Abstract: Objective: This study explored the possibility of integrating Health Belief Concepts as additional predictors of intention to adopt a recommended diet-category within the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Methods: The study adopted a Sequential Exploratory Mixed Methods approach. Qualitative data were generated on attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and perceptions on predetermined diet-categories including perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived severity and cues to action. Synthesis of qualitative data was done using constant comparative approach during phase 1. A survey tool developed from qualitative results was used to collect information on the same concepts across 237 legible Type 2 diabetics. Data analysis included use of Structural Equation Modeling in Analysis of Moment Structures to explore the possibility of including perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived severity and cues to action as additional intention predictors in a single nested model. Results: Two models-one nested based on the traditional TPB model {χ2=223.3, df = 77, p = .02, χ2/df = 2.9; TLI = .93; CFI =.91; RMSEA (90CI) = .090(.039, .146)} and the newly proposed Planned Behavior Health Belief Model (PBHB) {χ2 = 743.47, df = 301, p = .019; TLI = .90; CFI=.91; RMSEA (90CI) = .079(.031, .14)} passed the goodness of fit tests based on common fit indicators used. Conclusion: The newly developed PBHB Model ranked higher than the traditional TPB model with reference made to chi-square ratios (PBHB: χ2/df = 2.47; p=0.19 against TPB: χ2/df = 2.9, p=0.02). The integrated model can be used to motivate Type 2 diabetics towards healthy eating.
Abstract: One of the Best Management Practices (BMPs) promoted in Urban Stormwater Management Manual for Malaysia (MSMA) published by the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) in 2001 is through the construction of wet ponds in new development projects for water quantity and quality control. Therefore, this paper aims to demonstrate a case study on evaluation of a constructed mini wet pond located at Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Seksyen 2, Puchong, Selangor, Malaysia in both stormwater quantity and quality aspect particularly to reduce the peak discharge by temporary storing and gradual release of stormwater runoff from an outlet structure or other release mechanism. The evaluation technique will be using InfoWorks Collection System (CS) as the numerical modeling approach for water quantity aspect. Statistical test by comparing the correlation coefficient (R2), mean error (ME), mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) were used to evaluate the model in simulating the peak discharge changes. Results demonstrated that there will be a reduction in peak flow at 11 % to 15% and time to peak flow is slower by 5 minutes through a wet pond. For water quality aspect, a survey on biological indicator of water quality carried out depicts that the pond is within the range of rather clean to clean water with the score of 5.3. This study indicates that a constructed wet pond with wetland facilities is able to help in managing water quantity and stormwater generated pollution at source, towards achieving ecologically sustainable development in urban areas.
Abstract: This case study investigates the areas of self-reflection through the written content of four university students’ blogs. The study was undertaken to explore the categories of self-reflection in relation to the use of blogs. Data collection methods included downloading students’ blog entries and recording individual interviews to further support the data. Data was analyzed using computer assisted qualitative data analysis software, Nvivo, to categories and code the data. The categories of self-reflection revealed in the findings showed that university students used blogs to reflect on (1) life in varsity, (2) emotions and feelings, (3) various relationships, (4) personal growth, (5) spirituality, (6) health conditions, (7) busyness with daily chores, (8) gifts for people and themselves and (9) personal interests. Overall, all four of the students had positive experiences and felt satisfied using blogs for self-reflection.
Abstract: With the use of developing technology, mostly in communication and entertainment, students spend considerable time on the Internet. In addition to the advantages provided by the Internet, social isolation brings problems such as addiction. This is one of the problems of the virtual violence. Cyber bullying is the common name of the intensities which students are exposed on the Internet. The purpose of this study designed as a qualitative research is to find out the cyber bullying varieties and its effects on elementary school students. The participants of this research are 6th, 7th and 8th grade students of a primary school and 24 students agreed to participate in the study. The students were asked to fill an interview with semi-structured open-ended questions. According to the results obtained in the research, the most important statements determined by the participants are breaking passwords on social networking sites, slang insult to blasphemy and taking friendship offers from unfamiliar people. According to participants from the research, the most used techniques to prevent themselves from cyber bullying are to complain to the site administrator, closing accounts on social networking sites and countercharging. Also, suggestions were presented according to the findings.
Abstract: This study investigated the views of teachers, students and their parents on the FATIH (Movement of Enhancing Opportunities and Improving Technology) Project, which was put into service by the Ministry of National Education in cooperation with the Ministry of Transportation in Turkey in November 2010 for the purpose of increasing students’ success and planned to be completed within 5 years. The study group consisted of teachers employed in a pilot school in the province of Karaman in central Turkey included within the scope of the FATIH Project, students attending this school and parents whose children are students in that school. The research data were collected through forms developed by the researchers to determine the views of teachers, students and parents on the FATIH Project. The descriptive analysis method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. An analysis of the data revealed that a large majority of the teachers and the students believed that if computers were used to serve their set purpose, then they could make considerable contributions to education. A large majority of the parents, on the other hand, regard the use of computers in education as a great opportunity for the students. The views of the teachers, students and parents on the FATIH Project usually overlap. Most of the participants in the study pointed out that the FATIH Project was intended to use technology effectively in education. Moreover, each individual participant described their role in the FATIH Project in accordance with their relative position and stated that they could perform whatever was expected of them for the effective and efficient use and progress of the Project. The views of the participants regarding the FATIH Project vary according to the kind of the participants.
Abstract: River flow prediction is an essential to ensure proper management of water resources can be optimally distribute water to consumers. This study presents an analysis and prediction by using nonlinear prediction method involving monthly river flow data in Tanjung Tualang from 1976 to 2006. Nonlinear prediction method involves the reconstruction of phase space and local linear approximation approach. The phase space reconstruction involves the reconstruction of one-dimensional (the observed 287 months of data) in a multidimensional phase space to reveal the dynamics of the system. Revenue of phase space reconstruction is used to predict the next 72 months. A comparison of prediction performance based on correlation coefficient (CC) and root mean square error (RMSE) have been employed to compare prediction performance for nonlinear prediction method, ARIMA and SVM. Prediction performance comparisons show the prediction results using nonlinear prediction method is better than ARIMA and SVM. Therefore, the result of this study could be used to develop an efficient water management system to optimize the allocation water resources.
Abstract: This study examined coaching leadership traits as preferred by athletes of universities and colleges of education located in Lagos State, South West Nigeria. Athletes from two universities (n=99) and two colleges of education (n=92) were involved as study sample. The Leadership Trait Preference Questionnaire (LTPQ) was used to measure athletes’ preferences. Mean and Spearman rank order statistics were used to analyze collected data. Results showed that the traits of friendliness and happiness, sense of humour and cheerfulness, and cooperation were most preferred irrespective of type of institution. College of education athletes were found to have higher mean preferences (M=34.54; SD=9.42) of leadership traits than their university counterparts (M=33.64; SD=9.46). A significantly strong relationship (rho=.81;*p
Abstract: In order to bridge the gap between research and industry, promoting technology and knowledge transfer becomes increasingly important. Especially small- and medium-sized enterprises, having only little R&D resources themselves, depend on external technology development activities for remaining innovative. Academia research on the other hand needs potential industrial partners, who are capable and willing to commercialize their technologies as most public funding programs require some sort of technology transfer or dissemination activities. Modern web technologies offer more and more “social” functionalities and open up new ways of user interaction. In the past years several technology transfer platforms were developed, making use of modern web technologies in order to enable and support technology transfer. In this paper we report on the results of a state-of-the art analyses of existing technology transfer platforms, point out their advantages and deficits and give a perspective to the development of an improved technology transfer platform.
Abstract: Absorption spectra of infra-red (IR) radiation of the
disperse water medium absorbing the most important greenhouse
gases: CO2 , N2O , CH4 , C2H2 , C2H6 have been calculated by
the molecular dynamics method. Loss of the absorbing ability at the
formation of clusters due to a reduction of the number of centers
interacting with IR radiation, results in an anti-greenhouse effect.
Absorption of O3 molecules by the (H2O)50 cluster is investigated
at its interaction with Cl- ions. The splitting of ozone molecule on
atoms near to cluster surface was observed. Interaction of water
cluster with Cl- ions causes the increase of integrated intensity of
emission spectra of IR radiation, and also essential reduction of the
similar characteristic of Raman spectrum. Relative integrated
intensity of absorption of IR radiation for small water clusters was
designed. Dependences of the quantity of weight on altitude for
vapor of monomers, clusters, droplets, crystals and mass of all
moisture were determined. The anti-greenhouse effect of clusters was
defined as the difference of increases of average global temperature
of the Earth, caused by absorption of IR radiation by free water
molecules forming clusters, and absorption of clusters themselves.
The greenhouse effect caused by clusters makes 0.53 K, and the antigreenhouse
one is equal to 1.14 K. The increase of concentration of
CO2 in the atmosphere does not always correlate with the
amplification of greenhouse effect.
Abstract: In this paper a comprehensive algorithm is presented to alleviate the undesired simultaneous effects of target maneuvering, observed glint noise distribution, and colored noise spectrum using online colored glint noise parameter estimation. The simulation results illustrate a significant reduction in the root mean square error (RMSE) produced by the proposed algorithm compared to the algorithms that do not compensate all the above effects simultaneously.
Abstract: This paper analyses the structural changes in
education sector since the introduction of liberalization policy in
India. This paper explains how the so-called non-profit trusts and
societies appropriated the liberalization policy and enhanced
themselves as new capitalist class in higher education sector. Over
the decades, the policy witnessed the role of private sector in terms
of maintaining market equilibrium. The state also witnessed the
incompatibility of the private sector in inculcating the values of
social justice. The most important consequence of the policy is to
witness the rise of new capitalist class and academic capitalism.
When the state came to realize that it no longer cope up with
market demands, it opens the entry of private sector in higher
education. Concessions and tax exemptions were provided to the
trusts and societies to establish higher education institutions. There
is a basic difference between western countries and India in
providing higher education by the trusts and societies. In western
countries the big business houses contributed their surplus
revenues to promote higher education and research as a
complementary service to society and nation. In India, several
entrepreneurs came up with business motive using education
sector. Over the period, they accumulated wealth at the cost of
students and concessions from the government. Four major results
can now be identified: production of manpower in view of market
demands; reduction of standards in higher education; bypassing the
values of social justice; and the rise of new capitalist class from the
business of education. This paper tries to substantiate these issues
with the inputs from case studies.
Abstract: IVE toolkit has been created for facilitating research,education and development in the ?eld of virtual storytelling andcomputer games. Primarily, the toolkit is intended for modellingaction selection mechanisms of virtual humans, investigating level-of-detail AI techniques for large virtual environments, and for exploringjoint behaviour and role-passing technique (Sec. V). Additionally, thetoolkit can be used as an AI middleware without any changes. Themain facility of IVE is that it serves for prototyping both the AI andvirtual worlds themselves. The purpose of this paper is to describeIVE?s features in general and to present our current work - includingan educational game - on this platform.Keywords? AI middleware, simulation, virtual world.
Abstract: This study uses a simulation to establish a realistic
environment for laboratory research on Accountable Care
Organizations. We study network attributes in order to gain insights
regarding healthcare providers- conduct and performance. Our
findings indicate how network structure creates significant
differences in organizational performance. We demonstrate how
healthcare providers positioning themselves at the central, pivotal
point of the network while maintaining their alliances with their
partners produce better outcomes.
Abstract: Realistic systems generally are systems with various
inputs and outputs also known as Multiple Input Multiple Output
(MIMO). Such systems usually prove to be complex and difficult to
model and control purposes. Therefore, decomposition was used to
separate individual inputs and outputs. A PID is assigned to each
individual pair to regulate desired settling time. Suitable parameters
of PIDs obtained from Genetic Algorithm (GA), using Mean of
Squared Error (MSE) objective function.
Abstract: Given bipartite graphs H1 and H2, the bipartite Ramsey number b(H1;H2) is the smallest integer b such that any subgraph G of the complete bipartite graph Kb,b, either G contains a copy of H1 or its complement relative to Kb,b contains a copy of H2. It is known that b(K2,2;K2,2) = 5, b(K2,3;K2,3) = 9, b(K2,4;K2,4) = 14 and b(K3,3;K3,3) = 17. In this paper we study the case that both H1 and H2 are even cycles, prove that b(C2m;C2n) ≥ m + n - 1 for m = n, and b(C2m;C6) = m + 2 for m ≥ 4.
Abstract: Intrusion detection systems (IDS)are crucial components
of the security mechanisms of today-s computer systems.
Existing research on intrusion detection has focused on sequential
intrusions. However, intrusions can also be formed by concurrent
interactions of multiple processes. Some of the intrusions caused
by these interactions cannot be detected using sequential intrusion
detection methods. Therefore, there is a need for a mechanism that
views the distributed system as a whole. L-BIDS (Lattice-Based
Intrusion Detection System) is proposed to address this problem. In
the L-BIDS framework, a library of intrusions and distributed traces
are represented as lattices. Then these lattices are compared in order
to detect intrusions in the distributed traces.
Abstract: The various types of frequent pattern discovery
problem, namely, the frequent itemset, sequence and graph mining
problems are solved in different ways which are, however, in certain
aspects similar. The main approach of discovering such patterns can
be classified into two main classes, namely, in the class of the levelwise
methods and in that of the database projection-based methods.
The level-wise algorithms use in general clever indexing structures
for discovering the patterns. In this paper a new approach is proposed
for discovering frequent sequences and tree-like patterns efficiently
that is based on the level-wise issue. Because the level-wise
algorithms spend a lot of time for the subpattern testing problem, the
new approach introduces the idea of using automaton theory to solve
this problem.
Abstract: This paper deals with tracking and estimating time delay between two signals. The simulation of this algorithm accomplished by using Mathcad package is carried out. The algorithm we will present adaptively controls and tracking the delay, so as to minimize the mean square of this error. Thus the algorithm in this case has task not only of seeking the minimum point of error but also of tracking the change of position, leading to a significant improving of performance. The flowchart of the algorithm is presented as well as several tests of different cases are carried out.
Abstract: How to maintain the service speeds for the business
to make the biggest profit is a problem worthy of study, which is
discussed in this paper with the use of queuing theory. An M/M/1/N
queuing model with variable input rates, variable service rates and
impatient customers is established, and the following conclusions
are drawn: the stationary distribution of the model, the relationship
between the stationary distribution and the probability that there are n
customers left in the system when a customer leaves (not including
the customer who leaves himself), the busy period of the system,
the average operating cycle, the loss probability for the customers
not entering the system while they arriving at the system, the mean
of the customers who leaves the system being for impatient, the
loss probability for the customers not joining the queue due to the
limited capacity of the system and many other indicators. This paper
also indicates that the following conclusion is not correct: the more
customers the business serve, the more profit they will get. At last,
this paper points out the appropriate service speeds the business
should keep to make the biggest profit.
Abstract: Removing noise from the any processed images is very important. Noise should be removed in such a way that important information of image should be preserved. A decisionbased nonlinear algorithm for elimination of band lines, drop lines, mark, band lost and impulses in images is presented in this paper. The algorithm performs two simultaneous operations, namely, detection of corrupted pixels and evaluation of new pixels for replacing the corrupted pixels. Removal of these artifacts is achieved without damaging edges and details. However, the restricted window size renders median operation less effective whenever noise is excessive in that case the proposed algorithm automatically switches to mean filtering. The performance of the algorithm is analyzed in terms of Mean Square Error [MSE], Peak-Signal-to-Noise Ratio [PSNR], Signal-to-Noise Ratio Improved [SNRI], Percentage Of Noise Attenuated [PONA], and Percentage Of Spoiled Pixels [POSP]. This is compared with standard algorithms already in use and improved performance of the proposed algorithm is presented. The advantage of the proposed algorithm is that a single algorithm can replace several independent algorithms which are required for removal of different artifacts.