Abstract: In this paper channel estimation techniques are
considered as the support methods for OFDM transmission systems
based on Non Binary LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) codes.
Standard frequency domain pilot aided LS (Least Squares) and
LMMSE (Linear Minimum Mean Square Error) estimators are
investigated. Furthermore, an iterative algorithm is proposed as a
solution exploiting the NB-LDPC channel decoder to improve the
performance of the LMMSE estimator. Simulation results of signals
transmitted through fading mobile channels are presented to compare
the performance of the proposed channel estimators.
Abstract: Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a framework for description, coordination and alignment of all activities across the organization in order to achieve strategic goals using ICT enablers. A number of EA-compatible frameworks have been developed. We, in this paper, mainly focus on Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) since its reference models are plentiful. Among these models we are interested here in its business reference model (BRM). The test process is one important subject of an EA project which is to somewhat overlooked. This lack of attention may cause drawbacks or even failure of an enterprise architecture project. To address this issue we intend to use International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB) framework and standard test suites to present a method to improve EA testing process. The main challenge is how to communicate between the concepts of EA and ISTQB. In this paper, we propose a method for integrating these concepts.
Abstract: Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) has been integrated in education in many developing and developed countries alike, but the use of ICT in Tanzanian schools is dismal. Many Tanzanian secondary schools have no computers. The few schools with computers use them primarily for secretarial services and computer literacy training. The Tanzanian education system at other levels like secondary school level has to undergo substantial transformation, underscored by the growing application of new information and communication technology. This paper presents the e-readiness survey result from secondary schools in Tanzania. The paper also suggests how Tanzania can make use of the few present ICT resources to support and improve teaching and learning functions to improve performance and acquisition of knowledge by using e-Learning Management System (e-LMS).
Abstract: This main purpose of the study reported here was to
investigate the extent to which the form of school
governance (particularly decision-making) had an impact upon the
effectiveness of the school with reference to parental involvement,
planning and budgeting, professional development of teachers,
school facilities and resources, and student outcomes. Particular
attention was given to decision-making within the governance
arrangements. The study was based on four case studies of high
schools in New South Wales, Australia including one government
school, one independent Christian community school, one
independent Catholic school, and one Catholic systemic school.
The focus of the research was principals, teachers, parents, and
students of four schools with varying governance structures. To
gain a greater insight into the issues, the researchers collected
information by questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and
review of school key documents. This study found that it was not
so much structure but the centrality of the school Principal and the
way that the Principal perceived his/her roles in relation to others
that impacted most on school governance.
Abstract: In contrast to existing methods which do not take into account multiconnectivity in a broad sense of this term, we develop mathematical models and highly effective combination (BIEM and FDM) numerical methods of calculation of stationary and quasistationary temperature field of a profile part of a blade with convective cooling (from the point of view of realization on PC). The theoretical substantiation of these methods is proved by appropriate theorems. For it, converging quadrature processes have been developed and the estimations of errors in the terms of A.Ziqmound continuity modules have been received. For visualization of profiles are used: the method of the least squares with automatic conjecture, device spline, smooth replenishment and neural nets. Boundary conditions of heat exchange are determined from the solution of the corresponding integral equations and empirical relationships. The reliability of designed methods is proved by calculation and experimental investigations heat and hydraulic characteristics of the gas turbine first stage nozzle blade.
Abstract: This paper presents a smart-card applet that is able to
verify X.509 certificates and to use the public key contained in the
certificate for verifying digital signatures that have been created
using the corresponding private key, e.g. for the purpose of authenticating
the certificate owner against the card. The approach has been
implemented as an operating prototype on Java cards.
Abstract: Work ethic and labour productivity issues are
extremely important for any society. It has been long proven by the
global practice and various scholars that the country promoting the
labour has always been way forward from the other countries. This
paper studies the thoughts suggested by M.Weber, Confucius, Lee
Kuan Yew, Mahathir Mohammad and other prominent thinkers
concerning the issues of work ethics and labour productivity. The
article analyzes why developed nations are way more advanced in
their development compared to other nations.
Abstract: The internet is constantly expanding. Identifying web
links of interest from web browsers requires users to visit each of the
links listed, individually until a satisfactory link is found, therefore
those users need to evaluate a considerable amount of links before
finding their link of interest; this can be tedious and even
unproductive. By incorporating web assistance, web users could be
benefited from reduced time searching on relevant websites. In this
paper, a rough set approach is presented, which facilitates
classification of unlimited available e-vocabulary, to assist web users
in reducing search times looking for relevant web sites. This
approach includes two methods for identifying relevance data on web
links based on the priority and percentage of relevance. As a result of
these methods, a list of web sites is generated in priority sequence
with an emphasis of the search criteria.
Abstract: In this paper we present a novel error model for
packet loss and subsequent error description. The proposed model
simulates the error performance of wireless communication link. The
model is designed as two independent Markov chains, where the first
one is used for packet generation and the second one generates
correctly and incorrectly transmitted bits for received packets from
the first chain. The statistical analyses of real communication on the
wireless link are used for determination of model-s parameters. Using
the obtained parameters and the implementation of the generator, we
collected generated traffic. The obtained results generated by
proposed model are compared with the real data collection.
Abstract: In a 10-week (May – August, 2008) Phase I trial, 840, 1+ rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, received a commercial oral immunomodulator, Fin Immune™, at four different dosages (0, 10, 20 and 30 mg g-1) to evaluate immune response and growth. The overall objective of was to determine an optimal dosage of this product for rainbow trout that provides enhanced immunity with maximal growth and health. Biweekly blood samples were taken from 10 randomly selected fish in each tank (30 samples per treatment) to evaluate the duration of enhanced immunity conferred by Fin-Immune™. The immunological assessment included serum white blood cell (lymphocyte, neutrophil) densities and blood hematocrit (packed cell volume %). Of these three variables, only lymphocyte density increased significantly among trout fed Fin- Immune™ at 20 and 30 mg g-1 which peaked at week 6. At week 7, all trout were switched to regular feed (lacking Fin-Immune™) and by week 10, lymphocyte levels decreased among all levels but were still greater than at week 0. There was growth impairment at the highest dose of Fin-Immune™ tested (30 mg g-1) which can be associated with a physiological compensatory mechanism due to a dose-specific threshold level. Thus, our main objective of this Phase I study was achieved, the 20 mg g-1 dose of Fin-Immune™ should be the most efficacious (of those we tested) to use for a Phase II disease challenge trial.
Abstract: In view of growing competition in the service sector,
services are as much in need of modeling, analysis and improvement
as business or working processes. Graphical process models are
important means to capture process-related know-how for an
effective management of the service process. In this contribution, a
human performance analysis of process model development paying
special attention to model development time and the working method
was conducted. It was found that modelers with higher application
experience need significantly less time for mental activities than
modelers with lower application experience, spend more time on
labeling graphical elements, and achieved higher process model
quality in terms of activity label quality.
Abstract: A method of collecting composition data and examining structural features of pearlite lamellae and the parent austenite at the growth interface in a 13wt. % manganese steel has been demonstrated with the use of Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM). The combination of composition data and the structural features observed at the growth interface show that available theories of pearlite growth cannot explain all the observations.
Abstract: This paper presents a solution for a robotic
manipulation problem. We formulate the problem as combining
target identification, tracking and interception. The task in our
solution is sensing a target on a conveyor belt and then intercepting
robot-s end-effector at a convenient rendezvous point. We used
an object recognition method which identifies the target and finds
its position from visualized scene picture, then the robot system
generates a solution for rendezvous problem using the target-s initial
position and belt velocity . The interception of the target and the
end-effector is executed at a convenient rendezvous point along the
target-s calculated trajectory. Experimental results are obtained using
a real platform with an industrial robot and a vision system over it.
Abstract: The concerns of education and practice of architecture
do not necessarily overlap. Indeed the gap between them could be
seen increasingly and less frequently bridged. We suggest that
changing in architecture education and clarifying the relationship
between these two can help to find and address the opportunities and
unique positions to bridge this gulf.
Abstract: In Blind Source Separation (BSS) processing, taking
advantage of scaling factor indetermination and based on the floatingpoint
representation, we propose a scaling technique applied to the
separation matrix, to avoid the saturation or the weakness in the
recovered source signals. This technique performs an Automatic Gain
Control (AGC) in an on-line BSS environment. We demonstrate
the effectiveness of this technique by using the implementation of
a division free BSS algorithm with two input, two output. This
technique is computationally cheaper and efficient for a hardware
implementation.
Abstract: This paper studies the problem of exponential
stability of perturbed discrete linear systems with periodic
coefficients. Assuming that the unperturbed system is exponentially
stable we obtain conditions on the perturbations under which the
perturbed system is exponentially stable.
Abstract: Supply network management adopts a systematic
and integrative approach to managing the operations and
relationships of various parties in a supply network. The objective
of the manufactures in their supply network is to reduce inventory
costs and increase customer satisfaction levels. One way of doing
that is to synchronize delivery performance. A supply network can
be described by nodes representing the companies and the links
(relationships) between these nodes. Uncertainty in delivery time
depends on type of network relationship between suppliers. The
problem is to understand how the individual uncertainties influence
the total uncertainty of the network and identify those parts of the
network, which has the highest potential for improving the total
delivery time uncertainty.
Abstract: The present study was carried out to evaluate the
nutritional value of sorghum flour during processing of injera
(unleavened thick bread). The proximate composition of sorghum
flour before and after fermentation and that of injera was determined.
Compared to the raw flour and fermented one, injera had low protein
(11.55%), ash (1.57%) and fat (2.40%) contents but high in fiber
content. Moreover, injera was found to have significantly (P ≤ 0.05)
higher energy (389.08 Kcal/100g) compared to raw and fermented
sorghum flour. Injera contained lower levels of anti-nutritional
factors (polyphenols, phytate and tannins) compared to raw and
fermented sorghum. Also it was found to be rich in Ca
(4.75mg/100g), Fe (3.95 mg/100g), and Cu (0.7 mg/100g) compared
to that of raw and fermented flour. Moreover, both the extractable
minerals and protein digestibility were high for injera due to low
amount of anti-nutrients. Injera was found to contain an appreciable
amount of amino acids except arginine and tyrosine.
Abstract: The effect of cross linking of the protein isolates of
three legumes with the microbial enzyme transglutaminase (EC
2.3.2.13) on the functional properties at different NaCl concentration
was studied. The reduction in the total free amino groups (OD340) of
the polymerized protein showed that TGase treatment cross-linking
the protein subunit of each legume. The solubility of the protein
polymer of each legume was greatly improved at high concentration
of NaCl. At 1.2 M NaCl the solubility of the native legumes protein
was significantly decreased but after polymerization slightly
improved. Cross linked proteins were less turbid on heating to higher
temperature as compared to native proteins and the temperature at
which the protein turns turbid also increased in the polymerized
proteins. The emulsifying and foaming properties of the protein
polymer were greatly improved at all concentrations of NaCl for all
legumes.
Abstract: The information on the Web increases tremendously.
A number of search engines have been developed for searching Web
information and retrieving relevant documents that satisfy the
inquirers needs. Search engines provide inquirers irrelevant
documents among search results, since the search is text-based rather
than semantic-based. Information retrieval research area has
presented a number of approaches and methodologies such as
profiling, feedback, query modification, human-computer interaction,
etc for improving search results. Moreover, information retrieval has
employed artificial intelligence techniques and strategies such as
machine learning heuristics, tuning mechanisms, user and system
vocabularies, logical theory, etc for capturing user's preferences and
using them for guiding the search based on the semantic analysis
rather than syntactic analysis. Although a valuable improvement has
been recorded on search results, the survey has shown that still
search engines users are not really satisfied with their search results.
Using ontologies for semantic-based searching is likely the key
solution. Adopting profiling approach and using ontology base
characteristics, this work proposes a strategy for finding the exact
meaning of the query terms in order to retrieve relevant information
according to user needs. The evaluation of conducted experiments
has shown the effectiveness of the suggested methodology and
conclusion is presented.