Abstract: The paper is focused on the application of the security
audit method on the selected objects of the critical infrastructure. The
emphasis is put on security audit method to find gaps in the critical
infrastructure security. The theoretical part describes objects of the
critical infrastructure. The practical part describes using of the
security audit method. The main emphasis was put on the protection
of the critical infrastructure in the Czech Republic.
Abstract: The customers use the best compromise criterion
between price and quality of service (QoS) to select or change
their Service Provider (SP). The SPs share the same market and
are competing to attract more customers to gain more profit. Due
to the divergence of SPs interests, we believe that this situation is a
non-cooperative game of price and QoS. The game converges to an
equilibrium position known Nash Equilibrium (NE). In this work, we
formulate a game theoretic framework for the dynamical behaviors
of SPs. We use Genetic Algorithms (GAs) to find the price and
QoS strategies that maximize the profit for each SP and illustrate
the corresponding strategy in NE. In order to quantify how this NE
point is performant, we perform a detailed analysis of the price of
anarchy induced by the NE solution. Finally, we provide an extensive
numerical study to point out the importance of considering price and
QoS as a joint decision parameter.
Abstract: Fading noise degrades the performance of cellular
communication, most notably in femto- and pico-cells in 3G and 4G
systems. When the wireless channel consists of a small number of
scattering paths, the statistics of fading noise is not analytically
tractable and poses a serious challenge to developing closed
canonical forms that can be analysed and used in the design of
efficient and optimal receivers. In this context, noise is multiplicative
and is referred to as stochastically local fading. In many analytical
investigation of multiplicative noise, the exponential or Gamma
statistics are invoked. More recent advances by the author of this
paper utilized a Poisson modulated-weighted generalized Laguerre
polynomials with controlling parameters and uncorrelated noise
assumptions. In this paper, we investigate the statistics of multidiversity
stochastically local area fading channel when the channel
consists of randomly distributed Rayleigh and Rician scattering
centers with a coherent Nakagami-distributed line of sight component
and an underlying doubly stochastic Poisson process driven by a
lognormal intensity. These combined statistics form a unifying triply
stochastic filtered marked Poisson point process model.
Abstract: Effective internal control system in the bursary unit of
tertiary educational institutions is geared toward achieving quality
teaching, learning and research environment and as well assist the
management of the institutions, particularly when decisions are to be
made. While internal control system exists in all institutions, the
outlined objectives above are far from being achieved. The paper
therefore assesses the effectiveness of internal control system in
tertiary educational institutions in Nasarawa State, Nigeria with
specific focus on the Nasarawa State Polytechnic, Lafia. The study is
survey, hence a simple closed ended questionnaire was developed
and administered to a sample of twenty seven (27) member staff from
the Bursary and the Internal audit unit of the Nasarawa State
Polytechnic, Lafia so as to obtain data for analysis purposes and to
test the study hypothesis. Responses from the questionnaire were
analysed using a simple percentage and chi square. Findings shows
that the right people are not assigned to the right job in the
department, budget, and management accounting were never used in
the institution’s operations and checking of subordinate by their
superior officers is not regular. This renders the current internal
control structure of the Polytechnic as ineffective and weak. The
paper therefore recommends that: transparency should be seen as
significant, as the institution work toward meeting its objectives, it
therefore means that the right staff be assigned the right job and
regular checking of the subordinates by their superiors be ensued.
Abstract: Sub-Saharan Africa is described as the second fastest
growing in mobile phone penetration in the world more than in the
United States or the European Union. Mobile phones have been used
to provide a lot of opportunities to improve people’s lives in the
region such as in banking, marketing, entertainment, and paying for
various bills such as water, TV, and electricity. However, the
potential of mobile phones to enhance teaching and learning has not
been explored. This study presents an experience of developing and
delivering SMS based quiz questions used to assess mastery of
subject content knowledge of science and mathematics secondary
school teachers in Tanzania. The SMS quizzes were used as a follow
up support mechanism to 500 teachers who participated in a project
to upgrade subject content knowledge of teachers in science and
mathematics subjects in Tanzania. Quizzes of 10-15 questions were
sent to teachers each week for 8 weeks and the results were analyzed
using SPSS. Results show that teachers who participated in chemistry
and biology subjects have better performance compared to those who
participated in mathematics and physics subjects. Teachers reported
some challenges that led to poor performance, This research has
several practical implications for those who are implementing or
planning to use mobile phones in teaching and learning especially in
rural secondary schools in sub-Saharan Africa.
Abstract: In Algeria, the most impressive and most known
prehistoric art is the painted or engraved rock art which is present
with abundance in several regions. The existence of rock art in Great
Kabylia region has been known for over sixty years. The main purpose of this research is to show the dangers facing
these rock paintings and engravings and what are the arrangements
for their protection and recovery. As every vestige destroyed is a part of the world's memory which
disappears, some steps have to be taken in order to protect these
historical and archaeological heritages.
Abstract: The paper will focus on the strategic development
deriving from the evolution of the traditional courtyard spatial
organization towards a new, contemporary sustainable way of living.
New sustainable approaches that engulf the social issues, the notion
of place, the understanding of weather architecture blended together
with the bioclimatic behavior will be seen through a series of
experimental case studies in the island of Cyprus, inspired and
originated from its traditional wisdom, ranging from small scale of
living to urban interventions. Weather and nature will be seen as co-architectural authors with
architects. Furthermore, the building will be seen not as an object but
rather as a vessel of human activities. This will further enhance the
notion of merging the material and immaterial, the built and unbuilt,
subject-human, and the object-building. This eventually will enable
to generate the discussion of the understanding of the building in
relation to the place and its inhabitants, where the human topography
is more important than the material topography. The specificities of
the divided island and the dealing with sites that are in vicinity with
the diving Green Line will further trigger explorations dealing with
the regeneration issues and the social sustainability offering
unprecedented opportunities for innovative sustainable ways of
living. Opening up a discourse with premises of weather-nature, materialimmaterial,
human-material topographies in relation to the contested
sites of the borders will lead us to develop innovative strategies for a
profound, both technical and social sustainability, which fruitfully
yields to innovative living built environments, responding to the ever
changing environmental and social needs. As a starting point, a case study in Kaimakli in Nicosia, a
refurbishment with an extension of a traditional house, already
engulfs all the traditional/ vernacular wisdom of the bioclimatic
architecture. The project focusses on the direct and quite obvious
bioclimatic features such as south orientation and cross ventilation.
Furthermore, it tries to reinvent the adaptation of these parameters in
order to turn the whole house to a contemporary living environment.
In order to succeed this, evolutions of traditional architectural
elements and spatial conditions are integrated in a way that does not
only respond to some certain weather conditions, but they integrate
and blend the weather within the built environment. A series of
innovations aiming at maximum flexibility is proposed. The house
can finally be transformed into a winter enclosure, while for the most
part of the year it turns into a ‘camping’ living environment. Parallel to experimental interventions in existing traditional units,
we will proceed examining the implementation of the same
developed methodology in designing living units and complexes.
Malleable courtyard organizations that attempt to blend the
traditional wisdom with the contemporary needs for living, the
weather and nature with the built environment will be seen tested in
both horizontal and vertical developments. Social activities are seen as directly affected and forged by the
weather conditions thus generating a new social identity of people where people are directly involved and interacting with the weather.
The human actions and interaction with the built, material
environment in order to respond to weather will be seen as the result
of balancing the social with the technological sustainability, the
immaterial, and the material aspects of the living environment.
Abstract: A solar receiver is designed for operation under
extremely uneven heat flux distribution, cyclic weather, and cloud
transient cycle conditions, which can include large thermal stress and
even receiver failure. In this study, the effect of different oil velocity
on convection coefficient factor and impact of wind velocity on local
Nusselt number by Finite Volume Method will be analyzed. This
study is organized to give an overview of the numerical modeling
using a MATLAB software, as an accurate, time efficient and
economical way of analyzing the heat transfer trends over stationary
receiver tube for different Reynolds number. The results reveal when
oil velocity is below 0.33m/s, the value of convection coefficient is
negligible at low temperature. The numerical graphs indicate that
when oil velocity increases up to 1.2 m/s, heat convection coefficient
increases significantly. In fact, a reduction in oil velocity causes a
reduction in heat conduction through the glass envelope. In addition,
the different local Nusselt number is reduced when the wind blows
toward the concave side of the collector and it has a significant effect
on heat losses reduction through the glass envelope.
Abstract: Experience is what makes a man perfect. Though we
tend to learn many a different things in life through practice still we
need to go an extra mile to gain experience which would be profitable
only when it is integrated with regular practice. A clear phenomenal
idea is that every teacher is a learner. The centralized idea of this paper would focus on the integrated
practices carried out among the students of Jizan University which
enhances learning through experiences. Integrated practices like
student-directed activities, balanced curriculum, phonological based
activities and use of consistent language would enlarge the vision and
mission of students to earn experience through learning. Students
who receive explicit instruction and guidance could practice the skills
and strategies through student-directed activities such as peer tutoring
and cooperative learning. The second effective practice is to use
consistent language. Consistent language provides students a model
for talking about the new concepts which also enables them to
communicate without hindrances. Phonological awareness is an
important early reading skill for all students. Students generally have
phonemic awareness in their home language can often transfer that
knowledge to a second language. And also a balanced curriculum
requires instruction in all the elements of reading. Reading is the
most effective skill when both basic and higher-order skills are
included on a daily basis. Computer based reading and listening skills
will empower students to understand language in a better way.
English language learners can benefit from sound reading instruction
even before they are fully proficient in English as long as the
instruction is comprehensible. Thus, if students have to be well
equipped in learning they should foreground themselves in various
integrated practices through multifarious experience for which
teachers are moderators and trainers. This type of learning prepares
the students for a constantly changing society which helps them to
meet the competitive world around them for better employability
fulfilling the vision and mission of the institution.
Abstract: Green concrete are generally composed of recycling
materials as hundred or partial percent substitutes for aggregate,
cement, and admixture in concrete. To reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, efforts are needed to develop environmentally friendly
construction materials. Using of fly ash based geopolymer as an
alternative binder can help reduce CO2 emission of concrete. The
binder of geopolymer concrete is different from the ordinary Portland
cement concrete. Geopolymer Concrete specimens were prepared
with different concentration of NaOH solution M10, M14, and, M16
and cured at 60ºC in duration of 24 hours and 8 hours, in addition to
the curing in direct sunlight. Thus, it is necessary to study the effects
of the geopolymer binder on the behavior of concrete. Concrete is
made by using geopolymer technology is environmental friendly and
could be considered as part of the sustainable development. In this
study, the Local Alkaline Activator in Egypt and crashed stone as
coarse aggregate in fly ash based-geopolymer concrete was
investigated. This paper illustrates the development of mechanical
properties. Since the gained compressive strength for geopolymer
concrete at 28 days was in the range of 22.5MPa – 43.9MPa.
Abstract: A method of effective planning and control of
industrial facility energy consumption is offered. The method allows
optimally arranging the management and full control of complex
production facilities in accordance with the criteria of minimal
technical and economic losses at the forecasting control. The method
is based on the optimal construction of the power efficiency
characteristics with the prescribed accuracy. The problem of optimal
designing of the forecasting model is solved on the basis of three
criteria: maximizing the weighted sum of the points of forecasting
with the prescribed accuracy; the solving of the problem by the
standard principles at the incomplete statistic data on the basis of
minimization of the regularized function; minimizing the technical
and economic losses due to the forecasting errors.
Abstract: The liberalisation of the education industry has
exposed the institute of higher learning (IHL) in Malaysia to the
financial challenges. Without good financial standing, public
institution will rely on the government funding. Ostensibly, this
contradicts with the government’s aspiration to make universities
self-sufficient. With stiff competition from private institutes of higher
learning, IHL need to be prepared at the forefront level. The
corporate identity itself is the entrance to the world of higher learning
and it is in this uniqueness, it will be able to distinguish itself from
competitors. This paper examined the perception of the stakeholders
at one of the public universities in the east coast region in Malaysia
on the perceived reputation and how the university communicate its
preparedness for self-sustainability through corporate identity. The
findings indicated while the stakeholders embraced the challenges in
facing the stiff competition and struggling market conditions, most of
them felt the university should put more efforts in mobilising the
corporate identity to its constituencies.
Abstract: Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) has been
introduced and globally gained increasing attention on its usefulness.
Continuous application of EMS may lead to the increment of muscle
mass and indirectly will increase the strength. This study can be used
as an alternative to help people especially those living a sedentary
lifestyle to improve their muscle activity without having to go
through a heavy workout session. Therefore, this study intended to
investigate the effectiveness of EMS training program in 5 weeks
interventions towards male body composition. It was a quasiexperimental
design, held at the Impulse Studio Bangsar, which
examined the effects of EMS training towards skeletal muscle mass
among the subjects. Fifteen subjects (n = 15) were selected to assist
in this study. The demographic data showed that, the average age of
the subjects was 43.07 years old ± 9.90, height (173.4 cm ± 9.09) and
weight was (85.79 kg ± 18.07). Results showed that there was a
significant difference on the skeletal muscle mass (p = 0.01 < 0.05),
upper body (p = 0.01 < 0.05) and lower body (p = 0.00 < 0.05).
Therefore, the null hypothesis has been rejected in this study. As a
conclusion, the application of EMS towards body composition can
increase the muscle size and strength. This method has been proven
to be able to improve athlete strength and thus, may be implemented
in the sports science area of knowledge.
Abstract: At a global level, water stewardship, water stress and
water security are crucial factors in tourism planning and
development considerations. Challenges associated with water is of
particular concern to the Maldives as there is limited availability of
freshwater, high dependency on desalinated water, and high unit cost
associated with desalinating water. While the Maldives is promoted
as an example of sustainable tourism, a key sustainability challenge
facing tourism dependent communities is the efficient use and
management of available water resources. A water crisis event in the
capital island of Maldives highlighted how precarious water related
issues are in this tourism dependent destination. Applying
netnography, the focus of this working paper is to present community
perceptions of how government policies addressed Malé Water and
Sewerage Company (MWSC) water crisis event.
Abstract: Local steel slag is produced as a by-product during the
oxidation of steel pellets in an electric arc furnace. Using local steel
slag waste as a hundred substitutes of crashed stone in construction
materials would resolve the environmental problems caused by the
large-scale depletion of the natural sources of crashed stone. This
paper reports the experimental study to investigate the influence of a
hundred replacement of crashed stone as a coarse aggregate with
local steel slag, on the fresh and hardened geopolymer concrete
properties. The investigation includes traditional testing of hardening
concrete, for selected mixes of cement and geopolymer concrete. It
was found that local steel slag as a coarse aggregate enhanced the
slump test of the fresh state of cement and geopolymer concretes.
Nevertheless, the unit weight of concretes was affected. Meanwhile,
the good performance was observed when fly ash used as geopolymer
concrete based.
Abstract: This paper presents a case study of using STATCOM to enhance the performance of Al-Qatraneh 33-kV transmission line. The location of the STATCOM was identified by maintaining minimum voltage drops at the 110 load nodes. The transmission line and the 110 load nodes have been modeled by MATLAB/Simulink. The suggested STATCOM and its location will increase the transmission capability of this transmission line and overcome the overload expected in the year 2020. The annual percentage loading rise has been considered as 14.35%. A graphical representation of the line-to-line voltages and the voltage drops at different load nodes is illustrated.
Abstract: It is quite essential to investigate the causes of
pavement deterioration in order to select the proper maintenance
technique. The objective of this study was to identify factors cause
deterioration of recently constructed roads in Khartoum state. A
comprehensive literature concerning the factors of road deterioration,
common road defects and their causes were reviewed. Three major
road projects with different deterioration reasons were selected for
this study. The investigation involved field survey and laboratory
testing on those projects to examine the existing pavement
conditions. The results revealed that the roads investigated
experienced severe failures in the forms of cracks, potholes, and
rutting in the wheel path. The causes of those failures were found
mainly linked to poor drainage, traffic overloading, expansive
subgrade soils, and the use of low quality materials in construction.
Based on the results, recommendations were provided to help
highway engineers in selecting the most effective repair techniques
for specific kinds of distresses.
Abstract: Heat treatable aluminum alloys such as 7075 and
7055, because of high strength and low density, are used widely in
aircraft industry. For best mechanical properties, T6 heat treatment
has recommended for this regards, but this temper treatment is
sensitive to corrosion induced and Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC)
damage. For improving this property, the over-aging treatment (T7)
applies to this alloy, but it decreases the mechanical properties up to
30 percent. Hence, to increase the mechanical properties, without any
remarkable decrease in SCC resistant, Retrogression and Re-Aging
(RRA) heat treatment is used. This treatment performs in a relatively
short time. In this paper, the RRA heat treatment was applied to 7055
aluminum alloy and then effect of RRA time on the mechanical
properties of 7055 has been investigated. The results show that the
40-minute time is suitable time for retrogression of 7055 aluminum
alloy and ultimate strength increases up to 625MPa.
Abstract: Intermediate cities which also called medium size
cities have an important role in the process of globalization. It is
argued that, in some cases this type of cities may be depopulated or in
otherwise may be transformed as the periphery of metropolitans, so
that the personal identity of the city and its local cultural heritage
could suffer from its neighbor metropolitan. Over the last decades,
the role of tourism in the development process and the cultural
heritage has increased. The impact of tourism on socioeconomic
growth makes motivation for the study of tourism development in
regional and urban planning process. There are evidences that
tourism has a positive impact in local development and makes
economic motivations for cultural heritage protection. In this study,
by considering the role of tourism in local development, especially by
its economic and socio-cultural impacts, it is tried to introduce a
strategy for tourism development through a method of urban planning
for intermediate cities called as Base plan. Damavand is an
intermediate city located in Tehran province, Iran with a high
potential in tourism by its local specific characteristic like social
structure, antiquities and natural attractions. It’s selected as a suitable
case study for intended strategy which is a combination of urban
planning and tourism development methods. Focusing on recognition
of the historical and cultural heritage of Damavand, in this paper
through “base plan methodology” a strategy of urban planning
toward tourism development is prepared in order to make tourism
development as a support for cultural heritage of this city.
Abstract: Background: Maintaining the correct body balance is
essential in the prevention of falls in the elderly, which is especially
important for women because of postmenopausal osteoporosis and
the serious consequences of falls. One of the exercise methods which
is very popular among adults, and which may affect body balance in
the positive way is the Pilates method. The aim of the study was to
evaluate the effect of regular Pilates exercises on the ability to
maintain body balance in static conditions in adult healthy women.
Material and methods: The study group consisted of 20 healthy
women attending Pilates twice a week for at least 1 year. The control
group consisted of 20 healthy women physically inactive. Women in
the age range from 35 to 50 years old without pain in musculoskeletal
system or other pain were only qualified to the groups. Body balance
was assessed using MatScan VersaTek platform with Sway Analysis
Module based on Matscan Clinical 6.7 software (Tekscan Inc.,
U.S.A). The balance was evaluated under the following conditions:
standing on both feet with eyes open, standing on both feet with eyes
closed, one-leg standing (separately on the right and left foot) with
eyes open. Each test lasted 30 seconds. The following parameters
were calculated: estimated size of the ellipse of 95% confidence, the
distance covered by the Center of Gravity (COG), the size of the
maximum shift in the sagittal and frontal planes and load distribution
between the left and right foot, as well as between rear- and forefoot.
Results: It was found that there is significant difference between the
groups in favor of the study group in the size of the confidence
ellipse and maximum shifts of COG in the sagittal plane during
standing on both feet, both with the eyes open and closed (p