Search results for: Transit-oriented Development (TOD)

Authors: Helena Costa Oliveira, Carmem Oliveira, Rita Moutinho

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The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a continuous strategic monitoring model focused not only on financial issues but also on internal processes, patients/users, and learning and growth. Initially dedicated to business management, it currently serves organizations of other natures - such as hospitals. This paper presents a BSC designed for a Portuguese Acute Pain Unit (APU). This study is qualitative and based on the experience of collaborators at the APU. The management of APU is based on four perspectives – users, internal processes, learning and growth, and financial and legal. For each perspective, there were identified strategic objectives, critical factors, lead indicators and initiatives. The strategic map of the APU outlining sustained strategic relations among strategic objectives. This study contributes to the development of research in the health management area as it explores how organizational insufficiencies and inconsistencies in this particular case can be addressed, through the identification of critical factors, to clearly establish core outcomes and initiatives to set up.

Keywords: Acute pain unit, balanced scorecard, hospital management, organizational performance, Portugal.

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Authors: N. Marzban, J. K. Heydarzadeh M. Pourmohammadbagher, M. H. Hatami, A. Samia

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A nano-alumina-zirconia composite catalyst was synthesized by a simple aqueous sol-gel method using AlCl₃.6H₂O and ZrCl₄ as precursors. Thermal decomposition of the precursor and subsequent formation of γ-Al₂O₃ and t-Zr were investigated by thermal analysis. XRD analysis showed that γ-Al₂O₃ and t-ZrO₂ phases were formed at 700 °C. FT-IR analysis also indicated that the phase transition to γ-Al₂O₃ occurred in corroboration with X-ray studies. TEM analysis of the calcined powder revealed that spherical particles were in the range of 8-12 nm. The nano-alumina-zirconia composite particles were mesoporous and uniformly distributed in their crystalline phase. In order to measure the catalytic activity, esterification reaction was carried out. Biodiesel, as a renewable fuel, was formed in a continuous packed column reactor. Free fatty acid (FFA) was esterified with ethanol in a heterogeneous catalytic reactor. It was found that the synthesized γ-Al₂O₃/ZrO₂ composite had the potential to be used as a heterogeneous base catalyst for biodiesel production processes.

Keywords: Nano-alumina-zirconia, composite catalyst, thin film, biodiesel.

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Authors: K. Kalaiselvan, Naresh Subramania Warrier, S. Elavarasi

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Several situations arise in industrial practice which calls for joining of dissimilar metals. With increasing demand in the application requirements, dissimilar metal joining becomes inevitable in modern engineering industries. The metals employed are the structure for effective and utilization of the special properties of each metal. The purpose of this paper is to present the research and development status of titanium (Ti) and aluminium (Al) dissimilar alloys weldment by the researchers worldwide. The detailed analysis of problems faced during welding of dissimilar metal joint for Ti/Al metal combinations are discussed. Microstructural variations in heat affected zone (HAZ), fusion zone (FZ), Intermetallic compound (IMC) layer and surface fracture of weldments are analysed. Additionally, mechanical property variations and microstructural feature have been studied by the researchers. The paper provides a detailed literature review of Ti/Al dissimilar metal joint microchemistry and property variation across the weldment.

Keywords: Laser beam welding, titanium, aluminium, metallurgical properties.

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Authors: Dongfang Qiu, Yilin Lu

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The measurement of enterprise-university-research cooperative efficiency has important meanings in improving the cooperative efficiency, strengthening the effective integration of regional resource, enhancing the ability of regional innovation and promoting the development of regional economy. The paper constructs the DEA method and DEA-Malmquist productivity index method to research the cooperation efficiency of Hubei by making comparisons with other provinces in China. The study found out the index of technology efficiency is 0.52 and the enterprise-universityresearch cooperative efficiency is Non-DEA efficient. To realize the DEA efficiency of Hubei province, the amount of 1652.596 R&D employees and 638.368 R&D employees’ full time equivalence should be reduced or 137.89 billion yuan of new products’ sales income be increased. Finally, it puts forward policy recommendations on existing problems to strengthen the standings of the cooperation, realize the effective application of the research results, and improve the level of management of enterprise-university-research cooperation efficiency.

Keywords: Cooperation Ability, DEA Method, Enterprise-university-research Cooperation, Malmquist Efficiency Index.

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Authors: U. Bottigli, D.Cascio, F. Fauci, B. Golosio, R. Magro, G.L. Masala, P. Oliva, G. Raso, S.Stumbo

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Purpose of this work is the development of an automatic classification system which could be useful for radiologists in the investigation of breast cancer. The software has been designed in the framework of the MAGIC-5 collaboration. In the automatic classification system the suspicious regions with high probability to include a lesion are extracted from the image as regions of interest (ROIs). Each ROI is characterized by some features based on morphological lesion differences. Some classifiers as a Feed Forward Neural Network, a K-Nearest Neighbours and a Support Vector Machine are used to distinguish the pathological records from the healthy ones. The results obtained in terms of sensitivity (percentage of pathological ROIs correctly classified) and specificity (percentage of non-pathological ROIs correctly classified) will be presented through the Receive Operating Characteristic curve (ROC). In particular the best performances are 88% ± 1 of area under ROC curve obtained with the Feed Forward Neural Network.

Keywords: Neural Networks, K-Nearest Neighbours, SupportVector Machine, Computer Aided Diagnosis.

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Authors: H. Soleimanjahi, M. J. Nategh, S. Falahi

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Deciding the numerous parameters involved in designing a competent artificial neural network is a complicated task. The existence of several options for selecting an appropriate architecture for neural network adds to this complexity, especially when different applications of heterogeneous natures are concerned. Two completely different applications in engineering and medical science were selected in the present study including prediction of workpiece's surface roughness in ultrasonic-vibration assisted turning and papilloma viruses oncogenicity. Several neural network architectures with different parameters were developed for each application and the results were compared. It was illustrated in this paper that some applications such as the first one mentioned above are apt to be modeled by a single network with sufficient accuracy, whereas others such as the second application can be best modeled by different expert networks for different ranges of output. Development of knowledge about the essentials of neural networks for different applications is regarded as the cornerstone of multidisciplinary network design programs to be developed as a means of reducing inconsistencies and the burden of the user intervention.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Network, Malignancy Diagnosis, Papilloma Viruses Oncogenicity, Surface Roughness, UltrasonicVibration-Assisted Turning.

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Authors: Rouhollah Ahmadi, Tatsuya Ueno, Tomio Okawa

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Bubble generation was observed using a high-speed camera in subcooled flow boiling at low void fraction. Constant heat flux was applied on one side of an upward rectangular channel to make heated test channel. Water as a working fluid from high subcooling to near saturation temperature was injected step by step to investigate bubble behavior during void development. Experiments were performed in two different pressures condition close to 2bar and 4bar. It was observed that in high subcooling when boiling was commenced, bubble after nucleation departed its origin and slid beside heated surface. In an observation window mean release frequency of bubble fb,mean, nucleation site Ns and mean bubble volume Vb,mean in each step of experiments were measured to investigate wall vaporization rate. It was found that in proximity of PNVG vaporization rate was increased significantly in compare with condensation rate which remained in low value.

Keywords: Subcooled flow boiling, Bubble dynamics, Void fraction, Sliding bubble.

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Authors: Teryima Oralu, Babatunde Kasim Oladele

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This paper looks at the management and funding of education in Nigeria. The concept of management and administration has been concisely defined. Also the historical background of educational management in Nigeria has been discussed alongside the management of primary education, secondary education and tertiary education in Nigeria. Furthermore, the funding of education has also been concisely discussed in this paper alongside the various sources of funds available to education in Nigeria. The sources include government grant, school fees, external aids, school revenue yielding businesses and so on. The budgetary allocation of Nigeria to education from 1999 to 2013 was also highlighted in this in paper and it was discovered that the lowest allocation was in 1999 with 4.46% while the highest allocation was in 2006 with 10.43%. It is also of note that, Nigeria is still yet to meet the recommendation of UNESCO of 26% budgetary allocation to education by developing countries. Recommendations have been drawn that the government should increase budgetary allocation to this sector in a consistent manner because of its importance to the national economy, hoping that with proper monitoring of fund, it would contribute more significantly to the development of the country. An effective utilization of such funds is also advocated for greater achievements. All organs of the government should exhibit good corporate governance and transparency and so on.

Keywords: Education, funding, management, Nigeria.

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Authors: C. Adam, G. Henri, T. Levent, J.-B. Mauro, A. -L. Mayet

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This paper is concerning the application of a deterministic decisional pattern to a multi-agent system which would provide intelligence to a distributed energy smart grid at local consumer level. Development of multi-agent application involves agent specifications, analysis, design and realization. It can be implemented by following several decisional patterns. The purpose of present article is to suggest a new approach to control the smart grid system in a decentralized competitive approach. The proposed algorithmic solution results from a deterministic dichotomous approach based on environment observation. It uses an iterative process to solve automatic learning problems. Through memory of collected past tries, the algorithm monotonically converges to very steep system operation point in attraction basin resulting from weak system nonlinearity. In this sense, system is given by (local) constitutive elementary rules the intelligence of its global existence so that it can self-organize toward optimal operating sequence.

Keywords: Decentralized Competitive System, Distributed Smart Grid, Multi-Agent System

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Authors: Jieun Kim, Yongtae Park, Hakyeon Lee

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The emergence of mobile application services and App Store has led to the explosive growth of user innovation, which users voluntarily contribute to. User innovation communities where end users freely reveal innovative ideas and needs with other community members are becoming increasingly influential in this area. However, user-s ideas in user innovation community are not enough to be new service opportunity, because some of them can already developed as existing services in App Store. Moreover, the existing services similar to new service opportunity can be significant references to apply analogy to develop service concept. In response, this research proposes Case-Based Reasoning approach to matching the user needs and existing services, identifying unmet opportunistic user needs, and retrieving similar services with opportunity. Due to its intuitive and transparent algorithm, users related to App Store innovation communities can easily employ Case-Based Reasoning based approach to their innovation.

Keywords: App Store, Case-Based Reasoning, Mobile Application Service, User innovation community.

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Authors: A. Sunkar, Y. Santosa, S. B. Rushayati

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Indonesia has experienced annual forest fires that have rapidly destroyed and degraded its forests. Fires in the peat swamp forests of Riau Province, have set the stage for problems to worsen, this being the ecosystem most prone to fires (which are also the most difficult, to extinguish). Despite various efforts to curb deforestation, and forest degradation processes, severe forest fires are still occurring. To find an effective solution, the basic causes of the problems must be identified. It is therefore critical to have an indepth understanding of the underlying causal factors that have contributed to deforestation and forest degradation as a whole, in order to attain reductions in their rates. An assessment of the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation was carried out, in order to design and implement measures that could slow these destructive processes. Research was conducted in Giam Siak Kecil–Bukit Batu Biosphere Reserve (GSKBB BR), in the Riau Province of Sumatera, Indonesia. A biosphere reserve was selected as the study site because such reserves aim to reconcile conservation with sustainable development. A biosphere reserve should promote a range of local human activities, together with development values that are in line spatially and economically with the area conservation values, through use of a zoning system. Moreover, GSKBB BR is an area with vast peatlands, and is experiencing forest fires annually. Various factors were analysed to assess the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in GSKBB BR; data were collected from focus group discussions with stakeholders, key informant interviews with key stakeholders, field observation and a literature review. Landsat satellite imagery was used to map forest-cover changes for various periods. Analysis of landsat images, taken during the period 2010-2014, revealed that within the non-protected area of core zone, there was a trend towards decreasing peat swamp forest areas, increasing land clearance, and increasing areas of community oilpalm and rubber plantations. Fire was used for land clearing and most of the forest fires occurred in the most populous area (the transition area). The study found a relationship between the deforested/ degraded areas, and certain distance variables, i.e. distance from roads, villages and the borders between the core area and the buffer zone. The further the distance from the core area of the reserve, the higher was the degree of deforestation and forest degradation. Research findings suggested that agricultural expansion may be the direct cause of deforestation and forest degradation in the reserve, whereas socio-economic factors were the underlying driver of forest cover changes; such factors consisting of a combination of sociocultural, infrastructural, technological, institutional (policy and governance), demographic (population pressure) and economic (market demand) considerations. These findings indicated that local factors/problems were the critical causes of deforestation and degradation in GSKBB BR. This research therefore concluded that reductions in deforestation and forest degradation in GSKBB BR could be achieved through ‘local actor’-tailored approaches such as community empowerment.

Keywords: Actor-led solution, community empowerment, drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, Giam Siak Kecil– Bukit Batu Biosphere Reserve.

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Authors: Dana Madalina Pohrib, Elena Irina Ciobanu

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In compaction works, the most often used codes and standards are those for road embankments and refer to a maximum filling height of 3.00m. When filling a height greater than 3.00m, such codes are no longer valid and thus their application may lead to technical difficulties in the process of compaction and to the achievement of a sufficient degree of compaction. For this reason, in the case of controlled fillings with heights greater than 3.00m it is necessary to formulate and apply a number of special techniques, which can be determined by performing a full scale test. This paper presents the results of the studies and full scale tests conducted for the stabilization of a ravine with vertical banks and a depth of about 12.00m. The fillings will support a heavy traffic road connecting the two parts of a village in Vaslui County, Romania. After analyzing two comparative intervention solutions, the variant of a controlled filling bordered by a monolith concrete retaining wall was chosen. The results obtained by the authors highlighted the need to insert a geogrid reinforcement at every 2.00m for creating a 12.00m thick compacted fill.

Keywords: Compaction, dynamic probing, stability, soil stratification.

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Authors: Cathy Smilan

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In our current political climate of assessment and accountability initiatives we are failing to prepare our children for a participatory role in the creative economy. The field of education is increasingly falling prey to didactic methodologies which train a nation of competent test takers, foregoing the opportunity to educate students to find problems and develop multiple solutions. No where is this more evident than in the area of art education. Due to a myriad of issues including budgetary shortfalls, time constraints and a general misconception that anyone who enjoys the arts is capable of teaching the arts, our students are not developing the skills they require to become fully literate in critical thinking and creative processing. Although art integrated curriculum is increasingly being viewed as a reform strategy for motivating students by offering alternative presentation of concepts and representation of knowledge acquisition, misinformed administrators are often excluding the art teacher from the integration equation. The paper to follow addresses the problem of the need for divergent thinking and conceptualization in our schools. Furthermore, this paper explores the role of education, and specifically, art education in the development of a creatively literate citizenry.

Keywords: Art Integration, Creativity, Artist/Teacher/Leaders, Educating for a Creative Economy.

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Authors: Diky Mudhakir, M. Fauzi Bostanudin, Fiki Firmawan, Rachmat Mauludin

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In the present study, development of salbutamol sulphate nanoparticles that adhere to gastric mucus was investigated. Salbutamol sulphate has low bioavailability due to short transit time in gastric. It also has a positive surface charge that provides hurdles to be encapsulated by the positively strong mucoadhesive polymer of chitosan. To overcome the difficulties, the surface charge of active ingredient was modified using several nonionic and anionic stomach-specific polymers. The nanoparticles were prepared using ionotropic gelation technique. The evaluation involved determination of particle size, zeta potential, entrapment efficiency, in vitro drug release and in vitro mucoadhesion test. Results exhibited that the use of anionic alginate polymer was more satisfactory than that of nonionic polymer. Characteristics of the particles was nano-size, high encapsulation efficiency, fulfilled the drug release requirements and adhesive towards stomach for around 11 hours. This result shows that the salbutamol sulphate nanoparticles can be utilized for improvement its delivery.

Keywords: Mucoadhesive, salbutamol sulphate, nanosize, anionic polymer.

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Authors: Soltani Amir, Hu Jiaxin

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Determination of optimal parameters of a passive  control system device is the primary objective of this study.  Expanding upon the use of control devices in wind and earthquake  hazard reduction has led to development of various control systems.  The advantage of non-linearity characteristics in a passive control  device and the optimal control method using LQR algorithm are  explained in this study. Finally, this paper introduces a simple  approach to determine optimum parameters of a nonlinear viscous  damper for vibration control of structures. A MATLAB program is  used to produce the dynamic motion of the structure considering the  stiffness matrix of the SDOF frame and the non-linear damping  effect. This study concluded that the proposed system (variable  damping system) has better performance in system response control  than a linear damping system. Also, according to the energy  dissipation graph, the total energy loss is greater in non-linear  damping system than other systems.

 

Keywords: Passive Control System, Damping Devices, Viscous Dampers, Control Algorithm.

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Authors: Ivana Tadić, Snježana Pivac

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Although human resources are recognized as the crucial companies’ resources and their positive influence on companies’ performances has been confirmed through different researches, scientists are still debating it. In order to contribute this debate, this paper firstly discusses the most important human resource management elements and practices and its influence on companies’ success. Afterwards it defines human resource “bundles” – interrelated and internally consistent human resource practices, complementary to each other, or the most important human resource practices and elements regarding Croatian companies and its human resource management activities. Finally, the paper provides empirical results; more precisely it reveals the relation of the level of development of human resource management function (“bundles”) and companies’ financial performances (using profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, solvency ratios and a group of additional ratios related to employees’ indicators).

Keywords: Companies’ performances, human resource bundles, multivariate statistical analysis.

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Authors: Muh. Hisjam, Nancy Oktyajati, Wakhid A. Jauhari, Wahyudi Sutopo

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This research is intended to develop a raw material allocation model in timber processing industry in Perum Perhutani Unit I, Central Java, Indonesia. The model can be used to determine the quantity of allocation of timber between chain in the supply chain to select supplier considering factors that are log price and the distance. In determining the quantity of allocation of timber between chains in the supply chain, the model considers the optimal inventory in each chain. Whilst the optimal inventory is determined based on demand forecast, the capacity and safety stock. Problem solving allocation is conducted by developing linear programming model that aims to minimize the total cost of the purchase, transportation cost and storage costs at each chain. The results of numerical examples show that the proposed model can generate savings of the purchase cost of 20.84% and select suppliers with mileage closer.

Keywords: Allocation model, linear programming, purchase costs, storage costs, suppliers, transportation costs.

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Authors: Olatunde I. Sekunowo, Stephen I. Durowaye, Oluwashina P. Gbenebor

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Copper being one of the major intrinsic residual impurities in steel possesses the tendency to induce severe microstructural distortions if not controlled within certain limits. Hence, this paper investigates the effect of this element on the mechanical properties of construction steel with a view to ascertain its safe limits for effective control. The experiment entails collection of statistically scheduled samples of hot rolled profiles with varied copper concentrations in the range of 0.12-0.39 wt. %. From these samples were prepared standard test specimens subjected to tensile, impact, hardness and microstructural analyses. Results show a rather huge compromise in mechanical properties as the specimens demonstrated 54.3%, 74.2% and 64.9% reduction in tensile strength, impact energy and hardness respectively as copper content increases from 0.12 wt. % to 0.39 wt. %. The steel’s abysmal performance is due to the severe distortion of the microstructure occasioned by the development of incoherent complex compounds which weaken the pearlite reinforcing phase. It is concluded that the presence of copper above 0.22 wt. % is deleterious to construction steel performance.

Keywords: Construction steel, mechanical properties, processing method, trace elements.

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Authors: J. Zambujal-Oliveira

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The relation between taxation states and foreign direct investment has been studied for several perspectives and with states of different levels of development. Usually it's only considered the impact of tax level on the foreign direct investment volume. This paper enhances this view by assuming that multinationals companies (MNC) can use transfer prices systems and have got investment timing flexibility. Thus, it evaluates the impact of the use of international transfer pricing systems on the states- policy and on the investment timing of the multinational companies. In uncertain business environments (with periodical release of news), the investment can increase if MNC detain investment delay options. This paper shows how tax differentials can attract foreign direct investments (FDI) and influence MNC behavior. The equilibrium is set in a global environment where MNC can shift their profits between states depending on the corporate tax rates. Assuming the use of transfer pricing schemes, this paper confirms the relationship between MNC behavior and the release of new business news.

Keywords: Corporate Taxation, International Profit Shifting, Real Options

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Authors: S. Tangjuank, N. Insuk , J. Tontrakoon , V. Udeye

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Cashew nut shells were converted into activated carbon powders using KOH activation plus CO2 gasification at 1027 K. The increase both of impregnation ratio and activation time, there was swiftly the development of mesoporous structure with increasing of mesopore volume ratio from 20-28% and 27-45% for activated carbon with ratio of KOH per char equal to 1 and 4, respectively. Activated carbon derived from KOH/char ratio equal to 1 and CO2 gasification time from 20 to 150 minutes were exhibited the BET surface area increasing from 222 to 627 m2.g-1. And those were derived from KOH/char ratio of 4 with activation time from 20 to 150 minutes exhibited high BET surface area from 682 to 1026 m2.g-1. The adsorption of Lead(II) and Cadmium(II) ion was investigated. This adsorbent exhibited excellent adsorption for Lead(II) and Cadmium(II) ion. Maximum adsorption presented at 99.61% at pH 6.5 and 98.87% at optimum conditions. The experimental data was calculated from Freundlich isotherm and Langmuir isotherm model. The maximum capacity of Pb2+ and Cd2+ ions was found to be 28.90 m2.g-1 and 14.29 m2.g-1, respectively.

Keywords: Activated carbon, cashew nut shell, heavy metals, adsorption.

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Authors: V. Vicente E. Mujica, Gustavo Gonzalez

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The global coverage of broadband multimedia and internet-based services in terrestrial-satellite networks demand particular interests for satellite providers in order to enhance services with low latencies and high signal quality to diverse users. In particular, the delay of on-board processing is an inherent source of latency in a satellite communication that sometimes is discarded for the end-to-end delay of the satellite link. The frame work for this paper includes modelling of an on-orbit satellite payload using an agent model that can reproduce the properties of processing delays. In essence, a comparison of different spatial interpolation methods is carried out to evaluate physical data obtained by an GEO satellite in order to define a discretization function for determining that delay. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed agent and the development of a delay discretization function are together validated by simulating an hybrid satellite and terrestrial network. Simulation results show high accuracy according to the characteristics of initial data points of processing delay for Ku bands.

Keywords: Terrestrial-satellite networks, latency, on-orbit satellite payload, simulation.

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Authors: Jamel Miri, Bechir Nsiri, Ridha Bouallegue

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Ultra WidBand-IR physical layer technology has seen a great development during the last decade which makes it a promising candidate for short range wireless communications, as they bring considerable benefits in terms of connectivity and mobility. However, like all wireless communication they suffer from vulnerabilities in terms of security because of the open nature of the radio channel. To face these attacks, distance bounding protocols are the most popular counter measures. In this paper, we presented a protocol based on distance bounding to thread the most popular attacks: Distance Fraud, Mafia Fraud and Terrorist fraud. In our work, we study the way to adapt the best secure distance bounding protocols to mapping code of ultra-wideband (TH-UWB) radios. Indeed, to ameliorate the performances of the protocol in terms of security communication in TH-UWB, we combine the modified protocol to ultra-wideband impulse radio technology (IR-UWB). The security and the different merits of the protocols are analyzed.

Keywords: Distance bounding, mapping code ultra-wideband, Terrorist Fraud.

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Authors: E. A. Tkachenko, E. M. Rogova, A. S. Osipenko

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The problems of technological development for the Russian Federation take on special significance in the context of modernization of the production base. The complexity of the position of the Russian economy is that it cannot be attributed fully to developing ones. Russia is a strong industrial power that has gone through the processes of destructive de-industrialization in the conditions of changing its economic and political structure. The need to find ways for re-industrialization is not a unique task for the economies of industrially developed countries. Under the influence of production outsourcing for 20 years, the industrial potential of leading economies of the world was regressed against the backdrop of the ascent of China, a new industrial giant. Therefore, methods, tools, and techniques utilized for industrial renaissance in EU may be used to achieve a technological leap in the Russian Federation, especially since the temporary gap of 5-7 years makes it possible to analyze best practices and use those technological transfer tools that have shown the greatest efficiency. In this article, methods of technological transfer are analyzed, the role of technological audit is justified, and factors are analyzed that influence the successful process of commercialization of technologies.

Keywords: Technological transfer, productivity, technological audit, commercialization of technologies.

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Authors: Eldah Ephraim Buba

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This paper evaluated the quality of tourism education in Nigeria higher education. The problem of poor quality of tourism education in Nigeria’s higher institutions prompted the study. Archival research was used with evaluation reports as secondary data, twenty evaluation reports for different polytechnics from the National board for technical education (NBTE) from 1995-2012 were assessed. The evidence from the documents shows that the quality of teaching and evaluation is fair. The programmes resources are fairly good, and most of the teachers do not have a postgraduate qualification in tourism related courses. It is therefore recommended that the institutions running tourism programmes in Nigeria need to introduce self -assessment of programmes and not rely on the NBTE accreditation which comes up in three years. Also there is need for a staff development policy that will encourage Tourism educators to further their education; The Tertiary Educational Trust Fund (TETFUND) should focus on developing staff of tourism education because it is an area of study in Nigeria that lacks qualified personnel. With the way higher institution in Nigeria are finding interest in tourism programmes, having good quality programmes will not only produce better professionals but it will help in offering better services in the industry and maximizing the impacts of the business.

Keywords: Education, evaluation tourism, quality.

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Authors: Fardin Boustani, Mohammad Hosein Hojati

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Groundwater is one of the most important water resources in Fars province. Based on this study, 95 percent of the total annual water consumption in Fars is used for agriculture, whereas the percentages for domestic and industrial uses are 4 and 1 percent, respectively. Population growth, urban and industrial growth, and agricultural development in Fars have created a condition of water stress. In this province, farmers and other users are pumping groundwater faster than its natural replenishment rate, causing a continuous drop in groundwater tables and depletion of this resource. In this research variation of groundwater level, their effects and ways to help control groundwater levels in aquifer of the Niriz plains in Fars plain were evaluated .Excessive exploitation of groundwater in this aquifer caused the groundwater levels fall too fast or to unacceptable levels. The average drawdown of the groundwater level in this plain were 9.1 meters during 1997 to 2004. The purpose of this study is to evaluate water level changes in the Niriz Aquifer in the Fars province in order to determine the areas of greatest depletion, the cause of depletion, and predict the remaining life of the aquifer.

Keywords: Aquifer, ground water depletion, water table

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Authors: Su-Hyun Cho, Chang-U Chae

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Environmental impact assessment techniques have been developed as a result of the worldwide efforts to reduce the environmental impact of global warming. By using the quantification method in the construction industry, it is now possible to manage the greenhouse gas is to systematically evaluate the impact on the environment over the entire construction process. In particular, the proportion of greenhouse gas emissions at the production stage of construction material occupied is high, and efforts are needed in particular in the construction field. In this research, intended for concrete products for the construction materials, by using the LCA method, we compared the results of environmental impact assessment and carbon emissions of developing products that have been applied low-carbon technologies compared to existing products. As a results, by introducing a raw material of industrial waste, showed carbon reduction. Through a comparison of the carbon emission reduction effect of low carbon technologies, it is intended to provide academic data for the evaluation of greenhouse gases in the construction sector and the development of low carbon technologies of the future.

Keywords: CO2 Emissions, CO2 Reduction, Ready-mixed Concrete, Environmental Impact Assessment.

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Authors: N. Z. A. Hamid, M. S. M. Noorani

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This study is focused on the development of prediction models of the Ozone concentration time series. Prediction model is built based on chaotic approach. Firstly, the chaotic nature of the time series is detected by means of phase space plot and the Cao method. Then, the prediction model is built and the local linear approximation method is used for the forecasting purposes. Traditional prediction of autoregressive linear model is also built. Moreover, an improvement in local linear approximation method is also performed. Prediction models are applied to the hourly Ozone time series observed at the benchmark station in Malaysia. Comparison of all models through the calculation of mean absolute error, root mean squared error and correlation coefficient shows that the one with improved prediction method is the best. Thus, chaotic approach is a good approach to be used to develop a prediction model for the Ozone concentration time series.

Keywords: Chaotic approach, phase space, Cao method, local linear approximation method.

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Authors: Luis Arias, Jorge E. Pezoa, Daniel Sbárbaro

Abstract:

In this paper, an automated algorithm to estimate and remove the continuous baseline from measured spectra containing both continuous and discontinuous bands is proposed. The algorithm uses previous information contained in a Continuous Database Spectra (CDBS) to obtain a linear basis, with minimum number of sampled vectors, capable of representing a continuous baseline. The proposed algorithm was tested by using a CDBS of flame spectra where Principal Components Analysis and Non-negative Matrix Factorization were used to obtain linear bases. Thus, the radical emissions of natural gas, oil and bio-oil flames spectra at different combustion conditions were obtained. In order to validate the performance in the baseline estimation process, the Goodness-of-fit Coefficient and the Root Mean-squared Error quality metrics were evaluated between the estimated and the real spectra in absence of discontinuous emission. The achieved results make the proposed method a key element in the development of automatic monitoring processes strategies involving discontinuous spectral bands.

Keywords: Flame spectra, removing baseline, recovering spectrum.

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Authors: E.Kvesitadze, T.Sadunishvili, G.Kvesitadze

Abstract:

As a result of urbanization, the unpredictable growth of industry and transport, production of chemicals, military activities, etc. the concentration of anthropogenic toxicants spread in nature exceeds all the permissible standards. Most dangerous among these contaminants are organic compounds having great persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity along with our awareness of their prominent occurrence in the environment and food chain. Among natural ecological tools, plants still occupying above 40% of the world land, until recently, were considered as organisms having only a limited ecological potential, accumulating in plant biomass and partially volatilizing contaminants of different structure. However, analysis of experimental data of the last two decades revealed the essential role of plants in environment remediation due to ability to carry out intracellular degradation processes leading to partial or complete decomposition of carbon skeleton of different structure contaminants. Though, phytoremediation technologies still are in research and development, their various applications have been successfully used. The paper aims to analyze mechanisms of organic contaminants uptake and detoxification in plants, being the less studied issue in evaluation and exploration of plants potential for environment remediation.

Keywords: organic contaminants, Detoxification, metalloenzymes, plant ultrastructure.

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Authors: I. R. Farah, I. B. Ismail, M. B. Ahmed

Abstract:

The huge development of new technologies and the apparition of open communication system more and more sophisticated create a new challenge to protect digital content from piracy. Digital watermarking is a recent research axis and a new technique suggested as a solution to these problems. This technique consists in inserting identification information (watermark) into digital data (audio, video, image, databases...) in an invisible and indelible manner and in such a way not to degrade original medium-s quality. Moreover, we must be able to correctly extract the watermark despite the deterioration of the watermarked medium (i.e attacks). In this paper we propose a system for watermarking satellite images. We chose to embed the watermark into frequency domain, precisely the discrete wavelet transform (DWT). We applied our algorithm on satellite images of Tunisian center. The experiments show satisfying results. In addition, our algorithm showed an important resistance facing different attacks, notably the compression (JEPG, JPEG2000), the filtering, the histogram-s manipulation and geometric distortions such as rotation, cropping, scaling.

Keywords: Digital data watermarking, Spatial Database, Satellite images, Discrete Wavelets Transform (DWT).

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