Search results for: Objective Quality assessment
3497 Strategies for E-Waste Management: A Literature Review
Authors: Linh Thi Truc Doan, Yousef Amer, Sang-Heon Lee, Phan Nguyen Ky Phuc
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During the last few decades, with the high-speed upgrade of electronic products, electronic waste (e-waste) has become one of the fastest growing wastes of the waste stream. In this context, more efforts and concerns have already been placed on the treatment and management of this waste. To mitigate their negative influences on the environment and society, it is necessary to establish appropriate strategies for e-waste management. Hence, this paper aims to review and analysis some useful strategies which have been applied in several countries to handle e-waste. Future perspectives on e-waste management are also suggested. The key findings found that, to manage e-waste successfully, it is necessary to establish effective reverse supply chains for e-waste, and raise public awareness towards the detrimental impacts of e-waste. The result of the research provides valuable insights to governments, policymakers in establishing e-waste management in a safe and sustainable manner.Keywords: E-waste, e-waste management, life cycle assessment, recycling regulations.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 49243496 Investigation of Relationship between Organizational Climate and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Research on Health Sector
Authors: Serdar Öge, Pınar Erdogan
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The main objective of this research is to describe the relationship between organizational climate and organizational citizenship behavior. In order to examine this relationship, a research is intended to be carried out in relevant institutions and organizations operating in the health sector in Turkey. It will be researched that whether there is a statistically significant relationship between organizational climate and organizational citizenship behavior through elated scientific research methods and statistical analysis. In addition, relationships between the dimensions of organizational climate and organizational citizenship behavior subscales will be questioned statistically.Keywords: Organizational climate, organizational citizenship, organizational citizenship behavior, climate.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23453495 The Mechanism Underlying Empathy-Related Helping Behavior: An Investigation of Empathy-Attitude- Action Model
Authors: Wan-Ting Liao, Angela K. Tzeng
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Empathy has been an important issue in psychology, education, as well as cognitive neuroscience. Empathy has two major components: cognitive and emotional. Cognitive component refers to the ability to understand others’ perspectives, thoughts, and actions, whereas emotional component refers to understand how others feel. Empathy can be induced, attitude can then be changed, and with enough attitude change, helping behavior can occur. This finding leads us to two questions: is attitude change really necessary for prosocial behavior? And, what roles cognitive and affective empathy play? For the second question, participants with different psychopathic personality (PP) traits are critical because high PP people were found to suffer only affective empathy deficit. Their cognitive empathy shows no significant difference from the control group. 132 college students voluntarily participated in the current three-stage study. Stage 1 was to collect basic information including Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R), Attitude Scale, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and demographic data. Stage two was for empathy induction with three controversial scenarios, namely domestic violence, depression with a suicide attempt, and an ex-offender. Participants read all three stories and then rewrite the stories by one of two perspectives (empathetic vs. objective). They would then complete the VAS and Attitude Scale one more time for their post-attitude and emotional status. Three IVs were introduced for data analysis: PP (High vs. Low), Responsibility (whether or not the character is responsible for what happened), and Perspective-taking (Empathic vs. Objective). Stage 3 was for the action. Participants were instructed to freely use the 17 tokens they received as donations. They were debriefed and interviewed at the end of the experiment. The major findings were people with higher empathy tend to take more action in helping. Attitude change is not necessary for prosocial behavior. The controversy of the scenarios and how familiar participants are towards target groups play very important roles. Finally, people with high PP tend to show more public prosocial behavior due to their affective empathy deficit. Pre-existing value and belief as well as recent dramatic social events seem to have a big impact and possibly reduce the effect of the independent variables (IV) in our paradigm.
Keywords: Affective empathy, attitude, cognitive empathy, prosocial behavior, psychopathic traits.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7133494 3D Brain Tumor Segmentation Using Level-Sets Method and Meshes Simplification from Volumetric MR Images
Authors: K. Aloui, M. S. Naceur
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The main objective of this paper is to provide an efficient tool for delineating brain tumors in three-dimensional magnetic resonance images. To achieve this goal, we use basically a level-sets approach to delineating three-dimensional brain tumors. Then we introduce a compression plan of 3D brain structures based for the meshes simplification, adapted for time to the specific needs of the telemedicine and to the capacities restricted by network communication. We present here the main stages of our system, and preliminary results which are very encouraging for clinical practice.
Keywords: Medical imaging, level-sets, compression, meshess implification, telemedicine.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21343493 Calculation of Reorder Point Level under Stochastic Parameters: A Case Study in Healthcare Area
Authors: Serap Akcan, Ali Kokangul
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We consider a single-echelon, single-item inventory system where both demand and lead-time are stochastic. Continuous review policy is used to control the inventory system. The objective is to calculate the reorder point level under stochastic parameters. A case study is presented in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.Keywords: Inventory control system, reorder point level, stochastic demand, stochastic lead time
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 35343492 Representing Data without Lost Compression Properties in Time Series: A Review
Authors: Nabilah Filzah Mohd Radzuan, Zalinda Othman, Azuraliza Abu Bakar, Abdul Razak Hamdan
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Uncertain data is believed to be an important issue in building up a prediction model. The main objective in the time series uncertainty analysis is to formulate uncertain data in order to gain knowledge and fit low dimensional model prior to a prediction task. This paper discusses the performance of a number of techniques in dealing with uncertain data specifically those which solve uncertain data condition by minimizing the loss of compression properties.
Keywords: Compression properties, uncertainty, uncertain time series, mining technique, weather prediction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16203491 Mobility Analysis of the Population of Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaer
Authors: F. Ghaiti
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In this paper, we present the 2006 survey study origin destination and price that we carried out during 2006 fall in the area in the Moroccan region of Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaer. The survey concerns the people-s characteristics, their displacements behavior and the price that they will be able to pay for a tramway ticket. The main objective is to study a set of relative features to the households and to their displacement's habits and to their choices among public and privet transport modes. A comparison between this survey results and that of the 1996's is made. A pricing scheme is also given according to the tram capacity. (The Rabat-Salé tramway is under construction right now and it will be operational beginning 2010).
Keywords: Matrix O/D, Theory of pricing, Urban transport survey.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26413490 Hybrid Project Management Model Based on Lean and Agile Approach
Authors: F. Z. Eddoug, J. Benhra, R. Benabbou
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Excellence and Success are the ultimate goal for any project and in order to achieve it, every project manager looks for the convenient tools and methods. This work proposes a framework that seeks an efficient management of general project through a lean and agile approach. In order to get this objective, the article was divided in two stages, the first one was emphasized on exploring and analyzing the existing project management models and then in the second one the desired framework was created, beginning by focusing on seven existing models and then proposing for each phase of the framework the convenient lean and agile tools.
Keywords: Agility, hybrid project management, lean, scrum.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4203489 Orders Preparation and Control on the Productive Process Efficiency Preparation
Authors: F. Charrua-Santos, S. Dias, J. Matias, F. Brójo, S. Azevedo.
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The main objective of this paper is to analyse the influence of preparation and control of orders on performance. The focused activities explored in this research are: procurement, production and distribution. These changes in performance were obtained through improvement of the supply chain. It is proved using all the company activities that it is possible to increase de efficiency and do services in an adequate way, placing the products in the market efficiently. For that, it was explored the importance of the supply chain, with privilege to the practical environment and the quantification of the obtained results.
Keywords: Competitiveness, Order Preparation and Control, Procurement Process and Operations Efficiency, Supply Chain Global Costs
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15063488 Walking and Sustainable Urban Transportation
Authors: Khashayar Kashani Jou
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Walking as a type of non-motorized transportation has various social, economical and environmental privileges. Also, today different aspects of sustainable development have been emphasized and promotion of sustainable transportation modes has been considered according to this approach. Therefore, the objective of this research is exploring the circumstance of relationship between walking and sustainable urban transportation.For writing this article, the most important resources related to the traits of walking have been surveyed via a documentary method and after explaining the concept of sustainable transportation and its indicators, benefiting from the viewpoints of transportation experts of Tehran, as the capital and greatest city of Iran, different modes of urban transportation have been compared in proportion to each criterion and to each other and have been analyzed according to AHP method. The results of this study indicate that walking is the most sustainable mode of inner city transportation.Keywords: Walking, Non-motorized transportation, Sustainable transportation, AHP
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20343487 Thermal Performance Rating of Solar Water Heating Systems in ASEAN
Authors: E. Halawa
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Solar water heating (SWH) systems are gaining popularity in ASEAN in the midst of increasing number of affluent population in society and environmental concerns from seemingly unchanged reliance on fossil-based fuels. The penetration of these systems and technologies into ASEAN markets is a welcome development; however there is a need for the method of assessment of their thermal performances. This paper discusses the reasons for this need and a suitable method for thermal performance evaluation of SWH systems in ASEAN. The paper also calls on research to be focused on the establishment of reliable data to be entered into the performance rating software. The establishment of accredited solar systems testing facilities can help boost the competitiveness of ASEAN solar industry.
Keywords: ASEAN, solar industry, solar water heating systems, thermal performance rating.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19953486 Nonlinear Large Deformation Analysis of Rotor
Authors: Amin Almasi
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Reliability assessment and risk analysis of rotating machine rotors in various overload and malfunction situations present challenge to engineers and operators. In this paper a new analytical method for evaluation of rotor under large deformation is addressed. Model is presented in general form to include also composite rotors. Presented simulation procedure is based on variational work method and has capability to account for geometric nonlinearity, large displacement, nonlinear support effect and rotor contacting other machine components. New shape functions are presented which capable to predict accurate nonlinear profile of rotor. The closed form solutions for various operating and malfunction situations are expressed. Analytical simulation results are discussedKeywords: Large Deformation, Nonlinear, Rotor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13583485 Fuzzy Trust for Peer-to-Peer Based Systems
Authors: Farag Azzedin, Ahmad Ridha, Ali Rizvi
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Trust management is one of the drawbacks in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) system. Lack of centralized control makes it difficult to control the behavior of the peers. Reputation system is one approach to provide trust assessment in P2P system. In this paper, we use fuzzy logic to model trust in a P2P environment. Our trust model combines first-hand (direct experience) and second-hand (reputation)information to allow peers to represent and reason with uncertainty regarding other peers' trustworthiness. Fuzzy logic can help in handling the imprecise nature and uncertainty of trust. Linguistic labels are used to enable peers assign a trust level intuitively. Our fuzzy trust model is flexible such that inference rules are used to weight first-hand and second-hand accordingly.
Keywords: P2P Systems; Trust, Reputation, Fuzzy Logic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21583484 Assessing and Improving Ramp-Up Capability
Authors: Sebastian Tschöpe, Konja Knüppel, Peter Nyhuis
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In times when product life cycles are decreasing, while market demands are increasing, manufacturing enterprises are confronted with the challenge of more frequent and more complex ramp-ups. Thus it becomes obvious that ramp-up management is going to be a topic enterprises have to focus on in the future. Since each ramp-up is unique concerning the product, the process, the technology, the circumstances and the coaction of these four factors, the knowledge of the ramp-up situation and the current ramp-up capability of the enterprise are fundamental requirements for the subsequent improvement of the ramp-up capability of the production system.
In this article a methodology is going to be presented which can be used to define typical production ramp-up situations, to identify the current ramp-up capability of a production system and to improve it with respect to a specific situation. Additionally there will be a description of the functionality of a software-tool developed based on this methodology.
Keywords: Assessment methodology, ramp-up, ramp-up capability, software-tool.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20093483 Analysis and Prototyping of Biological Systems: the Abstract Biological Process Model
Authors: Antonio Di Leva, Roberto Berchi, Gianpiero Pescarmona, Michele Sonnessa
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The aim of a biological model is to understand the integrated structure and behavior of complex biological systems as a function of the underlying molecular networks to achieve simulation and forecast of their operation. Although several approaches have been introduced to take into account structural and environment related features, relatively little attention has been given to represent the behavior of biological systems. The Abstract Biological Process (ABP) model illustrated in this paper is an object-oriented model based on UML (the standard object-oriented language). Its main objective is to bring into focus the functional aspects of the biological system under analysis.Keywords: Biological processes, system dynamics, systemmodeling, UML.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16403482 Socioculture and Cognitivist Perspectives on Language and Communication Barriers in Learning
Authors: David Hallberg
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It is believed that major account on language diversity must be taken in learning, and especially in learning using ICT. This paper-s objective is to exhibit language and communication barriers in learning, to approach the topic from socioculture and cognitivist perspectives, and to give exploratory solutions of handling such barriers. The review is mainly conducted by approaching the journal Computers & Education, but also an initially broad search was conducted. The results show that not much attention is paid on language and communication barriers in an immediate relation to learning using ICT. The results shows, inter alia, that language and communication barriers are caused because of not enough account is taken on both the individual-s background and the technology.
Keywords: communication barriers, cognitive, ICT, language barriers, learning, socioculture
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23593481 Gamification as a Tool for Influencing Customers' Behaviour
Authors: B. Zatwarnicka-Madura
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The objective of the article was to identify the impacts of gamification on customers' behaviour. The most important applications of games in marketing and mechanisms of gamification are presented in the article. A detailed analysis of the influence of gamification on customers using two brands, Foursquare and Nike, was also presented. Research studies using auditory survey methods were carried out among 176 young respondents, who are potential targets of gamification. The studies confirmed a huge participation of young people in customer loyalty programs with relatively low participation in other gamificationbased marketing activities. The research findings clearly indicate that gamification mechanisms are the most attractive.
Keywords: Customer loyalty, games, gamification, social aspects.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24173480 Investigation of Some Flotation Parameters and the Role of Dispersants in the Flotation of Chalcopyrite
Authors: H. A. Taner, V. Önen
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A suitable choice of flotation parameters and reagents have a strong effect on the effectiveness of flotation process. The objective of this paper is to give an overview of the flotation of chalcopyrite with the different conditions and dispersants. Flotation parameters such as grinding time, pH, type, and dosage of dispersant were investigated. In order to understand the interaction of some dispersants, sodium silicate, sodium hexametaphosphate and sodium polyphosphate were used. The optimum results were obtained at a pH of 11.5 and a grinding time of 10 minutes. A copper concentrate was produced assaying 29.85% CuFeS2 and 65.97% flotation recovery under optimum rougher flotation conditions with sodium silicate.
Keywords: Chalcopyrite, dispersant, flotation, copper.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7543479 Building Relationship Network for Machine Analysis from Wear Debris Measurements
Authors: Qurban A Memon, Mohammad S. Laghari
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Integration of system process information obtained through an image processing system with an evolving knowledge database to improve the accuracy and predictability of wear debris analysis is the main focus of the paper. The objective is to automate intelligently the analysis process of wear particle using classification via self-organizing maps. This is achieved using relationship measurements among corresponding attributes of various measurements for wear debris. Finally, visualization technique is proposed that helps the viewer in understanding and utilizing these relationships that enable accurate diagnostics.Keywords: Relationship Network, Relationship Measurement, Self-organizing Clusters, Wear Debris Analysis, Kohonen Network
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19403478 Edge Segmentation of Satellite Image using Phase Congruency Model
Authors: Ahmed Zaafouri, Mounir Sayadi, Farhat Fnaiech
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In this paper, we present a method for edge segmentation of satellite images based on 2-D Phase Congruency (PC) model. The proposed approach is composed by two steps: The contextual non linear smoothing algorithm (CNLS) is used to smooth the input images. Then, the 2D stretched Gabor filter (S-G filter) based on proposed angular variation is developed in order to avoid the multiple responses in the previous work. An assessment of our proposed method performance is provided in terms of accuracy of satellite image edge segmentation. The proposed method is compared with others known approaches.Keywords: Edge segmentation, Phase congruency model, Satellite images, Stretched Gabor filter
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26673477 Economic Assessment Methodology to Support Decisions for Transport Infrastructure Development
Authors: Dimitrios J. Dimitriou
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The decades after the end of the second War provide evidence that infrastructures investments contibute to economic development, on terms of productivity and income growth. In order to force productivity and increase competitiveness the financing of large transport infrastructure projects are on the top of the agenda in strategic planning process. Such a decision may take form some days to some decades and stakeholders as well as decision makers need tools in order to estimate the economic impact on natioanl economy of such an investment. The key question in such decisions is if the effects caused by the new infrastructure could be able to boost economic development on one hand, and create new jobs and activities on the other. This paper deals with the review of estimation of the mega transport infrastructure projects economic effects in economy.
Keywords: Economic impact, transport infrastructure, strategic planning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10683476 Design of a Neural Networks Classifier for Face Detection
Authors: F. Smach, M. Atri, J. Mitéran, M. Abid
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Face detection and recognition has many applications in a variety of fields such as security system, videoconferencing and identification. Face classification is currently implemented in software. A hardware implementation allows real-time processing, but has higher cost and time to-market. The objective of this work is to implement a classifier based on neural networks MLP (Multi-layer Perceptron) for face detection. The MLP is used to classify face and non-face patterns. The systm is described using C language on a P4 (2.4 Ghz) to extract weight values. Then a Hardware implementation is achieved using VHDL based Methodology. We target Xilinx FPGA as the implementation support.Keywords: Classification, Face Detection, FPGA Hardware description, MLP.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22813475 An Overview on the Effectiveness of Brand Mascot and Celebrity Endorsement
Authors: Isari Pairoa, Proud Arunrangsiwed
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Celebrity and brand mascot endorsement have been explored for more than three decades. Both endorsers can effectively transfer their reputation to corporate image and can influence the customers to purchase the product. However, there was little known about the mediators between the level of endorsement and its effect on buying behavior. The objective of the current study is to identify the gab of the previous studies and to seek possible mediators. It was found that consumer’s memory and identification are the mediators, of source credibility and endorsement effect. A future study should confirm the model of endorsement, which was established in the current study.
Keywords: Product endorsement, memory, identification theory, source credibility, unintentional effect.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26663474 A New Similarity Measure Based On Edge Counting
Authors: T. Slimani, B. Ben Yaghlane, K. Mellouli
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In the field of concepts, the measure of Wu and Palmer [1] has the advantage of being simple to implement and have good performances compared to the other similarity measures [2]. Nevertheless, the Wu and Palmer measure present the following disadvantage: in some situations, the similarity of two elements of an IS-A ontology contained in the neighborhood exceeds the similarity value of two elements contained in the same hierarchy. This situation is inadequate within the information retrieval framework. To overcome this problem, we propose a new similarity measure based on the Wu and Palmer measure. Our objective is to obtain realistic results for concepts not located in the same way. The obtained results show that compared to the Wu and Palmer approach, our measure presents a profit in terms of relevance and execution time.
Keywords: Hierarchy, IS-A ontology, Semantic Web, Similarity Measure.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14883473 Static Voltage Stability Assessment Considering the Power System Contingencies using Continuation Power Flow Method
Authors: Mostafa Alinezhad, Mehrdad Ahmadi Kamarposhti
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According to the increasing utilization in power system, the transmission lines and power plants often operate in stability boundary and system probably lose its stable condition by over loading or occurring disturbance. According to the reasons that are mentioned, the prediction and recognition of voltage instability in power system has particular importance and it makes the network security stronger.This paper, by considering of power system contingencies based on the effects of them on Mega Watt Margin (MWM) and maximum loading point is focused in order to analyse the static voltage stability using continuation power flow method. The study has been carried out on IEEE 14-Bus Test System using Matlab and Psat softwares and results are presented.
Keywords: Contingency, Continuation Power Flow, Static Voltage Stability, Voltage Collapse.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22143472 The Potential Involvement of Platelet Indices in Insulin Resistance in Morbid Obese Children
Authors: Orkide Donma, Mustafa M. Donma
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Association between insulin resistance (IR) and hematological parameters has long been a matter of interest. Within this context, body mass index (BMI), red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets were involved in this discussion. Parameters related to platelets associated with IR may be useful indicators for the identification of IR. Platelet indices such as mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW) and plateletcrit (PCT) are being questioned for their possible association with IR. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between platelet (PLT) count as well as PLT indices and the surrogate indices used to determine IR in morbid obese (MO) children. A total of 167 children participated in the study. Three groups were constituted. The number of cases was 34, 97 and 36 children in the normal BMI, MO and metabolic syndrome (MetS) groups, respectively. Sex- and age-dependent BMI-based percentile tables prepared by World Health Organization were used for the definition of morbid obesity. MetS criteria were determined. BMI values, homeostatic model assessment for IR (HOMA-IR), alanine transaminase-to-aspartate transaminase ratio (ALT/AST) and diagnostic obesity notation model assessment laboratory (DONMA-lab) index values were computed. PLT count and indices were analyzed using automated hematology analyzer. Data were collected for statistical analysis using SPSS for Windows. Arithmetic mean and standard deviation were calculated. Mean values of PLT-related parameters in both control and study groups were compared by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey post hoc tests to determine whether a significant difference exists among the groups. The correlation analyses between PLT as well as IR indices were performed. Statistically significant difference was accepted as p-value < 0.05. Increased values were detected for PLT (p < 0.01) and PCT (p > 0.05) in MO group compared to those observed in children with N-BMI. Significant increases for PLT (p < 0.01) and PCT (p < 0.05) were observed in MetS group in comparison with the values obtained in children with N-BMI (p < 0.01). Significantly lower MPV and PDW values were obtained in MO group compared to the control group (p < 0.01). HOMA-IR (p < 0.05), DONMA-lab index (p < 0.001) and ALT/AST (p < 0.001) values in MO and MetS groups were significantly increased compared to the N-BMI group. On the other hand, DONMA-lab index values also differed between MO and MetS groups (p < 0.001). In the MO group, PLT was negatively correlated with MPV and PDW values. These correlations were not observed in the N-BMI group. None of the IR indices exhibited a correlation with PLT and PLT indices in the N-BMI group. HOMA-IR showed significant correlations both with PLT and PCT in the MO group. All of the three IR indices were well-correlated with each other in all groups. These findings point out the missing link between IR and PLT activation. In conclusion, PLT and PCT may be related to IR in addition to their identities as hemostasis markers during morbid obesity. Our findings have suggested that DONMA-lab index appears as the best surrogate marker for IR due to its discriminative feature between morbid obesity and MetS.
Keywords: Children, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, plateletcrit, platelet indices.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6743471 An Experiment for Assessment of a “Functional Scenario-based“ Test Case Generation Method
Authors: Cencen Li, Shaoying Liu, Shin Nakajima
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Specification-based testing enables us to detect errors in the implementation of functions defined in given specifications. Its effectiveness in achieving high path coverage and efficiency in generating test cases are always major concerns of testers. The automatic test cases generation approach based on formal specifications proposed by Liu and Nakajima is aimed at ensuring high effectiveness and efficiency, but this approach has not been empirically assessed. In this paper, we present an experiment for assessing Liu-s testing approach. The result indicates that this testing approach may not be effective in some circumstances. We discuss the result, analyse the specific causes for the ineffectiveness, and describe some suggestions for improvement.Keywords: experiment, functional scenario, specification-based, testing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17013470 ConductHome: Gesture Interface Control of Home Automation Boxes
Authors: J. Branstett, V. Gagneux, A. Leleu, B. Levadoux, J. Pascale
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This paper presents the interface ConductHome which controls home automation systems with a Leap Motion using “invariant gesture protocols”. This interface is meant to simplify the interaction of the user with its environment. A hardware part allows the Leap Motion to be carried around the house. A software part interacts with the home automation box and displays the useful information for the user. An objective of this work is the development of a natural/invariant/simple gesture control interface to help elder people/people with disabilities.Keywords: Automation, ergonomics, gesture recognition, interoperability, leap motion, invariant.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20703469 LINUX Cluster Possibilities in 3-D PHOTO Quality Imaging and Animation
Authors: Arjun Jain, Himanshu Agrawal, Nalini Vasudevan
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In this paper we present the PC cluster built at R.V. College of Engineering (with great help from the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering). The structure of the cluster is described and the performance is evaluated by rendering of complex 3D Persistence of Vision (POV) images by the Ray-Tracing algorithm. Here, we propose an unexampled method to render such images, distributedly on a low cost scalable.Keywords: PC cluster, parallel computations, ray tracing, persistence of vision, rendering.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15523468 A Second Law Assessment of Organic Rankine Cycle Depending on Source Temperature
Authors: Kyoung Hoon Kim
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Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) has potential in reducing fossil fuels and relaxing environmental problems. In this work performance analysis of ORC is conducted based on the second law of thermodynamics for recovery of low temperature heat source from 100oC to 140oC using R134a as the working fluid. Effects of system parameters such as turbine inlet pressure or source temperature are theoretically investigated on the exergy destructions (anergies) at various components of the system as well as net work production or exergy efficiency. Results show that the net work or exergy efficiency has a peak with respect to the turbine inlet pressure when the source temperature is low, however, increases monotonically with increasing turbine inlet pressure when the source temperature is high.
Keywords: Organic Rankine cycle (ORC), low temperature heat source, exergy, source temperature.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1879