Search results for: individual farmer

Authors: Kung-Jen Tu, Danny Vernatha

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To assist individual departments within universities in their energy management tasks, this study explores the application of Building Information Modeling in establishing the ‘BIM based Energy Management Support System’ (BIM-EMSS). The BIM-EMSS consists of six components: (1) sensors installed for each occupant and each equipment, (2) electricity sub-meters (constantly logging lighting, HVAC, and socket electricity consumptions of each room), (3) BIM models of all rooms within individual departments’ facilities, (4) data warehouse (for storing occupancy status and logged electricity consumption data), (5) building energy management system that provides energy managers with various energy management functions, and (6) energy simulation tool (such as eQuest) that generates real time 'standard energy consumptions' data against which 'actual energy consumptions' data are compared and energy efficiency evaluated. Through the building energy management system, the energy manager is able to (a) have 3D visualization (BIM model) of each room, in which the occupancy and equipment status detected by the sensors and the electricity consumptions data logged are displayed constantly; (b) perform real time energy consumption analysis to compare the actual and standard energy consumption profiles of a space; (c) obtain energy consumption anomaly detection warnings on certain rooms so that energy management corrective actions can be further taken (data mining technique is employed to analyze the relation between space occupancy pattern with current space equipment setting to indicate an anomaly, such as when appliances turn on without occupancy); and (d) perform historical energy consumption analysis to review monthly and annually energy consumption profiles and compare them against historical energy profiles. The BIM-EMSS was further implemented in a research lab in the Department of Architecture of NTUST in Taiwan and implementation results presented to illustrate how it can be used to assist individual departments within universities in their energy management tasks.

Keywords: Sensor, electricity sub-meters, database, energy anomaly detection.

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Authors: Saimir Heta, Kers Kapa, Rialda Xhizdari, Ilma Robo

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Despite the existence of different dental specialties, the dentist-patient relationship is unique, in the very fact that the treatment is performed by one doctor and the patient identifies the malpractice presented as part of that doctor's practice; this is in complete contrast to cases of medical treatments where the patient can be presented to a team of doctors, to treat a specific pathology. The rules of dental ethics are almost the same as the rules of medical ethics. The appearance of dental malpractice affects exactly this two-party relationship, created on the basis of professionalism, without deviations in this direction, between the dentist and the patient, but with very narrow individual boundaries, compared to cases of medical malpractice. Malpractice can have different reasons for its appearance, starting from professional negligence, but also from the lack of professional knowledge of the dentist who undertakes the dental treatment. It should always be seen in perspective that we are not talking about the individual - the dentist who goes to work with the intention of harming their patients. Malpractice can also be a consequence of the impossibility, for anatomical or physiological reasons of the tooth under dental treatment, to realize the predetermined dental treatment plan. On the other hand, the dentist himself is an individual who can be affected by health conditions, or have vices that affect the systemic health of the dentist as an individual, which in these conditions can cause malpractice. So, depending on the reason that led to the appearance of malpractice, the method of treatment from a legal point of view also varies, for the dentist who committed the malpractice, evaluating the latter if the malpractice came under the conditions of applying the rules of dental ethics. The deviation from the predetermined dental plan is the minimum sign of malpractice and the latter should not be definitively related only to cases of difficult dental treatments. The identification of the reason for the appearance of malpractice is the initial element, which makes the difference in the way of its treatment, from a legal point of view, and the involvement of the dentist in the assessment of the malpractice committed, must be based on the legislation in force, which must be said to have their specific changes in different states. Malpractice should be referred to, or included in the lectures or in the continuing education of professionals, because it serves as a method of obtaining professional experience in order not to repeat the same thing several times, by different professionals.

Keywords: Dental ethics, malpractice, negligence, legal basis, continuing education, dental treatments.

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Authors: Hamdon A. Abdelrhman

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The purpose of the analysis is estimation of viability and profitability of kenaf plant farming in Kelantan State. The monetary information was gathered through interviewing kenaf growers as well group discussion. In addition, the production statistics were collected from Kenaf factory administrative group. The monetary data were analyzed using the Precision financial Calculator. For kenaf production per hectare three scenarios of productivity were adopted, they were 15, 12 and ten; the research results exposed that, when kenaf productivity was 15 ton and the agronomist received financial supports from kenaf administration, the margin profit reached up to 37% which is almost dual profitability that is expected without government support. The financial analysis explains that, the adopted scenarios of the productivity are feasible when Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) was used as financial indicator. Nonetheless, the kenaf productivity of 15 ton is the superlative viable among the others and payback period is 5 years which equals to middle period time to return the invested amount back. The study concluded that for the farmer to increase the productivity of kenaf per hectare the well farming practices as well as continuously farmers financial support are highly needed.

Keywords: Margin profit, farming practices, financial analysis, kenaf cultivation.

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Authors: Paula A. Cruise, Carvell McLeary

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Employee turnover leads to lowered productivity, decreased morale and work quality, and psychological effects associated with employee separation and replacement. Yet, it remains unknown why talented employees willingly withdraw from organizations. This uncertainty is worsened as studies; a) priorities organizational over individual predictors resulting in restriction in range in turnover measurement; b) focus on actual rather than intended turnover thereby limiting conceptual understanding of the turnover construct and its relationship with other variables and; c) produce inconsistent findings across cultures, contexts and industries despite a clear need for a unified perspective. The current study addressed these gaps by adopting the theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework to examine socio-cognitive factors in organizational trust and individual turnover intentions among bankers and energy employees in Jamaica. In a comparative study of n=369 [n_bank= 264; male=57 (22.73%); n_energy =105; male =45 (42.86)], it was hypothesized that organizational trust was a predictor of employee turnover intention, and the effect of individual, group, cognitive and socio-affective variables varied across industry. Findings from structural equation modelling confirmed the hypothesis, with a model of both cognitive and socio-affective variables being a better fit [CMIN (χ²) = 800.067, df = 364, p ≤ .000; CFI = 0.950; RMSEA = 0.057 with 90% C.I. (0.052 - 0.062); PCLOSE = 0.016; PNFI = 0.818 in predicting turnover intention. The findings are discussed in relation to socio-cognitive components of trust models and predicting negative employee behaviors across cultures and industries.

Keywords: Context-specific organizational trust, cross-cultural psychology, theory of planned behavior, employee turnover intention.

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Authors: Zenaide Carvalho da Silva, Leandro Rodrigues Ferreira, Andrey Ricardo Pimentel

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Learning styles (LS) refer to the ways and forms that the student prefers to learn in the teaching and learning process. Each student has their own way of receiving and processing information throughout the learning process. Therefore, knowing their LS is important to better understand their individual learning preferences, and also, understand why the use of some teaching methods and techniques give better results with some students, while others it does not. We believe that knowledge of these styles enables the possibility of making propositions for teaching; thus, reorganizing teaching methods and techniques in order to allow learning that is adapted to the individual needs of the student. Adapting learning would be possible through the creation of online educational resources adapted to the style of the student. In this context, this article presents the structure of a learning object interface adaptation based on the LS. The structure created should enable the creation of the adapted learning object according to the student's LS and contributes to the increase of student’s motivation in the use of a learning object as an educational resource.

Keywords: Adaptation, interface, learning object, learning style.

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Authors: Toshihiko Takemura, Atsushi Umino

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In this paper, the authors examine whether or not there Institute for Information and Communications Policy shows are differences of Japanese Internet users awareness to information security based on individual attributes by using analysis of variance based on non-parametric method. As a result, generally speaking, it is found that Japanese Internet users' awareness to information security is different by individual attributes. Especially, the authors verify that the users who received the information security education would have rather higher recognition concerning countermeasures than other users including self-educated users. It is suggested that the information security education should be enhanced so that the users may appropriately take the information security countermeasures. In addition, the information security policy such as carrying out "e- net caravan" and "information security seminars" are effective in improving the users' awareness on the information security in Japan.

Keywords: Information security education, variance of analysis, Internet users, information security policy, Web-based survey.

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Authors: C. Phalakornkule, W. Worachai, T. Satitayut

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The electrochemical coagulation of a kaolin suspension was investigated at the currents of 0.06, 0.12, 0.22, 0.44, 0.85 A (corresponding to 0.68, 1.36, 2.50, 5.00, 9.66 mA·cm-2, respectively) for the contact time of 5, 10, 20, 30, and 50 min. The TSS removal efficiency at currents of 0.06 A, 0.12 A and 0.22 A increased with the amount of iron generated by the sacrificial anode, while the removal efficiencies did not increase proportionally with the amount of iron generated at the currents of 0.44 and 0.85 A, where electroflotation was clearly observed. Zeta potential measurement illustrated the presence of the highly positive charged particles created by sorption of highly charged polymeric metal hydroxyl species onto the negative surface charged kaolin particles at both low and high applied currents. The disappearance of the individual peaks after certain contact times indicated the attraction between these positive and negative charged particles causing agglomeration. It was concluded that charge neutralization of the individual species was not the only mechanism operating in the electrocoagulation process at any current level, but electrostatic attraction was likely to co-operate or mainly operate.

Keywords: Coagulation, Electrocoagulation, Electrostatics, Suspended solids, Zeta potential

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Authors: R. Moosazadeh

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Among the Ottomans, dress was one of the means of expression of the society to which an individual was belonged, and as much as the cloth of the dress, its color reflected the individual's class. Those cloths, and the type and color of the dresses that were worn in the court, were forbidden to ordinary people. In addition, whatever the person's position was, his/her clothes were changed according to that special time and position. The clothes that were worn on trips and ceremonies were different from ordinary clothes in everyday life. At the time of the Ottoman Empire and the old Turkey, the miniature forms, and historical manuscripts were an indicator of the time of that day, and each of them is used as a document from the history of that time for today. The method used in this study is descriptive-analytical and the data collection procedure has been done through library. In this article, the cloth, shape and form of the Kaftan is considered. Firstly, a summary of the history and an explanation of this style of dressing and the importance of it at that time are considered. Finally, by the completion of this research, some of the findings of this research are mentioned, such as the distinctive features of this style and the process of updating it to use it in the present era.

Keywords: Kaftan, cloth, Ottoman, Turkey.

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Authors: Ashish Dhamaniya, Satish Chandra

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Speed and traffic volume data are collected on different sections of four lane and six lane roads in three metropolitan cities in India. Speed data are analyzed to fit the statistical distribution to individual vehicle speed data and all vehicles speed data. It is noted that speed data of individual vehicle generally follows a normal distribution but speed data of all vehicle combined at a section of urban road may or may not follow the normal distribution depending upon the composition of traffic stream. A new term Speed Spread Ratio (SSR) is introduced in this paper which is the ratio of difference in 85^th and 50^th percentile speed to the difference in 50^th and 15^th percentile speed. If SSR is unity then speed data are truly normally distributed. It is noted that on six lane urban roads, speed data follow a normal distribution only when SSR is in the range of 0.86 – 1.11. The range of SSR is validated on four lane roads also.

Keywords: Normal distribution, percentile speed, speed spread ratio, traffic volume.

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Authors: Radoslav Židek, Veronika Šidlová, Radovan Kasarda, Birgit Fuerst-Waltl

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Machine learning represents a set of topics dealing with the creation and evaluation of algorithms that facilitate pattern recognition, classification, and prediction, based on models derived from existing data. The data can present identification patterns which are used to classify into groups. The result of the analysis is the pattern which can be used for identification of data set without the need to obtain input data used for creation of this pattern. An important requirement in this process is careful data preparation validation of model used and its suitable interpretation. For breeders, it is important to know the origin of animals from the point of the genetic diversity. In case of missing pedigree information, other methods can be used for traceability of animal´s origin. Genetic diversity written in genetic data is holding relatively useful information to identify animals originated from individual countries. We can conclude that the application of data mining for molecular genetic data using supervised learning is an appropriate tool for hypothesis testing and identifying an individual.

Keywords: Genetic data, Pinzgau cattle, supervised learning.

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Authors: A. Banovcinova, M. Zakova

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Labor market activity and paid employment should be a key factor in protecting individuals and families from falling into poverty and providing them with sufficient resources to meet the needs of their members. However, due to various processes in the labor market as well as the influence of individual factors and often insufficient social capital, there is a relatively large group of households that cannot eliminate paid employment and find themselves in a state of so-called working poverty. The aim of the research was to find out what strategies families use in managing poverty and meeting their needs and which of these strategies prevail in the Slovak population. A quantitative research strategy was chosen. The method of data collection was a structured interview focused on finding out the use of individual management strategies and also selected demographic indicators. The research sample consisted of members of families in which at least one member has a paid job. The condition for inclusion in the research was that the family's income did not exceed 60% of the national median equalized disposable income. The analysis of the results showed 5 basic areas to which management strategies are related - work, financial security, needs, social contacts and perception of the current situation. The prevailing strategies were strategies aimed at increasing and streamlining labor market activity and the planned and effective management of the family budget. Strategies that were rejected were mainly related to debt creation. The results make it possible to identify the preferred ways of managing poverty in individual areas of life, as well as the factors that influence this behavior. This information is important for working with families living in a state of working poverty and can help professionals develop positive ways of coping for families.

Keywords: Copying strategies, family, in-work poverty, quantitative research.

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Authors: Zenaide Carvalho da Silva, Andrey Ricardo Pimentel, Leandro Rodrigues Ferreira

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Learning styles (LSs) correspond to the individual preferences of a person regarding the modes and forms in which he/she prefers to learn throughout the teaching/learning process. The content presentation of learning objects (LOs) using knowledge about the students’ LSs offers them digital educational resources tailored to their individual learning preferences. In this context, the most relevant characteristics of the LSs along with the most appropriate forms of LOs' content presentation were mapped and associated. Such was performed in order to define the composition of an adaptive model of LO's content presentation considering the LSs, which was called Adaptation of Content Presentation of Learning Objects Considering Learning Styles (ACPLOLS). LO prototypes were created with interfaces that were adapted to students' LSs. These prototypes were based on a model created for validation of the approaches that were used, which were established through experiments with the students. The results of subjective measures of students' emotional responses demonstrated that the ACPLOLS has reached the desired results in relation to the adequacy of the LOs interface, in accordance with the Felder-Silverman LSs Model.

Keywords: Adaptation, interface, learning styles, learning objects, students.

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Authors: Srisawas Siriporn, Rotchanakitumnuai Siriluck

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The study aims to develop a framework of social network management to enhance customer relationship. Social network management of this research is derived from social network site management, individual and organization social network usage motivation. The survey was conducted with organization employees who have used social network to interact with customers. The results reveal that content, link, privacy and security, page design and interactivity are the major issues of social network site management. Content, link, privacy and security, individual and organization motivation have major impacts on encouraging business knowledge sharing among employees. Moreover, Page design and interactivity, content, organization motivation and knowledge sharing can improve customer relationships.

Keywords: Social network management, social network site, motivation, knowledge sharing, customer relationship

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Authors: Chiung-Ju Huang

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This study utilizes the quantile regression analysis to examine the impact of governance (including democratic quality and technical quality) on happiness in 101 countries worldwide, classified as “developed countries” and “developing countries”. The empirical results show that the impact of democratic quality and technical quality on happiness is significantly positive for “developed countries”, while is insignificant for “developing countries”. The results suggest that the authorities in developed countries can enhance the level of individual happiness by means of improving the democracy quality and technical quality. However, for developing countries, promoting the quality of governance in order to enhance the level of happiness may not be effective. Policy makers in developed countries may pay more attention on increasing real GDP per capita instead of promoting the quality of governance to enhance individual happiness.

Keywords: Governance, happiness, multiple regression, quantile regression.

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Authors: Zhenhuan Zhu, David Mulvaney, Vassilios Chouliaras

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A new genetic algorithm, termed the 'optimum individual monogenetic genetic algorithm' (OIMGA), is presented whose properties have been deliberately designed to be well suited to hardware implementation. Specific design criteria were to ensure fast access to the individuals in the population, to keep the required silicon area for hardware implementation to a minimum and to incorporate flexibility in the structure for the targeting of a range of applications. The first two criteria are met by retaining only the current optimum individual, thereby guaranteeing a small memory requirement that can easily be stored in fast on-chip memory. Also, OIMGA can be easily reconfigured to allow the investigation of problems that normally warrant either large GA populations or individuals many genes in length. Local convergence is achieved in OIMGA by retaining elite individuals, while population diversity is ensured by continually searching for the best individuals in fresh regions of the search space. The results given in this paper demonstrate that both the performance of OIMGA and its convergence time are superior to those of a range of existing hardware GA implementations.

Keywords: Genetic algorithms, genetic hardware, machinelearning.

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Authors: DongHoon Shin, Yunmook Nah, HoSeong Kim, Gang Shin Lee, Jae-Il Lee

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The rapid advance of communication technology is evolving the network environment into the broadband convergence network. Likewise, the IT services operated in the individual network are also being quickly converged in the broadband convergence network environment. VoIP and IPTV are two examples of such new services. Efforts are being made to develop the video phone service, which is an advanced form of the voice-oriented VoIP service. However, the new IT services will be subject to stability and reliability vulnerabilities if the relevant security issues are not answered during the convergence of the existing IT services currently being operated in individual networks within the wider broadband network environment. To resolve such problems, this paper attempts to analyze the possible threats and identify the necessary security measures before the deployment of the new IT services. Furthermore, it measures the quality of the encryption algorithm application example to describe the appropriate algorithm in order to present security technology that will have no negative impact on the quality of the video phone service.

Keywords: BcN, Security Measures, Video Phone.

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Authors: Ganesan V.

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Application of Expert System in the area of agriculture would take the form of Integrated Crop Management decision aids and would encompass water management, fertilizer management, crop protection systems and identification of implements. In order to remain competitive, the modern farmer often relies on agricultural specialists and advisors to provide information for decision-making. An expert system normally composed of a knowledge base (information, heuristics, etc.), inference engine (analyzes knowledge base), and end user interface (accepting inputs, generating outputs). Software named 'CROP-9-DSS' incorporating all modern features like, graphics, photos, video clippings etc. has been developed. This package will aid as a decision support system for identification of pest and diseases with control measures, fertilizer recommendation system, water management system and identification of farm implements for leading crops of Kerala (India) namely Coconut, Rice, Cashew, Pepper, Banana, four vegetables like Amaranthus, Bhindi, Brinjal and Cucurbits. 'CROP-9-DSS' will act as an expert system to agricultural officers, scientists in the field of agriculture and extension workers for decision-making and help them in suggesting suitable recommendations.

Keywords: Diagnostic, inference engine, knowledge base and user interface.

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Authors: Z. Abdollahi Biron, P. Pisu

Abstract:

Connected vehicles are one of the promising technologies for future Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). A connected vehicle system is essentially a set of vehicles communicating through a network to exchange their information with each other and the infrastructure. Although this interconnection of the vehicles can be potentially beneficial in creating an efficient, sustainable, and green transportation system, a set of safety and reliability challenges come out with this technology. The first challenge arises from the information loss due to unreliable communication network which affects the control/management system of the individual vehicles and the overall system. Such scenario may lead to degraded or even unsafe operation which could be potentially catastrophic. Secondly, faulty sensors and actuators can affect the individual vehicle’s safe operation and in turn will create a potentially unsafe node in the vehicular network. Further, sending that faulty sensor information to other vehicles and failure in actuators may significantly affect the safe operation of the overall vehicular network. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to take these issues into consideration while designing the control/management algorithms of the individual vehicles as a part of connected vehicle system. In this paper, we consider a connected vehicle system under Co-operative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) and propose a fault diagnosis scheme that deals with these aforementioned challenges. Specifically, the conventional CACC algorithm is modified by adding a Kalman filter-based estimation algorithm to suppress the effect of lost information under unreliable network. Further, a sliding mode observer-based algorithm is used to improve the sensor reliability under faults. The effectiveness of the overall diagnostic scheme is verified via simulation studies.

Keywords: Fault diagnostics, communication network, connected vehicles, packet drop out, platoon.

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Authors: Kyoko Ito, Shinya Furuta, Daisuke Kamihigashi, Kimi Ueda, Hirotake Ishii, Hiroshi Shimoda, Fumiaki Obayashi, Kazuhiro Taniguchi

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In order to improve intellectual concentration, few studies have verified the effect of indoor airflow among the thermal environment conditions, and the differences of the season in effects have not been studied. In this study, in order to investigate the influence of the airflow in winter on the intellectual concentration, an evaluation experiment was conducted. In the previous study, an effective airflow in summer was proposed and the improvement of intellectual concentration by evaluation experiment was confirmed. Therefore, an airflow profile in winter was proposed with reference to the airflow profile in summer. The airflows are a combination of a simulative airflow and mild airflow. An experiment has been conducted to investigate the influence of a room airflow in winter on intellectual concentration. As a result of comparison with no airflow condition, no significant difference was found. Based on the results, it is a future task to ask preliminary preference in advance and to establish a mechanism that can provide controllable airflow for each individual, taking into account the preference for airflow to be different for each individual.

Keywords: Intellectual concentration, airflow, winter, experiment.

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Authors: Darwina Arshad, Paul Hughes

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Recent environmental turbulence including financial crisis, intensified competitive forces, rapid technological change and high market turbulence have dramatically changed the current business climate. The managers firms have to plan and decide what the best approaches that best fit their firms in order to pursue superior performance. This research aims to examine the influence of strategic reasoning and top level managers- individual characteristics on the effectiveness of organizational improvisation and firm performance. Given the lack of studies on these relationships in the previous literature, there is significant contribution to the body of knowledge as well as for managerial practices. 128 responses from top management of technology-based companies in Malaysia were used as a sample. Three hypotheses were examined and the findings confirm that (a) there is no relationship between intuitive reasoning and organizational improvisation but there is a link between rational reasoning and organizational improvisation, (b) top level managers- individual characteristics as a whole affect organizational improvisation; and (c) organizational improvisation positively affects firm performance. The theoretical and managerial implications were discussed in the conclusions.

Keywords: Organizational improvisation, strategic reasoning, firm performance.

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Authors: Saumyaranjan Sahoo, Sudhir Yadav

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Indian manufacturing firms operating in rapidly changing and highly competitive market, over the last few decades, have embraced organization-wide transformation to achieve cultural and operational excellence. In recent years, numerous approaches have been proposed to improve business and manufacturing performance. Lean practices in particular, Total Productive Management (TPM) and Total Quality Management (TQM) have received considerable attention, as they being adopted and adapted for raising the performance standard of Indian manufacturing firms to world class levels. The complementary nature of TPM and TQM is being practiced in many companies to achieve synergy. Specifically, this research investigates whether joint TPM-TQM implementation contribute to higher business performance when compared to individual implementation. Data from 160 manufacturing firms were analyzed that demonstrate synergetic implementation of both TPM-TQM practices over a reasonable period of time, contributed in delivering better business performance as compared to individual implementation strategy.

Keywords: Total productive management, total quality management, Indian manufacturing firms, business performance.

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Authors: Chimaobi Valentine Okolo, Chizoba Obidigbo

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As a basic physiology need, threat to sufficient food production is threat to human survival. Food security has been an issue that has gained global concern. This paper looks at the food security in Nigeria by assessing the availability of food and accessibility of the available food. The paper employed multiple linear regression technique and graphic trends of growth rates of relevant variables to show the situation of food security in Nigeria. Results of the tests revealed that population growth rate was higher than the growth rate of food availability in Nigeria for the earlier period of the study. Commercial bank credit to agricultural sector, foreign exchange utilization for food and the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF) contributed significantly to food availability in Nigeria. Food prices grew at a faster rate than the average income level, making it difficult to access sufficient food. It implies that prior to the year 2012; there was insufficient food to feed the Nigerian populace. However, continued credit to the food and agricultural sector will ensure sustained and sufficient production of food in Nigeria. Microfinance banks should make sufficient credit available to smallholder farmer. Government should further control and subsidize the rising price of food to make it more accessible by the people.

Keywords: Food security, food availability and food accessibility.

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Authors: N. Janjamraj, A. Oonsivilai

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This paper present the harmonic elimination of hybrid multilevel inverters (HMI) which could be increase the number of output voltage level. Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) is one of the most important requirements concerning performance indices. Because of many numbers output levels of HMI, it had numerous unknown variables of eliminate undesired individual harmonic and THD nonlinear equations set. Optimized harmonic stepped waveform (OHSW) is solving switching angles conventional method, but most complicated for solving as added level. The artificial intelligent techniques are deliberation to solve this problem. This paper presents the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique for solving switching angles to get minimum THD and eliminate undesired individual harmonics of 15-levels hybrid multilevel inverters. Consequently it had many variables and could eliminate numerous harmonics. Both advantages including high level of inverter and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) are used as powerful tools for harmonics elimination.

Keywords: Multilevel Inverters, Particle Swarms Optimization, Harmonic Elimination.

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Authors: Zulaiha Ali Othman, Helmi Md Rais, Abdul Razak Hamdan

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Ants are fascinating creatures that demonstrate the ability to find food and bring it back to their nest. Their ability as a colony, to find paths to food sources has inspired the development of algorithms known as Ant Colony Systems (ACS). The principle of cooperation forms the backbone of such algorithms, commonly used to find solutions to problems such as the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). Ants communicate to each other through chemical substances called pheromones. Modeling individual ants- ability to manipulate this substance can help an ACS find the best solution. This paper introduces a Dynamic Ant Colony System with threelevel updates (DACS3) that enhance an existing ACS. Experiments were conducted to observe single ant behavior in a colony of Malaysian House Red Ants. Such behavior was incorporated into the DACS3 algorithm. We benchmark the performance of DACS3 versus DACS on TSP instances ranging from 14 to 100 cities. The result shows that the DACS3 algorithm can achieve shorter distance in most cases and also performs considerably faster than DACS.

Keywords: Dynamic Ant Colony System (DACS), TravelingSalesmen Problem (TSP), Optimization, Swarm Intelligent.

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Authors: M. Sadeghi, H. Pezeshk, R. Tusserkani, A. Sharifi Zarchi, A. Malekpour, M. Foroughmand, S. Goliaei, M. Totonchi, N. Ansari–Pour

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The role and relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic factors in the development of complex diseases such as cancer still remains a controversial issue. Determining the amount of variation explained by these factors needs experimental data and statistical models. These models are nevertheless based on the occurrence and accumulation of random mutational events during stem cell division, thus rendering cancer development a stochastic outcome. We demonstrate that not only individual genome sequencing is uninformative in determining cancer risk, but also assigning a unique genome sequence to any given individual (healthy or affected) is not meaningful. Current whole-genome sequencing approaches are therefore unlikely to realize the promise of personalized medicine. In conclusion, since genome sequence differs from cell to cell and changes over time, it seems that determining the risk factor of complex diseases based on genome sequence is somewhat unrealistic, and therefore, the resulting data are likely to be inherently uninformative.

Keywords: Cancer risk, extrinsic factors, genome sequencing, intrinsic factors.

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Authors: Jude A. Mbanasor, Chigozirim N. Onwusiribe

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The enigma climate change is no longer an illusion but a reality. In the recent years, the Nigeria climate has changed and the changes are shown by the changing patterns of rainfall, the sunshine, increasing level carbon and nitrous emission as well as deforestation. This study analyzed the behavioural response of bee keepers to variations in the climate and the adaptation techniques developed in response to the climate variation. Beekeeping is a viable economic activity for the alleviation of poverty as the products include honey, wax, pollen, propolis, royal jelly, venom, queens, bees and their larvae and are all marketable. The study adopted the multistage sampling technique to select 120 beekeepers from the five states of Southeast Nigeria. Well-structured questionnaires and focus group discussions were adopted to collect the required data. Statistical tools like the Principal component analysis, data envelopment models, graphs, and charts were used for the data analysis. Changing patterns of rainfall and sunshine with the increasing rate of deforestation had a negative effect on the habitat of the bees. The bee keepers have adopted the Kenya Top bar and Langstroth hives and they establish the bee hives on fallow farmland close to the cultivated communal farms with more flowering crops.

Keywords: Climate, smart, smallholder, farmer, socioeconomic, response.

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Authors: Mohsen Masoomi, Fazel Asadi Amjad, Monireh Arvin

Abstract:

According to Naturalistic principles, human destiny in the form of blind chance and determinism, entraps the individual, so man is a defenceless creature unable to escape from the ruthless paws of a stoical universe. In Naturalism; nonetheless, melodrama mirrors a conscious alternative with a peculiar function. A typical American Naturalistic character thus cannot be a subject for social criticism of American society since they are not victims of the ongoing virtual slavery, capitalist system, nor of a ruined milieu, but of their own volition, and more importantly, their character frailty. Through a Postmodern viewpoint, each Naturalistic work can encompass some entropic trends and changes culminating in an entire failure and devastation. Frank Norris in McTeague displays the futile struggles of ordinary men and how they end up brutes. McTeague encompasses intoxication, abuse, violation, and ruthless homicides. Norris’ depictions of the falling individual as a demon represent the entropic dimension of Naturalistic novels. McTeague’s defeat is somewhat his own fault, the result of his own blunders and resolution, not the result of sheer accident. Throughout the novel, each character is a kind of insane quester indicating McTeague’s decadence and, by inference, the decadence of Western civilisation. McTeague seems to designate Norris’ solicitude for a community fabricated by the elements of human negative demeanours and conducts hauling acute symptoms of infectious dehumanisation. The aim of this article is to illustrate how one specific negative human disposition gradually, like a running fire, can spread everywhere and burn everything in itself. The author applies the concept of entropy metaphorically to describe the individual devolutions that necessarily comprise community entropy in McTeague, a dying universe.

Keywords: Animal imagery, entropy, Gypsy, melodrama.

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Authors: Yuni Suranindyah, Kustantinah, E. R. Ôêàrskov

Abstract:

The case study was conducted to show the effect of  milking method in goat called half day milking on the milk production and the growth of kids. Data were collected by  interviewing farmers and investigating goat production in the  communal goat housing from June 2008 to May 2009. The interview  was conducted to collect data about goat management. The  observations were conducted on 10 goats, which were selected based  on the uniformity of age, number of kid born/goat and the milking method in practice. The samples were divided into two groups; those  were full 3 months nursing and half day milked goats (in this group the kids were separated from goat during the previous night milking  and then the kids were allowed to suck the goat during the day). The result showed that the communal goat housing had 138 goats and 25% of the farmers milked the goat. The implementation of half day milking increased the milk production significantly (P<0.05) and it did not affect the kids’ growth. It was concluded that half day milking was beneficial to increase milk production. In the communal goat housing was possible to implement the result of this innovation to all members of the farmer group as a method in increasing goat milk production.

Keywords: Communal goat housing, milk production.

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Authors: Lambros V. Skarlas, Grigorios N. Beligiannis, Efstratios F. Georgopoulos, Adam V. Adamopoulos

Abstract:

The aim of this contribution is to present a new approach in modeling the electrical activity of the human heart. A recurrent artificial neural network is being used in order to exhibit a subset of the dynamics of the electrical behavior of the human heart. The proposed model can also be used, when integrated, as a diagnostic tool of the human heart system. What makes this approach unique is the fact that every model is being developed from physiological measurements of an individual. This kind of approach is very difficult to apply successfully in many modeling problems, because of the complexity and entropy of the free variables describing the complex system. Differences between the modeled variables and the variables of an individual, measured at specific moments, can be used for diagnostic purposes. The sensor fusion used in order to optimize the utilization of biomedical sensors is another point that this paper focuses on. Sensor fusion has been known for its advantages in applications such as control and diagnostics of mechanical and chemical processes.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Networks, Diagnostic System, Health Condition Modeling Tool, Heart Diagnostics Model, Heart Electricity Model.

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Authors: Oksana G. Cherednichenko, Anastasia L. Pilyugina, Sergey N.Lukashenko, Elena G. Gubitskaya

Abstract:

The estimation of accumulated radiation doses in people professionally exposed to ionizing radiation was performed using methods of biological (chromosomal aberrations frequency in lymphocytes) and physical (radionuclides analysis in urine, whole-body radiation meter, individual thermoluminescent dosimeters) dosimetry. A group of 84 "A" category employees after their work in the territory of former Semipalatinsk test site (Kazakhstan) was investigated. The dose rate in some funnels exceeds 40 μSv/h. After radionuclides determination in urine using radiochemical and WBC methods, it was shown that the total effective dose of personnel internal exposure did not exceed 0.2 mSv/year, while an acceptable dose limit for staff is 20 mSv/year. The range of external radiation doses measured with individual thermo-luminescent dosimeters was 0.3-1.406 µSv. The cytogenetic examination showed that chromosomal aberrations frequency in staff was 4.27±0.22%, which is significantly higher than at the people from non-polluting settlement Tausugur (0.87±0.1%) (р ≤ 0.01) and citizens of Almaty (1.6±0.12%) (р≤ 0.01). Chromosomal type aberrations accounted for 2.32±0.16%, 0.27±0.06% of which were dicentrics and centric rings. The cytogenetic analysis of different types group radiosensitivity among «professionals» (age, sex, ethnic group, epidemiological data) revealed no significant differences between the compared values. Using various techniques by frequency of dicentrics and centric rings, the average cumulative radiation dose for group was calculated, and that was 0.084-0.143 Gy. To perform comparative individual dosimetry using physical and biological methods of dose assessment, calibration curves (including own ones) and regression equations based on general frequency of chromosomal aberrations obtained after irradiation of blood samples by gamma-radiation with the dose rate of 0,1 Gy/min were used. Herewith, on the assumption of individual variation of chromosomal aberrations frequency (1–10%), the accumulated dose of radiation varied 0-0.3 Gy. The main problem in the interpretation of individual dosimetry results is reduced to different reaction of the objects to irradiation - radiosensitivity, which dictates the need of quantitative definition of this individual reaction and its consideration in the calculation of the received radiation dose. The entire examined contingent was assigned to a group based on the received dose and detected cytogenetic aberrations. Radiosensitive individuals, at the lowest received dose in a year, showed the highest frequency of chromosomal aberrations (5.72%). In opposite, radioresistant individuals showed the lowest frequency of chromosomal aberrations (2.8%). The cohort correlation according to the criterion of radio-sensitivity in our research was distributed as follows: radio-sensitive (26.2%) — medium radio-sensitivity (57.1%), radioresistant (16.7%). Herewith, the dispersion for radioresistant individuals is 2.3; for the group with medium radio-sensitivity — 3.3; and for radio-sensitive group — 9. These data indicate the highest variation of characteristic (reactions to radiation effect) in the group of radio-sensitive individuals. People with medium radio-sensitivity show significant long-term correlation (0.66; n=48, β ≥ 0.999) between the values of doses defined according to the results of cytogenetic analysis and dose of external radiation obtained with the help of thermoluminescent dosimeters. Mathematical models based on the type of violation of the radiation dose according to the professionals radiosensitivity level were offered.

Keywords: Biodosimetry, chromosomal aberrations, ionizing radiation, radiosensitivity.

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