Search results for: Collaboration Table.

Authors: Hanafizan Hussain

Abstract:

This study shows that several projects will be conducted at the workshop in which using the conceptual model for knowledge sharing approach to create an idea for mobile application. The sharing idea has been done through the collaborative activity in which a group of different field sought to define the mobile application which will lead to new media approach of using social media platform. The collaborative activity will be provided and implemented in the form of one day workshop to determine the approach towards the theme given. The activity later will be continued for four weeks for the participant to prepare for the pitch day workshop. This paper shows the pitch of idea including the interface and prototype for the said products. The collaboration between the members with different field of study shows that social media influenced the knowledge sharing model and its creation or innovations. One of the projects supported a collaborative activity in which a group of young designers sought to define the knowledge sharing model of their ability in creating idea for mobile applications.

Keywords: Mobile application, collaborative activity, conceptual knowledge sharing model, social media platform.

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Authors: Eftah Bte. Moh Hj Abdullah, Izazol Binti Idris, Abd Aziz Bin Abd Shukor

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This study aims to identify the understanding expectations of school administrators concerning school assessment. The researcher utilized a qualitative descriptive study on 19 administrators from three secondary schools in the North Kinta district. The respondents had been interviewed on their understanding expectations of school assessment using the focus group discussion method. Overall findings showed that the administrators’ understanding expectations of school assessment was weak; especially in terms of content focus, articulation across age and grade, transparency and fairness, as well as the pedagogical implications. Findings from interviews indicated that administrators explained their understanding expectations of school assessment from the aspect of school management, and not from the aspect of instructional leadership or specifically as assessment leaders. The study implications from the administrators’ understanding expectations may hint at the difficulty of the administrators to function as assessment leaders, in order to reduce their focus as manager, and move towards their primary role in the process of teaching and learning. The administrator, as assessment leaders, would be able to reach assessment goals via collaboration in identifying and listing teacher assessment competencies, how to construct assessment capacity, how to interpret assessment correctly, the use of assessment and how to use assessment information to communicate confidently and effectively to the public.

Keywords: Assessment leaders, assessment goals, instructional leadership, understanding expectation of assessment.

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

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Purpose of this work is to develop an automatic classification system that could be useful for radiologists in the breast cancer investigation. The software has been designed in the framework of the MAGIC-5 collaboration. In an 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 generally on morphological lesion differences. A study in the space features representation is made and some classifiers are tested to distinguish the pathological regions from the healthy ones. The results provided in terms of sensitivity and specificity will be presented through the ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) curves. In particular the best performances are obtained with the Neural Networks in comparison with the K-Nearest Neighbours and the Support Vector Machine: The Radial Basis Function supply the best results with 0.89 ± 0.01 of area under ROC curve but similar results are obtained with the Probabilistic Neural Network and a Multi Layer Perceptron.

Keywords: Neural Networks, K-Nearest Neighbours, Support Vector Machine, Computer Aided Detection

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Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Yu-Ching Lin, Hsi-Ya Chang

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With the development of virtualization technologies, a new type of service named cloud computing service is produced. Cloud users usually encounter the problem of how to use the virtualized platform easily over the web without requiring the plug-in or installation of special software. The object of this paper is to develop a system and a method enabling process interfacing within an automation scenario for accessing remote application by using the web browser. To meet this challenge, we have devised a web-based interface that system has allowed to shift the GUI application from the traditional local environment to the cloud platform, which is stored on the remote virtual machine. We designed the sketch of web interface following the cloud virtualization concept that sought to enable communication and collaboration among users. We describe the design requirements of remote application technology and present implementation details of the web application and its associated components. We conclude that this effort has the potential to provide an elastic and resilience environment for several application services. Users no longer have to burden the system maintenances and reduce the overall cost of software licenses and hardware. Moreover, this remote application service represents the next step to the mobile workplace, and it lets user to use the remote application virtually from anywhere.

Keywords: Virtualization technology, virtualized platform, web interface, remote application.

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Authors: Nur Adilah Md Zain, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zahari, Mohd Hafiz Hanafiah, Muhammad Izzat Zulkifly

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This paper empirically investigates the relationship between Sabah state core tourism products and its destination image. Through a descriptive design using a quantitative method with a self-reported and self-administered questionnaire, this research surveyed the individual international tourists who had visited Sabah and experienced the state’s core tourism products. The research findings clearly indicate that Sabah, one of the states in Malaysia has a lot of valuable resources in the eyes of the international tourists. Interestingly, it was found that Sabah’s core tourism products namely unique marine resources, various nature attractions and cultural diversities have undoubtedly contributed to the state’s tourism image. Good feedbacks and the promising insights from the international tourists’ point of view offer varying consequences, repercussion, and implication to the state government and the relevant authorities. Collaboration and cooperation between all responsible authorities are therefore crucial in strengthening the “total tourism experience” among the international tourists in this state.

Keywords: Tourism core products, marine, cultural, nature, destination image, Sabah.

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Authors: S. Odeh, E. Abdelghani

Abstract:

Collaborative working environments for distance education can be considered as a more generic form of contemporary remote labs. At present, the majority of existing real laboratories are not constructed to allow the involved participants to collaborate in real time. To make this revolutionary learning environment possible we must allow the different users to carry out an experiment simultaneously. In recent times, multi-user environments are successfully applied in many applications such as air traffic control systems, team-oriented military systems, chat-text tools, multi-player games etc. Thus, understanding the ideas and techniques behind these systems could be of great importance in the contribution of ideas to our e-learning environment for collaborative working. In this investigation, collaborative working environments from theoretical and practical perspectives are considered in order to build an effective collaborative real laboratory, which allows two students or more to conduct remote experiments at the same time as a team. In order to achieve this goal, we have implemented distributed system architecture, enabling students to obtain an automated help by either a human tutor or a rule-based e-tutor.

Keywords: Collaboration environment, e-tutor, multi-user environments, socio-technical system.

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Authors: Debasis Sarkar

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Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a holistic documentation process for operational visualization, design coordination, estimation and project scheduling. BIM software defines objects parametrically and it is a tool for virtual reality. Primary advantage of implementing BIM is the visual coordination of the building structure and systems such as Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) and it also identifies the possible conflicts between the building systems. This paper is an attempt to develop a risk based BIM model which would highlight the primary advantages of application of BIM pertaining to urban infrastructure transportation project. It has been observed that about 40% of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) companies use BIM but primarily for their outsourced projects. Also, 65% of the respondents agree that BIM would be used quiet strongly for future construction projects in India. The 3D models developed with Revit 2015 software would reduce co-ordination problems amongst the architects, structural engineers, contractors and building service providers (MEP). Integration of risk management along with BIM would provide enhanced co-ordination, collaboration and high probability of successful completion of the complex infrastructure transportation project within stipulated time and cost frame.

Keywords: Building information modeling (BIM), infrastructure transportation, project risk management, underground metro rail.

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Authors: J. Radojicic, D. Surdilovic, G. Schreck

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The paper considers a novel modular and intrinsically safe redundant robotic system with biologically inspired actuators (pneumatic artificial muscles and rubber bellows actuators). Similarly to the biological systems, the stiffness of the internal parallel modules, representing 2 DOF joints in the serial robotic chains, is controlled by co-activation of opposing redundant actuator groups in the null-space of the module Jacobian, without influencing the actual robot position. The decoupled position/stiffness control allows the realization of variable joint stiffness according to different force-displacement relationships. The variable joint stiffness, as well as limited pneumatic muscle/bellows force ability, ensures internal system safety that is crucial for development of human-friendly robots intended for human-robot collaboration. The initial experiments with the system prototype demonstrate the capabilities of independently, simultaneously controlling both joint (Cartesian) motion and joint stiffness. The paper also presents the possible industrial applications of snake-like robots built using the new modules.

Keywords: bellows actuator, human-robot interaction, hyper redundant robot, pneumatic muscle.

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Authors: Sacide Güzin Mazman, Yasemin Koçak Usluel

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Possible advantages of technology in educational context required the defining boundaries of formal and informal learning. Increasing opportunity to ubiquitous learning by technological support has revealed a question of how to discover the potential of individuals in the spontaneous environments such as social networks. This seems to be related with the question of what purposes in social networks have been being used? Social networks provide various advantages in educational context as collaboration, knowledge sharing, common interests, active participation and reflective thinking. As a consequence of these, the purpose of this study is composed of proposing a new model that could determine factors which effect adoption of social network applications for usage in educational context. While developing a model proposal, the existing adoption and diffusion models have been reviewed and they are thought to be suitable on handling an original perspective instead of using completely other diffusion or acceptance models because of different natures of education from other organizations. In the proposed model; social factors, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and innovativeness are determined four direct constructs that effect adoption process. Facilitating conditions, image, subjective norms and community identity are incorporated to model as antecedents of these direct four constructs.

Keywords: Adoption of innovation, educational context, social networks.

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Authors: Chaiwat Waree

Abstract:

This research aims at development of the Multiple Intelligences Measurement of Elementary Students. The structural accuracy test and normality establishment are based on the Multiple Intelligences Theory of Gardner. This theory consists of eight aspects namely linguistics, logic and mathematics, visual-spatial relations, body and movement, music, human relations, self-realization/selfunderstanding and nature. The sample used in this research consists of elementary school students (aged between 5-11 years). The size of the sample group was determined by Yamane Table. The group has 2,504 students. Multistage Sampling was used. Basic statistical analysis and construct validity testing were done using confirmatory factor analysis. The research can be summarized as follows; 1. Multiple Intelligences Measurement consisting of 120 items is content-accurate. Internal consistent reliability according to the method of Kuder-Richardson of the whole Multiple Intelligences Measurement equals .91. The difficulty of the measurement test is between .39-.83. Discrimination is between .21-.85. 2). The Multiple Intelligences Measurement has construct validity in a good range, that is 8 components and all 120 test items have statistical significance level at .01. Chi-square value equals 4357.7; p=.00 at the degree of freedom of 244 and Goodness of Fit Index equals 1.00. Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index equals .92. Comparative Fit Index (CFI) equals .68. Root Mean Squared Residual (RMR) equals 0.064 and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation equals 0.82. 3). The normality of the Multiple Intelligences Measurement is categorized into 3 levels. Those with high intelligence are those with percentiles of more than 78. Those with moderate/medium intelligence are those with percentiles between 24 and 77.9. Those with low intelligence are those with percentiles from 23.9 downwards.

Keywords: Multiple Intelligences, Measurement, Elementary Students.

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Authors: Aelita Skarzauskiene, Monika Maciuliene

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In this paper, we conduct a systematic survey of urban communities in Lithuania to evaluate their potential to co-create collective intelligence or “civic intelligence” applying Digital Co-creation Index methodology that includes different socio-technological indicators. Civic intelligence is a form of collective intelligence that refers to the group’s capacity to perceive societal problems and to address them effectively. The research focuses on evaluation of diverse organizational designs that increase efficient collective performance. The current scientific project advanced the state of the art by evaluating the basic preconditions in the urban communities through which the collective intelligence is being co-created under the systemic manner. The research subject is the “bottom up” digital enabled urban platforms, initiated by Lithuanian public organizations, civic movements or business entities. The web-based monitoring results obtained by applying a social indices calculation methodology and Pearson correlation analysis provided the information about the potential and limits of the urban communities and what possible changes need to be implemented to overcome the limitations.

Keywords: Computer supported collaboration, co-creation, collective intelligence, socio-technological system, networked society.

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Authors: S. Chuenchooklin, T. Ichikawa, P. Mekpruksawong

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This research was conducted in the Lower Namkam Irrigation Project situated in the Namkam River Basin in Thailand. Degradation of groundwater quality in some areas is caused by saline soil spots beneath ground surface. However, the tail regulated gate structure on the Namkam River, a lateral stream of the Mekong River. It is aimed for maintaining water level in the river at +137.5 to +138.5 m (MSL) and flow to the irrigation canals based on a gravity system since July 2009. It might leach some saline soil spots from underground to soil surface if lack of understanding of the conjunctive surface water and groundwater behaviors. This research has been conducted by continuously the observing of both shallow and deep groundwater level and quality from existing observation wells. The simulation of surface water was carried out using a hydrologic modeling system (HEC-HMS) to compute the ungauged side flow catchments as the lateral flows for the river system model (HEC-RAS). The constant water levels in the upstream of the operated gate caused a slight rising up of shallow groundwater level when compared to the water table. However, the groundwater levels in the confined aquifers remained less impacted than in the shallow aquifers but groundwater levels in late of wet season in some wells were higher than the phreatic surface. This causes salinization of the groundwater at the soil surface and might affect some crops. This research aims for the balance of water stage in the river and efficient groundwater utilization in this area.

Keywords: Surface water, groundwater observation, irrigation, water balance.

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Authors: R.N.Pise, S.A.Kulkarni, R.V.Pawar

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MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) is an emerging technology that aims to address many of the existing issues associated with packet forwarding in today-s Internetworking environment. It provides a method of forwarding packets at a high rate of speed by combining the speed and performance of Layer 2 with the scalability and IP intelligence of Layer 3. In a traditional IP (Internet Protocol) routing network, a router analyzes the destination IP address contained in the packet header. The router independently determines the next hop for the packet using the destination IP address and the interior gateway protocol. This process is repeated at each hop to deliver the packet to its final destination. In contrast, in the MPLS forwarding paradigm routers on the edge of the network (label edge routers) attach labels to packets based on the forwarding Equivalence class (FEC). Packets are then forwarded through the MPLS domain, based on their associated FECs , through swapping the labels by routers in the core of the network called label switch routers. The act of simply swapping the label instead of referencing the IP header of the packet in the routing table at each hop provides a more efficient manner of forwarding packets, which in turn allows the opportunity for traffic to be forwarded at tremendous speeds and to have granular control over the path taken by a packet. This paper deals with the process of MPLS forwarding mechanism, implementation of MPLS datapath , and test results showing the performance comparison of MPLS and IP routing. The discussion will focus primarily on MPLS IP packet networks – by far the most common application of MPLS today.

Keywords: Forwarding equivalence class, incoming label map, label, next hop label forwarding entry.

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Authors: Lo Kar Yin, Law Ka Mei

Abstract:

Architectural, engineering, construction and operations (AECO) industry practitioners have been well adapting to the dynamic construction market from the fundamental training of its disciplines. As further triggered by the pandemic since 2019, great steps are taken in virtual environment and the best collaboration is strived with project teams without boundaries. With adoption of Building Information Modeling-based approach and qualitative analysis, this paper is to review quantity take-off (QTO) and cost estimation process through modeling techniques in liaison with suppliers, fabricators, subcontractors, contractors, designers, consultants and services providers in the construction industry value chain for automatic project cost budgeting, project cost control and cost evaluation on design options of in-situ reinforced-concrete construction and Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) at design stage, variation of works and cash flow/spending analysis at construction stage as far as practicable, with a view to sharing the findings for enhancing mutual trust and co-operation among AECO industry practitioners. It is to foster development through a common prototype of design and build project delivery method in NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) Options A and C.

Keywords: Building Information Modeling, cost estimation, quantity take-off, modeling techniques.

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Authors: B. Stroetmann, A. Aisenbrey

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The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging and therapy, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology, and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better, and more cost effective. The optimization of clinical workflows requires a multidisciplinary focus and a collaborative approach of e.g. medical advisors, researchers and scientists as well as healthcare economists. This new form of collaboration brings together experts with deep technical experience, physicians with specialized medical knowledge as well as people with comprehensive knowledge about health economics. As Charles Darwin is often quoted as saying, “It is neither the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change," We believe that those who can successfully manage this change will emerge as winners, with valuable competitive advantage. Current medical information and knowledge are some of the core assets in the healthcare industry. The main issue is to connect knowledge holders and knowledge recipients from various disciplines efficiently in order to spread and distribute knowledge.

Keywords: Business Excellence, Clinical Knowledge, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Services, Learning Organizations, Trust.

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Authors: Saeid Fazli, Hajar Mohammadi D., Payman Moallem

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This paper presents a robust method to detect obstacles in stereo images using shadow removal technique and color information. Stereo vision based obstacle detection is an algorithm that aims to detect and compute obstacle depth using stereo matching and disparity map. The proposed advanced method is divided into three phases, the first phase is detecting obstacles and removing shadows, the second one is matching and the last phase is depth computing. We propose a robust method for detecting obstacles in stereo images using a shadow removal technique based on color information in HIS space, at the first phase. In this paper we use Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) function matching with a 5 × 5 window and prepare an empty matching table τ and start growing disparity components by drawing a seed s from S which is computed using canny edge detector, and adding it to τ. In this way we achieve higher performance than the previous works [2,17]. A fast stereo matching algorithm is proposed that visits only a small fraction of disparity space in order to find a semi-dense disparity map. It works by growing from a small set of correspondence seeds. The obstacle identified in phase one which appears in the disparity map of phase two enters to the third phase of depth computing. Finally, experimental results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Keywords: obstacle detection, stereo vision, shadowremoval, color, stereo matching

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Authors: Kerstin Grunden, Ann Svensson, Berit Forsman, Christina Karlsson, Ayman Obeid

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The research question of the article is to explore whether the dialogue meetings method could be relevant for reflective learning among researchers and practitioners when welfare technology should be implemented in municipalities, or not. A testbed was planned to be implemented in a retirement home in a Swedish municipality, and the practitioners worked with a pre-study of that testbed. In the article, the dialogue between the researchers and the practitioners in the dialogue meetings is described and analyzed. The potential of dialogue meetings as an arena for learning and reflection among researchers and practitioners is discussed. The research methodology approach is participatory action research with mixed methods (dialogue meetings, focus groups, participant observations). The main findings from the dialogue meetings were that the researchers learned more about the use of traditional research methods, and the practitioners learned more about how they could improve their use of the methods to facilitate change processes in their organization. These findings have the potential both for the researchers and the practitioners to result in more relevant use of research methods in change processes in organizations. It is concluded that dialogue meetings could be relevant for reflective learning among researchers and practitioners when welfare technology should be implemented in a health care organization.

Keywords: Dialogue meetings, implementation, reflection, test bed, welfare technology, participatory action research.

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Authors: Tofigh Hamidavi, Sepehr Abrishami, Pasquale Ponterosso, David Begg

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Structural design and analysis is an important and time-consuming process, particularly at the conceptual design stage. Decisions made at this stage can have an enormous effect on the entire project, as it becomes ever costlier and more difficult to alter the choices made early on in the construction process. Hence, optimisation of the early stages of structural design can provide important efficiencies in terms of cost and time. This paper suggests a structural design optimisation (SDO) framework in which Genetic Algorithms (GAs) may be used to semi-automate the production and optimisation of early structural design alternatives. This framework has the potential to leverage conceptual structural design innovation in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) projects. Moreover, this framework improves the collaboration between the architectural stage and the structural stage. It will be shown that this SDO framework can make this achievable by generating the structural model based on the extracted data from the architectural model. At the moment, the proposed SDO framework is in the process of validation, involving the distribution of an online questionnaire among structural engineers in the UK.

Keywords: Building Information Modelling, BIM, Genetic Algorithm, GA, architecture-engineering-construction, AEC, Optimisation, structure, design, population, generation, selection, mutation, crossover, offspring.

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Authors: Elham Jelodari Mamaghani, Christian Prins, Haoxun Chen

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In this paper, there is concentration on collaborative transportation planning (CTP) among multiple carriers with pickup and delivery requests and time windows. This problem is a vehicle routing problem with constraints from standard vehicle routing problems and new constraints from a real-world application. In the problem, each carrier has a finite number of vehicles, and each request is a pickup and delivery request with time window. Moreover, each carrier has reserved requests, which must be served by itself, whereas its exchangeable requests can be outsourced to and served by other carriers. This collaboration among carriers can help them to reduce total transportation costs. A mixed integer programming model is proposed to the problem. To solve the model, a hybrid algorithm that combines Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing (GASA) is proposed. This algorithm takes advantages of GASA at the same time. After tuning the parameters of the algorithm with the Taguchi method, the experiments are conducted and experimental results are provided for the hybrid algorithm. The results are compared with those obtained by a commercial solver. The comparison indicates that the GASA significantly outperforms the commercial solver.

Keywords: Centralized collaborative transportation, collaborative transportation with pickup and delivery, collaborative transportation with time windows, hybrid algorithm of GA and SA.

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Authors: Mousa Bani Baker, Maria Elektorowicz, Adel Hanna, Altayeb Qasem

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Liners are made to protect the groundwater table from the infiltration of leachate which normally carries different kinds of toxic materials from landfills. Although these liners are engineered to last for long period of time; unfortunately these liners fail; therefore, toxic materials pass to groundwater. This paper focuses on the changes of the hydraulic conductivity of a sand-bentonite liner due to the infiltration of biofuel and ethanol fuel. Series of laboratory tests were conducted in 20-cm-high PVC columns. Several compositions of sand-bentonite liners were tested: 95% sand: 5% bentonite; 90% sand: 10% bentonite; and 100% sand (passed mesh #40). The columns were subjected to extreme pressures of 40 kPa, and 100 kPa to evaluate the transport of alternative fuels (biofuel and ethanol fuel). For comparative studies, similar tests were carried out using water. Results showed that hydraulic conductivity increased due to the infiltration of alternative fuels through the liners. Accordingly, the increase in the hydraulic conductivity showed significant dependency on the type of liner mixture and the characteristics of the liquid. The hydraulic conductivity of a liner (subjected to biofuel infiltration) consisting of 5% bentonite: 95% sand under pressure of 40 kPa and 100 kPa had increased by one fold. In addition, the hydraulic conductivity of a liner consisting of 10% bentonite: 90% sand under pressure of 40 kPa and 100 kPa and infiltrated by biofuel had increased by three folds. On the other hand, the results obtained by water infiltration under 40 kPa showed lower hydraulic conductivities of 1.50×10-5 and 1.37×10-9 cm/s for 5% bentonite: 95% sand, and 10% bentonite: 90% sand, respectively. Similarly, under 100 kPa, the hydraulic conductivities were 2.30×10-5 and 1.90×10-9 cm/s for 5% bentonite: 95% sand, and 10% bentonite: 90% sand, respectively.

Keywords: Biofuel, Ethanol; Hydraulic conductivity Landfill, Leakage, Liner failure, Liner performance Fine-grained soils, Particle size, Sand-bentonite.

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Authors: Ilelabayo I. Adebisi, Yetunde R. Okeyinka, Abdulrasaq K. Ayinla

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Architectural design is a complex process especially when the issue of user’s comfort, building sustainability and energy efficiency needs to be addressed. The current energy challenge and the seek for an environment where users will have a more physiological and psychological comfort in this part of the world have led various researchers to constantly explore the concept of passive design techniques. Passive techniques are design strategies used in regulating building indoor climates and improving users comfort without the use of energy driven devices. This paper describes and analyses the significance of passive techniques on indoor climates and their impact on thermal comfort of building users using LAUTECH College of health sciences Ogbomoso as a case study. The study aims at assessing the appropriateness of the passive strategies used in achieving comfort in their buildings with a view to evaluate their adequacy and effectiveness and suggesting how comfortable their building users are. This assessment was carried out through field survey and questionnaires and findings revealed that strategies such as Orientation, Spacing, Courtyards, window positioning and choice of landscape adopted are inadequate while only fins and roof overhangs are adequate. The finding also revealed that 72% of building occupants feel hot discomfort in their various spaces and hence have the urge to get fresh air from outside during work hours. The Mahoney table was used to provide appropriate architectural design recommendations to guide future designers in the study area.

Keywords: Energy challenge, passive cooling, techniques, thermal comfort, users comfort.

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Authors: Sara M. Ismael, Ali H. Al-Badi

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The rapid development and growth of technology has changed the method of obtaining information for educators and learners. Technology has created a new world of collaboration and communication among people. Incorporating new technology into the teaching process can enhance learning outcomes. Billions of individuals across the world are now connected together, and are cooperating and contributing their knowledge and intelligence. Time is no longer wasted in waiting until the teacher is ready to share information as learners can go online and get it immediatelt.

The objectives of this paper are to understand the reasons why changes in teaching and learning methods are necessary, to find ways of improving them, and to investigate the challenges that present themselves in the adoption of new ICT tools in higher education institutes.

 To achieve these objectives two primary research methods were used: questionnaires, which were distributed among students at higher educational institutes and multiple interviews with faculty members (teachers) from different colleges and universities, which were conducted to find out why teaching and learning methodology should change.

The findings show that both learners and educators agree that educational technology plays a significant role in enhancing instructors’ teaching style and students’ overall learning experience; however, time constraints, privacy issues, and not being provided with enough up-to-date technology do create some challenges.

Keywords: E-books, educational technology, educators, e-learning, learners, social media, Web 2.0, LMS.

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Authors: Murat Dicleli, Ali Salem Milani

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In this paper, a summary of analytical and experimental studies into the behavior of a new hysteretic damper, designed for seismic protection of structures is presented. The Multidirectional Torsional Hysteretic Damper (MRSD) is a patented invention in which a symmetrical arrangement of identical cylindrical steel cores is so configured as to yield in torsion while the structure experiences planar movements due to earthquake shakings. The new device has certain desirable properties. Notably, it is characterized by a variable and controllable-via-design post-elastic stiffness. The mentioned property is a result of MRSD’s kinematic configuration which produces this geometric hardening, rather than being a secondary large-displacement effect. Additionally, the new system is capable of reaching high force and displacement capacities, shows high levels of damping, and very stable cyclic response. The device has gone through many stages of design refinement, multiple prototype verification tests and development of design guide-lines and computer codes to facilitate its implementation in practice. Practicality of the new device, as offspring of an academic sphere, is assured through extensive collaboration with industry in its final design stages, prototyping and verification test programs.

Keywords: Seismic, isolation, damper, adaptive stiffness.

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Authors: Pierre-Marie Basset, Gabriel Reboul, Binh DangVu, Sébastien Mercier

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Rotorcraft provides invaluable services thanks to their Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL), hover and low speed capabilities. Yet their use is still often limited by their cost and environmental impact, especially noise and energy consumption. One of the main brakes to the expansion of the use of rotorcraft for urban missions is the environmental impact. The first main concern for the population is the noise. In order to develop the transversal competency to assess the rotorcraft environmental footprint, a collaboration has been launched between six research departments within ONERA. The progress in terms of models and methods are capitalized into the numerical workshop C.R.E.A.T.I.O.N. “Concepts of Rotorcraft Enhanced Assessment Through Integrated Optimization Network”. A typical mission for which the environmental impact issue is of great relevance has been defined. The first milestone is to perform the pre-sizing of a reference helicopter for this mission. In a second milestone, an alternate rotorcraft concept has been defined: a tandem rotorcraft with optional propulsion. The key design trends are given for the pre-sizing of this rotorcraft aiming at a significant reduction of the global environmental impact while still giving equivalent flight performance and safety with respect to the reference helicopter. The models and methods have been improved for catching sooner and more globally, the relative variations on the environmental impact when changing the rotorcraft architecture, the pre-design variables and the operation parameters.

Keywords: Environmental impact, flight performance, helicopter, rotorcraft pre-sizing.

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Authors: T. Gómez-Navarro, M. García-Melón, D. Díaz-Martín, S. Acuna-Dutra,

Abstract:

In this paper a new approach to prioritize urban planning projects in an efficient and reliable way is presented. It is based on environmental pressure indices and multicriteria decision methods. The paper introduces a rigorous method with acceptable complexity of rank ordering urban development proposals according to their environmental pressure. The technique combines the use of Environmental Pressure Indicators, the aggregation of indicators in an Environmental Pressure Index by means of the Analytic Network Process method and interpreting the information obtained from the experts during the decision-making process. The ANP method allows the aggregation of the experts- judgments on each of the indicators into one Environmental Pressure Index. In addition, ANP is based on utility ratio functions which are the most appropriate for the analysis of uncertain data, like experts- estimations. Finally, unlike the other multicriteria techniques, ANP allows the decision problem to be modelled using the relationships among dependent criteria. The method has been applied to the proposal for urban development of La Carlota airport in Caracas (Venezuela). The Venezuelan Government would like to see a recreational project develop on the abandoned area and mean a significant improvement for the capital. There are currently three options on their table which are currently under evaluation. They include a Health Club, a Residential area and a Theme Park. The participating experts coincided in the appreciation that the method proposed in this paper is useful and an improvement from traditional techniques such as environmental impact studies, lifecycle analysis, etc. They find the results obtained coherent, the process seems sufficiently rigorous and precise, and the use of resources is significantly less than in other methods.

Keywords: Environmental pressure indicators, multicriteria decision analysis, analytic network process.

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Authors: Pariwat Somnuek

Abstract:

This study focused on tourism logistic services in the border areas of Thailand by an analysis and comparison of the opinions of tourists, villagers, and entrepreneurs of these services. Sample representatives of this study were a total of 600 villagers and 15 entrepreneurs in the three border areas consisting of Chong Anma, Chong Sa-Ngam, and Chong Jom checkpoints. For methodology, survey questionnaires, situation analysis, TOWS matrix, and focus group discussions were used for data collection, as well as descriptive analysis and statistics such as arithmetic means and standard deviations, were employed for data analysis. The findings revealed that business potential was at the medium level and entrepreneurs were satisfied with their turnovers. However, perspectives of transportation and tourism services provided for tourists need to be immediately improved. Recommendations for the potential development included promotion of border tourism destinations and foreign investments into accommodation, restaurants, and transport, as well as the establishment of business networks between Thailand and Cambodia, along with the introduction of new tourism destinations by co-operation between entrepreneurs in both countries. These initiatives may lead to increased visitors, collaboration of security offices, and an improved image of tourism security.

Keywords: Business potential, potential development, tourism logistics, services.

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Authors: T. Hopkin, S. Lu, P. Rogers, M. Sexton

Abstract:

Housing Associations (HAs) contribute circa 20% of the UK’s housing supply. HAs are however under increasing pressure as a result of funding cuts and rent reductions. Due to the increased pressure, a number of processes are currently being reviewed by HAs, especially how they manage and learn from defects. Learning from defects is considered a useful approach to achieving defect reduction within the UK housebuilding industry. This paper contributes to our understanding of how HAs learn from defects by undertaking an initial round table discussion with key HA stakeholders as part of an ongoing collaborative research project with the National House Building Council (NHBC) to better understand how house builders and HAs learn from defects to reduce their prevalence. The initial discussion shows that defect information runs through a number of groups, both internal and external of a HA during both the defects management process and organizational learning (OL) process. Furthermore, HAs are reliant on capturing and recording defect data as the foundation for the OL process. During the OL process defect data analysis is the primary enabler to recognizing a need for a change to organizational routines. When a need for change has been recognized, new options are typically pursued to design out defects via updates to a HAs Employer’s Requirements. Proposed solutions are selected by a review board and committed to organizational routine. After implementing a change, both structured and unstructured feedback is sought to establish the change’s success. The findings from the HA discussion demonstrates that OL can achieve defect reduction within the house building sector in the UK. The paper concludes by outlining a potential ‘learning from defects model’ for the housebuilding industry as well as describing future work.

Keywords: Defects, new homes, housing associations, organizational learning.

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Authors: B. T. Sayed, Nafaâ Jabeur, M. Aref

Abstract:

Creation and maintenance of knowledge management systems has been recognized as an important research area. Consecutively lack of accurate results from knowledge management systems limits the organization to apply their knowledge management processes. This leads to a failure in getting the right information to the right people at the right time thus followed by a deficiency in decision making processes. An Intranet offers a powerful tool for communication and collaboration, presenting data and information, and the means that creates and shares knowledge, all in one easily accessible place. This paper proposes an archetype describing how a knowledge management system, with the support of intranet capabilities, could very much increase the accuracy of capturing, storing and retrieving knowledge based processes thereby increasing the efficiency of the system. This system will expect a critical mass of usage, by the users, for intranet to function as knowledge management systems. This prototype would lead to a design of an application that would impose creation and maintenance of an effective knowledge management system through intranet. The aim of this paper is to introduce an effective system to handle capture, store and distribute knowledge management in a form that may not lead to any failure which exists in most of the systems. The methodology used in the system would require all the employees, in the organization, to contribute the maximum to deliver the system to a successful arena. The system is still in its initial mode and thereby the authors are under the process to practically implement the ideas, as mentioned in the system, to produce satisfactory results.

Keywords: Knowledge Management Systems, Intranet, Methodology.

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Authors: P. K. Sarkar, Amit Kumar Jain

Abstract:

The demand for Urban transportation is characterised by a large scale temporal and spatial variations which causes heavy congestion inside metro trains in peak hours near Centre Business District (CBD) of the city. The conventional approach to address peak hour congestion, metro trains has been to increase the supply by way of introduction of more trains, increasing the length of the trains, optimising the time table to increase the capacity of the system. However, there is a limitation of supply side measures determined by the design capacity of the systems beyond which any addition in the capacity requires huge capital investments. The demand side interventions are essentially required to actually spread the demand across the time and space. In this study, an attempt has been made to identify the potential Transport Demand Management tools applicable to Urban Rail Transportation systems with a special focus on differential pricing. A conceptual price elasticity model has been developed to analyse the effect of various combinations of peak and nonpeak hoursfares on demands. The elasticity values for peak hour, nonpeak hour and cross elasticity have been assumed from the relevant literature available in the field. The conceptual price elasticity model so developed is based on assumptions which need to be validated with actual values of elasticities for different segments of passengers. Once validated, the model can be used to determine the peak and nonpeak hour fares with an objective to increase overall ridership, revenue, demand levelling and optimal utilisation of assets.

Keywords: Congestion, differential pricing, elasticity, transport demand management, urban transportation.

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Authors: Krishna Kumar Singh, Praveen Jain

Abstract:

Collection of storm water runoff and forcing it into the groundwater is the need of the hour to sustain the ground water table. However, the runoff entraps various types of sediments and other floating objects whose removal are essential to avoid pollution of ground water and blocking of pores of aquifer. However, it requires regular cleaning and maintenance due to problem of clogging. To evaluate the performance of filter system consisting of coarse sand (CS), gravel (G) and pebble (P) layers, a laboratory experiment was conducted in a rectangular column. The effect of variable thickness of CS, G and P layers of the filtration unit of the recharge shaft on the recharge rate and the sediment concentration of effluent water were evaluated. Medium sand (MS) of three particle sizes, viz. 0.150–0.300 mm (T1), 0.300–0.425 mm (T2) and 0.425–0.600 mm of thickness 25 cm, 30 cm and 35 cm respectively in the top layer of the filter system and having seven influent sediment concentrations of 250–3,000 mg/l were used for experimental study. The performance was evaluated in terms of recharge rates and clogging time. The results indicated that 100 % suspended solids were entrapped in the upper 10 cm layer of MS, the recharge rates declined sharply for influent concentrations of more than 1,000 mg/l. All treatments with higher thickness of MS media indicated recharge rate slightly more than that of all treatment with lower thickness of MS media respectively. The performance of storm water infiltration systems was highly dependent on the formation of a clogging layer at the filter. An empirical relationship has been derived between recharge rates, inflow sediment load, size of MS and thickness of MS with using MLR.

Keywords: Groundwater, medium sand-mixed storm water filter, inflow sediment load.

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