Search results for: living area

Authors: Kang, Eun Sung, Song, Hyeong Wook, Kim, Hong Kyu

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The purpose of this study is to analyze the visual preference of patterns in pedestrian roads. In this study, animation was applied for the estimation of dynamic streetscape. Six patterns of pedestrian were selected in order to analyze the visual preference. The shapes are straight, s-curve, and zigzag. The ratio of building's height and road's width are 2:1 and 1:1. Twelve adjective pairs used in the field investigation were selected from adjectives which are used usually in the estimation of streetscape. They are interesting-boring, simple-complex, calm-noisy, open-enclosed, active-inactive, lightly-depressing, regular-irregular, unique-usual, rhythmic-not rhythmic, united-not united, stable-unstable, tidy-untidy. Dynamic streetscape must be considered important in pedestrian shopping mall and park because it will be an attraction. So, s-curve pedestrian road, which is the most beautiful as a result of this study, should be designed in this area. Also, the ratio of building's height and road's width along pedestrian road should be reduced.

Keywords: Visual preference, streetscape, animation, simulation, pedestrian.

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Authors: Bita Bayatsarmadi, Shi-Zhang Qiao

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Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) performance of iron and nitrogen co-doped porous carbon nanoparticles (Fe-NPC) with various physical and (electro) chemical properties have been investigated. Fe-NPC nanoparticles are synthesized via a facile soft-templating procedure by using Iron (III) chloride hexa-hydrate as iron precursor and aminophenol-formaldehyde resin as both carbon and nitrogen precursor. Fe-NPC nanoparticles shows high surface area (443.83 m2g-1), high pore volume (0.52 m3g-1), narrow mesopore size distribution (ca. 3.8 nm), high conductivity (IG/ID=1.04), high kinetic limiting current (11.71 mAcm-2) and more positive onset potential (-0.106 V) compared to metal-free NPC nanoparticles (-0.295V) which make it high efficient ORR metal-free catalysts in alkaline solution. This study may pave the way of feasibly designing iron and nitrogen containing carbon materials (Fe-N-C) for highly efficient oxygen reduction electro-catalysis.

Keywords: Electro-catalyst, mesopore structure, oxygen reduction reaction, soft-template.

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Authors: Aline Alves Bandeira, Luís Pedro Lima, Maria Cecília de Paula Silva, Paulo Henrique de Viveiros Tavares

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Nowadays, the study of public policies regarding management efficiency is essential. Public policies are about what governments do or do not do, being an area that has grown worldwide, contributing through the knowledge of technologies and methodologies that monitor and evaluate the performance of public administrators. The information published on official government websites needs to provide for transparency and responsiveness of managers. Thus, transparency is a primordial factor for the execution of accountability, providing, in this way, services to the citizen with the expansion of transparent, efficient, democratic information and that value administrative eco-efficiency. The ecologically balanced management of a Smart City must optimize environmental education, building a fairer society, which brings about equality in the use of quality environmental resources. Smart Cities add value in the construction of public management, enabling interaction between people, enhancing environmental education and the practical applicability of administrative eco-efficiency, fostering economic development and improving the quality of life.

Keywords: Accountability, environmental education, new public administration, smart cities.

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Authors: Indre Brazauskaite, Vilte Auruskeviciene

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The paper explores the Stage-Gate framework application for innovation maturity among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Innovation management becomes an essential business survival process for all sizes of organizations that can be evaluated and audited systemically. This research systemically defines and assesses the innovation process from the perspective of the company’s top management. Empirical research explores attitudes and existing practices of innovation management in SMEs in Baltic countries. It structurally investigates the current innovation management practices, level of standardization, and potential challenges in the area. Findings allow to structure of existing practices based on an institutionalized model and contribute to a more advanced understanding of the innovation process among SMEs. Practically, findings contribute to advanced decision-making and business planning in the process.

Keywords: innovation measure, innovation process, small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, stage-gate framework.

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Authors: Zia Abbas, Giuseppe Scotti, Mauro Olivieri

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Current mode circuits like current conveyors are getting significant attention in current analog ICs design due to their higher band-width, greater linearity, larger dynamic range, simpler circuitry, lower power consumption and less chip area. The second generation current controlled conveyor (CCCII) has the advantage of electronic adjustability over the CCII i.e. in CCCII; adjustment of the X-terminal intrinsic resistance via a bias current is possible. The presented approach is based on the CMOS implementation of second generation positive (CCCII+), negative (CCCII-) and dual Output Current Controlled Conveyor (DOCCCII) and its application as Universal filter. All the circuits have been designed and simulated using 65nm CMOS technology model parameters on Cadence Virtuoso / Spectre using 1V supply voltage. Various simulations have been carried out to verify the linearity between output and input ports, range of operation frequency, etc. The outcomes show good agreement between expected and experimental results.

Keywords: CCCII+, CCCII-, DOCCCII, Electronic tunability, Universal filter

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Authors: A. Iqbal, N. Khalid, S. Rafiq

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The interrelationship between international stock markets has been a key study area among the financial market researchers for international portfolio management and risk measurement. The characteristics of security returns and their dynamics play a vital role in the financial market theory. This study is an attempt to find out the dynamic linkages among the equity market of USA and emerging markets of Pakistan and India using daily data covering the period of January 2003–December 2009. The study utilizes Johansen (Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 12, 1988) and Johansen and Juselius (Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 52, 1990) cointegration procedure for long run relationship and Granger-causality tests based on Toda and Yamamoto (Journal of Econometrics, 66, 1995) methodology. No cointegration was found among stock markets of USA, Pakistan and India, while Granger-causality test showed the evidence of unidirectional causality running from New York stock exchange to Bombay and Karachi stock exchanges.

Keywords: Causality, Cointegration, India, Pakistan, Stock Markets, US.

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Authors: S. Talabgaew, V. Laemlaksakul

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A new generation product made from bamboo strips, known as laminated bamboo, has gained importance. The objective of this research was to experiment the effect of three factors on the mechanical property of laminated bamboo. The interested factors for experimental design were (A) four bamboo species, namely Bambusa blumeana Schultes (Pai See Suk), Dendrocalamus asper Backer (Pai Tong), Dendrocalamus hamiltonii Nees (Pai Hok) and Dendrocalamus sericeus Munro (Pai Sang Mon), (B) two types of glue adhesive, polyvinyl acetate emulsion (PVAC) fortified with urea-formaldehyde (UF) and urea-formaldehyde (UF) to make parallel-oriented bamboo strips laminates and (C) glue weight per strip area, 150 g/m2 and 190 g/m2. Experimental results showed that Dendrocalamus asper Backer (Pai Tong) and Dendrocalamus sericeus Munro (Pai Sang Mon) were best used for manufacturing due to their highest MOR and MOE. The amount of glue weight 150 g/m2 yielded higher MOR and MOE than the amount of glue weight 190 g/m2. At the conclusion, the laminated bamboo manufacturers can benefit from this research in order to select right materials according to strength, cost and accessibility.

Keywords: Laminated Bamboo, Mechanical Property, 3-WayANOVA.

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Authors: Taiwo O. Margaret, Olaoluwa O. Olaoluwa

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Moraceae family has immense phytochemical constituents and significant pharmacological properties, hence have great medicinal values. The aim of this study was to screen and quantify phytochemicals as well as the antioxidant activities of the leaf and stem bark extracts and fractions (crude ethanol extracts, n-hexane, ethyl acetate and aqueous ethanol fractions) of Ficus sagittifolia. Leaf and stem bark of F. sagittifolia were extracted by maceration method using ethanol to give ethanol crude extract. The ethanol crude extract was partitioned by n-hexane and ethyl-acetate to give their respective fractions. All the extracts were screened for their phytochemicals using standard methods. The total phenolic, flavonoid, tannin, saponin contents and antioxidant activity were determined by spectrophotometric method while the alkaloid content was evaluated by titrimetric method. The amount of total phenolic in extracts and fractions were estimated in comparison to gallic acid, whereas total flavonoids, tannins and saponins were estimated corresponding to quercetin, tannic acid and saponin respectively. 2, 2-diphenylpicryl hydrazyl radical (DPPH)* and phosphomolybdate methods were used to evaluate the antioxidant activities of leaf and stem bark of F. sagittifolia. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of flavonoids, saponins, terpenoids/steroids, alkaloids for both extracts of leaf and stem bark of F. sagittifolia. The phenolic content of F. sagittifolia was most abundant in leaf ethanol crude extract as 3.53 ± 0.03 mg/g equivalent of gallic acid. Total flavonoids and tannins content were highest in stem bark aqueous ethanol fraction of F. sagittifolia estimated as 3.41 ± 0.08 mg/g equivalent of quercetin and 1.52 ± 0.05 mg/g equivalent of tannic acid respectively. The hexane leaf fraction of F. sagittifolia had the utmost saponin and alkaloid content as 5.10 ± 0.48 mg/g equivalent of saponins and 0.171 ± 0.39 g of alkaloids. Leaf aqueous ethanol fraction of F. sagittifolia showed high antioxidant activity (IC₅₀ value of 63.092 µg/mL) and stem ethanol crude extract (227.43 ± 0.78 mg/g equivalent of ascorbic acid) for DPPH and phosphomolybdate method respectively and the least active was found to be the stem hexane fraction using both methods (313.32 µg/mL; 16.21 ± 1.30 mg/g equivalent of ascorbic acid). The presence of these phytochemicals in the leaf and stem bark of F. sagittifolia are responsible for their therapeutic importance as well as the ability to scavenge free radicals in living systems.

Keywords: Antioxidant activity, Ficus sagittifolia, Moraceae, phytochemicals.

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Authors: Olumuyiwa A. Lasode, Tajudeen O. Popoola, B. V. S. S. S. Prasad

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Fluid flow in cylinders of elliptic cross-section was investigated. Fluid used is Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). LPG found in Nigeria contains majorly butane with percentages of propane. Commercial available code FLUENT which uses finite volume method was used to solve fluid flow governing equations. There has been little attention paid to fluid flow in cylindrical elliptic pipes. The present work aims to predict the LPG gas flow in cylindrical pipes of elliptic cross-section. Results of flow parameters of velocity and pressure distributions are presented. Results show that the pressure drop in elliptic pipes is higher than circular pipe of the same cross-sectional area. This is an important result as the pressure drop is related to the pump power needed to drive the flow. Results show that the velocity increases towards centre of the pipe as the flow moves downstream, and also increases towards the outlet of the pipe.

Keywords: Elliptic Pipes, Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Numerical Study, Pressure Drop.

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Authors: Miroslav Popelka, Jakub Nožička

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The whole work is based on possibility to use Lego Mindstorms robotics systems to reduce costs. Lego Mindstorms consists of a wide variety of hardware components necessary to simulate, programme and test of robotics systems in practice. To programme algorithm, which simulates space using the ultrasonic sensor, was used development environment supplied with kit. Software Matlab was used to render values afterwards they were measured by ultrasonic sensor. The algorithm created for this paper uses theoretical knowledge from area of signal processing. Data being processed by algorithm are collected by ultrasonic sensor that scans 2D space in front of it. Ultrasonic sensor is placed on moving arm of robot which provides horizontal moving of sensor. Vertical movement of sensor is provided by wheel drive. The robot follows map in order to get correct positioning of measured data. Based on discovered facts it is possible to consider Lego Mindstorm for low-cost and capable kit for real-time modelling.

Keywords: LEGO Mindstorms, ultrasonic sensor, Real-time modeling, 2D object, low-cost robotics systems, sensors, Matlab, EV3 Home Edition Software.

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Authors: Kollie B. Dogba, Willis Oluoch-Kosura, Chepchumba Chumo

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In Liberia, many of the agricultural households cultivate cassava for either sustenance purposes, or to generate farm income. Many of the concentrated cassava farmers reside in Nimba, a north-eastern County that borders two other economies: the Republics of Cote D’Ivoire and Guinea. With a high demand for cassava output and products in emerging Asian markets coupled with an objective of the Liberia agriculture policies to increase the competitiveness of valued agriculture crops; there is a need to examine the level of resource-use efficiency for many agriculture crops. However, there is a scarcity of information on the efficiency of many agriculture crops, including cassava. Hence the study applying an output-oriented method seeks to assess the economic efficiency of cassava farmers in Nimba County, Liberia. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to generate a sample for the study. From 216 cassava farmers, data related to on-farm attributes, socio-economic and institutional factors were collected. The stochastic frontier models, using the Translog functional forms, of production and revenue, were used to determine the level of revenue efficiency and its determinants. The result showed that most of the cassava farmers are male (60%). Many of the farmers are either married, engaged or living together with a spouse (83%), with a mean household size of nine persons. Farmland is prevalently obtained by inheritance (95%), average farm size is 1.34 hectares, and most cassava farmers did not access agriculture credits (76%) and extension services (91%). The mean cassava output per hectare is 1,506.02 kg, which estimates average revenue of L$23,551.16 (Liberian dollars). Empirical results showed that the revenue efficiency of cassava farmers varies from 0.1% to 73.5%; with the mean revenue efficiency of 12.9%. This indicates that on average, there is a vast potential of 87.1% to increase the economic efficiency of cassava farmers in Nimba by improving technical and allocative efficiencies. For the significant determinants of revenue efficiency, age and group membership had negative effects on revenue efficiency of cassava production; while farming experience, access to extension, formal education, and average wage rate have positive effects. The study recommends the setting-up and incentivizing of farmer field schools for cassava farmers to primarily share their farming experiences with others and to learn robust cultivation techniques of sustainable agriculture. Also, farm managers and farmers should consider a fix wage rate in labor contracts for all stages of cassava farming.

Keywords: Economic efficiency, frontier production, and revenue functions, Liberia, Nimba County, output-oriented, revenue efficiency.

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Authors: Roman Klas, František Pochylý, Pavel Rudolf

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This paper is focused on the CFD simulation of the radiaxial pump (i.e. mixed flow pump) with the aim to detect the reasons of Y-Q characteristic instability. The main reasons of pressure pulsations were detected by means of the analysis of velocity and pressure fields within the pump combined with the theoretical approach. Consequently, the modifications of spiral case and pump suction area were made based on the knowledge of flow conditions and the shape of dissipation function. The primary design of pump geometry was created as the base model serving for the comparison of individual modification influences. The basic experimental data are available for this geometry. This approach replaced the more complicated and with respect to convergence of all computational tasks more difficult calculation for the compressible liquid flow. The modification of primary pump consisted in inserting the three fins types. Subsequently, the evaluation of pressure pulsations, specific energy curves and visualization of velocity fields were chosen as the criterion for successful design. 

Keywords: CFD, radiaxial pump, spiral case, stability

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Authors: H. Ashrafi, S. Ebrahimi, H. Kamalzadeh

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With the development of business competition, it is important for healthcare providers to improve their service qualities. In order to improve service quality of a clinic, four important dimensions are defined: tangibles, responsiveness, empathy, and reliability. Moreover, there are several service stages in hospitals such as financial screening and examination. One of the most challenging limitations for improving service quality is budget which impressively affects the service quality. In this paper, we present an approach to address budget uncertainty and provide guidelines for service resource allocation. In this paper, a service quality improvement approach is proposed which can be adopted to multistage service processes to improve service quality, while controlling the costs. A multi-objective function based on the importance of each area and dimension is defined to link operational variables to service quality dimensions. The results demonstrate that our approach is not ultra-conservative and it shows the actual condition very well. Moreover, it is shown that different strategies can affect the number of employees in different stages.

Keywords: Service quality assessment, healthcare resource allocation, robust optimization, budget uncertainty.

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Authors: M.Stella, M. Russo, D. Begušić

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Ability of accurate and reliable location estimation in indoor environment is the key issue in developing great number of context aware applications and Location Based Services (LBS). Today, the most viable solution for localization is the Received Signal Strength (RSS) fingerprinting based approach using wireless local area network (WLAN). This paper presents two RSS fingerprinting based approaches – first we employ widely used WLAN based positioning as a reference system and then investigate the possibility of using GSM signals for positioning. To compare them, we developed a positioning system in real world environment, where realistic RSS measurements were collected. Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural network was used as the approximation function that maps RSS fingerprints and locations. Experimental results indicate advantage of WLAN based approach in the sense of lower localization error compared to GSM based approach, but GSM signal coverage by far outreaches WLAN coverage and for some LBS services requiring less precise accuracy our results indicate that GSM positioning can also be a viable solution.

Keywords: Indoor positioning, WLAN, GSM, RSS, location fingerprints, neural network.

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Authors: Raja Suzana Raja Kasim

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This paper attempts to highlight the significant role of knowledge management practices (KMP) and competencies in improving the performance and efficiency of public sector organizations. It appears that public sector organizations in developing countries have not received much attention in the research literature of knowledge management and competencies. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore the role of KMP and competencies in achieving superior performance among public sector organizations in Malaysia in the broader perspective. Survey questionnaires were distributed to all Administrative and Diplomatic Officers (ADS) from 28 ministries located in Putrajaya, Malaysia. This paper also examines preliminary empirical results on the relationship between support for knowledge management practices, competencies, and orientation in Malaysia-s public organizations. This paper supports the notion that the practices of knowledge management at the organizational level are a prerequisite for successful organizational performance. In conclusion, the results not only have the potential to contribute theoretically to both management strategy and knowledge management field literature but also to the area of organizational performance.

Keywords: knowledge, knowledge management practices, competencies, organizational performance

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Authors: Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan, Naga Shashidhar, Xiaoxiong Zhong

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During the process of compaction in Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA) mixtures, the distance between aggregate particles decreases as they come together and eliminate air-voids. By measuring the inter-particle distances in a cut-section of a HMA sample the degree of compaction can be estimated. For this, a calibration curve is generated by computer simulation technique when the gradation and asphalt content of the HMA mixture are known. A two-dimensional cross section of HMA specimen was simulated using the mixture design information (gradation, asphalt content and air-void content). Nearest neighbor distance methods such as Delaunay triangulation were used to study the changes in inter-particle distance and area distribution during the process of compaction in HMA. Such computer simulations would enable making several hundreds of repetitions in a short period of time without the necessity to compact and analyze laboratory specimens in order to obtain good statistics on the parameters defined. The distributions for the statistical parameters based on computer simulations showed similar trends as those of laboratory specimens.

Keywords: Computer simulations, Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA), inter-particle distance, image analysis, nearest neighbor

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Authors: Hsin-Yun Lee

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In this study, the pedestrian simulation VISWALK integration and application platform ant algorithms written program made to construct a renovation engineering schedule planning mode. The use of simulation analysis platform construction site when the user running the simulation, after calculating the user walks in the case of construction delays, the ant algorithm to find out the minimum delay time schedule plan, and add volume and unit area deactivated loss of business computing, and finally to the owners and users of two different positions cut considerations pick out the best schedule planning. To assess and validate its effectiveness, this study constructed the model imported floor of a shopping mall floor renovation engineering cases. Verify that the case can be found from the mode of the proposed project schedule planning program can effectively reduce the delay time and the user's walking mall loss of business, the impact of the operation on the renovation engineering facilities in the building to a minimum.

Keywords: Pedestrian, renovation, schedule, simulation.

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Authors: Mária Stachová, Lukáš Sobíšek

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Data mining incorporates a group of statistical methods used to analyze a set of information, or a data set. It operates with models and algorithms, which are powerful tools with the great potential. They can help people to understand the patterns in certain chunk of information so it is obvious that the data mining tools have a wide area of applications. For example in the theoretical chemistry data mining tools can be used to predict moleculeproperties or improve computer-assisted drug design. Classification analysis is one of the major data mining methodologies. The aim of thecontribution is to create a classification model, which would be able to deal with a huge data set with high accuracy. For this purpose logistic regression, Bayesian logistic regression and random forest models were built using R software. TheBayesian logistic regression in Latent GOLD software was created as well. These classification methods belong to supervised learning methods. It was necessary to reduce data matrix dimension before construct models and thus the factor analysis (FA) was used. Those models were applied to predict the biological activity of molecules, potential new drug candidates.

Keywords: data mining, classification, drug design, QSAR

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Authors: K. Navaz, Kannan Balasubramanian

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Due to the increasing growth of internet users, the emerging applications of multicast are growing day by day and there is a requisite for the design of high-speed switches/routers. Huge amounts of effort have been done into the research area of multicast switch fabric design and algorithms. Different traffic scenarios are the influencing factor which affect the throughput and delay of the switch. The pointer based multicast scheduling algorithms are not performed well under non-uniform traffic conditions. In this work, performance of the switch has been analyzed by applying the advanced multicast scheduling algorithm OQSMS (Optimal Queue Selection Based Multicast Scheduling Algorithm), MDDR (Multicast Due Date Round-Robin Scheduling Algorithm) and MDRR (Multicast Dual Round-Robin Scheduling Algorithm). The results show that OQSMS achieves better switching performance than other algorithms under the uniform, non-uniform and bursty traffic conditions and it estimates optimal queue in each time slot so that it achieves maximum possible throughput.

Keywords: Multicast, Switch, Delay, Scheduling.

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Authors: S. Bhattacharyya, Partha P. Gopmandal

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A numerical study on the influence of electroosmotic flow on analyte preconcentration by isotachophoresis ( ITP) is made. We consider that the double layer induced electroosmotic flow ( EOF) counterbalance the electrophoretic velocity and a stationary ITP stacked zones results. We solve the Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the Nernst-Planck equations to determine the local convective velocity and the preconcentration dynamics of ions. Our numerical algorithm is based on a finite volume method along with a secondorder upwind scheme. The present numerical algorithm can capture the the sharp boundaries of step-changes ( plateau mode) or zones of steep gradients ( peak mode) accurately. The convection of ions due to EOF reduces the resolution of the ITP transition zones and produces a dispersion in analyte zones. The role of the electrokinetic parameters which induces dispersion is analyzed. A one-dimensional model for the area-averaged concentrations based on the Taylor-Aristype effective diffusivity is found to be in good agreement with the computed solutions.

Keywords: Interfaces, Electroosmotic flow, QUICK Scheme, Dispersion, Effective Diffusivity.

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Authors: Goh Ong Sing, C. Ardil, Wilson Wong, Shahrin Sahib

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The evaluation of the question answering system is a major research area that needs much attention. Before the rise of domain-oriented question answering systems based on natural language understanding and reasoning, evaluation is never a problem as information retrieval-based metrics are readily available for use. However, when question answering systems began to be more domains specific, evaluation becomes a real issue. This is especially true when understanding and reasoning is required to cater for a wider variety of questions and at the same time achieve higher quality responses The research in this paper discusses the inappropriateness of the existing measure for response quality evaluation and in a later part, the call for new standard measures and the related considerations are brought forward. As a short-term solution for evaluating response quality of heterogeneous systems, and to demonstrate the challenges in evaluating systems of different nature, this research presents a black-box approach using observation, classification scheme and a scoring mechanism to assess and rank three example systems (i.e. AnswerBus, START and NaLURI).

Keywords: Evaluation, question answering, response quality.

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Authors: Aliya Isaeva, Anar Sultaniarova

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The report focuses on such an important indicator of the nature and direction of development of ethnic and cultural processes in the Republic of Kazakhstan, as ethno linguistic situation. It is shown that, in essence, on the one hand, expresses the degree of the actual propagation and the level of use of the languages of the various ethnic communities. On the other hand, reflects the important patterns, trends and prospects of ethno-cultural and ethnodemographic processes in the Republic. It is important to note that the ethno linguistic situation in different regions of Kazakhstan, due to its more dynamic and much more difficult to demonstrate a much greater variety of options when compared with the ethnic situation in the country. For the two major ethnic groups of the republic – Kazakh and Russian language ethno differentiating retains its value, while for the other ethnic groups observed decline in the importance of this indicator. As you know, the language of international communication in the country is Russian. As the censuses of population, the Russian language in many areas of Northern, Central and Eastern Kazakhstan becomes a means of ethno linguistic development for most of the non-Russian population. This is most clearly illustrated by the Germans, and the Slavic ethnic groups. In this case, the Russian language is not just a means of international communication for a number of ethnic groups, and ethnic groups, it becomes a factor of ethnic self-expression. The value of the Kazakh language as their mother tongue for the other groups of the population is small. More clearly it can be traced only to the Turkic-speaking population of the republic – Uzbeks, Uighurs, Tatars, Turks, etc. The state Kazakh language is a means of international communication in the Western and Southern Kazakhstan, with a predominance of the Kazakh population. The report shows that the most important factor in the development of ethno-linguistic and ethno-cultural processes is bilingualism. Comparative analysis of materials census shows, first, on the increase of the proportion of bilingual population among Kazakhs and Russian, and second, to reduce the proportion of bilingual population of other ethnic groups living in Kazakhstan, and third, a higher proportion bilingual population among residents than rural residents, regardless of their ethnicity. Bilingualism is mainly of a "national Kazakh", "national Russian" or "Kazakh-national" or "Russian-national" character. The President N.A. Nazarbayev said that the Kazakh language is the most important factor in the consolidation of the people of Kazakhstan. He therefore called on government and other state and local representative bodies fully develop the state language, to create all the necessary organizational, material and technical conditions for free and open learning the state language by all citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Keywords: Ethnos, ethno cultural processes, ethnolinguistic situation, mother tongue, bilingualism.

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Authors: Kristina Maiksteniene

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Various formal and informal brand alliances are being formed in professional service firms. Professional service corporate brand is heavily dependent on brands of professional employees who comprise them, and professional employee brands are in turn dependent on the corporate brand. Prior work provides limited scientific evidence of brand alliance effects in professional service area – i.e., how professional service corporate-employee brand allies are affected by an alliance, what are brand attitude effects after alliance formation and how these effects vary with different strengths of an ally. Scientific literature analysis and theoretical modeling are the main methods of the current study. As a result, a theoretical model is constructed for estimating spillover effects of professional service corporate-employee brand alliances and for comparison among different professional service firm expertise practice models – from “brains" to “procedure" model. The resulting theoretical model lays basis for future experimental studies.

Keywords: Brand alliances, professional services, corporatebrand, employee brand.

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Authors: Yan Shao, Jin Zhou, Lin Lai, Haiyan Wu, Jing Lei

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This paper describes Nano-particle based Planar Laser Scattering (NPLS) flow visualization of angled supersonic jets into a supersonic cross flow based on the HYpersonic Low TEmperature (HYLTE) nozzle which was widely used in DF chemical laser. In order to investigate the non-reacting flowfield in the HYLTE nozzle, a testing section with windows was designed and manufactured. The impact of secondary fluids orifice separation on mixing was examined. For narrow separation of orifices, the secondary fuel penetration increased obviously compared to diluent injection, which means smaller separation of diluent and fuel orifices would enhance the mixing of fuel and oxidant. Secondary injections with angles of 30, 40 and 50 degrees were studied. It was found that the injectant penetration increased as the injection angle increased, while the interfacial surface area to entrain the freestream fluid is largest when the injection angle is 40 degree.

Keywords: HYLTE nozzle, NPLS, supersonic mixing, transverse injection

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Authors: Ankit Mitra

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Speed, power consumption and area, are some of the most important factors of concern in modern day memory design. As we move towards Deep Sub-Micron Technologies, the problems of leakage current, noise and cell stability due to physical parameter variation becomes more pronounced. In this paper we have designed an 8T Read Decoupled Dual Port SRAM Cell with Dual Threshold Voltage and characterized it in terms of read and write delay, read and write noise margins, Data Retention Voltage and Leakage Current. Read Decoupling improves the Read Noise Margin and static power dissipation is reduced by using Dual-V_t transistors. The results obtained are compared with existing 6T, 8T, 9T SRAM Cells, which shows the superiority of the proposed design. The Cell is designed and simulated in TSPICE using 90nm CMOS process.

Keywords: CMOS, Dual-Port, Data Retention Voltage, 8T SRAM, Leakage Current, Noise Margin, Loop-cutting, Single-ended.

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Authors: Sri Sumartiningsih

Abstract:

In elevating performance in competetive sports, an athlete must continously train in achieving maximum performance,but needs to pay attention to recovery therapy, that is to recover from fatigue as well as injury.The correct recovery therapy will assist in process of recovery and helps in the training in achieving better performace. Binahong (Anredera cordifolia) was proven empirically by the locals in assisting speedy recovery from an injury.Clinical research with lab animals receiving blunt trauma injury, microscopically shown signs of: 1) redness, 2) heatiness, 3) swelling and, 4) lack of activity. There is also microscopic indication of: 1) infiltration of inflame cells (migration of cells to the trauma area), 2) Cells necrosis, 3) Congestion (as a result of dead red blood cells), 4) uedema. On administration of Binahong for 3 days, there is a significant drop of 5% in cell inflammation, 2% increase of fibroblast (cell membrance) count.Conclutin: Binahong do assist in reducing cell inflammation and increase counts of cells fibroblast. Suggestion: In helping athlete's to recover from force injury, we need study about Binahong's roots to inflammation cell and healing of injuried cell.

Keywords: Binahong, sport injury, hematoma

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Authors: Brian J. Thomas

Abstract:

Recent changes in food retailing structure have led to the development of large supercenters in suburban areas of the United States. These changes have led some authors to suggest that there are food deserts in some urban areas, where food is difficult to access, especially for disadvantaged consumers. This study tests the food desert hypothesis by comparing the distance from food retailers to food secure and food insecure households in one urban, Midwest neighborhood. This study utilizes GIS to compare household survey respondent locations against the location of various types of area food retailers. Results of this study indicate no apparent difference between food secure and insecure households in the reported importance of distance on the decision to shop at various retailers. However, there were differences in the spatial relationship between households and retailers. Food insecure households tended to be located slightly farther from large food retailers and slightly closer to convenience stores. Furthermore, food insecure households reported traveling slightly farther to their primary food retailer. The differences between the two groups was, however, relatively small.

Keywords: Food desert, food retailer, food security, sociology.

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Authors: Wanli Ma, Dat Tran, Dharmendra Sharma

Abstract:

The temporal nature of negative selection is an under exploited area. In a negative selection system, newly generated antibodies go through a maturing phase, and the survivors of the phase then wait to be activated by the incoming antigens after certain number of matches. These without having enough matches will age and die, while these with enough matches (i.e., being activated) will become active detectors. A currently active detector may also age and die if it cannot find any match in a pre-defined (lengthy) period of time. Therefore, what matters in a negative selection system is the dynamics of the involved parties in the current time window, not the whole time duration, which may be up to eternity. This property has the potential to define the uniqueness of negative selection in comparison with the other approaches. On the other hand, a negative selection system is only trained with “normal" data samples. It has to learn and discover unknown “abnormal" data patterns on the fly by itself. Consequently, it is more appreciate to utilize negation selection as a system for pattern discovery and recognition rather than just pattern recognition. In this paper, we study the potential of using negative selection in discovering unknown temporal patterns.

Keywords: Artificial Immune Systems, ComputationalIntelligence, Negative Selection, Pattern Discovery.

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Authors: A. R. Ismail, N. Jusoh, M. Z. Nuawi, B. M. Deros, N. K. Makhtar, M. N. A. Rahman

Abstract:

The objective of this study is to determine the thermal comfort among worker at Malaysian automotive industry. One critical manual assembly workstation had been chosen as a subject for the study. The human subjects for the study constitute operators at Body Assembly Station of the factory. The environment examined was the Relative Humidity (%), Airflow (m/s), Air Temperature (°C) and Radiant Temperature (°C) of the surrounding workstation area. The environmental factors were measured using Babuc apparatus, which is capable to measure simultaneously those mentioned environmental factors. The time series data of fluctuating level of factors were plotted to identify the significant changes of factors. Then thermal comfort of the workers were assessed by using ISO Standard 7730 Thermal sensation scale by using Predicted Mean Vote (PMV). Further Predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) is used to estimate the thermal comfort satisfaction of the occupant. Finally the PPD versus PMV were plotted to present the thermal comfort scenario of workers involved in related workstation. The result of PMV at the related industry is between 1.8 and 2.3, where PPD at that building is between 60% to 84%. The survey result indicated that the temperature more influenced comfort to the occupants

Keywords: Thermal, Comfort, Temperature, PPD, PMV

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Authors: Samson Henry Dogo, Allan Clark, Elena Kulinskaya

Abstract:

The objective of meta-analysis is to combine results from several independent studies in order to create generalization and provide evidence base for decision making. But recent studies show that the magnitude of effect size estimates reported in many areas of research significantly changed over time and this can impair the results and conclusions of meta-analysis. A number of sequential methods have been proposed for monitoring the effect size estimates in meta-analysis. However they are based on statistical theory applicable only to fixed effect model (FEM) of meta-analysis. For random-effects model (REM), the analysis incorporates the heterogeneity variance, τ 2 and its estimation create complications. In this paper we study the use of a truncated CUSUM-type test with asymptotically valid critical values for sequential monitoring in REM. Simulation results show that the test does not control the Type I error well, and is not recommended. Further work required to derive an appropriate test in this important area of applications.

Keywords: Meta-analysis, random-effects model, sequential testing, temporal changes in effect sizes.

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