Abstract: The results obtained after incorporating the competence “creativity" to the subject Technical Drawing of the first course of the Degree in Forestry, Technical University of Madrid, are presented in this study.At first, learning activities which could serve two functions at the same time -developing students- creativity and developing other specific competences of the subject- were considered. Besides, changes in the assessment procedure were made and a method which analyzes two aspects of the assessment of the competence creativity was established. On the one hand, the products are evaluated by analyzing the outcomes obtained by students in the essays suggested and by establishing a parameter to assess the creativity expressed in those essays. On the other, an assessment of the student is directly carried out through a psychometric test which has been previously chosen by the team.Moreover, these results can be applied to similar or could be of general application.
Abstract: A novel algorithm for construct a seamless video mosaic of the entire panorama continuously by automatically analyzing and managing feature points, including management of quantity and quality, from the sequence is presented. Since a video contains significant redundancy, so that not all consecutive video images are required to create a mosaic. Only some key images need to be selected. Meanwhile, feature-based methods for mosaicing rely on correction of feature points? correspondence deeply, and if the key images have large frame interval, the mosaic will often be interrupted by the scarcity of corresponding feature points. A unique character of the method is its ability to handle all the problems above in video mosaicing. Experiments have been performed under various conditions, the results show that our method could achieve fast and accurate video mosaic construction. Keywords?video mosaic, feature points management, homography estimation.
Abstract: Cassava is one of the top five crops in Cameroon. Its
evolution has remained constant since the independence period and
the production has more than tripled. It is a crop with multiple
industrial capacities but the sector-s business opportunities are
underexploited. Using Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats analysis method, this paper examines the cassava actual state.
It appraises the sector-s strengths (S), considers suitable measures to
strengthen weaknesses (W), evaluates strategies to fully benefit from
the sector numerous business opportunities (O) and explore means to
convert threats (T) into opportunities. Data were collected from the
ministry of agriculture and rural development and different actors.
The results show that cassava sector embodies many business
opportunities and stands as a raw material provider for many
industries but ultimately requires challenges to be tackled
appropriately.
Abstract: Dual bell nozzle is a promising one among the altitude
adaptation nozzle concepts, which offer increased nozzle
performance in rocket engines. Its advantage is the simplicity it offers
due to the absence of any additional mechanical device or movable
parts. Hence it offers reliability along with improved nozzle
performance as demanded by future launch vehicles. Among other
issues, the flow transition to the extension nozzle of a dual bell
nozzle is one of the major issues being studied in the development of
dual bell nozzle. A parameter named over-expansion factor, which
controls the value of the wall inflection angle, has been reported to
have substantial influence in this transition process. This paper
studies, through CFD and cold flow experiments, the effect of overexpansion
factor on flow transition in dual bell nozzles.
Abstract: From the beginning of creation, human being has ever
fought against the ecosystem by changes has made in environment.
The most environmental changes on the nature have been done after
starting the concentrated life in the same region. Dams are one of the
most important buildings in water resources and transferring. These
buildings have been made from old times without access to
hydrological, hydraulically, hydro mechanical information. Dams
have positive and negative effects on environment. Constructing a
dam relatively causes equal ecological consequences. According to
different criteria, environmental effects of dams can lead short term
and long term damages. These effects may influence on the situation
and treatment of meteorology, biology, culture, ancient works, etc
and severely causes to change and complicate it. So considering
importance of positive effects of dam construction, it is necessary to
minimize negative environmental effects of dams to achieve a stable
development. In this article the considered effects and their solutions
in influencing on assessment of destructive environmental effects of
dams construction have been surveyed and presented.
Abstract: the purpose of this research is to identify and clarify
factors which have positive effect among user satisfaction and their
social networking through websites. The examined factors in this
research are; innovation, ease of use, trustworthy and customer
support which are defined as satisfaction factors. To obtain reliable
research approaches and to have better result in this research four
hypothesizes used to test. This hypothesis testing has been done by
correlation, regression and test of normality by using “SPSS16" also
the data which was analyzed by this software. this data was gathered
from prepaid questionnaire.
Abstract: The alterations in pancreas gland secretion hormones
following an aerobic and exhausting exercise was the purpose of this
study. Sixteen healthy men participated in the study. The blood
samples of these participants were taken in four stages under fasting
condition. The first sample was taken before Bruce exhausting and
aerobic test, the second sample was taken after Bruce exercise and
the third and forth stages samples were taken 24 and 48 hours after
the exercises respectively. The final results indicated that a strenuous
aerobic exercise can have a significant effect on glucagon and insulin
concentration of blood serum. The increase in blood serum insulin
was higher after 24 and 48 hours. It seems that an intensive exercise
has little effect on changes in glucagon concentration of blood serum.
Also, disorder in secretion in glucagon and insulin concentration of
serum disturbs athletes- exercise.
Abstract: The use of e-business in small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) has been recently received an enormous attention
in information systems research by both academic and practitioners.
With the adoption of new and efficient technologies to enhance
businesses, Thai SMEs should be able to compete worldwide.
Unfortunately, most of the owners are not used to new technologies.
It is clear that most Thai SMEs prefer to work manually rather than
electronically. This paper aims to provide a fundamental conceptual
framework for E-business adoption by Thai SMEs. Rooted in
Knowledge transfer model, several factors are identified, which drive
and enable e-business adoption. By overlooking the benefits
associated with implementing new technologies, it is difficult for
Thai SMEs to perform well enough to compete globally. The paper
also helps Thai SMEs to understand factors related to E-business
adoption.
Abstract: This paper addresses linear quadratic regulation (LQR)
for variable speed variable pitch wind turbines. Because of the
inherent nonlinearity of wind turbine, a set of operating conditions is
identified and then a LQR controller is designed for each operating
point. The feedback controller gains are then interpolated linearly to
get control law for the entire operating region. Besides, the
aerodynamic torque and effective wind speed are estimated online to
get the gain-scheduling variable for implementing the controller. The
potential of the method is verified through simulation with the help of
MATLAB/Simulink and GH Bladed. The performance and
mechanical load when using LQR are also compared with that when
using PI controller.
Abstract: 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.
Abstract: This work deals with the design of the robotic assembly
system for the roller clamps. The task is characterized by high speed,
high yield and safety engagement. This paper describes the design of
different parts of an automated high speed machine to assemble the
parts of roller clamps. The roller clamp robotic assembly system
performs various processes in the assembly line which include clamp
body and roller feeding, inserting the roller into the clamp body, and
dividing the rejected clamp and successfully assembled clamp into
their own tray. The electrical/electronics design of the machine is
discussed. The target is to design a cost effective, minimum
maintenance and high speed machine for the industry applications.
Abstract: Text Mining is an important step of Knowledge
Discovery process. It is used to extract hidden information from notstructured
o semi-structured data. This aspect is fundamental because
much of the Web information is semi-structured due to the nested
structure of HTML code, much of the Web information is linked,
much of the Web information is redundant. Web Text Mining helps
whole knowledge mining process to mining, extraction and
integration of useful data, information and knowledge from Web
page contents.
In this paper, we present a Web Text Mining process able to
discover knowledge in a distributed and heterogeneous multiorganization
environment. The Web Text Mining process is based on
flexible architecture and is implemented by four steps able to
examine web content and to extract useful hidden information
through mining techniques. Our Web Text Mining prototype starts
from the recovery of Web job offers in which, through a Text Mining
process, useful information for fast classification of the same are
drawn out, these information are, essentially, job offer place and
skills.
Abstract: In order to survive in a rapidly changing business environment, Malaysian business firms must improve their own business practices and procedures. This paper describes the impact of Critical Success Factors (CSFs) during the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementations using the responses from 151 organizations that completed or are in the process of completing an ERP implementation and identifying the key benefits of ERP implementation in the firm. The importance of these factors was investigated within Malaysian companies using questionnaire survey method. Our results provide advice to management on how best to utilize their limited resources to choose those CSFs that are most likely to have an impact upon the implementation of the ERP system.
Abstract: In this paper we present the modeling, design, and
experimental testing of a nerve cuff multi-electrode system for
diameter-selective vagus nerve stimulation.
The multi-electrode system contained ninety-nine platinum
electrodes embedded within a self-curling spiral silicone sheet. The
electrodes were organized in a matrix having nine parallel groups,
each containing eleven electrodes.
Preliminary testing of the nerve cuff was performed in an isolated
segment of a swinish left cervical vagus nerve. For selective vagus
nerve stimulation, precisely defined current quasitrapezoidal,
asymmetric and biphasic stimulating pulses were applied to
preselected locations along the left vagus segment via appointed
group of three electrodes within the cuff. Selective stimulation was
obtained by anodal block. However, these pulses may not be safe for
a long-term application because of a frequently used high imbalance
between the cathodic and anodic part of the stimulating pulse.
Preliminary results show that the cuff was capable of exciting A
and B-fibres, and, that for a certain range of parameters used in
stimulating pulses, the contribution of A-fibres to the CAP was
slightly reduced and the contribution of B-fibres was slightly larger.
Results also showed that measured CAPs are not greatly
influenced by the imbalance between a charge Qc injected in cathodic
and Qa in anodic phase of quasitrapezoidal, asymmetric and biphasic
pulses.
Abstract: The objective of the paper is twofold. First, to develop a
formal framework for planning for mobile agents. A logical language
based on a temporal logic is proposed that can express a type of
tasks which often arise in network management. Second, to design a
planning algorithm for such tasks. The aim of this paper is to study
the importance of finding plans for mobile agents. Although there
has been a lot of research in mobile agents, not much work has been
done to incorporate planning ideas for such agents. This paper makes
an attempt in this direction. A theoretical study of finding plans for
mobile agents is undertaken. A planning algorithm (based on the
paradigm of mobile computing) is proposed and its space, time, and
communication complexity is analyzed. The algorithm is illustrated
by working out an example in detail.
Abstract: This work is focused on the numerical prediction of the fracture resistance of a flat stiffened panel made of the aluminium alloy 2024 T3 under a monotonic traction condition. The performed numerical simulations have been based on the micromechanical Gurson-Tvergaard (GT) model for ductile damage. The applicability of the GT model to this kind of structural problems has been studied and assessed by comparing numerical results, obtained by using the WARP 3D finite element code, with experimental data available in literature. In the sequel a home-made procedure is presented, which aims to increase the residual strength of a cracked stiffened aluminum panel and which is based on the stochastic design improvement (SDI) technique; a whole application example is then given to illustrate the said technique.
Abstract: In this paper, we have applied the homotopy perturbation
method (HPM) for obtaining the analytical solution of unsteady
flow of gas through a porous medium and we have also compared the
findings of this research with some other analytical results. Results
showed a very good agreement between results of HPM and the
numerical solutions of the problem rather than other analytical solutions
which have previously been applied. The results of homotopy
perturbation method are of high accuracy and the method is very
effective and succinct.
Abstract: Recently, the health of retired National Football
League players, particularly lineman has been investigated. A number of studies have reported increased cardiometabolic risk, premature ardiovascular disease and incidence of type 2 diabetes. Rugby union players have somatotypes very similar
to National Football league players which suggest that rugby players may have similar health risks. The International Golden Oldies World Rugby Festival (GORF) provided a
unique opportunity to investigate the demographics of veteran rugby players. METHODOLOGIES: A cross-sectional, observational study was completed using an online web-based
questionnaire that consisted of medical history and
physiological measures. Data analysis was completed using a one sample t-test (50yrs) and Chi-square test. RESULTS: A total of 216 veteran rugby competitors
(response rate = 6.8%) representing 10 countries, aged 35-72 yrs (mean 51.2, S.D. ±8.0), participated in the online survey. As a group, the incidence of current smokers was low at 8.8%
(avg 72.4 cigs/wk) whilst the percentage consuming alcohol
was high (93.1% (avg 11.2 drinks/wk). Competitors reported
the following top six chronic diseases/disorders; hypertension
(18.6%), arthritis (OA/RA, 11.5%), asthma (9.3%),
hyperlipidemia (8.2%), diabetes (all types, 7.5%) and gout (6%), there were significant differences between groups with
regard to cancer (all types) and migraines. When compared to
the Australian general population (Australian Bureau of Statistics data, n=18,000), GORF competitors had a
Climstein Mike, Walsh Joe (corresponding author) and Burke Stephen
School of Exercise Science, Australian Catholic University, 25A Barker Road,
Strathfield, Sydney, NSW, 2016, Australia (e-mail:
[email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]).
John Best is with Orthosports, 160 Belmore Rd., Randwick, Sydney,NSW
2031, Australia (e-mail: [email protected]).
Heazlewood, Ian Timothy is with School of Environmental and Life
Sciences, Faculty Education, Health and Science, Charles Darwin University,
Precinct Yellow Building 2, Charles Darwin University, NT 0909, Australia
(e-mail: [email protected]).
Kettunen Jyrki Arcada University of Applied Sciences, Jan-Magnus
Janssonin aukio 1, FI-00550, Helsinki, Finland (e-mail:
[email protected]).
Adams Kent is with California State University Monterey Bay, Kinesiology Department, 100 Campus Center, Seaside, CA., 93955, USA (email: [email protected]).
DeBeliso Mark is with Department of Physical Education and Human
Performance, Southern Utah University, 351 West University Blvd, Cedar
City, Utah, USA (e-mail: [email protected]).
significantly lower incidence of anxiety (p
Abstract: Inventory decisional environment of short life-cycle
products is full of uncertainties arising from randomness and
fuzziness of input parameters like customer demand requiring
modeling under hybrid uncertainty. Prior inventory models
incorporating fuzzy demand have unfortunately ignored stochastic
variation of demand. This paper determines an unambiguous optimal
order quantity from a set of n fuzzy observations in a newsvendor
inventory setting in presence of fuzzy random variable demand
capturing both fuzzy perception and randomness of customer
demand. The stress of this paper is in providing solution procedure
that attains optimality in two steps with demand information
availability in linguistic phrases leading to fuzziness along with
stochastic variation. The first step of solution procedure identifies
and prefers one best fuzzy opinion out of all expert opinions and the
second step determines optimal order quantity from the selected
event that maximizes profit. The model and solution procedure is
illustrated with a numerical example.
Abstract: This paper presents the application of Intelligent
Techniques to the various duties of Intelligent Condition Monitoring
Systems (ICMS) for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Robots. These
Systems are intended to support these Intelligent Robots in the event
of a Fault occurrence. Neural Networks are used for Diagnosis, whilst
Fuzzy Logic is intended for Prognosis and Remedy. The ultimate
goals of ICMS are to save large losses in financial cost, time and
data.