Search results for: Achievement rates

Authors: Anant Oonsivilai, Kenedy A. Greyson

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The growth and interconnection of power networks in many regions has invited complicated techniques for energy management services (EMS). State estimation techniques become a powerful tool in power system control centers, and that more information is required to achieve the objective of EMS. For the online state estimator, assuming the continuous time is equidistantly sampled with period Δt, processing events must be finished within this period. Advantage of Kalman Filtering (KF) algorithm in using system information to improve the estimation precision is utilized. Computational power is a major issue responsible for the achievement of the objective, i.e. estimators- solution at a small sampled period. This paper presents the optimum utilization of processors in a state estimator based on KF. The model used is presented using Petri net (PN) theory.

Keywords: Kalman filters, model, Petri Net, power system, sequential State estimator.

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Authors: Thea Freese

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Environmental legislation to protect North and Baltic Sea areas from harmful vessel-source emissions has received increased political attention in recent years. Legislative measures are expected to show positive effects on the health of the marine environment and society. At the same time, compliance might increase the costs to industry and have effects on freight rates and volumes shipped with potential negative repercussions on the environment. Building on an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach, this research project will study the economic effects of maritime environmental legislation in two phases. In Phase I, exploratory in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 experts from various stakeholder groups aiming at identifying variables influencing the relationship between environmental legislation, freight rates and volumes shipped. Influencing factors like compliance, enforcement and modal shift were identified and studied. Phase II will comprise of a quantitative study conducted with the aim of verifying the theory build in Phase I and quantifying economic effects of rules on shipping pollution. Research in this field might inform policy-makers about determinants of behaviour of ship operators in the face of the law and might further the development of a comprehensive legal system for marine environmental protection. At the present stage of research, first tentative results from the qualitative phase may be examined and open research questions to be addressed in the quantitative phase as well as possible research designs for phase II may be discussed. Input from other researchers will be highly valuable at this point.

Keywords: Clean shipping operations, compliance, maritime environmental legislation, maritime law and economics, mixed methods research, North and Baltic Sea area.

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Authors: Bahram Esmaeili, Hossein Hosseini, Mohammad Sharifi Bohloli, Hamid Reza Imani Far, Sohrab Sadeghi

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the religious behavior of students in high school and universality in Lamerd , a town in the south of Iran, with respect to increase in their level of education and age. The participants were 450 high school and university students in all levels from first year of junior high school to the senior university students who were chosen through multistage cluster sampling method and their religious behavior was studied. Through the revised questionnaire by Nezar Alany from the University of Bahrain (r = 0/797), the religious behavior of the subjects were analyzed. Results showed that students in high school in religious behavior were superior to the students of university (003/0>p) and there was a decline of religious behavior in junior high school third year students to second students of the same school (042/0>p). More important is that the decrease in religious behavior was associated with increase in educational levels (017/0>p) and age (043/0>p).

Keywords: Academic achievement, education level, religion

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Authors: Chang-Hsien Tai, Uzu-Kuei Hsu, Jr-Ming Miao, Yong-Jhou Lin

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The development and application of wind power for renewable energy has attracted growing interest in recent years. Renewable energy sources are attracting much alteration as they can reduce both environmental damage and dependence on fossil fuels. With the growing need for sustainable energy supplies, a case is made for decentralized, stand-alone power supplies (SAPS) as an alternative to power grids. In the era which traditional petroleum energy resource decreasing and the green house affect significant increasing, the development and usage of regenerative resources is inevitable. Due to the contribution of the pioneers, the development of regenerative resources already has a remarkable achievement; however, in the view of economy and quantity, it is still a long road for regenerative energy to replace traditional petroleum energy. In our prospective, in stead of investigate larger regenerative energy equipment, it is much wiser to think about the blind side and breakthrough of the current technique.

Keywords: regenerative resources, hybrid system, transfer, storage, phase change

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Authors: Rossukhon Makaramani, Supanan Sittilerd

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This study is about an application of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s “Learn Wisely” (LW) concept in instructional design and management process at the Faculty of Education, Suan Sunahdha Rajabhat University. The concept suggests four strategies for true learning. Related literature and significant LW methods in teaching and learning are also reviewed and then applied in designing a pedagogy learning module. The design has been implemented in three classrooms with a total of 115 sophomore student teachers. After one consecutive semester of managing and adjusting the process by instructors and experts using collected data from minutes, assessment of learning management, satisfaction and learning achievement of the students, it is found that the effective SSRU model of LW instructional method comprises of five steps.

Keywords: Instructional Design, Learn Wisely Strategy, Pedagogy Learning Module, Teaching Method.

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Authors: A. Jalal, S. Kim

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Different methods containing biometric algorithms are presented for the representation of eigenfaces detection including face recognition, are identification and verification. Our theme of this research is to manage the critical processing stages (accuracy, speed, security and monitoring) of face activities with the flexibility of searching and edit the secure authorized database. In this paper we implement different techniques such as eigenfaces vector reduction by using texture and shape vector phenomenon for complexity removal, while density matching score with Face Boundary Fixation (FBF) extracted the most likelihood characteristics in this media processing contents. We examine the development and performance efficiency of the database by applying our creative algorithms in both recognition and detection phenomenon. Our results show the performance accuracy and security gain with better achievement than a number of previous approaches in all the above processes in an encouraging mode.

Keywords: Ubiquitous architecture, verification, Identification, recognition

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Authors: Walid Chakroun, Sorour Alotaibi, Nesreen Ghaddar, Kamel Ghali

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This study aims at determining the extent to which occupant control of microenvironment influences, improves thermal sensation and comfort, and saves energy in spaces equipped with ceiling personalized ventilation (CPV) system assisted by chair fans (CF) and desk fans (DF) in 2 experiments in a climatic chamber equipped with two-station CPV systems, one that allows control of fan flow rate and the other is set to the fan speed of the selected participant in control. Each experiment included two participants each entering the cooled space from transitional environment at a conventional mixed ventilation (MV) at 24 °C. For CPV diffuser, fresh air was delivered at a rate of 20 Cubic feet per minute (CFM) and a temperature of 16 °C while the recirculated air was delivered at the same temperature but at a flow rate 150 CFM. The macroclimate air of the space was at 26 °C. The full speed flow rates for both the CFs and DFs were at 5 CFM and 20 CFM, respectively. Occupant 1 was allowed to operate the CFs or the DFs at (1/3 of the full speed, 2/3 of the full speed, and the full speed) while occupant 2 had no control on the fan speed and their fan speed was selected by occupant 1. Furthermore, a parametric study was conducted to study the effect of increasing the fresh air flow rate on the occupants’ thermal comfort and whole body sensations. The results showed that most occupants in the CPV+CFs, who did not control the CF flow rate, felt comfortable 6 minutes. The participants, who controlled the CF speeds, felt comfortable in around 24 minutes because they were preoccupied with the CFs. For the DF speed control experiments, most participants who did not control the DFs felt comfortable within the first 8 minutes. Similarly to the CPV+CFs, the participants who controlled the DF flow rates felt comfortable at around 26 minutes. When the CPV system was either supported by CFs or DFs, 93% of participants in both cases reached thermal comfort. Participants in the parametric study felt more comfortable when the fresh air flow rate was low, and felt cold when as the flow rate increased.

Keywords: Thermal comfort, thermal sensation, predicted mean vote, thermal environment.

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Authors: Vartan Agopian

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Millions of Syrian families have been displaced since the beginning of the Syrian war, and the negative effects of post-war trauma have shown detrimental effects on the mental health of refugee children. While educational strategies have focused on vocational training and academic achievement, little has been done to include music in the school curriculum to help these children improve their mental health. The literature of music education and psychology, on the other hand, shows the positive effects of music on traumatized children, especially when it comes to dealing with stress. This paper presents a brief literature review of trauma, music therapy, and music in the classroom, after having introduced the Syrian war and refugee situation. Furthermore, the paper highlights the benefits of using music with traumatized children from the literature and offers strategies for teachers (such as singing, playing an instrument, songwriting, and others) to include music in their classrooms to help Syrian refugee children deal with post-war trauma.

Keywords: Children, music, refugees, Syria, war.

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Authors: Tim Giesen, Christian Fischmann, Fabian Böttinger, Alexander Ehm, Alexander Verl

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In a state-of-the-art industrial production line of photovoltaic products the handling and automation processes are of particular importance and implication. While processing a fully functional crystalline solar cell an as-cut photovoltaic wafer is subject to numerous repeated handling steps. With respect to stronger requirements in productivity and decreasing rejections due to defects the mechanical stress on the thin wafers has to be reduced to a minimum as the fragility increases by decreasing wafer thicknesses. In relation to the increasing wafer fragility, researches at the Fraunhofer Institutes IPA and CSP showed a negative correlation between multiple handling processes and the wafer integrity. Recent work therefore focused on the analysis and optimization of the dry wafer stack separation process with compressed air. The achievement of a wafer sensitive process capability and a high production throughput rate is the basic motivation in this research.

Keywords: Automation, Photovoltaic Manufacturing, Thin Wafer, Material Handling

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Authors: Natalya G. Filimonova, Mariya G. Ozerova, Irina N. Ermakova

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The long-term strategy of the economic development of Russia up to 2030 is based on the concept of sustainable growth. The determining factor of such development is complex changes in the economic system which may be achieved by making progressive changes in its structure. The structural changes determine the character and the direction of economic development, as well as they include all elements of this system without exception, and their regulated character ensures the most rapid aim achievement. This article has discussed the industrial structure of the agriculture in Russia. With the use of the system of indexes, the article has determined the directions, intensity, and speed of structural shifts. The influence of structural changes on agricultural production development has been found out. It is noticed that the changes in the industrial structure are synchronized with the changes in the organisation and economic structure. Efficiency assessment of structural changes allowed to trace the efficiency of structural changes and elaborate the main directions for agricultural policy improvement.

Keywords: Russian agriculture system, sectoral structure, organizational and economic structure, structural changes.

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Authors: S. D. El Wakil, M. Pladsen

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Fiber reinforced polymeric (FRP) composites are finding wide-spread industrial applications because of their exceptionally high specific strength and specific modulus of elasticity. Nevertheless, it is very seldom to get ready-for-use components or products made of FRP composites. Secondary processing by machining, particularly drilling, is almost always required to make holes for fastening components together to produce assemblies. That creates problems since the FRP composites are neither homogeneous nor isotropic. Some of the problems that are encountered include the subsequent damage in the region around the drilled hole and the drilling – induced delamination of the layer of ply, that occurs both at the entrance and the exit planes of the work piece. Evidently, the functionality of the work piece would be detrimentally affected. The current work was carried out with the aim of eliminating or at least minimizing the work piece damage associated with drilling of FPR composites. Each test specimen involves a woven reinforced graphite fiber/epoxy composite having a thickness of 12.5 mm (0.5 inch). A large number of test specimens were subjected to drilling operations with different combinations of feed rates and cutting speeds. The drilling induced damage was taken as the absolute value of the difference between the drilled hole diameter and the nominal one taken as a percentage of the nominal diameter. The later was determined for each combination of feed rate and cutting speed, and a matrix comprising those values was established, where the columns indicate varying feed rate while and rows indicate varying cutting speeds. Next, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) approach was employed using Minitab software, in order to obtain the combination that would improve the drilling induced damage. Experimental results show that low feed rates coupled with low cutting speeds yielded the best results.

Keywords: Drilling of Composites, dimensional accuracy of holes drilled in composites, delamination and charring, graphite-epoxy composites.

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Authors: S. J. Hachar

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The goal of this paper is to provide educators an overview of international practices supporting young learners, arming us with adequate information to lead effective change. We will report on research and observations of Service Learning Projects conducted by one South Texas University. The intent of the paper is also to provide readers an overview of service learning in the preparation of teacher candidates pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. The objective of noting the efficiency and effectiveness of programs leading to literacy and oral fluency in a native language and second language will be discussed. This paper also highlights experiential learning for academic credit that combines community service with student learning. Six weeks of visits to a variety of community sites, making personal observations with faculty members, conducting extensive interviews with parents and key personnel at all sites will be discussed. The culminating Service Learning Expo will be reported as well.

Keywords: Elementary education, junior achievement, service learning.

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Authors: Silva, Fátima, Fernandes, Paula Odete

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The future of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) depend on their ability to attract and retain students, increase recognition and prestige. In order to respond to the 'customers' increasingly demanding, HEI need to identify the key factors that influence the satisfaction of a 'customers', thereby creating competitive advantages. These determinants of satisfaction are important elements that guide the strategy of an institution and allow the successful achievement of strategic plans, both teaching and administrative, to offer their ‘costumers’ services and products with higher quality. Following this way of thinking, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the satisfaction with the service quality of the School of Technology and Management of Bragança (ESTiG), of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, identifying, thus, the dimensions related to the quality of services that might influence students' satisfaction. The results showed that, in general, the students are satisfied with the performance of ESTiG.

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction, Higher Education Institutions, Importance-Satisfaction Model.

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Authors: P. Singh

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In this paper, Tobephobia (TBP) alludes to the fear of failure experienced by teachers to manage curriculum change. TBP is an emerging concept and it extends the boundaries of research in terms of how we view achievement and failure in education. Outcomes-based education (OBE) was introduced fifteen years ago in South African schools without simultaneously upgrading teachers- professional competencies. This exploratory research, therefore examines a simple question: What is the impact of TBP and OBE on teachers? Teacher ineptitude to cope with the OBE curriculum in the classroom is a serious problem affecting large numbers of South African teachers. This exploratory study sought to determine the perceived negative impact of OBE and TBP on teachers. A survey was conducted amongst 311 teachers in Port Elizabeth and Durban, South Africa. The results confirm the very negative impact of TBP and OBE on teachers. This exploratory study authenticates the existence of TBP.

Keywords: Curriculum change, fear of failure in education, outcomes-based education, Tobephobia.

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Authors: Alexander L. Dmitriev, Sophia A. Bulgakova

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Temperature dependence of force of gravitation is one of the fundamental problems of physics. This problem has got special value in connection with that the general theory of relativity, supposing the weakest positive influence of a body temperature on its weight, actually rejects an opportunity of measurement of negative influence of temperature on gravity in laboratory conditions. Really, the recognition of negative temperature dependence of gravitation, for example, means basic impossibility of achievement of a singularity («a black hole») at a gravitational collapse. Laboratory experiments with exact weighing the heated up metal samples, indicating negative influence temperatures of bodies on their physical weight are described. Influence of mistakes of measurements is analyzed. Calculations of distribution of temperature in volume of the bar, agreed with experimental data of time dependence of weight of samples are executed. The physical substantiation of negative temperature dependence of weight of the bodies, based on correlation of acceleration at thermal movement of micro-particles of a body and its absolute temperature, are given.

Keywords: Gravitation, temperature, weight.

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Authors: R. Saraçoğlu, N. Allahverdi

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Searching similar documents and document management subjects have important place in text mining. One of the most important parts of similar document research studies is the process of classifying or clustering the documents. In this study, a similar document search approach that includes discussion of out the case of belonging to multiple categories (multiple categories problem) has been carried. The proposed method that based on Fuzzy Similarity Classification (FSC) has been compared with Rocchio algorithm and naive Bayes method which are widely used in text mining. Empirical results show that the proposed method is quite successful and can be applied effectively. For the second stage, multiple categories vector method based on information of categories regarding to frequency of being seen together has been used. Empirical results show that achievement is increased almost two times, when proposed method is compared with classical approach.

Keywords: Document similarity, Fuzzy classification, Multiple categories, Text mining.

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Authors: Guoliang Fan, Aiping Li, Xuemei Liu, Liyun Xu

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The performance of the tightening equipment will decline with the working process in manufacturing system. The main manifestations are the randomness and discretization degree increasing of the tightening performance. To evaluate the degradation tendency of the tightening performance accurately, a complexity measurement approach based on Kolmogorov entropy is presented. At first, the states of performance index are divided for calibrating the discrete degree. Then the complexity measurement model based on Kolmogorov entropy is built. The model describes the performance degradation tendency of tightening equipment quantitatively. At last, a study case is applied for verifying the efficiency and validity of the approach. The research achievement shows that the presented complexity measurement can effectively evaluate the degradation tendency of the tightening equipment. It can provide theoretical basis for preventive maintenance and life prediction of equipment.

Keywords: Complexity measurement, Kolmogorov entropy, manufacturing system, performance evaluation, tightening equipment.

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Authors: Valeda Dent

Abstract:

This study explores reading and library factors related to secondary school student academic outcomes in rural areas in Uganda. This mixed methods study utilized quantitative data collected as part of a more extensive project to explore six student factors in relation to students’ school, library, and home environments. The Kitengesa Community Library in Uganda (www.kitengesalibrary.org) served as the site for this study. The factors explored for this study include reading frequency, library use frequency, library access, overall grade average (OGA), and presence and type of reading materials in the home. Results indicated that both reading frequency and certain types of reading materials read for recreational purposes are correlated with higher OGA. Reading frequency was positively correlated with student OGA for all students.

Keywords: Rural village libraries, secondary school students, reading, academic achievement.

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Authors: Mehrshad Khalaj, Elham Lashkari

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Majority of researches conducted on Iranian urban development plans indicate that they have been almost unsuccessful in terms of draft, execution and goal achievement. Lack or shortage of essential statistics and information can be listed as an important reason of the failure of these plans. Lack of figures and information has turned into an obvious part of the country-s statistics officials. This problem has made urban planner themselves to embark on physical surveys including real estate and land pricing, population and economic census of the city. Apart from the problems facing urban developers, the possibility of errors is high in such surveys. In the present article, applying the interview technique, it has been mentioned that utilizing multipurpose cadastre system as a land information system is essential for urban development plans in Iran. It can minimize or even remove the failures facing urban development plans.

Keywords: Multipurpose Cadastre, Urban Development Plan(UDP), Land Information System (LIS), Interview Technique

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Authors: S.T. El Sheltawy, A. A. Refaat

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Until recently, energy security and climate change were considered separate issues to be dealt with by policymakers. The two issues are now converging, challenging the security and climate communities to develop a better understanding of how to deal with both issues simultaneously. Although Egypt is not a major contributor to the world's total GHG emissions, it is particularly vulnerable to the potential effects of global climate change such as rising sea levels and changed patterns of rainfall in the Nile Basin. Climate change is a major threat to sustainable growth and development in Egypt, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Egypt-s capacity to respond to the challenges of climate instability will be expanded by improving overall resilience, integrating climate change goals into sustainable development strategies, increasing the use of modern energy systems with reduced carbon intensity, and strengthening international initiatives. This study seeks to establish a framework for considering the complex and evolving links between energy security and climate change, applicable to Egypt.

Keywords: climate change, climate policy, cnergy policy, energy security, sustainable development

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Authors: E. Muneera, A. Anuar, A. S. Zulkiflee

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The evolution in project management was triggered by the changes in management philosophy and practices in order to maintain competitive advantage and continuous success in the field. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the practicality of cognitive style and unlearning approach in influencing the achievement of project success by project managers. It introduces the concept of planning, knowing and creating style from cognitive style field in the light of achieving time, cost, quality and stakeholders appreciation in project success context. Further it takes up a discussion of the unlearning approach as a moderator in enhancing the relationship between cognitive style and project success. The paper bases itself on literature review from established disciplines like psychology, sociology and philosophy regarding cognitive style, unlearning and project success in general. The analysis and synthesis of literature in the subject area a conceptual paper is utilized as the basis of future research to form a comprehensive framework for project managers in enhancing the project management competency.

Keywords: Cognitive Style, Project Managers, Project Success, Unlearning.

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Authors: Dorine M. Mattar, Rim M. El Khoury

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This paper examined the influence of matching students- learning preferences with the teaching methodology adopted, on their academic performance in an accounting course in two types of learning environment in one university in Lebanon: classes with PowerPoint (PPT) vs. conventional classes. Learning preferences were either for PPT or for Conventional methodology. A statistically significant increase in academic achievement is found in the conventionally instructed group as compared to the group taught with PPT. This low effectiveness of PPT might be attributed to the learning preferences of Lebanese students. In the PPT group, better academic performance was found among students with learning/teaching match as compared with students with learning/teaching mismatch. Since the majority of students display a preference for the conventional methodology, the result might suggest that Lebanese students- performance is not optimized by PPT in the accounting classrooms, not because of PPT itself, but because it is not matching the Lebanese students- learning preferences in such a quantitative course.

Keywords: Accounting education, learning preferences, learning/teaching match, Lebanon, Student performance.

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Authors: Markandeya Kunchi

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Usability testing (UT) is one of the vital steps in the User-centred design (UCD) process when designing a product. In an e-commerce ecosystem, UT becomes primary as new products, features, and services are launched very frequently. And, there are losses attached to the company if an unusable and inefficient product is put out to market and is rejected by customers. This paper tries to answer why UT is important in the product life-cycle of an E-commerce ecosystem. Secondary user research was conducted to find out work patterns, development methods, type of stakeholders, and technology constraints, etc. of a typical E-commerce company. Qualitative user interviews were conducted with product managers and designers to find out the structure, project planning, product management method and role of the design team in a mid-level company. The paper tries to address the usual apprehensions of the company to inculcate UT within the team. As well, it stresses upon factors like monetary resources, lack of usability expert, narrow timelines, and lack of understanding of higher management as some primary reasons. Outsourcing UT to vendors is also very prevalent with mid-level e-commerce companies, but it has its own severe repercussions like very little team involvement, huge cost, misinterpretation of the findings, elongated timelines, and lack of empathy towards the customer, etc. The shortfalls of the unavailability of a UT process in place within the team and conducting UT through vendors are bad user experiences for customers while interacting with the product, badly designed products which are neither useful and nor utilitarian. As a result, companies see dipping conversions rates in apps and websites, huge bounce rates and increased uninstall rates. Thus, there was a need for a more lean UT system in place which could solve all these issues for the company. This paper highlights on optimizing the UT process with a collaborative method. The degree of optimization and structure of collaborative method is the highlight of this paper. Collaborative method of UT is one in which the centralised design team of the company takes for conducting and analysing the UT. The UT is usually a formative kind where designers take findings into account and uses in the ideation process. The success of collaborative method of UT is due to its ability to sync with the product management method employed by the company or team. The collaborative methods focus on engaging various teams (design, marketing, product, administration, IT, etc.) each with its own defined roles and responsibility in conducting a smooth UT with users In-house. The paper finally highlights the positive results of collaborative UT method after conducting more than 100 In-lab interviews with users across the different lines of businesses. Some of which are the improvement of interaction between stakeholders and the design team, empathy towards users, improved design iteration, better sanity check of design solutions, optimization of time and money, effective and efficient design solution. The future scope of collaborative UT is to make this method leaner, by reducing the number of days to complete the entire project starting from planning between teams to publishing the UT report.

Keywords: Usability testing, collaborative method, e-commerce, product management method.

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Authors: Seid Ali Asghar Terohid, Vahid Fayaz

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Thyroid cancer-s overall contribution to the worldwide cancer burden is relatively small, but incidence rates have increased over the last three decades throughout the world. This trend has been hypothesised to reflect a combination of technological advances enabling increased detection, but also changes in environmental factors, including population exposure to ionising radiation from fallout, diagnostic tests and treatment for benign and malignant conditions. The Thyroid dose received apparently shielded by cerrobend blocks was about 8cGy in 100cGy Expose

Keywords: Absorbed Dose, Thyroid, Radiotherapy

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Authors: Teerawach Khamkorn, Laongtip Mathurasa, Savittree Rochanasmita Arnold, Witthaya Mekhum

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The objective of this research seeks to transmit a distance training model to the community in the upper northeastern region. The group sampling consists of 60 community leaders in the municipality of sub-district Kumphawapi, Kumphawapi Disrict, Udonthani Province. The research tools rely on the following instruments, they are : 1) the achievement test of community leaders- training and 2) the satisfaction questionnaires of community leaders. The statistics used in data analysis takes the statistical mean, percentage, standard deviation, and statistical T-test. The resulted findings reveal : 1) the efficiency of the distance training developed by the researcher for the community leaders joining in the training received the average score between in-training and post-training period higher than the setup criterion, 2) the two groups of participants in the training achieved higher knowledge than their pre-training state, 3) the comparison of the achievements between the two group presented no different results, 4) the community leaders obtained the high-to-highest satisfaction.

Keywords: Distance Training, Management, Technology, Transmitting.

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Authors: Hu Haibo, Tu Chunmei, Fu Chunlei, Fu Li, Mao Fan, Ma Yuan

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Chinese Idioms are a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expressions with specific meanings and stereotypes structure which are widely used in classical Chinese and are still common in vernacular written and spoken Chinese today. Currently, Chinese Idioms are retrieved in glossary with key character or key word in morphology or pronunciation index that can not meet the need of searching semantically. OCIRS is proposed to search the desired idiom in the case of users only knowing its meaning without any key character or key word. The user-s request in a sentence or phrase will be grammatically analyzed in advance by word segmentation, key word extraction and semantic similarity computation, thus can be mapped to the idiom domain ontology which is constructed to provide ample semantic relations and to facilitate description logics-based reasoning for idiom retrieval. The experimental evaluation shows that OCIRS realizes the function of searching idioms via semantics, obtaining preliminary achievement as requested by the users.

Keywords: Chinese idiom, idiom retrieval, semantic searching, ontology, semantics similarity.

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Authors: D. Díaz Fernández, I. Csízi, K. Pető, G. Nagy

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An outstanding part of the animal products are based on the grasslands, due to the fact that the grassland ecosystems can be found all over the globe. In places where economical and successful crop production cannot be managed, the grassland based animal husbandry can be an efficient way of food production. In addition, these ecosystems have an important role in carbon sequestration, and with their rich flora – and fauna connected to it – in conservation of biodiversity. The protection of nature, and the sustainable agriculture is getting more and more attention in the European Union, but, looking at the consumers’ needs, the production of healthy food cannot be neglected either. Because of these facts, the effects of two specific composts - which are officially authorized in organic farming, in Agri-environment Schemes and Natura 2000 programs – on grass yields and sward compositions were investigated in a field trial. The investigation took place in Hungary, on a natural grassland based on solonetz soil. Three rates of compost (10 t/ha, 20 t/ha, 30 t/ha) were tested on 3 m X 10 m experimental plots. Every treatment had four replications and both type of compost had four-four control plots too, this way 32 experimental plots were included in the investigations. The yield of the pasture was harvested two-times (in May and in September) and before cutting the plots, measurements on botanical compositions were made. Samples for laboratory analysis were also taken. Dry matter yield of pasture showed positive responses to the rates of composts. The increase in dry matter yield was partly due to some positive changes in sward composition. It means that the proportions of grass species with higher yield potential increased in ground cover of the sward without depressing out valuable native species of diverse natural grasslands. The research results indicate that the use of organic compost can be an efficient way to increase grass yields in a sustainable way.

Keywords: Compost application, crude protein content, dry matter yield, native grassland, sward composition.

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Authors: Ana C. Sousa, Beatriz C. Santos, Fátima N. Serralha

Abstract:

The Tagus estuary is heavily affected by industrial and urban activities, making bioremediation studies crucial for environmental preservation. Fuel contamination in the area can arise from various anthropogenic sources, such as oil spills from shipping, fuel storage and transfer operations, and industrial discharges. These pollutants can cause severe harm to the ecosystem and the organisms, including humans, that inhabit it. Nonetheless, there are always natural organisms with the ability to resist these pollutants and transform them into non-toxic or harmless substances, which defines the process of bioremediation. Exploring the microbial communities existing in soil and their capacity to break down hydrocarbons has the potential to enhance the development of more efficient bioremediation approaches. The aim of this investigation was to explore the existence of hydrocarbonoclastic microorganisms in six locations within the Tagus estuary, three on the north bank: Trancão River, Praia Fluvial do Cais das Colinas and Praia de Algés, and three on the south bank: Praia Fluvial de Alcochete, Praia Fluvial de Alburrica, and Praia da Trafaria. In all studied locations, native microorganisms of the genus Pseudomonas were identified. The bioremediation rate of common hydrocarbons like gasoline, hexane, and toluene was assessed using the redox indicator 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol (DCPIP). Effective hydrocarbon-degrading bacterial strains were identified in all analyzed areas, despite adverse environmental conditions. The highest bioremediation rates were achieved for gasoline (68%) in Alburrica, hexane (65%) in Algés, and toluene (79%) in Algés. Generally, the bacteria demonstrated efficient degradation of hydrocarbons added to the culture medium, with higher rates of aerobic biodegradation of hydrocarbons observed. These findings underscore the necessity for further in situ studies to better comprehend the relationship between native microbial communities and the potential for pollutant degradation in soil.

Keywords: Biodegradability rate, hydrocarbonoclastic microorganisms, soil bioremediation, Tagus estuary.

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Authors: R. A. Sabir , X. Xinping , S.A. Sabr

Abstract:

This paper has presented research in progress concerning the contribution of target costing approach to achievement competitive price in the Iraqi firm. The title of the paper is one of the subjects that get large concerns in the finance and business world in the present time. That is because many competitive firms have appeared in the regional and global markets and the rapid changes that covered all fields of life. On the other hand, this paper concentrated on lack knowledge of the industrial firms, regarding the significant role of target cost for achieving the competitive prices. The paper depends on the main supposition, using the competitive price to get the target cost in the industrial firms. In order to achieve competitive advantage in business world the firms should rely on modern methods to manage cost and profit. From strategic perspective the target cost achieves a so powerful competitive advantage represented in cost reduction. Nevertheless the target cost does not exclude the calculation and survey of costs during the production process. Products- estimated costs are calculated and compared with the target costs.

Keywords: Target Costing, Competitive Price, Target Profit, Iraq Kurdistan Region.

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Authors: Shruti Taksali

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the analysis of Nanoptenna for extreme fast communication. The Nanoptenna is basically a nano antenna designed for communication at optical range of frequencies. Since, this range of frequencies includes the visible spectrum of the light, so there is a high possibility of the data transfer at high rates and extreme fast communication (XFC). The shape chosen for the analysis is a bow tie structure due to its various characteristics of electric field enhancement.

Keywords: Nanoptenna, communication, optical range, XFC.

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