Search results for: evaluate survey.

Authors: Daniel Y. Abebe, Jaehyouk Choi

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There are several types of metal-based devices conceived as dampers for the seismic energy absorber whereby damages to the major structural components could be minimized for both new and existing structures. This paper aimed to develop and evaluate structural performance of slit circular shear panel damper for passive seismic energy protection by inelastic deformation. Structural evaluation was done using commercially available nonlinear FE simulation program. The main parameters considered are: diameter-to-thickness (D/t) ratio and slit length-to-width ratio (l/w). Depending on these parameters three different buckling mode and hysteretic behavior was found: yielding prior to buckling without strength degradation, yielding prior to buckling with strength degradation and yielding with buckling and strength degradation which forms pinching at initial displacement. The susceptible location at which the possible crack is initiated is also identified for selected specimens using rupture index.

Keywords: Slit circular shear panel damper, Hysteresis Characteristics, Slip length-to-width ratio, D/t ratio, FE analysis.

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Authors: Emad S. Abouel Nasr, Abdulaziz M. El-Tamimi, Mustufa H. Abidi, Abdulrahman M. Al-Ahmari

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Virtual Assembly (VA) is one of the key technologies in advanced manufacturing field. It is a promising application of virtual reality in design and manufacturing field. It has drawn much interest from industries and research institutes in the last two decades. This paper describes a process for integrating an interactive Virtual Reality-based assembly simulation of a digital mockup with the CAD/CAM infrastructure. The necessary hardware and software preconditions for the process are explained so that it can easily be adopted by non VR experts. The article outlines how assembly simulation can improve the CAD/CAM procedures and structures; how CAD model preparations have to be carried out and which virtual environment requirements have to be fulfilled. The issue of data transfer is also explained in the paper. The other challenges and requirements like anti-aliasing and collision detection have also been explained. Finally, a VA simulation has been carried out for a ball valve assembly and a car door assembly with the help of Vizard virtual reality toolkit in a semi-immersive environment and their performance analysis has been done on different workstations to evaluate the importance of graphical processing unit (GPU) in the field of VA.

Keywords: Collision Detection, Graphical Processing Unit (GPU), Virtual Reality (VR), Virtual Assembly (VA).

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Authors: Rameswar Debnath, Haruhisa Takahashi

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An evolutionary method whose selection and recombination operations are based on generalization error-bounds of support vector machine (SVM) can select a subset of potentially informative genes for SVM classifier very efficiently [7]. In this paper, we will use the derivative of error-bound (first-order criteria) to select and recombine gene features in the evolutionary process, and compare the performance of the derivative of error-bound with the error-bound itself (zero-order) in the evolutionary process. We also investigate several error-bounds and their derivatives to compare the performance, and find the best criteria for gene selection and classification. We use 7 cancer-related human gene expression datasets to evaluate the performance of the zero-order and first-order criteria of error-bounds. Though both criteria have the same strategy in theoretically, experimental results demonstrate the best criterion for microarray gene expression data.

Keywords: support vector machine, generalization error-bound, feature selection, evolutionary algorithm, microarray data

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Authors: F.Alilat, S.Loumi, H.Merrad, B.Sansal

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In this article a modification of the algorithm of the fuzzy ART network, aiming at returning it supervised is carried out. It consists of the search for the comparison, training and vigilance parameters giving the minimum quadratic distances between the output of the training base and those obtained by the network. The same process is applied for the determination of the parameters of the fuzzy ARTMAP giving the most powerful network. The modification consist in making learn the fuzzy ARTMAP a base of examples not only once as it is of use, but as many time as its architecture is in evolution or than the objective error is not reached . In this way, we don-t worry about the values to impose on the eight (08) parameters of the network. To evaluate each one of these three networks modified, a comparison of their performances is carried out. As application we carried out a classification of the image of Algiers-s bay taken by SPOT XS. We use as criterion of evaluation the training duration, the mean square error (MSE) in step control and the rate of good classification per class. The results of this study presented as curves, tables and images show that modified fuzzy ARTMAP presents the best compromise quality/computing time.

Keywords: Neural Networks, fuzzy ART, fuzzy ARTMAP, Remote sensing, multispectral Classification.

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Authors: Vichada Chokesikarin

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The study aims to determine which factors account for customer satisfaction and to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business success, in particular, context of the information understanding of hostel business in Pranakorn district, Bangkok and the significant element of entrepreneurship in tourism industry. This study covers 352 hostels customers and 61 hostel owners/managers nearby Khao San road. Data collection methods were used by survey questionnaire and a series of hypotheses were developed from services marketing literature. The findings suggest the customer satisfaction most influenced by image, service quality, room quality and price accordingly. Furthermore the findings revealed that significant relationships exist between entrepreneurial orientation and business success; while competitive aggressiveness was found unrelated. The ECSI model’s generic measuring customer satisfaction was found partially mediate the business success. A reconsideration of other variables applicable should be supported with the model of hostel business. The study provides context and overall view of hostel business while discussing from the entrepreneurial orientation to customer satisfaction, thereby reducing decision risk on hostel investment.

Keywords: Customer satisfaction, ECSI Model, entrepreneurial orientation, small hotels, hostel, business performance.

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Authors: Rozo D. Juan Felipe, Ramírez L. Leonardo Juan, Puerta A. Gabriel Alberto

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The telemedicine services require correct computing resource management to guarantee productivity and efficiency for medical and non-medical staff. The aim of this study was to examine web management strategies to ensure the availability of resources and services in telemedicine so as to provide medical information management with an accessible strategy. In addition, to evaluate the quality-of-service parameters, the followings were measured: delays, throughput, jitter, latency, available bandwidth, percent of access and denial of services based of web management performance map with profiles permissions and database management. Through 24 different test scenarios, the results show 100% in availability of medical information, in relation to access of medical staff to web services, and quality of service (QoS) of 99% because of network delay and performance of computer network. The findings of this study suggest that the proposed strategy of web management is an ideal solution to guarantee the availability, reliability, and accessibility of medical information. Finally, this strategy offers seven user profile used at telemedicine center of Bogota-Colombia keeping QoS parameters suitable to telemedicine services.

Keywords: Availability, medical information, QoS, strategy, telemedicine.

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Authors: M. Palizvan, M. H. Sadr, M. T. Abadi

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The representative volume element (RVE) plays a central role in the mechanics of random heterogeneous materials with a view to predicting their effective properties. In this paper, a computational homogenization methodology, developed to determine effective linear elastic properties of composite materials, is extended to predict the effective nonlinear elastoplastic response of long fiber reinforced composite. Finite element simulations of volumes of different sizes and fiber volume fractures are performed for calculation of the overall response RVE. The dependencies of the overall stress-strain curves on the number of fibers inside the RVE are studied in the 2D cases. Volume averaged stress-strain responses are generated from RVEs and compared with the finite element calculations available in the literature at moderate and high fiber volume fractions. For these materials, the existence of an RVE is demonstrated for the sizes of RVE corresponding to 10–100 times the diameter of the fibers. In addition, the response of small size RVE is found anisotropic, whereas the average of all large ones leads to recover the isotropic material properties.

Keywords: Homogenization, periodic boundary condition, elastoplastic properties, RVE.

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Authors: Mohamed Shahin, Ahmed Badawi, Mohamed Kamel

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This paper presents a hand vein authentication system using fast spatial correlation of hand vein patterns. In order to evaluate the system performance, a prototype was designed and a dataset of 50 persons of different ages above 16 and of different gender, each has 10 images per person was acquired at different intervals, 5 images for left hand and 5 images for right hand. In verification testing analysis, we used 3 images to represent the templates and 2 images for testing. Each of the 2 images is matched with the existing 3 templates. FAR of 0.02% and FRR of 3.00 % were reported at threshold 80. The system efficiency at this threshold was found to be 99.95%. The system can operate at a 97% genuine acceptance rate and 99.98 % genuine reject rate, at corresponding threshold of 80. The EER was reported as 0.25 % at threshold 77. We verified that no similarity exists between right and left hand vein patterns for the same person over the acquired dataset sample. Finally, this distinct 100 hand vein patterns dataset sample can be accessed by researchers and students upon request for testing other methods of hand veins matching.

Keywords: Biometrics, Verification, Hand Veins, PatternsSimilarity, Statistical Performance.

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Authors: Chien-Wei Hung, Fu-Hau Hsu, Chuan-Sheng Wang, Chia-Hao Lee

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Nowadays, the abuse of keyloggers is one of the most widespread approaches to steal sensitive information. In this paper, we propose an On-Screen Prompts Approach to Keyloggers (OSPAK) and its analysis, which is installed in public computers. OSPAK utilizes a canvas to cue users when their keystrokes are going to be logged or ignored by OSPAK. This approach can protect computers against recoding sensitive inputs, which obfuscates keyloggers with letters inserted among users' keystrokes. It adds a canvas below each password field in a webpage and consists of three parts: two background areas, a hit area and a moving foreground object. Letters at different valid time intervals are combined in accordance with their time interval orders, and valid time intervals are interleaved with invalid time intervals. It utilizes animation to visualize valid time intervals and invalid time intervals, which can be integrated in a webpage as a browser extension. We have tested it against a series of known keyloggers and also performed a study with 95 users to evaluate how easily the tool is used. Experimental results made by volunteers show that OSPAK is a simple approach.

Keywords: Authentication, computer security, keylogger, privacy, information leakage.

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Authors: Sirbu R., Negreanu-Pirjol T., Leca M., Bechir A., Maris M., Maris D.

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In the paper we presented the possibility of application collagen gels with active principle-s from marine algae extract and chlorhexidine salt in dental medicine. The hydro-alcoholic extracts from marine algae have been used as they have been obtained. The extracts from marine algae and chlorhexidine salt (digluconate) are incorporated in type I non-denatured fibrillar collagen matrixes. In order to obtain therapeutic effects at nanostructure level, it is important to know the rheological characteristics of the relevant mixtures of collagen gels and extracts from marine algae selected for use. In this survey we have studied mixtures made of non-denatured fibrillar collagen hydro-gels where different concentrations of marine algae have been incorporated. Based on the data obtained for the shearing tensions, we have traced the rheograms – the diagrams for shearing tensions depending on the shearing speed values – from which we have calculated the apparent viscosities as ratios between shearing tension and speed values, which have been figured in relation to the shearing speed values, with a view to levelling dependency.

Keywords: rheological properties, fibrillar collagen hydro-gel, marine algae, chlorhexidine salt, dental medicine

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Authors: Talbi Mourad, Salhi Lotfi, Chérif Adnen

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In this work, we are interested in developing a speech denoising tool by using a discrete wavelet packet transform (DWPT). This speech denoising tool will be employed for applications of recognition, coding and synthesis. For noise reduction, instead of applying the classical thresholding technique, some wavelet packet nodes are set to zero and the others are thresholded. To estimate the non stationary noise level, we employ the spectral entropy. A comparison of our proposed technique to classical denoising methods based on thresholding and spectral subtraction is made in order to evaluate our approach. The experimental implementation uses speech signals corrupted by two sorts of noise, white and Volvo noises. The obtained results from listening tests show that our proposed technique is better than spectral subtraction. The obtained results from SNR computation show the superiority of our technique when compared to the classical thresholding method using the modified hard thresholding function based on u-law algorithm.

Keywords: Enhancement, spectral subtraction, SNR, discrete wavelet packet transform, spectral entropy Histogram

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Authors: H. Dardour, S. Mazouz, A. Bellagi

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For many industrial applications plate heat exchangers are demonstrating a large superiority over the other types of heat exchangers. The efficiency of such a device depends on numerous factors the effect of which needs to be analysed and accurately evaluated. In this paper we present a theoretical analysis of a cocurrent plate heat exchanger and the results of its numerical simulation. Knowing the hot and the cold fluid streams inlet temperatures, the respective heat capacities mCp and the value of the overall heat transfer coefficient, a 1-D mathematical model based on the steady flow energy balance for a differential length of the device is developed resulting in a set of N first order differential equations with boundary conditions where N is the number of channels.For specific heat exchanger geometry and operational parameters, the problem is numerically solved using the shooting method. The simulation allows the prediction of the temperature map in the heat exchanger and hence, the evaluation of its performances. A parametric analysis is performed to evaluate the influence of the R-parameter on the e-NTU values. For practical purposes effectiveness-NTU graphs are elaborated for specific heat exchanger geometry and different operating conditions.

Keywords: Plate heat exchanger, thermal performance, NTU, effectiveness.

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Authors: M. Mehani, L. Segni

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Medicinal and aromatic plants are promising and are characterized by the biosynthesis of odorous molecules that make up the so-called essential oils (EO), which have long been known for their antiseptic and therapeutic activity in folk medicine. Essential oils have many therapeutic properties. In herbal medicine, they are used for their antiseptic properties against infectious diseases of fungal origin, against dermatophytes, those of bacterial origin. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of drying in the shade on the water content and on the content of essential oils extracted from leaves of Eucalyptus camendulensis for better quality control of medicinal and aromatic plants. The water content of the Eucalyptus camendulensis plant material decreases during the drying process. It decreased from 100% to 0.006% for the drying in the shade after ten days. The moisture content is practically constant at the end of the drying period. The drying in the shade increases the concentration of essential oils of Eucalyptus camendulensis. When the leaves of Eucalyptus camendulensis plant are in the shade, the maximum of the essential oil content was obtained on the eighth day, the recorded value was 1.43% ± 0.01%. Beyond these periods, the content continuously drop in before stabilizing. The optimum drying time is between 6 and 9 days.

Keywords: Eucalyptus camendulensis, drying, essential oils, water and essential oil.

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Authors: S. Dan'azumi, S. Shamsudin, A. A. Rahman

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Rainfall data at fine resolution and knowledge of its characteristics plays a major role in the efficient design and operation of agricultural, telecommunication, runoff and erosion control as well as water quality control systems. The paper is aimed to study the statistical distribution of hourly rainfall depth for 12 representative stations spread across Peninsular Malaysia. Hourly rainfall data of 10 to 22 years period were collected and its statistical characteristics were estimated. Three probability distributions namely, Generalized Pareto, Exponential and Gamma distributions were proposed to model the hourly rainfall depth, and three goodness-of-fit tests, namely, Kolmogorov-Sminov, Anderson-Darling and Chi-Squared tests were used to evaluate their fitness. Result indicates that the east cost of the Peninsular receives higher depth of rainfall as compared to west coast. However, the rainfall frequency is found to be irregular. Also result from the goodness-of-fit tests show that all the three models fit the rainfall data at 1% level of significance. However, Generalized Pareto fits better than Exponential and Gamma distributions and is therefore recommended as the best fit.

Keywords: Goodness-of-fit test, Hourly rainfall, Malaysia, Probability distribution.

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Authors: Osifeko Olalekan Remigious, Osifeko Christiana Osikorede, Folarin Bolanle Eunice, Olugbenga Adebola Shodiya

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During these difficult economic times, nations are looking for ways to improve their finances, preserve the environment as well as the socio-political climate and educational institutions, which are needed to increase their economy and preserve their sustainable development. Sport is one of the ways through which sustainable development can be achieved. The purpose of this study was to examine and understanding barriers to participation in sport. A total of 1,025 students were purposively selected from five schools (School of Arts and Social Sciences, School of Languages, School of Education, School of Sciences and School of Vocational and Technical Education) in Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED). A questionnaire, with a tested reliability coefficient of 0.71, was used for data collection. The collected data were subjected to the descriptive survey research design. The findings showed that sports facilities, funding and lecture schedules were significant barriers to sports participation. It was recommended that sports facilities be provided by the Lagos State government.

Keywords: MOCPED sports, sustainable development, sports participation, state government.

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Authors: Yang Meng, James L. Patnao

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With the rapid development of information technology and the impact of the epidemic environment, the traditional teaching model can no longer meet the requirements of the development of the times. The development of teaching mechanisms is the inevitable trend of the future development of higher education. We must further promote the informatization of higher education in teaching practice, let modern information technology penetrate and practice in classroom teaching, and provide promising opportunities for the high-quality development of higher education. This article, mainly through the distribution of questionnaires to teachers of colleges and universities, aims to understand the degree of informatization in the teaching of colleges and universities. And on the basis of domestic and foreign scholars' research on higher education informatization, it analyzes the existing problems, and finds the optimal solution based on the needs of education and teaching development. According to the survey results, most college teachers will use information technology in teaching practice, but the information technology teaching tools used by teachers are relatively simple, and most of them use only slides. In addition, backward informatization infrastructure and less informatization training are the main challenges facing the current teaching informatization construction. If colleges and universities can make good use of information technology and multimedia technology and combine it with traditional teaching, it will definitely promote the development of college education and further promote the modernization and informatization of higher education.

Keywords: Higher education, teaching practice, informatization construction, e-education.

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Authors: Odón R. Sánchez-Ccoyllo, Elizabeth Ayma-Choque, Alan Llacza

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Sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and surface-ozone (O₃) concentrations are associated with diseases. The objective of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of the air-quality Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled to Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model with a horizontal resolution of 5 km x 5 km. For this purpose, the measurements of the hourly SO₂ and O₃ concentrations available in three air quality monitoring stations in Lima, Peru were used for the purpose of validating the simulations of the SO₂ and O₃ concentrations obtained with the WRF-Chem model in February 2018. For the quantitative evaluation of the simulations of these gases, statistical techniques were implemented, such as the average of the simulations; the average of the measurements; the Mean Bias (MeB); the Mean Error (MeE); and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). The results of these statistical metrics indicated that the simulated SO₂ and O₃ values over-predicted the SO₂ and O₃ measurements. For the SO₂ concentration, the MeB values varied from 0.58 to 26.35 µg/m³; the MeE values varied from 8.75 to 26.5 µg/m³; the RMSE values varied from 13.3 to 31.79 µg/m³; while for O₃ concentrations the statistical values of the MeB varied from 37.52 to 56.29 µg/m³; the MeE values varied from 37.54 to 56.70 µg/m³; the RMSE values varied from 43.05 to 69.56 µg/m³.

Keywords: Ground-ozone, Lima, Sulphur dioxide, WRF-Chem.

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Authors: Pradeep Kumar, Abdul Wahid

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Accurate software reliability prediction not only enables developers to improve the quality of software but also provides useful information to help them for planning valuable resources. This paper examines the performance of three well-known data mining techniques (CART, TreeNet and Random Forest) for predicting software reliability. We evaluate and compare the performance of proposed models with Cascade Correlation Neural Network (CCNN) using sixteen empirical databases from the Data and Analysis Center for Software. The goal of our study is to help project managers to concentrate their testing efforts to minimize the software failures in order to improve the reliability of the software systems. Two performance measures, Normalized Root Mean Squared Error (NRMSE) and Mean Absolute Errors (MAE), illustrate that CART model is accurate than the models predicted using Random Forest, TreeNet and CCNN in all datasets used in our study. Finally, we conclude that such methods can help in reliability prediction using real-life failure datasets.

Keywords: Classification, Cascade Correlation Neural Network, Random Forest, Software reliability, TreeNet.

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Authors: Daniel Puciato, Piotr Oleśniewicz, Julita Markiewicz-Patkowska, Krzysztof Widawski, Michał Rozpara, Władysław Mynarski, Agnieszka Gawlik, Małgorzata Dębska, Soňa Jandová

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Physical activity as a part of people’s everyday life reduces the risk of many diseases, including those induced by lifestyle, e.g. obesity, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, coronary heart disease, degenerative arthritis, and certain types of cancer. That refers particularly to professionally active people, including the early senior group working on non-manual positions. The aim of the study is to evaluate the relationship between physical activity and the socio-economic status of non-manual workers from Wroclaw—one of the biggest cities in Poland, a model setting for such investigations in this part of Europe. The crucial problem in the research is to find out the percentage of respondents who meet the health-related recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) concerning the volume, frequency, and intensity of physical activity, as well as to establish if the most important socio-economic factors, such as gender, age, education, marital status, per capita income, savings and debt, determine the compliance with the WHO physical activity recommendations. During the research, conducted in 2013, 1,170 people (611 women and 559 men) aged 21–60 years were examined. A diagnostic poll method was applied to collect the data. Physical activity was measured with the use of the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire with extended socio-demographic questions, i.e. concerning gender, age, education, marital status, income, savings or debts. To evaluate the relationship between physical activity and selected socio-economic factors, logistic regression was used (odds ratio statistics). Statistical inference was conducted on the adopted ex ante probability level of p<0.05. The majority of respondents met the volume of physical effort recommended for health benefits. It was particularly noticeable in the case of the examined men. The probability of compliance with the WHO physical activity recommendations was highest for workers aged 21–30 years with secondary or higher education who were single, received highest incomes and had savings. The results indicate the relations between physical activity and socio-economic status in the examined women and men. People with lower socio-economic status (e.g. manual workers) are physically active primarily at work, whereas those better educated and wealthier implement physical effort primarily in their leisure time. Among the investigated subjects, the youngest group of non-manual workers have the best chances to meet the WHO standards of physical activity. The study also confirms that secondary education has a positive effect on the public awareness on the role of physical activity in human life. In general, the analysis of the research indicates that there is a relationship between physical activity and some socio-economic factors of the respondents, such as gender, age, education, marital status, income per capita, and the possession of savings. Although the obtained results cannot be applied for the general population, they show some important trends that will be verified in subsequent studies conducted by the authors of the paper.

Keywords: International physical activity questionnaire, non-manual workers, physical activity, socio-economic factors, WHO.

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Authors: Nguyen Minh Tuan, Yen Chung–Ruey

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This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of gibberellic acid and 2,4- dichlorophenoxyacetic acid on flower number, fruit growth and fruit quality of wax apple. GA3 and 2,4-D were applied at small bud and petal fall stage. Number of flower, fruit set, fruit drop, fruit crack, fruit growth and fruit quality were recorded. Results indicated that spraying with 10 ppm GA3 had the best results in number of flower. GA3 spray at 30 ppm gave the faster rate of fruit growth than the other treatments. Fruit set, fruit size as well as fruit weight markedly improved by spraying 30 ppm GA3, followed by 10 ppm GA3 compared to untreated control. Moreover, spray GA3 at 30 ppm was the most effective and increased total soluble solids, reduced titratable acidity and fruit drop. On the other hand, it was noticed that with 10 ppm 2,4-D application also enhanced the fruit growth rate, improved physiological and biochemical characters of fruit compared to untreated control. It was concluded that both GA3 and 2,4-D spray have positive effects on fruit development, reduced fruit drop, fruit crack and improved fruit quality of wax apple under field conditions.

Keywords: Wax apple, GA3, 2, 4-D, fruit growth, fruit quality.

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Authors: A. Mavrikos, N. Petsas, E. Kaltsi, D. Kaliampakos

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The lignite-fired power plants in the Western Macedonia Lignite Center produce more than 810⁶ t of fly ash per year. Approximately 90% of this quantity is used for restoration-reclamation of exhausted open-cast lignite mines and slope stabilization of the overburden. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the environmental behavior of the mixture of waste rock and fly ash that is being used in the external deposition site of the South Field lignite mine. For this reason, a borehole was made within the site and 86 samples were taken and subjected to chemical analyses and leaching tests. The results showed very limited leaching of trace elements and heavy metals from this mixture. Moreover, when compared to the limit values set for waste acceptable in inert waste landfills, only few excesses were observed, indicating only minor risk for groundwater pollution. However, due to the complexity of both the leaching process and the contaminant pathway, more boreholes and analyses should be made in nearby locations and a systematic groundwater monitoring program should be implemented both downstream and within the external deposition site.

Keywords: Co-deposition, fly ash, leaching tests, lignite, waste rock.

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Authors: S.Thong-Om, W. Payakcho, J. Grasaesom, A. Oonsivilai, B. Marungsri

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This paper presents the experimental results of silicone rubber outdoor polymer insulators in salt fog ageing test based on IEC 61109. Specimens made ofHTV silicone rubber with ATH content having three different configurations, straight shedsalternated sheds, and incline and alternate sheds, were tested continuously 1000 hrs.in artificial salt fog chamber. Contamination level, reduction of hydrophobicity and hardness measurement were used as physical damaged inspection techniques to evaluate degree of surface deterioration. In addition, chemical changing of tested specimen surface was evaluated by ATR-FTIRto confirm physical damaged inspection. After 1000 hrs.of salt fog test, differences in degree of surface deterioration were observed on all tested specimens. Physical damaged inspection and chemical analysis results confirmed the experimental results as well.

Keywords: Ageing deterioration, Silicone rubber, Polymer Insulator, Salt fog ageing test.

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Authors: Dong Wan-li, Gu Nai-jie, Tu Kun, Bi Kun, Liu Gang

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As originally designed for wired networks, TCP (transmission control protocol) congestion control mechanism is triggered into action when packet loss is detected. This implicit assumption for packet loss mostly due to network congestion does not work well in Mobile Ad Hoc Network, where there is a comparatively high likelihood of packet loss due to channel errors and node mobility etc. Such non-congestion packet loss, when dealt with by congestion control mechanism, causes poor TCP performance in MANET. In this study, we continue to investigate the impact of the interaction between transport protocols and on-demand routing protocols on the performance and stability of 802.11 multihop networks. We evaluate the important wireless networking events caused routing change, and propose a cross layer method to delay the unnecessary routing changes, only need to add a sensitivity parameter α , which represents the on-demand routing-s reaction to link failure of MAC layer. Our proposal is applicable to the plain 802.11 networking environment, the simulation results that this method can remarkably improve the stability and performance of TCP without any modification on TCP and MAC protocol.

Keywords: Mobile ad hoc networks (MANET), on-demandrouting, performance, transmission control protocol (TCP).

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Authors: N. Hatraf, L. Merabeti, Z. Neffeh, W. Taane

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The excessive consumption of fossil energies (electrical energy) during summer caused by the technological development involves more and more climate warming.

In order to reduce the worst impact of gas emissions produced from classical air conditioning, heat driven solar absorption chiller is pretty promising; it consists on using solar as motive energy which is clean and environmentally friendly to provide cold.

Solar absorption machine is composed by four components using Lithium Bromide /water as a refrigerating couple. LiBr- water is the most promising in chiller applications due to high safety, high volatility ratio, high affinity, high stability and its high latent heat. The lithium bromide solution is constitute by the salt lithium bromide which absorbs water under certain conditions of pressure and temperature however if the concentration of the solution is high in the absorption chillers; which exceed 70%, the solution will crystallize.

The main aim of this article is to study the phenomena of the crystallization and to evaluate how the dependence between the electric conductivity and the concentration which should be controlled.

Keywords: Absorption chillers, crystallization, experimental results, Lithium Bromide solution.

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Authors: John McCullagh, Jaclyn Munge, NivanWeerakkody, Kerrie Gamble

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of preexercise glycerol hyperhydration on endurance performance in a heat chamber designed to simulate the World Championship Distance (WCD) duathlon (10km run, 40km ride, 5 km run). Duathlons are often performed in hot and humid conditions and as a result hydration is a major issue. Glycerol enhances the body’s capacity for fluid retention by inducing hyperhydration, which is theorized to improve thermoregulatory and cardiovascular responses, and thereby improve performance. Six well-trained athletes completed the testing protocol in a heat chamber at the La Trobe University Exercise Physiology Laboratory. Each testing session was approximately 4.5 hours in duration (2 hours of pre-exercise glycerol hyper-hydration followed by approximately 2.5 hours of exercise). The results showed an increased water retention pre-exercise and an improved overall performance of 2.04% was achieved by subjects ingesting the glycerol solution.

Keywords: Endurance performance, glycerol hyperhydration, heat chamber.

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Authors: Martins Sabovics, Karina Ruse, Evita Straumite, Ruta Galoburda

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The research was accomplished on triticale flour blend, which was made from whole grain triticale, rye, hull-less barley flour and rice, maize flour. The aim of this research was to evaluate physico-chemical and sensory properties of triticale flour blend dough in the mixing and fermentation processes. For dough making was used triticale flour blend, yeast, sugar, salt, and water. In the mixing process ware evaluated moisture, acidity, pH, and dough sensory properties (softness, viscosity, and stickiness), but in the fermentation process ware evaluated volume, moisture, acidity, and pH. During present research was established that increasing fermentation temperature and time, increase dough temperature, volume, moisture, and acidity. The mixing time and fermentation time and temperature have significant effect (p<0.05) on triticale flour blend dough physico-chemical and sensory properties.

Keywords: Dough quality, dough fermentation, dough mixing, triticale flour blend.

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Authors: T. Qasim, M. Obeidat, S. Al-Sharairi

Abstract:

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of the excessive use of smartphones. Smartphones have enormous effects on the human body in that some musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and health problems might evolve. These days, there is a wide use of the smartphones among all age groups of society, thus, the focus on smartphone effects on human behavior and health, especially on the young and elderly people, becomes a crucial issue. This study was conducted in Jordan on smartphone users for different genders and ages, by conducting a survey to collect data related to the symptoms and MSDs that are resulted from the excessive use of smartphones. A total of 357 responses were used in the analysis. The main related symptoms were numbness, fingers pain, and pain in arm, all linked to age and gender for comparative reasons. A statistical analysis was performed to find the effects of extensive usage of a smartphone for long periods of time on the human body. Results show that the significant variables were the vision problems and the time spent when using the smartphone that cause vision problems. Other variables including age of user and ear problems due to the use of the headsets were found to be a border line significant.

Keywords: Smartphone, age group, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), health problems.

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Authors: Ç. Erdoğan, T. Turan

Abstract:

Pediatric cancer patients experience multiple distressing, challenges, physical symptom such as fatigue, pain, sleep disturbance, and balance impairment that continue years after treatment completion. In recent years, yoga is often used in children with cancer to cope with these symptoms. Yoga practice is defined as a unique physical activity that combines physical practice, breath work and mindfulness/meditation. Yoga is an increasingly popular mind-body practice also characterized as a mindfulness mode of exercise. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of yoga intervention of children with cancer. This article planned searching the literature in this field. It has been determined that individualized yoga is feasible and provides benefits for inpatient children, improves health-related quality of life, physical activity levels, physical fitness. After yoga program, children anxiety score decreases significantly. Additionally, individualized yoga is feasible for inpatient children receiving intensive chemotherapy. As a result, yoga is an alternative and complementary medicine that can be safely used in children with cancer.

Keywords: Cancer treatment, children, nursing, yoga.

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Authors: Puvanasvaran, A. P., Suresh V., N. Norazlin

Abstract:

The Lean Environmental Management Integration System (LEMIS) framework development is integration between lean core element and ISO 14001. The curiosity on the relationship between continuous improvement and sustainability of lean implementation has influenced this study toward LEMIS. Characteristic of ISO 14001 standard clauses and core elements of lean principles are explored from past studies and literature reviews. Survey was carried out on ISO 14001 certified companies to examine continual improvement by implementing the ISO 14001 standard. The study found that there is a significant and positive relationship between Lean Principles: value, value stream, flow, pull and perfection with the ISO 14001 requirements. LEMIS is significant to support the continuous improvement and sustainability. The integration system can be implemented to any manufacturing company. It gives awareness on the importance on why organizations need to sustain its environmental management system. In the meantime, the lean principle can be adapted in order to streamline daily activities of the company. Throughout the study, it had proven that there is no sacrifice or trade-off between lean principles with ISO 14001 requirements. The framework developed in the study can be further simplified in the future, especially the method of crossing each sub requirements of ISO 14001 standard with the core elements of Lean principles in this study.

Keywords: LEMIS, ISO 14001, integration, framework.

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Authors: Ab. Rashid M.F.F., Gan S.Y., Muhammad N.Y.

Abstract:

Surface roughness (Ra) is one of the most important requirements in machining process. In order to obtain better surface roughness, the proper setting of cutting parameters is crucial before the process take place. This research presents the development of mathematical model for surface roughness prediction before milling process in order to evaluate the fitness of machining parameters; spindle speed, feed rate and depth of cut. 84 samples were run in this study by using FANUC CNC Milling α-Τ14ιE. Those samples were randomly divided into two data sets- the training sets (m=60) and testing sets(m=24). ANOVA analysis showed that at least one of the population regression coefficients was not zero. Multiple Regression Method was used to determine the correlation between a criterion variable and a combination of predictor variables. It was established that the surface roughness is most influenced by the feed rate. By using Multiple Regression Method equation, the average percentage deviation of the testing set was 9.8% and 9.7% for training data set. This showed that the statistical model could predict the surface roughness with about 90.2% accuracy of the testing data set and 90.3% accuracy of the training data set.

Keywords: Surface roughness, regression analysis.

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