Abstract: The productivity of software development is one of the major concerns for project managers. Given the increasing complexity of the software being developed and the concomitant rise in the typical project size, the productivity has not consistently improved. By analyzing the latest release of ISBSG data repository with 4106 projects ever developed, we report on the factors found to significantly influence productivity, and present an original model for the estimation of productivity during project design. We further illustrate that software development productivity has experienced irregular variations between the years 1995 and 2005. Considering the factors significant to productivity, we found its variations are primarily caused by the variations of average team size for the development and the unbalanced use of the less productive development language 3GL.
Abstract: As a by-product of its "cyberspace" status, electronic
commerce is global, encompassing a whole range of B2C
relationships which need to be approached with solutions provided at
a local level while remaining viable when applied to global issues.
Today, the European Union seems to be endowed with a reliable
legal framework for consumer protection. A question which remains,
however, is enforcement of this protection. This is probably a matter
of time and awareness from both parties in the B2C relationship.
Business should realize that enhancing trust in the minds of
consumers is more than a question of technology; it is a question of
best practice. Best practice starts with the online service of high
street banks as well as with the existence of a secure, user-friendly
and cost-effective payment system. It also includes the respect of
privacy and the use of smart cards as well as enhancing privacy
technologies and fair information practice. In sum, only by offering
this guarantee of privacy and security will the consumer be assured
that, in cyberspace, his/her interests will be protected in the same
manner as in a traditional commercial environment.
Abstract: This text studies glass bottle intelligent inspector
based machine vision instead of manual inspection. The system
structure is illustrated in detail in this paper. The text presents the
method based on watershed transform methods to segment the
possible defective regions and extract features of bottle wall by rules.
Then wavelet transform are used to exact features of bottle finish
from images. After extracting features, the fuzzy support vector
machine ensemble is putted forward as classifier. For ensuring that
the fuzzy support vector machines have good classification ability,
the GA based ensemble method is used to combining the several
fuzzy support vector machines. The experiments demonstrate that
using this inspector to inspect glass bottles, the accuracy rate may
reach above 97.5%.
Abstract: Al-Murabahah is an Islamic financing facility used in
asset financing, the profit rate of the contract is determined by
components which are also being used in the conventional banking.
Such are cost of fund, overhead cost, risk premium cost and bank-s
profit margin. At the same time, the profit rate determined by Islamic
banking system also refers to Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) in
London as a benchmark. This practice has risen arguments among
Muslim scholars in term of its validity of the contract; whether the
contract maintains the Shariah compliance or not. This paper aims to
explore the view of Shariah towards the above components practiced
by Islamic Banking in determining the profit rate of al-murabahah
asset financing in Malaysia. This is a comparative research which
applied the views of Muslim scholars from all major mazahibs in
Islamic jurisprudence and examined the practices by Islamic banks in
Malaysia for the above components. The study found that the shariah
accepts all the components with conditions. The cost of fund is
accepted as a portion of al-mudarabah-s profit, the overhead cost is
accepted as a cost of product, risk premium cost consist of business
risk and mitigation risk are accepted through the concept of alta-awun
and bank-s profit margin is accepted as a right of bank after
venturing in risky investment.
Abstract: Chemical vapor deposition method was used to
produce carbon nanotubes on an iron based catalyst from acetylene.
Gas-phase samples collected from the different positions of the tubular reactor were analyzed by GC/MS. A variety of species ranging from hydrogen to naphthalene were observed and changes in their concentrations were plotted against the reactor position. Briefly benzene, toluene, styrene, indene and naphthalene were the main
higher molecular weight species and vinylacetylene and diacetylene were the important intermediates. Nanotube characterization was performed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.
Abstract: In this work, we treat the problems related to chemical and petrochemical plants of a certain complex process taking the centrifugal compressor as an example, a system being very complex by its physical structure as well as its behaviour (surge phenomenon). We propose to study the application possibilities of the recent control approaches to the compressor behaviour, and consequently evaluate their contribution in the practical and theoretical fields. Facing the studied industrial process complexity, we choose to make recourse to fuzzy logic for analysis and treatment of its control problem owing to the fact that these techniques constitute the only framework in which the types of imperfect knowledge can jointly be treated (uncertainties, inaccuracies, etc..) offering suitable tools to characterise them. In the particular case of the centrifugal compressor, these imperfections are interpreted by modelling errors, the neglected dynamics, no modelisable dynamics and the parametric variations. The purpose of this paper is to produce a total robust nonlinear controller design method to stabilize the compression process at its optimum steady state by manipulating the gas rate flow. In order to cope with both the parameter uncertainty and the structured non linearity of the plant, the proposed method consists of a linear steady state regulation that ensures robust optimal control and of a nonlinear compensation that achieves the exact input/output linearization.
Abstract: This study experimentally investigates the heat transfer effects of forced convection and natural convection under different substrate openings design. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was established and implemented to verify and explain the experimental results and heat transfer behavior. It is found that different opening position will destroy the growth of the boundary layer on substrates to alter the cooling ability for both forced under low Reynolds number and natural convection. Nevertheless, having too many opening may reduce heat conduction and affect the overall heat transfer performance. This study provides future researchers with a guideline on designing and electronic package manufacturing.
Abstract: Innovational development of regions in Russia is generally faced with the essential influence from federal and local authorities. The organization of effective mechanism of innovation development (and self-development) is impossible without establishment of defined institutional conditions in the analyzed field. Creative utilization of scientific concepts and information should merge, giving rise to continuing innovation and advanced production. The paper presents an analysis of institutional conditions in the field of creation and development of innovation activity infrastructure and transferring of knowledge and skills between different economic agents in Russia. Knowledge is mainly privately owned, developed through R&D investments and incorporated into technology or a product. Innovation infrastructure is a strong concentration mechanism of advanced facilities, which are mainly located inside large agglomerations or city-regions in order to benefit from scale effects in both input markets (human capital, private financial capital) and output markets (higher education services, research services). The empirical results of the paper show that in the presence of more efficient innovation and knowledge transfer and transcoding system and of a more open attitude of economic agents towards innovation, the innovation and knowledge capacity of regional economy is much higher.
Abstract: Regarding the multi-media property of internet and the facilities that can be provided for the users, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the users- behavioral patterns and the impact of internet on taboos of marriage. For this purpose a survey technique on the sample size amounted 403 students of governmental guidance schools of city of Mashhad in country of Iran were considered. The results showed, the process of using various internet environments depends on the degree of the users- familiarity with these sites. In order to clarify the effects of the Internet on the taboos of marriage, the non – internet parameters also considered to be controlled. The ttest held among the internet users and non-users, indicated that internet users possess lower taboos of marriage. Extraction of the effects of internet via considering the effects of non-internet parameters, indicate that addiction to the internet, creating a cordial atmosphere, emotional communication, and message attractive factors have significant effects on the family's traditional values.
Abstract: Worldwide conventional resources of fossil fuel are depleting very fast due to large scale increase in use of transport vehicles every year, therefore consumption rate of oil in transport sector alone has gone very high. In view of this, the major thrust has now been laid upon the search of alternative energy source and also for cost effective energy conversion system. The air converted into compressed form by non conventional or conventional methods can be utilized as potential working fluid for producing shaft work in the air turbine and thus offering the capability of being a zero pollution energy source. This paper deals with the mathematical modeling and performance evaluation of a small capacity compressed air driven vaned type novel air turbine. Effect of expansion action and steady flow work in the air turbine at high admission air pressure of 6 bar, for varying injection to vane angles ratios 0.2-1.6, at the interval of 0.2 and at different vane angles such as 30o, 45o, 51.4o, 60o, 72o, 90o, and 120o for 12, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3 vanes respectively at speed of rotation 2500 rpm, has been quantified and analyzed here. Study shows that the expansion power has major contribution to total power, whereas the contribution of flow work output has been found varying only up to 19.4%. It is also concluded that for variation of injection to vane angle ratios from 0.2 to 1.2, the optimal power output is seen at vane angle 90o (4 vanes) and for 1.4 to 1.6 ratios, the optimal total power is observed at vane angle 72o (5 vanes). Thus in the vaned type novel air turbine the optimum shaft power output is developed when rotor contains 4-5 vanes for almost all situations of injection to vane angle ratios from 0.2 to 1.6.
Abstract: Source code retrieval is of immense importance in the software engineering field. The complex tasks of retrieving and extracting information from source code documents is vital in the development cycle of the large software systems. The two main subtasks which result from these activities are code duplication prevention and plagiarism detection. In this paper, we propose a Mohamed Amine Ouddan, and Hassane Essafi source code retrieval system based on two-level fingerprint representation, respectively the structural and the semantic information within a source code. A sequence alignment technique is applied on these fingerprints in order to quantify the similarity between source code portions. The specific purpose of the system is to detect plagiarism and duplicated code between programs written in different programming languages belonging to the same class, such as C, Cµ, Java and CSharp. These four languages are supported by the actual version of the system which is designed such that it may be easily adapted for any programming language.
Abstract: The static stability analysis of stiffened functionally
graded cylindrical shells by isotropic rings and stringers subjected to
axial compression is presented in this paper. The Young's modulus of
the shell is taken to be function of the thickness coordinate. The
fundamental relations, the equilibrium and stability equations are
derived using the Sander's assumption. Resulting equations are
employed to obtain the closed-form solution for the critical axial
loads. The effects of material properties, geometric size and different
material coefficient on the critical axial loads are examined. The
analytical results are compared and validated using the finite element
model.
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: Researchers have long had trouble in measurement of
Exchangeable Sodium Ratio (ESR) at salt-affected soils. this
parameter are often determined using laborious and time consuming
laboratory tests, but it may be more appropriate and economical to
develop a method which uses a more simple soil salinity index. The
aim of this study was to determine the relationship between
exchangeable sodium ratio (ESR) and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR)
in some salt-affected soils of Khuzestan plain. To this purpose, two
experimental areas (S1, S2) of Khuzestan province-IRAN were
selected and four treatments with three replications by series of
double rings were applied. The treatments were included 25cm,
50cm, 75cm and 100cm water application. The statistical results of
the study indicated that in order to predict soil ESR based on soil
SAR the linear regression model ESR=0.2048+0.0066 SAR
(R2=0.53) & ESR=0.0564+0.0171 SAR (R2=0.76) can be
recommended in Pilot S1 and S2 respectively.
Abstract: In this paper, a strategy for long-span bridge disaster response was developed, divided into risk analysis, business impact analysis, and emergency response plan. At the risk analysis stage, the critical risk was estimated. The critical risk was “car accident."The critical process by critical-risk classification was assessed at the business impact analysis stage. The critical process was the task related to the road conditions and traffic safety. Based on the results of the precedent analysis, an emergency response plan was established. By making the order of the standard operating procedures clear, an effective plan for dealing with disaster was formulated. Finally, a prototype software was developed based on the research findings. This study laid the foundation of an information-technology-based disaster response guideline and is significant in that it computerized the disaster response plan to improve the plan-s accessibility.
Abstract: The present report describes the characteristics of
damages and behavior of reinforced concrete buildings during the
tsunami action. The discussion is based on the field damage survey in
selected cities located on the coast of the zone affected by the Great
East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. This earthquake is the most
powerful know earthquake that has hit Japan with a magnitude 9.0 and
with epicenter located at 129 km of Sendai city (off the coast). The
earthquake triggered a destructive tsunami with run up height of up to
40 meters that mainly affect cities located on the Pacific Ocean coast of
the Tohoku region (north-east region of Japan). Reinforced concrete
buildings in general resist the tsunami without collapse however the
non-structural elements like panels and ceilings were severely
damaged. The analysis of damages has permitted to understand the
behavior of RC buildings under tsunami attack, and has also permitted
to establish recommendations for their use to take refuge from tsunami
in places where natural topography makes impossible to reach hilltops
or other safer places.
Abstract: The increasing divorce and fertility rates outside of marriage, the changing values in the last decades have led to a high prevalence of single parent families. Currently, worldwide, singleparent families represent about a quarter of all families. Recent changes occurring in the structure of single-parent families and also the multitude of factors that influence the quality of life of these families require the development of new research tools in order to provide foundations for social policies addressed to this type of family. The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis concerning the quality of life for single parent families in Romania, based on data collected through a research methodology developed by the authors within a scientific research project funded by a national grant called Partnerships in priority areas.
Abstract: This paper presents the experimental results on
ageing deterioration of silicone rubber outdoor polymer insulator
under salt water dip wheel test based on IEC 62217. In order to comparison effect of chemical contents, silicone rubber outdoor
polymer insulators having same configuration and leakage distant
from two manufactures were tested together continuously 30,000 test cycles. Many discharge activities were observed in during the test.
After 30,000 test cycles, in spite of same configuration, differences in
degree of surface aging were observed. Physical analysis such as
decreasing in hydrophobicity and increasing in hardness
measurement were measured on two-type tested specimen surface in order to confirm degree of surface ageing. Furthermore, chemical
analysis by ATR-FTIR to diagnose the chemical change of tested
specimen surface was conducted to confirm the physical analysis results.
Abstract: Recently many research has been conducted to
retrieve pertinent parameters and adequate models for automatic
music genre classification. In this paper, two measures based upon
information theory concepts are investigated for mapping the features
space to decision space. A Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) is used
as a baseline and reference system. Various strategies are proposed
for training and testing sessions with matched or mismatched
conditions, long training and long testing, long training and short
testing. For all experiments, the file sections used for testing are
never been used during training. With matched conditions all
examined measures yield the best and similar scores (almost 100%).
With mismatched conditions, the proposed measures yield better
scores than the GMM baseline system, especially for the short testing
case. It is also observed that the average discrimination information
measure is most appropriate for music category classifications and on
the other hand the divergence measure is more suitable for music
subcategory classifications.
Abstract: Tritium activity concentration in Danube river water
in Serbia has been determinate using a liquid scintillation counter
Quantulus 1220. During December 2010, water samples were taken
along the entire course of Danube through Serbia, from Hungarian-
Serbian to Romanian-Serbian border. This investigation is very
important because of the nearness of nuclear reactor Paks in
Hungary. Sample preparation was performed by standard test method
using Optiphase HiSafe 3 scintillation cocktail. We used a rapid
method for the preparation of environmental samples, without
electrolytic enrichment.