Search results for: Health information technology in developing countries

Authors: Achraf El Allali, John R. Rose

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A number of competing methodologies have been developed to identify genes and classify DNA sequences into coding and non-coding sequences. This classification process is fundamental in gene finding and gene annotation tools and is one of the most challenging tasks in bioinformatics and computational biology. An information theory measure based on mutual information has shown good accuracy in classifying DNA sequences into coding and noncoding. In this paper we describe a species independent iterative approach that distinguishes coding from non-coding sequences using the mutual information measure (MIM). A set of sixty prokaryotes is used to extract universal training data. To facilitate comparisons with the published results of other researchers, a test set of 51 bacterial and archaeal genomes was used to evaluate MIM. These results demonstrate that MIM produces superior results while remaining species independent.

Keywords: Coding Non-coding Classification, Entropy, GeneRecognition, Mutual Information.

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Authors: Haya Y Alobaid

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The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss the obstacles to the ability of the accounting information systems of Kuwaiti companies to deal with electronic commerce, and then to propose appropriate solutions to overcome the barriers. The study revealed a remarkable decrease in external auditors who have professional certification. The results also showed an agreement regarding the accounting systems and the ability to deal with e-commerce, with a different degree of importance, despite the presence of obstacles to the ability of accounting systems in dealing with different companies.

Keywords: Accounting information systems, obstacle, barriers, electronic commerce, Kuwait companies.

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Authors: Satish Kumar Peddapelli

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This paper presents advances in pulse width modulation techniques which refers to a method of carrying information on train of pulses and the information be encoded in the width of pulses. Pulse Width Modulation is used to control the inverter output voltage. This is done by exercising the control within the inverter itself by adjusting the ON and OFF periods of inverter. By fixing the DC input voltage we get AC output voltage. In variable speed AC motors the AC output voltage from a constant DC voltage is obtained by using inverter. Recent developments in power electronics and semiconductor technology have lead improvements in power electronic systems. Hence, different circuit configurations namely multilevel inverters have became popular and considerable interest by researcher are given on them. A fast space-vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) method for five-level inverter is also discussed. In this method, the space vector diagram of the five-level inverter is decomposed into six space vector diagrams of three-level inverters. In turn, each of these six space vector diagrams of three-level inverter is decomposed into six space vector diagrams of two-level inverters. After decomposition, all the remaining necessary procedures for the three-level SVPWM are done like conventional two-level inverter. The proposed method reduces the algorithm complexity and the execution time. It can be applied to the multilevel inverters above the five-level also. The experimental setup for three-level diode-clamped inverter is developed using TMS320LF2407 DSP controller and the experimental results are analyzed.

Keywords: Five-level inverter, Space vector pulse wide modulation, diode clamped inverter.

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Authors: Anelise Leal Vieira Cubas, Marina de Medeiros Machado, Marília de Medeiros Machado

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The volatile organic compounds - BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylene) petroleum derivatives, have high rates of toxicity, which may carry consequences for human health, biota and environment. In this directon, this paper proposes a method of treatment of these compounds by using corona discharge plasma technology. The efficiency of the method was tested by analyzing samples of BTEX after going through a plasma reactor by gas chromatography method. The results show that the optimal residence time of the sample in the reactor was 8 minutes.

Keywords: BTEX, Degradation, Cold plasma.

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Authors: Ilona Mewes, Helena Jenzer, Farshideh Einsele

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Objective: The objective of the study was to integrate two big databases from Swiss nutrition national survey (menuCH) and Swiss health national survey 2012 for data mining purposes. Each database has a demographic base data. An integrated Swiss database is built to later discover critical food consumption patterns linked with lifestyle diseases known to be strongly tied with food consumption. Design: Swiss nutrition national survey (menuCH) with approx. 2000 respondents from two different surveys, one by Phone and the other by questionnaire along with Swiss health national survey 2012 with 21500 respondents were pre-processed, cleaned and finally integrated to a unique relational database. Results: The result of this study is an integrated relational database from the Swiss nutritional and health databases.

Keywords: Health informatics, data mining, nutritional and health databases, nutritional and chronical databases.

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Authors: Muhibul Haque Bhuyan

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Diabetes disease that arises from the higher glucose level due to insulin shortage or insulin opposition in the human body has become a common disease in the world. No medicine can cure it completely. However, by taking medicine, maintaining diets, and having exercises regularly, a diabetes patient can keep his glucose level within the specified limits and in this way, he/she can lead a normal life like a healthy person. But to control glucose levels, a patient needs to monitor them regularly. Various techniques are being used over the last four decades. This modern review article aims to provide a comparative study report on various blood glucose monitoring techniques in a very concise and organized manner. The review mainly emphasizes working principles, cost, technology, sensors, measurement types, measurement accuracy, advantages, and disadvantages, etc. of various techniques and then compares among each other. Besides, the use of algorithms and simulators for the growth of this technology is also presented. Finally, current research trends of this measurement technology have also been discussed.

Keywords: blood glucose measurement, sensors, measurement devices, invasive and non-invasive techniques

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Authors: A. M. John-Otumu, M. M. Rahman, O. C. Nwokonkwo, M. C. Onuoha

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Online social media networks have long served as a primary arena for group conversations, gossip, text-based information sharing and distribution. The use of natural language processing techniques for text classification and unbiased decision making has not been far-fetched. Proper classification of these textual information in a given context has also been very difficult. As a result, a systematic review was conducted from previous literature on sentiment classification and AI-based techniques. The study was done in order to gain a better understanding of the process of designing and developing a robust and more accurate sentiment classifier that could correctly classify social media textual information of a given context between hate speech and inverted compliments with a high level of accuracy using the knowledge gain from the evaluation of different artificial intelligence techniques reviewed. The study evaluated over 250 articles from digital sources like ACM digital library, Google Scholar, and IEEE Xplore; and whittled down the number of research to 52 articles. Findings revealed that deep learning approaches such as Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformer (BERT), and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) outperformed various machine learning techniques in terms of performance accuracy. A large dataset is also required to develop a robust sentiment classifier. Results also revealed that data can be obtained from places like Twitter, movie reviews, Kaggle, Stanford Sentiment Treebank (SST), and SemEval Task4 based on the required domain. The hybrid deep learning techniques like CNN+LSTM, CNN+ Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), CNN+BERT outperformed single deep learning techniques and machine learning techniques. Python programming language outperformed Java programming language in terms of development simplicity and AI-based library functionalities. Finally, the study recommended the findings obtained for building robust sentiment classifier in the future.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Sentiment Analysis, Social Network, Text.

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Authors: Mai Miyabe, Taku Fukushima, Takashi Yoshino, Aguri Shigeno

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The need for multilingual communication in Japan has increased due to an increase in the number of foreigners in the country. When people communicate in their nonnative language, the differences in language prevent mutual understanding among the communicating individuals. In the medical field, communication between the hospital staff and patients is a serious problem. Currently, medical translators accompany patients to medical care facilities, and the demand for medical translators is increasing. However, medical translators cannot necessarily provide support, especially in cases in which round-the-clock support is required or in case of emergencies. The medical field has high expectations from information technology. Hence, a system that supports accurate multilingual communication is required. Despite recent advances in machine translation technology, it is very difficult to obtain highly accurate translations. We have developed a support system called M3 for multilingual medical reception. M3 provides support functions that aid foreign patients in the following respects: conversation, questionnaires, reception procedures, and hospital navigation; it also has a Q&A function. Users can operate M3 using a touch screen and receive text-based support. In addition, M3 uses accurate translation tools called parallel texts to facilitate reliable communication through conversations between the hospital staff and the patients. However, if there is no parallel text that expresses what users want to communicate, the users cannot communicate. In this study, we have developed a circulating support environment for multilingual medical communication using parallel texts. The proposed environment can circulate necessary parallel texts through the following procedure: (1) a user provides feedback about the necessary parallel texts, following which (2) these parallel texts are created and evaluated.

Keywords: multilingual medical communication, parallel texts.

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Authors: Hikmat A. M. Abd-El-Jaber, Tengku M. T. Sembok

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The information on the Web increases tremendously. A number of search engines have been developed for searching Web information and retrieving relevant documents that satisfy the inquirers needs. Search engines provide inquirers irrelevant documents among search results, since the search is text-based rather than semantic-based. Information retrieval research area has presented a number of approaches and methodologies such as profiling, feedback, query modification, human-computer interaction, etc for improving search results. Moreover, information retrieval has employed artificial intelligence techniques and strategies such as machine learning heuristics, tuning mechanisms, user and system vocabularies, logical theory, etc for capturing user's preferences and using them for guiding the search based on the semantic analysis rather than syntactic analysis. Although a valuable improvement has been recorded on search results, the survey has shown that still search engines users are not really satisfied with their search results. Using ontologies for semantic-based searching is likely the key solution. Adopting profiling approach and using ontology base characteristics, this work proposes a strategy for finding the exact meaning of the query terms in order to retrieve relevant information according to user needs. The evaluation of conducted experiments has shown the effectiveness of the suggested methodology and conclusion is presented.

Keywords: information retrieval, user profiles, semantic Web, ontology, search engine.

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Authors: Na Li

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This paper describes a new measuring algorithm for three-dimensional (3-D) braided composite material .Braided angle is an important parameter of braided composites. The objective of this paper is to present an automatic measuring system. In the paper, the algorithm is performed by using vcµ6.0 language on PC. An advanced filtered algorithm for image of 3-D braided composites material performs has been developed. The procedure is completely automatic and relies on the gray scale information content of the images and their local wavelet transform modulus maxims. Experimental results show that the proposed method is feasible. The algorithm was tested on both carbon-fiber and glass-fiber performs.

Keywords: Three-Dimensional composite material, Mathematical morphology.

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Authors: Naeleh Motamedi, Masoud Mahmoudkhan Shirazi, Nima Nouraei

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Natural disasters, including earthquake, kill many people around the world every year. Society rescue actions, which start after the earthquake and are called LAST in abbreviation, include locating, access, stabilization and transportation. In the present article, we have studied the process of local accessibility to the injured and transporting them to health care centers. With regard the heavy traffic load due to earthquake, the destruction of connecting roads and bridges and the heavy debris in alleys and street, which put the lives of the injured and the people buried under the debris in danger, accelerating the rescue actions and facilitating the accessibilities are of great importance, obviously. Tehran, the capital of Iran, is among the crowded cities in the world and is the center of extensive economic, political, cultural and social activities. Tehran has a population of about 9.5 millions and because of the immigration of people from the surrounding cities. Furthermore, considering the fact that Tehran is located on two important and large faults, a 6 Richter magnitude earthquake in this city could lead to the greatest catastrophe during the entire human history. The present study is a kind of review and a major part of the required information for it, has been obtained from libraries all of the rescue vehicles around the world, including rescue helicopters, ambulances, fire fighting vehicles and rescue boats, and their applied technology, and also the robots specifically designed for the rescue system and the advantages and disadvantages of them, have been investigated. The studies show that there is a significant relationship between the rescue team-s arrival time at the incident zone and the number of saved people; so that, if the duration of burial under debris 30 minutes, the probability of survival is %99.3, after a day is %81, after 2days is %19 and after 5days is %7.4. The exiting transport systems all have some defects. If these defects are removed, more people could be saved each hour and the preparedness against natural disasters is increased. In this study, transport system has been designed for the rescue team and the injured; which could carry the rescue team to the incident zone and the injured to the health care centers. In addition, this system is able to fly in the air and move on the earth as well; so that the destruction of roads and the heavy traffic load could not prevent the rescue team from arriving early at the incident zone. The system also has the equipment required firebird for debris removing, optimum transport of the injured and first aid.

Keywords: earthquake, accelerating, accessibilities transportation, rescue system

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Authors: Daniel Alati

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Recent high-profile terrorist events in Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe – the London Bridge attacks, the terrorist attacks in Nice, France and Barcelona, Spain, the 2014 Ottawa Parliament attacks and the 2017 attacks in Edmonton – have all raised levels of public and academic concern with so-called “lone-wolf” and “radicalized” terrorism. Similarly, several countries outside of the “Western” world have been dealing with radicalization to violent extremism for several years. Many South East Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines have all had experience with what might be described as ISIS or extremist-inspired acts of terrorism. Indeed, it appears the greatest strength of groups such as ISIS has been their ability to spread a global message of violent extremism that has led to radicalization in markedly different jurisdictions throughout the world. These markedly different jurisdictions have responded with counter-radicalization strategies that warrant further comparative analysis. This paper utilizes an inter-disciplinary legal methodology. In doing so, it compares legal, political, cultural and historical aspects of the counter-radicalization strategies employed by Canada, the United Kingdom and several South East Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines). Whilst acknowledging significant legal and political differences between these jurisdictions, the paper engages in these analyses with an eye towards understanding which best practices might be shared between the jurisdictions. In doing so, it presents valuable findings of a comparative nature that are useful to both academic and practitioner audiences in several jurisdictions.

Keywords: Canada, United Kingdom, South East Asia, comparative law and politics, radicalization to violent extremism, terrorism.

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Authors: Marc Sango, Olimpia Hoinaru, Christophe Gransart, Laurence Duchien

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Ontologies offer a means for representing and sharing information in many domains, particularly in complex domains. For example, it can be used for representing and sharing information of System Requirement Specification (SRS) of complex systems like the SRS of ERTMS/ETCS written in natural language. Since this system is a real-time and critical system, generic ontologies, such as OWL and generic ERTMS ontologies provide minimal support for modeling temporal information omnipresent in these SRS documents. To support the modeling of temporal information, one of the challenges is to enable representation of dynamic features evolving in time within a generic ontology with a minimal redesign of it. The separation of temporal information from other information can help to predict system runtime operation and to properly design and implement them. In addition, it is helpful to provide a reasoning and querying techniques to reason and query temporal information represented in the ontology in order to detect potential temporal inconsistencies. To address this challenge, we propose a lightweight 3-layer temporal Quality of Service (QoS) ontology for representing, reasoning and querying over temporal and non-temporal information in a complex domain ontology. Representing QoS entities in separated layers can clarify the distinction between the non QoS entities and the QoS entities in an ontology. The upper generic layer of the proposed ontology provides an intuitive knowledge of domain components, specially ERTMS/ETCS components. The separation of the intermediate QoS layer from the lower QoS layer allows us to focus on specific QoS Characteristics, such as temporal or integrity characteristics. In this paper, we focus on temporal information that can be used to predict system runtime operation. To evaluate our approach, an example of the proposed domain ontology for handover operation, as well as a reasoning rule over temporal relations in this domain-specific ontology, are presented.

Keywords: System Requirement Specification, ERTMS/ETCS, Temporal Ontologies, Domain Ontologies.

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Authors: Chien-Jen Liu, Shu Ching Yang

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Using the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study examined the external variables of technological complexity (TC) to acquire a better understanding of the factors that influence the acceptance of computer application courses by learners at Active Aging Universities. After the learners in this study had completed a 27-hour Facebook course, 44 learners responded to a modified TAM survey. Data were collected to examine the path relationships among the variables that influence the acceptance of Facebook-mediated community learning. The partial least squares (PLS) method was used to test the measurement and the structural model. The study results demonstrated that attitudes toward Facebook use directly influence behavioral intentions (BI) with respect to Facebook use, evincing a high prediction rate of 58.3%. In addition to the perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) measures that are proposed in the TAM, other external variables, such as TC, also indirectly influence BI. These four variables can explain 88% of the variance in BI and demonstrate a high level of predictive ability. Finally, limitations of this investigation and implications for further research are discussed.

Keywords: Technology acceptance model (TAM), technological complexity, partial least squares (PLS), perceived usefulness.

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Authors: Hsu-Yung Cheng, Victor Gau, Chih-Wei Huang, Jenq-Neng Hwang, Chih-Chang Yu

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In order to achieve better road utilization and traffic efficiency, there is an urgent need for a travel information delivery mechanism to assist the drivers in making better decisions in the emerging intelligent transportation system applications. In this paper, we propose a relayed multicast scheme under heterogeneous networks for this purpose. In the proposed system, travel information consisting of summarized traffic conditions, important events, real-time traffic videos, and local information service contents is formed into layers and multicasted through an integration of WiMAX infrastructure and Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANET). By the support of adaptive modulation and coding in WiMAX, the radio resources can be optimally allocated when performing multicast so as to dynamically adjust the number of data layers received by the users. In addition to multicast supported by WiMAX, a knowledge propagation and information relay scheme by VANET is designed. The experimental results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Keywords: Intelligent Transportation Systems, RelayedMulticast, WiMAX, Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANET).

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Authors: Abbas R. Ali, Safa H. Abdulrahman

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In this study, forty samples had been collected from water of Lesser Zab River and drinking water to determine fluoride concentration and show the impact of fluoride on general health of society of Kirkuk city. Estimation of fluoride concentration and determination of its proportion in water samples were performed attentively using a fluoride ion selective electrode. The fluoride concentrations in the Lesser Zab River samples were between 0.0265 ppm and 0.0863 ppm with an average of 0.0451 ppm, whereas the average fluoride concentration in drinking water samples was 0.102 ppm and ranged from 0.010 to 0.289 ppm. A comparison between results obtained with World Health Organization (WHO) show a low concentration of fluoride in the samples of the study. Thus, for health concerns we should increase the concentration of this ion in water of Kirkuk city at least to about (1.0 ppm) and this will take place after fluorination process.

Keywords: Fluoride concentration, Lesser Zab River, drinking water, health society, Kirkuk city.

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Authors: H. Bentarzi, A. Zitouni

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The reliability of the power grid depends on the successful operation of thousands of protective relays. The failure of one relay to operate as intended may lead the entire power grid to blackout. In fact, major power system failures during transient disturbances may be caused by unnecessary protective relay tripping rather than by the failure of a relay to operate. Adequate relay testing provides a first defense against false trips of the relay and hence improves power grid stability and prevents catastrophic bulk power system failures. The goal of this research project is to design and enhance the relay tester using a technology such as Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) card NI 7851. A PC based tester framework has been developed using Simulink power system model for generating signals under different conditions (faults or transient disturbances) and LabVIEW for developing the graphical user interface and configuring the FPGA. Besides, the interface system has been developed for outputting and amplifying the signals without distortion. These signals should be like the generated ones by the real power system and large enough for testing the relay’s functionality. The signals generated that have been displayed on the scope are satisfactory. Furthermore, the proposed testing system can be used for improving the performance of protective relay.

Keywords: Amplifier class D, FPGA, protective relay, tester.

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Authors: B. O. Diyaolu

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The opportunity provided by advances in technology as regard to sports betting is so numerous. Nigerian youth are not left out especially with the use of phones and visit to sports betting outlets. Today, it is more difficult to differentiate a true fan as there are quite a number of them that became fans as a result of betting on live games. This study investigated the influence of online sports events on betting among Nigerian youth. A descriptive survey research design was used and the population consists of all Nigerian youth that engages in betting and lives within the southwest zone of Nigeria. A simple random sampling technique was used to pick three states from the southwest zone of Nigeria. 2500 respondents comprising of males and females were sampled from the three states. A structured questionnaire on Online Sports Event Contribution to Sports Betting (OSECSB) was used. The instrument consists of three sections. Section A seeks information on the demographic data of the respondents. Section B seeks information on online sports events while section C was used to extract information on sports betting. The modified instrument which consists of 14 items has a reliability coefficient of 0.74. The hypothesis was tested at 0.05 significance level. The completed questionnaire was collated, coded, and analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts, percentage and pie chart, and inferential statistics of multiple regressions. The findings of this study revealed that online sports betting is a significant predictor of an increase in sports betting among Nigerian youth. The media and television, as well as globalization and the internet, coupled with social media and various online platforms, have all contributed to the immense increase in sports betting. The increase in the advertisement of the betting platform during live matches, especially football, is becoming more alarming. In most organized international events, the media attention, as well as sponsorship rights, are now been given to one or two betting platforms. There is a need for all stakeholders to put in place school-based intervention programs to reorientate our youth about the consequences of addiction to betting. Such programs must include meta-analyses and emotional control towards sports betting.

Keywords: Betting platform, Nigerian fans, Nigerian youth, sports betting.

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Authors: Hazem M. El-Bakry, Ahmed A. Mohammed

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In this paper, an intelligent algorithm for optimal document archiving is presented. It is kown that electronic archives are very important for information system management. Minimizing the size of the stored data in electronic archive is a main issue to reduce the physical storage area. Here, the effect of different types of Arabic fonts on electronic archives size is discussed. Simulation results show that PDF is the best file format for storage of the Arabic documents in electronic archive. Furthermore, fast information detection in a given PDF file is introduced. Such approach uses fast neural networks (FNNs) implemented in the frequency domain. The operation of these networks relies on performing cross correlation in the frequency domain rather than spatial one. It is proved mathematically and practically that the number of computation steps required for the presented FNNs is less than that needed by conventional neural networks (CNNs). Simulation results using MATLAB confirm the theoretical computations.

Keywords: Information Storage and Retrieval, Electronic Archiving, Fast Information Detection, Cross Correlation, Frequency Domain.

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Authors: Muhammd Usman Sardar, Mazhar Hussain Baloch, Muhammad Shahbaz Ahmad, Zahir Javed Paracha

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Shortfall of electrical energy in Pakistan is a challenge adversely affecting its industrial output and social growth. As elsewhere, Pakistan derives its electrical energy from a number of conventional sources. The exhaustion of petroleum and conventional resources, the rising costs coupled with extremely adverse climatic effects are taking its toll especially on the under-developed countries like Pakistan. As alternate, renewable energy sources like hydropower, solar, wind, even bio-energy and a mix of some or all of them could provide a credible alternative to the conventional energy resources that would not only be cleaner but sustainable as well. As a model, solar energy-based power grid for the near future has been attempted to offset the energy shortfalls as a mix with our existing sustainable natural energy resources. An assessment of solar energy potential for electricity generation is being presented for fulfilling the energy demands with higher level of reliability and sustainability. This model is based on the premise that solar energy potential of Pakistan is not only reliable but also sustainable. This research estimates the present & future approaching renewable energy resource specially the impact of solar energy based power grid for mitigating energy shortage in Pakistan.

Keywords: Powergrid network, solar photovoltaic (SPV) setups, solar power generation, solar energy technology (SET).

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Authors: Chiung-Hui Chen

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Traditional service channel is losing its edge due to emerging service technology. To establish interaction with the clients, the service industry is using effective mechanism to give clients direct access to services with emerging technologies. Thus, as service science receives attention, special and unique consumption pattern evolves; henceforth, leading to new market mechanism and influencing attitudes toward life and consumption patterns. The market demand for customized services is thus valued due to the emphasis of personal value, and is gradually changing the demand and supply relationship in the traditional industry. In respect of interior design service, in the process of traditional interior design, a designer converts to a concrete form the concept generated from the ideas and needs dictated by a user (client), by using his/her professional knowledge and drawing tool. The final product is generated through iterations of communication and modification, which is a very time-consuming process. Although this process has been accelerated with the help of computer graphics software today, repeated discussions and confirmations with users are still required to complete the task. In consideration of what is addressed above a space user’s life model is analyzed with visualization technique to create an interaction system modeled after interior design knowledge. The space user document intuitively personal life experience in a model requirement chart, allowing a researcher to analyze interrelation between analysis documents, identify the logic and the substance of data conversion. The repeated data which is documented are then transformed into design information for reuse and sharing. A professional interior designer may sort out the correlation among user’s preference, life pattern and design specification, thus deciding the critical design elements in the process of service design.

Keywords: Information Design, Life Model-Based, Aesthetic Computing, Communication.

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Authors: Lorena Antonovici, Maria Nicoleta Turliuc

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The process of becoming a vegetarian involves changes in several life aspects, including health. Despite its relevance, however, little research has been carried out to analyze vegetarians' self-perceived health, and even less empirical attention has received in the Romanian population. This study aimed to assess health-related beliefs and practices among vegetarian adults in a Romanian sample. We have undertaken 20 semi-structured interviews (10 males, 10 females) based on a snowball sample with a mean age of 31 years. The interview guide was divided into three sections: causes of adopting the diet, general aspects (beliefs, practices, tensions, and conflicts) and consequences of adopting the diet (significant changes, positive aspects, and difficulties, physical and mental health). Additional anamnestic data were reported by means of a questionnaire. Data analyses were performed using Tropes text analysis software (v. 8.2) and SPSS software (v. 24.0.) Findings showed that most of the participants considered a vegetarian diet as a natural and healthy choice as opposed to meat-eating, which is not healthy, and its consumption should be moderated among omnivores. A higher proportion of participants (65%) had an average body mass index (BMI), and several women even assumed having certain affections that no longer occur after following a vegetarian diet. Moreover, participants admitted having better moods and mental health status, given their self-contentment with the dietary choice. Relatives were perceived as more skeptical about their practices than others, and especially women had this view. This study provides a valuable insight into health-related beliefs and practices and how a vegetarian diet might interact.

Keywords: Health-related beliefs, health, practices, vegetarians.

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Authors: Ahmed M. Hemeida, Wael A. Farag, Osama A. Mahgoub

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This paper focuses on developing an integrated reliable and sophisticated model for ultra large wind turbines And to study the performance and analysis of vector control on large wind turbines. With the advance of power electronics technology, direct driven multi-pole radial flux PMSG (Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator) has proven to be a good choice for wind turbines manufacturers. To study the wind energy conversion systems, it is important to develop a wind turbine simulator that is able to produce realistic and validated conditions that occur in real ultra MW wind turbines. Three different packages are used to simulate this model, namely, Turbsim, FAST and Simulink. Turbsim is a Full field wind simulator developed by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The wind turbine mechanical parts are modeled by FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures and Turbulence) code which is also developed by NREL. Simulink is used to model the PMSG, full scale back to back IGBT converters, and the grid.

Keywords: FAST, Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator(PMSG), TurbSim, Vector Control and Pitch Control

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Authors: A. Capodieci, G. Del Fiore, L. Mainetti

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Recently, the use of web 2.0 tools has increased in companies and public administration organisations. This phenomenon, known as "Enterprise 2.0", has, de facto, modified common organisational and operative practices. This has led “knowledge workers” to change their working practices through the use of Web 2.0 communication tools. Unfortunately, these tools have not been integrated with existing enterprise information systems, a situation that could potentially lead to a loss of information. This is an important problem in an organisational context, because knowledge of information exchanged within the organisation is needed to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of the organisation. In this article we demonstrate that it is possible to capture this knowledge using collaboration processes, which are processes of abstraction created in accordance with design patterns and applied to new organisational operative practices.

Keywords: Business Practices, Business Process Patterns, Collaboration Tools, Enterprise 2.0, Knowledge Workers.

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Authors: Clement M. Matasane, Mohamed T. Kahn

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Biomass resources such as animal waste, agricultural and acro-industrial residues, forestry and woodland waste, and industrial and municipal solid wastes provide alternative means to utilize its untapped potential for biomass/biofuel renewable energy systems. In addition, crop residues (i.e., grain, starch, and energy crops) are commonly available in the district and play an essential role in community farming activities. The remote sensing technology (mappings) and geographic information systems tool will be used to determine the biomass potential in the Vhembe District Municipality. The detailed assessment, estimation, and modeling in quantifying their distribution, abundance, and quality yield an effective and efficient use of their potential. This paper aims to examine the potential and prospects of deploying bioenergy systems in small or micro-systems in the district for community use and applications. This deployment of the biofuels/biomass systems will help communities for sustainable energy supply from their traditional energy use into innovative and suitable methods that improve their livelihood. The study demonstrates the potential applications of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in spatial mapping analysis, evaluation, modeling, and decision support for easy access to renewable energy systems.

Keywords: Agricultural crops, waste materials, biomass potentials, bioenergy potentials, GIS mappings, environmental data, renewable energy deployment, sustainable energy supply.

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Authors: Alzahrani.M.E, Goodwin.R.D

Abstract:

Among the most fundamental prerequisites for the successful development of electronic Government Services (e- Government) is Citizen Acceptance. Based on the UTAUT model, the paper describes a hypothetical framework that integrates the unique features of E- government to improve our understanding of the acceptance and usage of e-Government Saudi Arabia. The proposed model, based on UTAUT, includes the characteristics of Egovernment, consideration and inclusion of trust, privacy, and Saudi culture and context.

Keywords: E-government, technology adoption, citizen acceptance, unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT).

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Authors: C. C. Yee, Y.Y.Chen

Abstract:

Performance appraisal of employee is important in managing the human resource of an organization. With the change towards knowledge-based capitalism, maintaining talented knowledge workers is critical. However, management classification of “outstanding", “poor" and “average" performance may not be an easy decision. Besides that, superior might also tend to judge the work performance of their subordinates informally and arbitrarily especially without the existence of a system of appraisal. In this paper, we propose a performance appraisal system using multifactorial evaluation model in dealing with appraisal grades which are often express vaguely in linguistic terms. The proposed model is for evaluating staff performance based on specific performance appraisal criteria. The project was collaboration with one of the Information and Communication Technology company in Malaysia with reference to its performance appraisal process.

Keywords: Multifactorial Evaluation Model, performance appraisal system, decision support system.

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Authors: Kamaljit Kaur, Kirti Minhas, Neha Mehan, Namita Kakkar

Abstract:

Software complexity metrics are used to predict critical information about reliability and maintainability of software systems. Object oriented software development requires a different approach to software complexity metrics. Object Oriented Software Metrics can be broadly classified into static and dynamic metrics. Static Metrics give information at the code level whereas dynamic metrics provide information on the actual runtime. In this paper we will discuss the various complexity metrics, and the comparison between static and dynamic complexity.

Keywords: Static Complexity, Dynamic Complexity, Halstead Metric, Mc Cabe's Metric.

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Authors: Marijana Ivanov, Roman Šubić

Abstract:

This study analyzes the critical gaps in the architecture of European stability and the expected role of the banking union as the new important step towards completing the Economic and Monetary Union that should enable the creation of safe and sound financial sector for the euro area market. The single rulebook together with the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism - as two main pillars of the banking union, should provide a consistent application of common rules and administrative standards for supervision, recovery and resolution of banks – with the final aim of replacing the former bail-out practice with the bail-in system through which possible future bank failures would be resolved by their own funds, i.e. with minimal costs for taxpayers and real economy. In this way, the vicious circle between banks and sovereigns would be broken. It would also reduce the financial fragmentation recorded in the years of crisis as the result of divergent behaviors in risk premium, lending activities and interest rates between the core and the periphery. In addition, it should strengthen the effectiveness of monetary transmission channels, in particular the credit channels and overflows of liquidity on the money market which, due to the fragmentation of the common financial market, has been significantly disabled in period of crisis. However, contrary to all the positive expectations related to the future functioning of the banking union, major findings of this study indicate that characteristics of the economic system in which the banking union will operate should not be ignored. The euro area is an integration of strong and weak entities with large differences in economic development, wealth, assets of banking systems, growth rates and accountability of fiscal policy. The analysis indicates that low and unbalanced economic growth remains a challenge for the maintenance of financial stability and this problem cannot be resolved just by a single supervision. In many countries bank assets exceed their GDP by several times and large banks are still a matter of concern, because of their systemic importance for individual countries and the euro zone as a whole. The creation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism is a response to the European crisis, which has particularly affected peripheral countries and caused the associated loop between the banking crisis and the sovereign debt crisis, but has also influenced banks’ balance sheets in the core countries, as the result of crossborder capital flows. The creation of the SSM and the SRM should prevent the similar episodes to happen again and should also provide a new opportunity for strengthening of economic and financial systems of the peripheral countries. On the other hand, there is a potential threat that future focus of the ECB, resolution mechanism and other relevant institutions will be extremely oriented towards large and significant banks (whereby one half of them operate in the core and most important euro area countries), and therefore it remains questionable to what extent will the common resolution funds will be used for rescue of less important institutions. Recent geopolitical developments will be the optimal indicator to show whether the previously established mechanisms are sufficient enough to maintain the adequate financial stability in the euro area market.

Keywords: Banking Union, financial integration, single supervisory mechanism (SSM).

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Authors: Marco Antonio Lara De la Calleja, María Catalina Ovando Chico, Eduardo Lopez Ruiz

Abstract:

Community empowerment has been proved to be a key element in the solution of the food security problem. As a result of a conceptual analysis, it was found that agricultural production, economic development and governance, are the traditional basis of food security models. Although the literature points to social inclusion as an important factor for food security, no model has considered it as the basis of it. The aim of this research is to identify different dimensions that make an integral model for food security, with emphasis on community empowerment. A diagnosis was made in the study community (Tatoxcac, Zacapoaxtla, Puebla), to know the aspects that impact the level of food insecurity. With a statistical sample integrated by 200 families, the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA) was applied, finding that: in households composed by adults and children, have moderated food insecurity, (ELCSA scale has three levels, low, moderated and high); that result is produced mainly by the economic income capacity and the diversity of the diet on its food. With that being said, a model was developed to promote food security through five dimensions: 1. Regional context of the community; 2. Structure and system of local food; 3. Health and nutrition; 4. Information and technology access; and 5. Self-awareness and empowerment. The specific actions on each axis of the model, allowed a systemic approach needed to attend food security in the community, through the empowerment of society. It is concluded that the self-awareness of local communities is an area of extreme importance, which must be taken into account for participatory schemes to improve food security. In the long term, the model requires the integrated participation of different actors, such as government, companies and universities, to solve something such vital as food security.

Keywords: Community empowerment, food security, model, systemic approach.

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