Search results for: Family Relationship.

Authors: Parvinder S. Sandhu, Roma Jaswal, Sandeep Khimta, Shailendra Singh

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As the majority of faults are found in a few of its modules so there is a need to investigate the modules that are affected severely as compared to other modules and proper maintenance need to be done in time especially for the critical applications. As, Neural networks, which have been already applied in software engineering applications to build reliability growth models predict the gross change or reusability metrics. Neural networks are non-linear sophisticated modeling techniques that are able to model complex functions. Neural network techniques are used when exact nature of input and outputs is not known. A key feature is that they learn the relationship between input and output through training. In this present work, various Neural Network Based techniques are explored and comparative analysis is performed for the prediction of level of need of maintenance by predicting level severity of faults present in NASA-s public domain defect dataset. The comparison of different algorithms is made on the basis of Mean Absolute Error, Root Mean Square Error and Accuracy Values. It is concluded that Generalized Regression Networks is the best algorithm for classification of the software components into different level of severity of impact of the faults. The algorithm can be used to develop model that can be used for identifying modules that are heavily affected by the faults.

Keywords: Neural Network, Software faults, Software Metric.

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Authors: Zheng Zhang, Xin Chen, Guoqing Ding

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Electronic apex locators (EAL) has been widely used clinically for measuring root canal working length with high accuracy, which is crucial for successful endodontic treatment. In order to maintain high accuracy in different measurement environments, this study presented a system for root canal length measurement based on multifrequency impedance method. This measuring system can generate a sweep current with frequencies from 100 Hz to 1 MHz through a direct digital synthesizer. Multiple impedance ratios with different combinations of frequencies were obtained and transmitted by an analog-to-digital converter and several of them with representatives will be selected after data process. The system analyzed the functional relationship between these impedance ratios and the distance between the file and the apex with statistics by measuring plenty of teeth. The position of the apical foramen can be determined by the statistical model using these impedance ratios. The experimental results revealed that the accuracy of the system based on multifrequency impedance ratios method to determine the position of the apical foramen was higher than the dual-frequency impedance ratio method. Besides that, for more complex measurement environments, the performance of the system was more stable.

Keywords: Root canal length, apex locator, multifrequency impedance, sweep frequency.

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Authors: Rungchat Chompu-Inwai, Akararit Charoenkasemsuk

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The use of electronic sensors in the electronics industry has become increasingly popular over the past few years, and it has become a high competition product. The frequency adjustment process is regarded as one of the most important process in the electronic sensor manufacturing process. Due to inaccuracies in the frequency adjustment process, up to 80% waste can be caused due to rework processes; therefore, this study aims to provide a preliminary understanding of the role of parameters used in the frequency adjustment process, and also make suggestions in order to further improve performance. Four parameters are considered in this study: air pressure, dispensing time, vacuum force, and the distance between the needle tip and the product. A full factorial design for experiment 2k was considered to determine those parameters that significantly affect the accuracy of the frequency adjustment process, where a deviation in the frequency after adjustment and the target frequency is expected to be 0 kHz. The experiment was conducted on two levels, using two replications and with five center-points added. In total, 37 experiments were carried out. The results reveal that air pressure and dispensing time significantly affect the frequency adjustment process. The mathematical relationship between these two parameters was formulated, and the optimal parameters for air pressure and dispensing time were found to be 0.45 MPa and 458 ms, respectively. The optimal parameters were examined by carrying out a confirmation experiment in which an average deviation of 0.082 kHz was achieved.

Keywords: Design of Experiment, Electronic Sensor, Frequency Adjustment, Parametric Analysis

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Authors: Kamel Hashem, Ibrahim Arman

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Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in mathematical education is a very active field of research and innovation, where learning is understood to be meaningful and grasping multiple linked representation rather than rote memorization, a great amount of literature offering a wide range of theories, learning approaches, methodologies and interpretations, are generally stressing the potentialities for teaching and learning using ICT. Despite the utilization of new learning approaches with ICT, students experience difficulties in learning concepts relevant to understanding mathematics, much remains unclear about the relationship between the computer environment, the activities it might support, and the knowledge that might emerge from such activities. Many questions that might arise in this regard: to what extent does the use of ICT help students in the process of understanding and solving tasks or problems? Is it possible to identify what aspects or features of students' mathematical learning can be enhanced by the use of technology? This paper will highlight the interest of the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into the teaching and learning of mathematics (quadratic functions), it aims to investigate the effect of four instructional methods on students- mathematical understanding and problem solving. Quantitative and qualitative methods are used to report about 43 students in middle school. Results showed that mathematical thinking and problem solving evolves as students engage with ICT activities and learn cooperatively.

Keywords: Dynamic Geometry Software, Information and Communication Technologies, Visualization, Mathematical Education.

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Authors: Kanika Sood, Sijie Shang

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A fundamental goal of education includes preparing students to become a part of the global workforce by making beneficial contributions to society. In this paper, we analyze student performance for multiple courses that involve different teaching pedagogies: a cooperative learning technique and an inquiry-based learning strategy. Student performance includes student engagement, grades, and attendance records. We perform this study in the Computer Science department for online and in-person courses for 450 students. We will perform correlation analysis to study the relationship between student scores and other parameters such as gender, mode of learning. We use natural language processing and machine learning to analyze student feedback data and performance data. We assess the learning outcomes of two teaching pedagogies for undergraduate and graduate courses to showcase the impact of pedagogical adoption and learning outcome as determinants of academic achievement. Early findings suggest that when using the specified pedagogies, students become experts on their topics and illustrate enhanced engagement with peers.

Keywords: Bag-of-words, cooperative learning, education, inquiry-based learning, in-person learning, Natural Language Processing, online learning, sentiment analysis, teaching pedagogy.

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Authors: Jalaluddin Abdul Malek, Mohd Asruladlyi Ibrahim, Zurinah Tahir

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This paper is to reveal developments in the areas of urban technology in Malaysia. Developments occur intend to add value intelligent city development to the ubiquitous city (U-city) or smart city. The phenomenon of change is called the development of post intelligent cities. U-City development discourse is seen from the perspective of the philosophy of the virtuous city organized by al-Farabi. The prosperity and perfection of a city is mainly caused by human personality factors, as well as its relationship with material and technological aspects of the city. The question is, to what extent to which human factors are taken into account in the concept of U-City as an added value to the intelligent city concept to realize the prosperity and perfection of the city? Previously, the intelligent city concept was developed based on global change and ICT movement, while the U-city added value to the development of intelligent cities and focused more on the development of information and communications technology (ICT). Value added is defined as the use of fiber optic technology that is wired to the use of wireless technology, such as wireless broadband. In this discourse, the debate on the concept of U-City is to the symbiosis between the U-City and the importance of local human e-participation (U-Society) for prosperity. In the context of virtuous city philosophy, it supports the thought of symbiosis so the concept of U-City can achieve sustainability, prosperity and perfection of the city.

Keywords: Smart city, ubiquitous city, U-Society, e-participation, prosperity.

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Authors: Chongyang Ye, Rong Liu

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Compression textiles such as compression stockings (CSs) have been extensively applied for the prevention and treatment of chronic venous insufficiency of lower extremities. The involvement of multiple mechanical factors such as interface pressure, frictional force, and elastic materials make the interactions between lower limb and CSs to be complex. Determination of Poisson’s ratio and elastic moduli of CS materials are critical for constructing finite element (FE) modeling to numerically simulate a complex interactive system of CS and lower limb. In this study, a mixed approach, including an analytic model based on the orthotropic Hooke’s Law and experimental study (uniaxial tension testing and pure shear testing), has been proposed to determine Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, and shear modulus of CS fabrics. The results indicated a linear relationship existing between the stress and strain properties of the studied CS samples under controlled stretch ratios (< 100%). The proposed method and the determined key mechanical properties of elastic orthotropic CS fabrics facilitate FE modeling for analyzing in-depth the effects of compression material design on their resultant biomechanical function in compression therapy.

Keywords: Elastic compression stockings, Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, shear modulus, mechanical analysis.

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Authors: Bolajoko I. Malomo, Maryam O. Yusuf

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Lagos urban mini bus drivers play a critical role in the transportation sector. The current major mode of transportation within Lagos metropolis remains road transportation and this confirms the relevance of urban mini-bus drivers in transporting the populace to their various destinations. Other modes of transportation such as the train and waterways are currently inadequate. Various threats to the well-being of urban bus drivers include congested traffic typical of modern day lifestyles, dwindling financial returns due to long hours in traffic, fewer hours of sleep, inadequate diet, time pressure, and assaults related to fare disputes. Several healthrelated problems have been documented to be associated with urban bus driving. For instance, greater rates of hypertension, obesity and cholesterol level have been reported. Research studies are yet to identify the influence of age and marital status on the well-being of urban mini-bus drivers in Lagos metropolis. A study of this nature is necessary as it is culturally perceived in Nigeria that older and married people are especially influenced by family affiliation and would behave in ways that would project positive outcomes. The study sample consisted of 150 urban mini-bus drivers who were conveniently sampled from six (6) different terminuses where their journey begins and terminates. The well-being questionnaire was administered to participants. The criteria for inclusion in the study included the ability to read in English language and the confirmation that interested participants were on duty and suited to be driving mini-buses. Due to the nature of the job of bus driving, the researcher administered the questionnaires on participants who were free and willing to respond to the survey. All participants were males of various age groups and of different marital statuses. Results of analyses conducted revealed no significant influence of age and marital status on the well-being of urban mini-bus drivers. This indicates that the well-being of urban mini bus drivers is not influenced by age or marital status. The findings of this study have cultural implications. It negates the popularly held belief that older and married people care more about their well-being than younger and single people. It brings to fore the need to also identify and consider other factors when certifying people for the job of urban bus driving.

Keywords: Age, Lagos metropolis, marital status, well-being of urban mini bus drivers.

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Authors: Isaac O. Asante, Yushi Jiang, Hailin Tao

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Livestreaming marketing, the new electronic commerce element, has become an optional marketing channel following the COVID-19 pandemic, and many sellers are leveraging the features presented by livestreaming to increase sales. This study was conducted to measure real-time observable interactions between consumers and sellers. Based on the affordance theory, this study conceptualized constructs representing the interactive features and examined how they drive consumers’ purchase willingness during livestreaming sessions using 1238 datasets from Amazon Live, following the manual observation of transaction records. Using structural equation modeling, the ordinary least square regression suggests that live viewers, new followers, live chats, and likes positively affect purchase willingness. The Sobel and Monte Carlo tests show that new followers, live chats, and likes significantly mediate the relationship between live viewers and purchase willingness. The study presents a way of measuring interactions in livestreaming commerce and proposes a way to manually gather data on consumer behaviors in livestreaming platforms when the application programming interface (API) of such platforms does not support data mining algorithms.

Keywords: Livestreaming marketing, live chats, live viewers, likes, new followers, purchase willingness.

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Authors: Weiwen Li, Hao Huang, Chengmao You, Jianji Liao, Lei Wang, Lina An

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Zooplankton are a central issue in the ecology which makes a great contribution to maintaining the balance of an ecosystem. It is critical in promoting the material cycle and energy flow within the ecosystems. A generalized additive model (GAM) was applied to analyze the relationships between the density (individuals per m³) of zooplankton and other variables in West Daya Bay. All data used in this analysis (the survey month, survey station (longitude and latitude), the depth of the water column, the superficial concentration of chlorophyll a, the benthonic concentration of chlorophyll a, the number of zooplankton species and the number of zooplankton species) were collected through monthly scientific surveys during January to December 2016. GLM model (generalized linear model) was used to choose the significant variables’ impact on the density of zooplankton, and the GAM was employed to analyze the relationship between the density of zooplankton and the significant variables. The results showed that the density of zooplankton increased with an increase of the benthonic concentration of chlorophyll a, but decreased with a decrease in the depth of the water column. Both high numbers of zooplankton species and the overall total number of zooplankton individuals led to a higher density of zooplankton.

Keywords: Density, generalized linear model, generalized additive model, the West Daya Bay, zooplankton.

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Authors: Ali Ghaffari, A. Hosein Shamekhi, Akbar Saki, Ehsan Kamrani

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In order to meet the limits imposed on automotive emissions, engine control systems are required to constrain air/fuel ratio (AFR) in a narrow band around the stoichiometric value, due to the strong decay of catalyst efficiency in case of rich or lean mixture. This paper presents a model of a sample spark ignition engine and demonstrates Simulink-s capabilities to model an internal combustion engine from the throttle to the crankshaft output. We used welldefined physical principles supplemented, where appropriate, with empirical relationships that describe the system-s dynamic behavior without introducing unnecessary complexity. We also presents a PID tuning method that uses an adaptive fuzzy system to model the relationship between the controller gains and the target output response, with the response specification set by desired percent overshoot and settling time. The adaptive fuzzy based input-output model is then used to tune on-line the PID gains for different response specifications. Experimental results demonstrate that better performance can be achieved with adaptive fuzzy tuning relative to similar alternative control strategies. The actual response specifications with adaptive fuzzy matched the desired response specifications.

Keywords: Modelling, Air–fuel ratio control, SI engine, Adaptive fuzzy Control.

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Authors: Goh Yung Hong, Mona Masood

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This paper explores the effects of gamification on lower secondary school students’ motivation and engagement in the classroom. Two-group posttest-only experimental design were employed to study the influence of gamification teaching method (GTM) when compared with conventional teaching method (CTM) on 60 lower secondary school students. The Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) and Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) were used to assess students’ intrinsic motivation and engagement level towards the respective teaching method. Finding indicates that students who completed the GTM lesson were significantly higher in intrinsic motivation to learn than those from the CTM. Although the result were insignificant and only marginal difference in the engagement mean, GTM still show better potential in raising student’s engagement in class when compared with CTM. This finding proves that the GTM is likely to solve the current issue of low motivation to learn and low engagement in class among lower secondary school students in Malaysia. On the other hand, despite being not significant, higher mean indicates that CTM positively contribute to higher peer support for learning and better teacher and student relationship when compared with GTM. As a conclusion, gamification approach is flexible and can be adapted into many learning content to enhance the intrinsic motivation to learn and to some extent, encourage better student engagement in class.

Keywords: Conventional teaching method, Gamification teaching method, Motivation, Engagement.

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Authors: Zahraa Albasry, Hadeel D. Najim, Anmar Al-Taie

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Background: Hypertension is considered as one of the most important causes of cardiovascular complications and one of the leading causes of worldwide mortality. Identifying the potential risk factors associated with this medical health problem plays an important role in minimizing its incidence and related complications. The objective of this study is to explore the prevalence of receptor sensitivity regarding assess and understand the perception of specific predictive confounding factors on the prevalence of hypertension (HT) among a sample of Iraqi population in Baghdad, Iraq. Materials and Methods: A randomized cross sectional study was carried out on 100 adult subjects during their visit to the outpatient clinic at a certain sector of Baghdad Province, Iraq. Demographic, clinical and health records alongside specific screening and laboratory tests of the participants were collected and analyzed to detect the potential of confounding factors on the prevalence of HT. Results: 63% of the study participants suffered from HT, most of them were female patients (P < 0.005). Patients aged between 41-50 years old significantly suffered from HT than other age groups (63.5%, P < 0.001). 88.9% of the participants were obese (P < 0.001) and 47.6% had diabetes with HT. Positive family history and sedentary lifestyle were significantly higher among all hypertensive groups (P < 0.05). High salt and fatty food intake was significantly found among patients suffered from isolated systolic hypertension (ISHT) (P < 0.05). A significant positive correlation between packed cell volume (PCV) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) (r = 0.353, P = 0.048) found among normotensive participants. Among hypertensive patients, a positive significant correlation found between triglycerides (TG) and both SBP (r = 0.484, P = 0.031) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (r = 0.463, P = 0.040), while low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c) showed a positive significant correlation with DBP (r = 0.443, P = 0.021). Conclusion: The prevalence of HT among Iraqi populations is of major concern. Further consideration is required to detect the impact of potential risk factors and to minimize blood pressure (BP) elevation and reduce the risk of other cardiovascular complications later in life.

Keywords: Correlation, hypertension, Iraq, risk factors.

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Authors: Madhusudan Purohit, Stephen Philip, Bharathkumar Inturi

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In this paper we report the quantitative structure activity relationship of novel bis-triazole derivatives for predicting the activity profile. The full model encompassed a dataset of 46 Bis- triazoles. Tripos Sybyl X 2.0 program was used to conduct CoMSIA QSAR modeling. The Partial Least-Squares (PLS) analysis method was used to conduct statistical analysis and to derive a QSAR model based on the field values of CoMSIA descriptor. The compounds were divided into test and training set. The compounds were evaluated by various CoMSIA parameters to predict the best QSAR model. An optimum numbers of components were first determined separately by cross-validation regression for CoMSIA model, which were then applied in the final analysis. A series of parameters were used for the study and the best fit model was obtained using donor, partition coefficient and steric parameters. The CoMSIA models demonstrated good statistical results with regression coefficient (r²) and the cross-validated coefficient (q²) of 0.575 and 0.830 respectively. The standard error for the predicted model was 0.16322. In the CoMSIA model, the steric descriptors make a marginally larger contribution than the electrostatic descriptors. The finding that the steric descriptor is the largest contributor for the CoMSIA QSAR models is consistent with the observation that more than half of the binding site area is occupied by steric regions.

Keywords: 3D QSAR, CoMSIA, Triazoles.

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Authors: Grygorii Kostromin, Vladyslav Povoroznyuk

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Chronic venous diseases (CVD) are one of the common, though controversial problems in medicine. It is generally accepted that this pathology predominantly occurs in women. The issue of excessive weight as a risk factor for CVD is still considered debatable. To the author's best knowledge, today in Ukraine, there are barely any studies that describe the relationship between CVD and obesity. Our study aims to determine the association between age, body composition, obesity and CVD in postmenopausal women. The study was conducted in D. F. Chebotarev Institute of Gerontology, National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine. We have examined 96 postmenopausal women aged 46-85 years (mean age – 66.19 ± 0.96 years), who were divided into two groups depending on the presence of CVD. The women were examined by vascular surgeons. For the diagnosis of CVD, we used clinical, anatomic and pathophysiologic classifications. We also performed clinical, ultrasound and densitometry examinations. We found that the CVD frequency in postmenopausal women increased with age (from 72% in those aged 45-59 years to 84% in those aged 75-89 years). A significant correlation between the total fat mass and age was determined in postmenopausal women with CVD. We also observed a significant correlation between the lower extremities’ fat mass and age in both examined groups. A significant correlation between body mass index and age was determined only in postmenopausal women without CVD.

Keywords: Chronic venous disease, risk factors, age, obesity, postmenopausal women.

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Authors: Chetan R. Patel, G. J. Joshi

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Present study is carried out on six lane divided urban arterial road in Patna and Pune city of India. Both the road having distinct differences in terms of the vehicle composition and the road side parking. Arterial road in Patan city has 33% of non-motorized mode, whereas Pune arterial road dominated by 65% of Two wheeler. Also road side parking is observed in Patna city. The field studies using videography techniques are carried out for traffic data collection. Data are extracted for one minute duration for vehicle composition, speed variation and flow rate on selected arterial road of the two cities. Speed flow relationship is developed and capacity is determine. Equivalency factor in terms of dynamic car unit is determine to represent the vehicle is single unit. The variation in the capacity due to side friction, presence of non motorized traffic and effective utilization of lane width is compared at concluding remarks.

Keywords: Arterial Road, Capacity, Dynamic Equivalency Factor, Effect of Non motorized mode, Side friction.

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Authors: N. Fujisaka

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This sociological case study analyzes a sequence of student maltreatment in an elementary school in Japan, based on narratives from former students. Among various forms of student maltreatment, emotional maltreatment has received less attention. One reason for this is that emotional maltreatment is often considered part of education and is difficult to capture in surveys. To discuss the challenge of recognizing emotional maltreatment, it is necessary to consider the social background in which student maltreatment occurs. Therefore, from the perspective of the sociology of education, this study aims to clarify the process through which emotional maltreatment was embraced by students within a Japanese classroom. The research employs retrospective narrative data collected through interviews and autoethnography. The research results imply a pattern of emotional maltreatment that is challenging to differentiate from education. The finding is analyzed and discussed in conjunction with the cycle of violence theory and the deschooling theory. The cycle of violence theory explains how violence in a specific relationship can be tolerated. The deschooling theory provides a sociological explanation for how emotional maltreatment can be overlooked in society. Analyzing the case in association with these two theories highlights the characteristics of teachers’ behaviors that rationalize maltreatment as education and hinder students from escaping emotional maltreatment. This study deepens our understanding of the causes of student maltreatment and provides a perspective for future qualitative and quantitative research.

Keywords: Emotional maltreatment, education, student maltreatment, Japan.

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Authors: Julinda Keçi

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In many countries, governments have been promoting the involvement of private sector entities to enter into long-term agreements for the development and delivery of large infrastructure projects, with a focus on overcoming the limitations upon public fund of the traditional approach. The involvement of private sector through public private partnerships (PPP) brings in new capital investments, value for money and additional risks to handle. Worldwide research studies have shown that an objective, systematic, reliable and useroriented risk assessment process and an optimal allocation mechanism among different stakeholders is crucial to the successful completion. In this framework, this paper, which is the first stage of a research study, aims to identify the main risks for the delivery of PPP projects. A review of cross-countries research projects and case studies was performed to map the key risks affecting PPP infrastructure delivery. The matrix of mapping offers a summary of the frequency of factors, clustered in eleven categories: construction, design, economic, legal, market, natural, operation, political, project finance, project selection and relationship. Results will highlight the most critical risk factors, and will hopefully assist the project managers in directing the managerial attention in the further stages of risk allocation.

Keywords: Construction, infrastructure, public private partnerships, risks.

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Authors: Marisa Catarina da Conceição Dinis

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The commercial companies’ management has suffered an important material and legal transformation in the last years, mainly related to the changes in the Portuguese legal framework and because of the fact they were recently object of great expansion. In fact, next to the smaller family businesses, whose management is regularly assumed by partners, companies with social investment highly scattered, whose owners are completely out from administration, are now arising. In those particular cases, the business transactions are much more complex and require from the companies’ managers a highly technical knowledge and some specific professionals’ skills and abilities. This kind of administration carries a high-level risk that can both result in great success or in great losses. Knowing that the administration performance can result in important losses to the companies, the Portuguese legislator has created a legal structure to impute them some responsibilities and sanctions. The main goal of this study is to analyze the Portuguese law and some jurisprudence about companies’ management rules and about the conflicts between the directors and the company. In order to achieve these purposes we have to consider, on the one hand, the legal duties directly connected to the directors’ functions and on the other hand the disrespect for those same rules. The Portuguese law in this matter, influenced by the common law, determines that the directors’ attitude should be guided by loyalty and honesty. Consequently, we must reflect in which cases the administrators should respond to losses that they might cause to companies as a result of their duties’ disrespect. In this way is necessary to study the business judgment rule wich is a rule that refers to a liability exclusion rule. We intend, in the same way, to evaluate if the civil liability that results from the directors’ duties disrespect can extend itself to those who have elected them ignoring or even knowing that they don´t have the necessary skills or appropriate knowledge to the position they hold. To charge directors’, without ruining entrepreneurship, charging, in the same way, those who select them reinforces the need for more responsible and cautious attitudes which will lead consequently to more confidence in the markets.

Keywords: Duty of loyalty, duty of care, business judgment rule, civil liability of directors.

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Authors: Sh. Khoshemehry, M. E. Bahram, M. J. Pourvaghar

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Sport has found a special place as an effective phenomenon in all societies of the contemporary world. The relationship between physical activity and exercise with different sciences has provided new fields for human study. The range of issues related to exercise and physical education is such that it requires specialized sciences and special studies. In this article, the psychological and social sections of exercise have been investigated for children and adults. It can be used for anyone in different age groups. Exercise and regular physical movements have a great impact on the mental and social health of the individual in addition to body health. It affects the individual's adaptability in society and his/her personality. Exercise affects the treatment of diseases such as depression, anxiety, stress, body image, and memory. Exercise is a safe haven for young people to achieve the optimum human development in its shelter. The effects of sensorimotor skills on mental actions and mental development are such a way that many psychologists and sports science experts believe these activities should be included in training programs in the first place. Familiarity of students and scholars with different programs and methods of sensorimotor activities not only causes their mental actions; but also increases mental health and vitality, enhances self-confidence and, therefore, mental health.

Keywords: Anxiety, mental health, physical activity, serotonin.

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Authors: Sónia Alves

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During the last few decades in the academic field, the debate has increased on the effects of social geography on the opportunities of socioeconomic integration. On one hand, it has been discussed how the contents of the urban structure and social geography affect not only the way people interact, but also their chances of social and economic integration. On the other hand, it has also been discussed how the urban structure is also constrained and transformed by the action of social actors. Without questioning the powerful influence of structural factors, related to the logic of the production system, labor markets, education and training, the research has shown the role played by place of residence in shaping individual outcomes such as unemployment. In the context of this debate the importance of territory of residence with respect to the problem of unemployment has been highlighted. Although statistics of unemployment have already demonstrated the unequal incidence of the phenomenon in social groups, the issue of uneven territorial impact on the phenomenon at intra-urban level remains relatively unknown. The purpose of this article is to show and to interpret the spatial patterns of unemployment in the city of Porto using GIS (Geographic Information System - GIS) technology. Under this analysis the overlap of the spatial patterns of unemployment with the spatial distribution of social housing, allows the discussion of the relationship that occurs between these patterns and the reasons that might explain the relative immutability of socioeconomic problems in some neighborhoods.

Keywords: Unemployment, area effects, urban planning, Porto.

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Authors: Yusuff Idowu Moshood, Sanni Mohammed

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Natural radiations such as ultraviolet (UV) radiation sourced from sun are known to be the main causes of skin cancer, sunburn, eye damage, premature aging of skin and other skin related diseases. Its percentage of radiation reaching the earth populace and its impacts are not well known. Its variability in near-surface relating to its impacts on populace depends on some atmospheric parameters. Hence, this work was embarked on to determine the variability in near-surface UV radiation and its dependency on some atmospheric parameters at different time of the day in Offa, Nigeria. The variability was determined using the data obtained from meteorological garden, Science Laboratory Technology Department, Federal Polytechnic Offa, Nigeria. The data obtained were solar UV radiation, solar radiation, temperature, humidity and pressure at 30 minutes interval. Relationships were determined and correlations were derived using SPSS Pearson Correlation tool. The results showed a significant level of correlation with p-value of 0.01 and 0.05 levels. Thus, the results revealed some good relationships between the solar UV radiation and other atmospheric parameters with significance level less than p-value obtained. Inferentially, interdependent relationships were found to exist. Therefore, the nature of relationship obtained could be a yardstick for decision making in short term environmental planning on solar UV radiation depending of some atmospheric parameters within Offa locality.

Keywords: Correlation, inferential, radiation, yardstick.

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Authors: Zhenzhen Xu, Chunfu Shao, Shengyou Wang, Chunjiao Dong

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To improve the satisfaction of residents' travel, this paper analyzes the characteristics and influencing factors of urban residents' travel behavior. First, a Multinominal Logit Model (MNL) model is built to analyze the characteristics of residents' travel behavior, reveal the influence of individual attributes, family attributes and travel characteristics on the choice of travel mode, and identify the significant factors. Then put forward suggestions for policy improvement. Finally, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) models are introduced to evaluate the policy effect. This paper selects Futian Street in Futian District, Shenzhen City for investigation and research. The results show that gender, age, education, income, number of cars owned, travel purpose, departure time, journey time, travel distance and times all have a significant influence on residents' choice of travel mode. Based on the above results, two policy improvement suggestions are put forward from reducing public transportation and non-motor vehicle travel time, and the policy effect is evaluated. Before the evaluation, the prediction effect of MNL, SVM and MLP models was evaluated. After parameter optimization, it was found that the prediction accuracy of the three models was 72.80%, 71.42%, and 76.42%, respectively. The MLP model with the highest prediction accuracy was selected to evaluate the effect of policy improvement. The results showed that after the implementation of the policy, the proportion of public transportation in plan 1 and plan 2 increased by 14.04% and 9.86%, respectively, while the proportion of private cars decreased by 3.47% and 2.54%, respectively. The proportion of car trips decreased obviously, while the proportion of public transport trips increased. It can be considered that the measures have a positive effect on promoting green trips and improving the satisfaction of urban residents, and can provide a reference for relevant departments to formulate transportation policies.

Keywords: Travel characteristics analysis, transportation choice, travel sharing rate, neural network model, traffic resource allocation.

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Authors: A. Alseiari, P. Farrell

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Maintenance has evolved into an imperative function, and contributes significantly to efficient and effective equipment performance. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is an ideal approach to support the development and implementation of operation performance improvement. It systematically aims to understand the function of equipment, the service quality relationship with equipment and the probable critical equipment failure conditions. Implementation of TPM programmes need strategic planning and there has been little research applied in this area within Middle-East power plants. In the power sector of Abu Dhabi, technologically and strategically, the power industry is extremely important, and it thus needs effective and efficient equipment management support. The aim of this paper is to investigate barriers to successful TPM implementation in the Abu Dhabi power industry. The study has been conducted in the context of a leading power company in the UAE. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 employees, including maintenance and operation staff, and senior managers. The findings of this research identified seven key barriers, thus: managerial; organisational; cultural; financial; educational; communications; and auditing. With respect to the understanding of these barriers and obstacles in TPM implementation, the findings can contribute towards improved equipment operations and maintenance in power organisations.

Keywords: Abu Dhabi power industry, TPM implementation, key barriers, organisational culture, critical success factors.

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Authors: Aktan Ozsoy, Ali Fırat Cabalar, Eyyub Karakan

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Climate change is one of the biggest issues facing communities. Increasing population, growing economies, rapid industrialization are the main factors triggering it. On the other hand, the millions of tons of waste have generated by the period of rapid global growth not only harm to the environment but also lead to the use of valuable lands around the world as landfill sites. Moreover, it is rapidly consuming our resources and this forces the human population and wildlife to share increasingly shrinking space. In this direction, it is vital to reuse waste materials with a sustainability philosophy. This study was carried out to contribute to the combat against climate change, conserve our natural resources and the environment. An oedometer (consolidation) test was performed on two waste materials combined in certain proportions to evaluate their sustainable usage. Crushed brick dust (BD) was mixed with rock powder (RP) in 0%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% (dry weight of soil). The results obtained revealed the importance of the gradation of the material used in the consolidation test. It was found that there was a negligible difference between the initial and final void ratio of mixtures with BD added.

Keywords: Waste material, oedometer test, environmental geotechnics, sustainability, crushed brick dust, rock powder.

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Authors: Ishapathik Das

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The purpose of this article is to find a method of comparing designs for ordinal regression models using quantile dispersion graphs in the presence of linear predictor misspecification. The true relationship between response variable and the corresponding control variables are usually unknown. Experimenter assumes certain form of the linear predictor of the ordinal regression models. The assumed form of the linear predictor may not be correct always. Thus, the maximum likelihood estimates (MLE) of the unknown parameters of the model may be biased due to misspecification of the linear predictor. In this article, the uncertainty in the linear predictor is represented by an unknown function. An algorithm is provided to estimate the unknown function at the design points where observations are available. The unknown function is estimated at all points in the design region using multivariate parametric kriging. The comparison of the designs are based on a scalar valued function of the mean squared error of prediction (MSEP) matrix, which incorporates both variance and bias of the prediction caused by the misspecification in the linear predictor. The designs are compared using quantile dispersion graphs approach. The graphs also visually depict the robustness of the designs on the changes in the parameter values. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the proposed methodology.

Keywords: Model misspecification, multivariate kriging, multivariate logistic link, ordinal response models, quantile dispersion graphs.

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Authors: Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, Vasilis Peristeras, Ioannis Magnisalis

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Organizations, including governments, generate (big) data that are high in volume, velocity, veracity, and come from a variety of sources. Public Administrations are using (big) data, implementing base registries, and enforcing data sharing within the entire government to deliver (big) data related integrated services, provision of insights to users, and for good governance. Government (Big) data ecosystem actors represent distinct entities that provide data, consume data, manipulate data to offer paid services, and extend data services like data storage, hosting services to other actors. In this research work, we perform a systematic literature review. The key objectives of this paper are to propose a robust definition of government (big) data ecosystem and a classification of government (big) data ecosystem actors and their roles. We showcase a graphical view of actors, roles, and their relationship in the government (big) data ecosystem. We also discuss our research findings. We did not find too much published research articles about the government (big) data ecosystem, including its definition and classification of actors and their roles. Therefore, we lent ideas for the government (big) data ecosystem from numerous areas that include scientific research data, humanitarian data, open government data, industry data, in the literature.

Keywords: Big data, big data ecosystem, classification of big data actors, big data actors roles, definition of government (big) data ecosystem, data-driven government, eGovernment, gaps in data ecosystems, government (big) data, public administration, systematic literature review.

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Authors: Ekin Kıpçak, Mesut Akgün

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Recently, a growing interest has emerged on the development of new and efficient energy sources, due to the inevitable extinction of the nonrenewable energy reserves. One of these alternative sources which have a great potential and sustainability to meet up the energy demand is biomass energy. This significant energy source can be utilized with various energy conversion technologies, one of which is biomass gasification in supercritical water.

Water, being the most important solvent in nature, has very important characteristics as a reaction solvent under supercritical circumstances. At temperatures above its critical point (374.8^oC and 22.1MPa), water becomes more acidic and its diffusivity increases. Working with water at high temperatures increases the thermal reaction rate, which in consequence leads to a better dissolving of the organic matters and a fast reaction with oxygen. Hence, supercritical water offers a control mechanism depending on solubility, excellent transport properties based on its high diffusion ability and new reaction possibilities for hydrolysis or oxidation.

In this study the gasification of a real biomass, namely olive mill wastewater (OMW), in supercritical water conditions is investigated with the use of Ru/Al₂O₃ catalyst. OMW is a by-product obtained during olive oil production, which has a complex nature characterized by a high content of organic compounds and polyphenols. These properties impose OMW a significant pollution potential, but at the same time, the high content of organics makes OMW a desirable biomass candidate for energy production.

The catalytic gasification experiments were made with five different reaction temperatures (400, 450, 500, 550 and 600°C) and five reaction times (30, 60, 90, 120 and 150s), under a constant pressure of 25MPa. Through these experiments, the effects of reaction temperature and time on the gasification yield, gaseous product composition and OMW treatment efficiency were investigated.

Keywords: Catalyst, Gasification, Olive mill wastewater, Ru/Al2O3, Supercritical water.

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Authors: Gulam Mohiuddin, Jan-Peter Mund

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This study assessed the correlation between Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) in Phnom Penh City (Cambodia) from 2016 to 2020. Understanding the LST and NDVI can be helpful to understand the Urban Heat Island (UHI) scenario, and it can contribute to planning urban greening and combating the effects of UHI. The study used Landsat-8 images as the data for analysis. They have 100 m spatial resolution (per pixel) in the thermal band. The current study used an approach for the statistical analysis that considers every pixel from the study area instead of taking few sample points or analyzing descriptive statistics. Also, this study is examining the correlation between NDVI and LST with a spatially explicit approach. The study found a strong negative correlation between NDVI and LST (coefficient range -0.56 to -0.59), and this relationship is linear. This study showed a way to avoid the probable error from the sample-based approach in examining two spatial variables. The method is reproducible for a similar type of analysis on the correlation between spatial phenomena. The findings of this study will be used further to understand the causation behind LST change in that area triangulating LST, NDVI and land-use changes.

Keywords: Land Surface Temperature, NDVI, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, remote sensing, methodological development.

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Authors: Danuvasin Charoen

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This research investigates cluster development in the area called the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), which consists of Thailand, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Myanmar, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Cambodia, and Vietnam. The study utilized Porter’s competitiveness theory and the cluster mapping approach to analyze the competitiveness of the region. The data collection consists of interviews, focus groups, and the analysis of secondary data. The findings identify some evidence of cluster development in the GMS; however, there is no clear indication of collaboration among the components in the clusters. GMS clusters tend to be stand-alone. The clusters in Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Cambodia tend to be labor intensive, whereas the clusters in Thailand and the PRC (Yunnan) have the potential to successfully develop into innovative clusters. The collaboration and integration among the clusters in the GMS area are promising, though it could take a long time. The most likely relationship between the GMS countries could be, for example, suppliers of the low-end, labor-intensive products will be located in the low income countries such as Myanmar, Lao PDR, and Cambodia, and these countries will be providing input materials for innovative clusters in the middle income countries such as Thailand and the PRC.

Keywords: Greater Mekong Subregion, competitiveness, cluster, development.

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