Abstract: Open and distance learning is a fairly new concept in
Malawi. The major public provider, the Malawi College of Distance
Education, rolled out its activities only about 40 years ago. Over the
years, the demand for distance education has tremendously increased.
The present government has displayed positive political will to uplift
ODL as outlined in the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy as
well as the National Education Sector Plan. A growing national
interest in education coupled with political stability and a booming
ICT industry also raise hope for success. However, a fragile economy
with a GNI per capita of -US$ 200 over the last decade, poor public
funding, erratic power supply and lack of expertise put strain on
efforts towards the promotion of ODL initiatives. Despite the
challenges, the nation appears determined to go flat out and explore
all possible avenues that could revolutionise education access and
equity through ODL.
Abstract: Consumer behaviour analysis represents an important
field of study in marketing. Particularly strategy development for
marketing and communications will be more focused and effective
when marketers have an understanding of the motivations, behaviour
and psychology of consumers. While materialism has been found to
be one of the important elements in consumer behaviour, compulsive
consumption represents another aspect that has recently attracted
more attention. This is because of the growing prevalence of
dysfunctional buying that has raised concern in consumer societies.
Present studies and analyses on origins and motivations of
compulsive buying have mainly focused on either individual factors
or groups of related factors and hence a need for a holistic view
exists. This paper provides a comprehensive perspective on
compulsive consumption and establishes relevant propositions
keeping the family life cycle stages as a reference for the incidence of
chronic consumer states and their influence on compulsive
consumption.
Abstract: Biochemical and molecular analysis of some
antioxidant enzyme genes revealed different level of gene expression
on oilseed (Brassica napus). For molecular and biochemical
analysis, leaf tissues were harvested from plants at eight different
developmental stages, from young to senescence. The levels of total
protein and chlorophyll were increased during maturity stages of
plant, while these were decreased during the last stages of plant
growth. Structural analysis (nucleotide and deduced amino acid
sequence, and phylogenic tree) of a complementary DNA revealed a
high level of similarity for a family of Catalase genes. The
expression of the gene encoded by different Catalase isoforms was
assessed during different plant growth phase. No significant
difference between samples was observed, when Catalase activity
was statistically analyzed at different developmental stages. EST
analysis exhibited different transcripts levels for a number of other
relevant antioxidant genes (different isoforms of SOD and
glutathione). The high level of transcription of these genes at
senescence stages was indicated that these genes are senescenceinduced
genes.
Abstract: Solving Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) by
using Partitioning Block Intervalwise (PBI) technique is our aim in
this paper. The PBI technique is based on Block Adams Method and
Backward Differentiation Formula (BDF). Block Adams Method
only use the simple iteration for solving while BDF requires Newtonlike
iteration involving Jacobian matrix of ODEs which consumes a
considerable amount of computational effort. Therefore, PBI is
developed in order to reduce the cost of iteration within acceptable
maximum error
Abstract: With the rapid growth and development of information and communication technology, the Internet has played a definite and irreplaceable role in people-s social lives in Taiwan like in other countries. In July 2008, on a general social website, an unexpected phenomenon was noticed – that there were more than one hundred users who started forming clubs voluntarily and having face-to-face gatherings for specific purposes. In this study, it-s argued whether or not teenagers- social contact on the Internet is involved in their life context, and tried to reveal the teenagers- social preferences, values, and needs, which merge with and influence teenagers- social activities. Therefore, the study conducts multiple user experience research methods, which include practical observations and qualitative analysis by contextual inquiries and in-depth interviews. Based on the findings, several design implications for software related to social interactions and cultural inheritance are offered. It is concluded that the inherent values of a social behaviors might be a key issue in developing computer-mediated communication or interaction designs in the future.
Abstract: Pipeline infrastructures normally represent high cost of investment and the pipeline must be free from risks that could cause environmental hazard and potential threats to personnel safety. Pipeline integrity such monitoring and management become very crucial to provide unimpeded transportation and avoiding unnecessary production deferment. Thus proper cleaning and inspection is the key to safe and reliable pipeline operation and plays an important role in pipeline integrity management program and has become a standard industry procedure. In view of this, understanding the motion (dynamic behavior), prediction and control of the PIG speed is important in executing pigging operation as it offers significant benefits, such as estimating PIG arrival time at receiving station, planning for suitable pigging operation, and improves efficiency of pigging tasks. The objective of this paper is to review recent developments in speed control system of pipeline PIGs. The review carried out would serve as an industrial application in a form of quick reference of recent developments in pipeline PIG speed control system, and further initiate others to add-in/update the list in the future leading to knowledge based data, and would attract active interest of others to share their view points.
Abstract: Within the realm of e-government, the development has moved towards testing new means for democratic decisionmaking, like e-panels, electronic discussion forums, and polls. Although such new developments seem promising, they are not problem-free, and the outcomes are seldom used in the subsequent formal political procedures. Nevertheless, process models offer promising potential when it comes to structuring and supporting transparency of decision processes in order to facilitate the integration of the public into decision-making procedures in a reasonable and manageable way. Based on real-life cases of urban planning processes in Sweden, we present an outline for an integrated framework for public decision making to: a) provide tools for citizens to organize discussion and create opinions; b) enable governments, authorities, and institutions to better analyse these opinions; and c) enable governments to account for this information in planning and societal decision making by employing a process model for structured public decision making.
Abstract: The effects of seawater and slurry ice bleeding methods on the sensory, microbiological and chemical quality changes of cod fillets during chilled storage were examined in this study. The results from sensory evaluation showed that slurry ice bleeding method prolonged the shelf life of cod fillets up to 13-14 days compared to 10-11 days for fish bled in seawater. Slurry ice bleeding method also led to a slower microbial growth and biochemical developments, resulting lower total plate count (TPC), H2S-producing bacteria count, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), trimethylamine (TMA), free fatty acid (FFA) content and higher phospholipid content (PL) compared to those of samples bled in seawater. The results of principle component analysis revealed that TPC, H2S-producing bacteria, TVB-N, TMA and FFA were in significant correlation. They were also in negative correlation with sensory evaluation (Torry score), PL and water holding capacity (WHC).
Abstract: One of the basic concepts in marketing is the concept
of meeting customers- needs. Since customer satisfaction is essential
for lasting survival and development of a business, screening and
observing customer satisfaction and recognizing its underlying
factors must be one of the key activities of every business.
The purpose of this study is to recognize the drivers that effect
customer satisfaction in a business-to-business situation in order to
improve marketing activities. We conducted a survey in which 93
business customers of a manufacturer of Diesel Generator in Iran
participated and they talked about their ideas and satisfaction of
supplier-s services related to its products. We developed the measures
for drivers of satisfaction first by as investigative research (by means
of feedback from executives and customers of sponsoring firm). Then
based on these measures, we created a mail survey, and asked the
respondents to explain their opinion about the sponsoring firm which
was a supplier of diesel generator and similar products. Furthermore,
the survey required the participants to mention their functional areas
and their company features.
In Conclusion we found that there are three drivers for customer
satisfaction, which are reliability, information about product, and
commercial features. Buyers/users from different functional areas
attribute different degree of importance to the last two drivers. For
instance, people from buying and management areas believe that
commercial features are more important than information about
products. But people in engineering, maintenance and production
areas believe that having information about products is more
important than commercial aspects. Marketing experts should
consider the attribute of customers regarding information about the
product and commercial features to improve market share.
Abstract: In the last years, the computers have increased their capacity of calculus and networks, for the interconnection of these machines. The networks have been improved until obtaining the actual high rates of data transferring. The programs that nowadays try to take advantage of these new technologies cannot be written using the traditional techniques of programming, since most of the algorithms were designed for being executed in an only processor,in a nonconcurrent form instead of being executed concurrently ina set of processors working and communicating through a network.This paper aims to present the ongoing development of a new system for the reconfiguration of grouping of computers, taking into account these new technologies.
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: The communication networks development and
advancement during two last decades has been toward a single goal
and that is gradual change from circuit-switched networks to packed
switched ones. Today a lot of networks operates are trying to
transform the public telephone networks to multipurpose packed
switch. This new achievement is generally called "next generation
networks". In fact, the next generation networks enable the operators
to transfer every kind of services (sound, data and video) on a
network. First, in this report the definition, characteristics and next
generation networks services and then ad-hoc networks role in the
next generation networks are studied.
Abstract: The paper considers a novel modular and intrinsically safe redundant robotic system with biologically inspired actuators (pneumatic artificial muscles and rubber bellows actuators). Similarly to the biological systems, the stiffness of the internal parallel modules, representing 2 DOF joints in the serial robotic chains, is controlled by co-activation of opposing redundant actuator groups in the null-space of the module Jacobian, without influencing the actual robot position. The decoupled position/stiffness control allows the realization of variable joint stiffness according to different force-displacement relationships. The variable joint stiffness, as well as limited pneumatic muscle/bellows force ability, ensures internal system safety that is crucial for development of human-friendly robots intended for human-robot collaboration. The initial experiments with the system prototype demonstrate the capabilities of independently, simultaneously controlling both joint (Cartesian) motion and joint stiffness. The paper also presents the possible industrial applications of snake-like robots built using the new modules.
Abstract: The influences of pulsed electric fields on early
physiological development in Arabidopsis thaliana were studied.
Inside a 4-mm electroporation cuvette, pre-germination seeds were
subjected to high-intensity, nanosecond electrical pulses generated
using laboratory-assembled pulsed electric field system. The field
strength was varied from 5 to 20 kV.cm-1 and the pulse width and the
pulse number were maintained at 10 ns and 100, respectively,
corresponding to the specific treatment energy from 300 J.kg-1 to 4.5
kJ.kg-1. Statistical analyses on the average leaf area 5 and 15 days
following pulsed electric field treatment showed that the effects
appear significant the second week after treatments with a maximum
increase of 80% compared to the control (P < 0.01).
Abstract: This paper describes the project and development of a
very low-cost and small electronic prototype, especially designed for
monitoring and controlling existing home automation alarm systems
(intruder, smoke, gas, flood, etc.), via TCP/IP, with a typical web
browser. Its use will allow home owners to be immediately alerted
and aware when an alarm event occurs, and being also able to
interact with their home automation alarm system, disarming, arming
and watching event alerts, with a personal wireless Wi-Fi PDA or
smartphone logged on to a dedicated predefined web page, and using
also a PC or Laptop.
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: Bone material is treated as heterogeneous and hierarchical in nature therefore appropriate size of bone specimen is required to analyze its tensile properties at a particular hierarchical level. Tensile properties of cortical bone are important to investigate the effect of drug treatment, disease and aging as well as for development of computational and analytical models. In the present study tensile properties of buffalo as well as goat femoral and tibiae cortical bone are analyzed using sub-size tensile specimens. Femoral cortical bone was found to be stronger in tension as compared to the tibiae cortical bone and the tensile properties obtained using sub-size specimens show close resemblance with the tensile properties of full-size cortical specimens. A two dimensional finite element (FE) modal was also applied to simulate the tensile behavior of sub-size specimens. Good agreement between experimental and FE model was obtained for sub-size tensile specimens of cortical bone.
Abstract: This paper describes an experience of research,
development and innovation applied in Industrial Naval at (Science
and Technology Corporation for the Development of Shipbuilding
Industry, Naval in Colombia (COTECMAR) particularly through
processes of research, innovation and technological development,
based on theoretical models related to organizational knowledge
management, technology management and management of human
talent and integration of technology platforms. It seeks ways to
facilitate the initial establishment of environments rich in
information, knowledge and content-supported collaborative
strategies on dynamic processes missionary, seeking further
development in the context of research, development and innovation
of the Naval Engineering in Colombia, making it a distinct basis for
the generation of knowledge assets from COTECMAR.
The integration of information and communication technologies,
supported on emerging technologies (mobile technologies, wireless,
digital content via PDA, and content delivery services on the Web 2.0
and Web 3.0) as a view of the strategic thrusts in any organization
facilitates the redefinition of processes for managing information and
knowledge, enabling the redesign of workflows, the adaptation of
new forms of organization - preferably in networking and support the
creation of symbolic-inside-knowledge promotes the development of
new skills, knowledge and attitudes of the knowledge worker
Abstract: The paper presents new results of a recent industry
supported research and development study in which an efficient
framework for evaluating practical and meaningful power system
reliability and quality indices was applied. The system-wide
integrated performance indices are capable of addressing and
revealing areas of deficiencies and bottlenecks as well as
redundancies in the composite generation-transmission-demand
structure of large-scale power grids. The technique utilizes a linear
programming formulation, which simulates practical operating
actions and offers a general and comprehensive framework to assess
the harmony and compatibility of generation, transmission and
demand in a power system. Practical applications to a reduced
system model as well as a portion of the Saudi power grid are also
presented in the paper for demonstration purposes.
Abstract: The construction industry is the pillar industry in
China, accounting for about 6% of the gross domestic product. Along
with changes in the external environment of the construction industry
in China, the construction firm faces fierce competition. The paper
aims to investigate the relationship between diversified types of
construction firm and its performance in China. Based on generalist
and specialist strategy in organizational ecology, we think a generalist
organization can be applied to an enterprise with diversified
developments, while specialist groups are extended to professional
enterprises .This study takes advantage of annual financial data of
listed construction firm to empirically verify the relationship between
diversification and corporation performance establishing a regression
equation to econometric analysis. We find that: 1) Specialization can
significantly improve the level of profitability of listed construction
firms, and there is a significant positive relationship with corporate
performance; 2) The level of operating performance of listed
construction enterprises which engage in unrelated diversification is
higher than those with related diversification; 3) The relationship
between state-owned construction firms and corporate performance is
negative. The more the year of foundation is, the higher performance
will be; however, the more the year of being listed, the lower
performance will be.