Abstract: Cooperative learning has been defined as learners working together as a team to solve a problem to complete a task or to accomplish a common goal, which emphasizes the importance of interactions among members to promote the whole learning performance. With the popularity of society networks, cooperative learning is no longer limited to traditional classroom teaching activities. Since society networks facilitate to organize online learners, to establish common shared visions, and to advance learning interaction, the online community and online learning community have triggered the establishment of web-based societies. Numerous research literatures have indicated that the collaborative learning community is a critical issue to enhance learning performance. Hence, this paper proposes a learning community recommendation approach to facilitate that a learner joins the appropriate learning communities, which is based on k-nearest neighbor (kNN) classification. To demonstrate the viability of the proposed approach, the proposed approach is implemented for 117 students to recommend learning communities. The experimental results indicate that the proposed approach can effectively recommend appropriate learning communities for learners.
Abstract: In this paper, we rely on the story of the late British
weapons inspector David Kelly to illustrate how sensemaking can
inform the study of the ethics of suppression of dissent. Using
archival data, we reconstruct Dr. Kelly-s key responsibilities as a
weapons inspector and government employee. We begin by clarifying
the concept of dissent and how it is a useful organizational process.
We identify the various ways that dissent has been discussed in the
organizational literature and reconsider the process of sensemaking.
We conclude that suppression of opinions that deviate from the
majority is part of the identity maintenance of the sensemaking
process. We illustrate the prevention of dissent in organizations
consists of a set of unsatisfactory trade-offs.
Abstract: ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) has potential of
reducing consumption of fossil fuels and has many favorable
characteristics to exploit low-temperature heat sources. In this work
thermodynamic performance of ORC with regeneration is
comparatively assessed for various working fluids. Special attention is
paid to the effects of system parameters such as the turbine inlet
pressure on the characteristics of the system such as net work
production, heat input, volumetric flow rate per 1 MW of net work and
quality of the working fluid at turbine exit as well as thermal
efficiency. Results show that for a given source the thermal efficiency
generally increases with increasing of the turbine inlet pressure
however has optimal condition for working fluids of low critical
pressure such as iso-pentane or n-pentane.
Abstract: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a
new trend of business governance. Few research studies on CSR
published in Taiwanese academia, especially for medical settings, we
were interested in probing the relationship of CSR and financial
performance in medical settings in Taiwan. The results illustrate that:
(1) a time delay effect exists with a lag between CSR effort and its
performance in the hospital foundation, (2) input into the internal
domains of CSR will be helpful to improve employee productivity in
the hospital foundation, and (3) input into the external domains of CSR
will be helpful in improving financial performance in the hospital
foundation. This study overviews CSR in the medical industry in
Taiwan and the relationship of CSR and financial performance.
Discussions of possible implications from the study results are applied
to consult the CSR concept that will be transferred into a business
strategy for the organization manager.
Abstract: Microorganisms isolated from water and soil of
Kazakhstan to identify potential high-effective producers of the
arachidonic acid, exhibiting a wide range of physiological activity
and having practical applications were screened. Based on the results
of two independent tests (the test on the sensitivity of the growth
processes of microorganisms to acetylsalicylic acid - an irreversible
inhibitor of PGH-synthase involved in the metabolism of arachidonic
acid and its derivatives, the test for inhibition of peroxidase activity
of membrane-bounding fraction of PGH - synthase by acetylsalicylic
acid) were selected microbial cultures which are potential highproducer
of arachidonic acid. They are characterized by a stable
strong growth in the laboratory conditions. Identification of
microorganism cultures based on morphological, physiological,
biochemical and molecular genetic characteristics was performed.
Abstract: Modernizing legacy applications is the key issue facing IT managers today because there's enormous pressure on organizations to change the way they run their business to meet the new requirements. The importance of software maintenance and reengineering is forever increasing. Understanding the architecture of existing legacy applications is the most critical issue for maintenance and reengineering. The artifacts recovery can be facilitated with different recovery approaches, methods and tools. The existing methods provide static and dynamic set of techniques for extracting architectural information, but are not suitable for all users in different domains. This paper presents a simple and lightweight pattern extraction technique to extract different artifacts from legacy systems using regular expression pattern specifications with multiple language support. We used our custom-built tool DRT to recover artifacts from existing system at different levels of abstractions. In order to evaluate our approach a case study is conducted.
Abstract: Due to the high increase in and demand for a wide assortment of applications that require low-cost, high-efficiency, and compact systems, RF power amplifiers are considered the most critical design blocks and power consuming components in wireless communication, TV transmission, radar, and RF heating. Therefore, much research has been carried out in order to improve the performance of power amplifiers. Classes-A, B, C, D, E and F are the main techniques for realizing power amplifiers.
An implementation of high efficiency class-F power amplifier with Gallium Nitride (GaN) High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) was realized in this paper. The simulation and optimization of the class-F power amplifier circuit model was undertaken using Agilent’s Advanced Design system (ADS). The circuit was designed using lumped elements.
Abstract: The rate of production of main products of the Fischer-Tropsch reactions over Fe/HZSM5 bifunctional catalyst in a fixed bed reactor is investigated at a broad range of temperature, pressure, space velocity, H2/CO feed molar ratio and CO2, CH4 and water flow rates. Model discrimination and parameter estimation were performed according to the integral method of kinetic analysis. Due to lack of mechanism development for Fisher – Tropsch Synthesis on bifunctional catalysts, 26 different models were tested and the best model is selected. Comprehensive one and two dimensional heterogeneous reactor models are developed to simulate the performance of fixed-bed Fischer – Tropsch reactors. To reduce computational time for optimization purposes, an Artificial Feed Forward Neural Network (AFFNN) has been used to describe intra particle mass and heat transfer diffusion in the catalyst pellet. It is seen that products' reaction rates have direct relation with H2 partial pressure and reverse relation with CO partial pressure. The results show that the hybrid model has good agreement with rigorous mechanistic model, favoring that the hybrid model is about 25-30 times faster.
Abstract: Sol-gel method has been used to fabricate
nanocomposite films on glass substrates composed halloysite clay
mineral and nanocrystalline TiO2. The methodology for the synthesis
involves a simple chemistry method utilized nonionic surfactant
molecule as pore directing agent along with the acetic acid-based solgel
route with the absence of water molecules. The thermal treatment
of composite films at 450oC ensures elimination of organic material
and lead to the formation of TiO2 nanoparticles onto the surface of
the halloysite nanotubes. Microscopy techniques and porosimetry
methods used in order to delineate the structural characteristics of the
materials. The nanocomposite films produced have no cracks and
active anatase crystal phase with small crystallite size were deposited
on halloysite nanotubes. The photocatalytic properties for the new
materials were examined for the decomposition of the Basic Blue 41
azo dye in solution. These, nanotechnology based composite films
show high efficiency for dye’s discoloration in spite of different
halloysite quantities and small amount of halloysite/TiO2 catalyst
immobilized onto glass substrates. Moreover, we examined the
modification of the halloysite/TiO2 films with silver particles in order
to improve the photocatalytic properties of the films. Indeed, the
presence of silver nanoparticles enhances the discoloration rate of the
Basic Blue 41 compared to the efficiencies obtained for unmodified
films.
Abstract: Composting is the process in which municipal solid
waste (MSW) and other organic waste materials such as biosolids
and manures are decomposed through the action of bacteria and other
microorganisms into a stable granular material which, applied to
land, as soil conditioner. Microorganisms, especially those that are
able to degrade polymeric organic material have a key role in speed
up this process. The aim of this study has been established to
isolation of microorganisms with high ability to production
extracellular enzymes for degradation of natural polymers that are
exists in MSW for decreasing time of degradation phase. Our
experimental study for isolation designed in two phases: in first
phase we isolated degrading microorganism with selected media that
consist a special natural polymer such as cellulose, starch, lipids and
etc as sole source of carbon. In second phase we selected
microorganism that had high degrading enzyme production with
enzymatic assay for seed production. However, our findings in pilot
scale have indicated that usage of this microbial consortium had high
efficiency for decreasing degradation phase.
Abstract: The daily increase of organic waste materials resulting
from different activities in the country is one of the main factors for
the pollution of environment. Today, with regard to the low level of
the output of using traditional methods, the high cost of disposal
waste materials and environmental pollutions, the use of modern
methods such as anaerobic digestion for the production of biogas has
been prevailing. The collected biogas from the process of anaerobic
digestion, as a renewable energy source similar to natural gas but
with a less methane and heating value is usable. Today, with the help
of technologies of filtration and proper preparation, access to biogas
with features fully similar to natural gas has become possible. At
present biogas is one of the main sources of supplying electrical and
thermal energy and also an appropriate option to be used in four
stroke engine, diesel engine, sterling engine, gas turbine, gas micro
turbine and fuel cell to produce electricity. The use of biogas for
different reasons which returns to socio-economic and environmental
advantages has been noticed in CHP for the production of energy in
the world. The production of biogas from the technology of anaerobic
digestion and its application in CHP power plants in Iran can not only
supply part of the energy demands in the country, but it can
materialize moving in line with the sustainable development. In this
article, the necessity of the development of CHP plants with biogas
fuels in the country will be dealt based on studies performed from the
economic, environmental and social aspects. Also to prove the
importance of the establishment of these kinds of power plants from
the economic point of view, necessary calculations has been done as
a case study for a CHP power plant with a biogas fuel.
Abstract: Nowadays, the rapid development of multimedia
and internet allows for wide distribution of digital media data.
It becomes much easier to edit, modify and duplicate digital
information Besides that, digital documents are also easy to
copy and distribute, therefore it will be faced by many
threatens. It-s a big security and privacy issue with the large
flood of information and the development of the digital
format, it become necessary to find appropriate protection
because of the significance, accuracy and sensitivity of the
information. Nowadays protection system classified with more
specific as hiding information, encryption information, and
combination between hiding and encryption to increase information
security, the strength of the information hiding science is due to the
non-existence of standard algorithms to be used in hiding secret
messages. Also there is randomness in hiding methods such as
combining several media (covers) with different methods to pass a
secret message. In addition, there are no formal methods to be
followed to discover the hidden data. For this reason, the task of this
research becomes difficult. In this paper, a new system of information
hiding is presented. The proposed system aim to hidden information
(data file) in any execution file (EXE) and to detect the hidden file
and we will see implementation of steganography system which
embeds information in an execution file. (EXE) files have been
investigated. The system tries to find a solution to the size of the
cover file and making it undetectable by anti-virus software. The
system includes two main functions; first is the hiding of the
information in a Portable Executable File (EXE), through the
execution of four process (specify the cover file, specify the
information file, encryption of the information, and hiding the
information) and the second function is the extraction of the hiding
information through three process (specify the steno file, extract the
information, and decryption of the information). The system has
achieved the main goals, such as make the relation of the size of the
cover file and the size of information independent and the result file
does not make any conflict with anti-virus software.
Abstract: Knowledge capabilities are increasingly important for
the innovative technology enterprises to enhance the business
performance in terms of product competitiveness, innovation and
sales. Recognition of the company capability by auditing allows them
to further pursue advancement, strategic planning and hence gain
competitive advantages. This paper attempts to develop an
Organizations- Knowledge Capabilities Assessment (OKCA) method
to assess the knowledge capabilities of technology companies. The
OKCA is a questionnaire-based assessment tool which has been
developed to uncover the impact of various knowledge capabilities on
different organizational performance. The collected data is then
analyzed to find out the crucial elements for different technological
companies. Based on the results, innovative technology enterprises are
able to recognize the direction for further improvement on business
performance and future development plan. External environmental
factors affecting organization performance can be found through the
further analysis of some selected reference companies.
Abstract: Components of a software system may be related in a
wide variety of ways. These relationships need to be represented in
software architecture in order develop quality software. In practice, software architecture is immensely challenging, strikingly
multifaceted, extravagantly domain based, perpetually changing,
rarely cost-effective, and deceptively ambiguous. This paper analyses
relations among the major components of software systems and
argues for using several broad categories for software architecture for
assessment purposes: strongly adequate, weakly adequate and
functionally adequate software architectures among other categories.
These categories are intended for formative assessments of
architectural designs.
Abstract: A new generation of manufacturing machines
so-called MIMCA (modular and integrated machine control
architecture) capable of handling much increased complexity in
manufacturing control-systems is presented. Requirement for more
flexible and effective control systems for manufacturing machine
systems is investigated and dimensioned-which highlights a need for
improved means of coordinating and monitoring production
machinery and equipment used to- transport material. The MIMCA
supports simulation based on machine modeling, was conceived by
the authors to address the issues. Essentially MIMCA comprises an
organized unification of selected architectural frameworks and
modeling methods, which include: NISTRCS, UMC and Colored
Timed Petri nets (CTPN). The unification has been achieved; to
support the design and construction of hierarchical and distributed
machine control which realized the concurrent operation of reusable
and distributed machine control components; ability to handle
growing complexity; and support requirements for real- time control
systems. Thus MIMCA enables mapping between 'what a machine
should do' and 'how the machine does it' in a well-defined but
flexible way designed to facilitate reconfiguration of machine
systems.
Abstract: After reporting a literature review on Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) and knowledge management, some
important issued arise, in particular related to the lack of success of
CRM strategies implementation. The paper contributes to this
proposing an integrated model of CRM success taking into account
complementary factors such as organizational factors, technology,
knowledge management and customer orientation.
Abstract: This paper focuses on the use of project work as a
pretext for applying the conventions of writing, or the correctness of
mechanics, usage, and sentence formation, in a content-based class in
a Rajabhat University. Its aim was to explore to what extent the
student teachers’ academic achievement of the basic writing features
against the 70% attainment target after the use of project is. The
organization of work around an agreed theme in which the students
reproduce language provided by texts and instructors is expected to
enhance students’ correct writing conventions. The sample of the
study comprised of 38 fourth-year English major students. The data
was collected by means of achievement test and student writing
works. The scores in the summative achievement test were analyzed
by mean score, standard deviation, and percentage. It was found that
the student teachers do more achieve of practicing mechanics and
usage, and less in sentence formation. The students benefited from
the exposure to texts during conducting the project; however, their
automaticity of how and when to form phrases and clauses into
simple/complex sentences had room for improvement.
Abstract: Despite the relatively large number of studies that
have examined the use of appeals in advertisements, research on the
use of appeals in green advertisements is still underdeveloped and
needs to be investigated further, as it is definitely a tool for marketers
to create illustrious ads. In this study, content analysis was employed
to examine the nature of green advertising appeals and to match the
appeals with the green advertisements. Two different types of green
print advertisings, product orientation and organizational image
orientation were used. Thirty highly educated participants with
different backgrounds were asked individually to ascertain three
appeals out of thirty-four given appeals found among forty real green
advertisements. To analyze participant responses and to group them
based on common appeals, two-step K-mean clustering is used. The
clustering solution indicates that eye-catching graphics and
imaginative appeals are highly notable in both types of green ads.
Depressed, meaningful and sad appeals are found to be highly used in
organizational image orientation ads, whereas, corporate image,
informative and natural appeals are found to be essential for product
orientation ads.
Abstract: The modified Claus process is commonly used in oil
refining and gas processing to recover sulfur and destroy
contaminants formed in upstream processing. A Claus furnace feed
containing a relatively low concentration of H2S may be incapable of
producing a stable flame. Also, incomplete combustion of
hydrocarbons in the feed can lead to deterioration of the catalyst in
the reactors due to soot or carbon deposition. Therefore, special
consideration is necessary to achieve the appropriate overall sulfur
recovery. In this paper, some configurations available to treat lean
acid gas streams are described and the most appropriate ones are
studied to overcome low H2S concentration problems. As a result,
overall sulfur recovery is investigated for feed preheating and hot gas
configurations.
Abstract: Application of pesticides in the paddy fields has
deleterious effects on non-target organisms including cyanobacteria
which are photosynthesizing and nitrogen fixing micro-organisms
contributing significantly towards soil fertility and crop yield.
Pesticide contamination in the paddy fields has manifested into a
serious global environmental concern. To study the effect of one such
pesticide, three cyanobacterial strains; Anabaena fertilissima,
Aulosira fertilissima and Westiellopsis prolifica were selected for
their stress responses to an Organochlorine insecticide - 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
10-hexachloro-1, 5, 5a, 6, 9, 9a-hexahydro-6, 9-methano-2, 4, 3-
benzodioxathiepine-3-oxide, with reference to their photosynthesic
pigments-chlorophyll-a and carotenoids as well as accessory
pigments-phycobiliproteins (phycocyanin, allophycocyanin and
phycoerythrin), stress induced biochemical metabolites like
carbohydrates, proteins, amino acids, phenols and enzymes-nitrate
reductase, glutamine synthetase and succinate dehydrogenase. All
the three cyanobacterial strains were adversely affected by the
insecticide doses and inhibition was dose dependent. Reduction in
photosynthetic and accessory pigments, metabolites, nitrogen fixing
and respiratory enzymes of the test organisms were accompanied
with an initial increase in their total protein at lower Organochlorine
doses. On the other hand, increased amount of phenols in all the
insecticide treated concentrations was indicative of stressed activities
of the organisms.