Abstract: This paper reports a new application of material accounting techniques to characterise and quantify material stocks and flows at the “neighbourhood" scale. The study area is the main campus of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The system boundary is defined by the urban structural unit (USU), a typological construct devised to facilitate assessment of the metabolism of urban systems. A streamlined material flow analysis (MFA) was applied to quantify the stocks and flows of key construction materials within the campus USU over time, drawing on empirical data from a major campus development project. The results are reviewed to assess the efficacy of the method in supporting urban environmental evaluation and design practice, for example to facilitate estimation of significant impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions. It is concluded that linking a service (in this case, teaching students) enabled by a given product (university buildings) to the amount of materials used in creating that product offers a potential way to reduce the environmental impact of that service, through more efficient use of materials.
Abstract: In recent years, though, the concept of fit has been
now in widespread used in strategic management research, it is in its
infancy for applying fit concept to service innovation issue. Therefore,
drawing on the concept of fit, this present research proposed an
innovation service fit model within service innovation, market
orientation, marketing strategy, and IT adoption are coexisted. The
perspective of fit as covariation will be employed to test the hypothesis
and identify the effects of fit. We contend that the fit among these four
factors will contribution to business performance. Finally, according
to the empirical data collected from manufacturing, service, and
financial industry in Taiwan, meaningful findings and conclusions
will be proposed and discussed.
Abstract: This research assesses the value of the brand personality and its influence on consumer-s decision making, through relational variables, after receiving a text message ad. An empirical study, in which 380 participants have received an SMS ad, confirms that brand personality does actually influence the brand trust as well as the attachment and commitment. The levels of sensitivity and involvement have an impact on the brand personality and the related variables to it.
Abstract: This article investigated the validity of C-test and Cloze test which purport to measure general English proficiency. To provide empirical evidence pertaining to the validity of the interpretations based on the results of these integrative language tests, their criterion-related validity was investigated. In doing so, the test of English as a foreign language (TOEFL) which is an established, standardized, and internationally administered test of general English proficiency was used as the criterion measure. Some 90 Iranian English majors participated in this study. They were seniors studying English at a university in Tehran, Iran. The results of analyses showed that there is a statistically significant correlation among participants- scores on Cloze test, C-test, and the TOEFL. Building on the findings of the study and considering criterion-related validity as the evidential basis of the validity argument, it was cautiously deducted that these tests measure the same underlying trait. However, considering the limitations of using criterion measures to validate tests, no absolute claims can be made as to the construct validity of these integrative tests.
Abstract: The experimental thermal performance of two heat
exchangers in closed-wet cooling tower (CWCT) was investigated in
this study. The test sections are heat exchangers which have multi path
that is used as the entrance of cooling water and are consisting of
bare-type copper tubes between 15.88mm and 19.05mm. The process
fluids are the cooling water that flows from top part of heat exchanger
to bottom side in the inner side of tube, and spray water that flows
gravitational direction in the outer side of it. Air contacts its outer side
of that as it counterflows. Heat and mass transfer coefficients and
cooling capacity were calculated with variations of process fluids,
multi path and different diameter tubes to figure out the performance
of characteristics of CWCT.
The main results were summarized as follows: The results show this
experiment is reliable with values of heat and mass transfer
coefficients comparing to values of correlations. Heat and mass
transfer coefficients and cooling capacity of two paths are higher than
these with one path using 15.88 and 19.05mm tubes. Cooling capacity
per unit volume with 15.88mm tube using one and two paths are
higher than 19.05mm tube due to increase of surface area per unit
volume.
Abstract: In this article the influence of higher frequency effects
in addition to a special damper design on the electrical behavior of a
synchronous generator main exciter machine is investigated. On the
one hand these machines are often highly stressed by harmonics from
the bridge rectifier thus facing additional eddy current losses. On the
other hand the switching may cause the excitation of dangerous
voltage peaks in resonant circuits formed by the diodes of the
rectifier and the commutation reactance of the machine. Therefore
modern rotating exciters are treated like synchronous generators
usually modeled with a second order equivalent circuit. Hence the
well known Standstill Frequency Response Test (SSFR) method is
applied to a test machine in order to determine parameters for the
simulation. With these results it is clearly shown that higher
frequencies have a strong impact on the conventional equivalent
circuit model. Because of increasing field displacement effects in the
stranded armature winding the sub-transient reactance is even smaller
than the armature leakage at high frequencies. As a matter of fact this
prevents the algorithm to find an equivalent scheme. This issue is
finally solved using Laplace transfer functions fully describing the
transient behavior at the model ports.
Abstract: Mankind has entered into an extremely complex and
controversial stage of its development: the world is simultaneously
organized and chaoticized, globalized and localized, combined and
split. Analysts point out that globalization as a process of
strengthening economic, cultural, financial and other ties of states
cause many problems. In the economic sphere, it creates the danger
of growing gap between the states, in the sphere of politics it leads to
the weakening of political power and influence of nation-states.
Abstract: Leave of absence is important in maintaining a good
status of human resource quality. Allowing the employees temporarily
free from the routine assignments can vitalize the workers- morality
and productivity. This is particularly critical to secure a satisfactory
service quality for healthcare professionals of which were typically
featured with labor intensive and complicated works to perform. As
one of the veteran hospitals that were found and operated by the
Veteran Department of Taiwan, the nursing staff of the case hospital
was squeezed to an extreme minimum level under the pressure of a
tight budgeting. Leave of absence on schedule became extremely
difficult, especially for the intensive care units (ICU), in which
required close monitoring over the cared patients, and that had more
easily driven the ICU nurses nervous. Even worse, the deferred leaves
were more than 10 days at any time in the ICU because of a fluctuating
occupancy. As a result, these had brought a bad setback to this
particular nursing team, and consequently defeated the job
performance and service quality. To solve this problem and
accordingly to strengthen their morality, a project team was organized
across different departments specific for this. Sufficient information
regarding jobs and positions requirements, labor resources, and actual
working hours in detail were collected and analyzed in the team
meetings. Several alternatives were finalized. These included job
rotating, job combination, leave on impromptu and cross-departmental
redeployment. Consequently, the deferred leave days sharply reduced
70% to a level of 3 or less days. This improvement had not only
provided good shelter for the ICU nurses that improved their job
performance and patient safety but also encouraged the nurses active
participating of a project and learned the skills of solving problems
with colleagues.
Abstract: the data quality is a kind of complex and unstructured concept, which is concerned by information systems managers. The reason of this attention is the high amount of Expenses for maintenance and cleaning of the inefficient data. Such a data more than its expenses of lack of quality, cause wrong statistics, analysis and decisions in organizations. Therefor the managers intend to improve the quality of their information systems' data. One of the basic subjects of quality improvement is the evaluation of the amount of it. In this paper, we present a precautionary method, which with its application the data of information systems would have a better quality. Our method would cover different dimensions of data quality; therefor it has necessary integrity. The presented method has tested on three dimensions of accuracy, value-added and believability and the results confirm the improvement and integrity of this method.
Abstract: This paper presents the work of signal discrimination
specifically for Electrocardiogram (ECG) waveform. ECG signal is
comprised of P, QRS, and T waves in each normal heart beat to
describe the pattern of heart rhythms corresponds to a specific
individual. Further medical diagnosis could be done to determine any
heart related disease using ECG information. The emphasis on QRS
Complex classification is further discussed to illustrate the
importance of it. Pan-Tompkins Algorithm, a widely known
technique has been adapted to realize the QRS Complex
classification process. There are eight steps involved namely
sampling, normalization, low pass filter, high pass filter (build a band
pass filter), derivation, squaring, averaging and lastly is the QRS
detection. The simulation results obtained is represented in a
Graphical User Interface (GUI) developed using MATLAB.
Abstract: For the past thirty years the Malaysian economy has been said to contribute well to the progress of the nations. However, the intensification of global economy activity and the extensive use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in recent years are challenging government-s effort to further develop Malaysian society. The competition posed by the low wage economies such as China and Vietnam have made the government realise the importance of engaging in high-skill and high technology industries. It is hoped this will be the basis of attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI) in order to help the country to compete in globalised world. Using Vision 2020 as it targeted vision, the government has decided to engage in the use of ICTs and introduce many policies pertaining to it. Mainly based on the secondary analysis approach, the findings show that policy pertaining to ICTs in Malaysia contributes to economic growth, but the consequences of this have resulted in greater division within society. Although some of the divisions such as gender and ethnicity are narrowing down, the gap in important areas such as regions and class differences is becoming wider. The widespread use of ICTs might contribute to the further establishment of democracy in Malaysia, but the increasing number of foreign entities such as FDI and foreign workers, cultural hybridisation and to some extent cultural domination are contributing to neocolonialism in Malaysia. This has obvious consequences for the government-s effort to create a Malaysian national identity. An important finding of this work is that there are contradictions within ICT policy between the effort to develop the economy and society.
Abstract: Ontology-based modelling of multi-formatted
software application content is a challenging area in content
management. When the number of software content unit is huge and
in continuous process of change, content change management is
important. The management of content in this context requires
targeted access and manipulation methods. We present a novel
approach to deal with model-driven content-centric information
systems and access to their content. At the core of our approach is an
ontology-based semantic annotation technique for diversely
formatted content that can improve the accuracy of access and
systems evolution. Domain ontologies represent domain-specific
concepts and conform to metamodels. Different ontologies - from
application domain ontologies to software ontologies - capture and
model the different properties and perspectives on a software content
unit. Interdependencies between domain ontologies, the artifacts and
the content are captured through a trace model. The annotation traces
are formalised and a graph-based system is selected for the
representation of the annotation traces.
Abstract: Regression testing is a maintenance activity applied to
modified software to provide confidence that the changed parts are
correct and that the unchanged parts have not been adversely affected
by the modifications. Regression test selection techniques reduce the
cost of regression testing, by selecting a subset of an existing test
suite to use in retesting modified programs. This paper presents the
first general regression-test-selection technique, which based on code
and allows selecting test cases for any programs written in any
programming language. Then it handles incomplete program. We
also describe RTSDiff, a regression-test-selection system that
implements the proposed technique. The results of the empirical
studied that performed in four programming languages java, C#, Cµ
and Visual basic show that the efficiency and effective in reducing
the size of test suit.
Abstract: The introduction of mass-customization has enabled
new ways to treat patients within medicine. However, the
introduction of industrialized treatments has also meant new
obstacles. The purpose of this study was to introduce and
theoretically test a method for improving dental crown fit. The
optimization method allocates support points in order to check the
final variation for dental crowns. Three different types of geometries
were tested and compared. The three geometries were also divided
into three sub-geometries: Current method, Optimized method and
Feasible method. The Optimized method, using the whole surface for
support points, provided the best results. The results support the
objective of the study. It also seems that the support optimization
method can dramatically improve the robustness of dental crown
treatments.
Abstract: In this paper optimal capacitor placement problem has
been formulated in a restructured distribution network. In this
scenario the distribution network operator can consider reactive
energy also as a service that can be sold to transmission system. Thus
search for optimal location, size and number of capacitor banks with
the objective of loss reduction, maximum income from selling
reactive energy to transmission system and return on investment for
capacitors, has been performed. Results is influenced with economic
value of reactive energy, therefore problem has been solved for
various amounts of it. The implemented optimization technique is
genetic algorithm. For any value of reactive power economic value,
when reverse of investment index increase and change from zero or
negative values to positive values, the threshold value of selling
reactive power has been obtained. This increasing price of economic
parameter is reasonable until the network losses is less than loss
before compensation.
Abstract: The effect of a time delay on the transmission on
dengue fever is studied. The time delay is due to the presence of an
incubation period for the dengue virus to develop in the mosquito
before the mosquito becomes infectious. The conditions for the
existence of a Hopf bifurcation to limit cycle behavior are
established. The conditions are different from the usual one and they
are based on whether a particular third degree polynomial has
positive real roots. A theorem for determining whether for a given
set of parameter values, a critical delay time exist is given. It is
found that for a set of realistic values of the parameters in the model,
a Hopf bifurcation can not occur. For a set of unrealistic values of
some of the parameters, it is shown that a Hopf bifurcation can occur.
Numerical solutions using this last set show the trajectory of two of
the variables making a transition from a spiraling orbit to a limit
cycle orbit.
Abstract: A major goal of any enterprise is to create a ratings
system of customer satisfaction, goods and services. It is obvious that
the company cannot change what is not measured. In order to get a
clearer picture of the preferences of the major consumer groups, this
stage should be based on extensive research, including a variety of
interviews and surveys. It is necessary to know the key benefits,
which determine customer satisfaction in the market segment, of the
properties of certain goods and services. It is important to estimate
the terms of these preferences from the viewpoint of the client. This
article discusses the importance of customer satisfaction, and ways of
assessing it.
Abstract: Augmented Reality (AR) shows great promises for
its usage as a tool for simulation and verification of design proposal
of new technological systems. Main advantage of augmented reality
application usage is possibility of creation and simulation of new
technological unit before its realization. This may contribute to
increasing of safety and ergonomics and decreasing of economical
aspects of new proposed unit. Virtual model of proposed workcell
could reveal hidden errors which elimination in later stage of new
workcell creation should cause great difficulties. Paper describes
process of such virtual model creation and possibilities of its
simulation and verification by augmented reality tools.
Abstract: We present design, fabrication, and characterization of
a small (12 mm × 12 mm × 8 mm) movable railway vehicle for sensor
carrying. The miniature railway vehicle (MRV) was mainly composed
of a vibrational structure and three legs. A railway was designed and
fabricated to power and guide the MRV. It also transmits the sensed
data from the MRV to the signal processing unit. The MRV with legs
on the railway was moving due to its high-frequency vibration. A
model was derived to describe the motion. Besides, FEM simulations
were performed to design the legs. Then, the MRV and the railway
were fabricated by precision machining. Finally, an infrared sensor
was carried and tested. The result shows that the MRV without loading
was moving along the railway and its maximum speed was 12.2 mm/s.
Moreover, the testing signal was sensed by the MRV.
Abstract: Rainfall data at fine resolution and knowledge of its
characteristics plays a major role in the efficient design and operation
of agricultural, telecommunication, runoff and erosion control as well
as water quality control systems. The paper is aimed to study the
statistical distribution of hourly rainfall depth for 12 representative
stations spread across Peninsular Malaysia. Hourly rainfall data of 10
to 22 years period were collected and its statistical characteristics
were estimated. Three probability distributions namely, Generalized
Pareto, Exponential and Gamma distributions were proposed to
model the hourly rainfall depth, and three goodness-of-fit tests,
namely, Kolmogorov-Sminov, Anderson-Darling and Chi-Squared
tests were used to evaluate their fitness. Result indicates that the east
cost of the Peninsular receives higher depth of rainfall as compared
to west coast. However, the rainfall frequency is found to be
irregular. Also result from the goodness-of-fit tests show that all the
three models fit the rainfall data at 1% level of significance.
However, Generalized Pareto fits better than Exponential and
Gamma distributions and is therefore recommended as the best fit.