Search results for: Environmental impact assessment.

Authors: Hironobu Murayama, Shohei Shimizu, Masakazu Ohnuki, Hisanori Mihara, Tohru Kanada

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Disordered function of maniphalanx and difficulty with ambulation will occur insofar as a human has a failure in the spinal marrow. Cervical spondylotic myelopathy as one of the myelopathy emanates from not only external factors but also increased age. In addition, the diacrisis is difficult since cervical spondylotic myelopathy is evaluated by a doctor-s neurological remark and imaging findings. As a quantitative method for measuring the degree of disability, hand-operated triangle step test (for short, TST) has formulated. In this research, a full automatic triangle step counter apparatus is designed and developed to measure the degree of disability in an accurate fashion according to the principle of TST. The step counter apparatus whose shape is a low triangle pole displays the number of stepping upon each corner. Furthermore, the apparatus has two modes of operation. Namely, one is for measuring the degree of disability and the other for rehabilitation exercise. In terms of usefulness, clinical practice should be executed before too long.

Keywords: Cervical spondylotic myelopathy, disorder of lower limbs, measuringfunction, rehabilitation function, full automatic apparatus, triangle step test.

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Authors: Sajad Farokhi, Siti Mariyam Shamsuddin, Jan Flusser, Usman Ullah Sheikh

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Although face recognition seems as an easy task for human, automatic face recognition is a much more challenging task due to variations in time, illumination and pose. In this paper, the influence of time-lapse on visible and thermal images is examined. Orthogonal moment invariants are used as a feature extractor to analyze the effect of time-lapse on thermal and visible images and the results are compared with conventional Principal Component Analysis (PCA). A new triangle square ratio criterion is employed instead of Euclidean distance to enhance the performance of nearest neighbor classifier. The results of this study indicate that the ideal feature vectors can be represented with high discrimination power due to the global characteristic of orthogonal moment invariants. Moreover, the effect of time-lapse has been decreasing and enhancing the accuracy of face recognition considerably in comparison with PCA. Furthermore, our experimental results based on moment invariant and triangle square ratio criterion show that the proposed approach achieves on average 13.6% higher in recognition rate than PCA.

Keywords: Infrared Face recognition, Time-lapse, Zernike moment invariants

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Authors: M. Ilyas, M. W. Siddiqi

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This study employs auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds approach to cointegration for long run and errorcorrection modeling (ECM) for short run analysis to examine the relationship between revenue gap and economic growth for Pakistan using annual time series data over the period 1980 to 2008. The short and long run results indicate that revenue gap is statistical significant and negatively effect economic growth. The significant and negative coefficient of error correction term in ECM indicates that after a shock, the long rum equilibrium will again converge towards equilibrium about 10.406 percent within a year.

Keywords: ARDL cointegration, Economic Growth, RevenueGap, Pakistan.

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Authors: S. Rezaei, Z. Mirzaei, M. Khalighi, J. Bahrami

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Bridges, as an essential part of road infrastructures, are affected by various deterioration mechanisms over time due to the changes in their performance. As changes in performance can have many negative impacts on society, it is essential to be able to evaluate and measure the performance of bridges throughout their life. This evaluation includes the development or the choice of the appropriate performance indicators, which, in turn, are measured based on the selection of appropriate models for the existing deterioration mechanism. The purpose of this article is a statistical study of indicators and deterioration mechanisms of bridges in order to discover further research capacities in bridges performance assessment. For this purpose, some of the most common indicators of bridge performance, including reliability, risk, vulnerability, robustness, and resilience, were selected. The researches performed on each index based on the desired deterioration mechanisms and hazards were comprehensively reviewed. In addition, the formulation of the indicators and their relationship with each other were studied. The research conducted on the mentioned indicators were classified from the point of view of deterministic or probabilistic method, the level of study (element level, object level, etc.), and the type of hazard and the deterioration mechanism of interest. For each of the indicators, a number of challenges and recommendations were presented according to the review of previous studies.

Keywords: Bridge, deterioration mechanism, lifecycle, performance indicator.

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Authors: A. El Behiry, R. N. Zahran, R. Tarabees, E. Marzouk, M. Al-Dubaib

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Mastitis is one of the most economic disease affecting dairy cows worldwide. Its classic diagnosis using bacterial culture and biochemical findings is a difficult and prolonged method. In this research, using of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) permitted identification of different microorganisms with high accuracy and rapidity (only 24 hours for microbial growth and analysis). During the application of MALDI-TOF MS, one hundred twenty strains of Staphylococcus and Streptococcus species isolated from milk of cows affected by clinical and subclinical mastitis were identified, and the results were compared with those obtained by traditional methods as API and VITEK 2 Systems. 37 of totality 39 strains (~95%) of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were exactly detected by MALDI TOF MS and then confirmed by a nuc-based PCR technique, whereas accurate identification was observed in 100% (50 isolates) of the coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) and Streptococcus agalactiae (31 isolates). In brief, our results demonstrated that MALDI-TOF MS is a fast and truthful technique which has the capability to replace conventional identification of several bacterial strains usually isolated in clinical laboratories of microbiology.

Keywords: Identification, mastitis pathogens, mass spectral, phenotypical.

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Authors: Jose A. Romero-Navarrete, Frank Otremba, Gerardo Hurtado-Hurtado

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Turning maneuvers originate higher forces exerted on the rail and the loss of locomotive energy, at a rate that is function of several parameters that influence the magnitude of the developed horizontal wheel-rail forces, including the friction at the centre plate and the bogie´s yaw stiffness. However, such a friction at the contact surfaces of the centre plate is needed to mitigate the hunting phenomenon when the train moves on straight track segments. In this paper, a self-centering centre plate is proposed, consisting of a lubricated centre plate, equipped with a spring- and damper-based self-centering mechanism. Simulation results of the proposed mechanism suggest that the energy performance in turns of a train car equipped with such self-centering centre plate is comparatively better, as the peak friction forces linked to the dry friction at the contact surfaces of current centre plate designs, are avoided. The assessment of the hunting performance of the proposed device in straight track segments is proposed as the continuation of this work.

Keywords: Bogie´s yaw stiffness, bogie´s yaw friction, centre plate, self-centering mechanism, turning.

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Authors: Mohammad Mahdi Jabbari, Fardin Boustani

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The reservoir of Kowsar dam supply water for different usages such as aquaculture farms , drinking, agricultural and industrial usages for some provinces in south of Iran. The Kowsar dam is located next to the city of Dehdashat in Kohgiluye and Boyerahmad province in southern Iran. There are some towns and villages on the Kowsar dam watersheds, which Dehdasht and Choram are the most important and populated twons in this area, which can to be sources of pollution for water reservoir of the Kowsar dam . This study was done to determine of water pollution of the Kowsar dam reservoir which is one of the most important water resources of Kohkiloye and Boyerahmad and Bushehr provinces in south-west Iran. In this study , water samples during 12 months were collected to examine Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Dissolved Oxygen(DO) as a criterion for evaluation of water pollution of the reservoir. In summary ,the study has shown Maximum, average and minimum levels of BOD have observed 25.9 ,9.15 and 2.3 mg/L respectively and statistical parameters of data such as standard deviation , variance and skewness have calculated 7.88, 62 and 1.54 respectively. Finally the results were compared with Iranian national standards. Among the analyzed samples, as the maximum value of BOD (25.9 mg/L) was observed at the May 2010 , was within the maximum admissible limits by the Iranian standards.

Keywords: Kowsar dam, Biochemical Oxygen Demand, water pollution

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Authors: Raju Kaduru, Narsaiah Srinivas Gondlala

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This paper presents an analytical approach for evaluating distribution system reliability indices in the presence of distributed generation. Modeling distributed generation and evaluation of distribution system reliability indices using the frequency duration technique. Using model implements and case studies are discussed. Results showed that location of DG and its effect in distribution reliability indices. In this respect, impact of DG on distribution system is investigated using the IEEE Roy Billinton test system (RBTS2) included feeder 1. Therefore, it will help to the distribution system planners in the DG resource placement.

Keywords: Distributed Generation, DG Location, Distribution System, Reliability Indices.

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Authors: Ashiquer Rahman

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The paper focuses on the significance of the university's sustainability strategic plan and emphasizes the usefulness of the collaborative platform-based deliberation matrix. It will equip the university's leadership to handle impending tactics and challenges with the sustainability of the university’s strategic plan. The study addresses the significance of a set of reference points that will precede operational activities for multi-stakeholder multi-criteria evaluation on the optimal standards of Sustainable University, as well as potential action for the strategic blueprint of Sustainable University. It makes reference to the university’s sustainability strategy plan’s effectiveness through a collaborative platform and deliberation matrix. The paper outlines the conceptual framing of a sustainable university by implementing a strategic plan over the collaborative platform and deliberation matrix. Optimistically, these will be a milestone in higher education; a pathway to prepare for the University’s upcoming implementation of its sustainability strategy. In fact, the collaborative platform and deliberation matrix both are enhancement needles for institutional cooperation to the completive world.

Keywords: Sustainable strategies, institutional cooperation, multi-stakeholder multi-criteria assessment, collaborative platform, innovative method and tools.

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Authors: Yuri Nikitin, Veronika Rukas

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Within the framework of the FP7 project "START" the cooperation with European research centres has had a positive impact on raising the level of innovation researches and the introduction of innovations Institute for Superhard Materials of the National Academy of Sciences (ISM NAS) of Ukraine in the economy of Europe and Ukraine, which in turn permits to speeds up the way for Ukrainian science to the European research area through the creation in Ukraine the scientific organizations of innovative type.

Keywords: Programs of the EU, innovative scientific results, innovation competence of the staff, commercialization in business of industry of the Europe and Ukraine.

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Authors: Marzieh Ebrahimi, Vahid Changizi, Mohammad Reza Kardan, Seyed Mahdi Hosseini Pooya, Parham Geramifar

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Radiation exposure to the patient's family members is one of the major concerns during thyroid cancer radionuclide therapy. The aim of this study was to measure the total effective dose of the family members by means of thermoluminescence personal dosimeter, and compare with those calculated by analytical methods. Eighty-five adult family members of fifty-one patients volunteered to participate in this research study. Considering the minimum and maximum range of dose rate from 15 µsv/h to 120 µsv/h at patients' release time, the calculated mean and median dose values of family members were 0.45 mSv and 0.28 mSv, respectively. Moreover, almost all family members’ doses were measured to be less than the dose constraint of 5 mSv recommended by Basic Safety Standards. Considering the influence parameters such as patient dose rate and administrated activity, the total effective doses of family members were calculated by TEDE and NRC formulas and compared with those of experimental results. The results indicated that, it is fruitful to use the quantitative calculations for releasing patients treated with I-131 and correct estimation of patients' family doses.

Keywords: Effective dose, thermoluminescence, I-131, Thyroid cancer.

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Authors: S. E. Oraby, A.M. Alaskari

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The stochastic nature of tool life using conventional discrete-wear data from experimental tests usually exists due to many individual and interacting parameters. It is a common practice in batch production to continually use the same tool to machine different parts, using disparate machining parameters. In such an environment, the optimal points at which tools have to be changed, while achieving minimum production cost and maximum production rate within the surface roughness specifications, have not been adequately studied. In the current study, two relevant aspects are investigated using coated and uncoated inserts in turning operations: (i) the accuracy of using machinability information, from fixed parameters testing procedures, when variable parameters situations are emerged, and (ii) the credibility of tool life machinability data from prior discrete testing procedures in a non-stop machining. A novel technique is proposed and verified to normalize the conventional fixed parameters machinability data to suit the cases when parameters have to be changed for the same tool. Also, an experimental investigation has been established to evaluate the error in the tool life assessment when machinability from discrete testing procedures is employed in uninterrupted practical machining.

Keywords: Machinability, tool life, tool wear, wear variability

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Authors: M. Al-Jepoori, D. Bennett

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Teaching Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) as part of a Computing-related university degree is a very difficult task; the road to ensuring that students are actually learning object oriented concepts is unclear, as students often find it difficult to understand the concept of objects and their behavior. This problem is especially obvious in advanced programming modules where Design Pattern and advanced programming features such as Multi-threading and animated GUI are introduced. Looking at the students’ performance at their final year on a university course, it was obvious that the level of students’ understanding of OOP varies to a high degree from one student to another. Students who aim at the production of Games do very well in the advanced programming module. However, the students’ assessment results of the last few years were relatively low; for example, in 2016-2017, the first quartile of marks were as low as 24.5 and the third quartile was 63.5. It is obvious that many students were not confident or competent enough in their programming skills. In this paper, the reasons behind poor performance in Advanced OOP modules are investigated, and a suggested practice for teaching OOP based on a complex case study is described and evaluated.

Keywords: Complex programming case study, design pattern, learning advanced programming, object oriented programming.

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Authors: Kamalendu Pal

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This paper describes the main features of a knowledge-based system evaluation method. System evaluation is placed in the context of a hybrid legal decision-support system, Advisory Support for Home Settlement in Divorce (ASHSD). Legal knowledge for ASHSD is represented in two forms, as rules and previously decided cases. Besides distinguishing the two different forms of knowledge representation, the paper outlines the actual use of these forms in a computational framework that is designed to generate a plausible solution for a given case, by using rule-based reasoning (RBR) and case-based reasoning (CBR) in an integrated environment. The nature of suitability assessment of a solution has been considered as a multiple criteria decision-making process in ASHAD evaluation. The evaluation was performed by a combination of discussions and questionnaires with different user groups. The answers to questionnaires used in this evaluations method have been measured as a fuzzy linguistic term. The finding suggests that fuzzy linguistic evaluation is practical and meaningful in knowledge-based system development purpose. 

Keywords: Case-based reasoning, decision-support system, fuzzy linguistic term, rule-based reasoning, system evaluation.

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Authors: Martina Kanciruk, Jac W. Andrews, Tyrone Donnon

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The purpose of this study was to determine the significance of maternal smoking for the development of childhood overweight and/or obesity. Accordingly, a systematic literature review of English-language studies published from 1980 to 2012 using the following data bases: MEDLINE, PsychINFO, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Dissertation Abstracts International was conducted. The following terms were used in the search: pregnancy, overweight, obesity, smoking, parents, childhood, risk factors. Eighteen studies of maternal smoking during pregnancy and obesity conducted in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America met the inclusion criteria. A meta-analysis of these studies indicated that maternal smoking during pregnancy is a significant risk factor for overweight and obesity; mothers who smoke during pregnancy are at a greater risk for developing obesity or overweight; the quantity of cigarettes consumed by the mother during pregnancy influenced the odds of offspring overweight and/or obesity. In addition, the results from moderator analyses suggest that part of the heterogeneity discovered between the studies can be explained by the region of world that the study occurred in and the age of the child at the time of weight assessment.

Keywords: Childhood obesity, overweight, smoking, parents, risk factors.

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Authors: Nadeem Akhtar, Shan Bo

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This article illustrates that how non similar culture become a cause of constant anxiety among international students in China. For that, a survey was carried out among international students of Wuhan University, China. The association among non similar culture, non familiarity of Chinese culture, self finance students and food problem is looked at through a regression line, and in the light of empirical results, a model is anticipated which elucidates these results. Some suggestions were directed at the end which will help to mitigate the anxiety among prospective students in Chinese universities.

Keywords: Anxiety, international students, non similar culture, Wuhan University

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Authors: Stella Y. Ng, John B. Peacock, Kay Chuan Tan

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This paper discusses the use of a computerized test to measure the decision-making abilities of teenage basketball players in Singapore. There are five sections in this test – Competitive state anxiety inventory-2 (CSAI-2) questionnaire (measures player’s cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and self-confidence), Corsi block-tapping task (measures player’s short-term spatial memory), situation awareness global assessment technique (SAGAT) (measures players’ situation awareness in a basketball game), multiple choice questions on basketball knowledge (measures players’ knowledge of basketball rules and concepts), and lastly, a learning test that requires participants to recall and recognize basketball set plays (measures player’s ability to learn and recognize set plays). A total of 25 basketball players, aged 14 to 16 years old, from three secondary school teams participated in this experiment. The results that these basketball players obtained from this cognitive test were then used to compare with their physical fitness and basketball performance.

Keywords: Basketball, cognitive abilities, computerized test, decision-making.

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Authors: Mikulas Patocka

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This paper presents an architecture of current filesystem implementations as well as our new filesystem SpadFS and operating system Spad with rewritten VFS layer targeted at high performance I/O applications. The paper presents microbenchmarks and real-world benchmarks of different filesystems on the same kernel as well as benchmarks of the same filesystem on different kernels – enabling the reader to make conclusion how much is the performance of various tasks affected by operating system and how much by physical layout of data on disk. The paper describes our novel features–most notably continuous allocation of directories and cross-file readahead – and shows their impact on performance.

Keywords: Filesystem, operating system, VFS, performance, readahead

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Authors: Gabriela-Andreea Despescu, Mădălina-Elena Mavrodin, Gheorghe Lăzăroiu, Florin Adrian Grădinaru

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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the enhancement of a hydroelectric plant protection by coordinating protection measures / existing security and introducing new measures under a risk management process. In addition, plan identifies key critical elements of a hydroelectric plant, from its level vulnerabilities and threats it is subjected to in order to achieve the necessary protection measures to reduce the level of risk.

Keywords: Critical infrastructure, risk analysis, critical infrastructure protection, vulnerability, risk management, turbine, Impact analysis.

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Authors: Eva Nedeliakova, Jaroslav Masek, Juraj Camaj

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This article describes the results of research focused on quality of railway freight transport services. Improvement of these services has a crucial importance in customer considering on the future use of railway transport. Processes filling the customer demands and output quality assessment were defined as a part of the research. In this contribution is introduced the map of quality planning and the algorithm of applied methodology. It characterizes a model which takes into account characters of transportation with linking a perception services quality in ordinary and extraordinary operation. Despite the fact that rail freight transport has its solid position in the transport market, lots of carriers worldwide have been experiencing a stagnation for a couple of years. Therefore, specific results of the research have a significant importance and belong to numerous initiatives aimed to develop and support railway transport not only by creating a single railway area or reducing noise but also by promoting railway services. This contribution is focused also on the application of dynamic quality models which represent an innovative method of evaluation quality services. Through this conception, time factor, expected, and perceived quality in each moment of the transportation process can be taken into account.

Keywords: Quality, railway, transport, service.

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Authors: Amira M. Attia, Karim H. Youssef, Nabil H. Abbasy

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Energy consumption schedule (ECS) technique shifts usage of loads from on peak hours and redistributes them throughout the day according to residents’ operating time preferences. This technique is used as form of indirect control from utility to improve the load curve and hence its load factor and reduce customer’s total electric bill as well. Similarly, load shifting technique achieves ECS purposes but as direct control form applied from utility. In this paper, ECS is simulated twice as optimal constrained mathematical formula, solved by using CVX program in MATLAB^® R2013b. First, it is utilized for single residential building with ten apartments to determine max allowable energy consumption per hour for each residential apartment. Then, it is used for single apartment with number of shiftable domestic devices, where operating schedule is deduced using previous simulation output results as constraints. The paper ends by giving differences between ECS technique and load shifting technique via literature and simulation. Based on results assessment, it will be shown whether using ECS or load shifting is more beneficial to both customer and utility.

Keywords: Energy consumption schedule, load shifting technique, comparison.

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Authors: Amer A. Dheedan

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Operational safety of critical systems, such as nuclear power plants, industrial chemical processes and means of transportation, is a major concern for system engineers and operators. A means to assure that is on-line safety monitors that deliver three safety tasks; fault detection and diagnosis, alarm annunciation and fault controlling. While current monitors deliver these tasks, benefits and limitations in their approaches have at the same time been highlighted. Drawing from those benefits, this paper develops a distributed monitor based on semi-independent agents, i.e. a multiagent system, and monitoring knowledge derived from a safety assessment model of the monitored system. Agents are deployed hierarchically and provided with knowledge portions and collaboration protocols to reason and integrate over the operational conditions of the components of the monitored system. The monitor aims to address limitations arising from the large-scale, complicated behaviour and distributed nature of monitored systems and deliver the aforementioned three monitoring tasks effectively.

Keywords: Alarm annunciation, fault controlling, fault detection and diagnosis

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Authors: Amit Bhattacharyya

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The economic scenario of any region does not show the real picture for the measurement of overall development. Therefore, economic development must be accompanied by social development to be able to make an assessment to measure the level of development. The spatial variation with respect to social development has been discussed taking into account the quality of functioning of a social system in a specific area. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study the spatial distribution of social infrastructural facilities and analyze the magnitude of regional disparities at inter- block level in Barddhman district. It starts with the detailed account of the selection process of social infrastructure indicators and describes the methodology employed in the empirical analysis. Analyzing the block level data, this paper tries to identify the disparity among the blocks in the levels of social development. The results have been subsequently explained using both statistical analysis and geo spatial technique. The paper reveals that the social development is not going on at the same rate in every part of the district. Health facilities and educational facilities are concentrated at some selected point. So overall development activities come to be concentrated in a few centres and the disparity is seen over the blocks.

Keywords: Disparity, inter-block, social development, spatial variation.

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Authors: Usman Ahmed Adam, Umar Ibrahim, Ezra S. Gbaje

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This study is posed to explore the practice of Public Access Computers (PACs) in academic libraries in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study aimed to determine the computers and other tools available, their services and challenges of the practices. Three questions were framed to identify number of public computers and tools available, their services and problems faced during the practice. The study used qualitative research design along with semi-constructed interview and observation as tools for data collection. Descriptive analysis was employed to analyze the data. The sample size of the study comprises 52 librarian and IT staff from the seven academic institutions in Kaduna State. The findings revealed that, PACs were provided for access to the Internet, digital resources, library catalogue and training services. The study further explored that, despite the limit number of the computers, users were not allowed to enjoy many services. The study recommends that libraries in Kaduna state should provide more public computers to be able to cover the population of their users; libraries should allow users to use the computers without limitations and restrictions.

Keywords: Academic libraries, computers in the library, digital libraries, public computers.

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Authors: Ruhaya Atan, Saunah Zainon, Roland Yeow Theng Nam, Sharifah Aliman

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This study examines the relevance of disclosure practices in improving the accountability and transparency of religious nonprofit organizations (RNPOs). The assessment of disclosure is based on the annual returns of RNPOs for the financial year 2010. In order to quantify the information disclosed in the annual returns, partial disclosure indexes of basic information (BI) disclosure index, financial information (FI) disclosure index and governance information (GI) disclosure index have been built which takes into account the content of information items in the annual returns. The empirical evidence obtained revealed low disclosure practices among RNPOs in the sample. The multiple regression results showed that the organizational attribute of the board size appeared to be the most significant predictor for both partial index on the extent of BI disclosure index, and FI disclosure index. On the other hand, the extent of financial information disclosure is related to the amount of donation received by RNPOs. On GI disclosure index, the existence of an external audit appeared to be significant variable. This study has contributed to the academic literature in providing empirical evidence of the disclosure practices among RNPOs.

Keywords: disclosure, index, partial, NPOs, religious

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Authors: Sri Ranjini Mei Hua, Vivian Hsueh-hua Chen

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The African Diaspora in Singapore (and larger Asia) is a topic that has received little scholarly attention and research. This exploratory study will analyze the changing identity of Africans throughout the process of cultural adaptation in Singapore. For the focus of this study, “black Africans" will be defined as any black Africans from sub-Saharan Africa who have lived in Singapore for at least six months. The dialectic relationship between Singaporean conceptions of black African identity and African self-consciousness will be analyzed from the perspective of black Africans so as to evaluate the impact of intercultural discourse on the evolution of the African identity in Singapore.

Keywords: African, Diaspora, identity negotiation, interculturalcommunication

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Authors: Martina Kanciruk, Jac W. Andrews, Tyrone Donnon

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to determine the significance of history of obesity for the development of childhood overweight and/or obesity. Accordingly, a systematic literature review of English-language studies published from 1980 to 2012 using the following data bases: MEDLINE, PsychINFO, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Dissertation Abstracts International was conducted. The following terms were used in the search: pregnancy, overweight, obesity, family history, parents, childhood, risk factors. Eleven studies of family history and obesity conducted in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America met the inclusion criteria. A meta-analysis of these studies indicated that family history of obesity is a significant risk factor of overweight and /or obesity in offspring; risk for offspring overweight and/or obesity associated with family history varies depending of the family members included in the analysis; and when family history of obesity is present, the offspring are at greater risk for developing obesity or overweight. In addition, the results from moderator analyses suggest that part of the heterogeneity discovered between the studies can be explained by the region of world that the study occurred in and the age of the child at the time of weight assessment.

Keywords: Childhood obesity, overweight, family history, risk factors, meta-analysis.

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Authors: Oksana G. Cherednichenko, Anastasia L. Pilyugina, Sergey N.Lukashenko, Elena G. Gubitskaya

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The estimation of accumulated radiation doses in people professionally exposed to ionizing radiation was performed using methods of biological (chromosomal aberrations frequency in lymphocytes) and physical (radionuclides analysis in urine, whole-body radiation meter, individual thermoluminescent dosimeters) dosimetry. A group of 84 "A" category employees after their work in the territory of former Semipalatinsk test site (Kazakhstan) was investigated. The dose rate in some funnels exceeds 40 μSv/h. After radionuclides determination in urine using radiochemical and WBC methods, it was shown that the total effective dose of personnel internal exposure did not exceed 0.2 mSv/year, while an acceptable dose limit for staff is 20 mSv/year. The range of external radiation doses measured with individual thermo-luminescent dosimeters was 0.3-1.406 µSv. The cytogenetic examination showed that chromosomal aberrations frequency in staff was 4.27±0.22%, which is significantly higher than at the people from non-polluting settlement Tausugur (0.87±0.1%) (р ≤ 0.01) and citizens of Almaty (1.6±0.12%) (р≤ 0.01). Chromosomal type aberrations accounted for 2.32±0.16%, 0.27±0.06% of which were dicentrics and centric rings. The cytogenetic analysis of different types group radiosensitivity among «professionals» (age, sex, ethnic group, epidemiological data) revealed no significant differences between the compared values. Using various techniques by frequency of dicentrics and centric rings, the average cumulative radiation dose for group was calculated, and that was 0.084-0.143 Gy. To perform comparative individual dosimetry using physical and biological methods of dose assessment, calibration curves (including own ones) and regression equations based on general frequency of chromosomal aberrations obtained after irradiation of blood samples by gamma-radiation with the dose rate of 0,1 Gy/min were used. Herewith, on the assumption of individual variation of chromosomal aberrations frequency (1–10%), the accumulated dose of radiation varied 0-0.3 Gy. The main problem in the interpretation of individual dosimetry results is reduced to different reaction of the objects to irradiation - radiosensitivity, which dictates the need of quantitative definition of this individual reaction and its consideration in the calculation of the received radiation dose. The entire examined contingent was assigned to a group based on the received dose and detected cytogenetic aberrations. Radiosensitive individuals, at the lowest received dose in a year, showed the highest frequency of chromosomal aberrations (5.72%). In opposite, radioresistant individuals showed the lowest frequency of chromosomal aberrations (2.8%). The cohort correlation according to the criterion of radio-sensitivity in our research was distributed as follows: radio-sensitive (26.2%) — medium radio-sensitivity (57.1%), radioresistant (16.7%). Herewith, the dispersion for radioresistant individuals is 2.3; for the group with medium radio-sensitivity — 3.3; and for radio-sensitive group — 9. These data indicate the highest variation of characteristic (reactions to radiation effect) in the group of radio-sensitive individuals. People with medium radio-sensitivity show significant long-term correlation (0.66; n=48, β ≥ 0.999) between the values of doses defined according to the results of cytogenetic analysis and dose of external radiation obtained with the help of thermoluminescent dosimeters. Mathematical models based on the type of violation of the radiation dose according to the professionals radiosensitivity level were offered.

Keywords: Biodosimetry, chromosomal aberrations, ionizing radiation, radiosensitivity.

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Authors: S. Samanta, D. Datta, S. S. Gautam

Abstract:

In this paper, quantitative evaluation of ultrasonic Cscan images through estimation of their Fractal Dimension (FD) is discussed. Necessary algorithm for evaluation of FD of any 2-D digitized image is implemented by developing a computer code. For the evaluation purpose several C-scan images of the Kevlar composite impacted by high speed bullet and glass fibre composite having flaw in the form of inclusion is used. This analysis automatically differentiates a C-scan image showing distinct damage zone, from an image that contains no such damage.

Keywords: C-scan, Impact, Fractal Dimension, Kevlar composite and Inclusion Flaw

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Authors: Nadezhda Kvatashidze

Abstract:

The conceptual framework of International Financial Reporting Standards determines the basic principles of accounting. The said principles have multiple applications, with professional judgments being one of those. Recognition and assessment of the information contained in financial reporting, especially so the somewhat uncertain events and transactions and/or the ones regarding which there is no standard or interpretation are based on professional judgments. Professional judgments aim at the formulation of expert assumptions regarding the specifics of the circumstances and events to be entered into the report based on the conceptual framework terms and principles. Experts have to make a choice in favor of one of the aforesaid and simulate the situations applying multi-variant accounting estimates and judgment. In making the choice, one should consider all the factors, which may help represent the information in the best way possible. Professional judgment determines the relevance and faithful representation of the presented information, which makes it more useful for the existing and potential investors. In order to assess the prospected net cash flows, the information must be predictable and reliable. The publication contains critical analysis of the aforementioned problems. The fact that the International Financial Reporting Standards are developed continuously makes the issue all the more important and that is another point discussed in the study.

Keywords: Conceptual Framework for financial reporting, Qualitative characteristics of financial information, Professional judgement, Cost constraints, Financial reporting.

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