Search results for: health beliefs models

Authors: Mousa Mojarrad, Amir Masoud Rahmani, Mehrab Mohebi

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Detection, feature extraction and pose estimation of people in images and video is made challenging by the variability of human appearance, the complexity of natural scenes and the high dimensionality of articulated body models and also the important field in Image, Signal and Vision Computing in recent years. In this paper, four types of people in 2D dimension image will be tested and proposed. The system will extract the size and the advantage of them (such as: tall fat, short fat, tall thin and short thin) from image. Fat and thin, according to their result from the human body that has been extract from image, will be obtained. Also the system extract every size of human body such as length, width and shown them in output.

Keywords: Analysis of Image Processing, Canny Edge Detection, Human Body Recognition, Measurement, Pose Estimation, 2D Human Dimension.

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Authors: R. Kongnuy., P. Pongsumpun

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Mathematical models can be used to describe the transmission of disease. Dengue disease is the most significant mosquito-borne viral disease of human. It now a leading cause of childhood deaths and hospitalizations in many countries. Variations in environmental conditions, especially seasonal climatic parameters, effect to the transmission of dengue viruses the dengue viruses and their principal mosquito vector, Aedes aegypti. A transmission model for dengue disease is discussed in this paper. We assume that the human and vector populations are constant. We showed that the local stability is completely determined by the threshold parameter, 0 B . If 0 B is less than one, the disease free equilibrium state is stable. If 0 B is more than one, a unique endemic equilibrium state exists and is stable. The numerical results are shown for the different values of the transmission probability from vector to human populations.

Keywords: Dengue disease, mathematical model, season, threshold parameters.

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Authors: Noura Boudiaf, Abdelhamid Djebbar

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Colored Petri Nets (CPN) are very known kind of high level Petri nets. With sound and complete semantics, rewriting logic is one of very powerful logics in description and verification of non-deterministic concurrent systems. Recently, CPN semantics are defined in terms of rewriting logic, allowing us to built models by formal reasoning. In this paper, we propose an automatic translation of CPN to the rewriting logic language Maude. This tool allows graphical editing and simulating CPN. The tool allows the user drawing a CPN graphically and automatic translating the graphical representation of the drawn CPN to Maude specification. Then, Maude language is used to perform the simulation of the resulted Maude specification. It is the first rewriting logic based environment for this category of Petri Nets.

Keywords: Colored Petri Nets, Rewriting Logic, Maude, Graphical Edition, Automatic Translation, Simulation.

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Authors: Areej Azhar, Peter Duncan, David Edgar

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Due to a high unemployment rate among local people and a high reliance on expatriate workers, the governments in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries have been implementing programmes of localisation (replacing foreign workers with GCC nationals). These programmes have been successful in the public sector but much less so in the private sector. However, there are now insufficient jobs for locals in the public sector and the onus to provide employment has fallen on the private sector. This paper is concerned with a study, which is a work in progress (certain elements are complete but not the whole study), investigating the effective implementation of localisation policies in four- and five-star hotels in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The purpose of the paper is to identify the research gap, and to present the need for the research. Further, it will explain how this research was conducted. Studies of localisation in the GCC countries are under-represented in scholarly literature. Currently, the hotel sectors in KSA and UAE play an important part in the countries’ economies. However, the total proportion of Saudis working in the hotel sector in KSA is slightly under 8%, and in the UAE, the hotel sector remains highly reliant on expatriates. There is therefore a need for research on strategies to enhance the implementation of the localisation policies in general and in the hotel sector in particular. Further, despite the importance of the hotel sector to their economies, there remains a dearth of research into the implementation of localisation policies in this sector. Indeed, as far as the researchers are aware, there is no study examining localisation in the hotel sector in KSA, and few in the UAE. This represents a considerable research gap. Regarding how the research was carried out, a multiple case study strategy was used. The four- and five-star hotel sector in KSA is one of the cases, while the four- and five-star hotel sector in the UAE is the other case. Four- and five-star hotels in KSA and the UAE were chosen as these countries have the longest established localisation policies of all the GCC states and there are more hotels of these classifications in these countries than in any of the other Gulf countries. A literature review was carried out to underpin the research. The empirical data were gathered in three phases. In order to gain a pre-understanding of the issues pertaining to the research context, Phase I involved eight unstructured interviews with officials from the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (three interviewees); the Saudi Human Resources Development Fund (one); the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (three); and the Abu Dhabi Development Fund (one).

In Phase II, a questionnaire was administered to 24 managers and 24 employees in four- and five-star hotels in each country to obtain their beliefs, attitudes, opinions, preferences and practices concerning localisation. Unstructured interviews were carried out in Phase III with six managers in each country in order to allow them to express opinions that may not have been explored in sufficient depth in the questionnaire. The interviews in Phases I and III were analysed using thematic analysis and SPSS will be used to analyse the questionnaire data. It is recommended that future research be undertaken on a larger scale, with a larger sample taken from all over KSA and the UAE rather than from only four cities (i.e., Riyadh and Jeddah in KSA and Abu Dhabi and Sharjah in the UAE), as was the case in this research.

Keywords: KSA, UAE, localisation, hotels, Human Resource Management.

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Authors: Joan Antony

Abstract:

Outcome in any learning process should target three goals – propelling the underachiever’s engagement in the learning process, enhancing the drive to achieve, and modifying attitudes and beliefs in his/her capabilities. An intervention study with a three-pronged approach incorporating self-regulatory training targeting three categories of strategies – cognitive, metacognitive and motivational – was designed adopting the before and after control-experimental group design. The evaluation of the training process was based on pre- and post-intervention measures obtained through three indices of measurement – academic scores based on grades on school examinations and comprehension tests, affective variables scores and level of strategy use obtained through responses on scales and questionnaires, and content analysis of subjective responses to open-ended probes. The evaluation relied on three sources – student, teacher and parent. The t-test results for the experimental and control groups on the pre- and post-intervention measurements indicate a significant increase on comprehension tasks for the experimental group. Though statistically significant difference was not found on the school examination scores for the experimental group, there was considerable decline in performance for the control group. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was applied on the scores obtained on affective variables, namely, self-esteem, personal achievement goals, personal ego goals, personal task goals, and locus of control. The experimental group showed increase in personal achievement goals and personal ego goals as compared to the control group. Responses given by the experimental group to the open-ended probes on causal attributions indicated a considerable shift from external to internal causes when moving from the pre- to post-intervention stage. ANCOVA results revealed significantly higher use of learning strategies inclusive of mental learning strategies, behavioral learning strategies, self-regulatory strategies, and an improvement in study orientation encompassing study habits and study attitudes among the experimental group students. Parents and teachers reported significant progressive transformation towards constructive engagement with study material and self-imposed regulation. The implications of this study are three-fold: firstly, strategies training (cognitive, metacognitive and motivational) should be embedded into daily classroom routine; secondly, scaffolding by teachers through activities based on curriculum will eventually enable students to rely more on their own judgements of effective strategy use; thirdly, enhanced confidence will radiate to the affective aspects with enduring effects on other domains of life as well. The cyclic nature of the interaction between utilizing one’s resources, managing effort and regulating emotions forms the foundation for academic achievement.

Keywords: Academic achievement, cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, motivational strategies.

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Authors: Mohamed Moustafa Mahmoud Sedky

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In Line start permanent magnet synchronous motor,  eccentricity is a common fault that can make it necessary to remove  the motor from the production line. However, because the motor may  be inaccessible, diagnosing the fault is not easy. This paper presents  an FEM that identifies different models, static eccentricity, dynamic  eccentricity, and mixed eccentricity, at no load and full load. The  method overcomes the difficulty of applying FEMs to transient  behavior. It simulates motor speed, torque and flux density  distribution along the air gap for SE,DE, and ME. This paper  represents the various effects of different eccentricitiestypes on the  transient performance.

Keywords: Line Start Permanent magnet, synchronous machine, Static Eccentricity, Dynamic Eccentricity, Mixed Eccentricity.

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Authors: R. Lotfi, M. Loukid, M.K. Hilali

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The reproductive aging of women is a biological process which is expressed by the loss of ovarian function and therefore the loss of the possibility of procreation. The present work aims to evaluate the effect of menopause on sexual health of rural women and to examine the determinants of female sexuality after menopause. A survey was conducted among 527 women in the rural area of Marrakech. The average age of women was 51.92 ± 7.24 years. It appears from this study that sexual activity in menopausal women decreases with age, 20% of women had no sexual activity after menopause. 72% of respondents reported having sex by obligation, 71% of women say they are not satisfied with their sexuality, while 29 % are very satisfied. The most common sexual complaints are represented by the decreased libido (81%), vaginal dryness (54%), and pain (22,7%). Of the 511 women with sexual dysfunction, only 34 (6, 4%) consulted for this disorder. Many factors may influence sex include menopause and all the biological changes but also the roles of culture, social constructions and perception of sexuality after menopause are complicated.

Keywords: Keywords—Reproductive aging, menopause, sexuality, rural women.

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Authors: Sello Mokwena, Monyepao Thabang

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In this study, we propose a comprehensive approach to address the challenges in person re-identification models. By combining a centroid tracking algorithm with a Siamese convolutional neural network model, our method excels in detecting, tracking, and capturing robust person features across non-overlapping camera views. The algorithm efficiently identifies individuals in the camera network, while the neural network extracts fine-grained global features for precise cross-image comparisons. The approach's effectiveness is further accentuated by leveraging the camera network topology for guidance. Our empirical analysis of benchmark datasets highlights its competitive performance, particularly evident when background subtraction techniques are selectively applied, underscoring its potential in advancing person re-identification techniques.

Keywords: Camera network, convolutional neural network topology, person tracking, person re-identification, Siamese.

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Authors: A. Nielen, S. Mütze-Niewöhner, C. M. Schlick

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In view of growing competition in the service sector, services are as much in need of modeling, analysis and improvement as business or working processes. Graphical process models are important means to capture process-related know-how for an effective management of the service process. In this contribution, a human performance analysis of process model development paying special attention to model development time and the working method was conducted. It was found that modelers with higher application experience need significantly less time for mental activities than modelers with lower application experience, spend more time on labeling graphical elements, and achieved higher process model quality in terms of activity label quality.

Keywords: Model quality, predetermined motion time system, process modeling, working method.

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Authors: P. Ghann, J. Shiguang, C. Zhou

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Access control is one of the most challenging issues facing information security. Access control is defined as, the ability to permit or deny access to a particular computational resource or digital information by an unauthorized user or subject. The concept of usage control (UCON) has been introduced as a unified approach to capture a number of extensions for access control models and systems. In UCON, an access decision is determined by three factors: authorizations, obligations and conditions. Attribute mutability and decision continuity are two distinct characteristics introduced by UCON for the first time. An observation of UCON components indicates that, the components are predefined and static. In this paper, we propose a new and flexible model of usage control for the creation and elimination of some of these components; for example new objects, subjects, attributes and integrate these with the original UCON model. We also propose a model for concurrent usage scenarios in UCON.

Keywords: Access Control, Concurrency, Digital container, Usage control.

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Authors: Areti Tziboula, Anna-Maria Rentzeperi-Tsonou

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The present study examines the way Gioachino Rossini’s librettos are selected and formed demonstrating the evolutionary trajectory of the composer during his operatic career. Rossini, a dominant figure in the early 19th century Italian opera, is demanding in his choice of librettos and has a preference for subjects inspired by European literature, of his time or earlier. He begins his operatic career with farsae and operas buffae, but he mainly continues with operas seriae, to end it with a grand opera that conforms to the spirit of romanticism as manifested in Paris of his time. His farsae, operas buffae and comic operas in general are representative of the trends of the time: in some the irrational and the exaggeration prevail, in others the upheavals, others are semi-serious and emotional with a happy ending and others are comedies with more realistic characters, but usually the styles are mixed and complement each other. The stories that refer to his modern era unfold mocking human characters, beliefs attitudes and their expressions in every day habits, satirizing current affairs, presenting innovative elements in dramatic intervention and dealing with a variety of social and national issues. Count Ory, his final comic work, consists of a complex witty urban comic opera entwined with romantic sensitivity. The themes he chooses for his operas seriae are characterized by tragic passion, take place in the era of the Trojan War, the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, and the Age of the Crusades and are set in Italy, England, Poland, Greece, Switzerland, Israel and Egypt. In his early works he sketches the characters remotely, objectively and with static, reflexive emotional expression and a happy ending. Then he continues with operas for the San Carlo Theater, which are characterized by experimentation and innovation to end up his Italian operatic career with the ostensibly backward but in fact tragic Semiramis followed in Paris by William Tell, his ultimate dramatic achievement. There are indirect references to burning issues of his era but the censorship of the time does not allow direct reference to topics that would upset the status quo. In addition, Rossini lives in a temporal period of peace after the Napoleonic Wars and by temperament he resists openly engaging in political strife. Furthermore, the need for survival necessitates the search for the more profitable contracts. In conclusion, Rossini, as a liberal personality, shapes his librettos without interruptions or setbacks, with ideas that come out after a lot of thought and a strong sense of purpose. He moves from the moral and aesthetic clarity of the classic tradition of his early works to a more elaborate and morally ambiguous romantic style in a moderate and hesitant way.

Keywords: Gioachino Rossini, libretto, nineteenth century music, opera.

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Authors: Ali Cheraghian, Farshid Hajati, Soheila Gheisari, Yongsheng Gao

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In this paper, we present a novel 2.5D face recognition method based on Gabor Discrete Cosine Transform (GDCT). In the proposed method, the Gabor filter is applied to extract feature vectors from the texture and the depth information. Then, Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) is used for dimensionality and redundancy reduction to improve computational efficiency. The system is combined texture and depth information in the decision level, which presents higher performance compared to methods, which use texture and depth information, separately. The proposed algorithm is examined on publically available Bosphorus database including models with pose variation. The experimental results show that the proposed method has a higher performance compared to the benchmark.

Keywords: Gabor filter, discrete cosine transform, 2.5D face recognition, pose.

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Authors: M. Ben Slimene, M.-S. Ouali

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Asset management of urban infrastructures faces a multitude of challenges that need to be overcome to obtain a reliable measurement of performances. Predicting the performance of slowly aging systems is one of those challenges, which helps the asset manager to investigate specific failure modes and to undertake the appropriate maintenance and rehabilitation interventions to avoid catastrophic failures as well as to optimize the maintenance costs. This article presents a methodology for modeling the deterioration of slowly degrading assets based on an operating history. It consists of extracting degradation profiles by grouping together assets that exhibit similar degradation sequences using an unsupervised classification technique derived from artificial intelligence. The obtained clusters are used to build the performance prediction models. This methodology is applied to a sample of a stormwater drainage culvert dataset.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, clustering, culvert, regression model, slow degradation.

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Authors: Yi-Ting Mai, Chun-Chuan Yang, Cheng-Jung Wen

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IEEE 802.16 is a new wireless technology standard, it has some advantages, including wider coverage, higher bandwidth, and QoS support. As the new wireless technology for last mile solution, there are designed two models in IEEE 802.16 standard. One is PMP (point to multipoint) and the other is Mesh. In this paper we only focus on IEEE 802.16 Mesh model. According to the IEEE 802.16 standard description, Mesh model has two scheduling modes, centralized and distributed. Considering the pros and cons of the two scheduling, we present the combined scheduling QoS framework that the BS (Base Station) controls time frame scheduling and selects the shortest path from source to destination directly. On the other hand, we propose the Expedited Queue mechanism to cut down the transmission time. The EQ mechanism can reduce a lot of end-to-end delay in our QoS framework. Simulation study has shown that the average delay is smaller than contrasts. Furthermore, our proposed scheme can also achieve higher performance.

Keywords: IEEE 802.16 Mesh, Scheduling, Expedited Queue, QoS.

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Authors: Naushad Mamode Khan, Cheika Jahangeer, Maleika Heenaye-Mamode Khan

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Breastfeeding is an important concept in the maternal life of a woman. In this paper, we focus on exclusive breastfeeding. Exclusive breastfeeding is the feeding of a baby on no other milk apart from breast milk. This type of breastfeeding is very important during the first six months because it supports optimal growth and development during infancy and reduces the risk of obliterating diseases and problems. Moreover, in Mauritius, exclusive breastfeeding has decreased the incidence and/or severity of diarrhea, lower respiratory infection and urinary tract infection. In this paper, we give an overview of exclusive breastfeeding in Mauritius and the factors influencing it. We further analyze the local practices of exclusive breastfeeding using the Generalized Poisson regression model and the negative-binomial model since the data are over-dispersed.

Keywords: Exclusive breast feeding, regression model, generalized poisson, negative binomial.

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Authors: John Kabuba, Antoine Mulaba-Bafubiandi, Kim Battle

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In this study a neural network (NN) was proposed to predict the sorption of binary mixture of copper-cobalt ions into clinoptilolite as ion-exchanger. The configuration of the backpropagation neural network giving the smallest mean square error was three-layer NN with tangent sigmoid transfer function at hidden layer with 10 neurons, linear transfer function at output layer and Levenberg-Marquardt backpropagation training algorithm. Experiments have been carried out in the batch reactor to obtain equilibrium data of the individual sorption and the mixture of coppercobalt ions. The obtained modeling results have shown that the used of neural network has better adjusted the equilibrium data of the binary system when compared with the conventional sorption isotherm models.

Keywords: Adsorption isotherm, binary system, neural network; sorption

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Authors: L. B. Ni, N. S. Bt Rohadi, H. Bt Alfana, A. S. Bin Ali Hassan, J. Bin Karim, C. Bt Rasin

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This paper discusses the shared effort of teaching history in K-12 schools, community colleges, four-year colleges and universities to develop students' understanding of the history and habits of thought history. This study presents and discusses the problems of K-12 schools in colleges and universities, and the establishment of secondary school principals. This study also shows that the changing nature of practice can define new trends and affect the history professional in the classroom. There are many problems that historians and teachers of college faculty share in the history of high school teachers. History teachers can and should do better to get students in the classroom. History provides valuable insights into the information and embedded solid-state analysis models that are conflicting on the planet and are quickly changing exceptionally valuable. The survey results can reflect the history teaching in Malaysia.

Keywords: History issue, history teaching, school-university collaboration, history profession.

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Authors: Vladimír Frišták, Martin Pipíška, Juraj Lesný

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Alginite has been evaluated as an efficient pollution control material. In this paper, alginite from maar Pinciná (SR) for removal of Cd²⁺ ions from aqueous solution was studied. The potential sorbent was characterized by X-ray fluorescence analysis (RFA) analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectral analysis (FT-IR) and specific surface area (SSA) was also determined. The sorption process was optimized from the point of initial cadmium concentration effect and effect of pH value. The Freundlich and Langmuir models were used to interpret the sorption behavior of Cd²⁺ ions, and the results showed that experimental data were well fitted by the Langmuir equation. Alginite maximal sorption capacity (Q_max) for Cd²⁺ ions calculated from Langmuir isotherm was 34 mg/g. Sorption process was significantly affected by initial pH value in the range from 4.0-7.0. Alginite is a comparable sorbent with other materials for toxic metals removal. 

Keywords: Alginites, Cd2+, sorption, Qmax

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Authors: Tarathorn Podcharathitikull, Jirarat Teeravaraprug

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Transportation cost is the highest cost in logistics cost of Thailand, and truck transportation is counted as about 90% of the overall transportation cost. The main problem of truck transportation is backhauling. Backhauling has become an attractive cost-saving approach in logistics. To explore such opportunities, this paper investigated the current backhauling systems in Thailand. It was found that the backhauling problem is attracted to both governmental agencies and private sector. They gave attempts to build backhauling systems. This paper investigated two systems built by governmental agencies and one by private sector. Moreover, based on the interviews with the system representatives and users, pros and cons of the systems were found. The obstacles and challenges were obtained. This paper finally proposed a conceptual model of to-be backhauling system in Thailand.

Keywords: Backhauling system, Backhauls, interview, Thailand.

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Authors: Mohammadreza Nezamirad, Azadeh Yazdi, Sepideh Amirahmadian, Nasim Sabetpour, Amirmasoud Hamedi

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In this study, the Reynolds-Stress-Navier-Stokes framework is utilized to investigate the flow inside the diesel injector nozzle. The flow is assumed to be multiphase as the formation of vapor by pressure drop is visualized. For pressure and velocity linkage, the coupled algorithm is used. Since the cavitation phenomenon inherently is unsteady, the quasi-steady approach is utilized for saving time and resources in the current study. Schnerr-Sauer cavitation model is used, which was capable of predicting flow behavior both at the initial and final steps of the cavitation process. Two different turbulent models were used in this study to clarify which one is more capable in predicting cavitation inception and super-cavitation. It was found that K-ε was more compatible with the Shnerr-Sauer cavitation model; therefore, the mentioned model is used for the rest of this study.

Keywords: CFD, RANS, cavitation, fuel, injector.

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Authors: Karim Heidari, Serajodin Katebi, Ali Reza Mahdavi Far

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The purpose of this paper is to study Database Models to use them efficiently in E-commerce websites. In this paper we are going to find a method which can save and retrieve information in Ecommerce websites. Thus, semantic web applications can work with, and we are also going to study different technologies of E-commerce databases and we know that one of the most important deficits in semantic web is the shortage of semantic data, since most of the information is still stored in relational databases, we present an approach to map legacy data stored in relational databases into the Semantic Web using virtually any modern RDF query language, as long as it is closed within RDF. To achieve this goal we study XML structures for relational data bases of old websites and eventually we will come up one level over XML and look for a map from relational model (RDM) to RDF. Noting that a large number of semantic webs get advantage of relational model, opening the ways which can be converted to XML and RDF in modern systems (semantic web) is important.

Keywords: E-Commerce, Semantic Web, Database, XML, RDF.

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Authors: Hassan Masoumi, Ahad Salimi, Nazanin Barhemmat, Babak Gholami

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Artificial neural networks have gained a lot of interest as empirical models for their powerful representational capacity, multi input and output mapping characteristics. In fact, most feedforward networks with nonlinear nodal functions have been proved to be universal approximates. In this paper, we propose a new supervised method for color image classification based on selforganizing feature maps (SOFM). This algorithm is based on competitive learning. The method partitions the input space using self-organizing feature maps to introduce the concept of local neighborhoods. Our image classification system entered into RGB image. Experiments with simulated data showed that separability of classes increased when increasing training time. In additional, the result shows proposed algorithms are effective for color image classification.

Keywords: Classification, SOFM, neural network, RGB images.

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Authors: S. Huber, B. Schnalzer, B. Alcalde, S. Hanke, L. Mpaltadoros, T. G. Stavropoulos, S. Nikolopoulos, I. Kompatsiaris, L. Pérez-Breva, V. Rodrigo-Casares, J. Fons-Martínez, J. de Bruin

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Developing new medicine and health solutions and improving patient health currently rely on the successful execution of clinical trials, which generate relevant safety and efficacy data. For their success, recruitment and retention of participants are some of the most challenging aspects of protocol adherence. Main barriers include: i) lack of awareness of clinical trials; ii) long distance from the clinical site; iii) the burden on participants, including the duration and number of clinical visits, and iv) high dropout rate. Most of these aspects could be addressed with a new paradigm, namely the Remote Decentralized Clinical Trials (RDCTs). Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted additional advantages and challenges for RDCTs in practice, allowing participants to join trials from home and not depending on site visits, etc. Nevertheless, RDCTs should follow the process and the quality assurance of conventional clinical trials, which involve several processes. For each part of the trial, the Building Blocks, existing software and technologies were assessed through a systematic search. The technology needed to perform RDCTs is widely available and validated but is yet segmented and developed in silos, as different software solutions address different parts of the trial and at various levels. The current paper is analyzing the availability of technology to perform RDCTs, identifying gaps and providing an overview of Basic Building Blocks and functionalities that need to be covered to support the described processes.

Keywords: architectures and frameworks for health informatics systems, clinical trials, information and communications technology, remote decentralized clinical trials, technology availability

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Authors: I. Paeglite, A. Paeglitis

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Paper presents a study about dynamic effects obtained from the dynamic load testing of the city highway bridges in Latvia carried out from 2005 to 2012. 9 prestressed concrete bridges and 4 composite bridges were considered. 11 of 13 bridges were designed according to the Eurocodes but two according to the previous structural codes used in Latvia (SNIP 2.05.03-84). The dynamic properties of the bridges were obtained by heavy vehicle passing the bridge roadway with different driving speeds and with or without even pavement. The obtained values of the Dynamic amplification factor (DAF) and the bridge natural frequency were analyzed and compared to the values of built-in traffic load models provided in Eurocode 1. The actual DAF values for even bridge pavement in the most cases are smaller than the value adopted in Eurocode 1. Vehicle speed for uneven pavements significantly influence Dynamic amplification factor values.

Keywords: Bridge, dynamic effects, load testing, dynamic amplification factor.

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Authors: Mohamed Othmani, Yassine Khlifi

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This paper presents a technique for compact three dimensional (3D) object model reconstruction using wavelet networks. It consists to transform an input surface vertices into signals,and uses wavelet network parameters for signal approximations. To prove this, we use a wavelet network architecture founded on several mother wavelet families. POLYnomials WindOwed with Gaussians (POLYWOG) wavelet families are used to maximize the probability to select the best wavelets which ensure the good generalization of the network. To achieve a better reconstruction, the network is trained several iterations to optimize the wavelet network parameters until the error criterion is small enough. Experimental results will shown that our proposed technique can effectively reconstruct an irregular 3D object models when using the optimized wavelet network parameters. We will prove that an accurateness reconstruction depends on the best choice of the mother wavelets.

Keywords: 3D object, optimization, parametrization, Polywog wavelets, reconstruction, wavelet networks.

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Authors: Marco Intelvi, Apolinar Picado, Joaquín Martínez

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In this work, simulation algorithms for contact drying of agitated particulate materials under vacuum and at atmospheric pressure were developed. The implementation of algorithms gives a predictive estimation of drying rate curves and bulk bed temperature during contact drying. The calculations are based on the penetration model to describe the drying process, where all process parameters such as heat and mass transfer coefficients, effective bed properties, gas and liquid phase properties are estimated with proper correlations. Simulation results were compared with experimental data from the literature. In both cases, simulation results were in good agreement with experimental data. Few deviations were identified and the limitations of the predictive capabilities of the models are discussed. The programs give a good insight of the drying behaviour of the analysed powders.

Keywords: Agitated bed, Atmospheric pressure, Penetrationmodel, Vacuum

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Authors: Abdulfatah Al-Jaradi, Marzoq Ali Odhah, Abdulnasser A. Haza’a

Abstract:

Background: Antenatal care can be defined as the care provided by skilled healthcare professionals to pregnant women and adolescent girls to ensure the best health conditions for both mother and baby during pregnancy. The components of Antenatal Care (ANC) include risk identification; prevention and management of pregnancy-related or concurrent diseases; and health education and health promotion. The aim of this study: to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of pregnant women regarding ANC. Methodology: A descriptive knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) study was conducted in public hospitals in Sana'a City, Yemen. The study population included all pregnant women that intended to the prenatal department and clinical outpatient department; the final sample size was 371 pregnant women. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data, statistical package for social sciences SPSS was used to data analysis. The results: Most (79%) of pregnant women had correct answers in total knowledge regarding ANC, and about two-thirds (67%) of pregnant women had performance practice regarding ANC and two-third (68%) of pregnant women had a positive attitude. Conclusions: More than three quarter of pregnant women had good knowledge level, most of pregnant women had moderate practice level, and more than two-thirds of pregnant women had a positive attitude regarding antenatal care. There was a statistically significant association between overall knowledge and practice level toward ANC and demographic characteristics of pregnant women, at P-value ≤ 0.05. Recommendations: we recommended more education and training courses, lecturers, and education sessions in clinical facilitators focused on ANC, which relies on evidence-based interventions provided to women during pregnancy by skilled healthcare providers such as midwives, doctors, and nurses.

Keywords: Antenatal care, knowledge, practice, attitude, pregnant women.

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Authors: Shreya Thusoo, Karan Modi, Ankit Kumar Jha, Rajesh Kumar

Abstract:

Since the evolution of computational tools and simulation software, there has been considerable increase in research on Soil Structure Interaction (SSI) to decrease the computational time and increase accuracy in the results. To aid the designer with a proper understanding of the response of structure in different soil types, the presented paper compares the deformation, shear stress, acceleration and other parameters of multi-storey building for a specific input ground motion using Response-spectrum Analysis (RSA) method. The response of all the models of different heights have been compared in different soil types. Finite Element Simulation software, ANSYS, has been used for all the computational purposes. Overall, higher response is observed with SSI, while it increases with decreasing stiffness of soil.

Keywords: Soil-structure interaction, response-spectrum analysis, finite element method, multi-storey buildings.

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Authors: Charalampos Saridakis, Stelios Tsafarakis

Abstract:

Although environmental concern is on the rise across Europe, current market data indicate that adoption rates of environmentally friendly vehicles remain extremely low. Against this background, the aim of this paper is to a) assess preferences of European consumers for clean-fuel cars and their characteristics and b) design car lines that optimize the combination of fuel types among models in the line-up. In this direction, the authors introduce a new evolutionary mechanism and implement it to stated-preference data derived from a large-scale choice-based conjoint experiment that measures consumer preferences for various factors affecting clean-fuel vehicle (CFV) adoption. The proposed two-step methodology provides interesting insights into how new and existing fuel-types can be combined in a car line that maximizes customer satisfaction.

Keywords: Clean-fuel vehicles, product line design, conjoint analysis, choice experiment, differential evolution.

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Authors: M. Z. Bin Mohd Ghazali, N. C. Wilson, A. F. Bin Ahmad Fuad, M. A. H. B. Musa, M. U. Mohamad Sani, F. Zulkifli, M. S. Zainal Abidin

Abstract:

Physical activity levels are low in Malaysia and this study was undertaken to determine if a four week work-based intervention program would be effective in changing physical activity levels. The study was conducted in a Malaysian Government Department and had three stages: baseline data collection, four-week intervention and two-month post intervention data collection. During the intervention and two-month post intervention phases, physical activity levels (determined by a pedometer) and basic health profiles (BMI, abdominal obesity, blood pressure) were measured. Staff (58 males, 47 females) with an average age of 33 years completed baseline data collection. Pedometer steps averaged 7,102 steps/day at baseline, although male step counts were significantly higher than females (7,861 vs. 6114). Health profiles were poor: over 50% were overweight/obese (males 66%, females 40%); hypertension (males 23%, females 6%); excess waist circumference (males 52%, females 17%). While 86 staff participated in the intervention, only 49 regularly reported their steps. There was a significant increase (17%) in average daily steps from 8,965 (week 1) to 10,436 (week 4). Unfortunately, participation in the intervention program was avoided by the less healthy staff. Two months after the intervention there was no significant difference in average steps/day, despite the fact that 89% of staff reporting they planned to make long-term changes to their lifestyle. An unexpected average increase of 2kg in body weight occurred in participants, although this was less than the 5.6kg in non-participants. A number of recommendations are made for future interventions, including the conclusion that pedometers were a useful tool and popular with participants.

Keywords: Pedometers, walking, health, intervention.

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