Abstract: The cinema in Turkey during the 1940s was shaped
under the Second World War conditions. The amateur film makers
from different socioeconomic roots experienced movie production in
those years. Having similar socioeconomic characteristics and
autobiographies, each of them has a different understanding of
cinema. Nevertheless, they joined in making movies which address
native culture and audience. They narrated indigenous stories with
native music, amateur players and simple settings. Although the
martial law, censorship and economical deficiencies, they started to
produce films in the Second World War. The cinematographers of the
1940s usually called as thetransition period cinematographers in
Turkey, producing in the passage between the period of thetheatre
playersand the period of thenational cinema. But, 1940- 1950 period
of Turkish cinema should be defined not as a transition but a period
of forming the professional conscioussness in cinema.
Abstract: PT XYZ is a bottled drinking water company. To preserve production resources owned by the company so that the resources could be utilized well, it has implemented maintenance management system, which has important role in company's profitability, and is one of the factors influenced overall company's performance. Yet, up to now the company has never measured maintenance activities' contribution to company's performance. Performance evaluation is done according to adapted Balanced Scorecard model fitted to maintenance function context. This model includes six perspectives: innovation and growth, production, maintenance, environment, costumer, and finance. Actual performance measurement is done through Analytic Hierarchy Process and Objective Matrix. From the research done, we can conclude that the company's maintenance function is categorized in moderate performance. But, there are some indicators which has high priority but low performance, which are: costumers' complain rate, work lateness rate, and Return on Investment.
Abstract: Since the European renewable energy directives set the
target for 22.1% of electricity generation to be supplied by 2010
[1], there has been increased interest in using green technologies
also within the urban enviroment. The most commonly considered
installations are solar thermal and solar photovoltaics. Nevertheless,
as observed by Bahaj et al. [2], small scale turbines can reduce the
built enviroment related CO2 emissions. Thus, in the last few years,
an increasing number of manufacturers have developed small wind
turbines specifically designed for the built enviroment. The present
work focuses on the integration into architectural systems of such
installations and presents a survey of successful case studies.
Abstract: Serious games have proven to be a useful instrument
to engage learners and increase motivation. Nevertheless, a broadly
accepted, practical instructional design approach to serious games
does not exist. In this paper, we introduce the use of an instructional
design model that has not been applied to serious games yet, and has
some advantages compared to other design approaches. We present
the case of mechanics mechatronics education to illustrate the close
match with timing and role of knowledge and information that the
instructional design model prescribes and how this has been
translated to a rigidly structured game design. The structured
approach answers the learning needs of applicable knowledge within
the target group. It combines advantages of simulations with
strengths of entertainment games to foster learner-s motivation in the
best possible way. A prototype of the game will be evaluated along a
well-respected evaluation method within an advanced test setting
including test and control group.
Abstract: Environmental awareness and depletion of the
petroleum resources are among vital factors that motivate a number
of researchers to explore the potential of reusing natural fiber as an
alternative composite material in industries such as packaging,
automotive and building constructions. Natural fibers are available in
abundance, low cost, lightweight polymer composite and most
importance its biodegradability features, which often called “ecofriendly"
materials. However, their applications are still limited due
to several factors like moisture absorption, poor wettability and large
scattering in mechanical properties. Among the main challenges on
natural fibers reinforced matrices composite is their inclination to
entangle and form fibers agglomerates during processing due to
fiber-fiber interaction. This tends to prevent better dispersion of the
fibers into the matrix, resulting in poor interfacial adhesion between
the hydrophobic matrix and the hydrophilic reinforced natural fiber.
Therefore, to overcome this challenge, fiber treatment process is one
common alternative that can be use to modify the fiber surface
topology by chemically, physically or mechanically technique.
Nevertheless, this paper attempt to focus on the effect of
mercerization treatment on mechanical properties enhancement of
natural fiber reinforced composite or so-called bio composite. It
specifically discussed on mercerization parameters, and natural fiber
reinforced composite mechanical properties enhancement.
Abstract: Recently, a growing interest has emerged on the
development of new and efficient energy sources, due to the inevitable extinction of the nonrenewable energy reserves. One of
these alternative sources which has a great potential and sustainability to meet up the energy demand is biomass energy. This
significant energy source can be utilized with various energy
conversion technologies, one of which is biomass gasification in
supercritical water.
Water, being the most important solvent in nature, has very important characteristics as a reaction solvent under supercritical
circumstances. At temperatures above its critical point (374.8oC and
22.1 MPa), water becomes more acidic and its diffusivity increases.
Working with water at high temperatures increases the thermal
reaction rate, which in consequence leads to a better dissolving of the
organic matters and a fast reaction with oxygen. Hence, supercritical water offers a control mechanism depending on solubility, excellent
transport properties based on its high diffusion ability and new reaction possibilities for hydrolysis or oxidation.
In this study the gasification of a real biomass, namely olive mill
wastewater (OMW), in supercritical water is investigated with the
use of Pt/Al2O3 and Ni/Al2O3 catalysts. OMW is a by-product
obtained during olive oil production, which has a complex nature
characterized by a high content of organic compounds and
polyphenols. These properties impose OMW a significant pollution
potential, but at the same time, the high content of organics makes
OMW a desirable biomass candidate for energy production.
All of the catalytic gasification experiments were made with five
different reaction temperatures (400, 450, 500, 550 and 600°C),
under a constant pressure of 25 MPa. For the experiments conducted
with Ni/Al2O3 catalyst, the effect of five reaction times (30, 60, 90,
120 and 150 s) was investigated. However, procuring that similar
gasification efficiencies could be obtained at shorter times, the experiments were made by using different reaction times (10, 15, 20,
25 and 30 s) for the case of Pt/Al2O3 catalyst. Through these experiments, the effects of temperature, time and catalyst type on the
gasification yields and treatment efficiencies were investigated.
Abstract: Significant changes in oil and gas drilling have
emphasized the need to verify the integrity and reliability of drill
stem components. Defects are inevitable in cast components,
regardless of application; but if these defects go undetected, any
severe defect could cause down-hole failure.
One such defect is shrinkage porosity. Castings with lower level
shrinkage porosity (CB levels 1 and 2) have scattered pores and do
not occupy large volumes; so pressure testing and helium leak testing
(HLT) are sufficient for qualifying the castings. However, castings
with shrinkage porosity of CB level 3 and higher, behave erratically
under pressure testing and HLT making these techniques insufficient
for evaluating the castings- integrity.
This paper presents a case study to highlight how the radiography
technique is much more effective than pressure testing and HLT.
Abstract: Lurking behavior is common in information-seeking oriented communities. Transferring users with lurking behavior to be contributors can assist virtual communities to obtain competitive advantages. Based on the ecological cognition framework, this study proposes a model to examine the antecedents of lurking behavior in information-seeking oriented virtual communities. This study argues desire for emotional support, desire for information support, desire for performance-approach, desire for performance -avoidance, desire for mastery-approach, desire for mastery-avoidance, desire for ability trust, desire for benevolence trust, and desire for integrity trust effect on lurking behavior. This study offers an approach to understanding the determinants of lurking behavior in online contexts.
Abstract: Arthrobacter viscosus biomass was used for Cr(VI)
biosorption. The effect of pH on Cr(VI) reduction and removal from
aqueous solution was studied in the range of 1-4. The Cr(VI) removal
involves both redox reaction and adsorption of metal ions on biomass
surface. The removal rate of Cr(VI) was enhanced by very acid
conditions, while higher solution pH values favored the removal of
total chromium. The best removal efficiency and uptake were
reached at pH 4, 72.5 % and 12.6 mgCr/gbiomass, respectively.
Abstract: The classic problem of recovering arbitrary values of
a band-limited signal from its samples has an added complication
in software radio applications; namely, the resampling calculations
inevitably fold aliases of the analog signal back into the original
bandwidth. The phenomenon is quantified by the spur-free dynamic
range. We demonstrate how a novel application of the Remez (Parks-
McClellan) algorithm permits optimal signal recovery and SFDR, far
surpassing state-of-the-art resamplers.
Abstract: Aims of this research were to study Thai Buddhist temple festivals and Balinese Hindu temple festivals, to compare Thai Buddhist temple festival dress with Balinese Hindu temple festival dress, and to create the knowledge which can be useful for Thai attitudes and cultural perceptions, especially for Thai children and youth. The findings of the research disclosed that there are four temple festivals of Thai Buddhists in Thailand, namely Songkran Festival, Buddhist Lent Festival, Sart Thai Festival and End of Buddhist Lent Festival. In island of Bali, Indonesia, there are three Balinese Hindu temple festivals, namely Odalan Festival, Galungan Festival and Nyepi Festival. Thai Songkran Festival is similar to New Year Celebration in Balinese Nyepi Festival. Thai Songkran Festival and Sart Thai Festival have the same purpose as that of Balinese Galungan Festival in practice of dedicating merit to the spirits of deceased relatives. In these temple festivals, Thai Buddhist men will wear round collar outerwear and wide leg trousers or loincloths but will never wear headdresses, while Balinese Hindu men wear turbans or fabric headbands, shirts and Sarong, which are similar to Sarong of Thai Buddhist men in central and northern part of Thailand. Most of Thai Buddhist women wear Sarong like Balinese Hindu women but wear only round collar outerwear, while Balinese Hindu women wear diamond neck camisole as inner wear and shawl collar as outerwear.
Abstract: Never has a revolution affected all aspects of
humanity as the communication revolution during the past two
decades. This revolution, with all its advances and utilities, swept the
world thus becoming an integral part of our lives, hence giving way
to emerging applications at the social, economic, political, and
educational levels. More specifically, such applications have changed
the delivery system through which learning is acquired by students.
Interaction with educators, accessibility to content, and creative
delivery options are but a few facets of the new learning experience
now being offered through the use of technology in the educational
field. With different success rates, third world countries have tried to
pace themselves with use of educational technology in advanced
parts of the world. One such country is the small rich-oil state of
Kuwait which has tried to adopt the e-educational model, however,
an evaluation of such trial is yet to be done. This study aimed to fill
the void of research conducted around that topic. The study explored
students' acceptance of incorporating communication technologies in
higher education in Kuwait. Students' responses to survey questions
presented an overview of the e-learning experience in this country,
and drew a framework through which implications and suggestions
for future research were discussed to better serve the advancement of
e-education in developing countries.
Abstract: The scientific achievements coming from molecular
biology depend greatly on the capability of computational
applications to analyze the laboratorial results. A comprehensive
analysis of an experiment requires typically the simultaneous study
of the obtained dataset with data that is available in several distinct
public databases. Nevertheless, developing a centralized access to
these distributed databases rises up a set of challenges such as: what
is the best integration strategy, how to solve nomenclature clashes,
how to solve database overlapping data and how to deal with huge
datasets. In this paper we present GeNS, a system that uses a simple and yet innovative approach to address several biological data integration issues. Compared with existing systems, the main
advantages of GeNS are related to its maintenance simplicity and to its coverage and scalability, in terms of number of supported
databases and data types. To support our claims we present the current use of GeNS in two concrete applications. GeNS currently contains more than 140 million of biological relations and it can be
publicly downloaded or remotely access through SOAP web services.
Abstract: Location-based services (LBS) exploit the known
location of a user to provide services dependent on their geographic
context and personalized needs [1].
The development and arrival of broadband mobile data networks
supported with mobile terminals equipped with new location
technologies like GPS have finally created opportunities for
implementation of LBS applications. But, from the other side,
collecting location information data in general raises privacy
concerns.
This paper presents results from two surveys of LBS acceptance in
Croatia. The first survey was administered on 181 students, and the
second extended survey involved pattern of 180 Croatian citizens.
We developed questionnaire which consists of descriptions of 15
different applications with scale which measures perceptions and
attitudes of users towards these applications.
We report the results to identify potential commercial applications
for LBS in B2C segment. Our findings suggest that some types of
applications like emergency&safety services and navigation have
significantly higher rate of acceptance than other types.
Abstract: Heating is inevitable in any bearing operation. This
leads to not only the thinning of the lubricant but also could lead to a
thermal deformation of the bearing. The present work is an attempt to
analyze the influence of thermal deformation on the thermohydrodynamic
lubrication of infinitely long tilted pad slider rough
bearings. As a consequence of heating the slider is deformed and is
assumed to take a parabolic shape. Also the asperities expand leading
to smaller effective film thickness. Two different types of surface
roughness are considered: longitudinal roughness and transverse
roughness. Christensen-s stochastic approach is used to derive the
Reynolds-type equations. Density and viscosity are considered to be
temperature dependent. The modified Reynolds equation, momentum
equation, continuity equation and energy equation are decoupled and
solved using finite difference method to yield various bearing
characteristics. From the numerical simulations it is observed that the
performance of the bearing is significantly affected by the thermal
distortion of the slider and asperities and even the parallel sliders
seem to carry some load.
Abstract: In spite of the advent of new materials, clay bricks
remain, arguably, the most popular construction materials today.
Nevertheless the low cost and versatility of clay bricks cannot always
be associated with high environmental and sustainable values,
especially in terms of raw material sources and manufacturing
processes. At the same time, the worldwide agricultural footprint is
fast growing, with vast agricultural land cultivation and active
expansion of the agro-based industry. The resulting large quantities of
agricultural wastes, unfortunately, are not always well managed or
utilised. These wastes can be recycled, such as by retrieving fibres
from disposed leaves and fruit bunches, and then incorporated in
brick-making. This way the clay bricks are made a 'greener' building
material and the discarded natural wastes can be reutilised, avoiding
otherwise wasteful landfill and harmful open incineration. This study
examined the physical and mechanical properties of clay bricks made
by adding two natural fibres to a clay-water mixture, with baked and
non-baked conditions. The fibres were sourced from pineapple leaves
(PF) and oil palm fruit bunch (OF), and added within the range of
0.25-0.75 %. Cement was added as a binder to the mixture at 5-15 %.
Although the two fibres had different effects on the bricks produced,
cement appeared to dominate the compressive strength. The
non-baked bricks disintegrated when submerged in water, while the
baked ones displayed cement-dependent characteristics in
water-absorption and density changes. Interestingly, further increase
in fibre content did not cause significant density decrease in both the
baked and non-baked bricks.
Abstract: The present study is concerned with the absorption
center of photophoresis within a micro-sized and spheroidal particle in
a gaseous medium. A particle subjected to an intense light beam can
absorb electromagnetic energy within the particle unevenly, which
results in photophoretic force to drive the particle in motion. By
evaluating the energy distribution systematically at various conditions,
the study focuses on the effects of governing parameters, such as
particle aspect ratio, size parameter, refractivity, and absorptivity, on
the heat source function within the particle and their potential
influences to the photophoresis.
Abstract: Model Predictive Control (MPC) is an established control
technique in a wide range of process industries. The reason for
this success is its ability to handle multivariable systems and systems
having input, output or state constraints. Neverthless comparing to
PID controller, the implementation of the MPC in miniaturized
devices like Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and microcontrollers
has historically been very small scale due to its complexity in
implementation and its computation time requirement. At the same
time, such embedded technologies have become an enabler for future
manufacturing enterprisers as well as a transformer of organizations
and markets. In this work, we take advantage of these recent advances
in this area in the deployment of one of the most studied and applied
control technique in the industrial engineering. In this paper, we
propose an efficient firmware for the implementation of constrained
MPC in the performed STM32 microcontroller using interior point
method. Indeed, performances study shows good execution speed
and low computational burden. These results encourage to develop
predictive control algorithms to be programmed in industrial standard
processes. The PID anti windup controller was also implemented in
the STM32 in order to make a performance comparison with the
MPC. The main features of the proposed constrained MPC framework
are illustrated through two examples.
Abstract: Jordan exerts many efforts to nurture their academically gifted students in special schools since 2001. During
the past nine years of launching these schools, their learning and excellence environments were believed to be distinguished compared
to public schools. This study investigated the environments of gifted
students compared with other non-gifted, using a survey instrument
that measures the dimensions of family, peers, teachers, school- support, society, and resources –dimensions rooted deeply in supporting gifted education, learning, and achievement. A total
number of 109 were selected from excellence schools for
academically gifted students, and 119 non-gifted students were selected from public schools. Around 8.3% of the non-gifted students
reported that they “Never" received any support from their surrounding environments, 14.9% reported “Seldom" support, 23.7% reported “ Often" support, 26.0% reported “Frequent" support, and
32.8% reported “Very frequent" support. Where the gifted students reported more “Never" support than the non-gifted did with 11.3%,
“Seldom" support with 15.4%, “Often" support with 26.6%,
“Frequent" support with 29.0%, and reported “Very frequent" support less than the non-gifted students with 23.6%. Unexpectedly,
statistical differences were found between the two groups favoring
non-gifted students in perception of their surrounding environments
in specific dimensions, namely, school- support, teachers, and society. No statistical differences were found in the other dimensions
of the survey, namely, family, peers, and resources. As the
differences were found in teachers, school- support, and society, the
nurturing environments for the excellence schools need to be revised to adopt more creative teaching styles, rich school atmosphere and
infrastructures, interactive guiding for the students and their parents, promoting for the excellence environments, and re-build successful
identification models. Thus, families, schools, and society should
increase their cooperation, communication, and awareness of the
gifted supportive environments. However, more studies to investigate
other aspects of promoting academic giftedness and excellence are recommended.
Abstract: Developing a stable early warning system (EWS)
model that is capable to give an accurate prediction is a challenging
task. This paper introduces k-nearest neighbour (k-NN) method
which never been applied in predicting currency crisis before with the
aim of increasing the prediction accuracy. The proposed k-NN
performance depends on the choice of a distance that is used where in
our analysis; we take the Euclidean distance and the Manhattan as a
consideration. For the comparison, we employ three other methods
which are logistic regression analysis (logit), back-propagation neural
network (NN) and sequential minimal optimization (SMO). The
analysis using datasets from 8 countries and 13 macro-economic
indicators for each country shows that the proposed k-NN method
with k = 4 and Manhattan distance performs better than the other
methods.