Search results for: importance index.

Authors: Yiqin Lin, Wenbo Li

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Dimensionality reduction and feature extraction are of crucial importance for achieving high efficiency in manipulating the high dimensional data. Two-dimensional discriminant locality preserving projection (2D-DLPP) and two-dimensional discriminant supervised LPP (2D-DSLPP) are two effective two-dimensional projection methods for dimensionality reduction and feature extraction of face image matrices. Since 2D-DLPP and 2D-DSLPP preserve the local structure information of the original data and exploit the discriminant information, they usually have good recognition performance. However, 2D-DLPP and 2D-DSLPP only employ single-sided projection, and thus the generated low dimensional data matrices have still many features. In this paper, by combining the discriminant supervised LPP with the bidirectional projection, we propose the bidirectional discriminant supervised LPP (BDSLPP). The left and right projection matrices for BDSLPP can be computed iteratively. Experimental results show that the proposed BDSLPP achieves higher recognition accuracy than 2D-DLPP, 2D-DSLPP, and bidirectional discriminant LPP (BDLPP).

Keywords: Face recognition, dimension reduction, locality preserving projection, discriminant information, bidirectional projection.

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Authors: Jana Aleksić, Marijana Petković

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Female population has an increasing role when it comes to purchase. Consequently, the female population has a greater role in modern marketing. Although it is thought that women buy more than men, marketing strategy was not directed specifically towards women. The thing that has changed regarding women’s role in modern marketing is the fact that the female population has a leading position when it comes to decision making in various fields and various sectors, which was not the case in the past. Marketing should be directed towards women but it should be done in the right way. Compared to men, women buy in a different way, and they look for more various advantages in the product itself, than men do. This paper aims to show the importance of the female role in the modern marketing and management and to redirect marketing in some way towards female population through new marketing strategies and management systems. Hypothesis is that women have an important role in marketing, and marketing strategy of modern society could and should be based on and directed towards female population and their tastes when it comes to purchasing. It is necessary and desirable to apply marketing strategy with a special strategy that has an emphasis on women and their purchase or in a word to apply WS- woman strategy. This research was carried out as a random sample research, where were obtained 212 valid surveys whose results serve as a basis for drawing conclusions about the research as well as to verify the formulated hypotheses. The research was carried out during 2011 and 2012. The study has shown a significant role of the female population in the marketing process.

Keywords: Marketing, management, female, purchase, strategy.

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Authors: Esmeralda Hysenbelliu

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Over the last years, the demand for high bandwidth services, such as live (IPTV Service) and on-demand video streaming, steadily and rapidly increased. It has been predicted that video traffic (IPTV, VoD, and WEB TV) will account more than 90% of global Internet Protocol traffic that will cross the globe in 2016. Consequently, the importance and consideration on requirements and challenges of service providers faced today in supporting user’s requests for entertainment video across the various IPTV services through virtualization over Software Defined Networks (SDN), is tremendous in the highest stage of attention. What is necessarily required, is to deliver optimized live and on-demand services like Internet Protocol Service (IPTV Service) with low cost and good quality by strictly fulfill the essential requirements of Clients and ISP’s (Internet Service Provider’s) in the same time. The aim of this study is to present an overview of the important requirements and challenges of IPTV service with two network trends on solving challenges through virtualization (SDN and Network Function Virtualization). This paper provides an overview of researches published in the last five years.

Keywords: Challenges, IPTV Service, Requirements, Software Defined Networking.

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Authors: Imran Ahmed, Muhammad Islam, Syed Inayat Ali Shah, Awais Adnan

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The identification and classification of weeds are of major technical and economical importance in the agricultural industry. To automate these activities, like in shape, color and texture, weed control system is feasible. The goal of this paper is to build a real-time, machine vision weed control system that can detect weed locations. In order to accomplish this objective, a real-time robotic system is developed to identify and locate outdoor plants using machine vision technology and pattern recognition. The algorithm is developed to classify images into broad and narrow class for real-time selective herbicide application. The developed algorithm has been tested on weeds at various locations, which have shown that the algorithm to be very effectiveness in weed identification. Further the results show a very reliable performance on weeds under varying field conditions. The analysis of the results shows over 90 percent classification accuracy over 140 sample images (broad and narrow) with 70 samples from each category of weeds.

Keywords: Weed detection, Image Processing, real-timerecognition, Standard Deviation.

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Authors: Seyed Abolhasan Naeini, M. Mortezaee

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Various factors such as the method of installation, the pile type, the pile material and the pile shape, can affect the final bearing capacity of a pile executed in the soil; among them, the method of installation is of special importance. The physical modeling is among the best options in the laboratory study of the piles behavior. Therefore, the current paper first presents and reviews the frustum confining vessel (FCV) as a suitable tool for physical modeling of deep foundations. Then, by describing the loading tests of two open-ended and closed-end steel piles, each of which has been performed in two methods, “with displacement" and "without displacement", the effect of end conditions and installation method on the final bearing capacity of the pile is investigated. The soil used in the current paper is silty sand of Firuzkuh, Iran. The results of the experiments show that in general the without displacement installation method has a larger bearing capacity in both piles, and in a specific method of installation the closed ended pile shows a slightly higher bearing capacity.

Keywords: physical modeling, frustum confining vessel, pile, bearing capacity, installation method

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Authors: Jakub Elbl, Lukas Plošek, Antonín Kintl, Jaroslav Záhora, Jitka Přichystalová, Jaroslav Hynšt

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Application of compost in agriculture is very desirable worldwide. In the Czech Republic, compost is the most often used to improve soil structure and increase the content of soil organic matter, but the effects of compost addition on the fate of mineral nitrogen are only scarcely described. This paper deals with possibility of using combined application of compost, mineral and organic fertilizers to reduce the leaching of mineral nitrogen from arable land. To demonstrate the effect of compost addition on leaching of mineral nitrogen, we performed the pot experiment. As a model crop, Lactuca sativa L. was used and cultivated for 35 days in climate chamber in thoroughly homogenized arable soil. Ten variants of the experiment were prepared; two control variants (pure arable soil and arable soil with added compost), four variants with different doses of mineral and organic fertilizers and four variants of the same doses of mineral and organic fertilizers with the addition of compos. The highest decrease of mineral nitrogen leaching was observed by the simultaneous applications of soluble humic substances and compost to soil samples, about 417% in comparison with the control variant. Application of these organic compounds also supported microbial activity and nitrogen immobilization documented by the highest soil respiration and by the highest value of the index of nitrogen availability. The production of plant biomass after this application was not the highest due to microbial competition for the nutrients in soil, but was 24% higher in comparison with the control variant. To support these promising results the experiment should be repeated in field conditions.

Keywords: Nitrogen, Compost, Salad, Arable land.

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Authors: Abbas Al-Refaie, Nour Bata

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A distributor of Apple products' experiences numerous difficulties in developing marketing strategies for new and existing mobile product entries that maximize customer satisfaction and the firm's profitability. This research, therefore, integrates market segmentation in platform-based product family design and conjoint analysis to identify iSystem combinations that increase customer satisfaction and business profits. First, the enhanced market segmentation grid is created. Then, the estimated demand model is formulated. Finally, the profit models are constructed then used to determine the ideal product family design that maximizes profit. Conjoint analysis is used to explore customer preferences with their satisfaction levels. A total of 200 surveys are collected about customer preferences. Then, simulation is used to determine the importance values for each attribute. Finally, sensitivity analysis is conducted to determine the product family design that maximizes both objectives. In conclusion, the results of this research shall provide great support to Apple distributors in determining the best marketing strategies that enhance their market share.

Keywords: Market segmentation, conjoint analysis, market strategies, optimization.

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Authors: Noor Zainab Habib, Ibrahim Kamaruddin, Madzalan Napiah, Isa Mohd Tan

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This paper presents a research conducted to investigate the effect of mixing process on polypropylene (PP) modified bitumen mixed with well graded aggregate to form modified bituminous concrete mix. Two mode of mixing, namely dry and wet with different concentration of polymer polypropylene was used with 80/100 pen bitumen, to evaluate the bituminous concrete mix properties. Three percentages of polymer varying from 1-3% by the weight of bitumen was used in this study. Three mixes namely control mix, wet mix and dry mix were prepared. Optimum binder content was calculated considering Marshall Stability, flow, air voids and Marshall Quotient at different bitumen content varying from 4% - 6.5% for control, dry and wet mix. Engineering properties thus obtained at the calculated optimum bitumen content revealed that wet mixing process is advantageous in comparison to dry mixing as it increases the stiffness of the mixture with the increase in polymer content in bitumen. Stiffness value for wet mix increases with the increase in polymer content which is beneficial in terms of rutting. 1% PP dry mix also shows enhanced stiffness, with the air void content limited to 4%.The flow behaviour of dry mix doesn't indicate any major difference with the increase in polymer content revealing that polymer acting as an aggregate only without affecting the viscosity of the binder in the mix. Polypropylene (PP) when interacted with 80 pen base bitumen enhances its performance characteristics which were brought about by altered rheological properties of the modified bitumen. The decrease in flow with the increase in binder content reflects the increase in viscosity of binder which induces the plastic flow in the mix. Workability index indicates that wet mix were easy to compact up to desired void ratio in comparison to dry mix samples.

Keywords: Marshall Flow, Marshall Stability, Polymer modified bitumen, Polypropylene, Stiffness.

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Authors: Abbas Haddadzadeh, Marzieh Sharif Paghaleh

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Within the new world order, the term “crisis" is nowadays familiar to companies. Organizations are experiencing conditions which are surprising, uncertain, often adverse and usually unstable. The companies, who grasp the importance of transformation within the information age, have felt the need to develop modern methods to achieve the ability to thrive despite severe shocks. Through strategically managing human resource and developing appropriate elements of human resource system, companies can be assured for resolving the crisis. In this paper the role of HR system on resolving crisis has been evaluated. To help accomplish this, an insight on previous strategic HRM literature and an introduction to the elements and relationship within HR systems has been presented. It also reviews different attitude around resilience in literature. It continues by reviewing three elements central to developing an organization-s capacity for crisis resolving and it will demonstrate how designing proper elements of HR system can lead the organizations to possess the ability for passing through crisis. Finally it will evaluate an Iranian Insurance organization in case of one of the three central elements (specific cognitive ability) and observe how successful they were on developing an effective HR system to be ready for facing crisis.

Keywords: Crisis, HR System, Resilience, Strategic Human Resource Management.

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Authors: Ahmet Oguz Akturk, Kemal Izci, Gurbuz Caliskan, Ismail Sahin

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Rapid developments in technology in the present age have made it necessary for communities to follow technological developments and adapt themselves to these developments. One of the fields that are most rapidly affected by these developments is undoubtedly education. Determination of the attitudes of preservice teachers, who live in an age of technology and get ready to raise future individuals, is of paramount importance both educationally and professionally. The purpose of this study was to analyze attitudes of preservice teachers towards technology and some variables that predict these attitudes (gender, daily duration of internet use, and the number of technical devices owned). 329 preservice teachers attending the education faculty of a large university in central Turkey participated, on a volunteer basis, in this study, where relational survey model was used as the research method. Research findings reveal that preservice teachers’ attitudes towards technology are positive and at the same time, the attitudes of male preservice teachers towards technology are more positive than their female counterparts. As a result of the stepwise multiple regression analysis where factors predicting preservice teachers’ attitudes towards technology, it was found that duration of daily internet use was the strongest predictor of attitudes towards technology.

Keywords: Attitudes towards technology, preservice teachers, gender, stepwise multiple regression analysis.

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Authors: J. Witzany, T. Čejka, R. Zigler

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With respect to the dissipation of energy through plastic deformation of joints of prefabricated wall units, the paper points out the principal importance of efficient reinforcement of the prefabricated system at its joints. The method, quality and amount of reinforcement are essential for reaching the necessary degree of joint ductility. The paper presents partial results of experimental research of vertical joints of prefabricated units exposed to monotonously rising loading and repetitive shear force and formulates a conclusion that the limit state of the structure as a whole is preceded by the disintegration of joints, or that the structure tends to pass from linearly elastic behaviour to non-linearly elastic to plastic behaviour by exceeding the proportional elastic limit in joints.Experimental verification on a model of a 7-storey prefabricated structure revealed weak points in its load-bearing systems, mainly at places of critical points around openings situated in close proximity to vertical joints of mutually perpendicularly oriented walls.

Keywords: dissipative energy, dynamic and cycling load repetitive load, working diagrams of joints

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Authors: Laimona Sliburyte

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The ever increasing product diversity and competition on the market of goods and services has dictated the pace of growth in the number of advertisements. Despite their admittedly diminished effectiveness over the recent years, advertisements remain the favored method of sales promotion. Consequently, the challenge for an advertiser is to explore every possible avenue of making an advertisement more noticeable, attractive and impellent for consumers. One way to achieve this is through invoking celebrity endorsements. On the one hand, the use of a celebrity to endorse a product involves substantial costs, however, on the other hand, it does not immediately guarantee the success of an advertisement. The question of how celebrities can be used in advertising to the best advantage is therefore of utmost importance. Celebrity endorsements have become commonplace: empirical evidence indicates that approximately 20 to 25 per cent of advertisements feature some famous person as a product endorser. The popularity of celebrity endorsements demonstrates the relevance of the topic, especially in the context of the current global economic downturn, when companies are forced to save in order to survive, yet simultaneously to heavily invest in advertising and sales promotion. The issue of the effective use of celebrity endorsements also figures prominently in the academic discourse. The study presented below is thus aimed at exploring what qualities (characteristics) of a celebrity endorser have an impact on the ffectiveness of the advertisement in which he/she appears and how.

Keywords: Advertising, celebrity, celebrity endorsements, effectiveness of celebrity.

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Authors: E.J. Cilliers

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Green- spaces might be very attractive, but where are the economic benefits? What value do nature and landscape have for us? What difference will it make to jobs, health and the economic strength of areas struggling with deprivation and social problems? [1].There is a need to consider green spaces from a different perspective. Green planning is not just about flora and fauna, but also about planning for economic benefits [2]. It is worth trying to quantify the value of green spaces since nature and landscape are crucially important to our quality of life and sustainable development. The reality, however, is that urban development often takes place at the expense of green spaces. Urbanization is an ongoing process throughout the world; however, hyper-urbanization without environmental planning is destructive, not constructive [3]. Urban spaces are believed to be more valuable than other land uses, particular green areas, simply because of the market value connected to urban spaces. However, attractive landscapes can help raise the quality and value of the urban market even more. In order to reach these objectives of integrated planning, the Green-Value-Gap needs to be bridged. Economists have to understand the concept of Green-Planning and the spinoffs, and Environmentalists have to understand the importance of urban economic development and the benefits thereof to green planning. An interface between Environmental Management, Economic Development and sustainable Spatial Planning are needed to bridge the Green-Value-Gap.

Keywords: Spatial Planning, Environmental Management, Green-Value-Gap, Compensation, Participation.

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Authors: Manikandakumar Shunmugavel, Ashwin Polishetty, Moshe Goldberg, Junior Nomani, Guy Littlefair

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Selective laser melting (SLM), a promising additive manufacturing (AM) technology, has a huge potential in the fabrication of Ti-6Al-4V near-net shape components. However, poor surface finish of the components fabricated from this technology requires secondary machining to achieve the desired accuracy and tolerance. Therefore, a systematic understanding of the machinability of SLM fabricated Ti-6Al-4V components is paramount to improve the productivity and product quality. Considering the significance of machining in SLM fabricated Ti-6Al-4V components, this research aim is to study the influence of build orientation on machinability characteristics by performing low speed orthogonal cutting tests. In addition, the machinability of SLM fabricated Ti-6Al-4V is compared with conventionally produced wrought Ti-6Al-4V to understand the influence of SLM technology on machining. This paper is an attempt to provide evidence to the hypothesis associated that build orientation influences cutting forces, chip formation and surface integrity during orthogonal cutting of SLM Ti-6Al-4V samples. Results obtained from the low speed orthogonal cutting tests highlight the practical importance of microstructure and build orientation on machinability of SLM Ti-6Al-4V.

Keywords: Additive manufacturing, build orientation, machinability, titanium alloys (Ti-6Al-4V).

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Authors: Khalid A. Darabkh, Ala F. Khalifeh, Baraa A. Bathech, Saed W. Sabah

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Despite the fact that Arabic language is currently one of the most common languages worldwide, there has been only a little research on Arabic speech recognition relative to other languages such as English and Japanese. Generally, digital speech processing and voice recognition algorithms are of special importance for designing efficient, accurate, as well as fast automatic speech recognition systems. However, the speech recognition process carried out in this paper is divided into three stages as follows: firstly, the signal is preprocessed to reduce noise effects. After that, the signal is digitized and hearingized. Consequently, the voice activity regions are segmented using voice activity detection (VAD) algorithm. Secondly, features are extracted from the speech signal using Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) algorithm. Moreover, delta and acceleration (delta-delta) coefficients have been added for the reason of improving the recognition accuracy. Finally, each test word-s features are compared to the training database using dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm. Utilizing the best set up made for all affected parameters to the aforementioned techniques, the proposed system achieved a recognition rate of about 98.5% which outperformed other HMM and ANN-based approaches available in the literature.

Keywords: Arabic speech recognition, MFCC, DTW, VAD.

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Authors: Vijay Kumar Sharma, Manisha Pattanaik, Balwinder Raj

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Minimizations of power dissipation, chip area with higher circuit performance are the necessary and key parameters in deep submicron regime. The leakage current increases sharply in deep submicron regime and directly affected the power dissipation of the logic circuits. In deep submicron region the power dissipation as well as high performance is the crucial concern since increasing importance of portable systems. Number of leakage reduction techniques employed to reduce the leakage current in deep submicron region but they have some trade-off to control the leakage current. ONOFIC approach gives an excellent agreement between power dissipation and propagation delay for designing the efficient CMOS logic circuits. In this article ONOFIC approach is compared with LECTOR technique and output results show that ONOFIC approach significantly reduces the power dissipation and enhance the speed of the logic circuits. The lower power delay product is the big outcome of this approach and makes it an influential leakage reduction technique.

Keywords: Deep submicron, Leakage Current, LECTOR, ONOFIC, Power Delay Product

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Authors: Safiyeh Khayati, Ali Payan

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The main objective of this study was to identify factors and conditions that motivated and encouraged students towards the math class and the factors that made this class an attractive and lovely one. To do this end, questionnaires consisting of 15 questions were distributed among 85 math teachers working in schools of Zahedan. Having collected and reviewed these questionnaires, it was shown that doing activity in math class (activity of students while teaching) and previous math teachers' behaviors have had much impact on encouraging the students towards mathematics. Separation of educational classroom of mathematics from the main classroom (which is decorated with crafts created by students themselves with regard to math book including article, wall newspaper, figures and formulas), peers, size and appearance of math book, first grade teachers in each educational level, among whom the Elementary first grade teachers had more importance and impact, were among the most influential and important factors in this regard. Then, school environment, family, conducting research related to mathematics, its application in daily life and other courses and studying the history of mathematics were categorized as important factors that would increase the students’ interest in mathematics.

Keywords: Interest, motivation, mathematical learning.

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Authors: Anas M. Fares

Abstract:

Reinforced concrete shear walls are the most frequently used forms of lateral resisting structural elements. These walls may take many forms due to their functions and locations in the building. In Palestine, the most lateral resisting forces construction forms is the cantilever shear walls system. It is thus of prime importance to study the rigidity of these walls. The virtual work theorem is used to derive the total lateral deflection of cantilever shear walls due to flexural and shear deformation. The case of neglecting the shear deformation in the walls is also studied, and it is found that the wall height to length aspect ratio (H/B) plays a major role in calculating the lateral deflection and the rigidity of such walls. When the H/B is more than or equal to 3.7, the shear deformation may be neglected from the calculation of the lateral deflection. Moreover, the walls with the same material properties, same lateral load value, and same aspect ratio, shall have the same of both the lateral deflection and the rigidity. Finally, an equation to calculate the total rigidity and total deflection of such walls is derived by using the virtual work theorem for a cantilever beam.

Keywords: Cantilever shear walls, flexural deformation, lateral deflection, lateral loads, reinforced concrete shear walls, rigidity, shear deformation, virtual work theorem.

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Authors: S. Zeković, M. Vujošević, T. Maričić

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The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the sustainable development in the Belgrade Metropolitan Region - BMA (level NUTS 2) preliminary evaluating the three chosen components: 1) economic growth and developmental changes; 2) competitiveness; and 3) territorial concentration and industrial specialization. First, we identified the main results of development changes and economic growth by applying Shift-share analysis on the metropolitan level. Second, the empirical evaluation of competitiveness in the BMA is based on the analysis of absolute and relative values of eight indicators by Spider method. Paper shows that the consideration of the national share, industrial mix and metropolitan/regional share in total Shift share of the BMA, as well as economic/functional specialization of the BMA indicate very strong process of deindustrialization. Allocative component of the BMA economic growth has positive value, reflecting the above-average sector productivity compared to the national average. Third, the important positive role of metropolitan/regional component in decomposition of the BMA economic growth is highlighted as one of the key results. Finally, comparative analysis of the industrial territorial concentration in the BMA in relation to Serbia is based on location quotient (LQ) or Balassa index as a valid measure. The results indicate absolute and relative differences in decrease of industry territorial concentration as well as inefficiency of utilizing territorial capital in the BMA. Results are important for the increase of regional competitiveness and territorial distribution in this area as well as for improvement of sustainable metropolitan and sector policies, planning and governance on this level.

Keywords: Belgrade Metropolitan Area (BMA), Comprehensive analysis/evaluation, economic growth and competitiveness, sustainable development.

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Authors: Tea Poklepović, Zdravka Aljinović, Branka Marasović

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Due to the importance of yield curve and its estimation it is inevitable to have valid methods for yield curve forecasting in cases when there are scarce issues of securities and/or week trade on a secondary market. Therefore in this paper, after the estimation of weekly yield curves on Croatian financial market from October 2011 to August 2012 using Nelson-Siegel and Svensson models, yield curves are forecasted using Vector autoregressive model and Neural networks. In general, it can be concluded that both forecasting methods have good prediction abilities where forecasting of yield curves based on Nelson Siegel estimation model give better results in sense of lower Mean Squared Error than forecasting based on Svensson model Also, in this case Neural networks provide slightly better results. Finally, it can be concluded that most appropriate way of yield curve prediction is Neural networks using Nelson-Siegel estimation of yield curves.

Keywords: Nelson-Siegel model, Neural networks, Svensson model, Vector autoregressive model, Yield curve.

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Authors: R. Sharma, S. Kumar, C. Sharma

Abstract:

A number of toxic chlorophenolic compounds are formed during pulp bleaching. The nature and concentration of these chlorophenolic compounds largely depends upon the amount and nature of bleaching chemicals used. These compounds are highly recalcitrant and difficult to remove but are partially removed by the biochemical treatment processes adopted by the paper industry. Identification and estimation of these chlorophenolic compounds has been carried out in the primary and secondary clarified effluents from the paper mill by GCMS. Twenty-six chorophenolic compounds have been identified and estimated in paper mill waste waters. Electrochemical treatment is an efficient method for oxidation of pollutants and has successfully been used to treat textile and oil waste water. Electrochemical treatment using less expensive anode material, stainless steel electrodes has been tried to study their removal. The electrochemical assembly comprised a DC power supply, a magnetic stirrer and stainless steel (316 L) electrode. The optimization of operating conditions has been carried out and treatment has been performed under optimized treatment conditions. Results indicate that 68.7% and 83.8% of cholorphenolic compounds are removed during 2 h of electrochemical treatment from primary and secondary clarified effluent respectively. Further, there is a reduction of 65.1, 60 and 92.6% of COD, AOX and color, respectively for primary clarified and 83.8%, 75.9% and 96.8% of COD, AOX and color, respectively for secondary clarified effluent. EC treatment has also been found to increase significantly the biodegradability index of wastewater because of conversion of non- biodegradable fraction into biodegradable fraction. Thus, electrochemical treatment is an efficient method for the degradation of cholorophenolic compounds, removal of color, AOX and other recalcitrant organic matter present in paper mill waste water.

Keywords: Chlorophenolics, effluent, electrochemical treatment, wastewater.

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Authors: A. Benaiche

Abstract:

In the current situation, the automobile has become the main means of locomotion. It allows traveling long distances, encouraging urban sprawl. To counteract this trend, the train is often proposed as an alternative to the car. Simultaneously, the favoring of urban development around public transport nodes such as railway stations is one of the main issues of the coordination between urban planning and transportation and the keystone of the sustainable urban development implementation. In this context, this paper focuses on the study of the spatial structuring dynamics around the railway. Specifically, it is a question of studying the demographic dynamics in rail corridors of Nantes, Angers and Le Mans (Western France) basing on the radiation of railway stations. Consequently, the methodology is concentrated on the knowledge of demographic weight and gains of these corridors, the index of urban intensity and the mobility behaviors (workers’ travels, scholars' travels, modal practices of travels). The perimeter considered to define the rail corridors includes the communes of urban area which have a railway station and communes with an access time to the railway station is less than fifteen minutes by car (time specified by the Regional Transport Scheme of Travelers). The main tools used are the statistical data from the census of population, the basis of detailed tables and databases on mobility flows. The study reveals that the population is not tightened along rail corridors and train use is minimal despite the presence of a nearby railway station. These results lead to propose guidelines to make the train, a real vector of mobility across the rail corridors.

Keywords: Coordination between urban planning and transportation, Rail corridors, Railway stations, Travels.

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Authors: Vladyslav Povoroznyuk, Larysa Martynyuk, Iryna Syzonenko, Liliya Martynyuk

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Osteoporosis is one of the important problems in postmenopausal women due to an increased risk of sudden and unexpected fractures. This study is aimed to determine the connection between bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone score (TBS) in Ukrainian women suffering from metabolic syndrome. Participating in the study, 566 menopausal women aged 50-79 year-old were examined and divided into two groups: Group A included 336 women with no obesity (BMI ≤ 29.9 kg/m²), and Group B – 230 women with metabolic syndrome (diagnosis according to IDF criteria, 2005). Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used for measuring of lumbar spine (L1-L4), femoral neck, total body and forearm BMD and bone quality indexes (last according to Med-Imaps installation). Data were analyzed using Statistical Package 6.0. A significant increase of lumbar spine (L1-L4), femoral neck, total body and ultradistal radius BMD was found in women with metabolic syndrome compared to those without obesity (p < 0.001) both in their totality and in groups of 50-59 years, 60-69 years, and 70-79 years. TBS was significantly higher in non-obese women compared to metabolic syndrome patients of 50-59 years and in the general sample (p < 0.05). Analysis showed significant positive correlation between body mass index (BMI) and BMD at all levels. Significant negative correlation between BMI and TBS (L1-L4) was established. Despite the fact that BMD indexes were significantly higher in women with metabolic syndrome, the frequency of vertebral and non-vertebral fractures did not differ significantly in the groups of patients.

Keywords: Bone mineral density, trabecular bone score, metabolic syndrome, fracture.

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Authors: B. O. Diyaolu, E. A. Okebanjo

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Children in today’s world need attention and care even with their physique as obesity is also at the increased. Several factors can be responsible for obesity in children and adequate attention is paramount in other not to accommodate it into adolescent period. This study investigated perceived determinants of obesity among primary school pupils in Eti Osa Local Government area of Lagos State. Descriptive survey research design was used and population was all obese pupils in Eti Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State. 92 pupils were selected from randomly picked 12 primary schools while purposive sampling technique was used to pick primary 4-6 pupils. With the aid of body mass index (BMI) and age percentile chart the obese pupils were selected. The instrument for the study was a self-developed and structured questionnaire on perceived determinant of obesity. The questionnaire was divided into three sections. The Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient of 0.74 was obtained. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 significant levels. The completed questionnaire was collated coded and analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentage and inferential statistics of chi-square (X²). Findings of this study revealed that physical activities and parental influences were determinant of obesity. Physical activity is essential in reducing the rate of obesity in Eti Osa Local Government Area both at home and within the school environment. Primary schools need to create more playing ground for pupils to exercise themselves. Parents need to cater for their children diet ensuring not just the quantity but the quality as well.

Keywords: Feeding pattern, obese pupils, parental influence, physical activities.

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Authors: A. Shebani, S. Iwnicki

Abstract:

Understanding the nature of wheel and rail wear in the railway field is of fundamental importance to the safe and cost effective operation of the railways. Twin disc wear testing is used extensively for studying wear of wheel and rail materials. The University of Huddersfield twin disc rig was used in this paper to examine the effect of surface conditions on wheel and rail wear measurement under a range of wheel/rail contact conditions, with and without contaminants. This work focuses on an investigation of the effect of dry, wet, and lubricated conditions and the effect of contaminants such as sand on wheel and rail wear. The wheel and rail wear measurements were carried out by using a replica material and an optical profilometer that allows measurement of wear in difficult location with high accuracy. The results have demonstrated the rate at which both water and oil reduce wheel and rail wear. Scratches and other damage were seen on the wheel and rail surfaces after the addition of sand and consequently both wheel and rail wear damage rates increased under these conditions. This work introduced the replica material and an optical instrument as effective tools to study the effect of surface conditions on wheel and rail wear.

Keywords: Railway wheel/rail wear, surface conditions, twin disc test rig, replica material, Alicona profilometer.

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Authors: Alpesh Adeshara, Rajendrasinh Jadeja, Praghnesh Bhatt

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Implementation of advanced technologies requires sophisticated instruments that deal with the operation, control, restoration and protection of rapidly growing power system network under normal and abnormal conditions. Presently, the applications of Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) are widely found in real time operation, monitoring, controlling and analysis of power system network as it eliminates the various limitations of supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) conventionally used in power system. The use of PMU data is very rapidly increasing its importance for online and offline analysis. Wide area measurement system (WAMS) is developed as new technology by use of multiple PMUs in power system. The present paper proposes a model of Matlab based PMU using Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) algorithm and evaluation of its operation under different contingencies. In this paper, PMU based two bus system having WAMS network is presented as a case study.

Keywords: DFT-Discrete Fourier Transform, GPS-Global Positioning System, PMU-Phasor Measurement System, WAMS-Wide Area Monitoring System.

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Authors: Mojtaba Heydarizad, Hamid Ghalibaf Mohammadabadi

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Iran is a semi-arid and arid country in south-western Asia in the Middle East facing intense climatological drought from the early times. Therefore, studying the precipitation events and the moisture sources and air masses causing precipitation has great importance in this region. In this study, the moisture sources and stable isotope content of precipitation moisture in three main events in 2015 have been studied in North-Eastern Iran. HYSPLIT model backward trajectories showed that the Caspian Sea and the mixture of the Caspian and Mediterranean Seas are dominant moisture sources for the studied events. This showed the role of cP (Siberian) and Mediterranean (MedT) air masses. Stable isotope studies showed that precipitation events originated from the Caspian Sea with lower Sea Surface Temperature (SST) have more depleted isotope values. However, precipitation events sourced from the mixture of the Caspian and the Mediterranean Seas (with higher SST) showed more enriched isotope values.

Keywords: HYSPLIT, Iran, Northern Khorasan, stable isotopes.

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Authors: Dixit Garg, S. Luthra, A. Haleem

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During recent years, the natural environment has become a challenging topic that business organizations must consider due to the economic and ecological impacts and increasing awareness of environment protection among society. Organizations are trying to achieve the goals of improvement in environment, low cost, high quality, flexibility and more customer satisfaction. Performance measurement frameworks are very useful to monitor the performance of any organization. The basic goal of this paper is to identify performance measures and ranking of these performance measures of GSCM performance measurement towards sustainability framework. Five perspectives (Environment, Economic, Social, Operational and Cost performances) and nineteen performance measures of GSCM performance towards sustainability have been have been identified from extensive literature review. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique has been utilized for ranking of these performance perspectives and measures. All pair comparisons in AHP have been made on the basis on the experts’ opinions (selected from academia and industry). Ranking of these performance perspectives and measures will help to understand the importance of environmental, economic, social, operational performances and cost performances in the supply chain.

Keywords: Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Green Supply Chain Management, Performance Measures (PM), Sustainability.

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Authors: Péter Restás, Andrea Czibor, Zsolt Péter Szabó

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Purpose: This article aims to rethink the phenomena of employee behavior as a product of a system. Both organizational culture and Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory emphasize that individual behavior depends on the specific system and the unique organizational culture. These two major theories are both represented in the field of organizational studies; however, they are rarely used together for the comprehensive understanding of workplace behavior. Methodology: By reviewing the literature we use key concepts stemming from organizational culture and CAS theory in order to show the similarities between these theories and create an enriched understanding of employee behavior. Findings: a) Workplace behavior is defined here as social cognition issue. b) Organizations are discussed here as complex systems, and cultures which drive and dictate the cognitive processes of agents in the system. c) Culture gives CAS theory a context which lets us see organizations not just as ever-changing and unpredictable, but as such systems that aim to create and maintain stability by recurring behavior. Conclusion: Applying the knowledge from culture and CAS theory sheds light on our present understanding of employee behavior, also emphasizes the importance of novel ways in organizational research and management.

Keywords: Complex adaptive systems theory, employee behavior, organizational culture, stability.

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Authors: R. Sullivan, T. Holden, G. Tremberger, Jr, E. Cheung, C. Branch, J. Burrero, G. Surpris, S. Quintana, A. Rameau, N. Gadura, H. Yao, R. Subramaniam, P. Schneider, S. A. Rotenberg, P. Marchese, A. Flamhlolz, D. Lieberman, T. Cheung

Abstract:

Migration in breast cancer cell wound healing assay had been studied using image fractal dimension analysis. The migration of MDA-MB-231 cells (highly motile) in a wound healing assay was captured using time-lapse phase contrast video microscopy and compared to MDA-MB-468 cell migration (moderately motile). The Higuchi fractal method was used to compute the fractal dimension of the image intensity fluctuation along a single pixel width region parallel to the wound. The near-wound region fractal dimension was found to decrease three times faster in the MDA-MB- 231 cells initially as compared to the less cancerous MDA-MB-468 cells. The inner region fractal dimension was found to be fairly constant for both cell types in time and suggests a wound influence range of about 15 cell layer. The box-counting fractal dimension method was also used to study region of interest (ROI). The MDAMB- 468 ROI area fractal dimension was found to decrease continuously up to 7 hours. The MDA-MB-231 ROI area fractal dimension was found to increase and is consistent with the behavior of a HGF-treated MDA-MB-231 wound healing assay posted in the public domain. A fractal dimension based capacity index has been formulated to quantify the invasiveness of the MDA-MB-231 cells in the perpendicular-to-wound direction. Our results suggest that image intensity fluctuation fractal dimension analysis can be used as a tool to quantify cell migration in terms of cancer severity and treatment responses.

Keywords: Higuchi fractal dimension, box-counting fractal dimension, cancer cell migration, wound healing.

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