Search results for: process developed data warehouse.

Authors: Mohamed Hafid, Marcel Lacroix

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This study aimed at developing an inverse heat transfer approach for predicting the time-varying freezing front and the temperature distribution of tumors during cryosurgery. Using a temperature probe pressed against the layer of tumor, the inverse approach is able to predict simultaneously the metabolic heat generation and the blood perfusion rate of the tumor. Once these parameters are predicted, the temperature-field and time-varying freezing fronts are determined with the direct model. The direct model rests on one-dimensional Pennes bioheat equation. The phase change problem is handled with the enthalpy method. The Levenberg-Marquardt Method (LMM) combined to the Broyden Method (BM) is used to solve the inverse model. The effect (a) of the thermal properties of the diseased tissues; (b) of the initial guesses for the unknown thermal properties; (c) of the data capture frequency; and (d) of the noise on the recorded temperatures is examined. It is shown that the proposed inverse approach remains accurate for all the cases investigated.

Keywords: Cryosurgery, inverse heat transfer, Levenberg-Marquardt method, thermal properties, Pennes model, enthalpy method.

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Authors: Chris K. Y. Lo, Andy C. L. Yeung, T. C. Edwin Cheng

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ISO 9000 is the most popular and widely adopted meta-standard for quality and operational improvements. However, only limited empirical research has been conducted to examine the impact of ISO 9000 on operational performance based on objective and longitudinal data. To reveal any causal relationship between the adoption of ISO 9000 and operational performance, we examined the timing and magnitude of change in time-based performance as a result of ISO 9000 adoption. We analyzed the changes in operating cycle, inventory days, and account receivable days prior and after the implementation of ISO 9000 in 695 publicly listed manufacturing firms. We found that ISO 9000 certified firms shortened their operating cycle time by 5.28 days one year after the implementation of ISO 9000. In the long-run (3 years after certification), certified firms showed continuous improvement in time-based efficiency, and experienced a shorter operating cycle time of 11 days than that of non-certified firms. There was an average of 6.5% improvement in operating cycle time for ISO 9000 certified firms. Both inventory days and account receivable days showed similar significant improvements after the implementation of ISO 9000, too.

Keywords: ISO 9000, Operating Cycle, Time-based efficiency.

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Authors: Young Gi Byun, Yong Huh, Kiyun Yu, Yong Il Kim

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Spatial outliers in remotely sensed imageries represent observed quantities showing unusual values compared to their neighbor pixel values. There have been various methods to detect the spatial outliers based on spatial autocorrelations in statistics and data mining. These methods may be applied in detecting forest fire pixels in the MODIS imageries from NASA-s AQUA satellite. This is because the forest fire detection can be referred to as finding spatial outliers using spatial variation of brightness temperature. This point is what distinguishes our approach from the traditional fire detection methods. In this paper, we propose a graph-based forest fire detection algorithm which is based on spatial outlier detection methods, and test the proposed algorithm to evaluate its applicability. For this the ordinary scatter plot and Moran-s scatter plot were used. In order to evaluate the proposed algorithm, the results were compared with the MODIS fire product provided by the NASA MODIS Science Team, which showed the possibility of the proposed algorithm in detecting the fire pixels.

Keywords: Spatial Outlier Detection, MODIS, Forest Fire

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Authors: Denise Levy, Anna Lucia C. H. Villavicencio

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Food irradiation is a processing and preservation technique to eliminate insects and parasites and reduce disease-causing microorganisms. Moreover, the process helps to inhibit sprouting and delay ripening, extending fresh fruits and vegetables shelf-life. Nevertheless, most Brazilian consumers seem to misunderstand the difference between irradiated food and radioactive food and the general public has major concerns about the negative health effects and environmental contamination. Society´s judgment and decision making are directly linked to perceived benefits and risks. The web-based project entitled ‘Scientific information about food irradiation: Internet as a tool to approach science and society’ was created by the Nuclear and Energetic Research Institute (IPEN), in order to offer an interdisciplinary approach to science education, integrating economic, ethical, social and political aspects of food irradiation. This project takes into account that, misinformation and unfounded preconceived ideas impact heavily on the acceptance of irradiated food and purchase intention by the Brazilian consumer. Taking advantage of the potential value of the Internet to enhance communication and education among general public, a research study was carried out regarding the possibilities and trends of Information and Communication Technologies among the Brazilian population. The content includes concepts, definitions and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about processes, safety, advantages, limitations and the possibilities of food irradiation, including health issues, as well as its impacts on the environment. The project counts on eight self-instructional interactive web courses, situating scientific content in relevant social contexts in order to encourage self-learning and further reflections. Communication is a must to improve public understanding of science. The use of information technology for quality scientific divulgation shall contribute greatly to provide information throughout the country, spreading information to as many people as possible, minimizing geographic distances and stimulating communication and development.

Keywords: Food irradiation, multimedia learning tools, nuclear science, society and education.

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Authors: Bandaris Shankar, Yohannes Yirga

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In this paper, the problem of heat and mass transfer in unsteady MHD boundary-layer flow of nanofluids over stretching sheet with a non uniform heat source/sink is considered. The unsteadiness in the flow and temperature is caused by the time-dependent stretching velocity and surface temperature. The unsteady boundary layer equations are transformed to a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations and solved numerically using Keller box method. The velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles were obtained and utilized to compute the skin-friction coefficient, local Nusselt number, and local Sherwood number for different values of the governing parameters viz. solid volume fraction parameter, unsteadiness parameter, magnetic field parameter, Schmidt number, space-dependent and temperature-dependent parameters for heat source/sink. A comparison of the numerical results of the present study with previously published data revealed an excellent agreement.

Keywords: Manetohydrodynamics, nanofluid, non-uniform heat source/sink, unsteady.

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Authors: I. Derek Kaka’an, P. Smolianov, S. Dion, C. Schoen, J. Norberg, C. G. Iortimah

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This study examines the current state of football in Nigeria to identify the country's practices, which could be useful internationally, and to determine areas for improvement. Over 200 sources of literature on sport delivery systems in successful sports nations were analyzed to construct a globally applicable model of elite football integrated with mass participation, comprising of the following three levels: macro (socio-economic, cultural, legislative, and organizational), meso (infrastructures, personnel, and services enabling sports programs) and micro level (operations, processes, and methodologies for the development of individual athletes). The model has received scholarly validation and has shown to be a framework for program analysis that is not culturally bound. It has recently been utilized for further understanding such sports systems as US rugby, tennis, soccer, swimming, and volleyball, as well as Dutch and Russian swimming. A questionnaire was developed using the above-mentioned model. Survey questions were validated by 12 experts including academicians, executives from sports governing bodies, football coaches, and administrators. To identify best practices and determine areas for improvement of football in Nigeria, 116 coaches completed the questionnaire. Useful exemplars and possible improvements were further identified through semi-structured discussions with 10 Nigerian football administrators and experts. Finally, a content analysis of the Nigeria Football Federation's website and organizational documentation was conducted. This paper focuses on the micro level of Nigerian football delivery, particularly talent search and development as well as advanced athlete preparation and support. Results suggested that Nigeria could share such progressive practices as the provision of football programs in all schools and full-time coaches paid by governments based on the level of coach education. Nigerian football administrators and coaches could provide better football services affordable for all, where success in mass and elite sports is guided by science focused on athletes' needs. Better implemented could be international best practices such as lifelong guidelines for health and excellence of everyone and integration of fitness tests into player development and ranking as done in best Dutch, English, French, Russian, Spanish, and other European clubs; integration of educational and competitive events for elite and developing athletes as well as fans as done at the 2018 World Cup Russia; and academies with multi-stage athlete nurturing as done by Ajax in Africa as well as Barcelona FC and other top clubs expanding across the world. The methodical integration of these practices into the balanced development of mass and elite football will help contribute to international sports success as well as national health, education, crime control, and social harmony in Nigeria.

Keywords: Football, high performance, mass participation, Nigeria, sport development.

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Authors: Muhanned Alfarras

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The recent growth of using multimedia transmission over wireless communication systems, have challenges to protect the data from lost due to wireless channel effect. Images are corrupted due to the noise and fading when transmitted over wireless channel, in wireless channel the image is transmitted block by block, Due to severe fading, entire image blocks can be damaged. The aim of this paper comes out from need to enhance the digital images at the wireless receiver side. Proposed Boundary Interpolation (BI) Algorithm using wavelet, have been adapted here used to reconstruction the lost block in the image at the receiver depend on the correlation between the lost block and its neighbors. New Proposed technique by using Boundary Interpolation (BI) Algorithm using wavelet with Pixel interleaver has been implemented. Pixel interleaver work on distribute the pixel to new pixel position of original image before transmitting the image. The block lost through wireless channel is only effects individual pixel. The lost pixels at the receiver side can be recovered by using Boundary Interpolation (BI) Algorithm using wavelet. The results showed that the New proposed algorithm boundary interpolation (BI) using wavelet with pixel interleaver is better in term of MSE and PSNR.

Keywords: Image Transmission, Wavelet, Pixel Interleaver, Boundary Interpolation Algorithm

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Authors: Wanghongshu Zhou

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This study aims to explore the relationship between the second language motivational self-system (L2MSS) and the willingness to communicate (WTC) among Chinese non-English major students in order to provide pedagogical implications for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms in Chinese universities. By employing a mixed methods approach, we involved 103 Chinese non-English major students from a typical university in China, conducted questionnaire survey to measure their levels of L2WTC and L2MSS level, and then analyzed the correlation between the two above mentioned variables. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants to provide a deeper understanding and explanation of the questionnaire data. Findings show that 1) Chinese non-English major students’ ideal L2 self and L2 learning experience could positively predict their L2 WTC in EFL class; 2) Chinese non-English major students’ ought-to L2 self might have no significant impact on their L2 WTC in EFL class; and 3) self-confidence might be another main factor that will influence Chinese non-English major students’ L2 WTC in EFL class. These findings might shed light on the second language acquisition field and provide pedagogical recommendations for pre-service as well as in-service EFL teachers.

Keywords: Chinese non-English major students, L2 Motivation, L2 willingness to communicate, self-confidence.

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Authors: Emad Alenany, M. Adel El-Baz

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In this paper, the flow of different classes of patients into a hospital is modelled and analyzed by using the queueing network analyzer (QNA) algorithm and discrete event simulation. Input data for QNA are the rate and variability parameters of the arrival and service times in addition to the number of servers in each facility. Patient flows mostly match real flow for a hospital in Egypt. Based on the analysis of the waiting times, two approaches are suggested for improving performance: Separating patients into service groups, and adopting different service policies for sequencing patients through hospital units. The separation of a specific group of patients, with higher performance target, to be served separately from the rest of patients requiring lower performance target, requires the same capacity while improves performance for the selected group of patients with higher target. Besides, it is shown that adopting the shortest processing time and shortest remaining processing time service policies among other tested policies would results in, respectively, 11.47% and 13.75% reduction in average waiting time relative to first come first served policy.

Keywords: Queueing network, discrete-event simulation, health applications, SPT.

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Authors: Paul Osmond

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This paper reports a new application of material accounting techniques to characterise and quantify material stocks and flows at the “neighbourhood" scale. The study area is the main campus of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The system boundary is defined by the urban structural unit (USU), a typological construct devised to facilitate assessment of the metabolism of urban systems. A streamlined material flow analysis (MFA) was applied to quantify the stocks and flows of key construction materials within the campus USU over time, drawing on empirical data from a major campus development project. The results are reviewed to assess the efficacy of the method in supporting urban environmental evaluation and design practice, for example to facilitate estimation of significant impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions. It is concluded that linking a service (in this case, teaching students) enabled by a given product (university buildings) to the amount of materials used in creating that product offers a potential way to reduce the environmental impact of that service, through more efficient use of materials.

Keywords: Construction materials, material flow analysis, urban metabolism, urban structural unit.

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Authors: Mert Tosun, Tuğba Tosun

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The evaporator is the utmost important component in the refrigeration system, since it enables the refrigerant to draw heat from the desired environment, i.e. the refrigerated space. Studies are being conducted on this component which generally affects the performance of the system, where energy efficient products are important. This study was designed to enhance the effectiveness of the evaporator in the refrigeration cycle of a domestic refrigerator by adjusting the capillary tube length, refrigerant amount, and the evaporator pipe diameter to reduce energy consumption. The experiments were conducted under identical thermal and ambient conditions. Experiment data were analysed using the Design of Experiment (DOE) technique which is a six-sigma method to determine effects of parameters. As a result, it has been determined that the most important parameters affecting the evaporator performance among the selected parameters are found to be the refrigerant amount and pipe diameter. It has been determined that the minimum energy consumption is 6-mm pipe diameter and 16-g refrigerant. It has also been noted that the overall consumption of the experiment sample decreased by 16.6% with respect to the reference system, which has 7-mm pipe diameter and 18-g refrigerant.

Keywords: Heat exchanger, refrigerator, design of experiment, energy consumption.

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Authors: Malathi Balakrishnan, Shabeshan Rengasamy, Mohd Salleh Aman

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The study investigated the effects of Teaching Games for Understanding approach on students ‘cognitive learning outcome. The study was a quasi-experimental non-equivalent pretest-posttest control group design whereby 10 year old primary school students (n=72) were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. The experimental group students were exposed with TGfU approach and the control group with the Traditional Skill approach of handball game. Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI) was used to measure students' tactical understanding and decision making in 3 versus 3 handball game situations. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze the data. The results reveal that there was a significant difference between the TGfU approach group and the traditional skill approach group students on post test score (F (1, 69) = 248.83, p < .05). The findings of this study suggested the importance of TGfU approach to improve primary students’ tactical understanding and decision making in handball game.

Keywords: Constructivism, learning outcome, tactical understanding, and Teaching Game for Understanding (TGfU)

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Authors: Saman Ghaffarian, Ilgın Gökasar

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This paper presents a new automatic vehicle detection method from very high resolution aerial images to measure traffic density. The proposed method starts by extracting road regions from image using road vector data. Then, the road image is divided into equal sections considering resolution of the images. Gradient vectors of the road image are computed from edge map of the corresponding image. Gradient vectors on the each boundary of the sections are divided where the gradient vectors significantly change their directions. Finally, number of vehicles in each section is carried out by calculating the standard deviation of the gradient vectors in each group and accepting the group as vehicle that has standard deviation above predefined threshold value. The proposed method was tested in four very high resolution aerial images acquired from Istanbul, Turkey which illustrate roads and vehicles with diverse characteristics. The results show the reliability of the proposed method in detecting vehicles by producing 86% overall F1 accuracy value.

Keywords: Aerial images, intelligent transportation systems, traffic density measurement, vehicle detection.

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Authors: Li Wu

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By using linear regression methodology to analyze the data of daily precipitation from 1961-2012, this paper studied the variation tendency of precipitation in Chenzhou. The outcome showed: (1) The annual precipitation was decreasing for 52 years and the difference of precipitation variation tendency among four seasons was remarkable. The precipitation of spring and autumn showed more remarkable decrease than of summer; but the precipitation of winter significantly increased. (2) The annual precipitation frequency tended to lower, which was consistent with the tendency of yearly variation. The seasonal precipitation frequency was greatly different, namely, precipitation frequency in spring and autumn decreased, co-occurring with the phenomenon of mutation; but the winter precipitation frequency increased notably. (3) The precipitation intensity displayed a tendency of increase, including spring, autumn and winter; among them, winter had the most obvious tendency to increase, and autumn had the most yearly variation. Summer was the only season with a tendency of decreasing in precipitation intensity. (4) Annual extreme precipitation tended to reduce, spring, summer and autumn are all included; whereas, winter extreme precipitation tended to increase at the rate of 0.1d/10a. (5) The daily maximum precipitation intensity increased slightly and it varied greatly.

Keywords: Chenzhou, precipitation variation, precipitation frequency, precipitation intensity.

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Authors: Weishou Shen, Dong Liu, Di Ji, Haoyun Shen, Naifeng Lin

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Based on the field investigation and long term remote sensing data, the dynamics of the alpine wetland in the river basin and their response to climate change were studied. Results showed the alpine wetlands accounted for 3.73% of total basin in 2010. Lake and river appeared an increasing trend in the past 30 years, with an increase of 34.36 % and 24.57%. However, swamp exhibited a tendency of decreasing with 233.74 km2. Annual average temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation in the river basin all exhibited an increasing trend, whereas relative humidity exhibited a decreasing trend. Ice and snow melting are main reasons of lake and river area enhancement and swamp area descend. There existed 91.78%-97.86% of reduced swamp converted into lakes on the basis of remote sensing image interpretation. China-s government policy of implementing development in the river basin is the major driving force of artificial wetland growth.

Keywords: alpine wetland dynamics, climate change, Yarlung Zangbo River basin

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Authors: A. Ince

Abstract:

In this paper, an analytical simplified method for calculating elasto-plastic stresses strains of notched bodies subject to non-proportional loading paths is discussed. The method was based on the Neuber notch correction, which relates the incremental elastic and elastic-plastic strain energy densities at the notch root and the material constitutive relationship. The validity of the method was presented by comparing computed results of the proposed model against finite element numerical data of notched shaft. The comparison showed that the model estimated notch-root elasto-plastic stresses strains with good accuracy using linear-elastic stresses. The prosed model provides more efficient and simple analysis method preferable to expensive experimental component tests and more complex and time consuming incremental non-linear FE analysis. The model is particularly suitable to perform fatigue life and fatigue damage estimates of notched components subjected to nonproportional loading paths.

Keywords: Elasto-plastic, stress-strain, notch analysis, nonprortional loadings, cyclic plasticity, fatigue.

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Authors: Norhanim Nordin, Rosnah Shamsudin, Azrina Azlan, Mohammad Effendy Ya’acob

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An environmental friendly approach for disposal of voluminous durian husk waste could be implemented by substituting them into various valuable commodities, such as healthcare and biofuel products. Thus, the study of composition value in each segment of durian husk was very crucial to determine the suitable proportions of nutrients that need to be added and mixed in the product. A total of 12 ‘Durian Kampung’ fruits from Sg Ruan, Pahang were selected and each fruit husk was divided into four segments and labelled as P-L (thin neck area of white inner husk), P-B (thick bottom area of white inner husk), H (green and thorny outer husk) and W (whole combination of P-B and H). Four experiments have been carried out to determine the dry matter, moisture, ash and crude fibre content. The results show that the H segment has the highest dry matter content (30.47%), while the P-B segment has the highest percentage in moisture (81.83%) and ash (6.95%) content. It was calculated that the ash content of the P-B segment has a higher rate of moisture level which causes the ash content to increase about 2.89% from the P-L segment. These data have proven that each segment of durian husk has a significant difference in terms of composition value, which might be useful information to fully utilize every part of the durian husk in the future.

Keywords: Durian husk, crude fibre content, dry matter content, moisture content.

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Authors: Seifollah Bahramikia

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Amyloid aggregation of polypeptides is related to a growing number of pathologic states known as amyloid disorders. In recent years, blocking or reversing amyloid aggregation via the use of small compounds are considered as two useful approaches in hampering the development of these diseases. In this research, we have compared the ability of several manganese-salen derivatives, as synthetic compounds, and apigenin, as a natural flavonoid, to inhibit of hen egg-white lysozyme (HEWL) aggregation, as an in vitro model system. Different spectroscopic analyses such as Thioflavin T (ThT) and Anilinonaphthalene-8-sulfonic acid (ANS) fluorescence, Congo red (CR) absorbance along with transmission electron microscopy were used in this work to monitor the HEWL aggregation kinetic and inhibition. Our results demonstrated that both type of compounds were capable to prevent the formation of lysozyme amyloid aggregation in vitro. In addition, our data indicated that synthetic compounds had higher activity to inhibit of the β-sheet structures relative to natural compound. Regarding the higher antioxidant activities of the salen derivatives, it can be concluded that in addition to aromatic rings of each of the compounds, the potent antioxidant properties of salen derivatives contributes to lower lysozyme fibril accumulation.

Keywords: Aggregation, anti-amyloidogenic, apigenin, hen egg white lysozyme, salen derivatives.

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Authors: Li Li, Kai-Hsuan Chu

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It is well known that the real estate price depends on a lot of factors. Each house current value is dependent on the location, room number, transportation, living convenience, year and surrounding environments. Although, there are different experienced models for housing agent to estimate the price, it is a case by case study without overall dynamic variation investigation. However, many economic parameters may more or less influence the real estate price variation. Here, the influences of most macroeconomic parameters on real estate price are investigated individually based on least-square scheme and grey correlation strategy. Then those parameters are classified into leading indices, simultaneous indices and laggard indices. In addition, the leading time period is evaluated based on least square method. The important leading and simultaneous indices can be used to establish an artificial intelligent neural network model for real estate price variation prediction. The real estate price variation of Taipei, Taiwan during 2005 ~ 2017 are chosen for this research data analysis and validation. The results show that the proposed method has reasonable prediction function for real estate business reference.

Keywords: Real estate price, least-square, grey correlation, macroeconomics.

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Authors: M. Siosemarde, M. Byzedi

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Saturated hydraulic conductivity of Soil is an important property in processes involving water and solute flow in soils. Saturated hydraulic conductivity of soil is difficult to measure and can be highly variable, requiring a large number of replicate samples. In this study, 60 sets of soil samples were collected at Saqhez region of Kurdistan province-IRAN. The statistics such as Correlation Coefficient (R), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Bias Error (MBE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) were used to evaluation the multiple linear regression models varied with number of dataset. In this study the multiple linear regression models were evaluated when only percentage of sand, silt, and clay content (SSC) were used as inputs, and when SSC and bulk density, Bd, (SSC+Bd) were used as inputs. The R, RMSE, MBE and MAE values of the 50 dataset for method (SSC), were calculated 0.925, 15.29, -1.03 and 12.51 and for method (SSC+Bd), were calculated 0.927, 15.28,-1.11 and 12.92, respectively, for relationship obtained from multiple linear regressions on data. Also the R, RMSE, MBE and MAE values of the 10 dataset for method (SSC), were calculated 0.725, 19.62, - 9.87 and 18.91 and for method (SSC+Bd), were calculated 0.618, 24.69, -17.37 and 22.16, respectively, which shows when number of dataset increase, precision of estimated saturated hydraulic conductivity, increases.

Keywords: dataset, precision, saturated hydraulic conductivity, soil and statistics.

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Authors: V. V. Singh, Yusuf Ibrahim Gwanda, Rajesh Prasad

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In this paper, we focus on the reliability and performance analysis of Computer Centre (CC) at Yobe State University, Damaturu, Nigeria. The CC consists of three servers: one database mail server, one redundant and one for sharing with the client computers in the CC (called as a local server). Observing the different possibilities of the functioning of the CC, the analysis has been done to evaluate the various popular measures of reliability such as availability, reliability, mean time to failure (MTTF), profit analysis due to the operation of the system. The system can ultimately fail due to the failure of router, redundant server before repairing the mail server and switch failure. The system can also partially fail when a local server fails. The failed devices have restored according to Least Recently Used (LRU) techniques. The system can also fail entirely due to a cooling failure of the server, electricity failure or some natural calamity like earthquake, fire tsunami, etc. All the failure rates are assumed to be constant and follow exponential time distribution, while the repair follows two types of distributions: i.e. general and Gumbel-Hougaard family copula distribution.

Keywords: Reliability, availability Gumbel-Hougaard family copula, MTTF, internet data center.

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Authors: M. R. Mustafa, M. H. Isa, R. B. Rezaur

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The use of artificial neural network (ANN) modeling for prediction and forecasting variables in water resources engineering are being increasing rapidly. Infrastructural applications of ANN in terms of selection of inputs, architecture of networks, training algorithms, and selection of training parameters in different types of neural networks used in water resources engineering have been reported. ANN modeling conducted for water resources engineering variables (river sediment and discharge) published in high impact journals since 2002 to 2011 have been examined and presented in this review. ANN is a vigorous technique to develop immense relationship between the input and output variables, and able to extract complex behavior between the water resources variables such as river sediment and discharge. It can produce robust prediction results for many of the water resources engineering problems by appropriate learning from a set of examples. It is important to have a good understanding of the input and output variables from a statistical analysis of the data before network modeling, which can facilitate to design an efficient network. An appropriate training based ANN model is able to adopt the physical understanding between the variables and may generate more effective results than conventional prediction techniques.

Keywords: ANN, discharge, modeling, prediction, sediment,

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Authors: Prasansha Kumari

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This paper intends to identify and analyze customer adoption and attitudes towards mobile banking facilities. The study uses six perceived characteristics of innovation that can be used to form a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward an innovation, namely: Relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trailability, risk, and observability. Collected data were analyzed using Pearson Chi-Square test. The results showed that mobile bank users were predominantly males. There is a growing trend among young, educated customers towards converting to mobile banking in Sri Lanka. The research outcomes suggested that all the six factors are statistically highly significant in influencing mobile banking adoption and attitude formation towards mobile banking in Sri Lanka. The major reasons for adopting mobile banking services are the accessibility and availability of services regardless of time and place. Over the 75 percent of the respondents mentioned that savings in time and effort and low financial costs of conducting mobile banking were advantageous. Issue of security was found to be the most important factor that motivated consumer adoption and attitude formation towards mobile banking. Main barriers to mobile banking were the lack of technological skills, the traditional cash‐carry banking culture, and the lack of awareness and insufficient guidance to using mobile banking.

Keywords: Compatibility, complexity, mobile banking, risk.

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Authors: Arkal Vittal Hegde, L. Ravikiran

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The paper presents the results of a series of experiments conducted on physical models of Quarter-circle breakwater (QBW) in a two dimensional monochromatic wave flume. The purpose of the experiments was to evaluate the reflection coefficient Kr of QBW models of different radii (R) for different submergence ratios (d/hc), where d is the depth of water and hc is the height of the breakwater crest from the sea bed. The radii of the breakwater models studied were 20cm, 22.5cm, 25cm, 27.5cm and submergence ratios used varied from 1.067 to 1.667. The wave climate off the Mangalore coast was used for arriving at the various model wave parameters. The incident wave heights (Hi) used in the flume varied from 3 to 18cm, and wave periods (T) ranged from 1.2 s to 2.2 s. The water depths (d) of 40cm, 45cm and 50cm were used in the experiments. The data collected was analyzed to compute variation of reflection coefficient Kr=Hr/Hi (where Hr=reflected wave height) with the wave steepness Hi/gT2 for various R/Hi (R=breakwater radius) values. It was found that the reflection coefficient increased as incident wave steepness increased. Also as wave height decreases reflection coefficient decreases and as structure radius R increased Kr decreased slightly.

Keywords: Incident wave steepness, Quarter-circle breakwater, Reflection coefficient, Submergence ratio.

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Authors: M. Okan Tasar

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Basel III (or the Third Basel Accord) is a global regulatory standard on bank capital adequacy, stress testing and market liquidity risk agreed upon by the members of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in 2010-2011, and scheduled to be introduced from 2013 until 2018. Basel III is a comprehensive set of reform measures. These measures aim to; (1) improve the banking sector-s ability to absorb shocks arising from financial and economic stress, whatever the source, (2) improve risk management and governance, (3) strengthen banks- transparency and disclosures. Similarly the reform target; (1) bank level or micro-prudential, regulation, which will help raise the resilience of individual banking institutions to periods of stress. (2) Macro-prudential regulations, system wide risk that can build up across the banking sector as well as the pro-cyclical implication of these risks over time. These two approaches to supervision are complementary as greater resilience at the individual bank level reduces the risk system wide shocks. Macroeconomic impact of Basel III; OECD estimates that the medium-term impact of Basel III implementation on GDP growth is in the range -0,05 percent to -0,15 percent per year. On the other hand economic output is mainly affected by an increase in bank lending spreads as banks pass a rise in banking funding costs, due to higher capital requirements, to their customers. Consequently the estimated effects on GDP growth assume no active response from monetary policy. Basel III impact on economic output could be offset by a reduction (or delayed increase) in monetary policy rates by about 30 to 80 basis points. The aim of this paper is to create a framework based on the recent regulations in order to prevent financial crises. Thus the need to overcome the global financial crisis will contribute to financial crises that may occur in the future periods. In the first part of the paper, the effects of the global crisis on the banking system examine the concept of financial regulations. In the second part; especially in the financial regulations and Basel III are analyzed. The last section in this paper explored the possible consequences of the macroeconomic impacts of Basel III.

Keywords: Banking Systems, Basel III, Financial regulation, Global Financial Crisis.

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Authors: Fauziah Sulaiman, Nurhayati Abdullah, Balbir Singh Mahinder Singh

Abstract:

In recent years Malaysia has included renewable energy as an alternative fuel to help in diversifying the country-s energy reliance on oil, natural gas, coal and hydropower with biomass and solar energy gaining priority. The scope of this paper is to look at the designing procedures and analysis of a solar thermal parabolic trough concentrator by simulation utilizing meteorological data in several parts of Malaysia. Parameters which include the aperture area, the diameter of the receiver and the working fluid may be varied to optimize the design. Aperture area is determined by considering the width and the length of the concentrator whereas the geometric concentration ratio (CR) is obtained by considering the width and diameter of the receiver. Three types of working fluid are investigated. Theoretically, concentration ratios can be very high in the range of 10 to 40 000 depending on the optical elements used and continuous tracking of the sun. However, a thorough analysis is essential as discussed in this paper where optical precision and thermal analysis must be carried out to evaluate the performance of the parabolic trough concentrator as the theoretical CR is not the only factor that should be considered.

Keywords: Parabolic trough concentrator, Concentration ratio, Intercept factor, Efficiency.

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Authors: Seo-Hee Kim, Kee-Won Kim, Seung-Hoon Kim

Abstract:

The most important elements of a novel are the characters, events and background. The background represents the time, place and situation that character appears, and conveys event and atmosphere more realistically. If readers have the proper knowledge about background of novels, it may be helpful for understanding the atmosphere of a novel and choosing a novel that readers want to read. In this paper, we are targeting Korean historical novels because spatio-temporal background especially performs an important role in historical novels among the genre of Korean novels. To the best of our knowledge, we could not find previous study that was aimed at Korean novels. In this paper, we build a Korean historical national dictionary. Our dictionary has historical places and temple names of kings over many generations as well as currently existing spatial words or temporal words in Korean history. We also present a method for recognizing spatio-temporal background based on patterns of phrasal words in Korean sentences. Our rules utilize postposition for spatial background recognition and temple names for temporal background recognition. The knowledge of the recognized background can help readers to understand the flow of events and atmosphere, and can use to visualize the elements of novels.

Keywords: Data mining, Korean historical novels, Korean linguistic feature, spatio-temporal background.

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Authors: Sagaren Pillay

Abstract:

In this paper bi-annual time series data on unemployment rates (from the Labour Force Survey) are expanded to quarterly rates and linked to quarterly unemployment rates (from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey). The resultant linked series and the consumer price index (CPI) series are examined using Johansen’s cointegration approach and vector error correction modeling. The study finds that both the series are integrated of order one and are cointegrated. A statistically significant co-integrating relationship is found to exist between the time series of unemployment rates and the CPI. Given this significant relationship, the study models this relationship using Vector Error Correction Models (VECM), one with a restriction on the deterministic term and the other with no restriction.

A formal statistical confirmation of the existence of a unique linear and lagged relationship between inflation and unemployment for the period between September 2000 and June 2011 is presented. For the given period, the CPI was found to be an unbiased predictor of the unemployment rate. This relationship can be explored further for the development of appropriate forecasting models incorporating other study variables.

Keywords: Forecasting, lagged, linear, relationship.

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Authors: C. Ardil

Abstract:

This paper proposes entropic programming for the freighter aircraft selection problem using the multiple criteria decision analysis method. The study aims to propose a systematic and comprehensive framework by focusing on the perspective of freighter aircraft selection. In order to achieve this goal, an integrated entropic programming approach was proposed to evaluate and rank alternatives. The decision criteria and aircraft alternatives were identified from the research data analysis. The objective criteria weights were determined by the mean weight method and the standard deviation method. The proposed entropic programming model was applied to a practical decision problem for evaluating and selecting freighter aircraft. The proposed entropic programming technique gives robust, reliable, and efficient results in modeling decision making analysis problems. As a result of entropic programming analysis, Boeing B747-8F, a freighter aircraft alternative ( a3), was chosen as the most suitable freighter aircraft candidate.   

Keywords: entropic programming, additive weighted model, multiple criteria decision making analysis, MCDMA, TOPSIS, aircraft selection, freighter aircraft, Boeing B747-8F, Boeing B777F, Airbus A350F

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Authors: Norazah Mohd Suki, Norbayah Mohd Suki

Abstract:

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

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

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