Search results for: Quality of Public Service
1849 A Machine Learning-based Analysis of Autism Prevalence Rates across US States against Multiple Potential Explanatory Variables
Authors: Ronit Chakraborty, Sugata Banerji
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There has been a marked increase in the reported prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) among children in the US over the past two decades. This research has analyzed the growth in state-level ASD prevalence against 45 different potentially explanatory factors including socio-economic, demographic, healthcare, public policy and political factors. The goal was to understand if these factors have adequate predictive power in modeling the differential growth in ASD prevalence across various states, and, if they do, which factors are the most influential. The key findings of this study include (1) there is a confirmation that the chosen feature set has considerable power in predicting the growth in ASD prevalence, (2) the most influential predictive factors are identified, (3) given the nature of the most influential predictive variables, an indication that a considerable portion of the reported ASD prevalence differentials across states could be attributable to over and under diagnosis, and (4) Florida is identified as a key outlier state pointing to a potential under-diagnosis of ASD.
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD, clustering, Machine Learning, predictive modeling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6761848 A Fuzzy Decision Making Approach for Supplier Selection in Healthcare Industry
Authors: Zeynep Sener, Mehtap Dursun
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Supplier evaluation and selection is one of the most important components of an effective supply chain management system. Due to the expanding competition in healthcare, selecting the right medical device suppliers offers great potential for increasing quality while decreasing costs. This paper proposes a fuzzy decision making approach for medical supplier selection. A real-world medical device supplier selection problem is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed decision methodology.
Keywords: Fuzzy decision making, fuzzy multiple objective programming, medical supply chain, supplier selection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26721847 Teaching Students Collaborative Requirements Engineering: Case Study of Red:Wire
Authors: Dagmar Monett, Sven-Erik Kujat, Marvin Hartmann
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This paper discusses the use of a template-based approach for documenting high-quality requirements as part of course projects in an undergraduate Software Engineering course. In order to ease some of the Requirements Engineering activities that are performed when defining requirements by using the template, a new CASE tool, RED:WIRE, was first developed and later tested by students attending the course. Two questionnaires were conceived around a study that aims to analyze the new tool’s learnability as well as other obtained results concerning its usability in particular and the Requirements Engineering skills developed by the students in general.Keywords: CASE tool, collaborative learning, requirements engineering, undergraduate teaching.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13511846 Pragati Node Popularity (PNP) Approach to Identify Congestion Hot Spots in MPLS
Authors: E. Ramaraj, A. Padmapriya
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In large Internet backbones, Service Providers typically have to explicitly manage the traffic flows in order to optimize the use of network resources. This process is often referred to as Traffic Engineering (TE). Common objectives of traffic engineering include balance traffic distribution across the network and avoiding congestion hot spots. Raj P H and SVK Raja designed the Bayesian network approach to identify congestion hors pots in MPLS. In this approach for every node in the network the Conditional Probability Distribution (CPD) is specified. Based on the CPD the congestion hot spots are identified. Then the traffic can be distributed so that no link in the network is either over utilized or under utilized. Although the Bayesian network approach has been implemented in operational networks, it has a number of well known scaling issues. This paper proposes a new approach, which we call the Pragati (means Progress) Node Popularity (PNP) approach to identify the congestion hot spots with the network topology alone. In the new Pragati Node Popularity approach, IP routing runs natively over the physical topology rather than depending on the CPD of each node as in Bayesian network. We first illustrate our approach with a simple network, then present a formal analysis of the Pragati Node Popularity approach. Our PNP approach shows that for any given network of Bayesian approach, it exactly identifies the same result with minimum efforts. We further extend the result to a more generic one: for any network topology and even though the network is loopy. A theoretical insight of our result is that the optimal routing is always shortest path routing with respect to some considerations of hot spots in the networks.Keywords: Conditional Probability Distribution, Congestion hotspots, Operational Networks, Traffic Engineering.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19881845 Study on Radio Link Availability in Millimeter Wave Range
Authors: Boncho G. Bonev, Kliment N. Angelov, Emil S. Altimirski
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In this paper, the link quality in SHF and EHF ranges are studied. In order to achieve high data rate higher frequencies must be used – centimeter waves (SHF), millimeter waves (EHF) or optical range. However, there are significant problem when a radio link work in that diapason – rain attenuation and attenuation in earth-s atmosphere. Based on statistical rain rates data for Bulgaria, the link availability can be determined, depending on the working frequency, the path length and the Power Budget of the link. For the calculations of rain attenuation and atmosphere-s attenuation the ITU recommendations are used.Keywords: rain attenuation, atmospheric gaseous attenuation, link availability, link breaking probability
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20241844 Virtual Conciliation in Colombia: Evaluation of Maturity Level within the Framework of E-Government
Authors: Jenny Paola Forero Pachón, Sonia Cristina Gamboa Sarmiento, Luis Carlos Gómez Flórez
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The Colombian government has defined an e-government strategy to take advantage of Information Technologies (IT) in order to contribute to the building of a more efficient, transparent and participative State that provides better services to citizens and businesses. In this regard, the Justice sector is one of the government sectors where IT has generated more expectation considering that the country has a judicial processes backlog. This situation has led to the search for alternative forms of access to justice that speed up the process while providing a low cost for citizens. To this end, the Colombian government has authorized the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution methods (ADR), a remedy where disputes can be resolved more quickly compared to judicial processes while facilitating greater communication between the parties, without recourse to judicial authority. One of these methods is conciliation, which includes a special modality that takes advantage of IT for the development of itself known as virtual conciliation. With this option the conciliation is supported by information systems, applications or platforms and communications are provided through it. This paper evaluates the level of maturity in how the service of virtual conciliation is under the framework of this strategy. This evaluation is carried out considering Shahkooh's 5-phase model for e-government. As a result, it is evident that in the context of conciliation, maturity does not reach the necessary level in the model so that it can be considered as virtual conciliation; therefore, it is necessary to define strategies to maximize the potential of IT in this context.
Keywords: Alternative dispute resolution, e-government, evaluation of maturity, Shahkooh model, virtual conciliation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9491843 Performance of Concrete Grout under Aggressive Chloride Environment in Sabah
Authors: S. Imbin, S. Dullah, H. Asrah, P. S. Kumar, M. E. Rahman, M. A. Mannan
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Service life of existing reinforced concrete (RC) structures in coastal towns of Sabah has been affected very much. Concrete crack, spalling of concrete cover and reinforcement rusting of RC buildings are seen even within 5 years of construction in Sabah. Hence, in this study a new mix design of concrete grout was developed using locally available materials and investigated under two curing conditions and workability, compressive strength, Accelerated Mortar Bar Test (AMBT), water absorption, volume of permeable voids (VPV), Sorptivity and 90-days salt ponding test were conducted. The compressive strength of concrete grout at the age 90 days was found to be 44.49 N/mm2 under water curing. It was observed that the percentage of mortar bar length change was below 1% for developed concrete grout. The water absorption of the concrete grout was in between the range of 0.88 % to 3.60 % under two different curing up to the age 90 days. It was also observed that the VPV of concrete was in the range of 0 % to 9.75 and 2.44% to 13.05% under water curing and site curing respectively. It was found that the Sorptivity of the concrete grout under water curing at the age of 28 days is 0.211mm/√min and at the age 90 day are 0.067 mm/√min. The chloride content decreased greatly, 90% after a depth of 15 mm. It was noticed that the site cured samples showed higher chloride contents near surface compared to water cured samples. This investigation suggested that the developed mix design of concrete grout using locally available construction materials can be used for crack repairing of existing RC structures in Sabah.Keywords: Concrete grout, Salt ponding, Sorptivity, Water absorption.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28631842 The Absence of a National Industrial Effluent Policy: Imminent Risk to the Brazilian Bodies of Water
Authors: Aline Alves Bandeira, Maria Cecília de Paula Silva
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The existing legal gap regarding thes treatment and final disposal of industrial effluents in Brazil promotes legal uncertainty. The government has not structured itself to guarantee environmental protection. The current legal system and public policies must guarantee the protection of bodies of water and an effective treatment of industrial effluents. This is because economic progress, eco-efficiency and industrial ecology are inseparable. The lack of protection for the water bodies weakens environmental protection, with abuses by companies that do not give due treatment to their effluents, or fail to present the water balance of their factories. It is considered necessary to enact a specific law on industrial effluents related to a National Industrial Effluent Policy, because it is the location of the largest Integrated Industrial Complex in the Southern Hemisphere. The regulation of this subject cannot be limited by decrees of the local Executive Branch, allowing the inspection of the industrial activity or enterprise to be affected fundamentally by environmental self-control, or by private institutions.
Keywords: Effluent policy, environmental law, environmental management, industrial effluents.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10341841 Biospeckle Supported Fruit Bruise Detection
Authors: Adilson M. Enes, Juliana A. Fracarolli, Inácio M. Dal Fabbro, Silvestre Rodrigues
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This research work proposed a study of fruit bruise detection by means of a biospeckle method, selecting the papaya fruit (Carica papaya) as testing body. Papaya is recognized as a fruit of outstanding nutritional qualities, showing high vitamin A content, calcium, carbohydrates, exhibiting high popularity all over the world, considering consumption and acceptability. The commercialization of papaya faces special problems which are associated to bruise generation during harvesting, packing and transportation. Papaya is classified as climacteric fruit, permitting to be harvested before the maturation is completed. However, by one side bruise generation is partially controlled once the fruit flesh exhibits high mechanical firmness. By the other side, mechanical loads can set a future bruise at that maturation stage, when it can not be detected yet by conventional methods. Mechanical damages of fruit skin leave an entrance door to microorganisms and pathogens, which will cause severe losses of quality attributes. Traditional techniques of fruit quality inspection include total soluble solids determination, mechanical firmness tests, visual inspections, which would hardly meet required conditions for a fully automated process. However, the pertinent literature reveals a new method named biospeckle which is based on the laser reflectance and interference phenomenon. The laser biospeckle or dynamic speckle is quantified by means of the Moment of Inertia, named after its mechanical counterpart due to similarity between the defining formulae. Biospeckle techniques are able to quantify biological activities of living tissues, which has been applied to seed viability analysis, vegetable senescence and similar topics. Since the biospeckle techniques can monitor tissue physiology, it could also detect changes in the fruit caused by mechanical damages. The proposed technique holds non invasive character, being able to generate numerical results consistent with an adequate automation. The experimental tests associated to this research work included the selection of papaya fruit at different maturation stages which were submitted to artificial mechanical bruising tests. Damages were visually compared with the frequency maps yielded by the biospeckle technique. Results were considered in close agreement.
Keywords: Biospeckle, papaya, mechanical damages, vegetable bruising.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25741840 Computer Assisted Learning in a Less Resource Region
Authors: Hamidullah Sokout, Samiullah Paracha, Abdul Rashid Ahmadi
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Passing the entrance exam to a university is a major step in one's life. University entrance exam commonly known as Kankor is the nationwide entrance exam in Afghanistan. This examination is prerequisite for all public and private higher education institutions at undergraduate level. It is usually taken by students who are graduated from high schools. In this paper, we reflect the major educational school graduates issues and propose ICT-based test preparation environment, known as ‘Online Kankor Exam Prep System’ to give students the tools to help them pass the university entrance exam on the first try. The system is based on Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), which introduced an essential package of educational technology for learners that features: (I) exam-focused questions and content; (ii) self-assessment environment; and (iii) test preparation strategies in order to help students to acquire the necessary skills in their carrier and keep them up-to-date with instruction.
Keywords: Web-based test prep systems, Learner-centered design, E-Learning, Intelligent tutoring system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19531839 An Implementation of Data Reusable MPEG Video Coding Scheme
Authors: Vasily G. Moshnyaga
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This paper presents an optimized MPEG2 video codec implementation, which drastically reduces the number of computations and memory accesses required for video compression. Unlike traditional scheme, we reuse data stored in frame memory to omit unnecessary coding operations and memory read/writes for unchanged macroblocks. Due to dynamic memory sharing among reference frames, data-driven macroblock characterization and selective macroblock processing, we perform less than 15% of the total operations required by a conventional coder while maintaining high picture quality.
Keywords: Data reuse, adaptive processing, video coding, MPEG
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12661838 Energy Requirement for Cutting Corn Stalks (Single Cross 704 Var.)
Authors: M. Azadbakht, A. Rezaei Asl, K. Tamaskani Zahedi
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Corn is cultivated in most countries because of high consumption, quality, and food value. This study evaluated needed energy for cutting corn stems in different levels of cutting height and moisture content. For this reason, test device was fabricated and then calibrated. The device works on the principle of conservation of energy. The results were analyzed using split plot design and SAS software. The results showed that effect of height and moisture content and their interaction effect on cutting energy are significant (P<1%). The maximum cutting energy was 3.22 kJ in 63 (w.b.%) moisture content and the minimum cutting energy was 1.63 kJ in 83.25 (w.b.%) moisture content.
Keywords: Cutting energy, Corn stalk, Cutting height, Moisture content, Impact cutting.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31431837 Development and Psychometric Properties of the Relational Mobility Scale for the Indonesian Population
Authors: Sukaesi Marianti
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This study aims to develop the Relational Mobility Scale for the Indonesian population and to investigate its psychometric properties. New items of the scale were created taking into account the Indonesian population which consists of two parallel forms (A and A’). This study uses 30 newly orchestrated items while keeping in mind the characteristics of the targeted population. The scale was administered to 433 public high school students in Malang, Indonesia. Construct validity of its factor structure was demonstrated using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The result exhibits that he model fits the data, and that the delayed alternate form method shows acceptable result. Results yielded that 21 items of the three-dimensional Relational Mobility Scale is suitable for measuring relational mobility in high school students of Indonesian population.
Keywords: Confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis, delayed alternate form, Indonesian population, relational mobility scale.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10371836 Classification of Ground Water Resources for Emergency Supply
Authors: František Bozek, Alexandr Bozek, Alena Bumbova, Eduard Bakos, Jiri Dvorak
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The article deals with the classification of alternative water resources in terms of potential risks which is the prerequisite for incorporating these water resources to the emergency plans. The classification is based on the quantification of risks resulting from possible damage, disruption or total destruction of water resource caused by natural and anthropogenic hazards, assessment of water quality and availability, traffic accessibility of the assessed resource and finally its water yield. The aim is to achieve the development of an integrated rescue system, which will be capable of supplying the population with drinking water on the whole stricken territory during the states of emergency.
Keywords: Classification, Emergency Supply, Risk, Water Standby Resource.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17321835 Web 2.0 in Higher Education: The Instructors’ Acceptance in Higher Educational Institutes in Kingdom of Bahrain
Authors: Amal M. Alrayes, Hayat M. Ali
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Since the beginning of distance education with the rapid evolution of technology, the social network plays a vital role in the educational process to enforce the interaction been the learners and teachers. There are many Web 2.0 technologies, services and tools designed for educational purposes. This research aims to investigate instructors’ acceptance towards web-based learning systems in higher educational institutes in Kingdom of Bahrain. Questionnaire is used to investigate the instructors’ usage of Web 2.0 and the factors affecting their acceptance. The results confirm that instructors had high accessibility to such technologies. However, patterns of use were complex. Whilst most expressed interest in using online technologies to support learning activities, learners seemed cautious about other values associated with web-based system, such as the shared construction of knowledge in a public format. The research concludes that there are main factors that affect instructors’ adoption which are security, performance expectation, perceived benefits, subjective norm, and perceived usefulness.
Keywords: Web 2.0, Higher education, Acceptance, Students’ perception.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13091834 A Development of OTOP Web Application: In Case of Samut Songkhram Province
Authors: Satien Janpla, Kunyanuth Kularbphettong
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This paper aims to present the development of a web‑based system to serve the need of selling OTOP products in Samut Songkhram, Thailand. This system was designed to promote and sell OTOP products on Web site. We describe the design approaches and functional components of this system. The system was developed by PHP and JavaScript and MySQL database System. To evaluate the system performance, questionnaires were used to measure user satisfaction with system usability by specialists and users. The results were satisfactory as followed: Means for specialists and users were 4.05 and 3.97, and standard deviation for specialists and users were 0.563 and 0.644 respectively. Further analysis showed that the quality of One Tambon One Product (OTOP) Website was also at a good level as well.
Keywords: Web-based system, OTOP, product.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18531833 Bioinformatics and Molecular Biological Characterization of a Hypothetical Protein SAV1226 as a Potential Drug Target for Methicillin/Vancomycin- Staphylococcus aureus Infections
Authors: Nichole Haag, Kimberly Velk, Tyler McCune, Chun Wu
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Methicillin/multiple-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are infectious bacteria that are resistant to common antibiotics. A previous in silico study in our group has identified a hypothetical protein SAV1226 as one of the potential drug targets. In this study, we reported the bioinformatics characterization, as well as cloning, expression, purification and kinetic assays of hypothetical protein SAV1226 from methicillin/vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Mu50 strain. MALDI-TOF/MS analysis revealed a low degree of structural similarity with known proteins. Kinetic assays demonstrated that hypothetical protein SAV1226 is neither a domain of an ATP dependent dihydroxyacetone kinase nor of a phosphotransferase system (PTS) dihydroxyacetone kinase, suggesting that the function of hypothetical protein SAV1226 might be misannotated on public databases such as UniProt and InterProScan 5.Keywords: Dihydroxyacetone kinase, essential genes, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, drug target.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17691832 Mobile Phone as a Tool for Data Collection in Field Research
Authors: Sandro Mourão, Karla Okada
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The necessity of accurate and timely field data is shared among organizations engaged in fundamentally different activities, public services or commercial operations. Basically, there are three major components in the process of the qualitative research: data collection, interpretation and organization of data, and analytic process. Representative technological advancements in terms of innovation have been made in mobile devices (mobile phone, PDA-s, tablets, laptops, etc). Resources that can be potentially applied on the data collection activity for field researches in order to improve this process. This paper presents and discuss the main features of a mobile phone based solution for field data collection, composed of basically three modules: a survey editor, a server web application and a client mobile application. The data gathering process begins with the survey creation module, which enables the production of tailored questionnaires. The field workforce receives the questionnaire(s) on their mobile phones to collect the interviews responses and sending them back to a server for immediate analysis.Keywords: Data Gathering, Field Research, Mobile Phone, Survey.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20591831 Requirements Gathering for Improved Software Usability and the Potential for Usage-Centred Design
Authors: Kholod J. Alotaibi, Andrew M. Gravell
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Usability is an important software quality that is often neglected at the design stage. Although methods exist to incorporate elements of usability engineering, there is a need for more balanced usability focused methods that can enhance the experience of software usability for users. In this regard, the potential for Usage-Centred Design is explored with respect to requirements gathering and is shown to lead to high software usability besides other benefits. It achieves this through its focus on usage, defining essential use cases, by conducting task modeling, encouraging user collaboration, refining requirements, and so on. The requirements gathering process in UgCD is described in detail.
Keywords: Requirements gathering, Usability, Usage-Centred Design.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19491830 The Virtual Container Yard: Identifying the Persuasive Factors in Container Interchange
Authors: L. Edirisinghe, Zhihong Jin, A. W. Wijeratne, R. Mudunkotuwa
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The virtual container yard is an effective solution to the container inventory imbalance problem which is a global issue. It causes substantial cost to carriers, which inadvertently adds to the prices of consumer goods. The virtual container yard is rooted in the fundamentals of container interchange between carriers. If carriers opt to interchange their excess containers with those who are deficit, a substantial part of the empty reposition cost could be eliminated. Unlike in other types of ships, cargo cannot be directly loaded to a container ship. Slots and containers are supplementary components; thus, without containers, a carrier cannot ship cargo if the containers are not available and vice versa. Few decades ago, carriers recognized slot (the unit of space in a container ship) interchange as a viable solution for the imbalance of shipping space. Carriers interchange slots among them and it also increases the advantage of scale of economies in container shipping. Some of these service agreements between mega carriers have provisions to interchange containers too. However, the interchange mechanism is still not popular among carriers for containers. This is the paradox that prevails in the liner shipping industry. At present, carriers reposition their excess empty containers to areas where they are in demand. This research applied factor analysis statistical method. The paper reveals that five major components may influence the virtual container yard namely organisation, practice and culture, legal and environment, international nature, and marketing. There are 12 variables that may impact the virtual container yard, and these are explained in the paper.
Keywords: Virtual container yard, imbalance, management, inventory.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8401829 Geochemical Assessment of Heavy Metals Concentration in Surface Sediment of West Port, Malaysia
Authors: B.Tavakoly Sany, A. Salleh, A.H .Sulaiman, A. Mehdinia, GH. Monazami
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One year (November 2009-October 2010) sediment monitoring was used to evaluate pollution status, concentration and distribution of heavy metals (As, Cu, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn) in West Port of Malaysia. Sediment sample were collected from nine stations every four months. Geo-accumulation factor and Pollution Load Index (PLI) were estimated to better understand the pollution level in study area. The heavy metal concentration (Mg/g dry weight) were ranged from 20.2 to 162 for As, 7.4 to 27.6 for Cu, 0.244 to 3.53 for Cd, 11.5 to 61.5 for Cr, 0.11 to 0.409 for Hg, 7.2 to 22.2 for Ni, 22.3 to 80 for Pb and 23 to 98.3 for Zn. In general, concentration some metals (As,Cd, Hg and Pb) was higher than background values that are considered as serious concern for aquatic life and the human health.
Keywords: Heavy metals, Sediment Quality, geo-accumulationindex, Pollution Load Index
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25291828 A Digitally Programmable Voltage-mode Multifunction Biquad Filter with Single-Output
Authors: C. Ketviriyakit, W. Kongnun, C. Chanapromma, P. Silapan
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This article proposes a voltage-mode multifunction filter using differential voltage current controllable current conveyor transconductance amplifier (DV-CCCCTA). The features of the circuit are that: the quality factor and pole frequency can be tuned independently via the values of capacitors: the circuit description is very simple, consisting of merely 1 DV-CCCCTA, and 2 capacitors. Without any component matching conditions, the proposed circuit is very appropriate to further develop into an integrated circuit. Additionally, each function response can be selected by suitably selecting input signals with digital method. The PSpice simulation results are depicted. The given results agree well with the theoretical anticipation.Keywords: DV-CCCCTA, Voltage-mode, Multifunction filter
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13591827 Tabu Search Approach to Solve Routing Issues in Communication Networks
Authors: Anant Oonsivilai, Wichai Srisuruk, Boonruang Marungsri, Thanatchai Kulworawanichpong
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Optimal routing in communication networks is a major issue to be solved. In this paper, the application of Tabu Search (TS) in the optimum routing problem where the aim is to minimize the computational time and improvement of quality of the solution in the communication have been addressed. The goal is to minimize the average delays in the communication. The effectiveness of Tabu Search method is shown by the results of simulation to solve the shortest path problem. Through this approach computational cost can be reduced.Keywords: Communication networks, optimum routing network, tabu search algorithm, shortest path.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20961826 A Holistic Workflow Modeling Method for Business Process Redesign
Authors: Heejung Lee
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In a highly competitive environment, it becomes more important to shorten the whole business process while delivering or even enhancing the business value to the customers and suppliers. Although the workflow management systems receive much attention for its capacity to practically support the business process enactment, the effective workflow modeling method remain still challenging and the high degree of process complexity makes it more difficult to gain the short lead time. This paper presents a workflow structuring method in a holistic way that can reduce the process complexity using activity-needs and formal concept analysis, which eventually enhances the key performance such as quality, delivery, and cost in business process.
Keywords: Workflow management, reengineering, formal concept analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19521825 High Capacity Data Hiding based on Predictor and Histogram Modification
Authors: Hui-Yu Huang, Shih-Hsu Chang
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In this paper, we propose a high capacity image hiding technology based on pixel prediction and the difference of modified histogram. This approach is used the pixel prediction and the difference of modified histogram to calculate the best embedding point. This approach can improve the predictive accuracy and increase the pixel difference to advance the hiding capacity. We also use the histogram modification to prevent the overflow and underflow. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method within the same average hiding capacity can still keep high quality of image and low distortionKeywords: data hiding, predictor
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18861824 Affordability and Expenditure Patterns towards Sustainable Consumption in Malaysia
Authors: Affordability, Expenditure Patterns towards Sustainable Consumption in Malaysia
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Safe drinking water is needed for survival. Households have to pay the water bill monthly. However, lower income households are sometimes unable to afford the cost. This study examines water access and affordability among households in Malaysia and the determinants of water affordability using cross-sectional data and multiple regression. The paper expects that the bill for basic water consumption is inversely related to average income. This means that policy makers need to redesign the water tariff to improve the quality of life of lower income households.
Keywords: Affordability, households, income, water tariff.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10751823 Home Network-Specific RBAC Model
Authors: Geon-Woo Kim, Do-Woo Kim, Jun-Ho Lee, Jin-Beon Hwang, Jong-Wook Han
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As various mobile sensing technologies, remote control and ubiquitous infrastructure are developing and expectations on quality of life are increasing, a lot of researches and developments on home network technologies and services are actively on going, Until now, we have focused on how to provide users with high-level home network services, while not many researches on home network security for guaranteeing safety are progressing. So, in this paper, we propose an access control model specific to home network that provides various kinds of users with home network services up one-s characteristics and features, and protects home network systems from illegal/unnecessary accesses or intrusions.Keywords: Home network security, RBAC, access control, authentication.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17321822 Narrowband Speech Hiding using Vector Quantization
Authors: Driss Guerchi, Fatiha Djebbar
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In this work we introduce an efficient method to limit the impact of the hiding process on the quality of the cover speech. Vector quantization of the speech spectral information reduces drastically the number of the secret speech parameters to be embedded in the cover signal. Compared to scalar hiding, vector quantization hiding technique provides a stego signal that is indistinguishable from the cover speech. The objective and subjective performance measures reveal that the current hiding technique attracts no suspicion about the presence of the secret message in the stego speech, while being able to recover an intelligible copy of the secret message at the receiver side.Keywords: Speech steganography, LSF vector quantization, fast Fourier transform
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15151821 Modeling and Analysis of SVPWM Based Dynamic Voltage Restorer
Authors: Ahmed Helal, Sherif Zain Elabideen, Ahmed Lotfy
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In this paper the modeling and analysis of Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) based Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR) using PSCAD/EMTDC software will be presented in details. The simulation includes full modeling of the SVPWM technique used to control the DVR inverter. A test power system composed of three phase voltage source, sag generator, DVR and three phase resistive load is used to demonstrate restoration capability of the DVR. The simulation results of the presented DVR proved excellent voltage sag mitigation to protect sensitive loads.Keywords: Dynamic voltage restorer, power quality, simulationand modeling, voltage sag.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 37191820 Incidence of Trihalogenmethanes in Drinking Water
Authors: Frantisek Bozek, Lenka Jesonkova, Jiri Dvorak
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Trihalogenmethanes are the most significant byproducts of the reaction of disinfection agent with organic precursors naturally present in ground and surface waters.Their incidence negatively affects the quality of drinking water in relation to their nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic and genotoxic effects on human health. Taking into consideration the considerable volatility of monitored contaminants it could be assumed that their incidence in drinking water would depend on the distance of sampling from the area of disinfection. Based on the concentration of trihalogenmethanes determined with the help of gas chromatography with mass detector and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) such dependence has been proved as statistically significant. The acquired outcomes will be used for assessing the non-carcinogenic and genotoxic risks to consumers.
Keywords: disinfection byproducts, drinking water, trihalogenmethanes
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1779