Search results for: legal basis

Authors: Mario Mastriani, Marcelo Naiouf

Abstract:

This paper introduces a Quantum Correlation Matrix Memory (QCMM) and Enhanced QCMM (EQCMM), which are useful to work with quantum memories. A version of classical Gram-Schmidt orthogonalisation process in Dirac notation (called Quantum Orthogonalisation Process: QOP) is presented to convert a non-orthonormal quantum basis, i.e., a set of non-orthonormal quantum vectors (called qudits) to an orthonormal quantum basis, i.e., a set of orthonormal quantum qudits. This work shows that it is possible to improve the performance of QCMM thanks QOP algorithm. Besides, the EQCMM algorithm has a lot of additional fields of applications, e.g.: Steganography, as a replacement Hopfield Networks, Bilevel image processing, etc. Finally, it is important to mention that the EQCMM is an extremely easy to implement in any firmware.

Keywords: Quantum Algebra, correlation matrix memory, Dirac notation, orthogonalisation.

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Authors: Reza Mollapourasl, Majid Haghi

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In this study, we develop local meshfree methods known as radial basis function-generated finite difference (RBF-FD) method and Hermite finite difference (RBF-HFD) method to design stencil weights and spatial discretization for Helmholtz equation. The convergence and stability of schemes are investigated numerically in three dimensions with irregular shaped domain. These localized meshless methods incorporate the advantages of the RBF method, finite difference and Hermite finite difference methods to handle the ill-conditioning issue that often destroys the convergence rate of global RBF methods. Moreover, numerical illustrations show that the proposed localized RBF type methods are efficient and applicable for problems with complex geometries. The convergence and accuracy of both schemes are compared by solving a test problem.

Keywords: Radial basis functions, Hermite finite difference, Helmholtz equation, stability.

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Authors: Simisola I. Akintoye, Sunday K. Iyaniwura

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Recent global corporate failures have called for increase in the need to regulate corporate governance across the world. In Nigeria, the impact of corporate governance regulation in the banking sector has reached epidemic levels contributing to the country’s economic depression. This study critically evaluates Nigeria’s corporate governance regime and explores how weak regulation has impacted on the banking sector. By adopting a socio legal methodology, the study analyses both theoretical and empirical works from a socio-scientific point of view to examine the role of Nigeria’s legal, cultural and social arrangements in corporate governance regulation. The study reveals that Nigeria’s institutional arrangement has contributed to its weak system of corporate governance regulation with adverse effects on the banking sector. The research mainly impacts on current global corporate governance literature in sub-Saharan Africa by contributing to knowledge of the peculiarities of corporate governance regulation in different institutional jurisdictions. The particular focus on emerging economies such as Nigeria expands on the need for countries to develop a bespoke system of corporate governance regulation that takes into consideration the peculiarities of individual countries devoid of external influence.

Keywords: Banks, corporate governance, emerging economies, Nigeria.

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Authors: Yoichi Hikino, Mutsuto Kawahara

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The purpose of this study is to derive optimal shapes of a body located in viscous flows by the finite element method using the acoustic velocity and the four-step explicit scheme. The formulation is based on an optimal control theory in which a performance function of the fluid force is introduced. The performance function should be minimized satisfying the state equation. This problem can be transformed into the minimization problem without constraint conditions by using the adjoint equation with adjoint variables corresponding to the state equation. The performance function is defined by the drag and lift forces acting on the body. The weighted gradient method is applied as a minimization technique, the Galerkin finite element method is used as a spatial discretization and the four-step explicit scheme is used as a temporal discretization to solve the state equation and the adjoint equation. As the interpolation, the orthogonal basis bubble function for velocity and the linear function for pressure are employed. In case that the orthogonal basis bubble function is used, the mass matrix can be diagonalized without any artificial centralization. The shape optimization is performed by the presented method.

Keywords: Shape Optimization, Optimal Control Theory, Finite Element Method, Weighted Gradient Method, Fluid Force, Orthogonal Basis Bubble Function, Four-step Explicit Scheme, Acoustic Velocity.

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Authors: Gert Van Schalkwyk, Chris Cloete

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South Africa is experiencing a massive housing backlog in urban low-cost housing. A backlog in the transfer of low-cost housing units is exacerbated by various impediments and delays that exist in the current legal framework. Structured interviews were conducted with 45 practicing conveyancers and 15 deeds office examiners at the Deeds Office in Pretoria, South Africa. One of the largest, the Deeds Office in Pretoria implements a uniform registration process and can be regarded as representative of other deeds offices in South Africa. It was established that a low percentage of low-cost properties are freely transferable. The main economic impediments are the absence of financing and the affordability or payment of rates and taxes to local government. Encroachment of buildings on neighbouring stands caused by enlargement of existing small units on small stands also cause long-term unresolved legal disputes. In addition, as transfer of properties is dependent on the proper functioning of administrative functions of various government departments, the adverse service delivery of government departments hampers transfer. Addressing the identified problems will contribute to a more sustainable process for the transfer of low-cost housing units in South Africa.

Keywords: Conveyancing, low-cost housing, South Africa, tenure, transfer, titling.

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Authors: Antti Pirhonen, Minna Silvennoinen

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The only relevant basis for the design of an educational application are objectives of learning for the content area. This study analyses the process in which the real – not only the formal – objectives could work as the starting point for the construction of an educational game. The application context is the education of perioperative nursing. The process is based on the panel discussions of nursing teachers. In the panels, the teachers elaborated the objectives. The transcribed discussions were analysed in terms of the conceptions of learning and teaching of perioperative nursing. The outcome of the study is first the elaborated objectives, which will be used in the implementation of an educational game for the needs of pre-, intra and post-operative nursing skills learning. Second, the study shows that different views of learning are necessary to be understood in order to design an appropriate educational application.

Keywords: Perioperative nursing, conceptions of learning, educational applications.

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Authors: E. N. Vetrova, L.V. Lapochkina, N. V. Nikulina

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In the national economy, entrepreneurship plays the role of a buffer between economy and policy for it contributes to improving budget effectiveness and decreasing dependence of economy on the state. Entrepreneurship in industry makes it possible to increase the added value that is formed in production chains and to decrease dependence on import. Under the current circumstances, when sanctions are being imposed, this is especially relevant for Russia and for the realization of projects in the Russian Arctic. However, development of entrepreneurship in industry requires an enlightened state policy. The purpose of the research is elaboration of recommendations for improving economic effectiveness of the realization of the Arctic projects on the basis of conceptual proposals for the development of entrepreneurship in industry. The paper presents the studies of the extractive industry role in the Russian economy and proves its raw material character. The analysis of production chains in industry on the basis of the conception of the added value global chains demonstrated a low added value formed by Russian companies. The study of changes in the structure of economy based on systemic, statistical and comparative analyses revealed no positive changes in the structure of economy over the period under consideration. This is a manifestation of ineffectiveness of the Russian industrial policy in general and within the Arctic region in particular. The authors identified the problems information and implementation of the state industrial policy in the Arctic region and in the development of national entrepreneurship, analyzed the shortcomings of the current state policy in the sphere of the Russian industry. On the basis of the conducted studies, the authors formulated conceptual approaches to change the state policy in the Arctic. The basic idea of the authors is to substantiate the focus of the state regulation on the development of entrepreneurship in industry in the process of the Russian Arctic exploration. At the same time another problem is solved–that of the development of the manufacturing industry in the southern regions of the northwestern part of Russia. The criterion of effectiveness in this case is the economic effectiveness.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship in industry, global chains of the added value, government regulation, industrial policies, production chains in the Arctic region, economic effectiveness.

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Authors: Amany A. Ragheb, Ghada Ragheb, Abd ElRahman A.

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Egypt has a countless heritage of mansions, castles, cities, towns, villages, industrial and manufacturing sites. This richness of heritage provides endless and matchless prospects for culture. Despite being famous worldwide, Egypt’s heritage still is in constant need of protection. Political conflicts and religious revolutions form a direct threat to buildings in various areas, historic, archaeological sites, and religious monuments. Egypt has witnessed two revolutions in less than 60 years; both had an impact on its architectural heritage. In this paper, the authors aim to review legal and policy framework to protect the cultural heritage and present the risk management strategy for cultural heritage in conflict. Through a review of selected international models of devastated architectural heritage in conflict zones and highlighting some of their changes, we can learn from the experiences of other countries to assist towards the development of a methodology to halt the plundering of architectural heritage. Finally, the paper makes an effort to enhance the formulation of a risk management strategy for protection and conservation of cultural heritage, through which to end the plundering of Egypt’s architectural legacy in the Egyptian community (revolutions, 1952 and 2011); and by presenting to its surrounding community the benefits derived from maintaining it.

Keywords: Cultural heritage, legal regulation, risk management, preservation.

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Authors: Kyu Jin Kim, Byung Kwan Oh, Hyo Seon Park

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The seismic responses-based structural health monitoring system has been performed to prevent seismic damage. Structural seismic damage of building is caused by the instantaneous stress concentration which is related with dynamic characteristic of earthquake. Meanwhile, seismic response analysis to estimate the dynamic responses of building demands significantly high computational cost. To prevent the failure of structural members from the characteristic of the earthquake and the significantly high computational cost for seismic response analysis, this paper presents an artificial neural network (ANN) based prediction model for dynamic responses of building considering specific time length. Through the measured dynamic responses, input and output node of the ANN are formed by the length of specific time, and adopted for the training. In the model, evolutionary radial basis function neural network (ERBFNN), that radial basis function network (RBFN) is integrated with evolutionary optimization algorithm to find variables in RBF, is implemented. The effectiveness of the proposed model is verified through an analytical study applying responses from dynamic analysis for multi-degree of freedom system to training data in ERBFNN.

Keywords: Structural health monitoring, dynamic response, artificial neural network, radial basis function network, genetic algorithm.

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Authors: L.Wiset, N. Poomsa-ad, V. Srilaong

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The peel of dragon fruit is a byproduct left over after consuming. Normally, the use of plants as antioxidant source must be dried before further process. Therefore, the aim of this study is interesting to dry the peel by heat pump dryer (45 ºC) and fluidized bed dryer (110 º C) compared with the sun drying method. The sample with initial moisture content of about 85-91% wet basis was dried down to about 10% wet basis where it took 620 and 25 min for heat pump dryer and fluidized bed dryer, respectively. However, the sun drying took about 900 min to dry the peel. After that, sample was evaluated antioxidant activity, -carotene and betalains contents. The results found that the antioxidant activity and betalains contents of dried peel obtained from heat pump and fluidized bed dryings were significantly higher than that sun drying (p 0.05). Moreover, the drying by heat pump provided the highest -carotene content.

Keywords: Pitaya, betalains, β-carotene, antioxidant.

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Authors: Denis Trcek

Abstract:

Trust is essential for further and wider acceptance of contemporary e-services. It was first addressed almost thirty years ago in Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria standard by the US DoD. But this and other proposed approaches of that period were actually solving security. Roughly some ten years ago, methodologies followed that addressed trust phenomenon at its core, and they were based on Bayesian statistics and its derivatives, while some approaches were based on game theory. However, trust is a manifestation of judgment and reasoning processes. It has to be dealt with in accordance with this fact and adequately supported in cyber environment. On the basis of the results in the field of psychology and our own findings, a methodology called qualitative algebra has been developed, which deals with so far overlooked elements of trust phenomenon. It complements existing methodologies and provides a basis for a practical technical solution that supports management of trust in contemporary computing environments. Such solution is also presented at the end of this paper.

Keywords: internet security, trust management, multi-agent systems, reasoning and judgment, modeling and simulation, qualitativealgebra

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Authors: Jameela Ali Alkrimi, Hamid A. Jalab, Loay E. George, Abdul Rahim Ahmad, Azizah Suliman, Karim Al-Jashamy

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Red blood cells (RBC) are the most common types of blood cells and are the most intensively studied in cell biology. The lack of RBCs is a condition in which the amount of hemoglobin level is lower than normal and is referred to as “anemia”. Abnormalities in RBCs will affect the exchange of oxygen. This paper presents a comparative study for various techniques for classifying the RBCs as normal or abnormal (anemic) using WEKA. WEKA is an open source consists of different machine learning algorithms for data mining applications. The algorithms tested are Radial Basis Function neural network, Support vector machine, and K-Nearest Neighbors algorithm. Two sets of combined features were utilized for classification of blood cells images. The first set, exclusively consist of geometrical features, was used to identify whether the tested blood cell has a spherical shape or non-spherical cells. While the second set, consist mainly of textural features was used to recognize the types of the spherical cells. We have provided an evaluation based on applying these classification methods to our RBCs image dataset which were obtained from Serdang Hospital - Malaysia, and measuring the accuracy of test results. The best achieved classification rates are 97%, 98%, and 79% for Support vector machines, Radial Basis Function neural network, and K-Nearest Neighbors algorithm respectively.

Keywords: K-Nearest Neighbors, Neural Network, Radial Basis Function, Red blood cells, Support vector machine.

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Authors: Hemanth Kumar, A. R., Sudhakar G, Satyanarayana B. S.

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In this paper, Land Marks for Unique Addressing( LMUA) algorithm is develped to generate unique ID for each and every node which leads to the formation of overlapping/Non overlapping clusters based on unique ID. To overcome the draw back of the developed LMUA algorithm, the concept of clustering is introduced. Based on the clustering concept a Land Marks for Unique Addressing and Clustering(LMUAC) Algorithm is developed to construct strictly non-overlapping clusters and classify those nodes in to Cluster Heads, Member Nodes, Gate way nodes and generating the Hierarchical code for the cluster heads to operate in the level one hierarchy for wireless communication switching. The expansion of the existing network can be performed or not without modifying the cost of adding the clusterhead is shown. The developed algorithm shows one way of efficiently constructing the

Keywords: Cluster Dimension, Cluster Basis, Metric Dimension, Metric Basis.

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Authors: Saimir Heta, Kers Kapaj, Rialda Xhizdari, Ilma Robo

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Dealing with emerging cases of dental malpractice with justifications that stem from the clear rules of dental ethics is a phenomenon with an increasing trend in today's dental practice. Dentists should clearly understand how far the limit of malpractice goes, with or without minimal or major consequences, for the affected patient, which can be justified as a complication of dental treatment, in support of the rules of dental ethics in the dental office. Indeed, malpractice can occur in cases of lack of professionalism, but it can also come as a consequence of anatomical and physiological limitations in the implementation of the dental protocols, predetermined and indicated by the patient in the paragraph of the treatment plan in his personal card. Let this article serve as a short communication between readers and interested parties about the problems that dental malpractice can bring to the community. Malpractice should not be seen only as a professional wrong approach, but also as a phenomenon that can occur during dental practice. The aim of this article is presentation of the latest data published in the literature about malpractice. The combination of keywords is done in such a way with the aim to give the necessary space for collecting the right information in the networks of publications about this field, always first from the point of view of the dentist and not from that of the lawyer or jurist. From the findings included in this article, it was noticed that the diversity of approaches towards the phenomenon depends on the different countries based on the legal basis that these countries have. There is a lack of or a small number of articles that touch on this topic, and these articles are presented with a limited amount of data on the same topic. Dental malpractice should not be hidden under the guise of various dental complications that we justify with the strict rules of ethics for patients treated in the dental chair. The individual experience of dental malpractice must be published with the aim of serving as a source of experience for future generations of dentists.

Keywords: Dental ethics, malpractice, professional protocol, random deviation, dental tourism.

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Authors: B. Schmid, C. Kexel, E. Djafarova

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Understanding consumers is elementary for practitioners in marketing. Consumers of sports events, the sports spectators, are a particularly complex consumer crowd. In order to identify and define their profiles different segmentation approaches can be found in literature, one of them being multidimensional segmentation. Multidimensional segmentation models correspond to the broad range of attitudes, behaviours, motivations and beliefs of sports spectators, other than earlier models. Moreover, in sports there are some well-researched disciplines (e.g. football or North American sports) where consumer profiles and marketing strategies are elaborate and others where no research at all can be found. For example, there is almost no research on athletics spectators. This paper explores the current state of research on sports spectators segmentation. An in-depth literature review provides the framework for a spectators segmentation in athletics. On this basis, additional potential consumer groups and implications for social media marketing will be explored. The findings are the basis for further research.

Keywords: Multidimensional segmentation, social media, sports marketing, sports spectators segmentation.

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Authors: Sarah Reker

Abstract:

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) provides the basis of this study. For all countries which have ratified the convention since its entry into force in 2007, the effective implementation of the requirements often leads to considerable challenges. Furthermore, missing indicators make it difficult to measure progress. Therefore, the aim of the research project is to contribute to analyze the consequences of the implementation process on the inclusion and exclusion conditions for people with disabilities in Germany. Disabled People’s Organisations and other associations consider the social space to be relevant for the successful implementation of the CRPD. Against this background, the research project wants to focus on the relationship between a barrier-free access to the social space and the “full and effective participation and inclusion” (Art. 3) of persons with disabilities. The theoretical basis of the study is the sociological theory of social space (“Sozialraumtheorie”).

Keywords: Decentralisation, qualitative research, residential facilities, social space.

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Authors: Ryad Zemouri, Paul Ciprian Patic

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An adaptive software reliability prediction model using evolutionary connectionist approach based on Recurrent Radial Basis Function architecture is proposed. Based on the currently available software failure time data, Fuzzy Min-Max algorithm is used to globally optimize the number of the k Gaussian nodes. The corresponding optimized neural network architecture is iteratively and dynamically reconfigured in real-time as new actual failure time data arrives. The performance of our proposed approach has been tested using sixteen real-time software failure data. Numerical results show that our proposed approach is robust across different software projects, and has a better performance with respect to next-steppredictability compared to existing neural network model for failure time prediction.

Keywords: Neural network, Prediction error, Recurrent RadialBasis Function Network, Reliability prediction.

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Authors: Sultan Noman Qasem

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This paper presents an evolutionary algorithm for solving multi-objective optimization problems-based artificial neural network (ANN). The multi-objective evolutionary algorithm used in this study is genetic algorithm while ANN used is radial basis function network (RBFN). The proposed algorithm named memetic elitist Pareto non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-based RBFN (MEPGAN). The proposed algorithm is implemented on medical diseases problems. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm is viable, and provides an effective means to design multi-objective RBFNs with good generalization capability and compact network structure. This study shows that MEPGAN generates RBFNs coming with an appropriate balance between accuracy and simplicity, comparing to the other algorithms found in literature.

Keywords: Radial basis function network, Hybrid learning, Multi-objective optimization, Genetic algorithm.

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Authors: A.Seif, H.Aghaie, K.Majlesi

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A computational study at the level density functional theory (DFT) was carried out to investigate the influences of Si and C-doping on the 14N and 27Al quadrupole coupling constant in the (10, 0) zigzag single ? walled Aluminum-Nitride nanotube (AlNNT). To this aim, a 1.16nm, length of AlNNT consisting of 40 Al atoms and 40 N atoms were selected where the end atoms are capped by hydrogen atom. To follow the purpose, three Si atoms and three C atoms were doped instead of three Al atoms and three N atoms as a central ring in the surface of the Si and C-doped AlNNT. At first both of systems optimized at the level of BLYP method and 6-31G (d) basis set and after that, the NQR parameters were calculated at the level BLYP method and 6-311+G** basis set in two optimized forms. The calculate CQ values for both optimized AlNNT systems, raw and Si and C-doped, reveal different electronic environments in the mentioned systems. It was also demonstrated that the end nuclei have the largest CQ values in both considered AlNNT systems. All the calculations were carried out using Gaussian 98 package of program.

Keywords: DFT, Quadrupole Coupling Constant, Si and CDoping, Single-Walled AlN nanotubes.

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Authors: Tokuei Sako, Paul-Antoine Hervieux

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The energy-level structure of a pair of electron and positron confined in a quasi-one-dimensional nano-scale potential well has been investigated focusing on its trend in the small limit of confinement strength ω, namely, the Wigner molecular regime. An anisotropic Gaussian-type basis functions supplemented by high angular momentum functions as large as l = 19 has been used to obtain reliable full configuration interaction (FCI) wave functions. The resultant energy spectrum shows a band structure characterized by ω for the large ω regime whereas for the small ω regime it shows an energy-level pattern dominated by excitation into the in-phase motion of the two particles. The observed trend has been rationalized on the basis of the nodal patterns of the FCI wave functions. 

Keywords: Confined systems, positron, wave function, Wigner molecule, quantum dots.

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Authors: S. Al-Asheh, K. Al-Emadi

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In recent years, there have been attempts to store natural gas in adsorptive form. This is called adsorptive natural gas, or ANG. The problem with this technology is the low sorption capacity. The purpose is to achieve compressed natural gas (CNG) capacity of 230 V/V. Further research is required to achieve such target. Several research studies have been performed with this target; through either the modification or development of new sorbents or the optimization of the operation sorption process itself. In this work, storage of methane on molecular sieves 5A and 13X was studied on dry basis, and on wet basis to certain extent. The temperature and the pressure dynamics were investigated. The results indicated that regardless of the charge pressure, the time for the peak temperature during the methane charge process is always the same. This can be used as a characteristic of the adsorbent. The total achieved deliveries using molecular sieves were much lower than that of activated carbons; 53.0 V/V for the case of 13X molecular sieves and 43 V/V for the case of 5A molecular sieves, both at 2oC and 4 MPa (580 psi). Investigation of charge pressure dynamic using wet molecular sieves at 2oC and a mass ratio of 0.5, revealed slowness of the process and unexpected behavior.

Keywords: Methane, Molecular sieves, Adsorption, Delivery, Storage.

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Authors: I. Falconett, K. Nagasaka

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This study investigates the performance of radial basis function networks (RBFN) in forecasting the monthly CO2 emissions of an electric power utility. We also propose a method for input variable selection. This method is based on identifying the general relationships between groups of input candidates and the output. The effect that each input has on the forecasting error is examined by removing all inputs except the variable to be investigated from its group, calculating the networks parameter and performing the forecast. Finally, the new forecasting error is compared with the reference model. Eight input variables were identified as the most relevant, which is significantly less than our reference model with 30 input variables. The simulation results demonstrate that the model with the 8 inputs selected using the method introduced in this study performs as accurate as the reference model, while also being the most parsimonious.

Keywords: Correlation analysis, CO2 emissions forecasting, electric power utility, radial basis function networks.

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Authors: Ademuyiwa, M. O., Sanni, S. A.

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The importance of maternal nutritional practices during pregnancy cannot be overemphasized. This paper assessed the consumption pattern and dietary practices of 50 pregnant women selected using purposive sampling technique from three health care centres (Primary Health Care Centre, Obantoko; Primary Health Care Centre Alabata; and the General Hospital, Odeda) in Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State, Nigeria. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit information on socioeconomic status, consumption pattern and dietary practices. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, 17). The results indicated that about 58% of the pregnant women were below the age of 30 while 42% were ages 28-40 years. Only 16% had tertiary education while (38%) had secondary education, 52% earn income through petty trading. On food intake, 52% got their energy source from rice on a daily basis, followed by pap (38%) and eko (34%). For protein intake, 36% consumed bean cake on a daily basis while 66% consumed moinmoin 2-3 times a week. Orange (48%) and Green Leafy vegetable (40%) accounted for the mostly consumed fruit and vegetable on daily basis. In terms of animal origin, fish (76%), meat (58%) and eggs (30%) were consumed daily, while chicken and snail were consumed occasionally by 54% and 42%, respectively. Forty-six percent (46%) of the pregnant women eat more than three times daily; while 60% of the women eat outside their homes with 42% respondents eat out lunch and only two percent least eaten out dinner. It is important to increase in awareness campaign to sensitize the pregnant women on the importance of good nutrition especially fruits, vegetables and dairy products. 

Keywords: Consumption Pattern, Dietary Practices, Pregnant, Women, Nigeria.

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Authors: Seung Woo Lee, So Jeong Nam, Jai-Kyung Lee

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It can be said that the business sector is faced with a range of challenges–a rapidly changing business environment, an increase and diversification of customers- demands and the consequent need for quick response–for having in place flexible management and production info systems. As a matter of fact, many manufacturers have adopted production info management systems such as MES and ERP. Nevertheless, managers are having difficulties obtaining ever-changing production process information in real time, or responding quickly to any change in production related needs on the basis of such information. This is because they rely on poor production info systems which are not capable of providing real-time factory settings. If the manufacturer doesn-t have a capacity for collecting or digitalizing the 4 Ms (Man, Machine, Material, Method), which are resources for production, on a real time basis, it might to difficult to effectively maintain the information on production process. In this regard, this paper will introduce some new alternatives to the existing methods of collecting the 4 Ms in real time, which are currently comprise the production field.

Keywords: 4M, Acquisition of Data on shop-floor, Real-time machine interface

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Authors: Francis Jegede

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This paper examines essential issues relating to the rise and nature of violent extremism involving non-state actors and groups in the early 21^st century. The global trends in terrorism and violent extremism are examined in relation to Western governments’ counter terror operations. The paper analyses the existing legal framework for fighting violent extremism and terrorism and highlights the inherent limitations of the current International Law of War in dealing with the growing challenges posed by terrorists and violent extremist groups. The paper discusses how terrorist groups use civilians, women and children as tools and weapon of war to fuel their campaign of terror and suggests ways in which the international community could deal with the challenge of fighting terrorist groups without putting civilians, women and children in harm way. The paper emphasises the need to uphold human rights values and respect for the law of war in our response to global terrorism. The paper poses the question as to whether the current legal framework for dealing with terrorist groups is sufficient without contravening the essential provisions and ethos of the International Law of War and Human Rights. While the paper explains how terrorist groups flagrantly disregard the rule of law and disrespect human rights in their campaign of terror, it also notes instances in which the current Western strategy in fighting terrorism may be viewed or considered as conflicting with human rights and international law.

Keywords: Terrorism, law of war, international law, violent extremism.

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Authors: Abdel-Rahman M. Jaradat, , Mansour I. Irshid, Talha T. Nassar

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A novel file splitting technique for the reduction of the nth-order entropy of text files is proposed. The technique is based on mapping the original text file into a non-ASCII binary file using a new codeword assignment method and then the resulting binary file is split into several subfiles each contains one or more bits from each codeword of the mapped binary file. The statistical properties of the subfiles are studied and it is found that they reflect the statistical properties of the original text file which is not the case when the ASCII code is used as a mapper. The nth-order entropy of these subfiles are determined and it is found that the sum of their entropies is less than that of the original text file for the same values of extensions. These interesting statistical properties of the resulting subfiles can be used to achieve better compression ratios when conventional compression techniques are applied to these subfiles individually and on a bit-wise basis rather than on character-wise basis.

Keywords: Bit-wise compression, entropy, file splitting, source mapping.

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Authors: Chapman Eze Nnadozie

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Cloud computing, a technology that is made possible through virtualization within networks represents a shift from the traditional ownership of infrastructure and other resources by distinct organization to a more scalable pattern in which computer resources are rented online to organizations on either as a pay-as-you-use basis or by subscription. In other words, cloud computing entails the renting of computing resources (such as storage space, memory, servers, applications, networks, etc.) by a third party to its clients on a pay-as-go basis. It is a new innovative technology that is globally embraced because of its renowned benefits, profound of which is its cost effectiveness on the part of organizations engaged with its services. In Nigeria, the services are provided either directly to companies mostly by the key IT players such as Microsoft, IBM, and Google; or in partnership with some other players such as Infoware, Descasio, and Sunnet. This action enables organizations to rent IT resources on a pay-as-you-go basis thereby salvaging them from wastages accruable on acquisition and maintenance of IT resources such as ownership of a separate data centre. This paper intends to appraise the challenges of cloud computing adoption in Nigeria, bearing in mind the country’s peculiarities’ in terms of infrastructural development. The methodologies used in this paper include the use of research questionnaires, formulated hypothesis, and the testing of the formulated hypothesis. The major findings of this paper include the fact that there are some addressable challenges to the adoption of cloud computing in Nigeria. Furthermore, the country will gain significantly if the challenges especially in the area of infrastructural development are well addressed. This is because the research established the fact that there are significant gains derivable by the adoption of cloud computing by organizations in Nigeria. However, these challenges can be overturned by concerted efforts in the part of government and other stakeholders.

Keywords: Cloud computing, data centre, infrastructure, IT resources, network, servers, virtualization.

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Authors: Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Filimonova, Lev Sergeevich Kazarinov, Tatyana Aleksandrovna Barbasova

Abstract:

A method of effective planning and control of industrial facility energy consumption is offered. The method allows optimally arranging the management and full control of complex production facilities in accordance with the criteria of minimal technical and economic losses at the forecasting control. The method is based on the optimal construction of the power efficiency characteristics with the prescribed accuracy. The problem of optimal designing of the forecasting model is solved on the basis of three criteria: maximizing the weighted sum of the points of forecasting with the prescribed accuracy; the solving of the problem by the standard principles at the incomplete statistic data on the basis of minimization of the regularized function; minimizing the technical and economic losses due to the forecasting errors.

Keywords: Energy consumption, energy efficiency, energy management system, forecasting model, power efficiency characteristics.

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Authors: Madiha Khan, Sidrah Ramzan, Seemab Khan, Shahzad Hassan, Kamran Saeed

Abstract:

Measuring semantic similarity between texts is calculating semantic relatedness between texts using various techniques. Our web application (Measuring Relatedness of Concepts-MRC) allows user to input two text corpuses and get semantic similarity percentage between both using WordNet. Our application goes through five stages for the computation of semantic relatedness. Those stages are: Preprocessing (extracts keywords from content), Feature Extraction (classification of words into Parts-of-Speech), Synonyms Extraction (retrieves synonyms against each keyword), Measuring Similarity (using keywords and synonyms, similarity is measured) and Visualization (graphical representation of similarity measure). Hence the user can measure similarity on basis of features as well. The end result is a percentage score and the word(s) which form the basis of similarity between both texts with use of different tools on same platform. In future work we look forward for a Web as a live corpus application that provides a simpler and user friendly tool to compare documents and extract useful information.

Keywords: GraphViz representation, semantic relatedness, similarity measurement, WordNet similarity.

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Authors: Vakhtang Geladze, Nana Bolashvili, Tamazi Karalashvili, Nino Machavariani, Ana Karalashvili, George Geladze, Nana Kvirkvelia

Abstract:

Fresh water deficit is one of the most important global problems today. It must be taken into consideration that in the nearest future fresh water crisis will become even more acute owing to the global climate warming and fast desertification processes in the world. Georgia is rich in water resources, but there are disbalance between the eastern and western parts of the country. The goal of the study is to integrate the recent mechanisms compatible with European standards into Georgian water resources management system on the basis of GIS. Moreover, to draw up water economy balance for the purpose of proper determination of water consumption priorities that will be an exchange ratio of water resources and water consumption of the concrete territory. For study region was choose south-eastern part of country, Kvemo kartli Region. This is typical agrarian region, tends to the desertification. The water supply of the region was assessed on the basis of water economy balance, which was first time calculated for this region.

Keywords: GIS, water economy balance, water resources.

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