Search results for: Cascade H-bridge 11- level Inverter
1707 Impact of Social Environment on Economic Development in the Baltic States
Authors: B. Zvirbule, I. Vilka
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The Baltic States regained independence and started the pathway from command economy to market economy and entered European Union at the same time. Latter internationally recognized evaluations for the countries are diverse. The present diversity of the Baltic States -Economic Development is a subject of interest because of the similarities – all three are small, open economies, countries have similar geographic location and initially likewise historical and political backgrounds. This article explains relationship between social environment, business environment and economic growth. It argues that the elements of social environment underlie more successful economic development. It researches the causes, why Estonia has performed better in economic outcomes and development. The article analyses selection of socio-economic indicators of all three Baltic States – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia for the time period of ten years to include the influence of economic cycles.Keywords: Baltic States, economic development, economic growth, level of education, social environment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22931706 Forming of Institutional Mechanism of Region's Innovative Development
Authors: Mingaleva Zhanna, Gayfutdinova Oksana, Podgornova Evgenia
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The regional innovative competitiveness is an integrating characteristic of the innovative sphere of the region. It depends on a big variety of different parameters connected with all kinds of economic entities- activities. But management parameters shouldn't be irregular, so in order to avoid it, an institutional system should be formed. This system should carry out strategic management of factors having the greatest influence on the region's innovative development. This article is devoted to different aspects of organization of the region's development institutional mechanism, which is based on management of regional innovative competitiveness parameters. The base of the analysis is innovatively-active Russian regions which were compared according to the level of the innovative competitiveness. After that the most important parameters of successful innovative development of the region were revealed with the help of the correlation-regression analysis. The results of the research could be used for investigation of the region's innovative policy.
Keywords: Regional innovative competitiveness, institutional mechanism, innovative region development, correlation-regression analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16111705 Optimization of Asphalt Binder Modified with PP/SBS/Nanoclay Nanocomposite using Taguchi Method
Authors: Abolghasem Yazdani, Sara Pourjafar
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This study has applied the L16 orthogonal array of the Taguchi method to determine the optimized polymeric Nanocomposite asphalt binder. Three control factors are defined as polypropylene plastomer (PP), styrene-butadiene-styrene elastomer (SBS) and Nanoclay. Four level of concentration contents are introduced for prepared asphalt binder samples. all samples were prepared with 4.5% of bitumen 60/70 content. Compressive strength tests were carried out for defining the optimized sample via QUALITEK-4 software. SBS with 3%, PP with 5 % and Nanoclay with 1.5% of concentrations are defined as the optimized Nanocomposite asphalt binders. The confirmation compressive strength and also softening point tests showed that modification of asphalt binders with this method, improved the compressive strength and softening points of asphalt binders up to 55%.Keywords: modified asphalt, Polypropylene, SBS, Nanoclay, Taguchi method
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31751704 Experimental Study on Ultrasonic Shot Peening Forming and Surface Properties of AALY12
Authors: Shi-hong Lu, Chao-xun Liu, Yi-feng Zhu
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Ultrasonic shot peening (USP) on AALY12 sheet was studied. Several parameters (arc heights, surface roughness, surface topography and micro hardness) with different USP process parameters were measured. The research proposes that radius of curvature of shot peened sheet increases with time and electric current decreasing, while increases with pin diameter increasing, and radius of curvature reaches a saturation level after a specific processing time and electric current. An empirical model of the relationship between radius of curvature and pin diameter, electric current, time was also obtained. The research shows that the increment of surface and vertical micro hardness of material is more obvious with longer time and higher value of electric current, which can be up to 20% and 28% respectively.
Keywords: USP forming, surface properties, radius of curvature, residual stress.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19131703 Confirming the Identity of the Individual Using Remote Assessment in E-learning
Authors: Olaf Hallan Graven, Lachlan MacKinnon
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One major issue that is regularly cited as a block to the widespread use of online assessments in eLearning, is that of the authentication of the student and the level of confidence that an assessor can have that the assessment was actually completed by that student. Currently, this issue is either ignored, in which case confidence in the assessment and any ensuing qualification is damaged, or else assessments are conducted at central, controlled locations at specified times, losing the benefits of the distributed nature of the learning programme. Particularly as we move towards constructivist models of learning, with intentions towards achieving heutagogic learning environments, the benefits of a properly managed online assessment system are clear. Here we discuss some of the approaches that could be adopted to address these issues, looking at the use of existing security and biometric techniques, combined with some novel behavioural elements. These approaches offer the opportunity to validate the student on accessing an assessment, on submission, and also during the actual production of the assessment. These techniques are currently under development in the DECADE project, and future work will evaluate and report their use..Keywords: E-learning, remote identification, assessment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14371702 The Influence of Variable Geometrical Modifications of the Trailing Edge of Supercritical Airfoil on the Characteristics of Aerodynamics
Authors: P. Lauk, K. E. Seegel, T. Tähemaa
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The fuel consumption of modern, high wing loading, commercial aircraft in the first stage of flight is high because the usable flight level is lower and the weather conditions (jet stream) have great impact on aircraft performance. To reduce the fuel consumption, it is necessary to raise during first stage of flight the L/D ratio value within Cl 0.55-0.65. Different variable geometrical wing trailing edge modifications of SC(2)-410 airfoil were compared at M 0.78 using the CFD software STAR-CCM+ simulation based Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. The numerical results obtained show that by increasing the width of the airfoil by 4% and by modifying the trailing edge airfoil, it is possible to decrease airfoil drag at Cl 0.70 for up to 26.6% and at the same time to increase commercial aircraft L/D ratio for up to 5.0%. Fuel consumption can be reduced in proportion to the increase in L/D ratio.
Keywords: L/D ratio, miniflaps, mini-TED, supercritical airfoil.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9971701 Energy Efficient Clustering and Data Aggregation in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Surender Kumar Soni
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Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are wireless networks consisting of number of tiny, low cost and low power sensor nodes to monitor various physical phenomena like temperature, pressure, vibration, landslide detection, presence of any object, etc. The major limitation in these networks is the use of nonrechargeable battery having limited power supply. The main cause of energy consumption WSN is communication subsystem. This paper presents an efficient grid formation/clustering strategy known as Grid based level Clustering and Aggregation of Data (GCAD). The proposed clustering strategy is simple and scalable that uses low duty cycle approach to keep non-CH nodes into sleep mode thus reducing energy consumption. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed GCAD protocol performs better in various performance metrics.Keywords: Ad hoc network, Cluster, Grid base clustering, Wireless sensor network.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31371700 Effects of IPPC Permits on Ambient Air Quality
Authors: C. Cafaro, P. Ceci, L. De Giorgi
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The aim of this paper is to give an assessment of environmental effects of IPPC permit conditions of installations that are in specific territory with high concentration of industrial activities. The IPPC permit is the permit that each operator should hold to operate the installation as stated by the directive 2010/75/UE on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control), known as IED (Industrial Emissions Directive). The IPPC permit includes all the measures necessary to achieve a high level of protection of the environment as a whole, also defining the monitoring requirements as measurement methodology, frequency and evaluation procedure. The emissions monitoring of a specific plant may also give indications of the contribution of these emissions on the air quality of a definite area. So, it is clear that the IPPC permits are important tools both to improve the environmental framework and to achieve the air quality standards, assisting to assess the possible industrial sources contributions to air pollution.
Keywords: IPPC, IED, emissions, permits, air quality, large combustion plants.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22981699 Big Brain: A Single Database System for a Federated Data Warehouse Architecture
Authors: X. Gumara Rigol, I. Martínez de Apellaniz Anzuola, A. Garcia Serrano, A. Franzi Cros, O. Vidal Calbet, A. Al Maruf
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Traditional federated architectures for data warehousing work well when corporations have existing regional data warehouses and there is a need to aggregate data at a global level. Schibsted Media Group has been maturing from a decentralised organisation into a more globalised one and needed to build both some of the regional data warehouses for some brands at the same time as the global one. In this paper, we present the architectural alternatives studied and why a custom federated approach was the notable recommendation to go further with the implementation. Although the data warehouses are logically federated, the implementation uses a single database system which presented many advantages like: cost reduction and improved data access to global users allowing consumers of the data to have a common data model for detailed analysis across different geographies and a flexible layer for local specific needs in the same place.Keywords: Data integration, data warehousing, federated architecture, online analytical processing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7101698 On the Factors Influencing the Competitiveness of Chinese Service Trade after Entering WTO
Authors: Ying Wang
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Service trade is an important force of influencing economic development. A review on the related literatures is done firstly. Then through the construction of a Diamond Model, the main factors which influence the competitiveness of Chinese service trade are determined. With three competitiveness indexes served as the reference series respectively, the influencing factors served as the comparable series, three grey incidence models are then built up to conduct an empirical analysis on the main factors influencing the competitiveness of service trade after China entering WTO. The result indicates that urbanization level, open degree of service industry and foreign direct investment have larger impacts on Chinese service trade competitiveness, followed in turn by GDP in service industry and human capital, while commodity trade has the minimum impact. Further discussion provides train of thought for the upgrade of Chinese service trade competitiveness.
Keywords: Service Trade, Competitiveness, Diamond Model, Grey Incidence Model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17701697 Analysis of Detecting Wormhole Attack in Wireless Networks
Authors: Khin Sandar Win
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In multi hop wireless systems, such as ad hoc and sensor networks, mobile ad hoc network applications are deployed, security emerges as a central requirement. A particularly devastating attack is known as the wormhole attack, where two or more malicious colluding nodes create a higher level virtual tunnel in the network, which is employed to transport packets between the tunnel end points. These tunnels emulate shorter links in the network. In which adversary records transmitted packets at one location in the network, tunnels them to another location, and retransmits them into the network. The wormhole attack is possible even if the attacker has not compromised any hosts and even if all communication provides authenticity and confidentiality. In this paper, we analyze wormhole attack nature in ad hoc and sensor networks and existing methods of the defending mechanism to detect wormhole attacks without require any specialized hardware. This analysis able to provide in establishing a method to reduce the rate of refresh time and the response time to become more faster.Keywords: Ad hoc network, Sensor network, Wormhole attack, defending mechanism.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22971696 Statistical Wavelet Features, PCA, and SVM Based Approach for EEG Signals Classification
Authors: R. K. Chaurasiya, N. D. Londhe, S. Ghosh
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The study of the electrical signals produced by neural activities of human brain is called Electroencephalography. In this paper, we propose an automatic and efficient EEG signal classification approach. The proposed approach is used to classify the EEG signal into two classes: epileptic seizure or not. In the proposed approach, we start with extracting the features by applying Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) in order to decompose the EEG signals into sub-bands. These features, extracted from details and approximation coefficients of DWT sub-bands, are used as input to Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The classification is based on reducing the feature dimension using PCA and deriving the supportvectors using Support Vector Machine (SVM). The experimental are performed on real and standard dataset. A very high level of classification accuracy is obtained in the result of classification.
Keywords: Discrete Wavelet Transform, Electroencephalogram, Pattern Recognition, Principal Component Analysis, Support Vector Machine.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31131695 Treatment of Tannery Effluents by the Process of Coagulation
Authors: G. Shegani
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Coagulation is a process that sanitizes leather effluents. It aims to reduce pollutants such as Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), chloride, sulfate, chromium, suspended solids, and other dissolved solids. The current study aimed to evaluate coagulation efficiency of tannery wastewater by analyzing the change in organic matter, odor, color, ammonium ions, nutrients, chloride, H2S, sulfate, suspended solids, total dissolved solids, fecal pollution, and chromium hexavalent before and after treatment. Effluent samples were treated with coagulants Ca(OH)2 and FeSO4 .7H2O. The best advantages of this treatment included the removal of: COD (81.60%); ammonia ions (98.34%); nitrate ions (92%); chromium hexavalent (75.00%); phosphate (70.00%); chloride (69.20%); and H₂S (50%). Results also indicated a high level of efficiency in the reduction of fecal pollution indicators. Unfortunately, only a modest reduction of sulfate (19.00%) and TSS (13.00%) and an increase in TDS (15.60%) was observed.
Keywords: Coagulation, Effluent, Tannery, Treatment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 41621694 Study of Anti-Symmetric Flexural Mode Propagation along Wedge Tip with a Crack
Authors: Manikanta Prasad Banda, Che Hua Yang
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Anti-symmetric wave propagation along the particle motion of the wedge waves is known as anti-symmetric flexural (ASF) modes which travel along the wedge tips of the mid-plane apex with a small truncation. This paper investigates the characteristics of the ASF modes propagation with the wedge tip crack. The simulation and experimental results obtained by a three-dimensional (3-D) finite element model explained the contact acoustic non-linear (CAN) behavior in explicit dynamics in ABAQUS and the ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT) method is used for defect detection. The effect of various parameters on its high and low-level conversion modes are known for complex reflections and transmissions involved with direct reflections and transmissions. The results are used to predict the location of crack through complex transmission and reflection coefficients.
Keywords: ASF mode, crack detection, finite elements method, laser ultrasound technique, wedge waves.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5311693 Preparation and Bioactivity Evaluation of Bone like Hydroxyapatite - Bioglass Composite
Authors: Seema Kapoor, Uma Batra
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In this study, hydroxyapatite (HA) composites are prepared on addition of 30%CaO-30%P2O5-40%Na2 O based glass to pure HA, in proportion of 2, 5, and 10 wt %. Each composition was sintered over a range of temperatures. The quantitative phase analysis was carried out using XRD and the microstructures were studied using SEM. The density, microhardness, and compressive strength have shown increase with the increasing amount of glass addition. The resulting composites have chemical compositions that are similar to the inorganic constituent of the mineral part of bone, and constitutes trace elements like Na. X-ray diffraction showed no decomposition of HA to secondary phases, however, the glass reinforced-HA composites contained a HA phase and variable amounts of tricalcium phosphate phase, depending on the amount of bioglass added. The HA-composite material exhibited higher compressive strength compared to sintered HA. The HA composite reinforced with 10 wt % bioglass showed highest bioactivity level.Keywords: Bioactivity, Bioglass, Compressive strength, Hydroxyapatite.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20091692 Applications of Rough Set Decompositions in Information Retrieval
Authors: Chen Wu, Xiaohua Hu
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This paper proposes rough set models with three different level knowledge granules in incomplete information system under tolerance relation by similarity between objects according to their attribute values. Through introducing dominance relation on the discourse to decompose similarity classes into three subclasses: little better subclass, little worse subclass and vague subclass, it dismantles lower and upper approximations into three components. By using these components, retrieving information to find naturally hierarchical expansions to queries and constructing answers to elaborative queries can be effective. It illustrates the approach in applying rough set models in the design of information retrieval system to access different granular expanded documents. The proposed method enhances rough set model application in the flexibility of expansions and elaborative queries in information retrieval.Keywords: Incomplete information system, Rough set model, tolerance relation, dominance relation, approximation, decomposition, elaborative query.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16121691 Proposing Problem-Based Learning as an Effective Pedagogical Technique for Social Work Education
Authors: Christine K. Fulmer
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Social work education is competency based in nature. There is an expectation that graduates of social work programs throughout the world are to be prepared to practice at a level of competence, which is beneficial to both the well-being of individuals and community. Experiential learning is one way to prepare students for competent practice. The use of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a form experiential education that has been successful in a number of disciplines to bridge the gap between the theoretical concepts in the classroom to the real world. PBL aligns with the constructivist theoretical approach to learning, which emphasizes the integration of new knowledge with the beliefs students already hold. In addition, the basic tenants of PBL correspond well with the practice behaviors associated with social work practice including multi-disciplinary collaboration and critical thinking. This paper makes an argument for utilizing PBL in social work education.
Keywords: Constructivist theoretical approach, experiential learning, pedagogy, problem-based learning, social work education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13331690 Bridging the Gap Between CBR and VBR for H264 Standard
Authors: Othon Kamariotis
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This paper provides a flexible way of controlling Variable-Bit-Rate (VBR) of compressed digital video, applicable to the new H264 video compression standard. The entire video sequence is assessed in advance and the quantisation level is then set such that bit rate (and thus the frame rate) remains within predetermined limits compatible with the bandwidth of the transmission system and the capabilities of the remote end, while at the same time providing constant quality similar to VBR encoding. A process for avoiding buffer starvation by selectively eliminating frames from the encoded output at times when the frame rate is slow (large number of bits per frame) will be also described. Finally, the problem of buffer overflow will be solved by selectively eliminating frames from the received input to the decoder. The decoder detects the omission of the frames and resynchronizes the transmission by monitoring time stamps and repeating frames if necessary.Keywords: H264, CBR, VBR, Video Streaming, Digital Video, Multimedia, Buffering, Encoding, Decoding, Compression, Video-On-Demand
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23841689 A Practical Model for Managing Beach Safety Focusing on Tourist Drownings in Koh Samui, Thailand
Authors: Siyathorn Khunon, Thanawit Buafai
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This paper aims to investigate management of beach safety with a focus on tourist drownings in Samui. The data collected in this investigation will then lead to the proposal of a practical management model suitable for use in Samui. Qualitative research was conducted in the following manner: nine stakeholders from local government organizations and tourism businesses were interviewed in-depth. Additionally, a best practice case study from Phuket was applied to analyze beach safety. Twelve foreign tourists were also interviewed. Then, a focus group comprised of 32 people was used to determine practical solutions for enhancing tourists’ safety on the beach in Samui. A steering committee to coordinate between public and private organizations was proposed to manage and enhance tourists’ safety. A practical model is proposed to increase the safety level of tourists in Samui
Keywords: Beach safety, drowning, tourists, Samui.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13661688 Modeling of Bio Scaffolds: Structural and Fluid Transport Characterization
Authors: Sahba Sadir, M. R. A. Kadir, A. Öchsner, M. N. Harun
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Scaffolds play a key role in tissue engineering and can be produced in many different ways depending on the applications and the materials used. Most researchers used an experimental trialand- error approach into new biomaterials but computer simulation applied to tissue engineering can offer a more exhaustive approach to test and screen out biomaterials. This paper develops the model of scaffolds and Computational Fluid Dynamics that show the value of computer simulations in determining the influence of the geometrical scaffold parameter porosity, pore size and shape on the permeability of scaffolds, magnitude of velocity, drop pressure, shear stress distribution and level and the proper design of the geometry of the scaffold. This creates a need for more advanced studies that include aspects of dynamic conditions of a micro fluid passing through the scaffold were characterized for tissue engineering applications and differentiation of tissues within scaffolds.
Keywords: Scaffold engineering, Tissue engineering, Cellularstructure, Biomaterial, Computational fluid dynamics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20391687 Human Resources Management Practices in Hospitality Companies
Authors: Dora Martins, Susana Silva, Cândida Silva
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Human Resources Management (HRM) has been recognized by academics and practitioners as an important element in organizations. Therefore, this paper explores the best practices of HRM and seeks to understand the level of participation in the development of these practices by human resources managers in the hospitality industry and compare it with other industries. Thus, the study compared the HRM practices of companies in the hospitality sector with HRM practices of companies in other sectors, and identifies the main differences between their HRM practices. The results show that the most frequent HRM practices in all companies, independently of its sector of activity, are hiring and training. When comparing hospitality sector with other sectors of activity, some differences were noticed, namely in the adoption of the practices of communication and information sharing, and of recruitment and selection. According to these results, the paper discusses the major theoretical and practical implications. Suggestions for future research are also presented.
Keywords: Human resources management practices, human resources manager, hospitality companies, Portuguese companies, exploratory study.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 34441686 Impacts of Project-Overload on Innovation inside Organizations: Agent-Based Modeling
Authors: Farnaz Motamediyan Dehkordi, Anthony Thompson, Tobias Larsson
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Market competition and a desire to gain advantages on globalized market, drives companies towards innovation efforts. Project overload is an unpleasant phenomenon, which is happening for employees inside those organizations trying to make the most efficient use of their resources to be innovative. But what are the impacts of project overload on organization-s innovation capabilities? Advanced engineering teams (AE) inside a major heavy equipment manufacturer are suffering from project overload in their quest for innovation. In this paper, Agent-based modeling (ABM) is used to examine the current reality of the company context, and of the AE team, where the opportunities and challenges for reducing the risk of project overload and moving towards innovation were identified. Project overload is more likely to stifle innovation and creativity inside teams. On the other hand, motivations on proper challenging goals are more likely to help individual to alleviate the negative aspects of low level of project overload.
Keywords: Innovation, Creativity, Project overload, Agentbased modelling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18411685 Examining Herzberg-s Two Factor Theory in a Large Chinese Chemical Fiber Company
Authors: Ju-Chun Chien
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The validity of Herzberg-s Two-Factor Theory of Motivation was tested empirically by surveying 2372 chemical fiber employees in 2012. In the valid sample of 1875 respondents, the degree of overall job satisfaction was more than moderate. The most highly valued components of job satisfaction were: “corporate image," “collaborative working atmosphere," and “supervisor-s expertise"; whereas the lowest mean score was 34.65 for “job rotation and promotion." The top three job retention options rated by the participants were “good image of the enterprise," “good compensation," and “workplace is close to my residence." The overall evaluation of the level of thriving facilitation workplace reached almost to “mostly agree." For those participants who chose at least one motivator as their job retention options had significantly greater job satisfaction than those who chose only hygiene factors as their retention options. Therefore, Herzberg-s Two-Factor Theory of Motivation was proven valid in this study.Keywords: Employee job satisfaction, Job retention, Traditional business, Two-factor theory of motivation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 54141684 Identifying Significant Factors of Brick Laying Process through Design of Experiment and Computer Simulation: A Case Study
Authors: M. H. Zarei, A. Nikakhtar, A. H. Roudsari, N. Madadi, K. Y. Wong
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Improving performance measures in the construction processes has been a major concern for managers and decision makers in the industry. They seek for ways to recognize the key factors which have the largest effect on the process. Identifying such factors can guide them to focus on the right parts of the process in order to gain the best possible result. In the present study design of experiment (DOE) has been applied to a computer simulation model of brick laying process to determine significant factors while productivity has been chosen as the response of the experiment. To this end, four controllable factors and their interaction have been experimented and the best factor level has been calculated for each one. The results indicate that three factors, namely, labor of brick, labor of mortar and inter arrival time of mortar along with interaction of labor of brick and labor of mortar are significant.Keywords: Brick laying process, computer simulation, design of experiment, significant factors.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21011683 Career Counseling Program for the Psychological Well-Being of Freshmen University Students
Authors: Sheila Marie G. Hocson
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One of the vital developmental tasks that an individual faces during adolescence is choosing a career. Arriving at a career decision is difficult and anxious for many adolescents in the tertiary level. The main purpose of this study is to determine the factors relating to career indecision among freshmen college students as basis for the formulation of a comprehensive career counseling program for the psychological well-being of freshmen university students. The subjects were purposively selected. The Slovin-s formula was used in determining the sample size, using a 0.05 margin of error in getting the total number of samples per college and per major. The researcher made use of descriptive correlational study in determining significant factors relating to career indecision. Multiple Regression Analysis indicated that career thoughts, career decisions and vocational identity as factors related to career indecision.Keywords: career decisions, career guidance program, career thoughts, vocational identity
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 41971682 Dynamics of Functional Composition of a Brazilian Tropical Forest in Response to Drought Stress
Authors: Theodore N.S. Karfakis, Anna Andrade
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The aim of this study was to examine the dynamics of functional composition of a non flooded Amazonian forest in response to drought stress in terms of diameter growth, recruitment and mortality. The survey was carried out in the continuous forest of the Biological dynamics of forest fragments project 90 km outside the city of Manaus, state of Amazonas Brazil. All stems >10 cm dbh where identified to species level and monitored in 18 one hectare permanent sample plots from 1981 to 2004.For statistical analysis all species where aggregated in three ecological guilds. Two distinct drought events occurred in 1983 and 1997. Results showed that more early successional species performed better than later successional ones. Response was significant for both events but for the 1997 event this was more pronounced possibly because of the fact that the event was in the middle of the dry rather than the wet period as was the 1983 one.
Keywords: Brazil, functional composition, drought, Amazonian non flooded forest.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17021681 Development of a Rating Scale for Elementary EFL Writing
Authors: Mohammed S. Assiri
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In EFL programs, rating scales used in writing assessment are often constructed by intuition. Intuition-based scales tend to provide inaccurate and divisive ratings of learners’ writing performance. Hence, following an empirical approach, this study attempted to develop a rating scale for elementary-level writing at an EFL program in Saudi Arabia. Towards this goal, 98 students’ essays were scored and then coded using comprehensive taxonomy of writing constructs and their measures. An automatic linear modeling was run to find out which measures would best predict essay scores. A nonparametric ANOVA, the Kruskal-Wallis test, was then used to determine which measures could best differentiate among scoring levels. Findings indicated that there were certain measures that could serve as either good predictors of essay scores or differentiators among scoring levels, or both. The main conclusion was that a rating scale can be empirically developed using predictive and discriminative statistical tests.
Keywords: Analytic scoring, rating scales, writing assessment, writing performance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 35011680 OCR For Printed Urdu Script Using Feed Forward Neural Network
Authors: Inam Shamsher, Zaheer Ahmad, Jehanzeb Khan Orakzai, Awais Adnan
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This paper deals with an Optical Character Recognition system for printed Urdu, a popular Pakistani/Indian script and is the third largest understandable language in the world, especially in the subcontinent but fewer efforts are made to make it understandable to computers. Lot of work has been done in the field of literature and Islamic studies in Urdu, which has to be computerized. In the proposed system individual characters are recognized using our own proposed method/ algorithms. The feature detection methods are simple and robust. Supervised learning is used to train the feed forward neural network. A prototype of the system has been tested on printed Urdu characters and currently achieves 98.3% character level accuracy on average .Although the system is script/ language independent but we have designed it for Urdu characters only.Keywords: Algorithm, Feed Forward Neural Networks, Supervised learning, Pattern Matching.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 30351679 Dynamic Bus Binding for Low Power Using Multiple Binding Tables
Authors: Jihyung Kim, Taejin Kim, Sungho Park, Jun-Dong Cho
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A conventional binding method for low power in a high-level synthesis mainly focuses on finding an optimal binding for an assumed input data, and obtains only one binding table. In this paper, we show that a binding method which uses multiple binding tables gets better solution compared with the conventional methods which use a single binding table, and propose a dynamic bus binding scheme for low power using multiple binding tables. The proposed method finds multiple binding tables for the proper partitions of an input data, and switches binding tables dynamically to produce the minimum total switching activity. Experimental result shows that the proposed method obtains a binding solution having 12.6-28.9% smaller total switching activity compared with the conventional methods.Keywords: low power, bus binding, switching activity, multiplebinding tables
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11841678 Personalized Learning: An Analysis Using Item Response Theory
Authors: A. Yacob, N. Hj. Ali, M. H. Yusoff, M. Y. MohdSaman, W. M. A. F. W. Hamzah
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Personalized learning becomes increasingly popular which not be restricted by time, place or any other barriers. This study proposes an analysis of Personalized Learning using Item Response Theory which considers course material difficulty and learner ability.The study investigates twenty undergraduate students at TATI University College, who are taking programming subject. By using the IRT,it was found that, finding the most appropriate problem levels to each student include high and low level test items together is not a problem. Thus, the student abilities can be asses more accurately and fairly. Learners who experience more anxiety will affect a heavier cognitive load and receive lower test scores.Instructors are encouraged to provide a supportive learning environment to enhance learning effectiveness because Cognitive Load Theory concerns the limited capacity of the brain to absorb new information.
Keywords: Analysis, Cognitive Load Theory, Item Response Theory, Learning, Motivation, Performance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3119