Abstract: Speeding represents one of the main concerns for road safety and it still is a subject for research. The need to address this problem and to understand why drivers over speed increases especially in Romania, where in 2011, speed was the main cause of car accidents. This article addresses this problem by using the theory of planned behaviour. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of young Romanian drivers (18 to 25 years) and several path analyses were made in order to verify if the model proposed by the theory of planned behaviour fits the data. One interesting result is that perceived behavioural control does not predict the intention to speed or self-reported driving speed, but subjective norms do. This implies that peers and social environment have a greater impact on young Romanian drivers than we thought.
Abstract: In recent decade's tourism industry is one of main
reasons of the social and economical development for many
countries; so these countries try to gain more portion of it for
themselves. The excessive natural and cultural touristy potentialities
in Iran made this country to be one of the most attractive sightseeing
areas, although; Iran has got the lowest rate of tourists. Khark Island
is about 32 km. It is a beautiful coral reef coast; about 98% of oil
export has been done through this place. The ecotourism
potentialities of Khark and Kharko Islands (about 3.7km far from
Khark) are the reason to consider ecotourism and the main activity in
these islands which is exporting oil at the same time. This article
refers to way of measuring the geographical coordination of the
place, and the potentialities, ecotourism attraction of the islands and
introduces some ideas in order to expand tourism in the islands.
Abstract: In our modern society electricity is vital to our health,
safety, comfort and well-being. While our daily use of electricity is
often taken for granted, public concern has arisen about potential
adverse health effects from electric and magnetic – electromagnetic –
fields (EMFs) produced by our use of electricity.
This paper aims to compare between the measured magnetic field
values and the simulated models for the indoor medium to low
voltage (MV/LV) distribution substations.
To calculate the magnetic flux density in the substations,
interactive software SUBCALC is used which is based on closed
form solution of the Biot-Savart law with 3D conductor model.
The comparison between the measured values and the simulated
models was acceptable. However there were some discrepancies, as
expected, may be due to the current variation during measurements.
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: Combined therapy using Interferon and Ribavirin is the standard treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis C. However, the number of responders to this treatment is low, whereas its cost and side effects are high. Therefore, there is a clear need to predict patient’s response to the treatment based on clinical information to protect the patients from the bad drawbacks, Intolerable side effects and waste of money. Different machine learning techniques have been developed to fulfill this purpose. From these techniques are Associative Classification (AC) and Decision Tree (DT). The aim of this research is to compare the performance of these two techniques in the prediction of virological response to the standard treatment of HCV from clinical information. 200 patients treated with Interferon and Ribavirin; were analyzed using AC and DT. 150 cases had been used to train the classifiers and 50 cases had been used to test the classifiers. The experiment results showed that the two techniques had given acceptable results however the best accuracy for the AC reached 92% whereas for DT reached 80%.
Abstract: This paper highlights some interesting facts on South African-s waste situation and management strategies, in particular the Integrated Waste Management. South Africa supports a waste hierarchy by promoting cleaner production, waste minimisation, reuse, recycling and waste treatment with disposal and remediation as the last preferred options in waste management. The drivers for waste management techniques are identified as increased demand for waste service provision; increased demand for waste minimisation; recycling and recovery; land use, physical and environmental limitations; and socio-economic and demographic factors. The South African government recognizes the importance of scientific research as outlined on the white paper on Integrated Pollution and Waste Management (IP and WM) (DEAT, 2000).
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: There has been considerable growth in the issue of
food & beverage safety in Thailand. This is important because the
level of satisfaction in food & beverage safety has impacts on travel
decision made by foreign tourists. Therefore, this paper was aimed to
test if there is any significant gender effect in the level of satisfaction
of food & beverage safety made by foreign tourists in Thailand. In
addition, this paper utilized the Chi Square test of independent to test
if there was an association between gender and sickness because of
food and if there was an association between gender and the
perception of food safety standard. During January to June, 2012, a
total of 400 foreign tourist respondents, 200 male as well as 200
female foreign tourists, were interviewed at the departure lounge at
Suvarnabhumi airport, Thailand. The findings revealed the
astonishing result that there was no significant effect of gender. Also,
there was no significant difference in the association between gender
and being sick because of food as well as the association between
gender and the perception on the standard of food safety during their
trip in Thailand.
Abstract: Server provisioning is one of the most attractive topics in virtualization systems. Virtualization is a method of running multiple independent virtual operating systems on a single physical computer. It is a way of maximizing physical resources to maximize the investment in hardware. Additionally, it can help to consolidate servers, improve hardware utilization and reduce the consumption of power and physical space in the data center. However, management of heterogeneous workloads, especially for resource utilization of the server, or so called provisioning becomes a challenge. In this paper, a new concept for managing workloads based on user behavior is presented. The experimental results show that user behaviors are different in each type of service workload and time. Understanding user behaviors may improve the efficiency of management in provisioning concept. This preliminary study may be an approach to improve management of data centers running heterogeneous workloads for provisioning in virtualization system.
Abstract: In this paper we study the inverse eigenvalue problem for symmetric special matrices and introduce sufficient conditions for obtaining nonnegative matrices. We get the HROU algorithm from [1] and introduce some extension of this algorithm. If we have some eigenvectors and associated eigenvalues of a matrix, then by this extension we can find the symmetric matrix that its eigenvalue and eigenvectors are given. At last we study the special cases and get some remarkable results.
Abstract: Bio-electrical responses obtained from freshwater
sediments by employing microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology were
investigated in this experimental study. During the electricity
generation, organic matter in the sediment was microbially oxidized
under anaerobic conditions with an electrode serving as a terminal
electron acceptor. It was found that the sediment organic matter
(SOM) associated with electrochemically-active electrodes became
more humified, aromatic, and polydispersed, and had a higher average
molecular weight, together with the decrease in the quantity of SOM.
The alteration of characteristics of the SOM was analogous to that
commonly observed in the early stage of SOM diagenetic process (i.e.,
humification). These findings including an elevation of the sediment
redox potential present a possibility of the MFC technology as a new
soil/sediment remediation technique based on its potential benefits:
non-destructive electricity generation and bioremediation.
Abstract: Social-economic variables influence transportation
demand largely. Analyses of discrete choice model consider
social-economic variables to study traveler-s mode choice and
demand. However, to calibrate the discrete choice model needs to have
plenty of questionnaire survey. Also, an aggregative model is
proposed. The historical data of passenger volumes for high speed rail
and domestic civil aviation are employed to calibrate and validate the
model. In this study, models with different social-economic variables,
which are oil price, GDP per capita, CPI and economic growth rate,
are compared. From the results, the model with the oil price is better
than models with the other social-economic variables.
Abstract: This paper contributes to our knowledge about buyerseller
relations by identifying barriers and conflict situations
associated with maintaining and developing durable business
relationships by small companies. The contribution of prior studies
with regard to negative aspects of marketing relationships is
presented in the first section. The international research results are
discussed with regard to the existing conceptualizations and main
research implications identified at the end.
Abstract: Biodiversity crisis is one of the many crises that
started at the turn of the millennia. Concrete form of expression is
still disputed, but there is a relatively high consensus regarding the
high rate of degradation and the urgent need for action. The strategy
of action outlines a strong economic component, together with the
recognition of market mechanisms as the most effective policies to
protect biodiversity. In this context, biodiversity and ecosystem
services are natural assets that play a key role in economic strategies
and technological development to promote development and
prosperity. Developing and strengthening policies for transition to an
economy based on efficient use of resources is the way forward.
To emphasize the co-viability specific to the connection economyecosystem
services, scientific approach aimed on one hand how to
implement policies for nature conservation and on the other hand, the
concepts underlying the economic expression of ecosystem services-
value, in the context of current technology. Following the analysis of
business opportunities associated with changes in ecosystem services
was concluded that development of market mechanisms for nature
conservation is a trend that is increasingly stronger individualized
within recent years. Although there are still many controversial issues
that have already given rise to an obvious bias, international
organizations and national governments have initiated and
implemented in cooperation or independently such mechanisms.
Consequently, they created the conditions for convergence between
private interests and social interests of nature conservation, so there
are opportunities for ongoing business development which leads,
among other things, the positive effects on biodiversity. Finally,
points out that markets fail to quantify the value of most ecosystem
services. Existing price signals reflect at best, only a proportion of the
total amount corresponding provision of food, water or fuel.
Abstract: The aim of the study is to investigate a number of characteristics of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) indicators that should be adopted by CSR assessment methodologies. For the purpose of this paper, a survey among the Greek companies that belong to FTSE 20 in Athens Exchange (FTSE/Athex-20) has been conducted, as these companies are expected to pioneer in the field of CSR. The results show consensus as regards the characteristics of indicators such as the need for the adoption of general and specific sector indicators, financial and non-financial indicators, the origin and the weight rate. However, the results are contradictory concerning the appropriate number of indicators for the assessment of CSR and the unit of measurement. Finally, the company-s sector is a more important dimension of CSR than the size and the country where the company operates. The purpose of this paper is to standardize the main characteristics of CSR indicators.
Abstract: This study focuses on emission of black carbon (BC)
from field open burning of corn residues. Real-time BC
concentration was measured by Micro Aethalometer from field
burning and simulated open burning in a chamber (SOC)
experiments. The average concentration of BC was 1.18±0.47 mg/m3
in the field and 0.89±0.63 mg/m3 in the SOC. The deduced emission
factor from field experiments was 0.50±0.20 gBC/kgdm, and 0.56±0.33
gBC/kgdm from SOC experiment, which are in good agreement with
other studies. In 2007, the total burned area of corn crop was 8,000
ha, resulting in an emission load of BC 20 ton corresponding to 44.5
million kg CO2 equivalent. Therefore, the control of open burning in
corn field represents a significant global warming reduction option.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to examine and identify the
type of Iranian financial market in terms of being symmetrical or
asymmetrical and to measure relationship between type of market
and the market's indices. In this study, daily information on the
market-s Share Price Index, Industrial Index and Top Fifty Most
Active Companies during the years 1999-2010 has been used. In
addition, to determine type of the financial market, rate of return on
Security is taken into account. In this research, by using logistic
regression analysis methods, relationship of the market type with the
above mentioned indices have been examined. The results showed
that the type of the financial market has a positive significant
association with market share price index and Industrial Index. Index
of Top Fifty Most Active Companies is significantly associated with
type of financial market, however this relationship is inverse.
Abstract: In wireless networks, bandwidth is scare resource and it is essential to utilize it effectively. This paper analyses effects of using different bandwidth management techniques on the network performances of the Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) that use hybrid load balancing scheme. In particular, we study three bandwidth management schemes, namely Complete Sharing (CS), Complete Partitioning (CP), and Partial Sharing (PS). Performances of these schemes are evaluated by simulation experiments in term of percentage of network association blocking. Our results show that the CS scheme can provide relatively low blocking percentage in various network traffic scenarios whereas the PS scheme can enhance quality of services of the multimedia traffic with rather small expenses on the blocking percentage of the best effort traffic.
Abstract: Leprosy is an infectious disease caused by
Mycobacterium Leprae, this disease, generally, compromises
the neural fibers, leading to the development of disability.
Disabilities are changes that limit daily activities or social life
of a normal individual. When comes to leprosy, the study of
disability considered the functional limitation (physical
disabilities), the limitation of activity and social participation,
which are measured respectively by the scales: EHF, SALSA
and PARTICIPATION SCALE. The objective of this work is
to propose an on-line monitoring of leprosy patients, which is
based on information scales EHF, SALSA and
PARTICIPATION SCALE. It is expected that the proposed
system is applied in monitoring the patient during treatment
and after healing therapy of the disease. The correlations that
the system is between the scales create a variety of
information, presented the state of the patient and full of
changes or reductions in disability. The system provides
reports with information from each of the scales and the
relationships that exist between them. This way, health
professionals, with access to patient information, can
intervene with techniques for the Prevention of Disability.
Through the automated scale, the system shows the level of
the patient and allows the patient, or the responsible, to take a
preventive measure. With an online system, it is possible take
the assessments and monitor patients from anywhere.
Abstract: Temperature, humidity and precipitation in an area,
are parameters proved influential in the climate of that area, and one
should recognize them so that he can determine the climate of that
area. Climate changes are of primary importance in climatology, and
in recent years, have been of great concern to researchers and even
politicians and organizations, for they can play an important role in
social, political and economic activities. Even though the real cause
of climate changes or their stability is not yet fully recognized, they
are a matter of concern to researchers and their importance for
countries has prompted them to investigate climate changes in
different levels, especially in regional, national and continental level.
This issue has less been investigated in our country. However, in
recent years, there have been some researches and conferences on
climate changes. This study is also in line with such researches and
tries to investigate and analyze the trends of climate changes
(temperature and precipitation) in Sefid-roud (the name of a river)
basin. Three parameters of mean annual precipitation, temperature,
and maximum and minimum temperatures in 36 synoptic and
climatology stations in a statistical period of 49 years (1956-2005) in
the stations of Sefid-roud basin were analyzed by Mann-Kendall test.
The results obtained by data analysis show that climate changes are
short term and have a trend. The analysis of mean temperature
revealed that changes have a significantly rising trend, besides the
precipitation has a significantly falling trend.