Abstract: Data mining and knowledge engineering have become a tough task due to the availability of large amount of data in the web nowadays. Validity and reliability of data also become a main debate in knowledge acquisition. Besides, acquiring knowledge from different languages has become another concern. There are many language translators and corpora developed but the function of these translators and corpora are usually limited to certain languages and domains. Furthermore, search results from engines with traditional 'keyword' approach are no longer satisfying. More intelligent knowledge engineering agents are needed. To address to these problems, a system known as Multilingual Word Semantic Network is proposed. This system adapted semantic network to organize words according to concepts and relations. The system also uses open source as the development philosophy to enable the native language speakers and experts to contribute their knowledge to the system. The contributed words are then defined and linked using lexical and semantic relations. Thus, related words and derivatives can be identified and linked. From the outcome of the system implementation, it contributes to the development of semantic web and knowledge engineering.
Abstract: This study attempts to investigate the relationship
between internal CSR practices and organizational commitment
based on the social exchange theory (SET). Specifically, we examine
the impact of five dimensions of internal CSR practices on
organizational commitment: health and safety, human rights, training
and education, work life balance and workplace diversity. The
proposed model was tested on a sample of 336 frontline employees
within the banking sector in Jordan. Results showed that all internal
CSR dimensions are significantly and positively related to affective
and normative commitment. In addition, the findings of this study
indicate that all internal CSR dimensions did not have a significant
relationship with continuance commitment. Limitations of the study,
directions for future research, and implications of the findings are
discussed.
Abstract: Load managing method on road became necessary
since overloaded vehicles occur damage on road facilities and existing
systems for preventing this damage still show many
problems.Accordingly, efficient managing system for preventing
overloaded vehicles could be organized by using the road itself as a
scale by applying genetic algorithm to analyze the load and the drive
information of vehicles.Therefore, this paper organized Ubiquitous
sensor network system for development of intelligent overload vehicle
regulation system, also in this study, to use the behavior of road, the
transformation was measured by installing underground box type
indoor model and indoor experiment was held using genetic algorithm.
And we examined wireless possibility of overloaded vehicle
regulation system through experiment of the transmission and
reception distance.If this system will apply to road and bridge, might
be effective for economy and convenience through establishment of
U-IT system..
Abstract: This paper discusses a qualitative simulator QRiOM
that uses Qualitative Reasoning (QR) technique, and a process-based
ontology to model, simulate and explain the behaviour of selected
organic reactions. Learning organic reactions requires the application
of domain knowledge at intuitive level, which is difficult to be
programmed using traditional approach. The main objective of
QRiOM is to help learners gain a better understanding of the
fundamental organic reaction concepts, and to improve their
conceptual comprehension on the subject by analyzing the multiple
forms of explanation generated by the software. This paper focuses
on the generation of explanation based on causal theories to explicate
various phenomena in the chemistry subject. QRiOM has been tested
with three classes problems related to organic chemistry, with
encouraging results. This paper also presents the results of
preliminary evaluation of QRiOM that reveal its explanation
capability and usefulness.
Abstract: Implementing Information Technology/ Information
System (IT/IS) is critical for every industry as its potential benefits
have been to motivate many industries including the Malaysian
construction industry to invest in it. To successfully implement IT/IS
has become the major concern for every organisation. Identifying the
critical success factors (CSFs) has become the main agenda for
researchers, academicians and practitioners due to the wide number
of failures reported. This research paper seeks to identify the CSFs
that influence the successful implementation of IT/IS in construction
industry in Malaysia. Limited factors relating to people issue will be
highlighted here to showcase some as it becomes one of the major
contributing factors to the failure. Three (3) organisations have
participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews are employed as
they offer sufficient flexibility to ensure that all relevant factors are
covered. Several key issues contributing to successful
implementations of IT/IS are identified. The results of this study
reveal that top management support, communication, user
involvement, IT staff roles and responsibility, training/skills, leader/
IT Leader, organisation culture, knowledge/ experience, motivation,
awareness, focus and ambition, satisfaction, teamwork/ collaboration,
willingness to change, attitude, commitment, management style,
interest in IT, employee behaviour towards collaborative
environment, trust, interpersonal relationship, personal characteristic
and competencies are significantly associated with the successful
implementations of IT/IS. It is anticipated that this study will create
awareness and contribute to a better understanding amongst
construction industry players and will assist them to successfully
implement IT/IS.
Abstract: In recent years, the underground water sources in
southern Taiwan have become salinized because of saltwater
intrusions. This study explores the adsorption characteristics of
activated carbon on salinizing inorganic salts using isothermal
adsorption experiments and provides a model analysis. The
temperature range for the isothermal adsorption experiments ranged
between 5 to 45 ℃, and the amount adsorbed varied between 28.21 to
33.87 mg/g. All experimental data of adsorption can be fitted to both
the Langmuir and the Freundlich models. The thermodynamic
parameters for per chlorate onto granular activated carbon were
calculated as -0.99 to -1.11 kcal/mol for DG°, -0.6 kcal/mol for DH°,
and 1.21 to 1.84 kcal/mol for DS°. This shows that the adsorption
process of granular activated carbon is spontaneously exothermic. The
observation of adsorption behaviors under low ionic strength, low pH
values, and low temperatures is beneficial to the adsorption removal of
perchlorate with granular activated carbon.
Abstract: Bionanotechnology deals with nanoscopic interactions between nanostructured materials and biological systems. Polymer nanocomposites with optimized biological activity have attracted great attention. Nanoclay is considered as reinforcing nanofiller in manufacturing of high performance nanocomposites. In current study, organomodified-nanoclay with negatively charged silicate layers was incorporated into biomedical grade silicone rubber. Nanoparticle loading has been tailored to enhance cell behavior. Addition of nanoparticles led to improved mechanical properties of substrate with enhanced strength and stiffness while no toxic effects was observed. Results indicated improved viability and proliferation of cells by addition of nanofillers. The improved mechanical properties of the matrix result in proper cell response through adjustment and arrangement of cytoskeletal fibers. Results can be applied in tissue engineering when enhanced substrates are required for improvement of cell behavior for in vivo applications.
Abstract: In this study, we present an advanced detection
technique for mass type breast cancer based on texture information
of organs. The proposed method detects the cancer areas in three
stages. In the first stage, the midpoints of mass area are determined
based on AHE (Adaptive Histogram Equalization). In the second
stage, we set the threshold coefficient of homogeneity by using
MLE (Maximum Likelihood Estimation) to compute the uniformity
of texture. Finally, mass type cancer tissues are extracted from the
original image. As a result, it was observed that the proposed
method shows an improved detection performance on dense breast
tissues of Korean women compared with the existing methods. It is
expected that the proposed method may provide additional
diagnostic information for detection of mass-type breast cancer.
Abstract: One of the approaches to democratization is the fostering of civil society organizations. In Africa, civil society organizations did not fully play their role in the continent-s democratization process due to many factors including the repressive regulations imposed on them by governing parties. In Ethiopia, for the first time in the country-s political history, the civil society played a very active role in the 2005 multi-party election. The involvement of the civil society in this election has far-reaching consequences. One of the objectives of this paper is to assess the consequences of such involvement for both the civil society and the political society in the country. The paper also examines the peculiarities of civil society formation in Africa in general, and in Ethiopia in particular by assessing both the “traditional" and “modern" civil society organizations.
Abstract: The effects of upflow liquid velocity (ULV) on
performance of expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) system were
investigated. The EGSB reactor, made from galvanized steel pipe
0.10 m diameter and 5 m height, had been used to treat piggery
wastewater, after passing through acidification tank. It consisted of
39.3 l working volume in reaction zone and 122 l working volume in
sedimentation zone, at the upper part. The reactor was seeded with
anaerobically digested sludge and operated at the ULVs of 4, 8, 12
and 16 m/h, consecutively, corresponding to organic loading rates of
9.6 – 13.0 kg COD/ (m3.d). The average COD concentrations in the
influent were 9,601 – 13,050 mg/l. The COD removal was not
significantly different, i.e. 93.0% - 94.0%, except at ULV 12 m/h where
SS in the influent was exceptionally high so that VSS washout had
occurred, leading to low COD removal. The FCOD and VFA
concentrations in the effluent of all experiments were not much
different, indicating the same range of treatment performance. The
biogas production decreased at higher ULV and ULV of 4 m/h is
suggested as design criterion for EGSB system.
Abstract: A new and highly efficient architecture for elliptic curve scalar point multiplication which is optimized for a binary field recommended by NIST and is well-suited for elliptic curve cryptographic (ECC) applications is presented. To achieve the maximum architectural and timing improvements we have reorganized and reordered the critical path of the Lopez-Dahab scalar point multiplication architecture such that logic structures are implemented in parallel and operations in the critical path are diverted to noncritical paths. With G=41, the proposed design is capable of performing a field multiplication over the extension field with degree 163 in 11.92 s with the maximum achievable frequency of 251 MHz on Xilinx Virtex-4 (XC4VLX200) while 22% of the chip area is occupied, where G is the digit size of the underlying digit-serial finite field multiplier.
Abstract: The aim of this work is to investigate on the internalflow
patterns in a plate heat exchanger channel, which affect the
rate of sedimentation fouling on the heat transfer surface of the
plate heat exchanger. The research methodologies were the
computer simulation using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
and the experimental works. COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS™
Version 3.3 was used to simulate the velocity flow fields to verify
the low and high flow regions. The results from the CFD technique
were then compared with the images obtained from the
experiments in which the fouling test rig was set up with a singlechannel
plate heat exchanger to monitor the fouling of calcium
carbonate. Two parameters were varied i.e., the crossing angle of
the two plate: 55/55, 10/10, and 55/10 degree, and the fluid flow
rate at the inlet: 0.0566, 0.1132 and 0.1698 m/s. The type of plate
“GX-12" (the surface area 0.12 m2, the depth 2.9 mm, the width of
fluid flow 215 mm and the thickness of stainless plate of 0.5 mm)
was used in this study. The results indicated that the velocity
distribution for the case of 55/55 degree seems to be very well
organized when compared with the others. Also, an increase in the
inlet velocity resulted in the reduction of fouling rate on the surface
of plate heat exchangers.
Abstract: One of the important steps in a safety and risk management system is the economical evaluation of occupational accident and diseases costs in order to decrease accidents from reoccurring in the workplace. This study proposed a plausible method for calculating occupational accident costs and illnesses in work place. This method design for cost estimation takes into account both the personnel, organizational level as well as the community level especially intended for an Iranian work place. The research indicates that a using systematic method for calculating costs which also provides risk evaluation can help managers to plan correctly the investment in health and safety measures. Using this method is that not only is it comprehensive, easy and practical and could be applied in practice by a manager within a short period of time but it also shows the importance of accident costs as well as calculates the real cost of an accident and illnesses.
Abstract: The paper presents the service learning project titled
DicDucFac (idea-leadership-product), that was planned and
conducted by the team of information sciences students. It was
planned as a workshop dealing with the application of modern social
media (Facebook, YouTube, Gmail) for the purposes of selfpromotion,
free advertising via social networks and marketing own
ideas and/or products in the virtual world. The workshop was
organized for highly-skilled computer literate unemployed youth.
These youth, as final beneficiaries, will be able to apply what they
learned in this workshop to “the real world“, increasing their chances
for employment and self-employment. The results of the project
reveal that the basic, active-learning principles embodied in our
teaching approach allow students to learn more effectively and gain
essential life skills (from computer applications to teamwork) that
can only be learned by doing. It also shows that our students received
the essentials of professional ethics and citizenship through direct,
personal engagement in professional activities and the life of the
community.
Abstract: The Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling
Problem (RCPSP) is concerned with single-item or small batch
production where limited resources have to be allocated to dependent
activities over time. Over the past few decades, a lot of work has
been made with the use of optimal solution procedures for this basic
problem type and its extensions. Brucker and Knust[1] discuss, how
timetabling problems can be modeled as a RCPSP. Authors discuss
high school timetabling and university course timetabling problem as
an example. We have formulated two mathematical formulations of
course timetabling problem in a new way which are the prototype of
single-mode RCPSP. Our focus is to show, how course timetabling
problem can be transformed into RCPSP. We solve this
transformation model with genetic algorithm.
Abstract: Three batches of yogurts were made with soy protein
isolate (SPI) supplemented with 2% (S2), 4% (S4) or 6% (S6) of
skim milk powder (SMP). The fourth batch (control; S0) was
prepared from SPI without SMP supplementation. Lactobacillus
delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus ATCC 11842 (Lb 11842) and
Streptococcus thermophilus ST 1342 (ST 1342) were used as the
starter culture. Biotransformation of the inactive forms, isoflavone
glycosides (IG) to biologically active forms, isoflavone aglycones
(IA), was determined during 28 d storage. The viability of both
microorganisms was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in S2, S4, and S6
than that in S0. The ratio of lactic acid/acetic acid in S0 was in the
range of 15.53 – 22.31 compared to 7.24 – 12.81 in S2, S4 and S6.
The biotransformation of IG to IA in S2, S4 and S6 was also
enhanced by 9.9 -13.3% compared to S0.
Abstract: This paper presents the first reflexions about Margaret Mascarenhas-s novel, “Skin", based on post-colonial critic perception of History and its agents. By doing so, this study will put light on a literary corpus of Indian Literatures: the Goan Literature whose cultural basis creates an unique historiographic metafiction conducted by different characters that one by one plays the narrator role.
Abstract: In intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)
treatment planning, beam angles are usually preselected on the basis of
experience and intuition. Therefore, getting an appropriate beam
configuration needs a very long time. Based on the present situation,
the paper puts forward beam orientation optimization using ant colony
optimization (ACO). We use ant colony optimization to select the
beam configurations, after getting the beam configuration using
Conjugate Gradient (CG) algorithm to optimize the intensity profiles.
Combining with the information of the effect of pencil beam, we can
get the global optimal solution accelerating. In order to verify the
feasibility of the presented method, a simulated and clinical case was
tested, compared with dose-volume histogram and isodose line
between target area and organ at risk. The results showed that the
effect was improved after optimizing beam configurations. The
optimization approach could make treatment planning meet clinical
requirements more efficiently, so it had extensive application
perspective.
Abstract: Multidrug resistant organisms have been taunting the
medical world for the last few decades. Even with new antibiotics
developed, resistant strains have emerged soon after. With the
advancement of nanotechnology, we investigated colloidal silver
nanoparticles for its antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas
aeruginosa. This organism is a multidrug resistant which contributes
to the high morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients.
Five multidrug resistant strains were used in this study. The
antimicrobial effect was studied using the disc diffusion and broth
dilution techniques. An inhibition zone of 11 mm was observed with
10 μg dose of the nanoparticles. The nanoparticles exhibited MIC of
50 μg/ml when added at the lag phase and the subinhibitory
concentration was measured as 100 μg/ml. The MIC50 value showed
to be 15 μg/ml. This study suggests that silver nanoparticles can be
further developed as an antimicrobial agent, hence decreasing the
burden of the multidrug resistance phenomena.
Abstract: The role of the pollen grain, with to the reproductive
process of higher plants, is to deliver the spermatic cells to the
embryo sac for egg fertilization. The aim of this project was study
the effect of electromagnetic fields on structure and pollen grains
development in Chenopodium album. Anthers of Chenopodium
album L. were collected at different stages of development from
control (without electromagnetic field) and plants grown at 10m from
the field sources. Structure and development of pollen grains were
studied and compared. The studying pollen structure by Light and
Scanning electron microscopy showed that electromagnetic fields
reduction of pollen grains number and male sterility, thus , in some
anthers, pollen grains were attached together and deformed compared
to control ones. The data presented suggest that prolonged exposures
of plants to magnetic field may cause different biological effects at
the cellular tissue and organ levels.