Search results for: cluster validity index

Authors: Sitthichon Kanitthakun, Pinit Kumhom, Kosin Chamnongthai

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In quality control of freeze-dried durian, crispiness is a key quality index of the product. Generally, crispy testing has to be done by a destructive method. A nondestructive testing of the crispiness is required because the samples can be reused for other kinds of testing. This paper proposed a crispiness classification method of freeze-dried durians using fuzzy logic for decision making. The physical changes of a freeze-dried durian include the pores appearing in the images. Three physical features including (1) the diameters of pores, (2) the ratio of the pore area and the remaining area, and (3) the distribution of the pores are considered to contribute to the crispiness. The fuzzy logic is applied for making the decision. The experimental results comparing with food expert opinion showed that the accuracy of the proposed classification method is 83.33 percent.

Keywords: Durian, crispiness, freeze drying, pore, fuzzy logic.

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Authors: S. M. Abbas, M. A. Hannan, S. A. Samad, A. Hussain

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This paper presented a modified efficient inductive powering link based on ASK modulator and proposed efficient class- E power amplifier. The design presents the external part which is located outside the body to transfer power and data to the implanted devices such as implanted Microsystems to stimulate and monitoring the nerves and muscles. The system operated with low band frequency 10MHZ according to industrial- scientific – medical (ISM) band to avoid the tissue heating. For external part, the modulation index is 11.1% and the modulation rate 7.2% with data rate 1 Mbit/s assuming Tbit = 1us. The system has been designed using 0.35-μm fabricated CMOS technology. The mathematical model is given and the design is simulated using OrCAD P Spice 16.2 software tool and for real-time simulation, the electronic workbench MULISIM 11 has been used.

Keywords: Implanted devices, ASK techniques, Class-E power amplifier, Inductive powering and low-frequency ISM band.

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Authors: Abdel-Rahman A., El Okle O. S.

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Fever, bloody diarrhea and high mortality rate were the main clinical finding in a group of fattening calves. Analysis of corn silage revealed presence of aflatoxins at level of 370 ppb. This level of aflatoxins in the feed of cattle is somewhat low to be the main cause of reported signs. Leukocytopenia, anemia, decreased lymphocytic activity and lowered phagocytic index are the main hematological and immunological alterations in diseased calves. Bacteriological investigation revealed isolation of pathogenic Salmonella typhimurium from the rectal swabs of diseased calves. Our results suggested that, long duration of exposure to aflatoxins even at small concentrations may considered as predisposing factor for the incidence of natural infectious outbreaks as salmonellosis due to its immunosuppressive effect. We can conclude that the veterinarians and owners must be given an attention to the relation between aflatoxicosis and salmonellosis under field condition. We are recommended that the treatment program during similar outbreaks must be including anti-aflatoxins preparations beside the antimicrobial therapy.

Keywords: Aflatoxins, Calves, Salmonellosis.

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Authors: Mehran Nasiri, Ardeshir Poornemat

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The aim of this study was to investigate the current and ideal situations of the process of talent identification in Iranian football from the point of view of Iranian instructors of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). This research was a descriptive-analytical study; in data collection phase a questionnaire was used, whose face validity was confirmed by experts of Physical Education and Sports Science. The reliability of questionnaire was estimated through the use of Cronbach's alpha method (0.91). This study involved 122 participants of Iranian instructors of the AFC who were selected based on stratified random sampling method. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the variables and inferential statistics (Chi-square) were used to test the hypotheses of the study at significant level (p ≤ 0.05). The results of Chi-square test related to the point of view of Iranian instructors of the AFC showed that the grass-roots scientific method was the best way to identify football players (0.001), less than 10 years old were the best ages for talent identification (0.001), the Football Federation was revealed to be the most important organization in talent identification (0.002), clubs were shown to be the most important institution in developing talents (0.001), trained scouts of Football Federation were demonstrated to be the best and most appropriate group for talent identification (0.001), and being referred by the football academy coaches was shown to be the best way to attract talented football players in Iran (0.001). It was also found that there was a huge difference between the current and ideal situation of the process of talent identification in Iranian football from the point of view of Iranian instructors of the AFC. Hence, it is recommended that the policy makers of talent identification for Iranian football provide a comprehensive, clear and systematic model of talent identification and development processes for the clubs and football teams, so that the talent identification process helps to nurture football talents more efficiently.

Keywords: Current situation, talent finding, ideal situation, instructors.

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Authors: Qiuyu Dai, Haochong Zhang, Xiangrong Liu

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Efficient matrix-vector multiplication with diagonal sparse matrices is pivotal in a multitude of computational domains, ranging from scientific simulations to machine learning workloads. When encoded in the conventional Diagonal (DIA) format, these matrices often induce computational overheads due to extensive zero-padding and non-linear memory accesses, which can hamper the computational throughput, and elevate the usage of precious compute and memory resources beyond necessity. The ’DIA-Adaptive’ approach, a methodological enhancement introduced in this paper, confronts these challenges head-on by leveraging the advanced parallel instruction sets embedded within Machine Learning Units (MLUs). This research presents a thorough analysis of the DIA-Adaptive scheme’s efficacy in optimizing Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiplication (SpMV) operations. The scope of the evaluation extends to a variety of hardware architectures, examining the repercussions of distinct thread allocation strategies and cluster configurations across multiple storage formats. A dedicated computational kernel, intrinsic to the DIA-Adaptive approach, has been meticulously developed to synchronize with the nuanced performance characteristics of MLUs. Empirical results, derived from rigorous experimentation, reveal that the DIA-Adaptive methodology not only diminishes the performance bottlenecks associated with the DIA format but also exhibits pronounced enhancements in execution speed and resource utilization. The analysis delineates a marked improvement in parallelism, showcasing the DIA-Adaptive scheme’s ability to adeptly manage the interplay between storage formats, hardware capabilities, and algorithmic design. The findings suggest that this approach could set a precedent for accelerating SpMV tasks, thereby contributing significantly to the broader domain of high-performance computing and data-intensive applications.

Keywords: Adaptive method, DIA, diagonal sparse matrices, MLU, sparse matrix-vector multiplication.

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Authors: Claudia Camargo, Enrique J. de la Vega, Jesús E. Olguín, Juan A. López, Sandra K. Enríquez

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This study focuses on the application of sensory thermography, as a non-invasive method to evaluate the musculoskeletal injuries that industry workers performing Highly Repetitive Movements (HRM) may acquire. It was made at a wireless company having the target of analyze temperatures in worker’s wrists, elbows and shoulders in workstations during their activities, this thru sensorial thermography with the goal of detecting maximum temperatures (Tmax) that could indicate possible injuries. The tests were applied during 3 hours for only 2 workers that work in workstations where there’s been the highest index of injuries and accidents. We were made comparisons for each part of the body that were study for both because of the similitude between the activities of the workstations; they were requiring both an immediate evaluation. The Tmax was recorder during the test of the worker 2, in the left wrist, reaching a temperature of 35.088ºC and with a maximum increase of 1.856°C

Keywords: Highly Repetitive Movements (HRM), Maximum temperatures (Tmax), Worker.

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Authors: Shatha A. Yousif, Qasim M. Zamil, Hasan Y. Al Muhi, Jamal A. Al Shammari

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Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the major vegetable crops that are grown world –wide because of its economic importance. This experiment investigated the effect of local sands (River Base, Al-Ekader and Karbala) on number and total weight of minitubers. Statistical analysis revealed that there were no significant differences among sand cultures in number of stem/plant, chlorophyll index and tubers dry weight. River Base sand had the highest plant height (74.9 cm), leaf number/plant number (39.3), leaf area (84.4 dcm2⁄plant), dry weight/plant (26.31), tubers number/plant (8.5), tubers weight/plant (635.53 gm) and potato tuber yields/trove (28.60 kg), whereas the Karbala sand had lower performance. All the characters had positive and significant correlation with yields except the traits number of stem and tuber dry weight.

Keywords: Correlation, Potato, Sand Culture, Yield.

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Authors: Yah-Ling Hung

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eHealth is undoubtedly emerging as a promising vehicle to provide information for individual self-care management. However, the accessing ability, reading strategies and navigating behavior between higher literacy users and lower literacy users are significantly different. Yet, ways to tailor audiences’ health literacy and develop appropriate eHealth to feed their need become a big challenge. The purpose of this study is to compare the educational effectiveness of eHealth to deliver health knowledge between higher literacy users and lower literacy users, thus establishing useful design strategies of eHealth for users with different level of health literacy. The study was implemented in four stages, the first of which developed a website as the testing media to introduce health care knowledge relating to children’s allergy. Secondly, a reliability and validity test was conducted to make sure that all of the questions in the questionnaire were good indicators. Thirdly, a pre-post knowledge test was conducted with 66 participants, 33 users with higher literacy and 33 users with lower literacy respectively. Finally, a usability evaluation survey was undertaken to explore the criteria used by users with different levels of health literacy to evaluate eHealth. The results demonstrated that the eHealth Intervention in both groups had a positive outcome. There was no significant difference between the effectiveness of eHealth intervention between users with higher literacy and users with lower literacy. However, the average mean of lower literacy group was marginally higher than the average mean of higher literacy group. The findings also showed that the criteria used to evaluate eHealth could be analyzed in terms of the quality of information, appearance, appeal and interaction, but the users with lower literacy have different evaluation criteria from those with higher literacy. This is an interdisciplinary research which proposes the sequential key steps that incorporate the planning, developing and accessing issues that need to be considered when designing eHealth for patients with varying degrees of health literacy.

Keywords: eHealth, health intervention, health literacy, usability evaluation.

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Authors: A. Mojtaba Aghajani, B. Leila Shavakhi

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Energy intensity(energy consumption intensity) is a global index which computes the required energy for producing a specific value of goods and services in each country. It is computed in terms of initial energy supply or final energy consumption. In this study (research) Divisia method is used to decompose energy consumption and energy intensity. This method decomposes consumption and energy intensity to production effects, structural and net intensity and could be done as time series or two-periodical. This study analytically investigates consumption changes and energy intensity on economical sectors of Iran and more specific on road transportation(rail road and road).Our results show that the contribution of structural effect (change in economical activities combination) is very low and the effect of net energy consumption has the higher contribution in consumption changes and energy intensity. In other words, the high consumption of energy is due to Intensity of energy consumption and is not to structural effect of transportation sector.

Keywords: Divisia Method, Energy Intensity, Net IntensityEffect, Road Transportation , Structural Effect.

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Authors: Shen Weishou, Ji Di, Zhang Hui, Yan Shouguang, Li Haidong, Lin Naifeng

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Based on a long-term vegetation index dataset of NDVI and meteorological data from 68 meteorological stations in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and their relations with major climate factors were analyzed. The results show the following: 1) The linear trends of temperature in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau indicate that the temperature in the plateau generally increased, but it rose faster in the last 20 years. 2) The most significant NDVI increase occurred in the eastern and southern plateau. However, the western and northern plateau demonstrate a decreasing trend. 3) There is a significant positive linear correlation between NDVI and temperature and a negative correlation between NDVI and mean wind speed. However, no significant statistical relationship was found between NDVI and relative humidity, precipitation or sunshine duration.4) The changes in NDVI for the plateau are driven by temperature-precipitation, but for the desert and forest areas, the relation changes to precipitation-temperature-wind velocity and wind velocity-temperature-precipitation.

Keywords: Qinghai-Tibet plateau, NDVI, climate warming.

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Authors: J. P. Chica Cano, G. Cabot, S. de Persis, F. Foucher

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Among all possibilities to combat global warming, CO₂ capture and sequestration (CCS) is presented as a great alternative to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Several strategies for CCS from industrial and power plants are being considered. The concept of combined oxy-fuel combustion has been the most alternative solution. Nevertheless, due to the high cost of pure O₂ production, additional ways recently emerged. In this paper, an innovative combustion process for a gas turbine cycle was studied: it was composed of methane combustion with oxygen enhanced air (OEA), exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and H₂O issuing from STIG (Steam Injection Gas Turbine), and the CO₂ capture was realized by membrane separator. The effect on this combustion process was emphasized, and it was shown that a study of the influence of H₂O dilution on the combustion parameters by experimental and numerical approaches had to be carried out. As a consequence, the laminar burning velocities measurements were performed in a stainless steel spherical combustion from atmospheric pressure to high pressure (up to 0.5 MPa), at 473 K for an equivalence ratio at 1. These experimental results were satisfactorily compared with Chemical Workbench v.4.1 package in conjunction with GRIMech 3.0 reaction mechanism. The good correlations so obtained between experimental and calculated flame speed velocities showed the validity of the GRIMech 3.0 mechanism in this domain of combustion: high H₂O dilution, low N₂, medium pressure. Finally, good estimations of flame speed and pollutant emissions were determined in other conditions compatible with real gas turbine. In particular, mixtures (composed of CH₄/O₂/N₂/H₂O/ or CO₂) leading to the same adiabatic temperature were investigated. Influences of oxygen enrichment and H₂O dilution (compared to CO₂) were disused.

Keywords: CO2 capture, oxygen enrichment, water dilution, laminar burning velocity, pollutants emissions.

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Authors: Nan Li, Ying Wang

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Using entropy weight and TOPSIS method, a comprehensive evaluation is done on the development level of Chinese regional service industry in this paper. Firstly, based on existing research results, an evaluation index system is constructed from the scale of development, the industrial structure and the economic benefits. An evaluation model is then built up based on entropy weight and TOPSIS, and an empirical analysis is conducted on the development level of service industries in 31 Chinese provinces during 2006 and 2009 from the two dimensions or time series and cross section, which provides new idea for assessing regional service industry. Furthermore, the 31 provinces are classified into four categories based on the evaluation results, and deep analysis is carried out on the evaluation results.

Keywords: Chinese regional service industry, Development level, Entropy weight, TOPSIS Evaluation Method

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Authors: Seyed Alireza Valadabadi, Hossein Aliabadi Farahani

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This experiment was carried out to study the effect of AMF, drought stress and phosphorus on physiological growth indices of basil at Iran using by a split-plot design with three replications. The main-plot factor included: two levels of irrigation regimes (control=no drought stress and irrigation after 80 evaporation= drought stress condition) while the sub-plot factors included phosphorus (0, 35 and 70 kg/ha) and application and non-application of Glomus fasciculatum. The results showed that total dry matter (TDM), life area index (LAI), relative growth rate (RGR) and crop growth rate (CGR) were all highly significantly different among the phosphorus, whereas drought stress had effect of practical significance on TDM, LAI, RGR and CGR. The results also showed that the highest TDM, LAI, RGR and CGR were obtained from application of Glomus fasciculatum under no-drought condition.

Keywords: Drought stress, Glomus fasciculatum, physiological growth indices

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Authors: M. Fathi, M. J. Alvarez, V. Rodríguez

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Assembly line balancing is a very important issue in mass production systems due to production cost. Although many studies have been done on this topic, but because assembly line balancing problems are so complex they are categorized as NP-hard problems and researchers strongly recommend using heuristic methods. This paper presents a new heuristic approach called the critical task method (CTM) for solving U-shape assembly line balancing problems. The performance of the proposed heuristic method is tested by solving a number of test problems and comparing them with 12 other heuristics available in the literature to confirm the superior performance of the proposed heuristic. Furthermore, to prove the efficiency of the proposed CTM, the objectives are increased to minimize the number of workstation (or equivalently maximize line efficiency), and minimizing the smoothness index. Finally, it is proven that the proposed heuristic is more efficient than the others to solve the U-shape assembly line balancing problem.

Keywords: Critical task method, Heuristic, Line balancingproblem, U-shape

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Authors: Khaled M. Nabil

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This paper introduces the Nested Vortexes conception of the universe structure and interprets all the physical phenomena according this conception. The paper first reviews recent physics theories, either in microscopic scale or macroscopic scale, to collect evidence that the space is not empty. But, these theories describe the property of the space medium without determining its structure. Determining the structure of space medium is essential to understand the mechanism that leads to its properties. Without determining the space medium structure, many phenomena; such as electric and magnetic fields, gravity, or wave-particle duality remain uninterpreted. Thus, this paper introduces a conception about the structure of the universe. It assumes that the universe is a medium of ultra-tiny homogeneous particles which are still undiscovered. Like any medium with certain movements, possibly because of a great asymmetric explosion, vortexes have occurred. A vortex condenses the ultra-tiny particles in its center forming a bigger particle, the bigger particles, in turn, could be trapped in a bigger vortex and condense in its center forming a much bigger particle and so on. This conception describes galaxies, stars, protons as particles at different levels. Existing of the particle’s vortexes make the consistency of the speed of light postulate is not true. This conception shows that the vortex motion dynamic agrees with the motion of all the universe particles at any level. An experiment has been carried out to detect the orbiting effect of aggregated vortexes of aligned atoms of a permanent magnet. Based on the described particle’s structure, the gravity force of a particle and attraction between particles as well as charge, electric and magnetic fields and quantum mechanics characteristics are interpreted. All augmented physics phenomena are solved.

Keywords: Astrophysics, cosmology, particles’ structure model, particles’ forces, vortex dynamics.

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Authors: K. Petcharaporn, S. Kumchoo

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The acidity (citric acid) is the one of chemical content that can be refer to the internal quality and it’s a maturity index of tomato, The titratable acidity (%TA) can be predicted by a non-destructive method prediction by using the transmittance short wavelength (SW-NIR) spectroscopy in the wavelength range between 665-955 nm. The set of 167 tomato samples divided into groups of 117 tomatoes sample for training set and 50 tomatoes sample for test set were used to establish the calibration model to predict and measure %TA by partial least squares regression (PLSR) technique. The spectra were pretreated with MSC pretreatment and it gave the optimal result for calibration model as (R = 0.92, RMSEC = 0.03%) and this model obtained high accuracy result to use for %TA prediction in test set as (R = 0.81, RMSEP = 0.05%). From the result of prediction in test set shown that the transmittance SW-NIR spectroscopy technique can be used for a non-destructive method for %TA prediction of tomato.

Keywords: Tomato, quality, prediction, transmittance, titratable acidity, citric acid.

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Authors: Asep Bayu Dani Nandiyanto, Asep Suhendi, Yutaka Kisakibaru, Takashi Ogi, Kikuo Okuyama

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An ordered porous antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO) film was successfully prepared using a simple coating process with colloidal templates. The facile production was effective when a combination of 16-nm ATO (as a model of an inorganic nanoparticle) and polystyrene (PS) spheres (as a model of the template) weresimply coated to produce a composite ATO/PS film. Heat treatment was then used to remove the PS and produce the porous film. The porous film with a spherical pore shape and a highly ordered porous structure could be obtained. A potential way for the control of pore size could be also achieved by changing initial template size. The theoretical explanation and mechanism of porous formation were also added, which would be important for the scaling-up prediction and estimation.

Keywords: Porous structure film; ATO particle; Ultra-low refractive index; vertical drop method; Low-density material;

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Authors: Ivo Jánský, Milan Rippel

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The paper evaluates several hundred one-day-ahead VaR forecasting models in the time period between the years 2004 and 2009 on data from six world stock indices - DJI, GSPC, IXIC, FTSE, GDAXI and N225. The models model mean using the ARMA processes with up to two lags and variance with one of GARCH, EGARCH or TARCH processes with up to two lags. The models are estimated on the data from the in-sample period and their forecasting accuracy is evaluated on the out-of-sample data, which are more volatile. The main aim of the paper is to test whether a model estimated on data with lower volatility can be used in periods with higher volatility. The evaluation is based on the conditional coverage test and is performed on each stock index separately. The primary result of the paper is that the volatility is best modelled using a GARCH process and that an ARMA process pattern cannot be found in analyzed time series.

Keywords: VaR, risk analysis, conditional volatility, garch, egarch, tarch, moving average process, autoregressive process

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Authors: E. Dolatdar, S. Soleymani, B. Mozafari

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Power loss reduction is one of the main targets in power industry and so in this paper, the problem of finding the optimal configuration of a radial distribution system for loss reduction is considered. Optimal reconfiguration involves the selection of the best set of branches to be opened ,one each from each loop, for reducing resistive line losses , and reliving overloads on feeders by shifting the load to adjacent feeders. However ,since there are many candidate switching combinations in the system ,the feeder reconfiguration is a complicated problem. In this paper a new approach is proposed based on a simple optimum loss calculation by determining optimal trees of the given network. From graph theory a distribution network can be represented with a graph that consists a set of nodes and branches. In fact this problem can be viewed as a problem of determining an optimal tree of the graph which simultaneously ensure radial structure of each candidate topology .In this method the refined genetic algorithm is also set up and some improvements of algorithm are made on chromosome coding. In this paper an implementation of the algorithm presented by [7] is applied by modifying in load flow program and a comparison of this method with the proposed method is employed. In [7] an algorithm is proposed that the choice of the switches to be opened is based on simple heuristic rules. This algorithm reduce the number of load flow runs and also reduce the switching combinations to a fewer number and gives the optimum solution. To demonstrate the validity of these methods computer simulations with PSAT and MATLAB programs are carried out on 33-bus test system. The results show that the performance of the proposed method is better than [7] method and also other methods.

Keywords: Distribution System, Reconfiguration, Loss Reduction , Graph Theory , Optimization , Genetic Algorithm

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Authors: Frantisek Bozek, Alexandr Bozek, Eduard Bakos, Jiri Dvorak, Alena Bumbova, Lenka Jesonkova

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The case study deals with the semi-quantitative risk assessment of water resource earmarked for the emergency supply of population with drinking water. The risk analysis has been based on previously identified hazards/sensitivities of the elements of hydrogeological structure and technological equipment of ground water resource as well as on the assessment of the levels of hazard, sensitivity and criticality of individual resource elements in the form of point indexes. The following potential sources of hazard have been considered: natural disasters caused by atmospheric and geological changes, technological hazards, and environmental burdens. The risk analysis has proved that the assessed risks are acceptable and the water resource may be integrated into a crisis plan of a given region.

Keywords: Crisis, emergency, frequency, ground water, hazard, point index, risk, sensitivity, water supply.

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Authors: P. Moeinzadeh, A. Hajfathaliha

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Many firms implemented various initiatives such as outsourced manufacturing which could make a supply chain (SC) more vulnerable to various types of disruptions. So managing risk has become a critical component of SC management. Different types of SC vulnerability management methodologies have been proposed for managing SC risk, most offer only point-based solutions that deal with a limited set of risks. This research aims to reinforce SC risk management by proposing an integrated approach. SC risks are identified and a risk index classification structure is created. Then we develop a SC risk assessment approach based on the analytic network process (ANP) and the VIKOR methods under the fuzzy environment where the vagueness and subjectivity are handled with linguistic terms parameterized by triangular fuzzy numbers. By using FANP, risks weights are calculated and then inserted to the FVIKOR to rank the SC members and find the most risky partner.

Keywords: Analytic network process (ANP), Fuzzy sets, Supply chain risk management (SCRM), VIšekriterijumsko KOmpromisno Rangiranje (VIKOR)

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Authors: Ju-Chun Chien

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The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion proposed that the role of health services should shift the focus from cure to prevention. Nowadays, besides having physical examinations, people could also conduct genetic tests to provide important information for diagnosing, treating, and/or preventing illnesses. However, because of the incompletion of the Chinese Genetic Database, people in Taiwan were still unfamiliar with genetic testing. The purposes of the present study were to: (1) Figure out people’s attitudes towards genetic testing. (2) Examine factors that influence people’s intention to pursue genetic testing by means of the Health Belief Model (HBM). A pilot study was conducted on 249 Taiwanese in 2017 to test the feasibility of the self-developed instrument. The reliability and construct validity of scores on the self-developed questionnaire revealed that this HBM-based questionnaire with 40 items was a well-developed instrument. A total of 542 participants were recruited and the valid participants were 535 (99%) between the ages of 20 and 86. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, two-way contingency table analysis, Pearson’s correlation, and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used in this study. The main results were that only 32 participants (6%) had already undergone genetic testing; moreover, their attitude towards genetic testing was more positive than those who did not have the experience. Compared with people who never underwent genetic tests, those who had gone for genetic testing had higher self-efficacy, greater intention to pursue genetic testing, had academic majors in health-related fields, had chronic and genetic diseases, possessed Catastrophic Illness Cards, and all of them had heard about genetic testing. The variables that best predicted people’s intention to pursue genetic testing were cues to action, self-efficacy, and perceived benefits (the three variables all correlated with one another positively at high magnitudes). To sum up, the HBM could be effective in designing and identifying the needs and priorities of the target population to pursue genetic testing.

Keywords: Genetic testing, intention to pursue genetic testing, Taiwan, health belief model.

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Authors: Nazar Younis, Raied Salman

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It has been always observed that the effectiveness of MIS as a support tool for management decisions degenerate after time of implementation, despite the substantial investments being made. This is true for organizations at the initial stages of MIS implementations, manual or computerized. A survey of a sample of middle to top managers in business and government institutions was made. A large ratio indicates that the MIS has lost its impact on the day-to-day operations, and even the response lag time expands sometimes indefinitely. The data indicates an infant mortality phenomenon of the bathtub model. Reasons may be monotonous nature of MIS delivery, irrelevance, irreverence, timeliness, and lack of adequate detail. All those reasons collaborate to create a degree of degeneracy. We investigate and model as a bathtub model the phenomenon of MIS degeneracy that inflicts the MIS systems and renders it ineffective. A degeneracy index is developed to identify the status of the MIS system and possible remedies to prevent the onset of total collapse of the system to the point of being useless.

Keywords: MIS, management theory, information technology, information systems, IS, organizational environment, organizations, degeneracy, organizational change.

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Authors: P. R. Prabhu, S. M. Kulkarni, S. S. Sharma, K. Jagannath, Achutha Kini U.

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In the present study, response surface methodology has been used to optimize turn-assisted deep cold rolling process of AISI 4140 steel. A regression model is developed to predict surface hardness and surface roughness using response surface methodology and central composite design. In the development of predictive model, deep cold rolling force, ball diameter, initial roughness of the workpiece, and number of tool passes are considered as model variables. The rolling force and the ball diameter are the significant factors on the surface hardness and ball diameter and numbers of tool passes are found to be significant for surface roughness. The predicted surface hardness and surface roughness values and the subsequent verification experiments under the optimal operating conditions confirmed the validity of the predicted model. The absolute average error between the experimental and predicted values at the optimal combination of parameter settings for surface hardness and surface roughness is calculated as 0.16% and 1.58% respectively. Using the optimal processing parameters, the surface hardness is improved from 225 to 306 HV, which resulted in an increase in the near surface hardness by about 36% and the surface roughness is improved from 4.84µm to 0.252 µm, which resulted in decrease in the surface roughness by about 95%. The depth of compression is found to be more than 300µm from the microstructure analysis and this is in correlation with the results obtained from the microhardness measurements. Taylor hobson talysurf tester, micro vickers hardness tester, optical microscopy and X-ray diffractometer are used to characterize the modified surface layer. 

Keywords: Surface hardness, response surface methodology, microstructure, central composite design, deep cold rolling, surface roughness.

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Authors: Bruno B. Oliveira, Arnaldo P. Mourão, Teógenes A. da Silva

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The Brazilian legislation has only established diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) in terms of Multiple Scan Average Dose (MSAD) as a quality control parameter for computed tomography (CT) scanners. Compliance with DRLs can be verified by measuring the Computed Tomography Kerma Index (Ca,100) with a pencil ionization chamber or by obtaining the kerma distribution in CT scans with radiochromic films or rod shape lithium fluoride termoluminescent dosimeters (TLD-100). TL dosimeters were used to record kerma profiles and to determine MSAD values of a Bright Speed model GE CT scanner. Measurements were done with radiochromic films and TL dosimeters distributed in cylinders positioned in the center and in four peripheral bores of a standard polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) body CT dosimetry phantom. Irradiations were done using a protocol for adult chest. The maximum values were found at the midpoint of the longitudinal axis. The MSAD values obtained with three dosimetric techniques were compared.

Keywords: Kerma profile, CT, MSAD, patient dosimetry

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Authors: Kalyan Kumar Mandal, Damodar Maity

Abstract:

The degradation of concrete due to various hygrochemo- mechanical actions is inevitable for the structures particularly built to store water. Therefore, it is essential to determine the material properties of dam-like structures due to ageing to predict the behavior of such structures after a certain age. The degraded material properties are calculated by introducing isotropic degradation index. The predicted material properties are used to study the behavior of aged dam at different ages. The dam is modeled by finite elements and displacement and is considered as an unknown variable. The parametric study reveals that the displacement is quite larger for comparatively lower design life of the structure because the degradation of elastic properties depends on the design life of the dam. The stresses in dam cam be unexpectedly large at any age with in the design life. The outcomes of the present study indicate the importance of the consideration ageing effect of concrete exposed to water for the safe design of dam throughout its life time.

Keywords: Hygro-chemo-mechanical, isotropic degradation, finite element method, Koyna earthquake.

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Authors: AbdulLateef A. Olanrewaju, Arazi Idrus, Mohd F. Khamidi

Abstract:

Maintenance costs incurred on building differs. The difference can be as results of the types, functions, age, building health index, size, form height, location and complexity of the building. These are contributing to the difficulty in maintenance development of deterministic maintenance cost model. This paper is concerns with reporting the preliminary findings on the creation of building maintenance cost distributions for universities in Malaysia. This study is triggered by the need to provide guides on maintenance costs distributions for decision making. For this purpose, a survey questionnaire was conducted to investigate the distribution of maintenance costs in the universities. Altogether, responses were received from twenty universities comprising both private and publicly owned. The research found that engineering services, roofing and finishes were the elements contributing the larger segment of the maintenance costs. Furthermore, the study indicates the significance of maintenance cost distribution as decision making tool towards maintenance management.

Keywords: Performance matrix, university buildings, costmodel, Malaysia

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Authors: Dini Dewi Heniarti

Abstract:

The importance of this study is to understand how Indonesian military court asserts its jurisdiction over military members who commit general crimes within the Indonesian military judiciary system in comparison to other countries. This research employs a normative-juridical approach in combination with historical and comparative-juridical approaches. The research specification is analytical-descriptive in nature, i.e. describing or outlining the principles, basic concepts, and norms related to military judiciary system, which are further analyzed within the context of implementation and as the inputs for military justice regulation under the Indonesian legal system. Main data used in this research are secondary data, including primary, secondary and tertiary legal sources. The research focuses on secondary data, while primary data are supplementary in nature. The validity of data is checked using multi-methods commonly known as triangulation, i.e. to reflect the efforts to gain an in-depth understanding of phenomena being studied. Here, the military element is kept intact in the judiciary process with due observance of the Military Criminal Justice System and the Military Command Development Principle. The Indonesian military judiciary jurisdiction over military members committing general crimes is based on national legal system and global development while taking into account the structure, composition and position of military forces within the state structure. Jurisdiction is formulated by setting forth the substantive norm of crimes that are military in nature. At the level of adjudication jurisdiction, the military court has a jurisdiction to adjudicate military personnel who commit general offences. At the level of execution jurisdiction, the military court has a jurisdiction to execute the sentence against military members who have been convicted with a final and binding judgement. Military court's jurisdiction needs to be expanded when the country is in the state of war.

Keywords: Military courts, Jurisdiction, Military members, Military justice system.

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Authors: Joseph Zernik

Abstract:

Validity, integrity, and impacts of the IT systems of the US federal courts have been studied as part of the Human Rights Alert-NGO (HRA) submission for the 2015 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of human rights in the United States by the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations (UN). The current report includes overview of IT system analysis, data-mining and case studies. System analysis and data-mining show: Development and implementation with no lawful authority, servers of unverified identity, invalidity in implementation of electronic signatures, authentication instruments and procedures, authorities and permissions; discrimination in access against the public and unrepresented (pro se) parties and in favor of attorneys; widespread publication of invalid judicial records and dockets, leading to their false representation and false enforcement. A series of case studies documents the impacts on individuals' human rights, on banking regulation, and on international matters. Significance is discussed in the context of various media and expert reports, which opine unprecedented corruption of the US justice system today, and which question, whether the US Constitution was in fact suspended. Similar findings were previously reported in IT systems of the State of California and the State of Israel, which were incorporated, subject to professional HRC staff review, into the UN UPR reports (2010 and 2013). Solutions are proposed, based on the principles of publicity of the law and the separation of power: Reliance on US IT and legal experts under accountability to the legislative branch, enhancing transparency, ongoing vigilance by human rights and internet activists. IT experts should assume more prominent civic duties in the safeguard of civil society in our era.

Keywords: E-justice, federal courts, United States, human rights, banking regulation.

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Authors: Nagore Guerra Bilbao, Clemente Lobato Fraile

Abstract:

This paper outlines the design and development of the MENDEPRO questionnaire, designed to analyze mentoring performance within a professional development process carried out with professors at the University of the Basque Country, Spain. The study took into account the international research carried out over the past two decades into teachers' professional development, and was also based on a thorough review of the most common instruments used to identify and analyze mentoring styles, many of which fail to provide sufficient psychometric guarantees. The present study aimed to gather empirical data in order to verify the metric quality of the questionnaire developed. To this end, the process followed to validate the theoretical construct was as follows: The formulation of the items and indicators in accordance with the study variables; the analysis of the validity and reliability of the initial questionnaire; the review of the second version of the questionnaire and the definitive measurement instrument. Content was validated through the formal agreement and consensus of 12 university professor training experts. A reduced sample of professors who had participated in a lifelong learning program was then selected for a trial evaluation of the instrument developed. After the trial, 18 items were removed from the initial questionnaire. The final version of the instrument, comprising 33 items, was then administered to a sample group of 99 participants. The results revealed a five-dimensional structure matching theoretical expectations. Also, the reliability data for both the instrument as a whole (.98) and its various dimensions (between .91 and .97) were very high. The questionnaire was thus found to have satisfactory psychometric properties and can therefore be considered apt for studying the performance of mentoring in both induction programs for young professors and lifelong learning programs for senior faculty members.

Keywords: Higher education, mentoring, professional development, university teachers.

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