Search results for: group dynamics
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2312

Search results for: group dynamics

662 Physical Education in the Brazilian Educational Law and National Curriculum Guidelines

Authors: Aline Dessupoio Chaves, Carla N. Luguetti, Michele Viviene Carbinatto

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The aim of this study was to establish the relationship between the principles of Educational Sport and the objectives of Physical Education in two brasilian laws: National Curriculum Guidelines (PCNs) for the Elementary and Middle School Levels and the Guidelines and Basis Legislation (LDB). The method used was the survey analysis in order to determine the practices present in, or the opinions of, a specific population. The instrument used in this research was a questionnaire. After a broad review of the bibliography and according to the methodological procedures, the aim was to set the relationships between the Principles of Educational Sport and the objectives of Physical Education, according to the Brazilian Law (LDB) and National Curriculum Guidelines (PCNs) in a table made under the analysis of a group of specialists. As the relation between the principles of Educational Sport and the objectives of School Physical Education have shown, we can state that School Physical Education has gained pedagogical security for the potential use of Educational Sport as part of its contents.

Keywords: Educational sport, physical education, education.

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661 The Environmental Conservation Behavior of the Applied Health Science Students of Green and Clean University

Authors: Nareelux Suwannobol, Plernpit Promrak, Kiattisak Batsungnoen

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The aim of this study was to investigate the environmental conservation behavior of the Applied Health Science students of Suranaree University of Technology, a green and clean university. The sample group was 184 Applied Health Science students (medical, nursing, and public health). A questionnaire was used to collect information. The result of the study found that the students had more negative than positive behaviors towards energy, water, and forest conservation. This result can be used as basic information for designing long-term behavior modification activities or research projects on environmental conservation. Thus Applied Health Science students will be encouraged to be conscious and also be a good example of environmental conservation behavior.

Keywords: Energy conservation behavior, Water conservationbehavior, Forest conservation behavior, Green and clean University.

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660 The Lymphocytes Number in the Blood of Kwashiorkor Rat Model Induced by Oral Immunization with 38-kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis Protein

Authors: Novi Khila Firani, Elisa Nesdyaningtyas

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Kwashiorkor is one of nutritional problem in Indonesia, which lead to decrease immune system. This condition causes susceptibility to infectious disease, especially tuberculosis. Development of new tuberculosis vaccine will be an important strategy to eliminate tuberculosis in kwashiorkor. Previous research showed that 38-kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein is one of the potent immunogen. However, the role of oral immunization with 38- kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein to the number of lymphocytes in the rat model of kwashiorkor is still unknown. We used kwashiorkor rat model groups with 4% and 2% low protein diet. Oral immunization with 38-kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein given with 2 booster every week. The lymphocytes number were measured by flowcytometry. There was no significant difference between the number of lymphocytes in the normal rat group and the kwashiorkor rat groups. It may reveal the role of 38-kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein as a potent immunogen that can increase the lymphocytes number from kwashiorkor rat model same as normal rat.

Keywords: kwashiorkor rat, lymphocytes, 38-kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein

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659 Integration of Big Data to Predict Transportation for Smart Cities

Authors: Sun-Young Jang, Sung-Ah Kim, Dongyoun Shin

Abstract:

The Intelligent transportation system is essential to build smarter cities. Machine learning based transportation prediction could be highly promising approach by delivering invisible aspect visible. In this context, this research aims to make a prototype model that predicts transportation network by using big data and machine learning technology. In detail, among urban transportation systems this research chooses bus system.  The research problem that existing headway model cannot response dynamic transportation conditions. Thus, bus delay problem is often occurred. To overcome this problem, a prediction model is presented to fine patterns of bus delay by using a machine learning implementing the following data sets; traffics, weathers, and bus statues. This research presents a flexible headway model to predict bus delay and analyze the result. The prototyping model is composed by real-time data of buses. The data are gathered through public data portals and real time Application Program Interface (API) by the government. These data are fundamental resources to organize interval pattern models of bus operations as traffic environment factors (road speeds, station conditions, weathers, and bus information of operating in real-time). The prototyping model is designed by the machine learning tool (RapidMiner Studio) and conducted tests for bus delays prediction. This research presents experiments to increase prediction accuracy for bus headway by analyzing the urban big data. The big data analysis is important to predict the future and to find correlations by processing huge amount of data. Therefore, based on the analysis method, this research represents an effective use of the machine learning and urban big data to understand urban dynamics.

Keywords: Big data, bus headway prediction, machine learning, public transportation.

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658 Grouping-Based Job Scheduling Model In Grid Computing

Authors: Vishnu Kant Soni, Raksha Sharma, Manoj Kumar Mishra

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Grid computing is a high performance computing environment to solve larger scale computational applications. Grid computing contains resource management, job scheduling, security problems, information management and so on. Job scheduling is a fundamental and important issue in achieving high performance in grid computing systems. However, it is a big challenge to design an efficient scheduler and its implementation. In Grid Computing, there is a need of further improvement in Job Scheduling algorithm to schedule the light-weight or small jobs into a coarse-grained or group of jobs, which will reduce the communication time, processing time and enhance resource utilization. This Grouping strategy considers the processing power, memory-size and bandwidth requirements of each job to realize the real grid system. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheduling algorithm efficiently reduces the processing time of jobs in comparison to others.

Keywords: Grid computing, Job grouping and Jobscheduling.

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657 Maintenance Management System for Upstream Operations in Oil and Gas Industry: Case Study

Authors: Wan Hasrulnizzam Wan Mahmood, Mohd Nizam Ab Rahman, Husiah Mazli, Baba Md Deros

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This paper explores the plant maintenance management system that has been used by giant oil and gas company in Malaysia. The system also called as PMMS used to manage the upstream operations for more than 100 plants of the case study company. Moreover, from the observations, focus group discussion with PMMS personnel and application through simulation (SAP R/3), the paper reviews the step-by-step approach and the elements that required for the PMMS. The findings show that the PMMS integrates the overall business strategy in upstream operations that consist of asset management, work management and performance management. In addition, PMMS roles are to help operations personnel organize and plan their daily activities, to improve productivity and reduce equipment downtime and to help operations management analyze the facilities and create performance, and to provide and maintain the operational effectiveness of the facilities.

Keywords: Maintenance, Oil and Gas Industry, Upstream Operations

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656 Identifying and Analyzing the Role of Brand Loyalty towards Incumbent Smartphones in New Branded Smartphone Adoption: Approach by Dual Process Theory

Authors: Lee Woong-Kyu

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Fierce competition in smartphone market may encourage users to switch brands when buying a new smartphone. However, many smartphone users continue to use the same brand although other branded smartphones are perceived to be more attractive. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the effects of brand loyalty toward incumbent smartphone on new smartphone adoption. For this purpose, a research model including two hypotheses, the positive effect on rational judgments and the negative effect on rational judgments, are proposed based on the dual process theory. For the validation of the research model, the data was collected by surveying Korean university students and tested by the group comparison between high and low brand loyalty. The results show that the two hypotheses were statistically supported.

Keywords: Brand loyalty, dual process theory, incumbent smartphone, smartphone adoption.

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655 Optimal Preventive Maintenance of the Reserve Source in the Industrial Electric Network

Authors: M. Bouguerra, H. Meglouli, I. Habi

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The great majority of the electric installations belong to the first and second category. In order to ensure a high level of reliability of their electric system feeder, two power supply sources are envisaged, one principal, the other of reserve, generally a cold reserve (electric diesel group). The principal source being under operation, its control can be ideal and sure, however for the reserve source being in stop, a preventive maintenance-s which proceeds on time intervals (periodicity) and for well defined lengths of time are envisaged, so that this source will always available in case of the principal source failure. The choice of the periodicity of preventive maintenance of the source of reserve influences directly the reliability of the electric feeder system. On the basis of the semi-markovians processes, the influence of the periodicity of the preventive maintenance of the source of reserve is studied and is given the optimal periodicity.

Keywords: Semi Markovians processes, reliability, optimization, electric network.

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654 Code-Switching in Facebook Chatting Among Maldivian Teenagers

Authors: Aaidha Hammad

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This study examines the phenomenon of code switching among teenagers in the Maldives while they carry out conversations through Facebook in the form of “Facebook Chatting”. The current study aims at evaluating the frequency of code-switching and it investigates between what languages code-switching occurs. Besides the study identifies the types of words that are often codeswitched and the triggers for code switching. The methodology used in this study is mixed method of qualitative and quantitative approach. In this regard, the chat log of a group conversation between 10 teenagers was collected and analyzed. A questionnaire was also administered through online to 24 different teenagers from different corners of the Maldives. The age of teenagers ranged between 16 and 19 years. The findings of the current study revealed that while Maldivian teenagers chat in Facebook they very often code switch and these switches are most commonly between Dhivehi and English, but some other languages are also used to some extent. It also identified the different types of words that are being often code switched among the teenagers. Most importantly it explored different reasons behind code switching among the Maldivian teenagers in Facebook chatting.

Keywords: Code-switching, Facebook, Facebook chatting Maldivian teenagers.

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653 Adapting Tools for Text Monitoring and for Scenario Analysis Related to the Field of Social Disasters

Authors: Svetlana Cojocaru, Mircea Petic, Inga Titchiev

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Humanity faces more and more often with different social disasters, which in turn can generate new accidents and catastrophes. To mitigate their consequences, it is important to obtain early possible signals about the events which are or can occur and to prepare the corresponding scenarios that could be applied. Our research is focused on solving two problems in this domain: identifying signals related that an accident occurred or may occur and mitigation of some consequences of disasters. To solve the first problem, methods of selecting and processing texts from global network Internet are developed. Information in Romanian is of special interest for us. In order to obtain the mentioned tools, we should follow several steps, divided into preparatory stage and processing stage. Throughout the first stage, we manually collected over 724 news articles and classified them into 10 categories of social disasters. It constitutes more than 150 thousand words. Using this information, a controlled vocabulary of more than 300 keywords was elaborated, that will help in the process of classification and identification of the texts related to the field of social disasters. To solve the second problem, the formalism of Petri net has been used. We deal with the problem of inhabitants’ evacuation in useful time. The analysis methods such as reachability or coverability tree and invariants technique to determine dynamic properties of the modeled systems will be used. To perform a case study of properties of extended evacuation system by adding time, the analysis modules of PIPE such as Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets (GSPN) Analysis, Simulation, State Space Analysis, and Invariant Analysis have been used. These modules helped us to obtain the average number of persons situated in the rooms and the other quantitative properties and characteristics related to its dynamics.

Keywords: Lexicon of disasters, modelling, Petri nets, text annotation, social disasters.

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652 A Comparison between Heuristic and Meta-Heuristic Methods for Solving the Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem

Authors: San Nah Sze, Wei King Tiong

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The multiple traveling salesman problem (mTSP) can be used to model many practical problems. The mTSP is more complicated than the traveling salesman problem (TSP) because it requires determining which cities to assign to each salesman, as well as the optimal ordering of the cities within each salesman's tour. Previous studies proposed that Genetic Algorithm (GA), Integer Programming (IP) and several neural network (NN) approaches could be used to solve mTSP. This paper compared the results for mTSP, solved with Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Nearest Neighbor Algorithm (NNA). The number of cities is clustered into a few groups using k-means clustering technique. The number of groups depends on the number of salesman. Then, each group is solved with NNA and GA as an independent TSP. It is found that k-means clustering and NNA are superior to GA in terms of performance (evaluated by fitness function) and computing time.

Keywords: Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem, GeneticAlgorithm, Nearest Neighbor Algorithm, k-Means Clustering.

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651 Media and Information Literacy (MIL) for Thai Youths

Authors: Waralak Vongdoiwang Siricharoen, Nattanun Siricharoen

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The objectives of this study are to determine the role of media that influence the values, attitudes and behaviors of Thai youths. Analytical qualitative research techniques were used for this purpose. Data collection based techniques was used which were individual interviews and focus group discussions with journalists, sample of high school and university students, and parents. The results show that “Social Media" is still the most popular media for Thai youths. It is also still in the hands of the marketing business and it can motivate Thai youths to do so many things. The main reasons of media exposure are to find quality information that they want quickly, get satisfaction and can use social media to get more exciting and to build communities. They believe that the need for media and information literacy skills is defined as making judgments, personal integrity, training of family and the behavior of close friends.

Keywords: Media and Information Literacy, Making Judgments, Personal integrity, Behavior of close friends

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650 Microorganisms Isolated from Surgical Wounds Infection and Treatment with Different Natural Products and Medications

Authors: Amany S. Youssef, Suzan A.M. El Feky, Samy A. El-Asser, Rasha A.M. Abd Allah

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Surgical site infections (SSIs) are the most common nosocomial infection in surgical patients resulting in significant increases in postoperative morbidity and mortality. The commonly causative bacteria developed resistance to virtually all antibiotics available. The aim of this study was to isolation and identification the most common bacteria that cause SSIs in Medical Research Institute, and to compare their sensitivity to selected group of antibiotics and natural products (garlic, oregano, olive, and Nigella sativa oils). The isolated pathogens collected from infected surgical wounds were identified, and their sensitivities to the antibiotics commonly available for clinical use, and also to the different concentrations of the used natural products were investigated. The results indicate to the potential therapeutic effect of the tested natural products in treatment of surgical wound infections.

Keywords: Surgical wounds, multi-resistant bacteria, bacterial sensitivity, natural oils.

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649 Kazakhstani Koreans- Conflict of Linguistic Identity: In–between the Sovietized and Kazakhstani Citizens

Authors: Soon-ok Myong, Byong-soon Chun

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This paper intends to identify the ethnic Kazakhstani Koreans- political process of identity formation by exploring their narrative and practice about the state language represented in the course of their becoming the new citizens of a new independent state. The Russophone Kazakhstani Koreans- inability to speak the official language of their affiliated state is considered there as dissatisfying the basic requirement of citizens of the independent state, so that they are becoming marginalized from the public sphere. Their contradictory attitude that at once demonstrates nominal reception and practical rejection of the obligatory state language unveils a high barrier inside between their self-language and other-language. In this paper, the ethnic Korean group-s conflicting linguistic identity is not seen as a free and simple choice, but as a dynamic struggle and political process in which the subject-s past experiences and memories intersect with the external elements of pressure.

Keywords: Ethnic Kazakhstani Koreans, Soviet Korean's Russification, Linguistic Identity, Russian-Kazakh Dichotomy.

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648 Hybrid Reliability-Similarity-Based Approach for Supervised Machine Learning

Authors: Walid Cherif

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Data mining has, over recent years, seen big advances because of the spread of internet, which generates everyday a tremendous volume of data, and also the immense advances in technologies which facilitate the analysis of these data. In particular, classification techniques are a subdomain of Data Mining which determines in which group each data instance is related within a given dataset. It is used to classify data into different classes according to desired criteria. Generally, a classification technique is either statistical or machine learning. Each type of these techniques has its own limits. Nowadays, current data are becoming increasingly heterogeneous; consequently, current classification techniques are encountering many difficulties. This paper defines new measure functions to quantify the resemblance between instances and then combines them in a new approach which is different from actual algorithms by its reliability computations. Results of the proposed approach exceeded most common classification techniques with an f-measure exceeding 97% on the IRIS Dataset.

Keywords: Data mining, knowledge discovery, machine learning, similarity measurement, supervised classification.

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647 Negative Emotions and Ways of Overcoming them in Prison

Authors: Katarzyna Czubak

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The aim of this paper is description of the notion of the death for prisoners and the ways of deal with. They express indifference, coldness, inability to accept the blame, they have no shame and no empathy. Is it enough to perform acts verging on the death. In this paper we described mechanisms and regularities of selfdestructive behaviour in the view of the relevant literature? The explanation of the phenomenon is of a biological and sociopsychological nature. It must be clearly stated that all forms of selfdestructive behaviour result from various impulses, conflicts and deficits. That is why they should be treated differently in terms of motivation and functions which they perform in a given group of people. Behind self-destruction there seems to be a motivational mechanism which forces prisoners to rebel and fight against the hated law and penitentiary systems. The imprisoned believe that pain and suffering inflicted on them by themselves are better than passive acceptance of repression. The variety of self-destruction acts is wide, and some of them take strange forms. We assume that a life-death barrier is a kind of game for them. If they cannot change the degrading situation, their life loses sense.

Keywords: Self- destruction, Simulation, Negative emotions, Consequences of conviction.

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646 Does Training in the Use of a Magnifier Improve Efficiency?

Authors: Norliza Mohamad Fadzil, Kerry Fitzmaurice, Linda Malesic

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Provision of optical devices without proper instruction and training may cause frustration resulting in rejection or incorrect use of the magnifiers. However training in the use of magnifiers increases the cost of providing these devices. This study compared the efficacy of providing instruction alone and instruction plus training in the use of magnifiers. 24 participants randomly assigned to two groups. 15 received instruction and training and 9 received instruction only. Repeated measures of print size and reading speed were performed at pre, post training and follow up. Print size decreased in both groups between pre and post training maintained at follow up. Reading speed increased in both groups over time with the training group demonstrating more rapid improvement. Whilst overall outcomes were similar, training decreased the time required to increase reading speed supporting the use of training for increased efficiency. A cost effective form of training is suggested.

Keywords: Low vision, magnification, training, reading.

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645 Poisoning Admission in Children Hospital in Benghazi-Libya, Three Years Review of Medical Record

Authors: Mudafara S Bengleil

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Estimation of the magnitude and causes of poisoning was the objective of the current study. A retrospective study of medical records of all poisoning children admitted to Benghazi Children Hospital in Libya from January 2008 up to December 2010. Number of children admitted was 244; the age ranged from less than one to 13 years old. Most of cases were admitted with mild symptom and the majority of them were boys. Only few cases admitted to intensive care unit and there was no mortality recorded through the period of study. Age group 1 to 3 years (50.8%) had the highest frequency of admission and the peak of admission was during summer. The most common cause of admission was due to ingestion of medication (53.69%), House hold product exposure (26.64%) was the second causes of admission while, 19.67% of admissions were due to Food poisoning. Almost all admitted cases were accidental and medicines were the most consumed substances in addition, improper storage of toxic agents were the first risk factor of poisoning. Present results indicated that, children poisoning seems to be a common pediatric care problem which need to control and prevent.

Keywords: Children, hospital, poisoning.

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644 Determination of the Gain in Learning the Free-Fall Motion of Bodies by Applying the Resource of Previous Concepts

Authors: Ricardo Merlo

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In this paper, we analyzed the different didactic proposals for teaching about the free fall motion of bodies available online. An important aspect was the interpretation of the direction and sense of the acceleration of gravity and of the falling velocity of a body, which is why we found different applications of the Cartesian reference system used and also different graphical presentations of the velocity as a function of time and of the distance traveled vertically by the body in the period of time that it was dropped from a height h0. In this framework, a survey of previous concepts was applied to a voluntary group of first-year university students of an Engineering degree before and after the development of the class of the subject in question. Then, Hake's index (0.52) was determined, which resulted in an average learning gain from the meaningful use of the reference system and the respective graphs of velocity versus time and height versus time.

Keywords: Didactic gain, free–fall, physics teaching, previous knowledge.

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643 Data Centers’ Temperature Profile Simulation Optimized by Finite Elements and Discretization Methods

Authors: José Alberto García Fernández, Zhimin Du, Xinqiao Jin

Abstract:

Nowadays, data center industry faces strong challenges for increasing the speed and data processing capacities while at the same time is trying to keep their devices a suitable working temperature without penalizing that capacity. Consequently, the cooling systems of this kind of facilities use a large amount of energy to dissipate the heat generated inside the servers, and developing new cooling techniques or perfecting those already existing would be a great advance in this type of industry. The installation of a temperature sensor matrix distributed in the structure of each server would provide the necessary information for collecting the required data for obtaining a temperature profile instantly inside them. However, the number of temperature probes required to obtain the temperature profiles with sufficient accuracy is very high and expensive. Therefore, other less intrusive techniques are employed where each point that characterizes the server temperature profile is obtained by solving differential equations through simulation methods, simplifying data collection techniques but increasing the time to obtain results. In order to reduce these calculation times, complicated and slow computational fluid dynamics simulations are replaced by simpler and faster finite element method simulations which solve the Burgers‘ equations by backward, forward and central discretization techniques after simplifying the energy and enthalpy conservation differential equations. The discretization methods employed for solving the first and second order derivatives of the obtained Burgers‘ equation after these simplifications are the key for obtaining results with greater or lesser accuracy regardless of the characteristic truncation error.

Keywords: Burgers’ equations, CFD simulation, data center, discretization methods, FEM simulation, temperature profile.

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642 Customer Segmentation in Foreign Trade based on Clustering Algorithms Case Study: Trade Promotion Organization of Iran

Authors: Samira Malekmohammadi Golsefid, Mehdi Ghazanfari, Somayeh Alizadeh

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The goal of this paper is to segment the countries based on the value of export from Iran during 14 years ending at 2005. To measure the dissimilarity among export baskets of different countries, we define Dissimilarity Export Basket (DEB) function and use this distance function in K-means algorithm. The DEB function is defined based on the concepts of the association rules and the value of export group-commodities. In this paper, clustering quality function and clusters intraclass inertia are defined to, respectively, calculate the optimum number of clusters and to compare the functionality of DEB versus Euclidean distance. We have also study the effects of importance weight in DEB function to improve clustering quality. Lastly when segmentation is completed, a designated RFM model is used to analyze the relative profitability of each cluster.

Keywords: Customers segmentation, Customer relationship management, Clustering, Data Mining

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641 A Study on How Newlyweds Handle the Difference with Parents on Wedding Arrangements and Its Implication for Services in Hong Kong

Authors: K. M. Yuen

Abstract:

This research examined the literature review of wedding preparation’s challenges and its developmental tasks of family transition under family life cycle. Five interviewees were invited to share their experiences on the differences with their parents in regard to wedding preparations and coping strategies. Some coping strategies and processes were highlighted for facilitating the family to achieve the developmental tasks during the wedding preparation. However, those coping strategies and processes may only act as the step and the behavior, while “concern towards parents” was found to be the essential element behind these behaviors. In addition to pre-marital counseling, a developmental group was suggested to develop under the framework of family life cycle and its related coping strategies on working with the newlyweds who encountered intergenerational differences in regard to their wedding preparations.

Keywords: Coping strategies, difference, family life cycle, developmental tasks, wedding preparation.

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640 Design of Two-Channel Quadrature Mirror Filter Banks Using Digital All-Pass Filters

Authors: Ju-Hong Lee, Yi-Lin Shieh

Abstract:

The paper deals with the minimax design of two-channel linear-phase (LP) quadrature mirror filter (QMF) banks using infinite impulse response (IIR) digital all-pass filters (DAFs). Based on the theory of two-channel QMF banks using two IIR DAFs, the design problem is appropriately formulated to result in an appropriate Chebyshev approximation for the desired group delay responses of the IIR DAFs and the magnitude response of the low-pass analysis filter. Through a frequency sampling and iterative approximation method, the design problem can be solved by utilizing a weighted least squares approach. The resulting two-channel QMF banks can possess approximately LP response without magnitude distortion. Simulation results are presented for illustration and comparison.

Keywords: Chebyshev approximation, Digital All-Pass Filter, Quadrature Mirror Filter, Weighted Least Squares.

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639 New Kinetic Approach to the Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Proteins – A Case of Thermolysin-Catalyzed Albumin

Authors: Anna Trusek-Holownia, Andrzej Noworyta

Abstract:

Using an enzyme of known specificity the hydrolysis of protein was carried out in a controlled manner. The aim was to obtain oligopeptides being the so-called active peptides or their direct precursors. An original way of expression of the protein hydrolysis kinetics was introduced. Peptide bonds contained in the protein were recognized as a diverse-quality substrate for hydrolysis by the applied protease. This assumption was positively verified taking as an example the hydrolysis of albumin by thermolysin. Peptide linkages for this system should be divided into at least four groups. One of them is a group of bonds non-hydrolyzable by this enzyme. These that are broken are hydrolyzed at a rate that differs even by tens of thousands of times. Designated kinetic constants were k'F = 10991.4 L/g.h, k'M = 14.83L/g.h, k'S about 10-1 L/g.h for fast, medium and slow bonds, respectively. Moreover, a procedure for unfolding of the protein, conducive to the improved susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis (approximately three-fold increase in the rate) was proposed.

Keywords: Peptide bond hydrolysis, kinetics, enzyme specificity, biologically active peptides.

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638 Data Collection in Hospital Emergencies: A Questionnaire Survey

Authors: Nouha Mhimdi, Wahiba Ben Abdessalem Karaa, Henda Ben Ghezala

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Many methods are used to collect data like questionnaires, surveys, focus group interviews. Or the collection of poor-quality data resulting, for example, from poorly designed questionnaires, the absence of good translators or interpreters, and the incorrect recording of data allow conclusions to be drawn that are not supported by the data or to focus only on the average effect of the program or policy. There are several solutions to avoid or minimize the most frequent errors, including obtaining expert advice on the design or adaptation of data collection instruments; or use technologies allowing better "anonymity" in the responses. In this context, and to overcome the aforementioned problems, we suggest in this paper an approach to achieve the collection of relevant data, by carrying out a large-scale questionnaire-based survey. We have been able to collect good quality, consistent and practical data on hospital emergencies to improve emergency services in hospitals, especially in the case of epidemics or pandemics.

Keywords: Data collection, survey, database, data analysis, hospital emergencies.

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637 The World of Great Wines: The Douro Valley Experience

Authors: A. Oliveira-Brochado, R. Silva, C. Paulino

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The aim of this paper is to use an experiential view of wine tourism to develop a battery of items that can potentially capture the overall Douro Valley experience from the tourist’s perspective. The Douro Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage region located in Portugal, was the target of this study. The research took a mixed approach using both qualitative and quantitative designs. Firstly, we combine the literature review on service quality scales with a content analysis of five in-depth interviews with winery managers and a focus group with wine tourists to identify the main dimensions of the overall tourism experience and to develop a battery of items for each dimension. Eight dimensions of the overall wine tourism experience came out, as follows: winery service and staff, winery facilities, winery service, wine product, wine region environment, wine region accessibilities, wine region´s offerings, and the wine region and winery reputation.

Keywords: Wine tourism, Douro region, survey, wineries, experience.

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636 Multiple Sequence Alignment Using Optimization Algorithms

Authors: M. F. Omar, R. A. Salam, R. Abdullah, N. A. Rashid

Abstract:

Proteins or genes that have similar sequences are likely to perform the same function. One of the most widely used techniques for sequence comparison is sequence alignment. Sequence alignment allows mismatches and insertion/deletion, which represents biological mutations. Sequence alignment is usually performed only on two sequences. Multiple sequence alignment, is a natural extension of two-sequence alignment. In multiple sequence alignment, the emphasis is to find optimal alignment for a group of sequences. Several applicable techniques were observed in this research, from traditional method such as dynamic programming to the extend of widely used stochastic optimization method such as Genetic Algorithms (GAs) and Simulated Annealing. A framework with combination of Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing is presented to solve Multiple Sequence Alignment problem. The Genetic Algorithm phase will try to find new region of solution while Simulated Annealing can be considered as an alignment improver for any near optimal solution produced by GAs.

Keywords: Simulated annealing, genetic algorithm, sequence alignment, multiple sequence alignment.

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635 Analysis of Tourism in Chitwan National Park, Determining Its Sustainability and Development towards an Eco-Tourism Destination

Authors: S. Basnet

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Tourism is one of the largest industries in Nepal and is one of the largest sources of foreign exchange and revenues. Tourism has both negative and positive effects, and Chitwan National Park (CNP) is no different. CNP is the first national park of Nepal where tourists can enjoy many mega faunas along with other natural amenities and the indigenous Tharu culture. This research is focused on analyzing sustainability of the national park and ways to develop it as an eco-tourism destination. The methodology used are literature review, questionnaire, focus group discussion, household survey and field observation. The research reveals that, although, tourist has increased the value and economic scale of the destination, there is huge influx of population from the nearby areas in search of opportunities, which has led to various problems such as, overuse and declining of resources, side-lining of the aboriginals’ groups, modernization and pollution. Hence, analysis of tourism in the area and determining its sustainability becomes vital for protecting it from further damage.

Keywords: Culture, economy, eco-tourism, effects of tourism, environment, national park and sustainability.

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634 The Application of Fuzzy Set Theory to Mobile Internet Advertisement Fraud Detection

Authors: Jinming Ma, Tianbing Xia, Janusz R. Getta

Abstract:

This paper presents the application of fuzzy set theory to implement of mobile advertisement anti-fraud systems. Mobile anti-fraud is a method aiming to identify mobile advertisement fraudsters. One of the main problems of mobile anti-fraud is the lack of evidence to prove a user to be a fraudster. In this paper, we implement an application by using fuzzy set theory to demonstrate how to detect cheaters. The advantage of our method is that the hardship in detecting fraudsters in small data samples has been avoided. We achieved this by giving each user a suspicious degree showing how likely the user is cheating and decide whether a group of users (like all users of a certain APP) together to be fraudsters according to the average suspicious degree. This makes the process more accurate as the data of a single user is too small to be predictable.

Keywords: Mobile internet, advertisement, anti-fraud, fuzzy set theory.

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633 Speech Acts and Politeness Strategies in an EFL Classroom in Georgia

Authors: Tinatin Kurdghelashvili

Abstract:

The paper deals with the usage of speech acts and politeness strategies in an EFL classroom in Georgia (Rep of). It explores the students’ and the teachers’ practice of the politeness strategies and the speech acts of apology, thanking, request, compliment / encouragement, command, agreeing / disagreeing, addressing and code switching. The research method includes observation as well as a questionnaire. The target group involves the students from Georgian public schools and two certified, experienced local English teachers. The analysis is based on Searle’s Speech Act Theory and Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies. The findings show that the students have certain knowledge regarding politeness yet they fail to apply them in English communication. In addition, most of the speech acts from the classroom interaction are used by the teachers and not the students. Thereby, it is suggested that teachers should cultivate the students’ communicative competence and attempt to give them opportunities to practise more English speech acts than they do today.

Keywords: English as a foreign language, Georgia, politeness principles, speech acts.

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