Search results for: stage product.

Authors: C. C. Wong, P. L. Hiew

Abstract:

This research aims to examine the key success factors for the diffusion of mobile entertainment services in Malaysia. The drivers and barriers observed in this research include perceived benefit; concerns pertaining to pricing, product and technological standardization, privacy and security; as well as influences from peers and community. An analysis of a Malaysian survey of 384 respondents between 18 to 25 years shows that subscribers placed greater importance on perceived benefit of mobile entertainment services compared to other factors. Results of the survey also show that there are strong positive correlations between all the factors, with pricing issue–perceived benefit showing the strongest relationship. This paper aims to provide an extensive study on the drivers and barriers that could be used to derive architecture for entertainment service provision to serve as a guide for telcos to outline suitable approaches in order to encourage mass market adoption of mobile entertainment services in Malaysia.

Keywords: Barriers, Correlations, Diffusion, Drivers, Mobile Entertainment.

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Authors: Afrooz Moatari Kazerouni

Abstract:

In a competitive production environment, critical decision making are based on data resulted by random sampling of product units. Efficiency of these decisions depends on data quality and also their reliability scale. This point leads to the necessity of a reliable measurement system. Therefore, the conjecture process and analysing the errors contributes to a measurement system known as Measurement System Analysis (MSA). The aim of this research is on determining the necessity and assurance of extensive development in analysing measurement systems, particularly with the use of Repeatability and Reproducibility Gages (GR&R) to improve physical measurements. Nowadays in productive industries, repeatability and reproducibility gages released so well but they are not applicable as well as other measurement system analysis methods. To get familiar with this method and gain a feedback in improving measurement systems, this survey would be on “ANOVA" method as the most widespread way of calculating Repeatability and Reproducibility (R&R).

Keywords: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), MeasurementSystem Analysis (MSA), Part-Operator interaction effect, Repeatability and Reproducibility.

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Authors: Ali Sarhadi, Mohammad Reza Meybodi, Ali Yousefi

Abstract:

Resource discovery is one of the chief services of a grid. A new approach to discover the provenances in grid through learning automata has been propounded in this article. The objective of the aforementioned resource-discovery service is to select the resource based upon the user-s applications and the mercantile yardsticks that is to say opting for an originator which can accomplish the user-s tasks in the most economic manner. This novel service is submitted in two phases. We proffered an applicationbased categorization by means of an intelligent nerve-prone plexus. The user in question sets his or her application as the input vector of the nerve-prone nexus. The output vector of the aforesaid network limns the appropriateness of any one of the resource for the presented executive procedure. The most scrimping option out of those put forward in the previous stage which can be coped with to fulfill the task in question is picked out. Te resource choice is carried out by means of the presented algorithm based upon the learning automata.

Keywords: Resource discovery, learning automata, neural network, economic policy

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Authors: Manoela Cabo da Silva, Elton Fernandes, Ricardo Pacheco, Heloisa Pires

Abstract:

This study examined cointegration and causal relationships between economic growth and regular domestic and international passenger air transport in Brazil. Total passengers embarked and disembarked were used as a proxy for air transport activity and gross domestic product (GDP) as a proxy for economic development. The test spanned the period from 2000 to 2015 for domestic passenger traffic and from 1995 to 2015 for international traffic. The results confirm the hypothesis that there is cointegration between passenger traffic series and economic development, showing a bi-directional Granger causal relationship between domestic traffic and economic development and unidirectional influence by economic growth on international passenger air transport demand. Variance decomposition of the series showed that domestic air transport was far more important than international transport to promoting economic development in Brazil.

Keywords: Air passenger transport, cointegration, economic growth, GDP, granger causality.

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Authors: Kong Fah Tee, Lutfor Rahman Khan, Hongshuang Li

Abstract:

An advanced Monte Carlo simulation method, called Subset Simulation (SS) for the time-dependent reliability prediction for underground pipelines has been presented in this paper. The SS can provide better resolution for low failure probability level with efficient investigating of rare failure events which are commonly encountered in pipeline engineering applications. In SS method, random samples leading to progressive failure are generated efficiently and used for computing probabilistic performance by statistical variables. SS gains its efficiency as small probability event as a product of a sequence of intermediate events with larger conditional probabilities. The efficiency of SS has been demonstrated by numerical studies and attention in this work is devoted to scrutinise the robustness of the SS application in pipe reliability assessment. It is hoped that the development work can promote the use of SS tools for uncertainty propagation in the decision-making process of underground pipelines network reliability prediction.

Keywords: Underground pipelines, Probability of failure, Reliability and Subset Simulation.

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Authors: Jung-in Yoon, Seung-taek Oh, Seung-moon Baek, Jun-hyuk Choi, Jong-yeong Byun, Seok-kwon Jeong, Choon-guen Moon

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In this study, we experiment on precise control outlet temperature of water from the water cooler with hot-gas bypass method based on PI control logic for machine tool. Recently, technical trend for machine tools is focused on enhancement of speed and accuracy. High speedy processing causes thermal and structural deformation of objects from the machine tools. Water cooler has to be applied to machine tools to reduce the thermal negative influence with accurate temperature controlling system. The goal of this study is to minimize temperature error in steady state. In addition, control period of an electronic expansion valve were considered to increment of lifetime of the machine tools and quality of product with a water cooler.

Keywords: Hot-gas bypass, Water cooler, PI control, Electronic Expansion Valve, Gain tuning

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Authors: D. S. Fardhyanti, A. Damayanti

Abstract:

Coal tar is a liquid by-product of coal pyrolysis processes. This liquid oil mixture contains various kinds of useful compounds such as benzoic aromatic compounds and phenolic compounds. These compounds are widely used as raw material for insecticides, dyes, medicines, perfumes, coloring matters, and many others. The coal tar was collected by pyrolysis process of coal obtained from PT Kaltim Prima Coal and Arutmin-Kalimantan. The experiments typically occurred at the atmospheric pressure in a laboratory furnace at temperatures ranging from 300 to 550oC with a heating rate of 10oC/min and a holding time of 1 hour at the pyrolysis temperature. The Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) was used to analyze the coal tar components. The obtained coal tar has the viscosity of 3.12 cp, the density of 2.78 g/cm3, the calorific value of 11,048.44 cal/g, and the molecular weight of 222.67. The analysis result showed that the coal tar contained more than 78 chemical compounds such as benzene, cresol, phenol, xylene, naphtalene, etc. The total phenolic compounds contained in coal tar are 33.25% (PT KPC) and 17.58% (Arutmin-Kalimantan). The total naphtalene compounds contained in coal tar is 14.15% (PT KPC) and 17.13% (Arutmin-Kalimantan).

Keywords: Coal tar, pyrolysis, gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy.

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Authors: K. S. Jasmine, R. Vasantha

Abstract:

The overriding goal of software engineering is to provide a high quality system, application or a product. To achieve this goal, software engineers must apply effective methods coupled with modern tools within the context of a mature software process [2]. In addition, it is also must to assure that high quality is realized. Although many quality measures can be collected at the project levels, the important measures are errors and defects. Deriving a quality measure for reusable components has proven to be challenging task now a days. The results obtained from the study are based on the empirical evidence of reuse practices, as emerged from the analysis of industrial projects. Both large and small companies, working in a variety of business domains, and using object-oriented and procedural development approaches contributed towards this study. This paper proposes a quality metric that provides benefit at both project and process level, namely defect removal efficiency (DRE).

Keywords: Software Reuse, Defect density, Reuse metrics, Defect Removal efficiency.

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Authors: A. Buasri, N. Chaiyut, K. Iamma, K. Kongcharoen, K. Cheunsakulpong

Abstract:

Biopolymers have gained much attention as ecofriendly alternatives to petrochemical-based plastics because they are biodegradable and can be produced from renewable feedstocks. One class of biopolyester with many potential environmentally friendly applications is polylactic acid (PLA) and polycaprolactone (PCL). The PLA/PCL biodegradable copolyesters were synthesized by bulk ring-opening copolymerization of successively added Llactide (LL) and ε-caprolactone (CL) in the presence of toluene, using 1-hexanol as initiator and stannous octoate (Sn(Oct)2) as catalyst. Reaction temperature, reaction time and amount of catalyst were evaluated to obtain optimum reaction conditions. The results showed that the %conversion increased with increases in reaction temperature and reaction time, but after a critical amount of catalyst was reached the %conversion decreased. The yield of PLA/PCL biopolymer achieved 98.02% at the reaction temperature 160 °C, amount of catalyst 0.3 mol% and reaction time of 48 h. In addition, the thermal properties of the product were determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).

Keywords: Biopolymer, Polylactic Acid (PLA), Polycaprolactone (PCL), L-Lactide (LL), ε-Caprolactone (CL)

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Authors: Qian Wang, Sylvain Lassalle, Antony R. Mileham, Geraint W. Owen

Abstract:

This paper mathematically analyses the varying magnitude of production loss, which may occur due to idle time (inprocess waiting time and traveling time) on a linear walking worker assembly line. Within this flexible and reconfigurable assembly system, each worker travels down the line carrying out each assembly task at each station; and each worker accomplishes the assembly of a unit from start to finish and then travels back to the first station to start the assembly of a new product. This strategy of system design attempts to combine the flexibility of the U-shaped moving worker assembly cell with the efficiency of the conventional fixed worker assembly line. The paper aims to evaluate the effect of idle time that may offset the labor efficiency of each walking worker providing an insight into the mechanism of such a flexible and reconfigurable assembly system.

Keywords: Production lines, manufacturing systems, assemblysystems, walking workers.

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Authors: Houda Bdiri Gabbouj, Néjib Hassen, Kamel Besbes

Abstract:

This paper presents a low-voltage low-power differential linear transconductor with near rail-to-rail input swing. Based on the current-mirror OTA topology, the proposed transconductor combines the Flipped Voltage Follower (FVF) technique to linearize the transconductor behavior that leads to class- AB linear operation and the virtual transistor technique to lower the effective threshold voltages of the transistors which offers an advantage in terms of low supply requirement. Design of the OTA has been discussed. It operates at supply voltages of about ±0.8V. Simulation results for 0.18μm TSMC CMOS technology show a good input range of 1Vpp with a high DC gain of 81.53dB and a total harmonic distortion of -40dB at 1MHz for an input of 1Vpp. The main aim of this paper is to present and compare new OTA design with high transconductance, which has a potential to be used in low voltage applications.

Keywords: Amplifier class AB, current mirror, flipped voltage follower, low voltage.

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Authors: Jayadevan R., Jayant V. Kulkarni, Suresh N. Mali, Hemant K. Abhyankar

Abstract:

An important step in studying the statistics of fingerprint minutia features is to reliably extract minutia features from the fingerprint images. A new reliable method of computation for minutiae feature extraction from fingerprint images is presented. A fingerprint image is treated as a textured image. An orientation flow field of the ridges is computed for the fingerprint image. To accurately locate ridges, a new ridge orientation based computation method is proposed. After ridge segmentation a new method of computation is proposed for smoothing the ridges. The ridge skeleton image is obtained and then smoothed using morphological operators to detect the features. A post processing stage eliminates a large number of false features from the detected set of minutiae features. The detected features are observed to be reliable and accurate.

Keywords: Minutia, orientation field, ridge segmentation, textured image.

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Authors: T. N. Janakiraman, P. V. S. S. R. Chandra Mouli

Abstract:

A color image edge detection algorithm is proposed in this paper using Pseudo-complement and matrix rotation operations. First, pseudo-complement method is applied on the image for each channel. Then, matrix operations are applied on the output image of the first stage. Dominant pixels are obtained by image differencing between the pseudo-complement image and the matrix operated image. Median filtering is carried out to smoothen the image thereby removing the isolated pixels. Finally, the dominant or core pixels occurring in at least two channels are selected. On plotting the selected edge pixels, the final edge map of the given color image is obtained. The algorithm is also tested in HSV and YCbCr color spaces. Experimental results on both synthetic and real world images show that the accuracy of the proposed method is comparable to other color edge detectors. All the proposed procedures can be applied to any image domain and runs in polynomial time.

Keywords: Color edge detection, dominant pixels, matrixrotation/shift operations, pseudo-complement.

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Authors: Weicai Yang, Xianfeng Dong, Dapeng Zeng, Bo Lin, Jun Tang

Abstract:

Low oxygen content vanadium powder was prepared by hydrogenation dehydrogenization (HDH). The effect of purification treatment on hydrogen absorption kinetics of dendritic vanadium was tested, and the effects of milling technique on powder yield and grain size were studied. The crystal phase, oxygen and nitrgen content, and grain size of prepared powder were characterized and analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), oxygen and nitrogen analyzer and grain size analyzer. The results show that the alkaline cleaning can improve the hydrogen absorption of vanadium. The yield of vanadium hydride powder can reach as high as 90% by 4h ball-milling, The resultant product also have an oxygen content less than 600μg/g, and the grain size is smaller than 37μm. Meanwhile, the XRD results show that the phase of hydride vanadium powder is mainly VH0.81. After a hydrogen desorption treatment in vacuum at 700Ôäâ, the phase of the powder converts into V and a little of V2H.

Keywords: V-5Cr-5Ti alloy, HDH, microstructures, mechanical properties.

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Authors: Pashayev A., Askerov D., C. Ardil, Sadiqov R., Abdullayev P.

Abstract:

Groundlessness of application probability-statistic methods are especially shown at an early stage of the aviation GTE technical condition diagnosing, when the volume of the information has property of the fuzzy, limitations, uncertainty and efficiency of application of new technology Soft computing at these diagnosing stages by using the fuzzy logic and neural networks methods. It is made training with high accuracy of multiple linear and nonlinear models (the regression equations) received on the statistical fuzzy data basis. At the information sufficiency it is offered to use recurrent algorithm of aviation GTE technical condition identification on measurements of input and output parameters of the multiple linear and nonlinear generalized models at presence of noise measured (the new recursive least squares method (LSM)). As application of the given technique the estimation of the new operating aviation engine D30KU-154 technical condition at height H=10600 m was made.

Keywords: Identification of a technical condition, aviation gasturbine engine, fuzzy logic and neural networks.

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Authors: D. Scalone, R. Palmeri, F. Licciardello, G. Muratore, A. Todaro, G. Spagna

Abstract:

Prickly pear fruit (Opuntia ficus indica L. Miller) belongs to the Cactaceae family. This species is very sensitive to low storage temperatures (< 5°C) which cause damages. The fruits can be peeled, suitably packaged and successfully commercialized as a ready-to-eat product. The main limit to the extension of the shelf life is the production of off-flavors due to different factors, the growth of microorganisms and the action of endogenous enzymes. Lipoxygenase (LOX) and Pectinesterase (PE) are involved in fruit degradation. In particular, LOX pathway is directly responsible for lipid oxidation, and the subsequent production of off-flavours, while PE causes the softening of fruit during maturation. They act on the texture and shelf-life of post-harvest, packaged fruits, as a function of the the grown of microorganisms and packaging technologies used. The aim of this work is to compare the effect of different packaging technologies on the shelf life extension of ready-to-eat prickly pear fruits with regards for the enzymes activities.

Keywords: Enzymes, packaging, prickly pear, shelf life.

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Authors: Pashayev A., Askerov D., C. Ardil, Sadiqov R., Abdullayev P.

Abstract:

Groundlessness of application probability-statistic methods are especially shown at an early stage of the aviation GTE technical condition diagnosing, when the volume of the information has property of the fuzzy, limitations, uncertainty and efficiency of application of new technology Soft computing at these diagnosing stages by using the fuzzy logic and neural networks methods. It is made training with high accuracy of multiple linear and nonlinear models (the regression equations) received on the statistical fuzzy data basis. At the information sufficiency it is offered to use recurrent algorithm of aviation GTE technical condition identification on measurements of input and output parameters of the multiple linear and nonlinear generalized models at presence of noise measured (the new recursive least squares method (LSM)). As application of the given technique the estimation of the new operating aviation engine D30KU-154 technical condition at height H=10600 m was made.

Keywords: Identification of a technical condition, aviation gasturbine engine, fuzzy logic and neural networks.

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Authors: K. Bouchbout, Z. Alimazighi

Abstract:

The importance of inter-organizational system (IOS) has been increasingly recognized by organizations. However, IOS adoption has proved to be difficult and, at this stage, why this is so is not fully uncovered. In practice, benefits have often remained concentrated, primarily accruing to the dominant party, resulting in low rates of adoption and usage, and often culminating in the failure of the IOS. The main research question is why organizations initiate or join IOS and what factors influence their adoption and use levels. This paper reviews the literature on IOS adoption and proposes a theoretical framework in order to identify the critical factors to capture a complete picture of IOS adoption. With our proposed critical factors, we are able to investigate their relative contributions to IOS adoption decisions. We obtain findings that suggested that there are five groups of factors that significantly affect the adoption and use decision of IOS in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) context: 1) interorganizational context, 2) organizational context, 3) technological context, 4) perceived costs, and 5) perceived benefits.

Keywords: Business-to-Business relationships, buyer-supplier relationships, Critical factors, Interorganizational Information Systems, IOS adoption and use.

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Authors: Minh Tuan, Nguyen, Chung –Ruey, Yen

Abstract:

The study was performed to evaluate the effect of Sgirdling, fruit thinning plus bagging with 2,4-D application, fruit thinning plus bagging on growth and quality of wax apple fruit. Girdling was applied three week before flowering. The 2,4-D was sprayed at the small bud and petal fall stage. The effect of all treatments on fruit growth was measured weekly. The physical and biochemical quality characteristics of the fruits were recorded. The results showed that no significant effect on number of bud among treatments. S-girdling, 2,4-D application produced the lowest bud drop, fruit drop compared to untreated control. Moreover, S-girdling enhanced faster fruit growth producing the best final fruit length and diameter than the control treatment. It was also observed that Sgirdling greatly increased fruit set, fruit weight as well as total soluble solid, reduced fruit crack, and titratable acidity. In conclusion, S-girdling had a distinctive and significant effect on most of the fruit quality characteristics assessed. Application 2,4-D was also recommended as the industry norm to increase fruit set, and fruit quality in wax apple.

Keywords: Wax apple, S-girdling, 2, 4-D, fruit bagging, fruit thinning.

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Authors: Dewi S. Fardhyanti, Panut Mulyono, Wahyudi B. Sediawan, Muslikhin Hidayat

Abstract:

Coal tar is a liquid by-product of the process of coal gasification and carbonation. This liquid oil mixture contains various kinds of useful compounds such as phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol. These compounds are widely used as raw material for insecticides, dyes, medicines, perfumes, coloring matters, and many others. This research needed to be done that given the optimum conditions for the separation of phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol from the coal tar by solvent extraction process. The aim of the present work was to study the effect of two kinds of aqueous were used as solvents: methanol and acetone solutions, the effect of temperature (298, 306, and 313K) and mixing (30, 35, and 40rpm) for the separation of phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol from coal tar by solvent extraction. Results indicated that phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol in coal tar were selectivity extracted into the solvent phase and these components could be separated by solvent extraction. The aqueous solution of methanol, mass ratio of solvent to feed, Eo/Ro=1, extraction temperature 306K and mixing 35 rpm were the most efficient for extraction of phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol from coal tar.

Keywords: Coal tar, Distribution coefficient, Extraction, Yield.

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Authors: R. Sahraian, A. Karampour Haghighi, E. Ghasemi

Abstract:

Process planning and production scheduling play important roles in manufacturing systems. In this paper a multiobjective mixed integer linear programming model is presented for the integrated planning and scheduling of multi-product. The aim is to find a set of high-quality trade-off solutions. This is a combinatorial optimization problem with substantially large solution space, suggesting that it is highly difficult to find the best solutions with the exact search method. To account for it, a PSO-based algorithm is proposed by fully utilizing the capability of the exploration search and fast convergence. To fit the continuous PSO in the discrete modeled problem, a solution representation is used in the algorithm. The numerical experiments have been performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Keywords: Integrated process planning and scheduling, multi objective, MILP, Particle swarm optimization

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Authors: Birol Gülnar, Hacer Aker

Abstract:

Student-s movements have been going increasing in last decades. International students can have different psychological and sociological problems in their adaptation process. Depression is one of the most important problems in this procedure. This research purposed to reveal level of foreign students- depression, kinds of interpersonal communication networks (host/ethnic interpersonal communication) and media usage (host/ethnic media usage). Additionally study aimed to display the relationship between depression and communication (host/ethnic interpersonal communication and host/ethnic media usage) among foreign university students. A field research was performed among 283 foreign university students who have been attending 8 different universities in Turkey. A purposeful sampling technique was used in this research cause of data collect facilities. Results indicated that 58.3% of foreign students- depression stage was “intermediate" while 33.2% of foreign students- depression level was “low". Add to this, host interpersonal communication behaviors and Turkish web sites usages were negatively and significantly correlated with depression.

Keywords: International students, depression, interpersonal communication behaviors, media using.

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Authors: D. I. De Souza, G. P. Azevedo, D. R. Fonseca

Abstract:

In this paper we will develop further the sequential life test approach presented in a previous article by [1] using an underlying two parameter Inverse Weibull sampling distribution. The location parameter or minimum life will be considered equal to zero. Once again we will provide rules for making one of the three possible decisions as each observation becomes available; that is: accept the null hypothesis H0; reject the null hypothesis H0; or obtain additional information by making another observation. The product being analyzed is a new electronic component. There is little information available about the possible values the parameters of the corresponding Inverse Weibull underlying sampling distribution could have.To estimate the shape and the scale parameters of the underlying Inverse Weibull model we will use a maximum likelihood approach for censored failure data. A new example will further develop the proposed sequential life testing approach.

Keywords: Sequential Life Testing, Inverse Weibull Model, Maximum Likelihood Approach, Hypothesis Testing.

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Authors: J. Menčík

Abstract:

Actual load, material characteristics and other quantities often differ from the design values. This can cause worse function, shorter life or failure of a civil engineering structure, a machine, vehicle or another appliance. The paper shows main causes of the uncertainties and deviations and presents a systematic approach and efficient tools for their elimination or mitigation of consequences. Emphasis is put on the design stage, which is most important for reliability ensuring. Principles of robust design and important tools are explained, including FMEA, sensitivity analysis and probabilistic simulation methods. The lifetime prediction of long-life objects can be improved by long-term monitoring of the load response and damage accumulation in operation. The condition evaluation of engineering structures, such as bridges, is often based on visual inspection and verbal description. Here, methods based on fuzzy logic can reduce the subjective influences.

Keywords: Design, fuzzy methods, Monte Carlo, reliability, robust design, sensitivity analysis, simulation, uncertainties.

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Authors: Sawsan Dacrory, Hussein Abou-Yousef, Samir Kamel, Ragab E. Abou-Zeid, Mohamed S. Abdel-Aziz, Mohamed Elbadry

Abstract:

A considerable amount of lignocellulosic by-product could be obtained from olive pulp during olive oil extraction industry. The major constituents of the olive pulp are husks and seeds. The separation of each portion of olive pulp (seeds and husks) was carried out by water flotation where seeds were sediment in the bottom. Both seeds and husks were dignified by 15% NaOH followed by complete lignin removal by using sodium chlorite in acidic medium. The isolated holocellulose, α-cellulose, hydrogel and CMC which prepared from cellulose of both seeds and husk fractions were characterized by FTIR and SEM. The present study focused on the investigation of the chemical components of the lignocellulosic fraction of olive pulp. Biofunctionlization of hydrogel was achieved through loading of silver nanoparticles AgNPs in to the prepared hydrogel. The antimicrobial activity of the loaded silver hydrogel against G-ve, and G+ve, and candida was demonstrated.

Keywords: Antimicrobial hydrogel, carboxymethyl cellulose, cellulose, grafting, olive pulp.

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Authors: Yue Hu, Xilu Zhao, Takao Yamaguchi, Manabu Sasajima, Yoshio Koike, Akira Hara

Abstract:

This study optimized the design parameters of a cone loudspeaker as an example of high flexibility of the product design. We developed an acoustic analysis software program that considers the impact of damping caused by air viscosity. In sound reproduction, it is difficult to optimize each parameter of the loudspeaker design. To overcome the limitation of the design problem in practice, this study presents an acoustic analysis algorithm to optimize the design parameters of the loudspeaker. The material character of cone paper and the loudspeaker edge were the design parameters, and the vibration displacement of the cone paper was the objective function. The results of the analysis showed that the design had high accuracy as compared to the predicted value. These results suggested that although the parameter design is difficult, with experience and intuition, the design can be performed easily using the optimized design found with the acoustic analysis software.

Keywords: Air viscosity, design parameters, loudspeaker, optimization.

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Authors: Nidal F. Shilbayeh, Reem A. Al-Saidi, Ahmed H. Alsswey

Abstract:

In this paper, we presented an evaluation and analysis of E-Voting Authentication Preparation Scheme (EV-APS). EV-APS applies some modified security aspects that enhance the security measures and adds a strong wall of protection, confidentiality, non-repudiation and authentication requirements. Some of these modified security aspects are Kerberos authentication protocol, PVID scheme, responder certificate validation, and the converted Ferguson e-cash protocol. Authentication and privacy requirements have been evaluated and proved. Authentication guaranteed only eligible and authorized voters were permitted to vote. Also, the privacy guaranteed that all votes will be kept secret. Evaluation and analysis of some of these security requirements have been given. These modified aspects will help in filtering the counter buffer from unauthorized votes by ensuring that only authorized voters are permitted to vote.

Keywords: E-Voting preparation stage, blind signature protocol, nonce based authentication scheme, Kerberos authentication protocol, pseudo voter identity scheme PVID.

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Authors: Amal S. Al-Badi, Ali H. Al-Badi

Abstract:

Many organizations are opting to adopt Open Source Software (OSS) as it is the current trend to rely on each other rather than on companies (Software vendors). It is a clear shift from organizations to individuals, the concept being to rely on collective participation rather than companies/vendors.

The main objectives of this research are 1) to identify the current level of OSS usage in Sultan Qaboos University; 2) to identify the potential benefits of using OSS in educational institutes; 3) to identify the OSS applications that are most likely to be used within an educational institute; 4) to identify the existing and potential barriers to the successful adoption of OSS in education.

To achieve these objectives a two-stage research method was conducted. First a rigorous literature review of previously published material was performed (interpretive/descriptive approach), and then a set of interviews were conducted with the IT professionals at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman in order to explore the extent and nature of their usage of OSS.

Keywords: Open source software; social software, e-learning 2.0, Web 2.0, connectivism, personal learning environment (PLE), OpenID, OpenSocial and OpenCourseWare.

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Authors: Rose Shayeghi, Pejman Hosseinioun

Abstract:

The Multiple Intelligences theory characterizes human intelligence as a multifaceted entity that exists in all human beings with varying degrees. The most important contribution of this theory to the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) is its role in identifying individual differences and designing more learnercentered programs. The present study aims at investigating the relationship between different elements of multiple intelligence and grammar scores. To this end, 63 female Iranian EFL learner selected from among intermediate students participated in the study. The instruments employed were a Nelson English language test, Michigan Grammar Test, and Teele Inventory for Multiple Intelligences (TIMI). The results of Pearson Product-Moment Correlation revealed a significant positive correlation between grammatical accuracy and linguistic as well as interpersonal intelligence. The results of Stepwise Multiple Regression indicated that linguistic intelligence contributed to the prediction of grammatical accuracy.

Keywords: Multiple intelligence, grammar, ELT, EFL, TIMI.

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Authors: Chengli Liu, C. K. M. Lee

Abstract:

The tradition competitive newsvendor game assumes decision makers are rational. However, there are behavioral biases when people make decisions, such as loss aversion, mental accounting and overconfidence. Overestimation of a subject’s own performance is one type of overconfidence. The objective of this research is to analyze the impact of the overestimated demand in the newsvendor competitive game with two players. This study builds a competitive newsvendor game model where newsvendors have private information of their demands, which is overestimated. At the same time, demands of each newsvendor forecasted by a third party institution are available. This research shows that the overestimation leads to demand steal effect, which reduces the competitor’s order quantity. However, the overall supply of the product increases due to overestimation. This study illustrates the boundary condition for the overestimated newsvendor to have the equilibrium order drop due to the demand steal effect from the other newsvendor. A newsvendor who has higher critical fractile will see its equilibrium order decrease with the drop of estimation level from the other newsvendor.

Keywords: Bias, competitive newsvendor, Nash equilibrium, overestimation.

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