Search results for: Statistical Information ofthe Population

Authors: Abdoulaye Diop, Nahid Emad, Thierry Winter, Mohamed Hilia

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Data assets protection is a crucial issue in the cybersecurity field. Companies use logical access control tools to vault their information assets and protect them against external threats, but they lack solutions to counter insider threats. Nowadays, insider threats are the most significant concern of security analysts. They are mainly individuals with legitimate access to companies information systems, which use their rights with malicious intents. In several fields, behavior anomaly detection is the method used by cyber specialists to counter the threats of user malicious activities effectively. In this paper, we present the step toward the construction of a user and entity behavior analysis framework by proposing a behavior anomaly detection model. This model combines machine learning classification techniques and graph-based methods, relying on linear algebra and parallel computing techniques. We show the utility of an ensemble learning approach in this context. We present some detection methods tests results on an representative access control dataset. The use of some explored classifiers gives results up to 99% of accuracy.

Keywords: Cybersecurity, data protection, access control, insider threat, user behavior analysis, ensemble learning, high performance computing.

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Authors: Mária Hudáková, Mária Lusková

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This report is focused on widening the theoretical knowledge as well as controlling practical application from the risk management point of view, regarding to dynamic business changes that have occurred in Slovakia which recently has been considered to be an environment full of risk and uncertainty. The idea of the report is the proposal of the controlling operation model in the course of risk management process in an enterprise operating in Slovakia, by which the controller is able to identify early risk factors in suggested major areas of the business management upon appropriate business information integration, consecutive control and prognoses and to prepare in time full-value documents in order to suggest measures for reduction thereof. Dealing with risk factors, that can quickly limit the growth potential of the enterprise, is an essential part of managerial activities on each level. This is the reason why mutual unofficial, ergo collegial cooperation of individual departments is necessary for controlling application from the business risk management point of view. An important part of the report is elaborated survey of the most important risk factors existing in major management areas of enterprises operating in Slovakia. The outcome of the performed survey is a catalogue of the most important enterprise risk factors. The catalogue serves for better understanding risk factors affecting the Slovak enterprises, their importance and evaluation.

Keywords: Controlling, information system, risks management, risk factor, crisis of enterprise.

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Authors: Veronica Sri Lestari, Djoni Prawira Rahardja, Tanrigiling Rasyid, Aslina Asnawi, Ikrar Muhammad Saleh, Ilham Rasyid

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Urea Mineral Molasses Block is very important for beef cattle, because it can increase beef production. The purpose of this research was to know beef cattle farmers’ perception towards Urea Mineral Molasses Block (UMMB). This research was conducted in Gowa Regency, South Sulawesi, Indonesia in 2016. The population of this research were all beef cattle farmers. Sample was chosen through purposive sampling. Data were collected through observation and face to face with deep interview using questionnaire. Variables of perception consisted of relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, observability and triability. There were 10 questions. The answer for each question was scored by 1, 2, 3 which refer to disagree, agree enough, strongly agree. The data were analyzed descriptively using frequency distribution. The research revealed that beef cattle farmers’ perception towards UMMB was categorized as strongly agree.

Keywords: Beef cattle, farmers, perception, urea mineral molasses block.

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Authors: Aliza Lee, Mark Wilt, John Bonk, Scott Floyd, Bradley Hoffman, Karen Uchmanowicz

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Bipartite medial cuneiforms are relatively rare but may play a significant role in biomechanical and gait abnormalities. It is believed that a bipartite medial cuneiform may alter the available range of motion due to its larger morphological variant, thus limiting the metatarsal plantarflexion needed to achieve adequate hallux dorsiflexion for normal gait. Radiographic and clinical assessment were performed on two patients who reported with foot pain along the first ray. Both patients had visible bipartite medial cuneiforms on MRI. Using gait plate and Metascan ™ analysis, both were noted to have four measurements far beyond the expected range. Medial and lateral heel peak pressure, hallux peak pressure, and 1st metatarsal peak pressure were all noted to be increased. These measurements are believed to be increased due to the hindrance placed on the available ROM of the first ray by the increased size of the medial cuneiform. A larger patient population would be needed to fully understand this developmental anomaly.

Keywords: Bipartite medial cuneiforms, cuneiform, developmental anomaly, gait abnormality.

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Authors: E.Assareh, M.A. Behrang, R. Assareh, N. Hedayat

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An integrated Artificial Neural Network- Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is presented for analyzing global electricity consumption. To aim this purpose, following steps are done: STEP 1: in the first step, PSO is applied in order to determine world-s oil, natural gas, coal and primary energy demand equations based on socio-economic indicators. World-s population, Gross domestic product (GDP), oil trade movement and natural gas trade movement are used as socio-economic indicators in this study. For each socio-economic indicator, a feed-forward back propagation artificial neural network is trained and projected for future time domain. STEP 2: in the second step, global electricity consumption is projected based on the oil, natural gas, coal and primary energy consumption using PSO. global electricity consumption is forecasted up to year 2040.

Keywords: Particle Swarm Optimization, Artificial NeuralNetworks, Fossil Fuels, Electricity, Forecasting.

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Authors: R. Ziaie Moayed, H. Keshavarz Hedayati

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Over recent years, due to increased population and increased waste production, groundwater protection has become more important, therefore, designing engineered barrier systems such as landfill liners to prevent the entry of leachate into groundwater should be done with greater accuracy. These measures generally involve the application of low permeability soils such as clays. Bentonite is a natural clay with low permeability which makes it a suitable soil for using in liners. Also zeolite with high cation exchange capacity can help to reduce of hazardous materials risk. Bentonite expands when wet, absorbing as much as several times its dry mass in water. This property may effect on some structural properties of soil such as shear strength. In present study, shear strength parameters are determined by both leachates polluted and not polluted bentonite-amended zeolite soil with mixing rates (B/Z) of 5%-10% and 20% with unconfined compression test to obtain the differences. It is shown that leachate presence causes reduction in resistance in general.

Keywords: Bentonite, zeolite, leachate, shear strength parameters, unconfined compression tests.

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Authors: Noor Mohammad

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Environmental accounting is a recent phenomenon in the modern jurisprudence. It may reflect the corporate governance mechanisms in line with the natural resources and environmental sound management and administration systems in any country of the world. It may be a corporate focused on the improving of the environmental quality. But it is often identified that it is ignored due to some reasons such as unconsciousness, lack of ethical education etc. At present, the world community is very much concerned about the state of the environmental accounting and auditing systems as it bears sustainability on the mother earth for our generations. It is one of the important tools for understanding on the role played by the natural environment in the economy. It provides adequate data which is highlighted both in the contribution of natural resources to economic well-being as well as the costs imposed by pollution or resource degradation. It can play a critical role as on be a part of the many international environmental organizations such as IUCN, WWF, PADELIA, WRI etc.; as they have been taking many initiatives for ensuring the environmental accouting for our competent survivals. The global state actors have already taken some greening accounting initiatives under the forum of the United Nations Division for Sustainable Dedevolpment, the United Nations Statistical Division, the United Nations Conference on Environment and development known as Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg Conference 2002 etc. This study will provide an overview of the environmental accounting education consisting of 25 respondents based on the primary and secondary sources.

Keywords: Environmental Accounting, Auditing Education and Sustainable Development

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Authors: S. Bouharati, I. Bouharati, C. Benzidane, F. Alleg, M. Belmahdi

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Sensors possess several properties of physical measures. Whether devices that convert a sensed signal into an electrical signal, chemical sensors and biosensors, thus all these sensors can be considered as an interface between the physical and electrical equipment. The problem is the analysis of the multitudes of saved settings as input variables. However, they do not all have the same level of influence on the outputs. In order to identify the most sensitive parameters, those that can guide users in gathering information on the ground and in the process of model calibration and sensitivity analysis for the effect of each change made. Mathematical models used for processing become very complex. In this paper a fuzzy rule-based system is proposed as a solution for this problem. The system collects the available signals information from sensors. Moreover, the system allows the study of the influence of the various factors that take part in the decision system. Since its inception fuzzy set theory has been regarded as a formalism suitable to deal with the imprecision intrinsic to many problems. At the same time, fuzzy sets allow to use symbolic models. In this study an example was applied for resolving variety of physiological parameters that define human health state. The application system was done for medical diagnosis help. The inputs are the signals expressed the cardiovascular system parameters, blood pressure, Respiratory system paramsystem was done, it will be able to predict the state of patient according any input values.

Keywords: Sensors, Sensivity, fuzzy logic, analysis, physiological parameters, medical diagnosis.

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Authors: Aleksandra Zysk, Pawel Badura

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Recognizing and controlling vocal registers during singing is a difficult task for beginner vocalist. It requires among others identifying which part of natural resonators is being used when a sound propagates through the body. Thus, an application has been designed allowing for sound recording, automatic vocal register recognition (VRR), and a graphical user interface providing real-time visualization of the signal and recognition results. Six spectral features are determined for each time frame and passed to the support vector machine classifier yielding a binary decision on the head or chest register assignment of the segment. The classification training and testing data have been recorded by ten professional female singers (soprano, aged 19-29) performing sounds for both chest and head register. The classification accuracy exceeded 93% in each of various validation schemes. Apart from a hard two-class clustering, the support vector classifier returns also information on the distance between particular feature vector and the discrimination hyperplane in a feature space. Such an information reflects the level of certainty of the vocal register classification in a fuzzy way. Thus, the designed recognition and training application is able to assess and visualize the continuous trend in singing in a user-friendly graphical mode providing an easy way to control the vocal emission.

Keywords: Classification, singing, spectral analysis, vocal emission, vocal register.

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Authors: Chong-Yang Qiao, Teeravarunyou Sakol

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Current production-oriented factories need maintenance operators to work in shifts monitoring and inspecting complex systems and different equipment in the situation of mechanical breakdown. Augmented reality (AR) is an emerging technology that embeds data into the environment for situation awareness to help maintenance operators make decisions and solve problems. An application was designed to identify the problem of steam generators and inspection centrifugal pumps. The objective of this research was to find the best medium of AR and type of problem solving strategies among analogy, focal object method and mean-ends analysis. Two scenarios of inspecting leakage were temperature and vibration. Two experiments were used in usability evaluation and future innovation, which included decision-making process and problem-solving strategy. This study found that maintenance operators prefer build-in magnifier to zoom the components (55.6%), 3D exploded view to track the problem parts (50%), and line chart to find the alter data or information (61.1%). There is a significant difference in the use of analogy (44.4%), focal objects (38.9%) and mean-ends strategy (16.7%). The marked differences between maintainers and operators are of the application of a problem solving strategy. However, future work should explore multimedia information retrieval which supports maintenance operators for decision-making.

Keywords: Augmented reality, situation awareness, decision-making, problem-solving.

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Authors: Siphiwe P. Mandina, Tinashe Shamuyashe

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Tourism has become a topical issue amongst academics and practitioners due to its potential to contribute significantly towards an economy’s GDP. The problem underpinning this research is the fact that the major attraction, Victoria Falls, is being marketed in neighboring countries like South Africa, Botswana and Zambia with tour operators providing just day trips to the Victoria Falls. This has deprived Zimbabwe of income from tourism with tourists making day trips and actually not spending nights in Zimbabwe. This therefore calls for cutting edge marketing strategies that are superior to or inimitable by competing nations such as South Africa and Zambia. This study proposes a shift towards an experience management paradigm in the tourism sector. A qualitative research was adopted for this study, and findings of this study were generalized across different tourism contexts, therefore making the survey based research design more appropriate. The target population for this study is tourists visiting Zimbabwe over the period 2016 and ZTA visitor database acquired from the Department of Immigration will form the sampling frame for the purposes of this study.

Keywords: Competitiveness, tourist arrivals, tourist experience, Zimbabwe.

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Authors: H. Alkhatib, J. Duveau

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Genetic algorithms (GAs) have been widely used for global optimization problems. The GA performance depends highly on the choice of the search space for each parameter to be optimized. Often, this choice is a problem-based experience. The search space being a set of potential solutions may contain the global optimum and/or other local optimums. A bad choice of this search space results in poor solutions. In this paper, our approach consists in extending the search space boundaries during the GA optimization, only when it is required. This leads to more diversification of GA population by new solutions that were not available with fixed search space boundaries. So, these dynamic search spaces can improve the GA optimization performances. The proposed approach is applied to power system stabilizer optimization for multimachine power system (16-generator and 68-bus). The obtained results are evaluated and compared with those obtained by ordinary GAs. Eigenvalue analysis and nonlinear system simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach to damp out the electromechanical oscillation and enhance the global system stability.

Keywords: Genetic Algorithms, Multiobjective Optimization, Power System Stabilizer, Small Signal Stability.

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Authors: Faramarz Khosravi, Gokhan Izbirak

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A weighted statistical stochastic based Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) model for modeling the potential barriers and enablers of sustainability for measuring and assessing the sustainability level is proposed. For context-dependent potential barriers and enablers, the proposed model takes the basis of the properties of the variables describing the sustainability functions and was developed into a realistic analytical model for the sustainable behavior of an organization. This thus serves as a means for measuring the sustainability of the organization. The main focus of this paper was the application of the AHP tool in a statistically-based model for measuring sustainability. Hence a strong weighted stochastic AHP based procedure was achieved. A case study scenario of a widely reported major Canadian electric utility was adopted to demonstrate the applicability of the developed model and comparatively examined its results with those of an equal-weighted model method. Variations in the sustainability of a company, as fluctuations, were figured out during the time. In the results obtained, sustainability index for successive years changed form 73.12%, 79.02%, 74.31%, 76.65%, 80.49%, 79.81%, 79.83% to more exact values 73.32%, 77.72%, 76.76%, 79.41%, 81.93%, 79.72%, and 80,45% according to priorities of factors that have found by expert views, respectively. By obtaining relatively necessary informative measurement indicators, the model can practically and effectively evaluate the sustainability extent of any organization and also to determine fluctuations in the organization over time.

Keywords: AHP, sustainability fluctuation, environmental indicators, performance measurement, environmental sustainability.

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Authors: M. A. Meslem

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For precise geoid determination, we use a reference field to subtract long and medium wavelength of the gravity field from observations data when we use the remove-compute-restore technique. Therefore, a comparison study between considered models should be made in order to select the optimal reference gravity field to be used. In this context, two recent global geopotential models have been selected to perform this comparison study over Northern Algeria. The Earth Gravitational Model (EGM2008) and the Global Gravity Model (GECO) conceived with a combination of the first model with anomalous potential derived from a GOCE satellite-only global model. Free air gravity anomalies in the area under study have been used to compute residual data using both gravity field models and a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) to subtract the residual terrain effect from the gravity observations. Residual data were used to generate local empirical covariance functions and their fitting to the closed form in order to compare their statistical behaviors according to both cases. Finally, height anomalies were computed from both geopotential models and compared to a set of GPS levelled points on benchmarks using least squares adjustment. The result described in details in this paper regarding these two models has pointed out a slight advantage of GECO global model globally through error degree variances comparison and ground-truth evaluation.

Keywords: Quasigeoid, gravity anomalies, covariance, GGM.

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Authors: Ali Arabkheradmand, Enayat A. Shabani, Shabnam Ranjbar Nikkhoo

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Historical and ancestral bonds of the countries in the Middle East have led to similarities in culture and context of their societies. In addition, economical resources, such as the oil industry, have generally been an integrative point in the region. Higher education of a country is influenced by different national and international factors and, regarding the mentioned bonds, it is inviting to study the development of the countries of the Middle East in higher education and draw some practical implications which can be used in the educational policymaking of the region. This review includes a data analysis on the population of international students in the countries of the Middle East. As its second objective, a review study on the successful countries, that is, those which host the highest number of international students, and the strategies they have developed to reach this state among the countries of the region, has been conducted. Suggestions are made as to the strategies in higher education systems of these countries which could prove useful and practical in the development of internationalization of higher education in the region, specifically with regard to the recruitment of international students.

Keywords: Internationalization of Higher Education, International Student Recruitment, Countries of the Middle East.

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Authors: Gürcan D. Baysal, Ali Tanış

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In this study, samples of plant types including rose hip (Rosa canina L.), jujube (Ziziphus jujube), sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides), elderberry (Sambucus nigra), apricot (Prunus armeniaca), scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), and cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) were grown using plant supporting units called Ekobox and drip irrigation systems in the Karapınar, Konya region of Turkey to reveal the efficiency of Ekobox and drip irrigation compared against a control with no irrigation. The plant diameter, height, and survival rates were determined, compared with each other, and statistically analyzed. According to the statistical analysis of the results, Ekobox applications resulted in the highest values for survival rate, diameter, and height measurements whereas the lowest values were determined in the control groups. These results indicate that the cultivation of plants with Ekobox may help protect against the loss of fertile soils as an effective mechanism for combating erosion and desertification. These advantages may also lead to a lasting economic effect on the cultivation of plants by locals of the Karapınar, Konya province who suffer from an ever-decreasing underground water level as a result of agricultural consumption.

Keywords: Drip irrigation, Ekobox, plant diameter, plant height, plant survival rate.

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Authors: Živa Ravnikar, Alfonso Bahillo Martinez, Barbara Goličnik Marušić

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Climate change mitigation has been formally adopted and announced by countries over the globe, where cities are targeting carbon neutrality through various more or less successful, systematic, and fragmentary actions. The article is based on the fact that environmental conditions affect human comfort and the usage of space. Urban planning can, with its sustainable solutions, not only support climate mitigation in terms of a planet reduction of global warming but as well enabling natural processes that in the immediate vicinity produce environmental conditions that encourage people to walk or cycle. However, the article draws attention to the importance of integrating climate consideration into urban planning, where detailed environmental data play a key role, enabling urban planners to improve or monitor environmental conditions on cycle paths. In a practical aspect, this paper tests a particular ICT tool, a prototype used for environmental data. Data gathering was performed along the cycling lanes in Ljubljana (Slovenia), where the main objective was to assess the tool's data applicable value within the planning of comfortable cycling lanes. The results suggest that such transportable devices for in-situ measurements can help a researcher interpret detailed environmental information, characterized by fine granularity and precise data spatial and temporal resolution. Data can be interpreted within human comfort zones, where graphical representation is in the form of a map, enabling the link of the environmental conditions with a spatial context. The paper also provides preliminary results in terms of the potential of such tools for identifying the correlations between environmental conditions and different spatial settings, which can help urban planners to prioritize interventions in places. The paper contributes to multidisciplinary approaches as it demonstrates the usefulness of such fine-grained data for better consideration of microclimatology in urban planning, which is a prerequisite for creating climate-comfortable cycling lanes promoting active mobility.

Keywords: Information and communication technology tools, urban planning, human comfort, microclimate, cycling lanes.

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Authors: V. Yu. Shungin, A. V. Popov

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The paper gives basic information on application of rotation bending for manufacturing ship hull parts from steel plates and on MGPS machines, employed for this purpose.

Keywords: Roller bending, steel plates, shipbuilding, ship repair.

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Authors: S. Wongkoon, M. Jaroensutasinee, K. Jaroensutasinee, W. Preechaporn, S. Chumkiew

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This study investigated the number of Aedes larvae, the key breeding sites of Aedes sp., and the relationship between climatic factors and the incidence of DHF in Samui Islands. We conducted our questionnaire and larval surveys from randomly selected 105 households in Samui Islands in July-September 2006. Pearson-s correlation coefficient was used to explore the primary association between the DHF incidence and all climatic factors. Multiple stepwise regression technique was then used to fit the statistical model. The results showed that the positive indoor containers were small jars, cement tanks, and plastic tanks. The positive outdoor containers were small jars, cement tanks, plastic tanks, used cans, tires, plastic bottles, discarded objects, pot saucers, plant pots, and areca husks. All Ae. albopictus larval indices (i.e., CI, HI, and BI) were higher than Ae. aegypti larval indices in this area. These larval indices were higher than WHO standard. This indicated a high risk of DHF transmission at Samui Islands. The multiple stepwise regression model was y = –288.80 + 11.024xmean temp. The mean temperature was positively associated with the DHF incidence in this area.

Keywords: Dengue vectors, Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, Container Index, House Index, Breteau Index, Aedes indices, Climatic factors, Temperature.

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Authors: P. Kowalska, P. Gabka, K. Kamieniarz, M. Kamieniarz, W. Stryla, P. Guzik, T. Krauze

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We have developed a computer program consisting of 6 subtests assessing the children hand dexterity applicable in the rehabilitation medicine. We have carried out a normative study on a representative sample of 285 children aged from 7 to 15 (mean age 11.3) and we have proposed clinical standards for three age groups (7-9, 9-11, 12-15 years). We have shown statistical significance of differences among the corresponding mean values of the task time completion. We have also found a strong correlation between the task time completion and the age of the subjects, as well as we have performed the test-retest reliability checks in the sample of 84 children, giving the high values of the Pearson coefficients for the dominant and non-dominant hand in the range 0.740.97 and 0.620.93, respectively. A new MATLAB-based programming tool aiming at analysis of cardiologic RR intervals and blood pressure descriptors, is worked out, too. For each set of data, ten different parameters are extracted: 2 in time domain, 4 in frequency domain and 4 in Poincaré plot analysis. In addition twelve different parameters of baroreflex sensitivity are calculated. All these data sets can be visualized in time domain together with their power spectra and Poincaré plots. If available, the respiratory oscillation curves can be also plotted for comparison. Another application processes biological data obtained from BLAST analysis.

Keywords: Biomedical data base processing, Computer software, Hand dexterity, Heart rate and blood pressure variability.

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Authors: Nabil A. Ibrahim, Nabil M. Abdel Moneim, Mohamed A. Ramadan, Marwa M. Hosni

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As the Textile Industry is the second largest industry in Egypt and as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up a great portion of this industry therein it is essential to apply the concept of Cleaner Production for the purpose of reducing pollution. In order to achieve this goal, a case study concerned with ecofriendly stone-washing of jeans-garments was investigated. A raw material-substitution option was adopted whereby the toxic potassium permanganate and sodium sulfide were replaced by the environmentally compatible hydrogen peroxide and glucose respectively where the concentrations of both replaced chemicals together with the operating time were optimized. In addition, a process-rationalization option involving four additional processes was investigated. By means of criteria such as product quality, effluent analysis, mass and heat balance; and cost analysis with the aid of a statistical model, a process optimization treatment revealed that the superior process optima were 50%, 0.15% and 50min for H2O2 concentration, glucose concentration and time, respectively. With these values the superior process ought to reduce the annual cost by about EGP 105 relative to the currently used conventional method.

Keywords: Cleaner Production, Eco-friendly of jeans garments, Stone washing, Textile Industry, Textile Wet Processing.

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Authors: P. Manivannan, M. Rajasimman

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Response surface methodology was used for quantitative investigation of water and solids transfer during osmotic dehydration of beetroot in aqueous solution of salt. Effects of temperature (25 – 45oC), processing time (30–150 min), salt concentration (5–25%, w/w) and solution to sample ratio (5:1 – 25:1) on osmotic dehydration of beetroot were estimated. Quadratic regression equations describing the effects of these factors on the water loss and solids gain were developed. It was found that effects of temperature and salt concentrations were more significant on the water loss than the effects of processing time and solution to sample ratio. As for solids gain processing time and salt concentration were the most significant factors. The osmotic dehydration process was optimized for water loss, solute gain, and weight reduction. The optimum conditions were found to be: temperature – 35oC, processing time – 90 min, salt concentration – 14.31% and solution to sample ratio 8.5:1. At these optimum values, water loss, solid gain and weight reduction were found to be 30.86 (g/100 g initial sample), 9.43 (g/100 g initial sample) and 21.43 (g/100 g initial sample) respectively.

Keywords: Optimization, Osmotic dehydration, Beetroot, saltsolution, response surface methodology

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Authors: Carilette Fourie, Chris Cloete

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The occurrence of traditional authorities and tribal land within South Africa results in unique developmental trends and challenges. Tribal communities, typically located in rural environments, are perceived to be severely affected by poverty and poor living conditions relative to their urban counterparts. The exact extent of the socio-economic disparity between tribal and non-tribal communities is addressed in this paper. After adjustment of available census data to correspond with the delineation of tribal and non-tribal land in the Kwazulu-Natal province, seven selected socio-economic indicators were compared. The investigation revealed that although tribal areas are characterised by low employment rates and educational levels, a young population, fairly large household sizes, lower access to basic services and lower income households that are highly dependent on social grants, tribal area populations do have moderate levels of education, access to formal housing and relatively good access to services.

Keywords: KwaZulu-Natal, tribal areas, traditional authority, socio-economic, well-being.

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Authors: A. Majeed, P. Ali

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Before designing an electrical system, the estimation of load is necessary for unit sizing and demand-generation balancing. The system could be a stand-alone system for a village or grid connected or integrated renewable energy to grid connection, especially as there are non–electrified villages in developing countries. In the classical model, the energy demand was found by estimating the household appliances multiplied with the amount of their rating and the duration of their operation, but in this paper, information exists for electrified villages could be used to predict the demand, as villages almost have the same life style. This paper describes a method used to predict the average energy consumed in each two months for every consumer living in a village by Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The input data are collected using a regional survey for samples of consumers representing typical types of different living, household appliances and energy consumption by a list of information, and the output data are collected from administration office of Piramagrun for each corresponding consumer. The result of this study shows that the average demand for different consumers from four villages in different months throughout the year is approximately 12 kWh/day, this model estimates the average demand/day for every consumer with a mean absolute percent error of 11.8%, and MathWorks software package MATLAB version 7.6.0 that contains and facilitate Neural Network Toolbox was used.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, load estimation, regional survey, rural electrification.

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Authors: Barnabas M. Suleiman, Ifeanyi P. Onyeonoru, Egharevba E. Matthew

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This article interrogates the question of leadership in the context of the antidemocratic tendencies of Africa’s political leaders. The African continent has continued to struggle behind other continents of the world as a result of the failure of leadership to address the political and socio-economic challenges of the continent. Thus, bedevilled with the challenges of development, the African continent is in need of people-centred leadership. However, as the continent struggles to overcome its political and development predicaments, it is stuck in the dystopia of demagoguery that promises nothing but apocalyptic future for its teeming population. Thus, despite the enormous resources available in Africa, leadership failures have made progress difficult to achieve. At the centre of this leadership failure are demagogues: a set of leaders who have influence over a large number of people but take advantage of that influence to undermine democracy and good governance. Citing various examples across Africa, the article describes how demagogues, especially in democratic countries, have become the problem of the African continent in its quest to achieve democratic progress, development and peaceful progress.

Keywords: Africa, demagogue, good governance, democracy, leadership.

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Authors: Roghaieh Parvizsedghy, Seyyed Mojtaba Sadrameli

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Biodiesel as an alternative diesel fuel is steadily gaining more attention and significance. However, there are some drawbacks while using biodiesel regarding its properties that requires it to be blended with petrol based diesel and/or additives to improve the fuel characteristics. This study analyses thermal cracking as an alternative technology to improve biodiesel characteristics in which, FAME based biodiesel produced by transesterification of castor oil is fed into a continuous thermal cracking reactor at temperatures range of 450-500°C and flowrate range of 20-40 g/hr. Experiments designed by response surface methodology and subsequent statistical studies show that temperature and feed flowrate significantly affect the products yield. Response surfaces were used to study the impact of temperature and flowrate on the product properties. After each experiment, the produced crude bio-oil was distilled and diesel cut was separated. As shorter chain molecules are produced through thermal cracking, the distillation curve of the diesel cut fitted more with petrol based diesel curve in comparison to the biodiesel. Moreover, the produced diesel cut properties adequately pose within property ranges defined by the related standard of petrol based diesel. Cold flow properties, high heating value as the main drawbacks of the biodiesel are improved by this technology. Thermal cracking decreases kinematic viscosity, Flash point and cetane number. 

Keywords: Biodiesel, castor oil, fuel properties, thermal cracking.

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Authors: Parvinder S. Sandhu, Manisha Prashar, Pourush Bassi, Atul Bisht

Abstract:

Software effort estimation is the process of predicting the most realistic use of effort required to develop or maintain software based on incomplete, uncertain and/or noisy input. Effort estimates may be used as input to project plans, iteration plans, budgets. There are various models like Halstead, Walston-Felix, Bailey-Basili, Doty and GA Based models which have already used to estimate the software effort for projects. In this study Statistical Models, Fuzzy-GA and Neuro-Fuzzy (NF) Inference Systems are experimented to estimate the software effort for projects. The performances of the developed models were tested on NASA software project datasets and results are compared with the Halstead, Walston-Felix, Bailey-Basili, Doty and Genetic Algorithm Based models mentioned in the literature. The result shows that the NF Model has the lowest MMRE and RMSE values. The NF Model shows the best results as compared with the Fuzzy-GA based hybrid Inference System and other existing Models that are being used for the Effort Prediction with lowest MMRE and RMSE values.

Keywords: Neuro-Fuzzy Model, Halstead Model, Walston-Felix Model, Bailey-Basili Model, Doty Model, GA Based Model, Genetic Algorithm.

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Authors: Mohamed Taher Eldesoky, Enas Elsayed Abutaleb

Abstract:

Background: The change in foot posture can possibly generate changes in the pelvic alignment. There is still a lack of evidence about the effects of bilateral and unilateral flatfoot on possible changes in pelvic alignment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of flatfoot on the sagittal and frontal planes of pelvic postures. Materials and Methods: 56 subjects, aged 18–40 years, were assigned into three groups: 20 healthy subjects, 19 subjects with bilateral flexible second-degree flat foot, and 17 subjects with unilateral flexible second-degree flat foot. 3D assessment of the pelvis using the formetric-II device was used to evaluate pelvic alignment in the frontal and sagittal planes by measuring pelvic inclination and pelvic tilt angles. Results: ANOVA test with LSD test were used for statistical analysis. Both Unilateral and bilateral second degree flatfoot produced significant (P<0.05) pelvic anteversion, in comparison to the healthy subjects (P<0.05). But the bilateral flatfoot subjects seemed to have more anteversion than the unilateral subjects. Unilateral flatfoot caused a significant (P<0.05) lateral pelvic tilt in the direction of the affected side in comparison to the healthy and bilateral flatfoot subjects. Conclusion: The bilateral and unilateral second degree flatfoot changes pelvic alignment. Both of them lead to increases of pelvic anteversion while the unilateral one caused lateral pelvic tilt toward the affected side. Thus, foot posture should be considered when assessing patients with pelvic misalignment and disorders.

Keywords: Bilateral flatfoot, foot posture, pelvic alignment, unilateral flatfoot.

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Authors: Suppara Charoenpoom

Abstract:

The objectives of this research was to design and develop a quality management of the school buildings and environment. A quantitative and qualitative mixed research methodology was used. The population sample included 14 directors of primary schools. Two research tools were used. The first research tool included an in-depth interview and questionnaire. The second research tool included the Quality Business Process and Quality Work Procedure, and a Key Performance Indicator of each activity. The statistics included mean and standard deviation. The findings for the development of a quality management process of buildings and environment administration of the basic schools consisted of one quality business process (QBP) and seven quality work processes (QWP). The result from the experts’ evaluation revealed that the process and implementation of quality management of the school buildings and environment has passed the inspection process with consensus. This implies that the process of quality management of the school buildings and environment is suitable for implementation. Moreover, the level of agreement in the feasibility of the implementation of this plan had the mean in the range of 0.64-1.00 which suggests the design of the new plan is acceptable.

Keywords: Process, Building, Environment.

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Authors: Emanuele Stomeo, Tatiana Kalganova, Cyrille Lambert

Abstract:

The evolution of logic circuits, which falls under the heading of evolvable hardware, is carried out by evolutionary algorithms. These algorithms are able to automatically configure reconfigurable devices. One of main difficulties in developing evolvable hardware with the ability to design functional electrical circuits is to choose the most favourable EA features such as fitness function, chromosome representations, population size, genetic operators and individual selection. Until now several researchers from the evolvable hardware community have used and tuned these parameters and various rules on how to select the value of a particular parameter have been proposed. However, to date, no one has presented a study regarding the size of the chromosome representation (circuit layout) to be used as a platform for the evolution in order to increase the evolvability, reduce the number of generations and optimize the digital logic circuits through reducing the number of logic gates. In this paper this topic has been thoroughly investigated and the optimal parameters for these EA features have been proposed. The evolution of logic circuits has been carried out by an extrinsic evolvable hardware system which uses (1+λ) evolution strategy as the core of the evolution.

Keywords: Evolvable hardware, genotype size, computational intelligence, design of logic circuits.

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