokkas

Abstract:

Although it is not intended to identify distance education students as a homogeneous group, recent research has demonstrated that there are some demographic and personality common traits among most of them that provide the basis for the description of a typical distance learning student. The purpose of this paper is to describe these common traits and to facilitate their learning journey within a distance education program. The described research is an initiative of the Distance Education Unit at the European University Cyprus (Laureate International Universities) in the context of its action for the improvement of the students’ performance.

Keywords: Distance education students, successful student performance, European University Cyprus, common traits.

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Authors: Oluwaseyi O. Taiwo, Adeolu A. Adediran, Abayomi A. Akinwande, Frank C. Okoyeh

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The use of fuel fired crucible furnace is essential in the foundries of developing countries owing to the luxury of electricity. Fuel fired crucible furnace are commonly used in recycling, casting, research and training activities in tertiary institutions, therefore, several attempts are being made to improve the performance and service life of fuel fired crucible. The current study reviews the sequential stages involved in the designs and fabrication of fuel fired crucible furnace which include; design, material selection, modelling and simulation as well as performance evaluation. The study shows that selecting appropriate materials for the different units in the fabrication process is important to the efficiency and service life of fuel fired crucible furnaces. Also, efficiency and performance of fuel fired furnaces are independent of cost of fabrication and their capacity. The importance of modelling and simulation tools in the fabrication process are identified while their non-frequent usage in several works is observed. The need to widen performance evaluations in further studies beyond efficiency determination to give a more detailed assessment of fuel fired crucible furnaces is also observed.

Keywords: Crucible furnace, furnace design, fabrication, fuel.

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Authors: Claudineia Brazil, Elison Eduardo Jardim Bierhals, Luciane Teresa Salvi, Rafael Haag

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Renewable energy sources are dependent on climatic variability, so for adequate energy planning, observations of the meteorological variables are required, preferably representing long-period series. Despite the scientific and technological advances that meteorological measurement systems have undergone in the last decades, there is still a considerable lack of meteorological observations that form series of long periods. The reanalysis is a system of assimilation of data prepared using general atmospheric circulation models, based on the combination of data collected at surface stations, ocean buoys, satellites and radiosondes, allowing the production of long period data, for a wide gamma. The third generation of reanalysis data emerged in 2010, among them is the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) developed by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), these data have a spatial resolution of 0.50 x 0.50. In order to overcome these difficulties, it aims to evaluate the performance of solar radiation estimation through alternative data bases, such as data from Reanalysis and from meteorological satellites that satisfactorily meet the absence of observations of solar radiation at global and/or regional level. The results of the analysis of the solar radiation data indicated that the reanalysis data of the CFSR model presented a good performance in relation to the observed data, with determination coefficient around 0.90. Therefore, it is concluded that these data have the potential to be used as an alternative source in locations with no seasons or long series of solar radiation, important for the evaluation of solar energy potential.

Keywords: Climate, reanalysis, renewable energy, solar radiation.

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Authors: H. Meddah, M. Berediaf-Bourahla, B. El-Djouzi, N. Bourahla

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Shear walls made of cold formed steel are used as lateral force resisting components in residential and low-rise commercial and industrial constructions. The seismic design analysis of such structures is often complex due to the slenderness of members and their instability prevalence. In this context, a simplified modeling technique across the panel is proposed by using the finite element method. The approach is based on idealizing the whole panel by a nonlinear shear link element which reflects its shear behavior connected to rigid body elements which transmit the forces to the end elements (studs) that resist the tension and the compression. The numerical model of the shear wall panel was subjected to cyclic loads in order to evaluate the seismic performance of the structure in terms of lateral displacement and energy dissipation capacity. In order to validate this model, the numerical results were compared with those from literature tests. This modeling technique is particularly useful for the design of cold formed steel structures where the shear forces in each panel and the axial forces in the studs can be obtained using spectrum analysis.

Keywords: Cold-formed steel, cyclic loading, modeling technique, nonlinear analysis, shear wall panel.

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Authors: Porojan S., Sandu L., Topală F.

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Simulation of occlusal function during laboratory material-s testing becomes essential in predicting long-term performance before clinical usage. The aim of the study was to assess the influence of chamfer preparation depth on failure risk of heat pressed ceramic crowns with and without zirconia framework by means of finite element analysis. 3D models of maxillary central incisor, prepared for full ceramic crowns with different depths of the chamfer margin (between 0.8 and 1.2 mm) and 6-degree tapered walls together with the overlying crowns were generated using literature data (Fig. 1, 2). The crowns were designed with and without a zirconia framework with a thickness of 0.4 mm. For all preparations and crowns, stresses in the pressed ceramic crown, zirconia framework, pressed ceramic veneer, and dentin were evaluated separately. The highest stresses were registered in the dentin. The depth of the preparations had no significant influence on the stress values of the teeth and pressed ceramics for the studied cases, only for the zirconia framework. The zirconia framework decreases the stress values in the veneer.

Keywords: Finite element analysis, full ceramic crown, zirconia framework, stresses.

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Authors: Feng-Tsung Cheng, Shu-Li Wang, Mei-Fang Wu, Hui-Yu Chuang

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The rapid development technology and widespread Internet make business environment changing a lot. In order to stand in the global market and to keep subsistence, “changing” is unspoken rule for the company’s survival. The purpose of this paper is building up change model by using SWOT, strategy map, KPI and change management theory. The research findings indicate that the company needs to deal with employee’s resistance emotion firstly before building up change model. The ways of providing performance appraisal reward, consulting and counseling mechanisms that will great help to achieve reducing staff negative emotions and motivate staff’s efficiencies also. To revise strategy map, modify corporate culture, and improve internal operational processes which is based on change model. Through the change model, the increasing growth rate of net income helps company to achieve the goals and be a leading brand of precision machinery industry.

Keywords: Organizational change, SWOT analysis, strategy maps, performance indicators.

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Authors: Saleem Z. Ramadan

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The material selection problem is concerned with the determination of the right material for a certain product to optimize certain performance indices in that product such as mass, energy density, and power-to-weight ratio. This paper is concerned about optimizing the selection of the manufacturing process along with the material used in the product under performance indices and availability constraints. In this paper, the material selection problem is formulated using binary programming and solved by genetic algorithm. The objective function of the model is to minimize the total manufacturing cost under performance indices and material and manufacturing process availability constraints.

Keywords: Optimization, Material selection, Process selection, Genetic algorithm.

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Authors: Nuanwan Soonthornphisaj, Boonserm Kijsirikul

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This paper presents a semi-supervised learning algorithm called Iterative-Cross Training (ICT) to solve the Web pages classification problems. We apply Inductive logic programming (ILP) as a strong learner in ICT. The objective of this research is to evaluate the potential of the strong learner in order to boost the performance of the weak learner of ICT. We compare the result with the supervised Naive Bayes, which is the well-known algorithm for the text classification problem. The performance of our learning algorithm is also compare with other semi-supervised learning algorithms which are Co-Training and EM. The experimental results show that ICT algorithm outperforms those algorithms and the performance of the weak learner can be enhanced by ILP system.

Keywords: Inductive Logic Programming, Semi-supervisedLearning, Web Page Categorization

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Authors: Sunil Jadav, Rajeevan Chandel Munish Vashishath

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Today’s VLSI networks demands for high speed. And in this work the compact form mathematical model for current mode signalling in VLSI interconnects is presented.RLC interconnect line is modelled using characteristic impedance of transmission line and inductive effect. The on-chip inductance effect is dominant at lower technology node is emulated into an equivalent resistance. First order transfer function is designed using finite difference equation, Laplace transform and by applying the boundary conditions at the source and load termination. It has been observed that the dominant pole determines system response and delay in the proposed model. The novel proposed current mode model shows superior performance as compared to voltage mode signalling. Analysis shows that current mode signalling in VLSI interconnects provides 2.8 times better delay performance than voltage mode. Secondly the damping factor of a lumped RLC circuit is shown to be a useful figure of merit.

Keywords: Current Mode, Voltage Mode, VLSI Interconnect.

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Authors: C. M. De Marco Muscat-Fenech, A.M. Grech La Rosa

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The application of stability theory has led to detailed studies of different types of vessels; however, the shortage of information relating to multihull vessels demanded further investigation. This study shows that the position of the hulls has a very influential effect on both the transverse and longitudinal stability of the tricore. HSC stability code is applied for the optimisation of the hull configurations. Such optimization criteria would undoubtedly aid the performance of the vessel for both commercial or leisure purposes

Keywords: Stability, Multihull, Tricore

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Authors: N. Tarom, M.M. Hossain

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Determination of wellbore problems during a production/injection process might be evaluated thorough temperature log analysis. Other applications of this kind of log analysis may also include evaluation of fluid distribution analysis along the wellbore and identification of anomalies encountered during production/injection process. While the accuracy of such prediction is paramount, the common method of determination of a wellbore temperature log includes use of steady-state energy balance equations, which hardly describe the real conditions as observed in typical oil and gas flowing wells during production operation; and thus increase level of uncertainties. In this study, a practical method has been proposed through development of a simplified semianalytical model to apply for predicting temperature profile along the wellbore. The developed model includes an overall heat transfer coefficient accounting all modes of heat transferring mechanism, which has been focused on the prediction of a temperature profile as a function of depth for the injection/production wells. The model has been validated with the results obtained from numerical simulation.

Keywords: Energy balance equation, reservoir and well performance, temperature log, overall heat transfer coefficient.

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Authors: Farzana Yasmeen, Md. Nurul Huda, Md. Enamul Haque, Michihiro Aoki, Shigeki Yamada

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Delay-Tolerant Networks (DTNs) are sparse, wireless networks where disconnections are common due to host mobility and low node density. The Message Ferrying (MF) scheme is a mobilityassisted paradigm to improve connectivity in DTN-like networks. A ferry or message ferry is a special node in the network which has a per-determined route in the deployed area and relays messages between mobile hosts (MHs) which are intermittently connected. Increased contact opportunities among mobile hosts and the ferry improve the performance of the network, both in terms of message delivery ratio and average end-end delay. However, due to the inherent mobility of mobile hosts and pre-determined periodicity of the message ferry, mobile hosts may often -miss- contact opportunities with a ferry. In this paper, we propose the combination of stationary ferry access points (FAPs) with MF routing to increase contact opportunities between mobile hosts and the MF and consequently improve the performance of the DTN. We also propose several placement models for deploying FAPs on MF routes. We evaluate the performance of the FAP placement models through comprehensive simulation. Our findings show that FAPs do improve the performance of MF-assisted DTNs and symmetric placement of FAPs outperforms other placement strategies.

Keywords: Service infrastructure, delay-tolerant network, messageferry routing, placement models.

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Authors: T. Wuttipornpun, U. Wangrakdiskul, W. Songserm

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This paper aims to develop an algorithm of finite capacity material requirement planning (FCMRP) system for a multistage assembly flow shop. The developed FCMRP system has two main stages. The first stage is to allocate operations to the first and second priority work centers and also determine the sequence of the operations on each work center. The second stage is to determine the optimal start time of each operation by using a linear programming model. Real data from a factory is used to analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed FCMRP system and also to guarantee a practical solution to the user. There are five performance measures, namely, the total tardiness, the number of tardy orders, the total earliness, the number of early orders, and the average flow-time. The proposed FCMRP system offers an adjustable solution which is a compromised solution among the conflicting performance measures. The user can adjust the weight of each performance measure to obtain the desired performance. The result shows that the combination of FCMRP NP3 and EDD outperforms other combinations in term of overall performance index. The calculation time for the proposed FCMRP system is about 10 minutes which is practical for the planners of the factory.

Keywords: Material requirement planning, Finite capacity, Linear programming, Permutation, Application in industry.

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Authors: T. Unchim, A. Oonsivilai

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The Wind Turbine Modeling in Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) using Doubly-Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) PI Controller based design is presented. To study about the variable wind speed. The PI controller performs responding to the dynamic performance. The objective is to study the characteristic of wind turbine and finding the optimum wind speed suitable for wind turbine performance. This system will allow the specification setting (2.5MW). The output active power also corresponding same the input is given. And the reactive power produced by the wind turbine is regulated at 0 Mvar. Variable wind speed is optimum for drive train performance at 12.5 m/s (at maximum power coefficient point) from the simulation of DFIG by Simulink is described.

Keywords: DFIG, wind speed, PI controller, the output power.

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Authors: Ioannis P. Panagopoulos, Christos C. Pavlatos, George K. Papakonstantinou

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Conventional approaches in the implementation of logic programming applications on embedded systems are solely of software nature. As a consequence, a compiler is needed that transforms the initial declarative logic program to its equivalent procedural one, to be programmed to the microprocessor. This approach increases the complexity of the final implementation and reduces the overall system's performance. On the contrary, presenting hardware implementations which are only capable of supporting logic programs prevents their use in applications where logic programs need to be intertwined with traditional procedural ones, for a specific application. We exploit HW/SW codesign methods to present a microprocessor, capable of supporting hybrid applications using both programming approaches. We take advantage of the close relationship between attribute grammar (AG) evaluation and knowledge engineering methods to present a programmable hardware parser that performs logic derivations and combine it with an extension of a conventional RISC microprocessor that performs the unification process to report the success or failure of those derivations. The extended RISC microprocessor is still capable of executing conventional procedural programs, thus hybrid applications can be implemented. The presented implementation is programmable, supports the execution of hybrid applications, increases the performance of logic derivations (experimental analysis yields an approximate 1000% increase in performance) and reduces the complexity of the final implemented code. The proposed hardware design is supported by a proposed extended C-language called C-AG.

Keywords: Attribute Grammars, Logic Programming, RISC microprocessor.

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Authors: Hamad Hussain Balhareth, Kecheng Liu, Sharm Manwani

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Business and IT alignment has continued as a top concern for business and IT executives for almost three decades. Many researchers have conducted empirical studies on the relationship between business-IT alignment and performance. Yet, these approaches, lacking a social perspective, have had little impact on sustaining performance and competitive advantage. In addition to the limited alignment literature that explores organisational learning that is represented in shared understanding, communication, cognitive maps and experiences. Hence, this paper proposes an integrated process that enables social and intellectual dimensions through the concept of organisational learning. In particular, the feedback and feedforward process which provide a value creation across dynamic multilevel of learning. This mechanism enables on-going effectiveness through development of individuals, groups and organisations, which improves the quality of business and IT strategies and drives to performance.

Keywords: business-IT alignment, social dimension, intellectual dimension, organisational learning

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Authors: Chao Yi, Cunyue Lu, Lingwei Quan

Abstract:

Piezoelectric linear motors have the characteristics of great electromagnetic compatibility, high positioning accuracy, compact structure and no deceleration mechanism, which make it promising to applicate in micro-miniature precision drive systems. However, most piezoelectric motors are employed by flexible clamping, which has insufficient rigidity and is difficult to use in rapid positioning. Another problem is that this clamping method seriously affects the vibration efficiency of the vibrating unit. In order to solve these problems, this paper proposes a piezoelectric stack linear motor based on double-end rigid clamping. First, a piezoelectric linear motor with a length of only 35.5 mm is designed. This motor is mainly composed of a motor stator, a driving foot, a ceramic friction strip, a linear guide, a pre-tightening mechanism and a base. This structure is much simpler and smaller than most similar motors, and it is easy to assemble as well as to realize precise control. In addition, the properties of piezoelectric stack are reviewed and in order to obtain the elliptic motion trajectory of the driving head, a driving scheme of the longitudinal-shear composite stack is innovatively proposed. Finally, impedance analysis and speed performance testing were performed on the piezoelectric linear motor prototype. The motor can measure speed up to 25.5 mm/s under the excitation of signal voltage of 120 V and frequency of 390 Hz. The result shows that the proposed piezoelectric stacked linear motor obtains great performance. It can run smoothly in a large speed range, which is suitable for various precision control in medical images, aerospace, precision machinery and many other fields.

Keywords: Elliptical trajectory, linear motor, piezoelectric stack, rigid clamping.

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Authors: Yoshiaki Shikata, Wataru Katagiri, Yoshitaka Takahashi

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We propose a novel prioritized limited processor-sharing (PS) rule and a simulation algorithm for the performance evaluation of this rule. The performance measures of practical interest are evaluated using this algorithm. Suppose that there are two classes and that an arriving (class-1 or class-2) request encounters n1 class-1 and n2 class-2 requests (including the arriving one) in a single-server system. According to the proposed rule, class-1 requests individually and simultaneously receive m / (m * n1+ n2) of the service-facility capacity, whereas class-2 requests receive 1 / (m *n1 + n2) of it, if m * n1 + n2 ≤ C. Otherwise (m * n1 + n2 > C), the arriving request will be queued in the corresponding class waiting room or rejected. Here, m (
1) denotes the priority ratio, and C ( ∞), the service-facility capacity. In this rule, when a request arrives at [or departs from] the system, the extension [shortening] of the remaining sojourn time of each request receiving service can be calculated using the number of requests of each class and the priority ratio. Employing a simulation program to execute these events and calculations enables us to analyze the performance of the proposed prioritized limited PS rule, which is realistic in a time-sharing system (TSS) with a sufficiently small time slot. Moreover, this simulation algorithm is expanded for the evaluation of the prioritized limited PS system with N
3 priority classes.

Keywords: PS rule, priority ratio, service-facility capacity, simulation algorithm, sojourn time, performance measures

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Authors: Samee Ullah Khan, C. Ardil

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We model the process of a data center as a multi- objective problem of mapping independent tasks onto a set of data center machines that simultaneously minimizes the energy consump¬tion and response time (makespan) subject to the constraints of deadlines and architectural requirements. A simple technique based on multi-objective goal programming is proposed that guarantees Pareto optimal solution with excellence in convergence process. The proposed technique also is compared with other traditional approach. The simulation results show that the proposed technique achieves superior performance compared to the min-min heuristics, and com¬petitive performance relative to the optimal solution implemented in UNDO for small-scale problems.

Keywords: Energy-efficient computing, distributed systems, multi-objective optimization.

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Authors: S. J. Shahidzadeh Tabatabaei, A. M. Fattahi

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Modal analysis of a FGM plate containing the ceramic phase of Al₂O₃ and metal phase of stainless steel 304 was performed using ABAQUS, with the assumptions that the material has an elastic mechanical behavior and its Young modulus and density are varying in thickness direction. For this purpose, a subroutine was written in FOTRAN and linked with ABAQUS. First, a simulation was performed in accordance to other researcher’s model, and then after comparing the obtained results, the accuracy of the present study was verified. The obtained results for natural frequency and mode shapes indicate good performance of user-written subroutine as well as FEM model used in present study. After verification of obtained results, the effect of clamping condition and the material type (i.e. the parameter n) was investigated. In this respect, finite element analysis was carried out in fully clamped condition for different values of n. The results indicate that the natural frequency decreases with increase of n, since with increase of n, the amount of ceramic phase in FGM plate decreases, while the amount of metal phase increases, leading to decrease of the plate stiffness and hence, natural frequency, as the Young modulus of Al₂O₃ is equal to 380 GPa and the Young modulus of stainless steel 304 is equal to 207 GPa.

Keywords: FGM plates, Modal analysis, Natural frequency, Finite element method.

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Authors: D. P. Rahardja, M. Rahman Hakim, V. Sri Lestari

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An experiment was conducted to elucidate the effects of turmeric powder supplementation on egg production performance of old laying hens (80 weeks of age). There were 40 hens of Hysex Brown strain used in the study. They were caged individually, and randomly divided into 4 treatment groups of diet containing 0 (control), 1, 2 and 4 % oven dried turmeric powder for 3 periods of 4 weeks; Egg production (% hen day) and feed intake of the 4 treatment groups at the commencement of the experiment were not significantly different. In addition to egg production performance (% and egg weight), feed and water intakes were measured daily, and cholesterol content of the whole egg was determined. The results indicated that feed intakes of the hen were significantly lowered when 4% turmeric powder supplemented, while there were no significant changes in water intakes. Egg production were significantly increased and maintained at a higher level by turmeric powder supplementation up to 4% compared with the control, while the weight of eggs were not significantly affected. The research markedly demonstrated that supplementation of turmeric powder up to 4% could improve and maintain egg production performance of the old laying hen at a higher level with a lower cholesterol content. 

Keywords: Curcumin, feed and water intake, old laying hen, egg production.

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Authors: W. Molee, P. Puttaraksa, S. Pitakwong, S. Khempaka

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An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of the rearing system on growth performance, carcass yield, hematological parameters, and feather pecking damage of Thai indigenous chickens. Three hundred and sixty 1-d-old chicks were randomly assigned to 2 treatments: indoor treatment and outdoor access treatment. In the indoor treatment, the chickens were housed in floor pens (5 birds/m2). In the outdoor access treatment, the chickens were housed in a similar indoor house; in addition, they also had an outdoor grass paddock (1 bird/m2). All birds were provided with same diet and were raised for 16 wk of age. The results showed that growth performance and carcass yield were not different among treatment (P>0.05). Outdoor access had no effect on hematological parameters (P>0.05). However, the feather pecking damage of the chickens in the outdoor access treatment was lower than that of the chickens in the indoor treatment (P<0.05).

Keywords: Hematology, performance, rearing system, Thai indigenous chickens

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Authors: Khan Farhan Rafat, Riaz Ahmed

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Renowned offshore organizations are drifting towards collaborative exertion to win and implement international projects for business gains. However, devoid of financial constraints, with the availability of skilled professionals, and despite improved project management practices through state-of-the-art tools and techniques, project delays have become a norm these days. This situation calls for exploring the factor(s) affecting the bonding between project management performance and project success. In the context of the well-known 3M’s of project management (that is, manpower, machinery, and materials), machinery and materials are dependent upon manpower. Because the body of knowledge inveterate on the influence of national culture on men, hence, the realization of the impact on the link between project management performance and project success need to be investigated in detail to arrive at the possible cause(s) of project delays. This research initiative was, therefore, undertaken to fill the research gap. The unit of analysis for the proposed research excretion was the individuals who had worked on skyscraper construction projects. In reverent studies, project management is best described using construction examples. It is due to this reason that the project oriented city of Dubai was chosen to reconnoiter on causes of project delays. A structured questionnaire survey was disseminated online with the courtesy of the Project Management Institute local chapter to carry out the cross-sectional study. The Construction Industry Institute, Austin, of the United States of America along with 23 high-rise builders in Dubai were also contacted by email requesting for their contribution to the study and providing them with the online link to the survey questionnaire. The reliability of the instrument was warranted using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.70. The appropriateness of sampling adequacy and homogeneity in variance was ensured by keeping Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett’s test of sphericity in the range ≥ 0.60 and < 0.05, respectively. Factor analysis was used to verify construct validity. During exploratory factor analysis, all items were loaded using a threshold of 0.4. Four hundred and seventeen respondents, including members from top management, project managers, and project staff, contributed to the study. The link between project management performance and project success was significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed), and 0.05 level (2-tailed) for Pearson’s correlation. Before initiating the moderator analysis test for linearity, multicollinearity, outliers, leverage points and influential cases, test for homoscedasticity and normality were carried out which are prerequisites for conducting moderator review. The moderator analysis, using a macro named PROCESS, was performed to verify the hypothesis that national culture has an influence on the said link. The empirical findings, when compared with Hofstede's results, showed high power distance as the cause of construction project delays in Dubai. The research outcome calls for the project sponsors and top management to reshape their project management strategy and allow for low power distance between management and project personnel for timely completion of projects.

Keywords: Causes of construction project delays, construction industry, construction management, power distance.

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Authors: Fred Lacy

Abstract:

Electrical resistivity is a fundamental parameter of metals or electrical conductors. Since resistivity is a function of temperature, in order to completely understand the behavior of metals, a temperature dependent theoretical model is needed. A model based on physics principles has recently been developed to obtain an equation that relates electrical resistivity to temperature. This equation is dependent upon a parameter associated with the electron travel time before being scattered, and a parameter that relates the energy of the atoms and their separation distance. Analysis of the energy parameter reveals that the equation is optimized if the proportionality term in the equation is not constant but varies over the temperature range. Additional analysis reveals that the theoretical equation can be used to determine the mean free path of conduction electrons, the number of defects in the atomic lattice, and the ‘equivalent’ charge associated with the metallic bonding of the atoms. All of this analysis provides validation for the theoretical model and provides insight into the behavior of metals where performance is affected by temperatures (e.g., integrated circuits and temperature sensors).

Keywords: Callendar–van Dusen, conductivity, mean free path, resistance temperature detector, temperature sensor.

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Authors: M. Tadi, M. Hadi Mohammad Zadeh, Ozge Ogut

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Although how cities’ forms are structured is studied, more efforts are needed on systemic comprehensions and evaluations of the urban morphology through quantitative metrics that are able to describe the performance of a city in relation to its formal properties. More research is required in this direction in order to better describe the urban form characteristics and their impact on the environmental performance of cities and to increase their sustainability stewardship. With the aim of developing a better understanding of the built environment’s systemic structure, the intention of this paper is to present a holistic methodology for studying the behavior of the built environment and investigate the methods for measuring the effect of urban structure to the environmental performance. This goal will be pursued through an inquiry into the morphological components of the urban systems and the complex relationships between them. Particularly, this paper focuses on proximity, referring to the proximity of different land-uses, is a concept with which Integrated Modification Methodology (IMM) explains how land-use allocation might affect the choice of mobility in neighborhoods, and especially, encourage or discourage non-motived mobility. This paper uses proximity to demonstrate that the structure attributes can quantifiably relate to the performing behavior in the city. The target is to devise a mathematical pattern from the structural elements and correlate it directly with urban performance indicators concerned with environmental sustainability. The paper presents some results of this rigorous investigation of urban proximity and its correlation with performance indicators in four different areas in the city of Milan, each of them characterized by different morphological features.

Keywords: Built environment, ecology, sustainable indicators, sustainability, urban morphology.

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Authors: Tahsien Mohamed Okasha, Warda Youssef Mohamed Morsy, Hanan Elsayed Zaghla

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We hypothesized that post cardiac arrest patients with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of less than 8 and who will be exposed to therapeutic hypothermia protocol will exhibit improvement in their neurological performance. 17 subjects were enrolled in this study all over one year. The study was carried out using Quasi-experimental research design. Four tools were used for data collection of this study: Demographic and medical data sheet, Post cardiac arrest health assessment sheet, Bedside Shivering Assessment Scale (BSAS), and Glasgow Pittsburgh cerebral performance category scale (CPC). The mean age was X̅ ± SD = 53 ± 8.122 years, 47.1% were arrested because of cardiac etiology. 35.3% subjects were initially arrested in form of ventricular tachycardia (VT), 23.5% initially arrested in form of ventricular fibrillation (VF), and 29.4% in form of A-Systole. Favorable neurological outcome was seen among 70.6%. There was significant statistical difference in WBC, Platelets, blood gases value, random blood sugar. Also, initial arrest rhythm, etiology of cardiac arrest, and shivering status were significantly correlated with cerebral performance categories score. Therapeutic hypothermia has positive effects on neurological performance among post cardiac arrest patients with GCS score of less than 8. Replication of the study on larger probability sample, with randomized control trial design is recommended with further study for suggesting nursing protocol for patients undergoing therapeutic hypothermia is recommended.

Keywords: Therapeutic hypothermia, neurological performance, after resuscitation from cardiac arrest, initial arrest rhythm.

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Authors: Zakir Husain

Abstract:

This paper presents modeling and analysis of 12-phase distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM), which is capable of balancing the source currents in spite of unbalanced loading and phase outages. In addition to balance the supply current, the power factor can be set to a desired value. The theory of instantaneous symmetrical components is used to generate the twelve-phase reference currents. These reference currents are then tracked using current controlled voltage source inverter, operated in a hysteresis band control scheme. An ideal compensator in place of physical realization of the compensator is used. The performance of the proposed DTATCOM is validated through MATLAB simulation and detailed simulation results are given.

Keywords: DSTATCOM, Modeling, Load balancing, Multiphase, Power factor correction.

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Authors: M. Raeesi, S. A. Hoseini- Aliabad, A. Roofchaee, A. Zare Shahneh, S. Pirali

Abstract:

A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect of periodically use of garlic on performance and carcass characteristics in broiler chickens. 240 1-day-old Ross broiler chicks randomly allocated into the 10 dietary treatments (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and J) for 6 wk. Treatment A or control group, received basal diet (based on standards of Ross management guidelines) without supplementation of garlic powder while B, C and D dietary treatments were basal diet supplemented with 0.5, 1 and 3% garlic powder, respectively for the whole time of experiment (6 weeks). Birds in group E, F and G were fed control diet supplemented with 0.5, 1 and 3% garlic powder, respectively just in their starter diet (0- 21d). Birds in three other treatments (H, I and J) received control diet for the first 21 days and 0.5, 1 and 3% of garlic powder was added to their finisher diets, respectively. 1 and 3% supplemented groups in finisher period had better performance as compared with other groups. Since present study conducted in optimum and antiseptic conditions, it seems that better or more responses could be expected in performance if the raising conditions would not be healthy.

Keywords: Garlic powder, periodically use, broiler chickens, carcass characteristics

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Authors: Jihyun Park

Abstract:

This research suggests that meaning in life or Ikigai can be associated with better academic performances in Japanese college students. To measure meaning in life in Japanese college students, the Ikigai questionnaire and the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) are both used, and the survey was collected using Microsoft Teams Forms for a total of 80 Japanese college students. The data revealed that students who have a higher than a 3.0 grade point average (GPA) showed the highest score in both the Ikigai and MLQ. The participants with between a 2.0 and a 3.0 GPA reported lower scores in both MLQ and Ikigai than the previous participants. The group of students who have lower than a 2.0 GPA had the lowest scores for MLQ and Ikigai. This result can indicate that implementing meaning in life or Ikigai to early college students can bring about better academic performance, which also can improve students’ college life better as well.

Keywords: College students’ academic performance, Ikigai, meaning in life, purpose of life.

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Authors: Youngjae Chun, Kyoungsu Oh

Abstract:

Real-time 3D applications have to guarantee interactive rendering speed. There is a restriction for the number of polygons which is rendered due to performance of a graphics hardware or graphics algorithms. Generally, the rendering performance will be drastically increased when handling only the dynamic 3d models, which is much fewer than the static ones. Since shapes and colors of the static objects don-t change when the viewing direction is fixed, the information can be reused. We render huge amounts of polygon those cannot handled by conventional rendering techniques in real-time by using a static object image and merging it with rendering result of the dynamic objects. The performance must be decreased as a consequence of updating the static object image including removing an static object that starts to move, re-rending the other static objects being overlapped by the moving ones. Based on visibility of the object beginning to move, we can skip the updating process. As a result, we enhance rendering performance and reduce differences of rendering speed between each frame. Proposed method renders total 200,000,000 polygons that consist of 500,000 dynamic polygons and the rest are static polygons in about 100 frames per second.

Keywords: Occlusion query, Real-time rendering, Temporal coherence.

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