Abstract: Sweet potato products are necessary for the provision
of essential nutrients in every household, regardless of their poverty
status. Their consumption appears to be highly influenced by socioeconomic
factors, such as malnutrition, food insecurity and
unemployment. Therefore, market availability is crucial for these
cultivars to resolve some of the socio-economic factors. The aim of
the study was to investigate market availability of sweet potato
cultivars in the North West Province. In this study, both qualitative
and quantitative research methodologies were used. Qualitative
methodology was used to explain the quantitative outcomes of the
variables. On the other hand, quantitative results were used to test the
hypothesis. The study used SPSS software to analyse the data. Crosstabulation
and Chi-square statistics were used to obtain the
descriptive and inferential analyses, respectively. The study found
that the Blesbok cultivar is dominating the markets of the North West
Province, with the Monate cultivar dominating in the Bojanala
Platinum (75%) and Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati (25%) districts. It
is also found that a unit increase in the supply of sweet potato
cultivars in both local and district municipal markets is accompanied
by a reduced demand of 28% and 33% at district and local markets,
respectively. All these results were found to be significant at p
Abstract: The myocardial sintigraphy is an imaging modality which provides functional informations. Whereas, coronarography modality gives useful informations about coronary arteries anatomy. In case of coronary artery disease (CAD), the coronarography can not determine precisely which moderate lesions (artery reduction between 50% and 70%), known as the “gray zone", are haemodynamicaly significant. In this paper, we aim to define the relationship between the location and the degree of the stenosis in coronary arteries and the observed perfusion on the myocardial scintigraphy. This allows us to model the impact evolution of these stenoses in order to justify a coronarography or to avoid it for patients suspected being in the gray zone. Our approach is decomposed in two steps. The first step consists in modelling a coronary artery bed and stenoses of different location and degree. The second step consists in modelling the left ventricle at stress and at rest using the sphercical harmonics model and myocardial scintigraphic data. We use the spherical harmonics descriptors to analyse left ventricle model deformation between stress and rest which permits us to conclude if ever an ischemia exists and to quantify it.
Abstract: According to the governmental data, the cases of oral
cancers doubled in the past 10 years. This had brought heavy burden to
the patients- family, the society, and the country. The literature
generally evidenced the betel nut contained particular chemicals that
can cause oral cancers. Research in Taiwan had also proofed that 90
percent of oral cancer patients had experience of betel nut chewing. It
is thus important to educate the betel-nut hobbyists to cease such a
hazardous behavior. A program was then organized to establish
several training classes across different areas specific to help ceasing
this particular habit. Purpose of this research was to explore the
attitude and intention toward ceasing betel-nut chewing before and
after attending the training classes. 50 samples were taken from a
ceasing class with average age at 45 years old with high school
education (54%). 74% of the respondents were male in service or
agricultural industries. Experiences in betel-nut chewing were 5-20
years with a dose of 1-20 pieces per day. The data had shown that 60%
of the respondents had cigarette smoking habit, and 30% of the
respondents were concurrently alcoholic dependent. Research results
indicated that the attitude, intentions, and the knowledge on oral
cancers were found significant different between before and after
attendance. This provided evidence for the effectiveness of the training
class. However, we do not perform follow-up after the class.
Noteworthy is the test result also shown that participants who were
drivers as occupation, or habitual smokers or alcoholic dependents
would be less willing to quit the betel-nut chewing. The test results
indicated as well that the educational levels and the type of occupation
may have significant impacts on an individual-s decisions in taking
betel-nut or substance abuse.
Abstract: Power transformer consists of components which are
under consistent thermal and electrical stresses. The major
component which degrades under these stresses is the paper
insulation of the power transformer. At site, lightning impulses and
cable faults may cause the winding deformation. In addition, the
winding may deform due to impact during transportation. A
deformed winding will excite more stress to its insulating paper thus
will degrade it. Insulation degradation will shorten the life-span of
the transformer. Currently there are two methods of detecting the
winding deformation which are Sweep Frequency Response
Analysis (SFRA) and Low Voltage Impulse Test (LVI). The latter
injects current pulses to the winding and capture the admittance
plot. In this paper, a transformer which experienced overheating and
arcing was identified, and both SFRA and LVI were performed.
Next, the transformer was brought to the factory for untanking. The
untanking results revealed that the LVI is more accurate than the
SFRA method for this case study.
Abstract: The paper analyzes the large power transformer unit regimes, indicating the criteria for the management of the voltage operating conditions, as well as the change in the operating conditions with the load connected to the secondary winding of the transformer unit. Further, the paper presents the software application for the evaluation of the transformer unit operation under different conditions. The software application was developed by means of virtual instrumentation.
Abstract: Several works regarding facial recognition have dealt with methods which identify isolated characteristics of the face or with templates which encompass several regions of it. In this paper a new technique which approaches the problem holistically dispensing with the need to identify geometrical characteristics or regions of the face is introduced. The characterization of a face is achieved by randomly sampling selected attributes of the pixels of its image. From this information we construct a set of data, which correspond to the values of low frequencies, gradient, entropy and another several characteristics of pixel of the image. Generating a set of “p" variables. The multivariate data set with different polynomials minimizing the data fitness error in the minimax sense (L∞ - Norm) is approximated. With the use of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) it is able to circumvent the problem of dimensionality inherent to higher degree polynomial approximations. The GA yields the degree and values of a set of coefficients of the polynomials approximating of the image of a face. By finding a family of characteristic polynomials from several variables (pixel characteristics) for each face (say Fi ) in the data base through a resampling process the system in use, is trained. A face (say F ) is recognized by finding its characteristic polynomials and using an AdaBoost Classifier from F -s polynomials to each of the Fi -s polynomials. The winner is the polynomial family closer to F -s corresponding to target face in data base.
Abstract: The study of effect of laser scanning speed on
material efficiency in Ti6Al4V application is very important because unspent powder is not reusable because of high temperature oxygen
pick-up and contamination. This study carried out an extensive study
on the effect of scanning speed on material efficiency by varying the
speed between 0.01 to 0.1m/sec. The samples are wire brushed and
cleaned with acetone after each deposition to remove un-melted
particles from the surface of the deposit. The substrate is weighed before and after deposition. A formula was developed to calculate the
material efficiency and the scanning speed was compared with the
powder efficiency obtained. The results are presented and discussed.
The study revealed that the optimum scanning speed exists for this study at 0.01m/sec, above and below which the powder efficiency
will drop
Abstract: This study was carried out to determine the feedback from the primary school headmasters on in-service training activities. 384 primary school headmasters were asked to give feedback on the in-service training facilities organized by the Ministry of Education through an open –ended question. The study group was formed by 359 primary school headmasters who attended “Management Skills" seminars which were organized in March, April and May in the extent of 2006 In-service Training Facilities Plan by the Ministry of Education and were also volunteers to give feedback on the inservice training activities. The qualitative research method was used in the analysis of the data since the primary school headmasters gave written feedback on the in-service training activities. Having analyzed the feedback, certain categories were formed by coding it. Certain frequencies and percentages were determined according to the codes. It was made obvious that the primary school headmasters benefitted from those facilities by sharing their experiences, problems and their possible solutions mutually
Abstract: Our research aims at helping the tutor on line to
evaluate the student-s cognitive processes. The student is a learner in
French as a Second Language who studies an on-line socio-cognitive
scenario in written communication. In our method, these cognitive
processes are defined. For that, the language abilities and learning
tasks are associated to cognitive operation. Moreover, the found
cognitive processes are named with specific terms. The result was to
create an instrumental pattern to question the learner about the
cognitive processes used to build an item of written comprehension.
Our research follows the principles of the third historical generation
of studies on the cognitive activity of the text comprehension. The
strength of our instrumental pattern stands in the precision and the
logical articulation of the questions to the learner. However, the
learner-s answers can still be subjective but the precision of the
instrument restricts it.
Abstract: Application of projective geometry to the theory of two-ports and cascade circuits with a load change is considered. The equations linking the input and output of a two-port are interpreted as projective transformations which have the invariant as a cross-ratio of four points. This invariant has place for all regime parameters in all parts of a cascade circuit. This approach allows justifying the definition of a regime and its change, to calculate a circuit without explicitly finding the aparameters, to transmit accurately an analogue signal through the unstable two-port.
Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of product substitution in the single-period 'newsboy-type' problem in a fuzzy environment. It is supposed that the single-period problem operates under uncertainty in customer demand, which is described by imprecise terms and modelled by fuzzy sets. To perform this analysis, we consider the fuzzy model for two-item with upward substitution. This upward substitutability is reasonable when the products can be stored according to certain attribute levels such as quality, brand or package size. We show that the explicit consideration of this substitution opportunity increase the average expected profit. Computational study is performed to observe the benefits of product's substitution.
Abstract: This paper describes the two stage control using a disturbance observer and a Kalman filter. The system feedback uses the estimated state when it controls the speed. After the change-over point, its feedback uses the controlled plant output when it controls the position. To change the system continually, a change-over point has to be determined pertinently, and the controlled plant input has to be adjusted by the addition of the appropriate value. The proposed method has noise-reduction effect. It changes the system continually, even if the controlled plant identification has the error. Although the conventional method needs a speed sensor, the proposed method does not need it. The proposed method has a superior robustness compared with the conventional two stage control.
Abstract: Availability and mobilization of revenue is the main
essential with which an economy is managed and run. While
planning or while making the budgets nations set revenue targets to
be achieved. But later when the accounts are closed the actual
collections of revenue through taxes or even the non-tax revenue
collection would invariably be different as compared to the initial
estimates and targets set to be achieved. This revenue-gap distorts the
whole system and the economy disturbing all the major macroeconomic
indicators. This study is aimed to find out short and long
term impact of revenue gap on budget deficit, debt burden and
economic growth on the economy of Pakistan. For this purpose the
study uses autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration
and error correction mechanism on three different models for the
period 1980 to 2009. The empirical results show that revenue gap has
a short and long run relationship with economic growth and budget
deficit. However, revenue gap has no impact on debt burden.
Abstract: This is a survey research using quantitative and qualitative methodology. There were three objectives: 1) To study participatory level of community in water and waste environment management. 2) To study the affecting factors for community participation in water and waste environment management in Ampawa District, Samut Songkram Province. 3) To search for the participatory patterns in water and waste management. The population sample for the quantitative research was 1,364 people living in Ampawa District. The methodology was simple random sampling. Research instrument was a questionnaire and the qualitative research used purposive sampling in 6 Sub Districts which are Ta Ka, Suanluang, Bangkae, Muangmai, Kwae-om, and Bangnanglee Sub District Administration Organization. Total population is 63. For data analysis, the study used content analysis from quantitative research to synthesize and build question frame from the content for interview and conducting focus group interview. The study found that the community participatory in the issue of level in water and waste management are moderate of planning, operation, and evaluation. The issue of being beneficial is at low level. Therefore, the overall participatory level of community in water and waste environment management is at a medium level. The factors affecting the participatory of community in water and waste management are age, the period dwelling in the community and membership in which the mean difference is statistic significant at 0.05 in area of operation, being beneficial, and evaluation. For patterns of community participation, there is the correlation with water and waste management in 4 concerns which are 1) Participation in planning 2) Participation in operation 3) Participation in being beneficial both directly and indirectly benefited 4) Participation in evaluation and monitoring. The recommendation from this study is the need to create conscious awareness in order to increase participation level of people by organizing activities that promote participation with volunteer spirit. Government should open opportunities for people to participate in sharing ideas and create the culture of living together with equality which would build more concrete participation.
Abstract: This paper explains a project based learning method where autonomous mini-robots are developed for research, education and entertainment purposes. In case of remote systems wireless sensors are developed in critical areas, which would collect data at specific time intervals, send the data to the central wireless node based on certain preferred information would make decisions to turn on or off a switch or control unit. Such information transfers hardly sums up to a few bytes and hence low data rates would suffice for such implementations. As a robot is a multidisciplinary platform, the interfacing issues involved are discussed in this paper. The paper is mainly focused on power supply, grounding and decoupling issues.
Abstract: Perspective of food security in 21 century showed
shortage of food that production is faced to vital problem. Food
security strategy is applied longtime method to assess required food.
Meanwhile, nanotechnology revolution changes the world face.
Nanotechnology is adequate method utilize of its characteristics to
decrease environmental problems and possible further access to food
for small farmers. This article will show impact of production and
adoption of nanocrops on food security. Population is researchers of
agricultural research center of Esfahan province. The results of study
show that there was a relationship between uses, conversion,
distribution, and production of nanocrops, operative human
resources, operative circumstance, and constrains of usage of
nanocrops and food security. Multivariate regression analysis by
enter model shows that operative circumstance, use, production and
constrains of usage of nanocrops had positive impact on food security
and they determine in four steps 20 percent of it.
Abstract: A satured liquid is warmed until boiling in a parallelepipedic boiler. The heat is supplied in a liquid through the horizontal bottom of the boiler, the other walls being adiabatic. During the process of boiling, the liquid evaporates through its free surface by deforming it. This surface which subdivides the boiler into two regions occupied on both sides by the boiled liquid (broth) and its vapor which surmounts it. The broth occupying the region and its vapor the superior region. A two- fluids model is used to describe the dynamics of the broth, its vapor and their interface. In this model, the broth is treated as a monophasic fluid (homogeneous model) and form with its vapor adiphasic pseudo fluid (two-fluid model). Furthermore, the interface is treated as a zone of mixture characterized by superficial void fraction noted α* . The aim of this article is to describe the dynamics of the interface between the boiled fluid and its vapor within a boiler. The resolution of the problem allowed us to show the evolution of the broth and the level of the liquid.
Abstract: Temperature rise in a transformer depends on variety
of parameters such as ambient temperature, output current and type
of the core. Considering these parameters, temperature rise estimation
is still complicated procedure. In this paper, we present a new model
based on simple electrical equivalent circuit. This method avoids the
complication associated to accurate estimation and is in very good
agreement with practice.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose an algorithm to compute
initial cluster centers for K-means clustering. Data in a cell is
partitioned using a cutting plane that divides cell in two smaller cells.
The plane is perpendicular to the data axis with the highest variance
and is designed to reduce the sum squared errors of the two cells as
much as possible, while at the same time keep the two cells far apart
as possible. Cells are partitioned one at a time until the number of
cells equals to the predefined number of clusters, K. The centers of
the K cells become the initial cluster centers for K-means. The
experimental results suggest that the proposed algorithm is effective,
converge to better clustering results than those of the random
initialization method. The research also indicated the proposed
algorithm would greatly improve the likelihood of every cluster
containing some data in it.
Abstract: HSDPA is a new feature which is introduced in
Release-5 specifications of the 3GPP WCDMA/UTRA standard to
realize higher speed data rate together with lower round-trip times.
Moreover, the HSDPA concept offers outstanding improvement of
packet throughput and also significantly reduces the packet call
transfer delay as compared to Release -99 DSCH. Till now the
HSDPA system uses turbo coding which is the best coding technique
to achieve the Shannon limit. However, the main drawbacks of turbo
coding are high decoding complexity and high latency which makes
it unsuitable for some applications like satellite communications,
since the transmission distance itself introduces latency due to
limited speed of light. Hence in this paper it is proposed to use LDPC
coding in place of Turbo coding for HSDPA system which decreases
the latency and decoding complexity. But LDPC coding increases the
Encoding complexity. Though the complexity of transmitter
increases at NodeB, the End user is at an advantage in terms of
receiver complexity and Bit- error rate. In this paper LDPC Encoder
is implemented using “sparse parity check matrix" H to generate a
codeword at Encoder and “Belief Propagation algorithm "for LDPC
decoding .Simulation results shows that in LDPC coding the BER
suddenly drops as the number of iterations increase with a small
increase in Eb/No. Which is not possible in Turbo coding. Also same
BER was achieved using less number of iterations and hence the
latency and receiver complexity has decreased for LDPC coding.
HSDPA increases the downlink data rate within a cell to a theoretical
maximum of 14Mbps, with 2Mbps on the uplink. The changes that
HSDPA enables includes better quality, more reliable and more
robust data services. In other words, while realistic data rates are
only a few Mbps, the actual quality and number of users achieved
will improve significantly.