Search results for: Life cycle costing.
842 An Analysis of Abortion Laws and Sex Selective Abortion in India: A Case Study of Rajasthan
Authors: Priya Bhakat
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A son in every Hindu society pays his own father the debt and he owes him for his own life whereas a girl child is treated as a burden mainly in case of first child. Even today in India we have many societies which does not welcome girl child. Although there is an increase in overall sex ratio, there is a continuous decline in child sex ratio. This paper focuses on issues of sex selective abortion in Rajasthan based on secondary data. It is found that 90.0 percentages of women in Rajasthan wants at least one son. Around 34.3 percentages of women wants more sons than daughters and only 1.5 percentages of women wants more daughters than sons. It is very common among the rich and educated people.
Keywords: Rajasthan, Family Planning Program (FPP), Sex Selective Abortion (SSA), Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3668841 Hormones and Mineral Elements Associated with Osteoporosis in Postmenopausal Women in Eastern Slovakia
Authors: M. Mydlárová Blaščáková, J. Poráčová, Z. Tomková, Ľ. Blaščáková, M. Nagy, M. Konečná, E. Petrejčíková, Z. Gogaľová, V. Sedlák, J. Mydlár, M. Zahatňanská, K. Hricová
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Osteoporosis is a multifactorial disease that results in reduced quality of life, causes decreased bone strength, and changes in their microarchitecture. Mostly postmenopausal women are at risk. In our study, we measured anthropometric parameters of postmenopausal women (104 women of control group – CG and 105 women of osteoporotic group - OG) and determined TSH hormone levels and PTH as well as mineral elements - Ca, P, Mg and enzyme alkaline phosphatase. Through the correlation analysis in CG, we have found association based on age and BMI, P and Ca, as well as Mg and Ca; in OG we determined interdependence based on an association of age and BMI, age and Ca. Using the Student's t test, we found significantly important differences in biochemical parameters of Mg (p ˂ 0,001) and TSH (p ˂ 0,05) between CG and OG.
Keywords: Factors, bone mass density, Central Europe, biomarkers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 860840 Survey on the Possibility of Post -Earthquake Quick Inspection of Damaged Building by Ordinary People Using the European Macro-Seismic Scale 1998 (EMS-98)
Authors: Douangmala Kousnana, Toru Takahashi
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In recent years, the number of natural disasters in the world has occurred frequently. After a strong earthquake occurs, multiple disasters due to tsunami, strong aftershocks or heavy snow can possible to occur. To prevent a secondary disaster and to save a life, the quick inspection of the damaged building is necessary. This paper investigated on a possibility of post earthquake quick inspection of damaged building by ordinary people which used the European Macro- Seismic Scale 1998 (EMS-98).
Keywords: Quick Assessment, EMS-98, Ordinary People, Post-Earthquake
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1804839 Electronic and Computer-Assisted Refreshable Braille Display Developed for Visually Impaired Individuals
Authors: Ayşe Eldem, Fatih Başçiftçi
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Braille alphabet is an important tool that enables visually impaired individuals to have a comfortable life like those who have normal vision. For this reason, new applications related to the Braille alphabet are being developed. In this study, a new Refreshable Braille Display was developed to help visually impaired individuals learn the Braille alphabet easier. By means of this system, any text downloaded on a computer can be read by the visually impaired individual at that moment by feeling it by his/her hands. Through this electronic device, it was aimed to make learning the Braille alphabet easier for visually impaired individuals with whom the necessary tests were conducted.
Keywords: Visually Impaired Individual, Braille, Braille Display, Refreshable Braille Display, USB.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2476838 Differences and Similarities between Concepts of Good, Great, and Leading Teacher
Authors: Vilma Zydziunaite, Vaida Jurgile, Roman Balandiuk
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Good, great, and leading teachers are expected to be the role models for students, society, professional community. Their role model includes expertise, trustworthiness, originality, facilitating, cooperation and communication. Teachers demonstrate their professional passion through their professionalism and professional attitudes. Usually, we call them teacher(s) leaders by integrating three notions such as good, great, and leading in a one-teacher leader. Here are described essences of three concepts: ‘good teacher,’ ‘great teacher,’ ‘and teacher leader’ as they are inseparable in teaching practices, teacher’s professional life, and educational interactions with students, fellow teachers, school administration, students’ families and school communities.
Keywords: Great teacher, good teacher, leading teacher, school, student.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 152837 A Study on Numerical Modelling of Rigid Pavement: Temperature and Thickness Effect
Authors: Amin Chegenizadeh, Mahdi Keramatikerman, Hamid Nikraz
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Pavement engineering plays a significant role to develop cost effective and efficient highway and road networks. In general, pavement regarding structure is categorized in two core group namely flexible and rigid pavements. There are various benefits in application of rigid pavement. For instance, they have a longer life and lower maintenance costs in compare with the flexible pavement. In rigid pavement designs, temperature and thickness are two effective parameters that could widely affect the total cost of the project. In this study, a numerical modeling using Kenpave-Kenslab was performed to investigate the effect of these two important parameters in the rigid pavement.Keywords: Rigid pavement, Kenpave, Kenslab, thickness, temperature.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1347836 Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection and Cardiac Autonomic Neuropathy
Authors: Sharan Badiger, Prema T. Akkasaligar, Deepak Kadeli
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Human Immunodeficiency Virus is known to affect almost all organ systems in the body. In addition to central nervous system it also affects the autonomic nervous system. Autonomic nervous dysfunction has been known to severely affect the quality of life in human immunodeficiency virus positive patients. It is known to have caused fatal consequences in late stages of the disease in patients who go in for invasive diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. The aim of this review is to determine the incidence, clinical significance and frequency of cardiac autonomic neuropathy in patients human immunodeficiency virus infection.Keywords: Autonomic nervous system, autonomic nervous dysfunction, cardiac autonomic dysfunction, human immunodeficiency virus.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1060835 Decision Support System for Solving Multi-Objective Routing Problem
Authors: Ismail El Gayar, Ossama Ismail, Yousri El Gamal
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This paper presented a technique to solve one of the transportation problems that faces us in real life which is the Bus Scheduling Problem. Most of the countries using buses in schools, companies and traveling offices as an example to transfer multiple passengers from many places to specific place and vice versa. This transferring process can cost time and money, so we build a decision support system that can solve this problem. In this paper, a genetic algorithm with the shortest path technique is used to generate a competitive solution to other well-known techniques. It also presents a comparison between our solution and other solutions for this problem.
Keywords: Bus scheduling problem, decision support system, genetic algorithm, operation planning, shortest path, transportation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1518834 A Four Method Framework for Fighting Software Architecture Erosion
Authors: Sundus Ayyaz, Saad Rehman, Usman Qamar
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Software Architecture is the basic structure of software that states the development and advancement of a software system. Software architecture is also considered as a significant tool for the construction of high quality software systems. A clean design leads to the control, value and beauty of software resulting in its longer life while a bad design is the cause of architectural erosion where a software evolution completely fails. This paper discusses the occurrence of software architecture erosion and presents a set of methods for the detection, declaration and prevention of architecture erosion. The causes and symptoms of architecture erosion are observed with the examples of prescriptive and descriptive architectures and the practices used to stop this erosion are also discussed by considering different types of software erosion and their affects. Consequently finding and devising the most suitable approach for fighting software architecture erosion and in some way reducing its affect is evaluated and tested on different scenarios.
Keywords: Software Architecture, Architecture Erosion, Prescriptive Architecture, Descriptive Architecture.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2136833 Mathematical Modeling of Switching Processes in Magnetically Controlled MEMS Switches
Authors: Sergey M. Karabanov, Dmitry V. Suvorov, Dmitry Yu. Tarabrin
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The operating principle of magnetically controlled microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switches is based on controlling the beam movement under the influence of a magnetic field. Currently, there is a MEMS switch design with a flexible ferromagnetic electrode in the form of a fixed-terminal beam, with an electrode fastened on a straight or cranked anchor. The basic performance characteristics of magnetically controlled MEMS switches (service life, sensitivity, contact resistance, fast response) are largely determined by the flexible electrode design. To ensure the stable and controlled motion of the flexible electrode, it is necessary to provide the optimal design of a flexible electrode.
Keywords: MEMS switch, magnetic sensitivity, magnetic concentrator.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 715832 English Classroom for SLA of Students and Small and Medium Entrepreneurs in Thailand
Authors: S. Yordchim, G. Anugkakul, T. Gibbs
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The English competence of Thai people was examined in the context of knowledge of English in everyday life for Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs), and also integrated with Second language acquisition (SLA) students’ classroom. Second language acquisition was applied to the results of the questionnaires and interview forms. Levels of the need on English used for SME entrepreneurs in Thailand, satisfaction on joining the street classroom project were shown to be significantly high for some certain language functions and satisfaction. Finding suggests that the language functions on etiquette for professional use is essential and useful because lesson learned can be used in the real situation for their career. Implications for the climate of the street classroom are discussed.
Keywords: English classroom, second language acquisition, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs, Thai students.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2193831 Italians- Social and Emotional Loneliness: The Results of Five Studies
Authors: Vanda Lucia Zammuner
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Subjective loneliness describes people who feel a disagreeable or unacceptable lack of meaningful social relationships, both at the quantitative and qualitative level. The studies to be presented tested an Italian 18-items self-report loneliness measure, that included items adapted from scales previously developed, namely a short version of the UCLA (Russell, Peplau and Cutrona, 1980), and the 11-items Loneliness scale by De Jong-Gierveld & Kamphuis (JGLS; 1985). The studies aimed at testing the developed scale and at verifying whether loneliness is better conceptualized as a unidimensional (so-called 'general loneliness') or a bidimensional construct, namely comprising the distinct facets of social and emotional loneliness. The loneliness questionnaire included 2 singleitem criterion measures of sad mood, and social contact, and asked participants to supply information on a number of socio-demographic variables. Factorial analyses of responses obtained in two preliminary studies, with 59 and 143 Italian participants respectively, showed good factor loadings and subscale reliability and confirmed that perceived loneliness has clearly two components, a social and an emotional one, the latter measured by two subscales, a 7-item 'general' loneliness subscale derived from UCLA, and a 6–item 'emotional' scale included in the JGLS. Results further showed that type and amount of loneliness are related, negatively, to frequency of social contacts, and, positively, to sad mood. In a third study data were obtained from a nation-wide sample of 9.097 Italian subjects, 12 to about 70 year-olds, who filled the test on-line, on the Italian web site of a large-audience magazine, Focus. The results again confirmed the reliability of the component subscales, namely social, emotional, and 'general' loneliness, and showed that they were highly correlated with each other, especially the latter two. Loneliness scores were significantly predicted by sex, age, education level, sad mood and social contact, and, less so, by other variables – e.g., geographical area and profession. The scale validity was confirmed by the results of a fourth study, with elderly men and women (N 105) living at home or in residential care units. The three subscales were significantly related, among others, to depression, and to various measures of the extension of, and satisfaction with, social contacts with relatives and friends. Finally, a fifth study with 315 career-starters showed that social and emotional loneliness correlate with life satisfaction, and with measures of emotional intelligence. Altogether the results showed a good validity and reliability in the tested samples of the entire scale, and of its components.Keywords: Emotional loneliness, social loneliness, scale development and testing, life span and cultural differences.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2975830 “The Social Destination“: How Social Media Influences the Organisational Structure and Leadership of DMOs
Authors: Mihaela Jucan, Cornel Jucan, Ilie Rotariu
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The paper deals with the most important changes that have occurred in business because of social media and its impact on organisations and leadership in recent years. It seeks to synthesize existing research, theories and concepts, in order to understand "social destinations", and to provide a bridge from past research to future success. Becoming a "social destination" is a strategic and tactical leadership and management issue and the paper will present the importance of destination leadership in choosing the way towards a social destination and some organisational models. It also presents some social media tools that can be used in transforming a destination into a social one. Adapting organisations to the twentyfirst century means adopting social media as a way of life and a way of business.
Keywords: Business, destination, leadership, organization, social.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4130829 Building Design to Save Lives when Earthquake May Strike the City
Authors: Tejinder Singh
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When earthquakes strike the city it results in great loss of lives. The present paper talks about a new innovative design system (MegEifel) for buildings which has a mechanism to mitigate deaths in case any earthquake strikes the city. If buildings will be designed according to MegEifel design then the occupants of the building will be safe even when they are in sleep or are doing day wise activities during the time earthquake strikes. The core structure is suggested to be designed on the principle that more deep the foundations are, the harder it is to uproot the structure. The buildings will have an Eifel rod dug deep into earth which will help save lives in tall buildings when earthquake strikes. This design takes a leverage of protective shells to save lives.
Keywords: Structure, MegEifel, Save, Life, Earthquake, Design
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1560828 Emotional, Behavioural and Social Development: Modality of Hierarchy of Needs in Supporting Parents with Special Needs
Authors: Fadzilah Abdul Rahman
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Emotional development is developed between the parents and their child. Behavioural development is also developed between the parents and their child. Social Development is how parents can help their special needs child to adapt to society and to face challenges. In promoting a lifelong learning mindset, enhancing skill sets and readiness to face challenges, parents would be able to counter balance these challenges during their care giving process and better manage their expectations through understanding the hierarchy of needs modality towards a positive attitude, and in turn, improve their quality of life and participation in society. This paper aims to demonstrate how the hierarchy of needs can be applied in various situations of caregiving for parents with a special needs child.
Keywords: Hierarchy of needs, parents, special needs, care-giving.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2269827 Modelling the Behavior of Commercial and Test Textiles against Laundering Process by Statistical Assessment of Their Performance
Authors: M. H. Arslan, U. K. Sahin, H. Acikgoz-Tufan, I. Gocek, I. Erdem
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Various exterior factors have perpetual effects on textile materials during wear, use and laundering in everyday life. In accordance with their frequency of use, textile materials are required to be laundered at certain intervals. The medium in which the laundering process takes place have inevitable detrimental physical and chemical effects on textile materials caused by the unique parameters of the process inherently existing. Connatural structures of various textile materials result in many different physical, chemical and mechanical characteristics. Because of their specific structures, these materials have different behaviors against several exterior factors. By modeling the behavior of commercial and test textiles as group-wise against laundering process, it is possible to disclose the relation in between these two groups of materials, which will lead to better understanding of their behaviors in terms of similarities and differences against the washing parameters of the laundering. Thus, the goal of the current research is to examine the behavior of two groups of textile materials as commercial textiles and as test textiles towards the main washing machine parameters during laundering process such as temperature, load quantity, mechanical action and level of water amount by concentrating on shrinkage, pilling, sewing defects, collar abrasion, the other defects other than sewing, whitening and overall properties of textiles. In this study, cotton fabrics were preferred as commercial textiles due to the fact that garments made of cotton are the most demanded products in the market by the textile consumers in daily life. Full factorial experimental set-up was used to design the experimental procedure. All profiles always including all of the commercial and the test textiles were laundered for 20 cycles by commercial home laundering machine to investigate the effects of the chosen parameters. For the laundering process, a modified version of ‘‘IEC 60456 Test Method’’ was utilized. The amount of detergent was altered as 0.5% gram per liter depending on varying load quantity levels. Datacolor 650®, EMPA Photographic Standards for Pilling Test and visual examination were utilized to test and characterize the textiles. Furthermore, in the current study the relation in between commercial and test textiles in terms of their performance was deeply investigated by the help of statistical analysis performed by MINITAB® package program modeling their behavior against the parameters of the laundering process. In the experimental work, the behaviors of both groups of textiles towards washing machine parameters were visually and quantitatively assessed in dry state.
Keywords: Behavior against washing machine parameters, performance evaluation of textiles, statistical analysis, commercial and test textiles.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1362826 The Suffering God and Its Relevance to the Understanding of Human Suffering in Jürgen Moltmann’s Theology
Authors: Aldrin R. Logdat
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This paper explores Jürgen Moltmann’s The Crucified God, focusing on his concept of a suffering God and its relevance to the understanding of suffering in the world. Moltmann argues that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, understood as a Trinitarian event, provides a response to the problem of suffering in the world. Through a dialectical theological method, Moltmann suggests that God’s omnipotence is revealed in the impotency of the crucified one, and that the Son's abandonment by the Father confirms their unity to act in response to the world's suffering. Human suffering has been assumed and transformed by God, and through the event of the cross, all those who suffer can participate in the fullness of life in the Trinity. Moltmann’s theology suggests that God identifies with those who suffer, and the resurrection provides the possibility of justification for those who follow Christ's invitation to obedience.
Keywords: Suffering, Crucifixion, Trinitarian, Moltmann’s Theology.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 283825 System Module for Student Idol
Authors: M. S. Roslina, A. Noraziah
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Malaysia government had been trying hard in order to find the most efficient methods in learning. However, it is hard to actually access and evaluate students whom will then be called an excellent student. It is because in our realties student who excellent is only excel in academic. This evaluation becomes a problem because it not balances in our real life interm of to get an excellent student in whole area in their involvement of curiculum and cocuriculum. To overcome this scenario, we designed a module for Student Idol to evaluate student through three categories which are academic, co-curiculum and leadership. All the categories have their own merit point. Using this method, student will be evaluated more accurate compared to the previously. So, teacher can easily evaluate their student without having any emotion factor, relation factor and others. As conclusion this system module will helps the development of student evaluation more accurate and valid in Student Idol.Keywords: Evaluation, curiculum, co-curriculum, idol, systemmodule.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1428824 Assessing and Improving Ramp-Up Capability
Authors: Sebastian Tschöpe, Konja Knüppel, Peter Nyhuis
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In times when product life cycles are decreasing, while market demands are increasing, manufacturing enterprises are confronted with the challenge of more frequent and more complex ramp-ups. Thus it becomes obvious that ramp-up management is going to be a topic enterprises have to focus on in the future. Since each ramp-up is unique concerning the product, the process, the technology, the circumstances and the coaction of these four factors, the knowledge of the ramp-up situation and the current ramp-up capability of the enterprise are fundamental requirements for the subsequent improvement of the ramp-up capability of the production system.
In this article a methodology is going to be presented which can be used to define typical production ramp-up situations, to identify the current ramp-up capability of a production system and to improve it with respect to a specific situation. Additionally there will be a description of the functionality of a software-tool developed based on this methodology.
Keywords: Assessment methodology, ramp-up, ramp-up capability, software-tool.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1998823 Strategies of Education and Training Practice of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises
Authors: A. Bencsik, - A. Sólyom
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The role of knowledge is a determinative factor in the life of economy and society. To determine knowledge is not an easy task yet the real task is to determine the right knowledge. From this view knowledge is a sum of experience, ideas and cognitions which can help companies to remain in markets and to realize a maximum profit. At the same time changes of circumstances project in advance that contents and demands of the right knowledge are changing. In this paper we will analyse a special segment on the basis of an empirical survey. We investigated the behaviour and strategies of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the area of knowledge-handling. This survey was realized by questionnaires and wide range statistical methods were used during processing. As a result we will show how these companies are prepared to operate in a knowledge-based economy and in which areas they have prominent deficiencies.Keywords: education, knowledge, knowledgemanagement, strategy, SME
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1499822 A Proposal for U-City (Smart City) Service Method Using Real-Time Digital Map
Authors: SangWon Han, MuWook Pyeon, Sujung Moon, DaeKyo Seo
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Recently, technologies based on three-dimensional (3D) space information are being developed and quality of life is improving as a result. Research on real-time digital map (RDM) is being conducted now to provide 3D space information. RDM is a service that creates and supplies 3D space information in real time based on location/shape detection. Research subjects on RDM include the construction of 3D space information with matching image data, complementing the weaknesses of image acquisition using multi-source data, and data collection methods using big data. Using RDM will be effective for space analysis using 3D space information in a U-City and for other space information utilization technologies.
Keywords: RDM, multi-source data, big data, U-City.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 794821 Organic Contribution on Particles Formed on Pacific Ocean: From Phytoplankton Blooms to Climate
Authors: Petri Vaattovaara, Luke Cravigan, Zoran Ristovski, Marc Mallet, Ari Laaksonen, Sarah Lawson, Nick Talbot, Gustavo Olivares, Mike Harvey, Cliff Law
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These SOAP project Pacific Ocean measurements reveal that phytoplankton blooms with sunny conditions make possible secondary organic contribution to ultrafine particles size and composition, and thus on cloud formation ability, and finally on climate. This is in agreement with other biologically active region observations about the presence of secondary organics even the exact fraction is also depending on the local marine life (e.g. plankton blooms, seaweeds, corals). An organic contribution is clearly needed to add to CLAW hypothesis.
Keywords: Climate, marine aerosols, phytoplankton, secondary organics, CLAW hypothesis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1812820 Visualising Energy Efficiency Landscape
Authors: Hairulliza M. Judi, Soon Y. Chee
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This paper discusses the landscape design that could increase energy efficiency in a house. By planting trees in a house compound, the tree shades prevent direct sunlight from heating up the building, and it enables cooling off the surrounding air. The requirement for air-conditioning could be minimized and the air quality could be improved. During the life time of a tree, the saving cost from the mentioned benefits could be up to US $ 200 for each tree. The project intends to visually describe the landscape design in a house compound that could enhance energy efficiency and consequently lead to energy saving. The house compound model was developed in three dimensions by using AutoCAD 2005, the animation was programmed by using LightWave 3D softwares i.e. Modeler and Layout to display the tree shadings in the wall. The visualization was executed on a VRML Pad platform and implemented on a web environment.Keywords: Tree planting, tree shading, energy efficiency, visualization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1687819 IntelliCane: A Cane System for Individuals with Lower-Limb Mobility and Functional Impairments
Authors: Adrian Bostan, Nicolae Tapus, Adriana Tapus
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The purpose of this research paper is to study and develop a system that is able to help identify problems and improve human rehabilitation after traumatic injuries. Traumatic injuries in human’s lower limbs can occur over a life time and can have serious side effects if they are not treated correctly. In this paper, we developed an intelligent cane (IntelliCane) so as to help individuals in their rehabilitation process and provide feedback to the users. The first stage of the paper involves an analysis of the existing systems on the market and what can be improved. The second stage presents the design of the system. The third part, which is still under development is the validation of the system in real world setups with people in need. This paper presents mainly stages one and two.Keywords: IntelliCane, 3D printing, microprocessor, weight measurement, rehabilitation tool.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 919818 Fuzzy Multi-Component DEA with Shared and Undesirable Fuzzy Resources
Authors: Jolly Puri, Shiv Prasad Yadav
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Multi-component data envelopment analysis (MC-DEA) is a popular technique for measuring aggregate performance of the decision making units (DMUs) along with their components. However, the conventional MC-DEA is limited to crisp input and output data which may not always be available in exact form. In real life problems, data may be imprecise or fuzzy. Therefore, in this paper, we propose (i) a fuzzy MC-DEA (FMC-DEA) model in which shared and undesirable fuzzy resources are incorporated, (ii) the proposed FMC-DEA model is transformed into a pair of crisp models using α cut approach, (iii) fuzzy aggregate performance of a DMU and fuzzy efficiencies of components are defined to be fuzzy numbers, and (iv) a numerical example is illustrated to validate the proposed approach.
Keywords: Multi-component DEA, fuzzy multi-component DEA, fuzzy resources.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2061817 Role of Natural Language Processing in Information Retrieval; Challenges and Opportunities
Authors: Khaled M. Alhawiti
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This paper aims to analyze the role of natural language processing (NLP). The paper will discuss the role in the context of automated data retrieval, automated question answer, and text structuring. NLP techniques are gaining wider acceptance in real life applications and industrial concerns. There are various complexities involved in processing the text of natural language that could satisfy the need of decision makers. This paper begins with the description of the qualities of NLP practices. The paper then focuses on the challenges in natural language processing. The paper also discusses major techniques of NLP. The last section describes opportunities and challenges for future research.
Keywords: Data Retrieval, Information retrieval, Natural Language Processing, Text Structuring.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2809816 Knowledge and Skills Requirements for Software Developer Students
Authors: J. Liebenberg, M. Huisman, E. Mentz
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It is widely acknowledged that there is a shortage of software developers, not only in South Africa, but also worldwide. Despite reports on a gap between industry needs and software education, the gap has mostly been explored in quantitative studies. This paper reports on the qualitative data of a mixed method study of the perceptions of professional software developers regarding what topics they learned from their formal education and the importance of these topics to their actual work. The analysis suggests that there is a gap between industry’s needs and software development education and the following recommendations are made: 1) Real-life projects must be included in students’ education; 2) Soft skills and business skills must be included in curricula; 3) Universities must keep the curriculum up to date; 4) Software development education must be made accessible to a diverse range of students.
Keywords: Software development education, Software industry, IT workforce, Computing curricula.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2461815 Gamma Irradiation Effects on the Magnetic Properties of Hard Ferrites
Authors: F. Abbas Pour Khotbehsara, B. Salehpour, A. Kianvash
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Many industrial materials like magnets need to be tested for the radiation environment expected at linear colliders (LC) where the accelerator and detectors will be subjected to large influences of beta, neutron and gamma’s over their life Gamma irradiation of the permanent sample magnets using a 60Co source was investigated up to an absorbed dose of 700Mrad shows a negligible effect on some magnetic properties of Nd-Fe-B. In this work it has been tried to investigate the change of some important properties of Barium hexa ferrite. Results showed little decreases of magnetic properties at doses rang of 0.5 to 2.5 Mrad. But at the gamma irradiation dose up to 10 Mrad it is showed a few increase of properties. Also study of gamma irradiation of Nd-Fe-B showed considerably increase of magnetic properties.Keywords: Gamma ray irradiation, Hard Ferrite, Magnetic coefficient, Radiation dose.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2649814 Politic Iconography: The Sky and Pants of Nicolas-Antoine Taunay (1755-1830)
Authors: Bárbara Dantas
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Nicolas-Antoine Taunay had everything to have a quiet life with his family, his colleagues from the Paris Academy of Art, and as a renowned painter of the French Court, but the conjuncture was quite complicated in those final years of the eighteenth century and first decades of the 19th century. The painter had to adapt to various political and social ruptures: from royalty to the French Revolution, from the empire of Napoleon Bonaparte to the empire of King John VI. We wish to insert Taunay in its context through the analysis of his portrait made by a colleague of the profession and of a Brazilian landscape painted of his own (1816-1821) and, in which he represented himself. Finally, the intention is to find in these two paintings how Nicolas-Antoine Taunay faced himself and in the middle that surrounded him in the traffic that was forced to make it between Paris and Rio de Janeiro.
Keywords: Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, politic iconography, French Art, Brazilian Art, 19th century.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 205813 The Harada Method – A Method for Employee Development during Production Ramp Up
Authors: M. Goerke, J. Gehrmann
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Caused by shorter product life cycles and higher product variety the importance of production ramp ups is increasing. Even though companies are aware of that fact, up to 40% of the ramp up projects still miss technical and economical requirements. The success of a ramp up depends on the planning of human factors, organizational aspects and technological solutions. Since only partly considered in scientific literature, this paper lays its focus on the human factor during production ramp up. There are only incoherent methods which address the problems in this area. A systematic and holistic method to improve the capabilities of the employees during ramp up is missing. The Harada Method is a relatively young approach for developing highly-skilled workers. It consists of different worksheets which help employees to set guidelines and reach overall objectives. This approach is going to be transferred into a tool for ramp up management.
Keywords: Employee Development, Harada, Production Ramp Up.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2258