Search results for: psychological factors.

Authors: Shaira Ismail

Abstract:

The empirical studies on High Performance Work Systems (HPWSs) and their impacts on firm performance have remarkably little in the developing countries. This paper reviews literatures on the HPWSs practices in different work settings, Western and Asian countries. A review on the empirical research leads to a conclusion that, country differences influence the Human Resource Management (HRM) practices. It is anticipated that there are similarities and differences in the extent of implementation of HPWSs practices by the Malaysian manufacturing firms due to the organizational contextual factors and, the HPWSs have a significant impact on firms- better performance amongst MNCs and local firms.

Keywords: Firm Performance, High Performance Work Systems (HPWSs), Human Resource Management (HRM), Multinational Corporations (MNCs).

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Authors: Morteza Moazami-Goudarzi, Ali Taheri, Mohammad Pooyan, Reza Mahboobi

Abstract:

In this paper we are to find the optimum multiwavelet for compression of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals and then, selecting it for using with SPIHT codec. At present, it is not well known which multiwavelet is the best choice for optimum compression of ECG. In this work, we examine different multiwavelets on 24 sets of ECG data with entirely different characteristics, selected from MIT-BIH database. For assessing the functionality of the different multiwavelets in compressing ECG signals, in addition to known factors such as Compression Ratio (CR), Percent Root Difference (PRD), Distortion (D), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) in compression literature, we also employed the Cross Correlation (CC) criterion for studying the morphological relations between the reconstructed and the original ECG signal and Signal to reconstruction Noise Ratio (SNR). The simulation results show that the Cardinal Balanced Multiwavelet (cardbal2) by the means of identity (Id) prefiltering method to be the best effective transformation. After finding the most efficient multiwavelet, we apply SPIHT coding algorithm on the transformed signal by this multiwavelet.

Keywords: ECG compression, Prefiltering, Cardinal Balanced Multiwavelet.

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Authors: Mariayee Doraisamy, Suhaimi Bin Ibrahim, Mohd Naz’ri Mahrin

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There are several methods to monitor software projects and the objective for monitoring is to ensure that the software projects are developed and delivered successfully. A performance measurement is a method that is closely associated with monitoring and it can be scrutinized by looking at two important attributes which are efficiency and effectiveness both of which are factors that are important for the success of a software project. Consequently, a successful steering is achieved by monitoring and controlling a software project via the performance measurement criteria and metrics. Hence, this paper is aimed at identifying the performance measurement criteria and the metrics for monitoring the performance of a software project by using the Goal Question Metrics (GQM) approach. The GQM approach is utilized to ensure that the identified metrics are reliable and useful. These identified metrics are useful guidelines for project managers to monitor the performance of their software projects.

Keywords: Software project performance, Goal Question Metrics, Performance Measurement Criteria, Metrics.

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Authors: Ziyad Aljarboua

Abstract:

In this paper, we present a technical and an economic assessment of several sources of renewable energy in Saudi Arabia; mainly solar, wind, hydro and biomass. We analyze the environmental and climatic conditions in relation to these sources and give an overview of some of the existing clean energy technologies. Using standardized cost and efficiency data, we carry out a cost benefit analysis to understand the economic factors influencing the sustainability of energy production from renewable sources in light of the energy cost and demand in the Saudi market. Finally, we take a look at the Saudi petroleum industry and the existing sources of conventional energy and assess the potential of building a successful market for renewable energy under the constraints imposed by the flow of subsidized cheap oil. We show that while some renewable energy resources are well suited for distributed or grid connected generation in the kingdom, their viability is greatly undercut by the well developed and well capitalized oil industry.

Keywords: Energy strategy, energy policy, renewable energy, Saudi Arabia, oil.

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Authors: Vadims Goremikins, Karlis Rocens, Dmitrijs Serdjuks

Abstract:

A suspension bridge is the most suitable type of structure for a long-span bridge due to rational use of structural materials. Increased deformability, which is conditioned by appearance of the elastic and kinematic displacements, is the major disadvantage of suspension bridges. The problem of increased kinematic displacements under the action of non-symmetrical load can be solved by prestressing. The prestressed suspension bridge with the span of 200 m was considered as an object of investigations. The cable truss with the cross web was considered as the main load carrying structure of the prestressed suspension bridge. The considered cable truss was optimized by 47 variable factors using Genetic algorithm and FEM program ANSYS. It was stated, that the maximum total displacements are reduced up to 29.9% by using of the cable truss with the rational characteristics instead of the single cable in the case of the worst situated load.

Keywords: Decreasing displacements, Genetic algorithm.

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Authors: Ahmad Forouzan Tabar, Mohammad Azadi, Alireza Alesaadi

Abstract:

This paper describes a sliding mode controller for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The dynamic of AUV model is highly nonlinear because of many factors, such as hydrodynamic drag, damping, and lift forces, Coriolis and centripetal forces, gravity and buoyancy forces, as well as forces from thruster. To address these difficulties, a nonlinear sliding mode controller is designed to approximate the nonlinear dynamics of AUV and improve trajectory tracking. Moreover, the proposed controller can profoundly attenuate the effects of uncertainties and external disturbances in the closed-loop system. Using the Lyapunov theory the boundedness of AUV tracking errors and the stability of the proposed control system are also guaranteed. Numerical simulation studies of an AUV are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the presented approach.

Keywords: Lyapunov stability, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), sliding mode controller, electronics engineering.

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Authors: Charalampos Saridakis, Stelios Tsafarakis

Abstract:

Although environmental concern is on the rise across Europe, current market data indicate that adoption rates of environmentally friendly vehicles remain extremely low. Against this background, the aim of this paper is to a) assess preferences of European consumers for clean-fuel cars and their characteristics and b) design car lines that optimize the combination of fuel types among models in the line-up. In this direction, the authors introduce a new evolutionary mechanism and implement it to stated-preference data derived from a large-scale choice-based conjoint experiment that measures consumer preferences for various factors affecting clean-fuel vehicle (CFV) adoption. The proposed two-step methodology provides interesting insights into how new and existing fuel-types can be combined in a car line that maximizes customer satisfaction.

Keywords: Clean-fuel vehicles, product line design, conjoint analysis, choice experiment, differential evolution.

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Authors: Wondwosen Teshome B.

Abstract:

One of the approaches to democratization is the fostering of civil society organizations. In Africa, civil society organizations did not fully play their role in the continent-s democratization process due to many factors including the repressive regulations imposed on them by governing parties. In Ethiopia, for the first time in the country-s political history, the civil society played a very active role in the 2005 multi-party election. The involvement of the civil society in this election has far-reaching consequences. One of the objectives of this paper is to assess the consequences of such involvement for both the civil society and the political society in the country. The paper also examines the peculiarities of civil society formation in Africa in general, and in Ethiopia in particular by assessing both the “traditional" and “modern" civil society organizations.

Keywords: Africa, Civil Society, CSO, Democratization, Election, Ethiopia, NGO, Western donors.

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Authors: Baeza S. Roberto

Abstract:

The knitted fabric suffers a deformation in its dimensions due to stretching and tension factors, transverse and longitudinal respectively, during the process in rectilinear knitting machines so it performs a dry relaxation shrinkage procedure and thermal action of prefixed to obtain stable conditions in the knitting. This paper presents a dry relaxation shrinkage prediction of Bordeaux fiber using a feed forward neural network and linear regression models. Six operational alternatives of shrinkage were predicted. A comparison of the results was performed finding neural network models with higher levels of explanation of the variability and prediction. The presence of different reposes is included. The models were obtained through a neural toolbox of Matlab and Minitab software with real data in a knitting company of Southern Guanajuato. The results allow predicting dry relaxation shrinkage of each alternative operation.

Keywords: Neural network, dry relaxation, knitting, linear regression.

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Authors: Mohie Eldin Mohamed Afifiy Elmashad

Abstract:

Desert regions around the Nile valley in Upper Egypt contain great extent of swelling soil. Many different comment procedures of treatment of the swelling soils for construction such as pre-swelling, load balance OR soil replacement. One of the measure factors which affect the level of the aggressiveness of the swelling soil is the direction of the infiltration water directions within the swelling soils. In this paper a physical model was installed to measure the effect of water on the swelling soil with replacement using fatty acid distillation residuals (FADR) mixed with sand as thick sand-FADR mixture to prevent the water pathway arrive to the swelling soil. Testing program have been conducted on different artificial samples with different sand to FADR contents ratios (4%, 6%, and 9%) to get the optimum value fulfilling the impermeable replacement. The tests show that a FADR content of 9% is sufficient to produce impermeable replacement.

Keywords: Swelling soil, FADR, soil improvement, permeability

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Authors: Abbas Hani

Abstract:

The concentrations of As, Hg, Co, Cr and Cd were tested for each soil sample, and their spatial patterns were analyzed by the semivariogram approach of geostatistics and geographical information system technology. Multivariate statistic approaches (principal component analysis and cluster analysis) were used to identify heavy metal sources and their spatial pattern. Principal component analysis coupled with correlation between heavy metals showed that primary inputs of As, Hg and Cd were due to anthropogenic while, Co, and Cr were associated with pedogenic factors. Ordinary kriging was carried out to map the spatial patters of heavy metals. The high pollution sources evaluated was related with usage of urban and industrial wastewater. The results of this study helpful for risk assessment of environmental pollution for decision making for industrial adjustment and remedy soil pollution.

Keywords: Geographic Information system, Geostatistics, Kaveh, Multivariate Statistical Analysis.

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Authors: S. Ghorbani, N. I. Polushin

Abstract:

Vibration during machining process is crucial since it affects cutting tool, machine, and workpiece leading to a tool wear, tool breakage, and an unacceptable surface roughness. This paper applies a nonparametric statistical method, single decision tree (SDT), to identify factors affecting on vibration in machining process. Workpiece material (AISI 1045 Steel, AA2024 Aluminum alloy, A48-class30 Gray Cast Iron), cutting tool (conventional, cutting tool with holes in toolholder, cutting tool filled up with epoxy-granite), tool overhang (41-65 mm), spindle speed (630-1000 rpm), feed rate (0.05-0.075 mm/rev) and depth of cut (0.05-0.15 mm) were used as input variables, while vibration was the output parameter. It is concluded that workpiece material is the most important parameters for natural frequency followed by cutting tool and overhang.

Keywords: Cutting condition, vibration, natural frequency, decision tree, CART algorithm.

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Authors: M. Safa, S. Samarasinghe

Abstract:

An artificial neural network (ANN) approach was used to model the energy consumption of wheat production. This study was conducted over 35,300 hectares of irrigated and dry land wheat fields in Canterbury in the 2007-2008 harvest year.1 In this study several direct and indirect factors have been used to create an artificial neural networks model to predict energy use in wheat production. The final model can predict energy consumption by using farm condition (size of wheat area and number paddocks), farmers- social properties (education), and energy inputs (N and P use, fungicide consumption, seed consumption, and irrigation frequency), it can also predict energy use in Canterbury wheat farms with error margin of ±7% (± 1600 MJ/ha).

Keywords: Artificial neural network, Canterbury, energy consumption, modelling, New Zealand, wheat.

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Authors: Fu E. Tang

Abstract:

The increase in energy demand has raised concerns over adverse impacts on the environment from energy generation. It is important to understand the status of energy consumption for institutions such as Curtin Sarawak to ensure the sustainability of energy usage, and also to reduce its costs. In this study, a preliminary audit framework was developed and was conducted around the Malaysian campus to obtain information such as the number and specifications of electrical appliances, built-up area and ambient temperature to understand the relationship of these factors with energy consumption. It was found that the number and types of electrical appliances, population and activities in the campus impacted the energy consumption of Curtin Sarawak directly. However, the built-up area and ambient temperature showed no clear correlation with energy consumption. An investigation of the diurnal and seasonal energy consumption of the campus was also carried out. From the data, recommendations were made to improve the energy efficiency of the campus.

Keywords: Energy audit, energy consumption, energy efficiency

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Authors: Charles Mothobiso

Abstract:

This study attempts to identify the client’s main priority when delivering green projects. The aim is to compare whether clients’ interests are similar when delivering conventional buildings as compared to green buildings. Private clients invest more in green buildings as compared to government and parastatal entities. Private clients prioritize on maximizing a return on investment and they mainly invest in energy-saving buildings that have low life cycle costs. Private clients are perceived to be more knowledgeable about the benefits of green building projects as compared to government and parastatal clients. A shortage of expertise and managerial skill leads to the low adaptation of green buildings in government and parastatal projects. Other factors that seem to prevent the adoption of green buildings are the preparedness of the supply chain within the industry and inappropriate procurement strategies adopted by clients.

Keywords: Construction clients, design team, green buildings procurement.

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Authors: Ben Khayut, Lina Fabri, Maya Avikhana

Abstract:

The modern Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI) models cannot: a) independently, situationally, and continuously function without of human intelligence, used for retraining and reprogramming the ANI’s models, and b) think, understand, be conscious, and cognize under uncertainty and changing of the environmental objects. To eliminate these shortcomings and build a new generation of Artificial Intelligence systems, the paper proposes a Conception, Model, and Method of Computational Psycholinguistic Cognitive Situational-Fuzzy Self-Controlled Brain and Mind System (CPCSFSCBMSUU). This system uses a neural network as its computational memory, and activates functions of the perception, identification of real objects, fuzzy situational control, and forming images of these objects. These images and objects are used for modeling their psychological, linguistic, cognitive, and neural values of properties and features, the meanings of which are identified, interpreted, generated, and formed taking into account the identified subject area, using the data, information, knowledge, accumulated in the Memory. The functioning of the CPCSFSCBMSUU is carried out by its subsystems of the: fuzzy situational control of all processes, computational perception, identifying of reactions and actions, Psycholinguistic Cognitive Fuzzy Logical Inference, Decision Making, Reasoning, Systems Thinking, Planning, Awareness, Consciousness, Cognition, Intuition, and Wisdom. In doing so are performed analysis and processing of the psycholinguistic, subject, visual, signal, sound and other objects, accumulation and using the data, information and knowledge of the Memory, communication, and interaction with other computing systems, robots and humans in order of solving the joint tasks. To investigate the functional processes of the proposed system, the principles of situational control, fuzzy logic, psycholinguistics, informatics, and modern possibilities of data science were applied. The proposed self-controlled system of brain and mind is oriented on use as a plug-in in multilingual subject applications.

Keywords: Computational psycholinguistic cognitive brain and mind system, situational fuzzy control, uncertainty, AI.

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Authors: Javadi Alimohammad, Javadi Maryam, Feizi Fereidoon

Abstract:

A review of the literature found that Domestic violence and child maltreatment co-occur in many families, the purpose of this study attempts to emphasize the factors relating to intra-family relationships (order point of view) on violence against the children, For this purpose a survey technique on the sample size amounted 200 students of governmental guidance schools of city of Gilanegharb in country of Iran were considered. For measurement of violence against the children (VAC) the CTS scaled has been used .The results showed that children have experienced the violence more than once during the last year. degree of order in family is high. Explanation result indicated that the order variables in family including collective thinking, empathy, communal co-circumstance have significant effects on VAC.

Keywords: Violence, domestic violence, violence against children, order, guidance school, family, children.

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Authors: Sayali Sandbhor, Ravindra Bapat, N. B. Chaphalkar

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Decisions for investment, buying and selling of properties depend upon the market value of that property. Issues arise in arriving at the actual value of the property as well as computing the rate of returns from the estate. Addressing valuation related issues through an understanding of behavior of real property rates provide the means to explore the quality of past decisions and to make valid future decisions. Pune, an important city in India, has witnessed a high rate of growth in past few years. Increased demand for housing and investment in properties has led to increase in the rates of real estate. An attempt has been made to study the change and behavior of rates of real estate and factors influencing the same in Pune city.

Keywords: Real estate, valuation, property rates, trend analysis

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Authors: M. Arun, A. Kannan

Abstract:

Textile industries cater to varied customer preferences and contribute substantially to the economy. However, these textile industries also produce a considerable amount of effluents. Prominent among these are the azo dyes which impart considerable color and toxicity even at low concentrations. Azo dyes are also used as coloring agents in food and pharmaceutical industry. Despite their applications, azo dyes are also notorious pollutants and carcinogens. Popular techniques like photo-degradation, biodegradation and the use of oxidizing agents are not applicable for all kinds of dyes, as most of them are stable to these techniques. Chemical coagulation produces a large amount of toxic sludge which is undesirable and is also ineffective towards a number of dyes. Most of the azo dyes are stable to UV-visible light irradiation and may even resist aerobic degradation. Adsorption has been the most preferred technique owing to its less cost, high capacity and process efficiency and the possibility of regenerating and recycling the adsorbent. Adsorption is also most preferred because it may produce high quality of the treated effluent and it is able to remove different kinds of dyes. However, the adsorption process is influenced by many variables whose inter-dependence makes it difficult to identify optimum conditions. The variables include stirring speed, temperature, initial concentration and adsorbent dosage. Further, the internal diffusional resistance inside the adsorbent particle leads to slow uptake of the solute within the adsorbent. Hence, it is necessary to identify optimum conditions that lead to high capacity and uptake rate of these pollutants. In this work, commercially available activated carbon was chosen as the adsorbent owing to its high surface area. A typical azo dye found in textile effluent waters, viz. the monoazo Acid Orange 10 dye (CAS: 1936-15-8) has been chosen as the representative pollutant. Adsorption studies were mainly focused at obtaining equilibrium and kinetic data for the batch adsorption process at different process conditions. Studies were conducted at different stirring speed, temperature, adsorbent dosage and initial dye concentration settings. The Full Factorial Design was the chosen statistical design framework for carrying out the experiments and identifying the important factors and their interactions. The optimum conditions identified from the experimental model were validated with actual experiments at the recommended settings. The equilibrium and kinetic data obtained were fitted to different models and the model parameters were estimated. This gives more details about the nature of adsorption taking place. Critical data required to design batch adsorption systems for removal of Acid Orange 10 dye and identification of factors that critically influence the separation efficiency are the key outcomes from this research.

Keywords: Acid Orange 10, Activated carbon, Optimum conditions, Statistical design.

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Authors: Abdal-Kader Saeed Latif, Reyam Naji Ajmi, Huda Farooq Zeki, Wathiq Abaas Hatit

Abstract:

These studies have been carried out on the behavior of pesticides in aquatic environments of marshes to monitoring water and sediment. A total of 25 water and 25 sediment samples were collected at five sampling station during April, June and September. 2013 the levels of organochlorine (OCP) pesticide as a case study to find out the extent of pesticide contamination and accumulation, in water was the concentration of OCPs (0.02, 0.066, 0.7, 0.8, 0.072, 0.058) ppb. In sediment was the concentration of OCPs (5.897, 10.987, 0.089, 0.096, 7.897, and 12.389) ppb respectively in DDT, DDE, Chlordane, Heptachlor, Lindane, and Endosulfan. There is a relationship between pesticides and sediment and water with physical properties because the concentrations of pesticide in water and sediment are not always in equilibrium Furthermore, when sediments are smaller, the rate of deposition is slower. There the wetlands of pesticides due to factors of high temperature and evaporation but used in the control of pesticides in water and sediment also there still exist a variety of organochlorine pesticide residues in water and sediments of wetlands.

Keywords: Bioindicators, Iraqi marshes, Pesticides, Sediment, Water.

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Authors: C. Ardil

Abstract:

A multiple-criteria decision support system is proposed for the best aircraft selection decision. Various strategic, economic, environmental, and risk-related factors can directly or indirectly influence this choice, and they should be taken into account in the decision-making process. The paper suggests a multiple-criteria analysis to aid in the airline management's decision-making process when choosing an appropriate aircraft. In terms of the suggested approach, an integrated entropic preference optimization programming (POP) for fleet modeling risk analysis is applied. The findings of the study of multiple criteria analysis indicate that the A321(neo) aircraft type is the best alternative in this particular optimization instance. The proposed methodology can be applied to other complex engineering problems involving multiple criteria analysis.

Keywords: Aircraft selection, decision making, multiple criteria decision making, preference optimization programming, POP, entropic weight method, TOPSIS, WSM, WPM

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Authors: Nermine Ahmed Hendy, Hania Farag

Abstract:

Emotion recognition is an important research field that finds lots of applications nowadays. This work emphasizes on recognizing different emotions from speech signal. The extracted features are related to statistics of pitch, formants, and energy contours, as well as spectral, perceptual and temporal features, jitter, and shimmer. The Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) was chosen as the classifier. Working on finding a robust and fast ANN classifier suitable for different real life application is our concern. Several experiments were carried out on different ANN to investigate the different factors that impact the classification success rate. Using a database containing 7 different emotions, it will be shown that with a proper and careful adjustment of features format, training data sorting, number of features selected and even the ANN type and architecture used, a success rate of 85% or even more can be achieved without increasing the system complicity and the computation time

Keywords: Classification, emotion recognition, features extraction, feature selection, neural network

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Authors: S. R. Hosseini, N. Choupani, A. R. M. Gharabaghi

Abstract:

The modified Arcan fixture was used in order to investigate the mixed mode fracture properties of high strength steel butt weld through experimental and numerical analysis. The fixture consisted of a central section with "butterfly-shaped" specimen that had central crack. The specimens were under pure mode I (opening), pure mode II (shearing) and all in plane mixed mode loading angles starting from 0 to 90 degrees. The geometric calibration factors were calculated with the aid of finite element analysis for various loading mode and different crack length (0.45≤ a/w ≤0.55) and the critical fracture loads obtained experimentally. The critical fracture toughness (KIC & KIIC) estimated with experimental and numerical analysis under mixed mode loading conditions.

Keywords: Arcan specimen, fracture toughness, mixed mode, steel weld.

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Authors: Ilma Robo, Saimir Heta, Merilda Tarja, Sonila Kapaj, Eduart Kapaj, Geriona Lasku

Abstract:

The classification of periodontal diseases has changed significantly in favor of simplifying the protocol of diagnosis and periodontal treatment. This review study aims to highlight the latest publications in the new periodontal disease classification, talking about the most significant differences versus the old classification with the tendency to express the advantages or disadvantages of clinical application. The aim of the study also includes the growing tendency to link the way of classification of periodontal diseases with predetermined protocols of periodontal treatment of the diagnoses included in the classification. The new classification of periodontal diseases is rather comprehensive in its subdivisions, as the disease is viewed in its entirety, with the biological dimensions of the disease, the degree of aggravation and progression of the disease, in relation to risk factors, predisposition to patient susceptibility and impact of periodontal disease to the general health status of the patient.

Keywords: Periodontal diseases, clinical application, periodontal treatment, oral diagnosis.

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Authors: Moushira Zaki, Wafaa Ezzat, Yasser Elhosary, Omnia Saleh

Abstract:

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has increased in conjunction with obesity. The accuracy of risk factors for detecting NAFLD in obese adolescents has not undergone a formal evaluation. The aim of this study was to evaluate predictors of NAFLD among Egyptian female obese adolescents. The study included 162 obese female adolescents. All were subjected to anthropometry, biochemical analysis and abdominal ultrasongraphic assessment. Metabolic syndrome (MS) was diagnosed according to the IDF criteria. Significant association between presence of MS and NAFLD was observed. Obese adolescents with NAFLD had significantly higher levels of ALT, triglycerides, fasting glucose, insulin, blood pressure and HOMA-IR, whereas decreased HDL-C levels as compared with obese cases without NAFLD. Receiver– operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis shows that ALT is a sensitive predictor for NAFLD, confirming that ALT can be used as a marker of NAFLD.

Keywords: Adolescents, Egyptians, obesity.

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Authors: Prasertsak Ekphisutsuntorn, Prungchan Wongwises, Chaiyuth Chinnarasri, Usa Humphries, Suphat Vongvisessomjai

Abstract:

In this paper, the significant wave height at the Upper Gulf of Thailand and the changing of wave height at Bangkhuntien shoreline were simulated by using the Simulating WAves Nearshore Model (SWAN) version 40.51. The simulated results indicated that the significant wave height by SWAN model corresponded with the observed data. The results showed that the maximum significant wave height at the Bangkhuntien shoreline were 1.06-2.05 m. and the average significant wave height at the Bangkhuntien shoreline were 0.30-0.47 m. The significant wave height can be used to calculate the erosion through the Bangkhuntien shoreline. The erosion rates at the Bangkhuntien shoreline were prepared by using the aerial photo and they were about 1.80 m/yr. from 1980- 1986, 4.75 m/yr from 1987-1993, 15.28 m/yr from 1994-1996 and 10.03 m/yr from 1997-2002. The relation between the wave energy and the erosion were in good agreement. Therefore, the significant wave height was one of the major factors of the erosion at the Bangkhuntien shoreline.

Keywords: significant wave height, erosion, SWAN, relation, Bangkhuntien shoreline

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Authors: Alhasan Hakami, Arun Kumar, Sung J Shim, Yousef Abu Nahleh

Abstract:

In recent years, many high intensity earthquakes have occurred around the world, such as the 2011 earthquake in Tohoku, Japan. These large-scale disasters caused huge casualties and losses. In addition, inefficient disaster response operations also caused the second wave of casualties and losses, and expanded the damage. Effective disaster management can be used to respond to the chaotic situation, and reduce the damage; however, some inefficient disaster response operations are still used. Therefore, this case study chose the 921 earthquake for analyzing disaster emergency logistics problems and proposed the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) to solve disaster emergency logistics problems. Moreover, it analyses the effect of human factors on system operation, and suggests a solution to improve the system.

Keywords: Soft systems methodology, emergency logistics.

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Authors: Ali Samadi Afshar, Sayed Reaza Hashemi

Abstract:

In the gas refineries of Iran-s South Pars Gas Complex, Sulfrex demercaptanization process is used to remove volatile and corrosive mercaptans from liquefied petroleum gases by caustic solution. This process consists of two steps. Removing low molecular weight mercaptans and regeneration exhaust caustic. Some parameters such as LPG feed temperature, caustic concentration and feed-s mercaptan in extraction step and sodium mercaptide content in caustic, catalyst concentration, caustic temperature, air injection rate in regeneration step are effective factors. In this paper was focused on temperature factor that play key role in mercaptans extraction and caustic regeneration. The experimental results demonstrated by optimization of temperature, sodium mercaptide content in caustic because of good oxidation minimized and sulfur impurities in product reduced.

Keywords: Caustic regeneration, demercaptanization, LPG sweetening, mercaptan extraction, temperature.

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Authors: Payam Parvasi, Mohammad Hossein Sedaghat, Reza Janamiri, Amir Hatampour

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In this work, several ASP solutions were flooded into fractured models initially saturated with heavy oil at a constant flow rate and different geometrical characteristics of fracture. The ASP solutions are constituted from 2 polymers i.e. a synthetic polymer, hydrolyzed polyacrylamide as well as a biopolymer, a surfactant and 2types of alkaline. The results showed that using synthetic hydrolyzed polyacrylamide polymer increases ultimate oil recovery; however, type of alkaline does not play a significant rule on oil recovery. In addition, position of the injection well respect to the fracture system has remarkable effects on ASP flooding. For instance increasing angle of fractures with mean flow direction causes more oil recovery and delays breakthrough time. This work can be accounted as a comprehensive survey on ASP flooding which considers most of effective factors in this chemical EOR method.

Keywords: ASP Flooding, Fractured System, Displacement, Heavy Oil.

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Authors: Aaron Aboshio

Abstract:

Numerical study of the static response of homogeneous clay stratum considering a wide range of cohesion and subject to foundation loads is presented. The linear elastic–perfectly plastic constitutive relation with the von Mises yield criterion were utilised to develop a numerically cost effective finite element model for the soil while imposing a rigid body constrain to the foundation footing. From the analyses carried out, estimate of the bearing capacity factor, Nc as well as the ultimate load-carrying capacities of these soils, effect of cohesion on foundation settlements, stress fields and failure propagation were obtained. These are consistent with other findings in the literature and hence can be a useful guide in design of safe foundations in clay soils for buildings and other structure.

Keywords: Bearing capacity factors, finite element method, safe bearing pressure, structure-soil interaction.

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