Search results for: types of physical activities.

Authors: B. Kettana

Abstract:

Nowadays, financial and economic crises are growing more and reach more countries and sectors. These events have, as a result, a considerable impact on the activities of the firms which think unstable and in danger. But besides this heavy uncertainty which weighs on the different firms, the family firm, object of our research, is not only confronted with these external difficulties but also with an internal challenge and of size: that of transmission. Indeed, the transmission of an organization from one generation to another can succeed as it can fail; leaving considerable damage. Our research registers as part of these problems since we tried to understand relation between the behavior of two main actors of the process of succession, predecessor and successor; and the success of transmission.

Keywords: Family business, transmission, success, predecessor, successor.

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Authors: Said Hadjerrouit

Abstract:

Wikis are considered to be part of Web 2.0 technologies that potentially support collaborative learning and writing. Wikis provide opportunities for multiple users to work on the same document simultaneously. Most wikis have also a page for written group discussion. Nevertheless, wikis may be used in different ways depending on the pedagogy being used, and the constraints imposed by the course design. This work explores students- uses of wiki in teacher education. The analysis is based on a taxonomy for classifying students- activities and actions carried out on the wiki. The article also discusses the implications for using wikis as collaborative writing tools in teacher education.

Keywords: Behaviorism, collaborative writing, socioconstructivism, taxonomy, web 2.0 technology, wiki

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Authors: Pingping Lin, Xudong Luo

Abstract:

Natural language often conveys emotions of speakers. Therefore, sentiment analysis on what people say is prevalent in the field of natural language process and has great application value in many practical problems. Thus, to help people understand its application value, in this paper, we survey various applications of sentiment analysis, including the ones in online business and offline business as well as other types of its applications. In particular, we give some application examples in intelligent customer service systems in China. Besides, we compare the applications of sentiment analysis on Twitter, Weibo, Taobao and Facebook, and discuss some challenges. Finally, we point out the challenges faced in the applications of sentiment analysis and the work that is worth being studied in the future.

Keywords: Natural language processing, sentiment analysis, application, online comments.

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Authors: M. Ahmad, M. Gourgand, C. Caux

Abstract:

The Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) is concerned with single-item or small batch production where limited resources have to be allocated to dependent activities over time. Over the past few decades, a lot of work has been made with the use of optimal solution procedures for this basic problem type and its extensions. Brucker and Knust[1] discuss, how timetabling problems can be modeled as a RCPSP. Authors discuss high school timetabling and university course timetabling problem as an example. We have formulated two mathematical formulations of course timetabling problem in a new way which are the prototype of single-mode RCPSP. Our focus is to show, how course timetabling problem can be transformed into RCPSP. We solve this transformation model with genetic algorithm.

Keywords: Course Timetabling, Integer programming, Combinatorial optimizations

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Authors: Joanna Błach, Anna Doś, Maria Gorczyńska, Monika Wieczorek-Kosmala

Abstract:

Financial innovations can be regarded as the cause and the effect of the evolution of the financial system. Most of financial innovations are created by various financial institutions for their own purposes and needs. However, due to their diversity, financial innovations can be also applied by various business entities (other than financial institutions). This paper focuses on the potential application of financial innovations by non-financial companies. It is assumed that financial innovations may be effectively applied in all fields of corporate financial decisions integrating financial management with the risk management process. Appropriate application of financial innovations may enhance the development of the company and increase its value by improving its financial situation and reducing the level of risk. On the other hand, misused financial innovations may become the source of extra risk for the company threatening its further operation. The main objective of the paper is to identify the major types of financial innovations offered to non-financial companies by the banking system in Poland. It also aims at identifying the main factors determining the creation of financial innovations in the banking system in Poland and indicating future directions of their development. This paper consists of conceptual and empirical part. Conceptual part based on theoretical study is focused on the determinants of the process of financial innovations and their application by the nonfinancial companies. Theoretical study is followed by the empirical research based on the analysis of the actual offer of the 20 biggest banks operating in Poland with regard to financial innovations offered to SMEs and large corporations. These innovations are classified according to the main functions of the integrated financial management, such as financing, investment, working capital management and risk management. Empirical study has proved that the biggest banks operating in the Polish market offer to their business customers many types and classes of financial innovations. This offer appears vast and adequate to the needs and purposes of the Polish non-financial companies. It was observed that financial innovations pertained to financing decisions dominate in the banks’ offer. However, due to high diversification of the offered financial innovations, business customers may effectively apply them in all fields and areas of integrated financial management. It should be underlined, that the banks’ offer is highly dispersed, which may limit the implementation of financial innovations in the corporate finance. It would be also recommended for the banks operating in the Polish market to intensify the education campaign aiming at increasing knowledge about financial innovations among business customers.

Keywords: Banking products and services, banking sector in Poland, corporate financial management, financial innovations, theory of innovation.

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Authors: Jaroslav Polec, Martin Šimek, Michal Martinovič, Elena Šikudová

Abstract:

The television multiplex has reserved capacity and therefore we can use only limited number of videos for propagation of it. Appropriate composition of the multiplex has a major impact on how many videos is spread by multiplex. Therefore in this paper is designed a simple algorithm to optimize capacity utilization multiplex. Significant impact on the number of programs in the multiplex has also the fact from which programs is composed. Content of multiplex can be movies, news, sport, animated stories, documentaries, etc. These types have their own specific characteristics that affect their resulting data stream. In this paper is also done an impact analysis of the composition of the multiplex to use its capacity by video content. 

Keywords: Multiplex, content, group of pictures, frame, capacity.

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Authors: Sadovska V.

Abstract:

The progress of concentrations of particular heavy metals was assessed in chosen localities in region Moravia, the Czech Republic, from 2007 to 2009. Particular metals were observed in localities with various types and characterization of zone. Pb, Ni, As and Cd were emphasized as a result of their toxicity and potential adverse health effect to the exposed population. The progress of metal concentrations and their health effects in the most polluted localities were examined. According to the results, the air pollution limit values were not exceeded. Based on the health risk assessment, the probability of developing tumorous diseases is acceptable, except for the increased probability of cancer risk from long-term exposure to As.

Keywords: Air pollution, heavy metals, health risk assessment, individual lifetime cancer risk

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Authors: Pavel Losak, Tomas Letal, Radek Nejezchleb

Abstract:

Tubular process equipment is often damaged in industrial processes. The damage occurs both on devices working at high temperatures and also on less exposed devices. In case of sudden damage of key equipment a shutdown of the whole production unit and resulting significant economic losses are imminent. This paper presents a solution of several types of tubular process equipment. The causes of damage and suggestions of correction actions are discussed in all cases. Very important part is the analysis of operational conditions, determination of unfavourable working states decreasing lifetime of devices and suggestions of correction actions. Lately very popular numerical methods are used for analysis of the equipment.

Keywords: creep, damage, fatigue, FEM, FSI, lifetime, tubular equipment

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Authors: Sharul S. Dol, U. Azimov, Robert J. Martinuzzi

Abstract:

Turbulence studies were made in the wake of a rotating circular cylinder in a uniform free stream. The interest was to examine the turbulence properties at the suppression of periodicity in vortex formation process. An experimental study of the turbulent near wake of a rotating circular cylinder was made at a Reynolds number of 9000 for velocity ratios, λ between 0 and 2.7. Hot-wire anemometry and particle image velocimetry results indicate that the rotation of the cylinder causes significant changes in the vortical activities. The turbulence quantities are getting smaller as λ increases due to suppression of coherent vortex structures.

Keywords: Rotating circular cylinder, Reynolds stress, vortex.

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Authors: A. Darvizeh, H. Rajabi, S. Fatahtooei Nejad, A. Khaheshi, P. Haghdoust

Abstract:

In this article, biomechanical aspects of hen-s eggshell as a natural ceramic structure are studied. The images, taken by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), are used to investigate the microscopic aspects of the egg. It is observed that eggshell has a three-layered microstructure with different morphological and structural characteristics. Studies on the eggshell membrane (ESM) as a prosperous tissue suggest that it is placed to prevent the penetration of microorganisms into the egg. Finally, numerical models of the egg are presented to study the stress distribution and its deformation under different loading conditions. The effects of two different types of loading (hydrostatic and point loadings) on two different shell models (with constant and variable thicknesses) are investigated in detail.

Keywords: Eggshell, biomechanical properties, Scanning electron microscope, Numerical Modeling.

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Authors: Marjan Mansourvar, Norizan Mohd Yasin

Abstract:

The development of Web has affected different aspects of our lives, such as communication, sharing knowledge, searching for jobs, social activities, etc. The web portal as a gateway in the World Wide Web is a starting point for people who are connecting to the Internet. The web portal as the type of knowledge management system provides a rich space to share and search information as well as communication services like free email or content provision for the users. This research aims to discover the university needs to the web portal as a necessary tool for students in the universities to help them in getting the required information. A survey was conducted to gather students' requirements which can be incorporated in to portal to be developed.

Keywords: Knowledge, Knowledge management system, Knowledge sharing, web portal.

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Authors: Shegufta Zahan, Muhammad A. Zahin, Muhammad M. Hossain, Raquib Ahsan

Abstract:

Rice Husk Ash (RHA) is one of the agricultural waste byproducts available widely in the world and contains a large amount of silica. In Bangladesh, stones cannot be used as coarse aggregate in infrastructure works as they are not available and need to be imported from abroad. As a result, bricks are mostly used as coarse aggregates in concrete as they are cheaper and easily produced here. Clay is the raw material for producing brick. Due to rapid urban growth and the industrial revolution, demand for brick is increasing, which led to a decrease in the topsoil. This study aims to produce lightweight block aggregates with sufficient strength utilizing RHA at low cost and use them as an ingredient of concrete. RHA, because of its pozzolanic behavior, can be utilized to produce better quality block aggregates at lower cost, replacing clay content in the bricks. The whole study can be divided into three parts. In the first part, characterization tests on RHA and clay were performed to determine their properties. Six different types of RHA from different mills were characterized by XRD and SEM analysis. Their fineness was determined by conducting a fineness test. The result of XRD confirmed the amorphous state of RHA. The characterization test for clay identifies the sample as “silty clay” with a specific gravity of 2.59 and 14% optimum moisture content. In the second part, blocks were produced with six different types of RHA with different combinations by volume with clay. Then mixtures were manually compacted in molds before subjecting them to oven drying at 120 °C for 7 days. After that, dried blocks were placed in a furnace at 1200 °C to produce ultimate blocks. Loss on ignition test, apparent density test, crushing strength test, efflorescence test, and absorption test were conducted on the blocks to compare their performance with the bricks. For 40% of RHA, the crushing strength result was found 60 MPa, where crushing strength for brick was observed 48.1 MPa. In the third part, the crushed blocks were used as coarse aggregate in concrete cylinders and compared them with brick concrete cylinders. Specimens were cured for 7 days and 28 days. The highest compressive strength of block cylinders for 7 days curing was calculated as 26.1 MPa, whereas, for 28 days curing, it was found 34 MPa. On the other hand, for brick cylinders, the value of compressing strength of 7 days and 28 days curing was observed as 20 MPa and 30 MPa, respectively. These research findings can help with the increasing demand for topsoil of the earth, and also turn a waste product into a valuable one.

Keywords: Characterization, furnace, pozzolanic behavior, rice husk ash.

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Authors: Irena Markovska, Dimitar Rusev, Nikolai Zaicev, Bogdan Bogdanov, Dimitar Georgiev, Yancho Hristov

Abstract:

A prototype model of an emulsion separator was designed and manufactured. Generally, it is a cylinder filled with different fractal modules. The emulsion was fed into the reactor by a peristaltic pump through an inlet placed at the boundary between the two phases. For hydrodynamic design and sizing of the reactor the assumptions of the theory of filtration were used and methods to describe the separation process were developed. Based on this methodology and using numerical methods and software of Autodesk the process is simulated in different operating modes. The basic hydrodynamic characteristics - speed and performance for different types of fractal systems and decisions to optimize the design of the reactor were also defined.

Keywords: fractal systems, reactor, separation, emulsions

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Authors: M. Khouil, N. Saber, M. Mestari

Abstract:

In this paper, a different architecture of a collision detection neural network (DCNN) is developed. This network, which has been particularly reviewed, has enabled us to solve with a new approach the problem of collision detection between two convex polyhedra in a fixed time (O (1) time). We used two types of neurons, linear and threshold logic, which simplified the actual implementation of all the networks proposed. The study of the collision detection is divided into two sections, the collision between a point and a polyhedron and then the collision between two convex polyhedra. The aim of this research is to determine through the AMAXNET network a mini maximum point in a fixed time, which allows us to detect the presence of a potential collision.

Keywords: Collision identification, fixed time, convex polyhedra, neural network, AMAXNET.

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Authors: Mehdi Salami-Kalajahi, Pejman Ganjeh-Anzabi, Vahid Haddadi-Asl, Mohammad Najafi

Abstract:

In the following text, we show that by introducing universal kinetic scheme, the origin of rate retardation and inhibition period which observed in dithiobenzoate-mediated RAFT polymerization can be described properly. We develop our model by utilizing the method of moments, then we apply our model to different monomer/RAFT agent systems, both homo- and copolymerization. The modeling results are in an excellent agreement with experiments and imply the validity of universal kinetic scheme, not only for dithiobenzoate-mediated systems, but also for different types of monomer/RAFT agent ones.

Keywords: RAFT Polymerization, Mechanism, Kinetics, Moment Equations, Modeling.

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Authors: Sangsuree Vasupongayya

Abstract:

To provide a better understanding of fair share policies supported by current production schedulers and their impact on scheduling performance, A relative fair share policy supported in four well-known production job schedulers is evaluated in this study. The experimental results show that fair share indeed reduces heavy-demand users from dominating the system resources. However, the detailed per-user performance analysis show that some types of users may suffer unfairness under fair share, possibly due to priority mechanisms used by the current production schedulers. These users typically are not heavy-demands users but they have mixture of jobs that do not spread out.

Keywords: Fair share, Parallel job scheduler, Backfill, Measures

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Authors: Elham Shirvani-Ghadikolaei

Abstract:

In this paper, we examine the connection between the human mind and body within the framework of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. We study the role of this connection in designing more efficient learning environments, alongside the findings in physical recognition and educational neuroscience. Our research shows the interplay between the mind and the body in the external world and discusses its implications. Based on these observations, we make suggestions as to how the educational system can benefit from taking into account the interaction between the mind and the body in educational affairs.

Keywords: Educational neurosciences, embodied cognition, pedagogical neurosciences, phenomenology.

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Authors: M.H.Aziz, Erik L.J.Bohez, Manukid Parnichkun, Chanchal Saha

Abstract:

Petri Net (PN) has proven to be effective graphical, mathematical, simulation, and control tool for Discrete Event Systems (DES). But, with the growth in the complexity of modern industrial, and communication systems, PN found themselves inadequate to address the problems of uncertainty, and imprecision in data. This gave rise to amalgamation of Fuzzy logic with Petri nets and a new tool emerged with the name of Fuzzy Petri Nets (FPN). Although there had been a lot of research done on FPN and a number of their applications have been anticipated, but their basic types and structure are still ambiguous. Therefore, in this research, an effort is made to categorize FPN according to their structure and algorithms Further, literature review of the applications of FPN in the light of their classifications has been done.

Keywords: Discrete event systems, Fuzzy logic, Fuzzy Petri nets, and Petri nets.

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Authors: Yongzhong Wu, Ping Ji

Abstract:

This paper proposes a genetic algorithm based on a new replacement strategy to solve the quadratic assignment problems, which are NP-hard. The new replacement strategy aims to improve the performance of the genetic algorithm through well balancing the convergence of the searching process and the diversity of the population. In order to test the performance of the algorithm, the instances in QAPLIB, a quadratic assignment problem library, are tried and the results are compared with those reported in the literature. The performance of the genetic algorithm is promising. The significance is that this genetic algorithm is generic. It does not rely on problem-specific genetic operators, and may be easily applied to various types of combinatorial problems.

Keywords: Quadratic assignment problem, Genetic algorithm, Replacement strategy, QAPLIB.

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Authors: Mikhail V. Khachaturyan, Inga A. Koryagina, Maria Nikishova

Abstract:

The study investigates the impact of the ongoing financial crisis, started in the 2^nd half of 2014, on marketing budgets spent by Fast-moving consumer goods companies. In these conditions, special importance is given to efficient possessory risk management systems. The main objective for establishing and developing possessory risk management systems for FMCG companies in a crisis is to analyze the data relating to the external environment and consumer behavior in a crisis. Another important objective for possessory risk management systems of FMCG companies is to develop measures and mechanisms to maintain and stimulate sales. In this regard, analysis of risks and threats which consumers define as the main reasons affecting their level of consumption become important. It is obvious that in crisis conditions the effective risk management systems responsible for development and implementation of strategies for consumer demand stimulation, as well as the identification, analysis, assessment and management of other types of risks of economic security will be the key to sustainability of a company. In terms of financial and economic crisis, the problem of forming and developing possessory risk management systems becomes critical not only in the context of management models of FMCG companies, but for all the companies operating in other sectors of the Russian economy. This study attempts to analyze the specifics of formation and development of company possessory risk management systems. In the modern economy, special importance among all the types of owner’s risks has the risk of reduction in consumer activity. This type of risk is common not only for the consumer goods trade. Study of consumer activity decline is especially important for Russia due to domestic market of consumer goods being still in the development stage, despite its significant growth. In this regard, it is especially important to form and develop possessory risk management systems for FMCG companies. The authors offer their own interpretation of the process of forming and developing possessory risk management systems within owner’s management models of FMCG companies as well as in Russian economy in general. Proposed methods and mechanisms of problem analysis of formation and development of possessory risk management systems in FMCG companies and the results received can be helpful for researchers interested in problems of consumer goods market development in Russia and overseas.

Keywords: FMCG companies, marketing budget, risk management, owner, Russian economy, organization, formation, development, system.

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Authors: C. Silveira, A. Ascenso, J. Ferreira, A. I. Miranda, P. Tuccella, G. Curci

Abstract:

Poor air quality is one of the main environmental causes of premature deaths worldwide, and mainly in cities, where the majority of the population lives. It is a consequence of successive land cover (LC) and use changes, as a result of the intensification of human activities. Knowing these landscape modifications in a comprehensive spatiotemporal dimension is, therefore, essential for understanding variations in air pollutant concentrations. In this sense, the use of air quality models is very useful to simulate the physical and chemical processes that affect the dispersion and reaction of chemical species into the atmosphere. However, the modelling performance should always be evaluated since the resolution of the input datasets largely dictates the reliability of the air quality outcomes. Among these data, the updated LC is an important parameter to be considered in atmospheric models, since it takes into account the Earth’s surface changes due to natural and anthropic actions, and regulates the exchanges of fluxes (emissions, heat, moisture, etc.) between the soil and the air. This work aims to evaluate the performance of the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem), when different LC classifications are used as an input. The influence of two LC classifications was tested: i) the 24-classes USGS (United States Geological Survey) LC database included by default in the model, and the ii) CLC (Corine Land Cover) and specific high-resolution LC data for Portugal, reclassified according to the new USGS nomenclature (33-classes). Two distinct WRF-Chem simulations were carried out to assess the influence of the LC on air quality over Europe and Portugal, as a case study, for the year 2015, using the nesting technique over three simulation domains (25 km², 5 km² and 1 km² horizontal resolution). Based on the 33-classes LC approach, particular emphasis was attributed to Portugal, given the detail and higher LC spatial resolution (100 m x 100 m) than the CLC data (5000 m x 5000 m). As regards to the air quality, only the LC impacts on tropospheric ozone concentrations were evaluated, because ozone pollution episodes typically occur in Portugal, in particular during the spring/summer, and there are few research works relating to this pollutant with LC changes. The WRF-Chem results were validated by season and station typology using background measurements from the Portuguese air quality monitoring network. As expected, a better model performance was achieved in rural stations: moderate correlation (0.4 – 0.7), BIAS (10 – 21µg.m^-3) and RMSE (20 – 30 µg.m^-3), and where higher average ozone concentrations were estimated. Comparing both simulations, small differences grounded on the Leaf Area Index and air temperature values were found, although the high-resolution LC approach shows a slight enhancement in the model evaluation. This highlights the role of the LC on the exchange of atmospheric fluxes, and stresses the need to consider a high-resolution LC characterization combined with other detailed model inputs, such as the emission inventory, to improve air quality assessment.

Keywords: Land cover, tropospheric ozone, WRF-Chem, air quality assessment.

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Authors: M. Nili, S. Tavasoli, A. R. Yazdandoost

Abstract:

In this paper, an experimental investigation on the effect of Isfahan Ground Granulate Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) on the compressive strength development of self-consolidating concrete (SCC) and normal concrete (NC) was performed. For this purpose, Portland cement type I was replaced with GGBS in various Portions. For NC and SCC Mixes, 10*10*10 cubic cm specimens were tested in 7, 28 and 91 days. It must be stated that in this research water to cement ratio was 0.44, cement used in cubic meter was 418 Kg/m³ and Superplasticizer (SP) Type III used in SCC based on Poly-Carboxylic acid. The results of experiments have shown that increasing GGBS Percentages in both types of concrete reduce Compressive strength in early ages.

Keywords: Compressive strength, GGBS, normal concrete, self-consolidating concrete.

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Authors: B. Bakır, İ. Batmaz, F. A. Güntürkün, İ. A. İpekçi, G. Köksal, N. E. Özdemirel

Abstract:

The main aim of this study is to identify the most influential variables that cause defects on the items produced by a casting company located in Turkey. To this end, one of the items produced by the company with high defective percentage rates is selected. Two approaches-the regression analysis and decision treesare used to model the relationship between process parameters and defect types. Although logistic regression models failed, decision tree model gives meaningful results. Based on these results, it can be claimed that the decision tree approach is a promising technique for determining the most important process variables.

Keywords: Casting industry, decision tree algorithm C5.0, logistic regression, quality improvement.

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Authors: Naira Sahakyan, Margarit Petrosyan, Armen Trchounian

Abstract:

One of the tasks in contemporary biotechnology, pharmacology and other fields of human activities is to obtain biologically active substances from plants. They are very essential in the treatment of many diseases due to their actually high therapeutic value without visible side effects. However, sometimes the possibility of obtaining the metabolites is limited due to the reduction of wild-growing plants. That is why the plant cell cultures are of great interest as alternative sources of biologically active substances. Besides, during the monitored cultivation, it is possible to obtain substances that are not synthesized by plants in nature. Isolated culture of Ajuga genevensis with high growth activity and ability of regeneration was obtained using MS nutrient medium. The agar-diffusion method showed that aqueous extracts of callus culture revealed high antimicrobial activity towards various gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis A1WT; B. mesentericus WDCM 1873; Staphylococcus aureus WDCM 5233; Staph. citreus WT) and gram-negative (Escherichia coli WKPM M-17; Salmonella typhimurium TA 100) microorganisms. The broth dilution method revealed that the minimal and half maximal inhibitory concentration values against E. coli corresponded to the 70 μg/mL and 140 μg/mL concentration of the extract respectively. According to the photochemiluminescent analysis, callus tissue extracts of leaf and root origin showed higher antioxidant activity than the same quantity of A. genevensis intact plant extract. A. genevensis intact plant and callus culture extracts showed no cytotoxic effect on K-562 suspension cell line of human chronic myeloid leukemia. The GC-MS analysis showed deep differences between the qualitative and quantitative composition of callus culture and intact plant extracts. Hexacosane (11.17%); n-hexadecanoic acid (9.33%); and 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (4.28%) were the main components of intact plant extracts. 10-Methylnonadecane (57.0%); methoxyacetic acid, 2-tetradecyl ester (17.75%) and 1-Bromopentadecane (14.55%) were the main components of A. genevensis callus culture extracts. Obtained data indicate that callus culture of A. genevensis can be used as an alternative source of biologically active substances.

Keywords: Ajuga genevensis, antibacterial activity, antioxidant activity, callus cultures.

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Authors: K. J. Kachiashvili

Abstract:

The Comparison analysis of the Wald-s and Bayestype sequential methods for testing hypotheses is offered. The merits of the new sequential test are: universality which consists in optimality (with given criteria) and uniformity of decision-making regions for any number of hypotheses; simplicity, convenience and uniformity of the algorithms of their realization; reliability of the obtained results and an opportunity of providing the errors probabilities of desirable values. There are given the Computation results of concrete examples which confirm the above-stated characteristics of the new method and characterize the considered methods in regard to each other.

Keywords: Errors of types I and II, likelihood ratio, the Bayes Type Sequential test, the Wald's sequential test, averaged number of observations.

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Authors: Maarit Valo, Pertti Hurme

Abstract:

This study focuses on teamwork in Finnish working life. Through a wide cross-section of teams the study examines the causes to which team members attribute the outcomes of their teams. Qualitative data was collected from 314 respondents. They wrote 616 stories to describe memorable experiences of success and failure in teamwork. The stories revealed 1930 explanations. The findings indicate that both favorable and unfavorable team outcomes are perceived as being caused by the characteristics of team members, relationships between members, team communication, team structure, team goals, team leadership, and external forces. The types represent different attribution levels in the context of organizational teamwork.

Keywords: Team, teamwork, team outcomes, workplace, working life.

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Authors: V. Malathi, N.S.Marimuthu

Abstract:

This paper presents a wavelet transform and Support Vector Machine (SVM) based algorithm for estimating fault location on transmission lines. The Discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is used for data pre-processing and this data are used for training and testing SVM. Five types of mother wavelet are used for signal processing to identify a suitable wavelet family that is more appropriate for use in estimating fault location. The results demonstrated the ability of SVM to generalize the situation from the provided patterns and to accurately estimate the location of faults with varying fault resistance.

Keywords: Fault location, support vector machine, supportvector regression, transmission lines, wavelet transform.

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Authors: S. B. Tende, H. L. Abubakar

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It is acknowledged that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) may encounter different ethical issues and pressures that could affect the way in which they strategize or make decisions concerning the outcome of their business. Therefore, this research aimed at assessing entrepreneurial ethics in the business of SMEs in Nigeria. Secondary data were adopted as source of corpus for the analysis. The findings conclude that a sound entrepreneurial ethics system has a significant effect on the level of performance of SMEs in Nigeria. The Nigerian Government needs to provide both guiding and physical structures; as well as learning systems that could inculcate these entrepreneurial ethics.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial ethics, culture, performance, SME.

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Authors: H. Dornhackl, K. Kadletz, R. Luh, P. Tavolato

Abstract:

In this paper, we describe the use of formal methods to model malware behaviour. The modelling of harmful behaviour rests upon syntactic structures that represent malicious procedures inside malware. The malicious activities are modelled by a formal grammar, where API calls’ components are the terminals and the set of API calls used in combination to achieve a goal are designated non-terminals. The combination of different non-terminals in various ways and tiers make up the attack vectors that are used by harmful software. Based on these syntactic structures a parser can be generated which takes execution traces as input for pattern recognition.

Keywords: Malware behaviour, modelling, parsing, search, pattern matching.

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Authors: M. Bischoff, F. Schmidt, J. Herrmann, J. Mattheß, G. Seide, T. Gries

Abstract:

Crop yields have not increased as dramatically as the demand for food. One method to counteract this is to use pesticides to keep away predators, e.g. several forms of insecticide are available to fight insects. These insecticides and pesticides are both controversial as their application and their residue in the food product can also harm humans. In this study an alternative method to combat insects is studied. A physical insect-killing effect of SiO₂ particles is used. The particles are applied on fibres to avoid erosion in the fields, which would occur when applied separately. The development of such SiO₂ functionalized PP fibres is shown.

Keywords: Agriculture, environment, insects, protection, silica, textile.

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