Search results for: natural resources

Authors: Qasim Zafar, Matthew Anderson, Esteban Garcia, Steven Drager

Abstract:

Software failures can present an enormous detriment to people's lives and cost millions of dollars to repair when they are unexpectedly encountered in the wild. Despite a significant portion of the software development lifecycle and resources are dedicated to testing, software failures are a relatively frequent occurrence. Nevertheless, the evaluation of testing effectiveness remains at the forefront of ensuring high-quality software and software metrics play a critical role in providing valuable insights into quantifiable objectives to assess the level of assurance and confidence in the system. As the selection of appropriate metrics can be an arduous process, the goal of this paper is to shed light on the significance of software metrics by examining a range of testing techniques and metrics as well as identifying key areas for improvement. In doing so, this paper presents a method to compare the effectiveness of testing techniques with heterogeneous output metrics. Additionally, through this investigation, readers will gain a deeper understanding of how metrics can help to drive informed decision-making on delivering high-quality software and facilitate continuous improvement in testing practices.

Keywords: Software testing, software metrics, testing effectiveness, black box testing, random testing, adaptive random testing, combinatorial testing, fuzz testing, equivalence partition, boundary value analysis, white box testings.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 67

Authors: Kamran Yousefpour, Mojtaba Rostaghi-Chalaki, Jason Warden, David Wallace, Chanyeop Park

Abstract:

There has been a rising trend in using impulse current generators to investigate the lightning strike protection of materials including aluminum and composites in structures such as wind turbine blade and aircraft body. The focus of this research is to present an impulse current generator built in the High Voltage Lab at Mississippi State University. The generator is capable of producing component A and D of the natural lightning discharges in accordance with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) standard, which is widely used in the aerospace industry. The generator can supply lightning impulse energy up to 400 kJ with the capability of producing impulse currents with magnitudes greater than 200 kA. The electrical circuit and physical components of an improved impulse current generator are described and several lightning strike waveforms with different amplitudes is presented for comparing with the standard waveform. The results of this study contribute to the fundamental understanding the functionality of the impulse current generators and present an impulse current generator developed at the High Voltage Lab of Mississippi State University.

Keywords: impulse current generator, lightning, society of automotive engineers, capacitor

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 768

Authors: Guyue Zhu, Liangping Hong

Abstract:

Chinese overall urban design faces a large number of problems such as the neglect of urban characteristics, generalization of content, and difficulty in implementation. Focusing on these issues, this paper proposes the main points of shaping urban characteristics in overall urban design: focuses on core problems in city function and scale, landscape pattern, historical culture, social resources and modern city style and digs the urban characteristic genes. Then, we put forward “core problem location and characteristic gene enhancement” as a kind of overall urban design technical method. Firstly, based on the main problems in urban space as a whole, for the operability goal, the method extracts the key genes and integrates into the multi-dimension system in a targeted manner. Secondly, hierarchical management and guidance system is established which may be in line with administrative management. Finally, by converting the results, action plan is drawn up that can be dynamically implemented. Based on the above idea and method, a practical exploration has been performed in the case of Xiangyang central city.

Keywords: City characteristics, overall urban design, planning implementation, Xiangyang central city.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 949

Authors: Fan Ye

Abstract:

Adverse weather conditions, particularly those with low visibility, are critical to the driving tasks. However, the direct relationship between visibility distances and traffic flow/roadway safety is uncertain due to the limitation of visibility data availability. The recent growth of deployment of Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) makes segment-specific visibility information available which can be integrated with other Intelligent Transportation System, such as automated warning system and variable speed limit, to improve mobility and safety. Before applying the RWIS visibility measurements in traffic study and operations, it is critical to validate the data. Therefore, an attempt was made in the paper to examine the validity and viability of RWIS visibility data by comparing visibility measurements among RWIS, airport weather stations, and weather information recorded by police in crash reports, based on Ohio data. The results indicated that RWIS visibility measurements were significantly different from airport visibility data in Ohio, but no conclusion regarding the reliability of RWIS visibility could be drawn in the consideration of no verified ground truth in the comparisons. It was suggested that more objective methods are needed to validate the RWIS visibility measurements, such as continuous in-field measurements associated with various weather events using calibrated visibility sensors.

Keywords: Low visibility, RWIS, traffic safety, visibility.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1334

Authors: H. Mukhtar, N. M. Noor, R. Nasir, D. F. Mohshim

Abstract:

The main aim of this work is to develop a model of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) separation from natural gas by using membrane separation technology. The model is developed by incorporating three diffusion mechanisms which are Knudsen, viscous and surface diffusion towards membrane selectivity and permeability. The findings from the simulation result shows that the permeability of the gas is dependent toward the pore size of the membrane, operating pressure, operating temperature as well as feed composition. The permeability of methane has the highest value for Poly (1-trimethylsilyl-1-propyne ) PTMSP membrane at pore size of 0.1nm and decreasing toward a minimum peak at pore range 1 to 1.5 nm as pore size increased before it increase again for pore size is greater than 1.5 nm. On the other hand, the permeability of hydrogen sulfide is found to increase almost proportionally with the increase of membrane pore size. Generally, the increase of pressure will increase the permeability of gas since more driving force is provided to the system while increasing of temperature would decrease the permeability due to the surface diffusion drop off effect. A corroboration of the simulation result also showed a good agreement with the experimental data.

Keywords: Hydrogen Sulfide, Methane, Inorganic Membrane, Organic Membrane, Pore Model

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3707

Authors: Maassoumeh Javadi Baygi, Abdul Rahman B Ramli, Borhanuddin Mohd Ali, Syamsiah Mashohor

Abstract:

The expectation of network performance from the early days of ARPANET until now has been changed significantly. Every day, new advancement in technological infrastructure opens the doors for better quality of service and accordingly level of perceived quality of network services have been increased over the time. Nowadays for many applications, late information has no value or even may result in financial or catastrophic loss, on the other hand, demands for some level of guarantee in providing and maintaining quality of service are ever increasing. Based on this history, having a QoS aware routing system which is able to provide today's required level of quality of service in the networks and effectively adapt to the future needs, seems as a key requirement for future Internet. In this work we have extended the traditional AntNet routing system to support QoS with multiple metrics such as bandwidth and delay which is named Q-Net. This novel scalable QoS routing system aims to provide different types of services in the network simultaneously. Each type of service can be provided for a period of time in the network and network nodes do not need to have any previous knowledge about it. When a type of quality of service is requested, Q-Net will allocate required resources for the service and will guarantee QoS requirement of the service, based on target objectives.

Keywords: Quality of Service, Routing, Ant Colony Optimization, Ant-based algorithms.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1327

Authors: Dimitrios Zarpalas, Anastasios Zafeiropoulos, Petros Daras, Nicos Maglaveras

Abstract:

Segmentation techniques based on Active Contour Models have been strongly benefited from the use of prior information during their evolution. Shape prior information is captured from a training set and is introduced in the optimization procedure to restrict the evolution into allowable shapes. In this way, the evolution converges onto regions even with weak boundaries. Although significant effort has been devoted on different ways of capturing and analyzing prior information, very little thought has been devoted on the way of combining image information with prior information. This paper focuses on a more natural way of incorporating the prior information in the level set framework. For proof of concept the method is applied on hippocampus segmentation in T1-MR images. Hippocampus segmentation is a very challenging task, due to the multivariate surrounding region and the missing boundary with the neighboring amygdala, whose intensities are identical. The proposed method, mimics the human segmentation way and thus shows enhancements in the segmentation accuracy.

Keywords: Medical imaging & processing, Brain MRI segmentation, hippocampus segmentation, hippocampus-amygdala missingboundary, weak boundary segmentation, region based segmentation, prior information, local weighting scheme in level sets, spatialdistribution of labels, gradient distribution on boundary.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1752

Authors: Mustapha Shitu Suleiman, Francis Neshamba, Nestor Valero-Silva

Abstract:

Small businesses are considered as engine of economic growth, contributing to employment generation, wealth creation, and poverty alleviation and food security in both developed and developing countries. Nigeria is facing many socio-economic problems and it is believed that by supporting small business development, as propellers of new ideas and more effective users of resources, often driven by individual creativity and innovation, Nigeria would be able to address some of its economic and social challenges, such as unemployment and economic diversification. Using secondary literature, this paper examines the role small businesses can play in the creation of jobs in North-West Nigeria to overcome issues of unemployment, which is the most devastating economic challenge facing the region. Most studies in this area have focused on Nigeria as a whole and only a few studies provide a regional focus, hence, this study will contribute to knowledge by filling this gap by concentrating on North-West Nigeria. It is hoped that with the present administration’s determination to improve the economy, small businesses would be used as vehicles for diversification of the economy away from crude oil to create jobs that would lead to a reduction in the country’s high unemployment level.

Keywords: Job creation, North-West Nigeria, small business, unemployment.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1819

Authors: Priyanka Paliwal, N. P. Patidar, R. K. Nema

Abstract:

Battery storage system is emerging as an essential component of hybrid power system based on renewable energy resources such as solar and wind in order to make these sources dispatchable. Accurate modeling of battery storage system is ssential in order to ensure optimal planning of hybrid power systems incorporating battery storage. Majority of the system planning studies involving battery storage assume battery charging efficiency to be constant. However a strong correlation exists between battery charging efficiency and battery state of charge. In this work a Fuzzy logic based model has been presented for determining battery charging efficiency relative to a particular SOC. In order to demonstrate the efficacy of proposed approach, reliability evaluation studies are carried out for a hypothetical autonomous hybrid power system located in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India. The impact of considering battery charging efficiency as a function of state of charge is compared against the assumption of fixed battery charging efficiency for three different configurations comprising of wind-storage, solar-storage and wind-solar-storage.

Keywords: Battery Storage, Charging efficiency, Fuzzy Logic, Hybrid Power System, Reliability

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2093

Authors: Henrik Prinzhorn, Peter Nyhuis, Johannes Wagner, Peter Burggräf, Torben Schmitz, Christina Reuter

Abstract:

Assembling large-scale products, such as airplanes, locomotives, or wind turbines, involves frequent process interruptions induced by e.g. delayed material deliveries or missing availability of resources. This leads to a negative impact on the logistical performance of a producer of xxl-products. In industrial practice, in case of interruptions, the identification, evaluation and eventually the selection of an alternative order of assembly activities (‘assembly alternative’) leads to an enormous challenge, especially if an optimized logistical decision should be reached. Therefore, in this paper, an innovative, optimization model for the identification of assembly alternatives that addresses the given problem is presented. It describes make-to-order, large-scale product assembly processes as a resource constrained project scheduling (RCPS) problem which follows given restrictions in practice. For the evaluation of the assembly alternative, a cost-based definition of the logistical objectives (delivery reliability, inventory, make-span and workload) is presented.

Keywords: Assembly scheduling, large-scale products, make-to-order, rescheduling, optimization.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1437

Authors: N.Peatciyammal, B.Balachandar, M.Dinesh Kumar, K.Tamilarasan, C.Muthukumaran

Abstract:

Enzymatic hydrolysis of starch from natural sources finds potential application in commercial production of alcoholic beverage and bioethanol. In this study the effect of starch concentration, temperature, time and enzyme concentration were studied and optimized for hydrolysis of Potato starch powder (of mesh 80/120) into glucose syrup by immobilized (using Sodium arginate) α-amylase using central composite design. The experimental result on enzymatic hydrolysis of Potato starch was subjected to multiple linear regression analysis using MINITAB 14 software. Positive linear effect of starch concentration, enzyme concentration and time was observed on hydrolysis of Potato starch by α-amylase. The statistical significance of the model was validated by F-test for analysis of variance (p ≤ 0.01). The optimum value of starch concentration, enzyme concentration, temperature, time and were found to be 6% (w/v), 2% (w/v), 40°C and 80min respectively. The maximum glucose yield at optimum condition was 2.34 mg/mL.

Keywords: Alcoholic beverage, Central Composite Design, Enzymatic hydrolysis, Glucose yield, Potato Starch.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6038

Authors: I. Alberdi, H. Iribas, A. Martin, N. Aginako

Abstract:

This paper describes a platform that faces the main research areas for e-learning educational contents. Reusability tackles the possibility to use contents in different courses reducing costs and exploiting available data from repositories. In our approach the production of educational material is based on templates to reuse learning objects. In terms of interoperability the main challenge lays on reaching the audience through different platforms. E-learning solution must track social consumption evolution where nowadays lots of multimedia contents are accessed through the social networks. Our work faces it by implementing a platform for generation of multimedia presentations focused on the new paradigm related to social media. The system produces videos-courses on top of web standard SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) ready to be published and shared. Regarding interfaces it is mandatory to satisfy user needs and ease communication. To overcome it the platform deploys virtual teachers that provide natural interfaces while multimodal features remove barriers to pupils with disabilities.

Keywords: Collaborative, multimedia e-learning, reusability, SMIL, virtual teacher

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1504

Authors: F. Z. Yekeler, H. Ozyurek, C. E. Tamer

Abstract:

Fruits and vegetables are the essentials of a healthy diet, mainly because of their antioxidant properties contributing to disease blockage especially for some certain types of cancer. Being a favourite fruit, citrus are produced for economic and commercial purposes worldwide. Particularly, lemon fruit (Citrus limon L.), has an important place in export products of Turkey. Lemon has a great importance on human nutrition with regard to being a source of nutrients, flavonoids, vitamin C and minerals. It is used for food flavouring and pickling and also processed for lemonade. By processing citrus into fruit juices, consumption may increase and also become easier. Like many fruits and vegetables lemons are cheap and abundant during harvesting period, while they are quite expensive in other seasons. Lemon juice and concentrate production allows consumers to get benefits from lemon fruit in any time of the year. Lemonade is getting in to the focus of consumers’ attention preferring non-carbonated drinks. The demand of healthy, convenient functional foods affects consumer trends through innovative products. For this reason, lemonade could be enriched with different natural herb extracts such as ginger (Zingiber officinale), linden (Tilia cordata), and mint (Mentha piperita).

Keywords: Lemonade, herb extracts, antioxidant activity.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4107

Authors: Zakaria Smahi, Khadidja Remaoun, Fatima Achouri

Abstract:

Bir El Djir is an important coastal township in Oran department, located at 450 Km far away from Algiers on northwest of Algeria. In this coastal area, the urban sprawl is one of the main problems that reduce the limited highly fertile land. So, using the remote sensing and GIS technologies have shown their great capabilities to solve many earth resources issues. The aim of this study is to produce land use and cover map for the studied area at varied periods to monitor possible changes that may occurred, particularly in the urban areas and subsequently predict likely changes. For this, two spatial images SPOT and Landsat satellites from 1987 and 2014 respectively were used to assess the changes of urban expansion and encroachment during this period with photo-interpretation and GIS approach. The results revealed that the town of Bir El Djir has shown a highest growth rate in the period 1987-2014 which is 1201.5 hectares in terms of area. These expansions largely concern the new real estate constructions falling within the social and promotional housing programs launched by the government. The most urban expansion is characterized by the new construction in the form of spontaneous or peripheral precarious habitat, but also unstructured slums settled especially in the southeastern part of town.

Keywords: Urban expansion, Remote Sensing, Photointerpretation, Spatial dynamics.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2135

Authors: Omar Boutkhoum, Mohamed Hanine, Tarik Agouti, Abdessadek Tikniouine

Abstract:

This paper discusses the intake of combining multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) with OLAP systems, to generate an integrated analysis process dealing with complex multi-criteria decision-making situations. In this context, a multi-agent modeling is presented for decision support systems by combining multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) with OLAP systems. The proposed modeling which consists in performing the multi-agent system (MAS) architecture, procedure and protocol of the negotiation model is elaborated as a decision support tool for complex decision-making environments. Our objective is to take advantage from the multi-agent system which distributes resources and computational capabilities across interconnected agents, and provide a problem modeling in terms of autonomous interacting component-agents. Thus, the identification and evaluation of criteria as well as the evaluation and ranking of alternatives in a decision support situation will be performed by organizing tasks and user preferences between different agents in order to reach the right decision. At the end, an illustrative example is conducted to demonstrate the function and effectiveness of our MAS modeling.

Keywords: Multidimensional Analysis, OLAP Analysis, Multi-criteria Decision Analysis, Multi-Agent System, Decision Support System.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1844

Authors: Ildar Akhmadullin, Mayank Tyagi

Abstract:

The subject of this paper is the design analysis of a single well power production unit from low enthalpy geothermal resources. A complexity of the project is defined by a low temperature heat source that usually makes such projects economically disadvantageous using the conventional binary power plant approach. A proposed new compact design is numerically analyzed. This paper describes a thermodynamic analysis, a working fluid choice, downhole heat exchanger (DHE) and turbine calculation results. The unit is able to produce 321 kW of electric power from a low enthalpy underground heat source utilizing n-Pentane as a working fluid. A geo-pressured reservoir located in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, USA is selected as a prototype for the field application. With a brine temperature of 126 , the optimal length of DHE is determined as 304.8 m (1000ft). All units (pipes, turbine, and pumps) are chosen from commercially available parts to bring this project closer to the industry requirements. Numerical calculations are based on petroleum industry standards. The project is sponsored by the Department of Energy of the US.

Keywords: Downhole Heat Exchangers, Geothermal Power Generation, Organic Rankine Cycle, Refrigerants, Working Fluids.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2670

Authors: Miho Tsukamoto

Abstract:

Beppu hot spring provides medical treatment as well as comfort visitors and mental easiness for many years. This paper studies hot spring in Beppu and Tōji, medical treatment in hot spring, and investigates how people’s visit to Beppu has changed with Tōji, and how Beppu Tourism Office tries to regain visitors in Beppu. In this paper, firstly, hot spring history in Beppu will be explained especially focusing on Beppu Hattou (eight major hot springs) and Jigoku Meguri (eight major hell hot spring tours). Secondly, Tōji, a long-residential hot spring with the purpose of medical treatment along with the information about chemical efficacy of hot springs will be analyzed. Then, finally, the change of the long-stay type to short-stay Onsen programs with the combination of multiplex tourism resources will be focused along with the decrease of Onsen or hot spring visitors. It is concluded that Tōji is not only physically and mentally cure people but also bring people mental easiness and release them from their stressful life. All in all, it can be concluded that because Onsen is involved in people’s life in Beppu and keep local people united in the community. Tōji’s attraction is shown when local people try to create the new type of Onsen program so as to keep their traditional way of Tōji.

Keywords: Hot spring, Tōji, Treatment.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1670

Authors: Ryuya Uda

Abstract:

Nowadays, computer worms, viruses and Trojan horse become popular, and they are collectively called malware. Those malware just spoiled computers by deleting or rewriting important files a decade ago. However, recent malware seems to be born to earn money. Some of malware work for collecting personal information so that malicious people can find secret information such as password for online banking, evidence for a scandal or contact address which relates with the target. Moreover, relation between money and malware becomes more complex. Many kinds of malware bear bots to get springboards. Meanwhile, for ordinary internet users, countermeasures against malware come up against a blank wall. Pattern matching becomes too much waste of computer resources, since matching tools have to deal with a lot of patterns derived from subspecies. Virus making tools can automatically bear subspecies of malware. Moreover, metamorphic and polymorphic malware are no longer special. Recently there appears malware checking sites that check contents in place of users' PC. However, there appears a new type of malicious sites that avoids check by malware checking sites. In this paper, existing protocols and methods related with the web are reconsidered in terms of protection from current attacks, and new protocol and method are indicated for the purpose of security of the web.

Keywords: Information Security, Malware, Network Security, World Wide Web

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2097

Authors: Khaled S. Abdallah, Abdel-Aziz M. Mohamed

Abstract:

Moving industries consume numerous resources and dispose masses of used packaging materials. Proper sorting, recycling and disposing the packaging materials is necessary to avoid a sever pollution disaster. This research paper presents a conceptual model to propose sustainable truck rental operations instead of the regular one. An optimization model was developed to select the locations of truck rental centers, collection sites, maintenance and repair sites, and identify the rental fees to be charged for all routes that maximize the total closed supply chain profits. Fixed costs of vehicle purchasing, costs of constructing collection centers and repair centers, as well as the fixed costs paid to use disposal and recycling centers are considered. Operating costs include the truck maintenance, repair costs as well as the cost of recycling and disposing the packing materials, and the costs of relocating the truck are presented in the model. A mixed integer model is developed followed by a simulation model to examine the factors affecting the operation of the model.

Keywords: Modeling, truck rental, supply chains management, simulation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 821

Authors: Abdelbasit Gadour

Abstract:

This study explores the function of schools’ psychosocial services within Libyan mainstream schools in relation to children’s special educational needs (SEN). This is with the aim to examine the role of school social workers and psychologists in the assessment procedure of children with SEN. A semi-structured interview was used in this study, with 21 professionals working in the schools’ psychosocial services, of whom 13 were school social workers (SSWs) and eight were school psychologists (SPs). The results of the interviews with SSWs and SPs provided insights into how SEN children are identified, assessed, and dealt with by school professionals. It appears from the results that what constitutes a problem has not changed significantly, and the link between learning difficulties and behavioural difficulties is also evident from this study. Children with behaviour difficulties are more likely to be referred to school psychosocial services than children with learning difficulties. Yet, it is not clear from the interviews with SSWs and SPs whether children are excluded merely because of their behaviour problems. Instead, they would surely be expelled from the school if they failed academically. Furthermore, the interviews with SSWs and SPs yield a rather unusual source accountable for children’s SEN; school-related difficulties were a major factor in which almost all participants attributed children’s learning and behaviour problems to teachers’ deficiencies, followed by school lack of resources.

Keywords: Special education, school, social workers, psychologist.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 690

Authors: N. P. Tsephe, S. D. Eyono Obono

Abstract:

Rural tourism is usually associated with rural development because it has strong linkages to rural resources; but it remains underdeveloped compared to urban tourism. This underdevelopment of rural tourism serves as a motivation for this study whose aim is to examine the factors affecting the perceived satisfaction of rural tourists. The objectives of this study are: to identify and design theories and models on rural tourism satisfaction, and to empirically validate these models and theories through a survey of tourists from the Malealea Lodge which is located in the Mafeteng District, in the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. Data generated by the collection of questionnaires used by this survey was analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics and correlations in SPSS after checking the validity and the reliability of the questionnaire. The main hypothesis behind this study is the relationship between the demographics of rural tourists, their motivation, and their satisfaction, as supported by existing literature; except that motivation is measured in this study according to three dimensions: push factors, pull factors, and perceived usefulness of ICTs in the rural tourism experience. Findings from this study indicate that among the demographics factors, continent of origin and marital status influence the satisfaction of rural tourists; and their occupation affects their perceptions on the use of ICTs in rural tourism. Moreover, only pull factors were found to influence the satisfaction of rural tourists.

Keywords: Digital world, Motivation, Rural tourism, Satisfaction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1944

Authors: D. I. Ekine, C. C. Akpanibah

Abstract:

This paper analyses the productivity of median scale battery cage and deep litter chicken egg producers in Rivers State, Nigeria. 90 battery cage and 90 deep litter farmers giving a total of 180 farmers were sampled through a multistage sampling procedure. Mean productivity was higher for the battery cage than the deep litter farmers at 2.65 and 2.33 respectively. Productivity of battery cage farmers were positively influenced by age, extension contacts, experience and feed quantity while the productivity of deep litter farmers was positively influenced by age, extension contacts, household size, experience and labour. The major constraints identified by both categories are high cost of feed, high price of day-old chick, inadequate finance, lack of credit and high cost of drug/vaccination. Furthermore, the work recommends that government should assist chicken egg farmers through subsidies of input resources and put policies to make financial institutions give out loans at low interest rate to the farmers. The farmers should abide by the recommended number of birds per unit area while stocking.

Keywords: Productivity, battery cage, deep litter, median scale, egg production.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 251

Authors: Luh Putu T. Darmayanti, A. A. Duwipayana, I Nengah K. Putra, Nyoman S. Antara

Abstract:

Processing tabah bamboo shoot as fermented pickle is one of the way to increase the shelf life of this bamboo shoot. The advantage of this shoot is low concentration of hydro cyanic acid (HCN) make it potential for functional food product. This study aimed to determine the characteristic of tabah bamboo shoot pickle such as total of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), pH, total acidity, and hydro cyanic acid (HCN) content, and also find the LAB’s type involved during fermentation, and organic acids’ profiles. The pickle was made by natural fermentation with 6% salt concentration and fermentation conducted for 13 days. The result showed during the fermentation time, in the 4th day LAB’s number was highest as much as 72 x 107 CFU/ml and the lowest pH was 3.09. We also found decreasing in HCN from 37.8 ppm at the beginning to 20.52 ppm at the end of fermentation process. The organic acids detected during the fermentation were lactic acid with the highest concentration was 0.0546 g/100 g and small amount of acetic acid. By using PCR method, the 18 of LABs which had rod shape were detected as member of Lactobacillus spp., in which 17 strains detected as L. plantarum.

Keywords: Fermentation, LAB, pickle, tabah bamboo shoot.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2702

Authors: Ahmad, A.K., Shuhaimi-Othman, M. Hoon, L.P.

Abstract:

Study was conducted to determine the concentration of copper, cadmium, lead and zinc in Cabomba furcata that found abundance in Lake Chini. This aquatic plant was collected randomly within the lake for heavy metal determination. Water quality measurement was undertaken in situ for temperature, pH, conductivity and dissolved oksigen using portable multi sensor probe YSI model 556. The C. furcata was digested using wet digestion method and heavy metal concentrations were analysed using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) Perkin Elmer 4100B (flame method). Result of water quality classify Lake Chini between class II to class III using Malaysian Water Quality Standard. According to this standard, Lake Chini has moderate quality, which normal for natural lake. Heavy metal concentrations in C.furcata were low and found to be lower than the critical toxic value in aquatic plants. Oneway ANOVA test indicated the heavy metal concentrations in C.furcata were significantly differ between sampling location. Water quality and heavy metal concentrations indicates that Lake Chini was not receives anthropogenic load from nearby activities.

Keywords: Cabomba furcata, Heavy metal, Lake Chini, Waterquality

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1937

Authors: Farideh Sharififar, Zahra Jamalian, Reza Nikbakhsh, Zahra Nobakht Ramezani

Abstract:

In sport, human resources management gives special attention to method of applying volunteers, their maintenance, and participation of volunteers with each other and management approaches for better operation of events celebrants. The recognition of volunteers- characteristics and motives is important to notice, because it makes the basis of their participation and commitment at sport environment. The motivation and commitment of 281 volunteers were assessed using the organizational commitment scale, motivation scale and personal characteristics questionnaire.The descriptive results showed that; 64% of volunteers were women with age average 21/24 years old. They were physical education student, single (71/9%), without occupation (53%) and with average of 5 years sport experience. Their most important motivation was career factor and the most important commitment factor was normative factor. The results of examining the hypothesized showed that; age, sport experience and education are effective in the amount of volunteers- commitment. And the motive factors such as career, material, purposive and protective factors also have the power to predict the amount of sports volunteers- commitment value. Therefore it is recommended to provide possible opportunities for volunteers and carrying out appropriate instructional courses by events executive managers.

Keywords: Sport Volunteers, Motivation, Organizational Commitment, Sport Event

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2832

Authors: Srinivasa C. V., Bharath K. N.

Abstract:

Natural fibers are considered to have potential use as reinforcing agents in polymer composite materials because of their principal benefits: moderate strength and stiffness, low cost, and being an environmental friendly, degradable, and renewable material. A study has been carried out to evaluate impact properties of composites made by areca fibers reinforced urea formaldehyde, melamine urea formaldehyde and epoxy resins. The extracted areca fibers from the areca husk were alkali treated with potassium hydroxide (KOH) to obtain better interfacial bonding between fiber and matrix. Then composites were produced by means of compression molding technique with varying process parameters, such as fiber condition (untreated and alkali treated), and fiber loading percentages (50% and 60% by weight). The developed areca fiber reinforced composites were then characterized by impact test. The results show that, impact strength increase with increase in the loading percentage. It is observed that, treated areca fiber reinforcement increases impact strength when compared to untreated areca fiber reinforcement.

Keywords: Lignocellulosic Fibers Composites, Areca Fibers, Alkali Treatment, Impact Strength.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3783

Authors: Ramon Santana

Abstract:

The use of biometric identifiers in the field of information security, access control to resources, authentication in ATMs and banking among others, are of great concern because of the safety of biometric data. In the general architecture of a biometric system have been detected eight vulnerabilities, six of them allow obtaining minutiae template in plain text. The main consequence of obtaining minutia templates is the loss of biometric identifier for life. To mitigate these vulnerabilities several models to protect minutiae templates have been proposed. Several vulnerabilities in the cryptographic security of these models allow to obtain biometric data in plain text. In order to increase the cryptographic security and ease of reversibility, a minutiae templates protection model is proposed. The model aims to make the cryptographic protection and facilitate the reversibility of data using two levels of security. The first level of security is the data transformation level. In this level generates invariant data to rotation and translation, further transformation is irreversible. The second level of security is the evaluation level, where the encryption key is generated and data is evaluated using a defined evaluation function. The model is aimed at mitigating known vulnerabilities of the proposed models, basing its security on the impossibility of the polynomial reconstruction.

Keywords: Fingerprint, template protection, bio-cryptography, minutiae protection.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 842

Authors: I. Grigoratos, R. Monteiro

Abstract:

Regions with a significant percentage of non-seismically designed buildings and reduced urban planning are particularly vulnerable to natural hazards. In this context, the project ‘Improved Tools for Disaster Risk Mitigation in Algeria’ (ITERATE) aims at seismic risk mitigation in Algeria. Past earthquakes in North Algeria caused extensive damages, e.g. the El Asnam 1980 moment magnitude (Mw) 7.1 and Boumerdes 2003 Mw 6.8 earthquakes. This paper will address a number of proposed developments and considerations made towards a further improvement of the component of seismic hazard. In specific, an updated earthquake catalog (until year 2018) is compiled, and new conversion equations to moment magnitude are introduced. Furthermore, a network-based method for the estimation of the spatial and temporal distribution of the minimum magnitude of completeness is applied. We found relatively large values for M_c, due to the sparse network, and a nonlinear trend between M_w and body wave (m_b) or local magnitude (M_L), which are the most common scales reported in the region. Lastly, the resulting b-value of the Gutenberg-Richter distribution is sensitive to the declustering method.

Keywords: Conversion equation, magnitude of completeness, seismic events, seismic hazard.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 816

Authors: Ludovic Favre, Thibaut M. Schafer, Jean-Luc Robyr, Elena-Lavinia Niederhäuser

Abstract:

This paper presents an optimization method based on genetic algorithm for the energy management inside buildings developed in the frame of the project Smart Living Lab (SLL) in Fribourg (Switzerland). This algorithm optimizes the interaction between renewable energy production, storage systems and energy consumers. In comparison with standard algorithms, the innovative aspect of this project is the extension of the smart regulation over three simultaneous criteria: the energy self-consumption, the decrease of greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs. The genetic algorithm approach was chosen due to the large quantity of optimization variables and the non-linearity of the optimization function. The optimization process includes also real time data of the building as well as weather forecast and users habits. This information is used by a physical model of the building energy resources to predict the future energy production and needs, to select the best energetic strategy, to combine production or storage of energy in order to guarantee the demand of electrical and thermal energy. The principle of operation of the algorithm as well as typical output example of the algorithm is presented.

Keywords: Building’s energy, control system, energy management, modelling, genetic optimization algorithm, renewable energy, greenhouse gases, energy storage.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 792

Authors: Sallehan Ismail, Mahyuddin Ramli

Abstract:

This study examined the properties of fresh and hardened concretes as influenced by the moisture state of the coarse recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) after surface treatment. Surface treatment was performed by immersing the coarse RCA in a calcium metasilicate (CM) solution. The treated coarse RCA was maintained in three controlled moisture states, namely, air-dried, oven-dried, and saturated surface-dried (SSD), prior to its use in a concrete mix. The physical properties of coarse RCA were evaluated after surface treatment during the first phase of the experiment to determine the density and the water absorption characteristics of the RCA. The second phase involved the evaluation of the slump, slump loss, density, and compressive strength of the concretes that were prepared with different proportions of natural and treated coarse RCA. Controlling the moisture state of the coarse RCA after surface treatment was found to significantly influence the properties of the fresh and hardened concretes. 

Keywords: Moisture state, recycled concrete aggregate, surface treatment.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3245