Search results for: Activity relationship chart

Authors: Sanaa K. Bardaweel, Mohammad M. Hudaib, Khaled A. Tawaha, Rasha M. Bashatwah

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Eucalyptus species are well reputed for their traditional use in Asia as well as in other parts of the world; therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities associated with essential oils from different Eucalyptus species. Essential oils from the leaves of six Eucalyptus species, including: Eucalyptus woodwardi, Eucalyptus stricklandii, Eucalyptus salubris, Eucalyptus sargentii, Eucalyptus torquata and Eucalyptus wandoo were separated by hydrodistillation and dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate. DPPH, ferric reducing antioxidant power, and hydroxyl radical scavenging activity assays were carried out to evaluate the antioxidant potential of the oils. The results indicate that examined oils exhibit substantial antioxidant activities relative to ascorbic acid. Previously, these oils were evaluated for their antimicrobial activities, against wide range of bacterial and fungal strains, and they were shown to possess significant antimicrobial activities. In this study, further investigation into the growth kinetics of oil-treated microbial cultures was conducted. The results clearly demonstrate that the microbial growth was markedly inhibited when treated with sub-MIC concentrations of the oils. Taken together, the results obtained indicate a high potential of the examined essential oils as bioactive oils, for nutraceutical and medical applications, possessing significant antioxidant and anti microbial activities.

Keywords: Antimicrobial, antioxidants, essential (volatile) oil, Eucalyptus.

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Authors: Lamia Hammadi, Abdellah Ait Ouhman, Aomar Ibourk

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It is widely assumed that the case of Customs Supply Chain is classified as a complex system, due to not only the variety and large number of actors, but also their complex structural links, and the interactions between these actors, that’s why this system is subject to various types of Risks. The economic, political and social impacts of those risks are highly detrimental to countries, businesses and the public, for this reason, Risk management in the customs supply chain is becoming a crucial issue to ensure the sustainability, security and safety. The main characteristic of customs risk management approach is determining which goods and means of transport should be examined? To what extend? And where future compliance resources should be directed? The purposes of this article are, firstly to deal with the concept of customs supply chain, secondly present our risk management approach based on Cross Activity Based Costing (ABC) Method as an interactive tool to support decision making in customs risk management. Finally, analysis of case study of Moroccan customs to putting theory into practice and will thus draw together the various elements of a structured and efficient risk management approach.

Keywords: Cross ABC Method, Customs Supply Chain, Risk, Risk Management.

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Authors: Cheng-Chia Yang , Yi-Shun Wang , Sue-Ting Chang, Suh-Er Guo, Mei-Fen Huang

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Object: Review recent publications of patient safety culture to investigate the relationship between leadership behavior, safety culture, and safety performance in the healthcare industry. Method: This study is a cross-sectional study, 350 questionnaires were mailed to hospital workers with 195 valid responses obtained, and a 55.7% valid response rate. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out to test the factor structure and determine if the composite reliability was significant with a factor loading of >0.5, resulting in an acceptable model fit. Results: Through the analysis of One-way ANOVA, the results showed that physicians significantly have more negative patient safety culture perceptions and safety performance perceptions than non- physicians. Conclusions: The path analysis results show that leadership behavior affects safety culture and safety performance in the health care industry. Safety performance was affected and improved with contingency leadership and a positive patient safety organization culture. The study suggests improving safety performance by providing a well-managed system that includes: consideration of leadership, hospital worker training courses, and a solid safety reporting system.

Keywords: Leadership Behavior, Patient Safety, Safety Culture, Safety Performance

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Authors: Peng Yew Wong

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House prices in the Australian capital cities were at record levels subsequent to Global Financial Crisis (GFC) 2008 and many believed that foreign investors, especially the Chinese investors, were the main reason for the Australian capital cities’ house prices escalation. This research conducted an Australian cross border semi-structured interviews in Shanghai, China to uncover historical evidence and emerging trend supporting the existence of a significant relationship between overseas investors and residential housing markets performance in Australia subsequent to the GFC 2008. Some unique investment strategies of private investors from China which emphasised on non-capitalist factors such as early education were identified, alongside with some insights on the significant China government policies that have incentivised the cross border investments from China. It is believed that this understanding will assist policy makers to effectively manage the overheated Australian residential property market without compromising the steady flow of FREI.

Keywords: Australian housing market, residential property, foreign real estate investment, education, China investor.

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Authors: Yun Mi, Ko, Hye Jung, Joo

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This study develops a relation to explore the factors influencing management and technology capabilities in strategic alliances. Alliances between firms are recognizing increasingly popular as a vehicle to create and extract greater value from the market. Firm’s alliance can be described as the collaborative problem solving process to solve problems jointly. This study starts from research questions what factors of firm’s management and technology characteristics affect performance of firms which are formed alliances. In this study, we investigated the effect of strategic alliances on company performance. That is, we try to identify whether firms made an alliance with other organizations are differed by characteristics of management and technology. And we test that alliance type and alliance experiences moderate the relationship between firm’s capabilities and its performance. We employ problem-solving perspective and resource-based view perspective to shed light on this research questions. The empirical work is based on the Survey of Business Activities conducted from2006 to 2008 by Statistics Korea. We verify correlations between to point out that these results contribute new empirical evidence on the effect of strategic alliances on company performance.

Keywords: Problem solving process, strategic alliance.

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Authors: Rasha Salameh

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In light of the tense relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran, this research paper sheds some light on Saudi-owned television network, Al-Arabiya’s reporting of the Coronavirus in the Gulf region. Particularly because most of the cases in the beginning were coming from Iran, some programs of this Saudi channel embraced a conspiracy theory. Hate speech has been used in the talking and discussions about the topic. The results of these discussions will be detailed in this paper in percentages with regard to the research sample, which includes five programs on the Al-Arabiya channel: ‘DNA’, ‘Marraya’ (Mirrors), ‘Panorama’, ‘Tafaolcom’ (Your Interaction) and ‘Diplomatic Street’, in the period between January 19, that is, the date of the first case in Iran, and April 10, 2020. The research shows the use of a conspiracy theory in the programs, in addition to some professional violations. The surveyed sample also shows that the matter receded due to the Arab Gulf states' preoccupation with the successively increasing cases that have appeared there since the start of the pandemic. The results indicate that hate speech was present in the sample at a rate of 98.1%, and that most of the programs that dealt with the Iranian issue under the Coronavirus pandemic on Al Arabiya used the conspiracy theory at a rate of 75.5%.

Keywords: Al-Arabiya, Iran, COVID-19, hate speech, conspiracy theory, politicization of the pandemic

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Authors: Robert Grzeszczak, Magdalena Gniadzik

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The article deals with one of the most significant issues concerning the functioning of the internal market of the European Union – the free movement of workers and free movement of persons. The purpose is to identify the political and legal effects of the “renationalisation process” on the EU and its Member States. The concept of renationalisation is expressed through Member States’ aim to verify the relationship with the EU. The tendency is more visible in the public opinion of several MS’s of the ‘EU core’ and may be confirmed by the changes applied by the regulatory body. The thesis for the article is the return of renationalisation tendencies in the area of the Single Market, which is supported by, among others, an open criticism of the foundations of EU integration or considerations on withdrawal from the EU by some MS. This analysis will focus primarily on the effects that renationalisation may have on the free movement of persons. The free movement of persons is one of the key issues for the development of the European integration. It is still subject to theoretical reflections, new doubts and practical issues. The latest developments in politics, law and jurisprudence demonstrate the need to reflect on the attempts to redefine certain principles regarding migrant EU workers and their protection against nationality-based discrimination.

Keywords: European law, European Union, common market, free movement of workers, posting of workers, case law.

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Authors: Lara F. Horani

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Design is one of the most important stages in the process of product development. Product design has experienced significant changes over the years ranging from concentrating on cost and performance to combining economic, environmental and social considerations in customer requirements. Its evolution is in accordance with rapidly changing technology, economic situations, and climate change and environmental issues, as well as social context. Within product design, sustainability is a concept that balances economic, social and environmental aspects. This research aims to express changes in customer requirements over time from the viewpoint of sustainable design. It does so by systematically reviewing a broad scope of sustainable design literature. There is a need for a model to consider the changes that take place in customer requirements over time to build a successful relationship with customers which has been presented. Today’s literature does very little to even mention it, let alone present any progress in it. Systematic literature reviews are conducted primarily to: summarize the existing literature around a subject, highlight commonalities to build consensus, illuminate differences, identify gaps that can be filled, provide a background to position future research, and build a framework that can help designers meet the challenges of sustainable design.

Keywords: Sustainable design, customer requirements for sustainable design, changing customer requirements for sustainable design, systematic literature reviews.

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Authors: Wanwisa Kuncharin, Badaruddin Mohamed

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There have been few studies of cross-border shopping. However, many have focused on macroeconomic effects rather than on discovering the motivation and behaviour of cross-border shoppers who purchase abroad. Hatyai, Thailand is located about 30 km from the Malaysian border. The statistics reports that each year more than 400,000 Malaysian visitors visited Hatyai. The aims of this study are fourfold: (1) to investigate factors motivating cross-border shoppers to shop in Hatyai, Thailand; (2) to examine the relationship between ethnicity and shopper ethnocentrism; (3) to discover the impact of shopper ethnocentrism on foreign product judgment; and (4) to explore the impact of shopper ethnocentrism on the willingness to buy foreign products. The results reveal that the three most popular consumption items were food and beverages, clothing, and grocery products. Factor analysis shows that the three key reasons for choosing Hatyai as the cross-border shopping destination included product and store, close distance, and low exchange rate. Moreover, there were significant differences in ethnocentrism by three ethnic groups. Shopper ethnocentrism had a significant negative correlation with foreign product judgment, while shopper ethnocentrism was not significantly correlated with willingness to buy foreign products.

Keywords: Cross-border shopping behaviours, Malaysian shoppers, Ethnocentrism, Hatyai, Thailand.

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Authors: F. Abubaker, F. Tortorici, M. Capogni, C. Sutera, V. Bellini

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This project concerns with the detection efficiency of the portable Triple-to-Double Coincidence Ratio (TDCR) at the National Institute of Metrology of Ionizing Radiation (INMRI-ENEA) which allows direct activity measurement and radionuclide standardization for pure-beta emitter or pure electron capture radionuclides. The dependency of the simulated detection efficiency of the TDCR, by using Monte Carlo simulation Geant4 code, on the Birks factor (kB) and defocusing parameter has been examined especially for low energy beta-emitter radionuclides such as 3H and 14C, for which this dependency is relevant. The results achieved in this analysis can be used for selecting the best kB factor and the defocusing parameter for computing theoretical TDCR parameter value. The theoretical results were compared with the available ones, measured by the ENEA TDCR portable detector, for some pure-beta emitter radionuclides. This analysis allowed to improve the knowledge of the characteristics of the ENEA TDCR detector that can be used as a traveling instrument for in-situ measurements with particular benefits in many applications in the field of nuclear medicine and in the nuclear energy industry.

Keywords: Birks constant, defocusing parameter, GEANT4 code, TDCR parameter.

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Authors: Fares Laouacheria, Said Kechida, Moncef Chabi

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The objective of the study was based on the hydrological routing modelling for the continuous monitoring of the hydrological situation in the Moudjar river catchment, especially during floods with Hydrologic Engineering Center–Hydrologic Modelling Systems (HEC-HMS). The HEC-GeoHMS was used to transform data from geographic information system (GIS) to HEC-HMS for delineating and modelling the catchment river in order to estimate the runoff volume, which is used as inputs to the hydrological routing model. Two hydrological routing models were used, namely Muskingum and Muskingum routing models, for conducting this study. In this study, a comparison between the parameters of the Muskingum and Muskingum-Cunge routing models in HEC-HMS was used for modelling flood routing in the Moudjar river catchment and determining the relationship between these parameters and the physical characteristics of the river. The results indicate that the effects of input parameters such as the weighting factor "X" and travel time "K" on the output results are more significant, where the Muskingum routing model was more sensitive to input parameters than the Muskingum-Cunge routing model. This study can contribute to understand and improve the knowledge of the mechanisms of river floods, especially in ungauged river catchments.

Keywords: HEC-HMS, hydrological modelling, Muskingum routing model, Muskingum-Cunge routing model.

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Authors: M R Asadi, G Torkaman, M Hedayati

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We evaluated the effect of sensory (direct current (DC), 600μA) and motor (monophasic current, pulse duration 300μs, 100 Hz, 2.5-3mA) intensities of cathodal electrical stimulation (ES) current to release VEGF and biomechanical properties of wound. 54 male Sprague-dawley rats were randomly assigned into one control and two experimental groups. A full thickness skin incision was made on animals- dorsal region. The experimental groups received ES for 1h/day and every other day. VEGF expression was measured in skin on the 7th day after surgical incision and tensile strength was measured on 21st day. On the 7th day, the values of skin VEGF in the sensory group were significantly greater than those of the other groups (p < 0.05). Sensory and Motor intensity stimulation, can not improve the biomechanical properties of the repaired wounds. It seems the mechanical environment induced by sensory and motor intensity of electrical stimulation, could not simulate the role of normal daily stress and strain to maturation of collagen fibers and their cross links. Further work is needed to determine the relationship between VEGF expression after ES and its effect on tensile strength of healed wound.

Keywords: Biomechanical properties Direct current, Monophasic current, Skin, VEGF

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Authors: Hanita Daud, Noorhana Yahya, Vijanth Sagayan, Muizuddin Talib

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This paper discusses on the use of Spline Interpolation and Mean Square Error (MSE) as tools to process data acquired from the developed simulator that shall replicate sea bed logging environment. Sea bed logging (SBL) is a new technique that uses marine controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) sounding technique and is proven to be very successful in detecting and characterizing hydrocarbon reservoirs in deep water area by using resistivity contrasts. It uses very low frequency of 0.1Hz to 10 Hz to obtain greater wavelength. In this work the in house built simulator was used and was provided with predefined parameters and the transmitted frequency was varied for sediment thickness of 1000m to 4000m for environment with and without hydrocarbon. From series of simulations, synthetics data were generated. These data were interpolated using Spline interpolation technique (degree of three) and mean square error (MSE) were calculated between original data and interpolated data. Comparisons were made by studying the trends and relationship between frequency and sediment thickness based on the MSE calculated. It was found that the MSE was on increasing trends in the set up that has the presence of hydrocarbon in the setting than the one without. The MSE was also on decreasing trends as sediment thickness was increased and with higher transmitted frequency.

Keywords: Spline Interpolation, Mean Square Error, Sea Bed Logging, Controlled Source Electromagnetic

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Authors: Munir Majdalawieh, Adam Marks

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In today’s very competitive higher education industry (HEI), HEIs are faced with the primary concern of developing, deploying, and sustaining high quality academic programs. Today, the HEI has well-established accreditation systems endorsed by a country’s legislation and institutions. The accreditation system is an educational pathway focused on the criteria and processes for evaluating educational programs. Although many aspects of the accreditation process highlight both the past and the present (prove), the “program review” assessment is "forward-looking assessment" (improve) and thus transforms the process into a continuing assessment activity rather than a periodic event. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual measurement framework for program review to be used by HEIs to undertake a robust and targeted approach to proactively and continuously review their academic programs to evaluate its practicality and effectiveness as well as to improve the education of the students. The proposed framework consists of two main components: program review principles and the program review measurement matrix.

Keywords: Academic program, program review principles, curriculum development, accreditation, evaluation, assessment, review measurement matrix, program review process, information technologies supporting learning, learning/teaching methodologies and assessment.

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Authors: Hari Shankar, Kshitij Raj, Priya Keshari, Pragya Singh

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Headache is one of the most ubiquitous and frequent neurological disorders interfering with everyday life in all countries. India appears to be no exception. Objectives are to assess the prevalence of headache among adult population in urban area of Varanasi and to find out factors influencing the occurrence of headache. A community based cross sectional study was conducted among adult population in urban area of Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Total 151 eligible respondents were interviewed by simple random sampling technique. Proportion percentage and Chisquare test were applied for data analysis. Out of 151 respondents, majority (58.3%) were females. In this study, 92.8% respondents belonged to age group 18-60 years while 7.2% was either 60 year of age or above. The overall prevalence of headache was found to be 51.1%. Highest and lowest prevalence of headache was recorded in age groups 18-29 year & 40-49 year respectively. Headache was 62.1% in illiterate and was 40.0% among graduate & above. Unskilled workers had more headache 73.1% than other type of occupation. Headache was more prevalent among unemployed (35.9%) than employed (6.4%). Females had higher family history of headache (48.9%) as compared to males (41.3%). Study subjects having peaceful relation with family members, relatives and neighbors had more headache than those having no peaceful relation.  

Keywords: Family relationship, headache, neighbors, ration cards.

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Authors: A. Grilec, S. Petrak, M. Mahnic Naglic

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Technological development and the globalization in production and sales of clothing in the last decade have significantly influenced the changes in consumer relationship with the industrial-fashioned apparel and in the way of clothing purchasing. The Internet sale of clothing is in a constant and significant increase in the global market, but the possibilities offered by modern computing technologies in the customization segment are not yet fully involved, especially according to the individual customer requirements and body sizes. Considering the growing trend of online shopping, the main goal of this paper is to investigate the differences in customer perceptions towards online apparel shopping and particularly to discover the main differences in perceptions between customers regarding three different body sizes. In order to complete the research goal, the quantitative study on the sample of 85 Croatian consumers was conducted in 2017 in Zagreb, Croatia. Respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement according to a five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). To analyze attitudes of respondents, simple and descriptive statistics were used. The main findings highlight the differences in respondent perception of 3D body scanning, using 3D body scanning in Internet shopping, online apparel shopping habits regarding their body sizes.

Keywords: Consumer behavior, online shopping, 3D body scanning.

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Authors: M. Tohidi, J. Yang, C. Baniotopoulos

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Progressive collapse of buildings typically occurs  when abnormal loading conditions cause local damages, which leads  to a chain reaction of failure and ultimately catastrophic collapse. The  tie force (TF) method is one of the main design approaches for  progressive collapse. As the TF method is a simplified method, further  investigations on the reliability of the method is necessary. This study  aims to develop an improved TF method to design the cross wall  structures for progressive collapse. To this end, the pullout behavior of  strands in grout was firstly analyzed; and then, by considering the tie  force-slip relationship in the friction stage together with the catenary  action mechanism, a comprehensive analytical method was developed.  The reliability of this approach is verified by the experimental results  of concrete block pullout tests and full scale floor-to-floor joints tests  undertaken by Portland Cement Association (PCA). Discrepancies in  the tie force between the analytical results and codified specifications  have suggested the deficiency of TF method, hence an improved  model based on the analytical results has been proposed to address this  concern.

 

Keywords: Cross wall, progressive collapse, ties force method, catenary, analytical.

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Authors: Paula M. R. Correia, Marta Gonzaga, Luis M. Batista, Luísa Beirão-Costa, Raquel F. P. Guiné

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The purpose of the present work was to develop an innovative food product with good textural and sensorial characteristics. The product, a new type of bread, was prepared with wheat (90%) and lupin (10%) flours, without the addition of any conservatives. Several experiences were also done to find the most appropriate proportion of lupin flour. The optimized product was characterized considering the rheological, physical-chemical and sensorial properties. The water absorption of wheat flour with 10% of lupin was higher than that of the normal wheat flours, and Wheat Ceres flour presented the lower value, with lower dough development time and high stability time. The breads presented low moisture but a considerable water activity. The density of bread decreased with the introduction of lupin flour. The breads were quite white, and during storage the colour parameters decreased. The lupin flour clearly increased the number of alveolus, but the total area increased significantly just for the Wheat Cerealis bread. The addition of lupin flour increased the hardness and chewiness of breads, but the elasticity did not vary significantly. Lupin bread was sensorially similar to wheat bread produced with WCerealis flour, and the main differences are the crust rugosity, colour and alveolus characteristics.

Keywords: Lupin flour, physical-chemical properties, sensorial analysis, wheat flour.

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Authors: Fauzi Jarushi, S. AlKaabim, Paul Cosentino

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The Standard Penetration Test (SPT) is the most common in situ test for soil investigations. On the other hand, the Cone Penetration Test (CPT) is considered one of the best investigation tools. Due to the fast and accurate results that can be obtained it complaints the SPT in many applications like field explorations, design parameters, and quality control assessments. Many soil index and engineering properties have been correlated to both of SPT and CPT. Various foundation design methods were developed based on the outcome of these tests. Therefore it is vital to correlate these tests to each other so that either one of the tests can be used in the absence of the other, especially for preliminary evaluation and design purposes. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the SPT and CPT for different type of sandy soils in Florida. Data for this research were collected from number of projects sponsored by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), six sites served as the subject of SPT-CPT correlations. The correlations were established between the cone resistance (qc), sleeve friction (fs) and the uncorrected SPT blow counts (N) for various soils. A positive linear relationship was found between qc, fs and N for various sandy soils. In general, qc versus N showed higher correlation coefficients than fs versus N. qc/N ratios were developed for different soil types and compared to literature values, the results of this research revealed higher ratios than literature values.

Keywords: In situ tests, Correlation, SPT, CPT.

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Authors: R. Berglund, T. Backström, M. Bellgran

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This study explores how management addresses psychosocial risks in seven teams of engineers and technicians in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution. The sample is from an ongoing quasi-experiment about psychosocial risk management in a manufacturing company in Sweden. Each of the seven teams belongs to one of two clusters: a positive cluster or a negative cluster. The positive cluster reports a significantly positive change in psychosocial risk levels between two time-points and the negative cluster reports a significantly negative change. The data are collected using semi-structured interviews. The results of the computer aided thematic analysis show that there are more differences than similarities when comparing the risk treatment actions taken between the two clusters. Findings show that the managers in the positive cluster use more enabling actions that foster and support formal and informal relationship building. In contrast, managers that use less enabling actions hinder the development of positive group processes and contribute negative changes in psychosocial risk levels. This exploratory study sheds some light on how management can influence significant positive and negative changes in psychosocial risk levels during a risk management process.

Keywords: Group process model, risk treatment, risk management, psychosocial.

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Authors: Jane O. Munonye

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Climate change has both negative and positive effects in agricultural production. For agriculture to be sustainable in adverse climate change condition, some natural measures are needed. The issue is to produce more food with available natural resources and reduce the contribution of agriculture to climate change. The study reviewed climate change and sustainable agriculture in southeast Nigeria. Data from the study were from secondary sources. Ten scientific papers were consulted and data for the review were collected from three. The objectives of the paper were as follows: to review the effect of climate change on one major arable crop in southeast Nigeria (yam; Dioscorea rotundata); evident of climate change impact and methods for sustainable agricultural production in adverse weather condition. Some climatic parameter as sunshine, relative humidity and rainfall have negative relationship with yam production and significant at 10% probability. Crop production was predicted to decline by 25% per hectare by 2060 while livestock production has increased the incidence of diseases and pathogens as the major effect to agriculture. Methods for sustainable agriculture and damage of natural resources by climate change were highlighted. Agriculture needs to be transformed as climate changes to enable the sector to be sustainable. There should be a policy in place to facilitate the integration of sustainability in Nigeria agriculture.

Keywords: Agriculture, climate change, sustainability, yam.

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Authors: Yang Zhong, Mei-jie Xu

Abstract:

To study the dynamic mechanics response of asphalt pavement under the temperature load and vehicle loading, asphalt pavement was regarded as multilayered elastic half-space system, and theory analysis was conducted by regarding dynamic modulus of asphalt mixture as the parameter. Firstly, based on the dynamic modulus test of asphalt mixture, function relationship between the dynamic modulus of representative asphalt mixture and temperature was obtained. In addition, the analytical solution for thermal stress in single layer was derived by using Laplace integral transformation and Hankel integral transformation respectively by using thermal equations of equilibrium. The analytical solution of calculation model of thermal stress in asphalt pavement was derived by transfer matrix of thermal stress in multilayer elastic system. Finally, the variation of thermal stress in pavement structure was analyzed. The result shows that there is obvious difference between the thermal stress based on dynamic modulus and the solution based on static modulus. So the dynamic change of parameter in asphalt mixture should be taken into consideration when theoretical analysis is taken out.

Keywords: Asphalt pavement, dynamic modulus, integral transformation, transfer matrix, thermal stress.

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Authors: Oladele K. Ogunsola, Kazeem A. Osuolale, Akintayo O. Ojo

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Many factors influence the educational outcome of students. Some of these have been studied by researchers with many emphasizing the role of students, schools, governments, peer groups and so on. More often than not, some of these factors influencing the academic achievement of the students have been traced back to parents and family; being the primary platform on which learning not only begins but is nurtured, encouraged and developed which later transforms to the performance of the students. This study not only explores parental and related factors that predict academic achievement through the review of relevant literatures but also, investigates the influence of parental background on the academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Ibadan North Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. As one of the criteria of the quality of education, students’ academic achievement was investigated because it is most often cited as an indicator of school effectiveness by school authorities and educationists. The data collection was done through interviews and use of well-structured questionnaires administered to one hundred students (100) within the target local government. This was statistically analysed and the result showed that parents’ attitudes towards their children’s education had significant effect(s) on students’ self-reporting of academic achievement. However, such factors as parental education and socioeconomic background had no significant relationship with the students’ self-reporting of academic achievement.

Keywords: Academic attainment, Parental factors, students, Oyo State, Nigeria.

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Authors: Ahyoung Jeon, Geunchul Park, Jung-Hoon Ro, Gye-rok Geon

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Falls are the primary cause of accidents in people over the age of 65, and frequently lead to serious injuries. Since the early detection of falls is an important step to alert and protect the aging population, a variety of research on detecting falls was carried out including the use of accelerators, gyroscopes and tilt sensors. In exiting studies, falls were detected using an accelerometer with errors. In this study, the proposed method for detecting falls was to use two accelerometers to reject wrong falls detection. As falls are accompanied by the acceleration of gravity and rotational motion, the falls in this study were detected by using the z-axial acceleration differences between two sites. The falls were detected by calculating the difference between the analyses of accelerometers placed on two different positions on the chest of the subject. The parameters of the maximum difference of accelerations (diff_Z) and the integration of accelerations in a defined region (Sum_diff_Z) were used to form the fall detection algorithm. The falls and the activities of daily living (ADL) could be distinguished by using the proposed parameters without errors in spite of the impact and the change in the positions of the accelerometers. By comparing each of the axial accelerations, the directions of falls and the condition of the subject afterwards could be determined.In this study, by using two accelerometers without errors attached to two sites to detect falls, the usefulness of the proposed fall detection algorithm parameters, diff_Z and Sum_diff_Z, were confirmed.

Keywords: Tri-axial accelerometer, fall detection.

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Authors: H. Nejadriahi

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A growing demand for sustainability makes sustainability as one of the significant debates of nowadays. Energy saving is one of the main criteria to be considered in the context of sustainability. Reducing energy use in buildings is one of the most important ways to reduce humans’ overall environmental impact. Taking this into consideration, study of different design strategies, which can assist in reducing energy use and subsequently improving the sustainability level of today's buildings would be an essential task. The sustainability level of a building is highly affected by the sustainability performance of its components. One of the main building components, which can have a great impact on energy saving and sustainability level of the building, is its facade. The aim of this study is to investigate on the role of facade in sustainability enhancement of the contemporary buildings of Iran. In this study, the concept of sustainability in architecture, the building facades, and their relationship to sustainability are explained briefly. Following that, a number of contemporary Iranian buildings are discussed and analyzed in terms of different design strategies used in their facades in accordance to the sustainability concepts. The methods used in this study are descriptive and analytic. The results of this paper would assist in generating a wider vision and a source of inspiration for the current designers to design and create environmental and sustainable buildings for the future.

Keywords: Building facade, contemporary buildings, Iran, sustainability.

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Authors: H. L. Ku, K. C. Yang, S. Y. Jhou, S. C. Lee, C. S. Lin

Abstract:

Characterized as rich mineral substances, low temperature, few bacteria, and stability with numerous implementation aspects on aquaculture, food, drinking, and leisure, the deep sea water (DSW) development has become a new industry in the world. It has been report that marine algae contain various biologically active compounds. This research focued on the affections in cultivating Sagrassum cristaefolium with different concentration of deep sea water(DSW) and surface sea water(SSW). After two and four weeks, the total phenolic contents were compared in Sagrassum cristaefolium culturing with different ways, and the reductive activity of them was also be tried with potassium ferricyanide. Those fresh seaweeds were dried with oven and were ground to powder. Progressively, the marine algae we cultured was extracted by water under the condition with heating them at 90Ôäâ for 1hr.The total phenolic contents were be executed using Folin–Ciocalteu method. The results were explaining as follows: the highest total phenolic contents and the best reductive ability of all could be observed on the 1/4 proportion of DSW to SSW culturing in two weeks. Furthermore, the 1/2 proportion of DSW to SSW also showed good reductive ability and plentiful phenolic compositions. Finally, we confirmed that difference proportion of DSW and SSW is the major point relating to ether the total phenolic components or the reductive ability in the Sagrassum cristaefolium. In the future, we will use this way to mass production the marine algae or other micro algae on industry applications.

Keywords: deep sea water(DSW), surface sea water(SSW), phenolic contents, reductive ability.

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Authors: Vichada Chokesikarin

Abstract:

The study aims to determine which factors account for customer satisfaction and to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business success, in particular, context of the information understanding of hostel business in Pranakorn district, Bangkok and the significant element of entrepreneurship in tourism industry. This study covers 352 hostels customers and 61 hostel owners/managers nearby Khao San road. Data collection methods were used by survey questionnaire and a series of hypotheses were developed from services marketing literature. The findings suggest the customer satisfaction most influenced by image, service quality, room quality and price accordingly. Furthermore the findings revealed that significant relationships exist between entrepreneurial orientation and business success; while competitive aggressiveness was found unrelated. The ECSI model’s generic measuring customer satisfaction was found partially mediate the business success. A reconsideration of other variables applicable should be supported with the model of hostel business. The study provides context and overall view of hostel business while discussing from the entrepreneurial orientation to customer satisfaction, thereby reducing decision risk on hostel investment.

Keywords: Customer satisfaction, ECSI Model, entrepreneurial orientation, small hotels, hostel, business performance.

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Authors: S. Shahsavani, A. Gholami

Abstract:

In order to evaluate the relationship between the sulphur (S), glucose (G), nitrogen (N) and plant residues (st), sulphur immobilization and microbial transformation were monitored in five soil samples from 0-30 cm of Bastam farmers fields of Shahrood area following 11 treatments with different levels of Sulphur (S), glucose (G), N and plant residues (wheat straw) in a randomized block design with three replications and incubated over 20, 45 and 60 days, the immobilization of SO4 -2-S presented as a percentage of that added, was inversely related to its addition rate. Additions of glucose and plant residues increased with the C-to-S ratio of the added amendments, irrespective of their origins (glucose and plant residues). In the presence of C sources (glucose or plant residues). N significantly increased the immobilization of SO4 -2-S, whilst the effect of N was insignificant in the absence of a C amendment. In first few days the amounts of added SO4 -2-S immobilized were linearly correlated with the amounts of added S recovered in the soil microbial biomass. With further incubation the proportions of immobilized SO4 -2-S remaining as biomass-S decreased. Decrease in biomass-S was thought to be due to the conversion of biomass-S into soil organic-S. Glucose addition increased the immobilization (microbial utilization and incorporation into the soil organic matter) of native soil SO4 -2-S. However, N addition enhance the mineralization of soil organic-S, increasing the concentration of SO4 - 2-S in soil.

Keywords: Immobilization, microbial biomass, sulphur, nitrogen, glucose.

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Authors: Vijayalakshmy Periaswamy S., Kevin McDaid

Abstract:

Testing accounts for the major percentage of technical contribution in the software development process. Typically, it consumes more than 50 percent of the total cost of developing a piece of software. The selection of software tests is a very important activity within this process to ensure the software reliability requirements are met. Generally tests are run to achieve maximum coverage of the software code and very little attention is given to the achieved reliability of the software. Using an existing methodology, this paper describes how to use Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) to select unit tests based on their contribution to the reliability of the module under consideration. In particular the work examines how the approach can enhance test-first development by assessing the quality of test suites resulting from this development methodology and providing insight into additional tests that can significantly reduce the achieved reliability. In this way the method can produce an optimal selection of inputs and the order in which the tests are executed to maximize the software reliability. To illustrate this approach, a belief network is constructed for a modern software system incorporating the expert opinion, expressed through probabilities of the relative quality of the elements of the software, and the potential effectiveness of the software tests. The steps involved in constructing the Bayesian Network are explained as is a method to allow for the test suite resulting from test-driven development.

Keywords: Software testing, Test Driven Development, Bayesian Belief Networks.

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Authors: Sarantos Psycharis

Abstract:

Physical Computing, as an instructional model, is applied in the framework of the Engineering Pedagogy to teach “transversal/cross-cutting ideas” in a STEM content approach. Labview and Arduino were used in order to connect the physical world with real data in the framework of the so called Computational Experiment. Tertiary prospective engineering educators were engaged during their course and Computational Thinking (CT) concepts were registered before and after the intervention across didactic activities using validated questionnaires for the relationship between self-efficacy, computer programming, and CT concepts when STEM content epistemology is implemented in alignment with the Computational Pedagogy model. Results show a significant change in students’ responses for self-efficacy for CT before and after the instruction. Results also indicate a significant relation between the responses in the different CT concepts/practices. According to the findings, STEM content epistemology combined with Physical Computing should be a good candidate as a learning and teaching approach in university settings that enhances students’ engagement in CT concepts/practices.

Keywords: STEM, computational thinking, physical computing, Arduino, Labview, self-efficacy.

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