Abstract: Changing in consumers lifestyles and food
consumption patterns provide a great opportunity in developing the
functional food sector in Malaysia. There is only a little knowledge
about whether Malaysian consumers are aware of functional food and
if so what image consumers have of this product. The objective of
this research is to determine the extent to which selected socioeconomic
characteristics and attitudes influence consumers-
awareness of functional food. A survey was conducted in the Klang
Valley, Malaysia where 439 respondents were interviewed using a
structured questionnaire. The result shows that most respondents
have a positive attitude towards functional food. For the binary
logistic estimation, the results indicate that age, income and other
factors such as concern about food safety, subscribing to cooking or
health magazines, being a vegetarian and consumers who have been
involved in a food production company significantly influence
Malaysian consumers- awareness towards functional food.
Abstract: Volume rendering is widely used in medical CT image
visualization. Applying 3D image visualization to diagnosis
application can require accurate volume rendering with high
resolution. Interpolation is important in medical image processing
applications such as image compression or volume resampling.
However, it can distort the original image data because of edge
blurring or blocking effects when image enhancement procedures
were applied. In this paper, we proposed adaptive tension control
method exploiting gradient information to achieve high resolution
medical image enhancement in volume visualization, where restored
images are similar to original images as much as possible. The
experimental results show that the proposed method can improve
image quality associated with the adaptive tension control efficacy.
Abstract: Weblogs are resource of social structure to discover and track the various type of information written by blogger. In this paper, we proposed to use mining weblogs technique for identifying the trends of influenza where blogger had disseminated their opinion for the anomaly disease. In order to identify the trends, web crawler is applied to perform a search and generated a list of visited links based on a set of influenza keywords. This information is used to implement the analytics report system for monitoring and analyzing the pattern and trends of influenza (H1N1). Statistical and graphical analysis reports are generated. Both types of the report have shown satisfactory reports that reflect the awareness of Malaysian on the issue of influenza outbreak through blogs.
Abstract: Urbanization and regionalization are two different
approaches when it comes to economical structures and development,
infrastructure and mobility, quality of life and living, education,
social cohesion and many other topics. At first glance, the structures
associated with urbanization and regionalization seems to be
contradicting. This paper discusses possibilities of transfer and
cooperation between rural and urban structures. An empirical
investigation contributed to reveal scenarios of supposable forms of
exchange and cooperation of remote rural areas and big cities.
Abstract: In this paper, Optimum adaptive loading algorithms
are applied to multicarrier system with Space-Time Block Coding
(STBC) scheme associated with space-time processing based on
singular-value decomposition (SVD) of the channel matrix over
Rayleigh fading channels. SVD method has been employed in
MIMO-OFDM system in order to overcome subchannel interference.
Chaw-s and Compello-s algorithms have been implemented to obtain
a bit and power allocation for each subcarrier assuming instantaneous
channel knowledge. The adaptive loaded SVD-STBC scheme is
capable of providing both full-rate and full-diversity for any number
of transmit antennas. The effectiveness of these techniques has
demonstrated through the simulation of an Adaptive loaded SVDSTBC
system, and the comparison shown that the proposed
algorithms ensure better performance in the case of MIMO.
Abstract: Photoplethysmography is a simple measurement of the
variation in blood volume in tissue. It detects the pulse signal of heart
beat as well as the low frequency signal of vasoconstriction and
vasodilation. The transmission type measurement is limited to only a
few specific positions for example the index finger that have a short
path length for light. The reflectance type measurement can be
conveniently applied on most parts of the body surface. This study
analyzed the factors that determine the quality of reflectance
photoplethysmograph signal including the emitter-detector distance,
wavelength, light intensity, and optical properties of skin tissue.
Light emitting diodes (LEDs) with four different visible
wavelengths were used as the light emitters. A phototransistor was
used as the light detector. A micro translation stage adjusts the
emitter-detector distance from 2 mm to 15 mm.
The reflective photoplethysmograph signals were measured on
different sites. The optimal emitter-detector distance was chosen to
have a large dynamic range for low frequency drifting without signal
saturation and a high perfusion index. Among these four wavelengths,
a yellowish green (571nm) light with a proper emitter-detection
distance of 2mm is the most suitable for obtaining a steady and reliable
reflectance photoplethysmograph signal
Abstract: Safety Health and Environment Code of Practice (SHE
COP) was developed to help road transportation operators to manage
its operation in a systematic and safe manner. A study was conducted
to determine the effectiveness of SHE COP implementation during
non-OPS period. The objective of the study is to evaluate the
implementations of SHE COP among bus operators during wee hour
operations. The data was collected by completing a set of checklist
after observing the activities during pre departure, during the trip, and
upon arrival. The results show that there are seven widely practiced
SHE COP elements. 22% of the buses have average speed exceeding
the maximum permissible speed on the highways (90 km/h), with
13% of the buses were travelling at the speed of more than 100 km/h.
The statistical analysis shows that there is only one significant
association which relates speeding with prior presence of
enforcement officers.
Abstract: Technology transfer of renewable energy technologies is very often unsuccessful in the developing world. Aside from challenges that have social, economic, financial, institutional and environmental dimensions, technology transfer has generally been misunderstood, and largely seen as mere delivery of high tech equipment from developed to developing countries or within the developing world from R&D institutions to society. Technology transfer entails much more, including, but not limited to: entire systems and their component parts, know-how, goods and services, equipment, and organisational and managerial procedures. Means to facilitate the successful transfer of energy technologies, including the sharing of lessons are subsequently extremely important for developing countries as they grapple with increasing energy needs to sustain adequate economic growth and development. Improving the success of technology transfer is an ongoing process as more projects are implemented, new problems are encountered and new lessons are learnt. Renewable energy is also critical to improve the quality of lives of the majority of people in developing countries. In rural areas energy is primarily traditional biomass. The consumption activities typically occur in an inefficient manner, thus working against the notion of sustainable development. This paper explores the implementation of technology transfer in the developing world (sub-Saharan Africa). The focus is necessarily on RETs since most rural energy initiatives are RETs-based. Additionally, it aims to highlight some lessons drawn from the cited RE projects and identifies notable differences where energy technology transfer was judged to be successful. This is done through a literature review based on a selection of documented case studies which are judged against the definition provided for technology transfer. This paper also puts forth research recommendations that might contribute to improved technology transfer in the developing world. Key findings of this paper include: Technology transfer cannot be complete without satisfying pre-conditions such as: affordability, maintenance (and associated plans), knowledge and skills transfer, appropriate know how, ownership and commitment, ability to adapt technology, sound business principles such as financial viability and sustainability, project management, relevance and many others. It is also shown that lessons are learnt in both successful and unsuccessful projects.
Abstract: The main aim of this study was to examine whether
people understand indicative conditionals on the basis of syntactic
factors or on the basis of subjective conditional probability. The
second aim was to investigate whether the conditional probability of
q given p depends on the antecedent and consequent sizes or derives
from inductive processes leading to establish a link of plausible cooccurrence
between events semantically or experientially associated.
These competing hypotheses have been tested through a 3 x 2 x 2 x 2
mixed design involving the manipulation of four variables: type of
instructions (“Consider the following statement to be true", “Read the
following statement" and condition with no conditional statement);
antecedent size (high/low); consequent size (high/low); statement
probability (high/low). The first variable was between-subjects, the
others were within-subjects. The inferences investigated were Modus
Ponens and Modus Tollens. Ninety undergraduates of the Second
University of Naples, without any prior knowledge of logic or
conditional reasoning, participated in this study.
Results suggest that people understand conditionals in a syntactic
way rather than in a probabilistic way, even though the perception of
the conditional probability of q given p is at least partially involved in
the conditionals- comprehension. They also showed that, in presence
of a conditional syllogism, inferences are not affected by the
antecedent or consequent sizes. From a theoretical point of view these
findings suggest that it would be inappropriate to abandon the idea
that conditionals are naturally understood in a syntactic way for the
idea that they are understood in a probabilistic way.
Abstract: Human always tried to create a suitable situation for their life according to environmental conditions. In fact, geography has an important role in the shape of our living area. Iran also as a four-season country has different climate type: hot and humid, hot and dry, mid and humid, and cold; therefore, we can find different architecture styles in Iran. Gilan-s traditional architecture is a suitable sample of sustainable construction in Iran. Because the main factors of every dwelling are the climatic, social, economic and cultural effects which demonstrate the interaction between environment and people settlement. This paper was determined the interaction between environmental factors and the rural dwellings in the Gilan province. Also, traditional village (city) of Masouleh as a rare sample of rural and sustainable architecture was introduced.
Abstract: One of the most challengeable issues in ESL
(Electronic System Level) design is the lack of a general modeling
scheme for on chip communication architecture. In this paper some
of the mostly used methodologies for modeling and representation of
on chip communication are investigated. Our goal is studying the
existing methods to extract the requirements of a general
representation scheme for communication architecture synthesis. The
next step, will be introducing a modeling and representation method
for being used in automatically synthesis process of on chip
communication architecture.
Abstract: In this paper, we study FPGA implementation of a
novel supra-optimal receiver diversity combining technique,
generalized maximal ratio combining (GMRC), for wireless
transmission over fading channels in SIMO systems. Prior
published results using ML-detected GMRC diversity signal
driven by BPSK showed superior bit error rate performance to
the widely used MRC combining scheme in an imperfect
channel estimation (ICE) environment. Under perfect channel
estimation conditions, the performance of GMRC and MRC
were identical. The main drawback of the GMRC study was
that it was theoretical, thus successful FPGA implementation
of it using pipeline techniques is needed as a wireless
communication test-bed for practical real-life situations.
Simulation results showed that the hardware implementation
was efficient both in terms of speed and area. Since diversity
combining is especially effective in small femto- and picocells,
internet-associated wireless peripheral systems are to
benefit most from GMRC. As a result, many spinoff
applications can be made to the hardware of IP-based 4th
generation networks.
Abstract: Polyurethane foams (PUF) has been prepared from
vegetable; soybean based polyols. They were characterized into
flexible and semi rigid polyurethane foam. This work is directed to
production of flexible polyurethane foams by a process involving the
reaction of mixture of 2,4- and 2,6-Toluene di Isocyanate isomers,
with portion of to blends of soy polyols with petroleum polyol in the
presence of other ingredients such as blowing agents, silicone
surfactants and accelerating agents. Additon of chain extender
improves the property then further decreases the properties on further
addition of the same. The objective of this work was to study the
effect of chain extender and role of phosphoric acid catalyst to the
final properties and correlate the morphology image with mechanical
properties of these foams.
Abstract: The stability test problem for homogeneous large-scale perturbed bilinear time-delay systems subjected to constrained inputs is considered in this paper. Both nonlinear uncertainties and interval systems are discussed. By utilizing the Lyapunove equation approach associated with linear algebraic techniques, several delay-independent criteria are presented to guarantee the robust stability of the overall systems. The main feature of the presented results is that although the Lyapunov stability theorem is used, they do not involve any Lyapunov equation which may be unsolvable. Furthermore, it is seen the proposed schemes can be applied to solve the stability analysis problem of large-scale time-delay systems.
Abstract: Routing in MANET is extremely challenging because
of MANETs dynamic features, its limited bandwidth, frequent
topology changes caused by node mobility and power energy
consumption. In order to efficiently transmit data to destinations, the
applicable routing algorithms must be implemented in mobile ad-hoc
networks. Thus we can increase the efficiency of the routing by
satisfying the Quality of Service (QoS) parameters by developing
routing algorithms for MANETs. The algorithms that are inspired by
the principles of natural biological evolution and distributed
collective behavior of social colonies have shown excellence in
dealing with complex optimization problems and are becoming more
popular. This paper presents a survey on few meta-heuristic
algorithms and naturally-inspired algorithms.
Abstract: In this paper, multi-processors job shop scheduling problems are solved by a heuristic algorithm based on the hybrid of priority dispatching rules according to an ant colony optimization algorithm. The objective function is to minimize the makespan, i.e. total completion time, in which a simultanous presence of various kinds of ferons is allowed. By using the suitable hybrid of priority dispatching rules, the process of finding the best solution will be improved. Ant colony optimization algorithm, not only promote the ability of this proposed algorithm, but also decreases the total working time because of decreasing in setup times and modifying the working production line. Thus, the similar work has the same production lines. Other advantage of this algorithm is that the similar machines (not the same) can be considered. So, these machines are able to process a job with different processing and setup times. According to this capability and from this algorithm evaluation point of view, a number of test problems are solved and the associated results are analyzed. The results show a significant decrease in throughput time. It also shows that, this algorithm is able to recognize the bottleneck machine and to schedule jobs in an efficient way.
Abstract: Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) emerged in the pursuit to improve our standard of living, and hence can manifest complex human behaviors such as communication, decision making, negotiation and self-organization. The Social Network Services (SNSs) have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices. The domains of MAS and SNS have lots of similarities such as architecture, features and functions. Exploring social network users- behavior through multiagent model is therefore our research focus, in order to generate more accurate and meaningful information to SNS users. An application of MAS is the e-Auction and e-Rental services of the Universiti Cyber AgenT(UniCAT), a Social Network for students in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Kampar, Malaysia, built around the Belief- Desire-Intention (BDI) model. However, in spite of the various advantages of the BDI model, it has also been discovered to have some shortcomings. This paper therefore proposes a multi-agent framework utilizing a modified BDI model- Belief-Desire-Intention in Dynamic and Uncertain Situations (BDIDUS), using UniCAT system as a case study.
Abstract: This study aimed to explore future life orientation and
support that needed to accomplish it. A total of 258 participants are
Javanese high school student. The age of the sample ranges from 14
to 18 years old. Participants were asked about their future aspiration,
their reason of choosing them as important goals in their life, and
support that they need to accomplished their goals using open ended
questionnaire. The responses were categorized through content
analysis into four main categories. They are: (1) Self Fulfillment
(72.1%) (2) Parents and Family (16.7%) (3) Altruism (8.1%) (4)
Social and Economy Status (3.1%). Meanwhile, the categories for
support that they needed are shown as follows: (1) Affection Support
(64.7%) (2) Spiritual support (17.4%) (3) Material Support (10.9%)
(4) Guidance Support (7.0%). The research found that affection
support always gets the highest number in every future orientation
categories. It can be concluded that although Javanese adolescents
have different future orientation, they basically need affection
support.
Abstract: There are many problems associated with the World Wide
Web: getting lost in the hyperspace; the web content is still accessible only
to humans and difficulties of web administration. The solution to these
problems is the Semantic Web which is considered to be the extension
for the current web presents information in both human readable and
machine processable form. The aim of this study is to reach new
generic foundation architecture for the Semantic Web because there
is no clear architecture for it, there are four versions, but still up to
now there is no agreement for one of these versions nor is there a
clear picture for the relation between different layers and
technologies inside this architecture. This can be done depending on
the idea of previous versions as well as Gerber-s evaluation method
as a step toward an agreement for one Semantic Web architecture.
Abstract: Magetan area is going to be the object of this research
which is located in East Java, Indonesia. The data were obtained
from 270 civil servants working at the Magetan District government.
The data were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling with
Partial Least Square program. The research showed the following
findings: (1) job motivation variable has a positive and significant
effect on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB); (2) work
environment has positive and significant effect on OCB; (3)
leadership variable has positive and significant effect on OCB; (4)
job motivation variable has no significant effect on job satisfaction;
(5) work environment variable has no significant effect on job
satisfaction; (6) leadership variable has no significant effect on job
satisfaction; (7) OCB is positively and significantly associated with
job satisfaction; (8) job satisfaction variable is positively and
significantly correlated with quality of public service at the Magetan
District government.