Search results for: Natural Language Understanding.
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 3306

Search results for: Natural Language Understanding.

2166 C@sa: Intelligent Home Control and Simulation

Authors: Berardina De Carolis, Giovanni Cozzolongo

Abstract:

In this paper, we present C@sa, a multiagent system aiming at modeling, controlling and simulating the behavior of an intelligent house. The developed system aims at providing to architects, designers and psychologists a simulation and control tool for understanding which is the impact of embedded and pervasive technology on people daily life. In this vision, the house is seen as an environment made up of independent and distributed devices, controlled by agents, interacting to support user's goals and tasks.

Keywords: Ambient intelligence, agent-based systems, influence diagrams.

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2165 Technology Enhanced Learning: Fostering Cooperative Learning Through the Integration of Online Communication as Part of Teaching and Learning Experience

Authors: R.Ramli

Abstract:

This paper discusses ways to foster cooperative learning through the integration of online communication technology. While the education experts believe constructivism produces a more positive learning experience, the educators are still facing problems in getting students to participate due to numerous reasons such as shy personality, language and cultural barriers. This paper will look into the factors that lead to lack of participations among students and how technology can be implemented to overcome these issues.

Keywords: cooperative learning, encouraging class participation, education, online discussion

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2164 Enthalpies of Dissociation of Pure Methane and Carbon Dioxide Gas Hydrate

Authors: Qazi Nasir, K. K. Lau, Bhajan Lal

Abstract:

In this study the enthalpies of dissociation for pure methane and pure carbon dioxide was calculated using a hydrate equilibrium data obtained in this study. The enthalpy of dissociation was determined using Clausius-Clapeyron equation. The results were compared with the values reported in literature obtained using various techniques.

Keywords: Enthalpies of dissociation, methane, carbon dioxide, gas hydrate, natural gas.

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2163 Tool for Fast Detection of Java Code Snippets

Authors: Tomáš Bublík, Miroslav Virius

Abstract:

This paper presents general results on the Java source code snippet detection problem. We propose the tool which uses graph and subgraph isomorphism detection. A number of solutions for all of these tasks have been proposed in the literature. However, although that all these solutions are really fast, they compare just the constant static trees. Our solution offers to enter an input sample dynamically with the Scripthon language while preserving an acceptable speed. We used several optimizations to achieve very low number of comparisons during the matching algorithm.

Keywords: AST, Java, tree matching, Scripthon, source code recognition

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2162 SystemC Modeling of Adaptive Least Mean Square Filter

Authors: Kyu Han Kim, Soon Kyu Kwon, Heung Sun Yoon, Jong Tae Kim

Abstract:

In this paper, we demonstrate the adaptive least-mean-square (LMS) filter modeling using SystemC. SystemC is a modeling language that allows designer to model both hardware and software component and makes it possible to design from high level system of abstraction to low level system of abstraction. We produced five adaptive least-mean-square filter models that are classed as five abstraction levels using SystemC proceeding from the abstract model to the more concrete model.

Keywords: Adaptive Filter, Least-Mean-Square Algorithm, SystemC, Transversal Fir Filter.

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2161 The Variation of Software Development Productivity 1995-2005

Authors: Zhizhong Jiang, Peter Naudé, Craig Comstock

Abstract:

Software development has experienced remarkable progress in the past decade. However, due to the rising complexity and magnitude of the project the development productivity has not been consistently improved. By analyzing the latest ISBSG data repository with 4106 projects, we discovered that software development productivity has actually undergone irregular variations between the years 1995 and 2005. Considering the factors significant to the productivity, we found its variations are primarily caused by the variations of average team size and the unbalanced uses of the less productive language 3GL.

Keywords: Productivity, Programming Languages, SoftwareEngineering, Team Size.

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2160 The Impact of Quality Cost on Revenue Sharing in Supply Chain Management

Authors: Fayza Obied-Allah

Abstract:

Customer’ needs, quality, and value creation while reducing costs through supply chain management provides challenges and opportunities for companies and researchers. In the light of these challenges, modern ideas must contribute to counter these challenges and exploit opportunities. Therefore, this paper discusses the impact of the quality cost on revenue sharing as a most important incentive to configure business networks. This paper develops the quality cost approach to align with the modern era. It develops a model to measure quality costs which might enable firms to manage revenue sharing in a supply chain. The developed model includes five categories; besides the well-known four categories (namely prevention costs, appraisal costs, internal failure costs, and external failure costs), a new category has been developed in this research as a new vision of the relationship between quality costs and innovations in industry. This new category is Recycle Cost. This paper also examines whether such quality costs in supply chains influence the revenue sharing between partners. Using the author's quality cost model, the relationship between quality costs and revenue sharing among partners is examined using a case study in an Egyptian manufacturing company which is a part of a supply chain. This paper argues that the revenue-sharing proportion allocated to supplier increases as the recycle cost of supplier increases, and the revenue-sharing proportion allocated to manufacturer increases as the prevention and appraisal costs increase, as well as the failure costs, the recycle costs of manufacturer, and the recycle costs of suppliers decrease. However, the results present surprising findings. The purposes of this study are developing quality cost approach and understanding the relationships between quality costs and revenue sharing in supply chains. Therefore, the present study contributes to theory and practice by explaining how the cost of recycling can be combined in quality cost model to better understanding the revenue sharing among partners in supply chains.

Keywords: Quality cost, Recycle cost, Revenue sharing, Supply chain.

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2159 Ornament as a Universal Language of Peace (Based On Comparative Analysis of Cultures of proto-Turkic Peoples and Indian Tribes of North America)

Authors: Zhamilya Boldykova, Assel Berdigulova

Abstract:

In this article, the authors reviewed and analyzed the survey materials similarities ornament proto-Turkic and northern Indians. The study examined the materials scientists - geneticists, archaeologists, anthropologists. Numerous studies of scientists from different directions once again prove the relevance of the topic. The authors approached the subject from an artistic side. The study authors have made the appropriate conclusions. This publication is based on the proceedings of the investigation.

Keywords: Ethnicity, Indians, Ornament, Proto-Turks

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2158 E-Learning Platform with SPICE Web Service

Authors: A. Braeken, L. Sterckx, A. Touhafi, Y. Verbelen

Abstract:

When studying electronics, hands-on experience is considered to be very valuable for a better understanding of the concepts of electricity and electronics. Students lacking sufficient time in the lab are often put at disadvantage. A way to overcome this, is by using interactive multimedia in a virtual environment. Instead of proposing another new ad-hoc simulator for e-learning, we propose in this paper an e-learning platform integrating the SPICE simulator as a web service. This enables to make use of all the functions of the de-facto standard simulator SPICE inelectronics when developing new simulations.

Keywords: E-learning, SPICE, virtual experiments, web service.

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2157 Stewardship of Urban Greenery in an Era of Global Urbanisation

Authors: Rhoda M. Darkwah, Patrick B. Cobbinah

Abstract:

Urban greenery remains the bastion of urban landscape and a key to sustainable development due to its integral connections to the general health and wellbeing of urban residents. However, in an era of rapid urbanisation, recent studies indicate that urban greenery, especially ecologically sensitive areas, in many African cities is becoming increasingly depleted. Given the scale and rate of natural and anthropogenic change, effective management of urban greenery as the ultimate goal of restoring depleting urban landscapes is urgent. This review advocates for an urban resilience model to managing urban greenery.

Keywords: Green spaces, resilience, urbanisation, urban greenery.

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2156 Critical Assessment of Scoring Schemes for Protein-Protein Docking Predictions

Authors: Dhananjay C. Joshi, Jung-Hsin Lin

Abstract:

Protein-protein interactions (PPI) play a crucial role in many biological processes such as cell signalling, transcription, translation, replication, signal transduction, and drug targeting, etc. Structural information about protein-protein interaction is essential for understanding the molecular mechanisms of these processes. Structures of protein-protein complexes are still difficult to obtain by biophysical methods such as NMR and X-ray crystallography, and therefore protein-protein docking computation is considered an important approach for understanding protein-protein interactions. However, reliable prediction of the protein-protein complexes is still under way. In the past decades, several grid-based docking algorithms based on the Katchalski-Katzir scoring scheme were developed, e.g., FTDock, ZDOCK, HADDOCK, RosettaDock, HEX, etc. However, the success rate of protein-protein docking prediction is still far from ideal. In this work, we first propose a more practical measure for evaluating the success of protein-protein docking predictions,the rate of first success (RFS), which is similar to the concept of mean first passage time (MFPT). Accordingly, we have assessed the ZDOCK bound and unbound benchmarks 2.0 and 3.0. We also createda new benchmark set for protein-protein docking predictions, in which the complexes have experimentally determined binding affinity data. We performed free energy calculation based on the solution of non-linear Poisson-Boltzmann equation (nlPBE) to improve the binding mode prediction. We used the well-studied thebarnase-barstarsystem to validate the parameters for free energy calculations. Besides,thenlPBE-based free energy calculations were conducted for the badly predicted cases by ZDOCK and ZRANK. We found that direct molecular mechanics energetics cannot be used to discriminate the native binding pose from the decoys.Our results indicate that nlPBE-based calculations appeared to be one of the promising approaches for improving the success rate of binding pose predictions.

Keywords: protein-protein docking, protein-protein interaction, molecular mechanics energetics, Poisson-Boltzmann calculations

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2155 Robust Artificial Neural Network Architectures

Authors: A. Schuster

Abstract:

Many artificial intelligence (AI) techniques are inspired by problem-solving strategies found in nature. Robustness is a key feature in many natural systems. This paper studies robustness in artificial neural networks (ANNs) and proposes several novel, nature inspired ANN architectures. The paper includes encouraging results from experimental studies on these networks showing increased robustness.

Keywords: robustness, robust artificial neural networks architectures.

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2154 The Contemporary Visual Spectacle — Critical Visual Literacy

Authors: Lai-Fen Yang

Abstract:

In this increasingly visual world, how can we best decipher and understand the many ways that our everyday lives are organized around looking practices and the many images we encounter each day? Indeed, how we interact with and interpret visual images is a basic component of human life. Today, however, we are living in one of the most artificial visual and image-saturated cultures in human history, which makes understanding the complex construction and multiple social functions of visual imagery more important than ever before. Themes regarding our experience of a visually pervasive mediated culture, here, termed visual spectacle.

Keywords: Visual culture, contemporary, visual spectacle.

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2153 Understanding Walkability in the Libyan Urban Space: Policies, Perceptions and Smart Design for Sustainable Tripoli

Authors: A. Abdulla Khairi Mohamed, Mohamed Gamal Abdelmonem, Gehan Selim

Abstract:

Walkability in civic and public spaces in Libyan cities is challenging due to the lack of accessibility design, informal merging into car traffic, and the general absence of adequate urban and space planning. The lack of accessible and pedestrian-friendly public spaces in Libyan cities has emerged as a major concern for the government if it is to develop smart and sustainable spaces for the 21st century. A walkable urban space has become a driver for urban development and redistribution of land use to ensure pedestrian and walkable routes between sites of living and workplaces. The characteristics of urban open space in the city centre play a main role in attracting people to walk when attending their daily needs, recreation and daily sports. There is significant gap in the understanding of perceptions, feasibility and capabilities of Libyan urban space to accommodate enhance or support the smart design of a walkable pedestrian-friendly environment that is safe and accessible to everyone. The paper aims to undertake observations of walkability and walkable space in the city of Tripoli as a benchmark for Libyan cities; assess the validity and consistency of the seven principal aspects of smart design, safety, accessibility and 51 factors that affect the walkability in open urban space in Tripoli, through the analysis of 10 local urban spaces experts (town planner, architect, transport engineer and urban designer); and explore user groups’ perceptions of accessibility in walkable spaces in Libyan cities through questionnaires. The study sampled 200 respondents in 2015-16. The results of this study are useful for urban planning, to classify the walkable urban space elements which affect to improve the level of walkability in the Libyan cities and create sustainable and liveable urban spaces.

Keywords: Walkability, sustainability, liveability, accessibility, safety.

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2152 Specifying a Timestamp-based Protocol For Multi-step Transactions Using LTL

Authors: Rafat Alshorman, Walter Hussak

Abstract:

Most of the concurrent transactional protocols consider serializability as a correctness criterion of the transactions execution. Usually, the proof of the serializability relies on mathematical proofs for a fixed finite number of transactions. In this paper, we introduce a protocol to deal with an infinite number of transactions which are iterated infinitely often. We specify serializability of the transactions and the protocol using a specification language based on temporal logics. It is worthwhile using temporal logics such as LTL (Lineartime Temporal Logic) to specify transactions, to gain full automatic verification by using model checkers.

Keywords: Multi-step transactions, LTL specifications, Model Checking.

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2151 Ahiska Turks in Philadelphia: Keeping Cultural Identity and Religion in a Multicultural Environment

Authors: Kenan Cetinkaya, Semanur Kodan

Abstract:

Ahiska Turks in the Philadelphia area maintain a very complex, cultural heritage which they have carried with them for centuries from Georgia to Uzbekistan then Russia and lastly to the USA. While facing very severe conditions in the last half of the last century, their passion for their language, religion and tradition allowed them to keep their cultural identity. In the paper, the Ahiska Turks’ sorrowful story is reviewed and their struggle with keeping their identity in a multicultural environment of the USA is examined in the context of the Philadelphia area.

Keywords: Ahiska Turks, identity, integration, Philadelphia, Turkish

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2150 Toward Indoor and Outdoor Surveillance Using an Improved Fast Background Subtraction Algorithm

Authors: A. El Harraj, N. Raissouni

Abstract:

The detection of moving objects from a video image sequences is very important for object tracking, activity recognition, and behavior understanding in video surveillance. The most used approach for moving objects detection / tracking is background subtraction algorithms. Many approaches have been suggested for background subtraction. But, these are illumination change sensitive and the solutions proposed to bypass this problem are time consuming. In this paper, we propose a robust yet computationally efficient background subtraction approach and, mainly, focus on the ability to detect moving objects on dynamic scenes, for possible applications in complex and restricted access areas monitoring, where moving and motionless persons must be reliably detected. It consists of three main phases, establishing illumination changes invariance, background/foreground modeling and morphological analysis for noise removing. We handle illumination changes using Contrast Limited Histogram Equalization (CLAHE), which limits the intensity of each pixel to user determined maximum. Thus, it mitigates the degradation due to scene illumination changes and improves the visibility of the video signal. Initially, the background and foreground images are extracted from the video sequence. Then, the background and foreground images are separately enhanced by applying CLAHE. In order to form multi-modal backgrounds we model each channel of a pixel as a mixture of K Gaussians (K=5) using Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). Finally, we post process the resulting binary foreground mask using morphological erosion and dilation transformations to remove possible noise. For experimental test, we used a standard dataset to challenge the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method on a diverse set of dynamic scenes.

Keywords: Video surveillance, background subtraction, Contrast Limited Histogram Equalization, illumination invariance, object tracking, object detection, behavior understanding, dynamic scenes.

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2149 Understanding E-Learning Satisfaction in the Context of University Teachers

Authors: Anne M. Sørebø, Øystein Sørebø

Abstract:

The present study was designed to test the influence of confirmed expectations, perceived usefulness and perceived competence on e-learning satisfaction among university teachers. A questionnaire was completed by 125 university teachers from 12 different universities in Norway. We found that 51% of the variance in university teachers- satisfaction with e-learning could be explained by the three proposed antecedents. Perceived usefulness seems to be the most important predictor of teachers- satisfaction with e-learning.

Keywords: E-learning, User satisfaction, Teachers, IS success.

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2148 Quranic Braille System

Authors: Abdallah M. Abualkishik, Khairuddin Omar

Abstract:

This article concerned with the translation of Quranic verses to Braille symbols, by using Visual basic program. The system has the ability to translate the special vibration for the Quran. This study limited for the (Noun + Scoon) vibrations. It builds on an existing translation system that combines a finite state machine with left and right context matching and a set of translation rules. This allows to translate the Arabic language from text to Braille symbols after detect the vibration for the Quran verses.

Keywords: Braille, Quran vibration, Finite State Machine.

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2147 Approximately Similarity Measurement of Web Sites Using Genetic Algorithms and Binary Trees

Authors: Doru Anastasiu Popescu, Dan Rădulescu

Abstract:

In this paper, we determine the similarity of two HTML web applications. We are going to use a genetic algorithm in order to determine the most significant web pages of each application (we are not going to use every web page of a site). Using these significant web pages, we will find the similarity value between the two applications. The algorithm is going to be efficient because we are going to use a reduced number of web pages for comparisons but it will return an approximate value of the similarity. The binary trees are used to keep the tags from the significant pages. The algorithm was implemented in Java language.

Keywords: Tag, HTML, web page, genetic algorithm, similarity value, binary tree.

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2146 A Proposal of an Automatic Formatting Method for Transforming XML Data

Authors: Zhe JIN, Motomichi TOYAMA

Abstract:

PPX(Pretty Printer for XML) is a query language that offers a concise description method of formatting the XML data into HTML. In this paper, we propose a simple specification of formatting method that is a combination description of automatic layout operators and variables in the layout expression of the GENERATE clause of PPX. This method can automatically format irregular XML data included in a part of XML with layout decision rule that is referred to DTD. In the experiment, a quick comparison shows that PPX requires far less description compared to XSLT or XQuery programs doing same tasks.

Keywords: PPX, Irregular XML data, Layout decision rule, HTML.

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2145 Analysis of Gamma-Ray Spectra Using Levenberg-Marquardt Method

Authors: A. H. Fatah, A. H. Ahmed

Abstract:

Levenberg-Marquardt method (LM) was proposed to be applied as a non-linear least-square fitting in the analysis of a natural gamma-ray spectrum that was taken by the Hp (Ge) detector. The Gaussian function that composed of three components, main Gaussian, a step background function and tailing function in the lowenergy side, has been suggested to describe each of the y-ray lines mathematically in the spectrum. The whole spectrum has been analyzed by determining the energy and relative intensity for the strong y-ray lines.

Keywords: Gamma-Ray, Spectrum analysis, Non-linear leastsquare fitting.

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2144 Considering Assembly Operations and Product Structure for Manufacturing Cell Formation

Authors: M.B. Aryanezhad, J. Aliabadi

Abstract:

This paper considers the integration of assembly operations and product structure to Cellular Manufacturing System (CMS) design so that to correct the drawbacks of previous researches in the literature. For this purpose, a new mathematical model is developed which dedicates machining and assembly operations to manufacturing cells while the objective function is to minimize the intercellular movements resulting due to both of them. A linearization method is applied to achieve optimum solution through solving aforementioned nonlinear model by common programming language such as Lingo. Then, using different examples and comparing the results, the importance of integrating assembly considerations is demonstrated.

Keywords: Assembly operations and Product structure, CellFormation, Genetic Algorithm.

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2143 A New Algorithm to Stereo Correspondence Using Rank Transform and Morphology Based On Genetic Algorithm

Authors: Razagh Hafezi, Ahmad Keshavarz, Vida Moshfegh

Abstract:

This paper presents a novel algorithm of stereo correspondence with rank transform. In this algorithm we used the genetic algorithm to achieve the accurate disparity map. Genetic algorithms are efficient search methods based on principles of population genetic, i.e. mating, chromosome crossover, gene mutation, and natural selection. Finally morphology is employed to remove the errors and discontinuities.

Keywords: genetic algorithm, morphology, rank transform, stereo correspondence

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2142 Effective Wind-Induced Natural Ventilation in a Residential Apartment Typology

Authors: Tanvi P. Medshinge, Prasad Vaidya, Monisha E. Royan

Abstract:

In India, cooling loads in residential sector is a major contributor to its total energy consumption. Due to the increasing cooling need, the market penetration of air-conditioners is further expected to rise. Natural Ventilation (NV), however, possesses great potential to save significant energy consumption especially for residential buildings in moderate climates. As multifamily residential apartment buildings are designed by repetitive use of prototype designs, deriving individual NV based design prototype solutions for a combination of different wind incidence angles and orientations would provide significant opportunity to address the rise in cooling loads by residential sector. This paper presents the results of NV performance of a selected prototype apartment design with a cluster of four units in Pune, India, and an attempt to improve the NV performance through design modifications. The water table apparatus, a physical modelling tool, is used to study the flow patterns and simulate wind-induced NV performance. Quantification of NV performance is done by post processing images captured from video recordings in terms of percentage of area with good and poor access to ventilation. NV performance of the existing design for eight wind incidence angles showed that of the cluster of four units, the windward units showed good access to ventilation for all rooms, and the leeward units had lower access to ventilation with the bedrooms in the leeward units having the least access. The results showed improved performance in all the units for all wind incidence angles to more than 80% good access to ventilation. Some units showed an additional improvement to more than 90% good access to ventilation. This process of design and performance evaluation improved some individual units from 0% to 100% for good access to ventilation. The results demonstrate the ease of use and the power of the water table apparatus for performance-based design to simulate wind induced NV.  

Keywords: Prototype design, water table apparatus, NV, wind incidence angles, simulations, fluid dynamics.

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2141 New Coating Materials Based On Mixtures of Shellac and Pectin for Pharmaceutical Products

Authors: M. Kumpugdee-Vollrath, M. Tabatabaeifar, M. Helmis

Abstract:

Shellac is a natural polyester resin secreted by insects. Pectins are natural, non-toxic and water-soluble polysaccharides extracted from the peels of citrus fruits or the leftovers of apples. Both polymers are allowed for the use in the pharmaceutical industry and as a food additive. SSB Aquagold® is the aqueous solution of shellac and can be used for a coating process as an enteric or controlled drug release polymer. In this study, tablets containing 10 mg methylene blue as a model drug were prepared with a rotary press. Those tablets were coated with mixtures of shellac and one of the pectin different types (i.e. CU 201, CU 501, CU 701 and CU 020) mostly in a 2:1 ratio or with pure shellac in a small scale fluidized bed apparatus. A stable, simple and reproducible three-stage coating process was successfully developed. The drug contents of the coated tablets were determined using UV-VIS spectrophotometer. The characterization of the surface and the film thickness were performed with the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the light microscopy. Release studies were performed in a dissolution apparatus with a basket. Most of the formulations were enteric coated. The dissolution profiles showed a delayed or sustained release with a lagtime of at least 4 h. Dissolution profiles of coated tablets with pure shellac had a very long lagtime ranging from 13 to 17.9 h and the slopes were quite high. The duration of the lagtime and the slope of the dissolution profiles could be adjusted by adding the proper type of pectin to the shellac formulation and by variation of the coating amount. In order to apply a coating formulation as a colon delivery system, the prepared film should be resistant against gastric fluid for at least 2 h and against intestinal fluid for 4-6 h. The required delay time was gained with most of the shellac-pectin polymer mixtures. The release profiles were fitted with the modified model of the Korsmeyer-Peppas equation and the Hixson-Crowell model. A correlation coefficient (R²)> 0.99 was obtained by Korsmeyer-Peppas equation.

Keywords: Shellac, pectin, coating, fluidized bed, release, colon delivery system, kinetic, SEM, methylene blue.

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2140 Agro-Morphological Characterization of Vicia faba L. Accessions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Authors: Zia Amjad, Salem S. Alghamdi

Abstract:

The study was conducted at the student educational farm at the College of Food and Agriculture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The aim of study was to characterize 154 Vicia faba L. accessions using agro-morphological traits based on The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and The International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) descriptors. This research is significant as it contributes to the understanding of the genetic diversity and potential yield of V. faba in Saudi Arabia. In the study, 24 agro-morphological characters including 11 quantitative and 13 qualitative were observed for genetic variation. All the results were analyzed using multivariate analysis i.e., principal component analysis (PCA). First, six principal components (PC) had eigenvalues greater than one; accounted for 72% of available V. faba genetic diversity. However, first three components revealed more than 10% of genetic diversity each i.e., 22.36%, 15.86% and 10.89% respectively. PCA distributed the V. faba accessions into different groups based on their performance for the characters under observation. PC-1, which represented 22.36% of the genetic diversity, was positively associated with stipule spot pigmentation, intensity of streaks, pod degree of curvature and to some extent with 100 seed weight. PC-2 covered 15.86 of the genetic diversity and showed positive association for average seed weight per plant, pod length, number of seeds per plant, 100 seed weight, stipule spot pigmentation, intensity of streaks (same as in PC-1) and to some extent for pod degree of curvature and number of pods per plant. PC-3 revealed 10.89% of genetic diversity and expressed positive association for number of pods per plant and number of leaflets per plant. This study contributes to the understanding of the genetic diversity and potential yield of V. faba in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. By establishing a core collection of V. faba, the research provides a valuable resource for future conservation and utilization of this crop worldwide.

Keywords: Agro-morphological characterization, genetic diversity, core collection, PCA, Vicia faba L.

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2139 Place and Role of Corporate Governance in Japan

Authors: Feddaoui Amina

Abstract:

In a broad sense, corporate governance covers the organization of the control and management. The term is also used in a narrower sense, to refer to the relationship between shareholders, and the company’s board. There are a lot of discussions devoted to the understanding of the corporate governance role and its principles. In this paper, we are going to describe the definition of corporate governance as a control system and its principles, and find the role of corporate governance and its pillars. Finally, we are going to drop the theoretical study on the case of Japan.

Keywords: Corporate governance, place, role, Japan.

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2138 Moroccan Mountains: Forest Ecosystems and Biodiversity Conservation Strategies

Authors: Mohammed Sghir Taleb

Abstract:

Forest ecosystems in Morocco are subject increasingly to natural and human pressures. Conscious of this problem, Morocco set a strategy that focuses on programs of in-situ and ex-situ biodiversity conservation. This study is the result of a synthesis of various existing studies on biodiversity and forest ecosystems. It gives an overview of Moroccan mountain forest ecosystems and flora diversity. It also focuses on the efforts made by Morocco to conserve and sustainably manage biodiversity.

Keywords: Mountain, forest, ecosystems, conservation, Morocco.

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2137 The Factors Significant to Software Development Productivity

Authors: Zhizhong Jiang, Craig Comstock

Abstract:

The past decade has seen enormous growth in the amount of software produced. However, given the ever increasing complexity of the software being developed and the concomitant rise in the typical project size, managers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of issues that influence the productivity levels of the project teams involved. By analyzing the latest release of ISBSG data repository, we report on the factors found to significantly influence the productivity among which average team size and language type are the two most essential ones. Building on this we present an original model for evaluating the potential productivity during the project planning stage.

Keywords: ISBSG, Linear Model, Productivity, SoftwareEngineering.

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