Abstract: We discuss a theoretical conceptual framework to help
understand how the new business analytics technologies have
diffused in firms. We draw on three theoretical perspectives for this
purpose. They are innovation diffusion theory, IT Business Value
and the technology-organization-environment theory. We develop a
conceptual framework that helps understand the interlinkages among
factors affecting diffusion of business analytics and its impact on
performance.
Abstract: Recent progress in calculation of the one-loop selfenergy
of the electron bound in the Coulomb field is summarized.
The relativistic multipole expansion is introduced. This expansion
is based on a single assumption: except for the part of the time
component of the electron four-momentum corresponding to the
electron rest mass, the exchange of four-momentum between the
virtual electron and photon can be treated perturbatively. For non Sstates
and normalized difference n3En −E1 of the S-states this
itself yields very accurate results after taking the method to the third
order. For the ground state the perturbation treatment of the electron
virtual states with very high three-momentum is to be avoided. For
these states one can always rearrange the pertinent expression in such
a way that free-particle approximation is allowed. Combination of
the relativistic multipole expansion and free-particle approximation
yields very accurate result after taking the method to the ninth order.
These results are in very good agreement with the previous results
obtained by the partial wave expansion and definitely exclude the
possibility that the uncertainity in determination of the proton radius
comes from the uncertainity in the calculation of the one-loop selfenergy.
Abstract: School physical education, through its objectives and
contents, efficiently valorizes the pupils- abilities, developing them,
especially the coordinative skill component, which is the basis of
movement learning, of the development of the daily motility and also
of the special, refined motility required by the practice of certain
sports. Medium school age offers the nervous and motor substratum
needed for the acquisition of complex motor habits, a substratum that
is essential for the coordinative skill. Individuals differ as to the level
at which this function is performed, the extent to which this function
turns an individual into a person that is adapted and adaptable to
complex and various situations. Spatio-temporal orientation, together
with movement combination and coupling, and with kinesthetic,
balance, motor reaction, movement transformation and rhythm
differentiation form the coordinative skills. From our viewpoint,
these are characteristic features with high levels of manifestation in a
complex psychomotor act - valorizing the quality of one-s talent - as
well as indices pertaining to one-s psychomotor intelligence and
creativity.
Abstract: This paper discusses coordinated reactive power -
voltage (Q-V) control in a multi machine steam power plant. The
drawbacks of manual Q-V control are briefly listed, and the design
requirements for coordinated Q-V controller are specified.
Theoretical background and mathematical model of the new
controller are presented next followed by validation of developed
Matlab/Simulink model through comparison with recorded
responses in real steam power plant and description of practical
realisation of the controller. Finally, the performance of
commissioned controller is illustrated on several examples of
coordinated Q-V control in real steam power plant and compared
with manual control.
Abstract: This paper presents the determination of the proper
quality costs parameters which provide the optimum return. The
system dynamics simulation was applied. The simulation model was
constructed by the real data from a case of the electronic devices
manufacturer in Thailand. The Steepest Descent algorithm was
employed to optimise. The experimental results show that the
company should spend on prevention and appraisal activities for 850
and 10 Baht/day respectively. It provides minimum cumulative total
quality cost, which is 258,000 Baht in twelve months. The effect of
the step size in the stage of improving the variables to the optimum
was also investigated. It can be stated that the smaller step size
provided a better result with more experimental runs. However, the
different yield in this case is not significant in practice. Therefore, the
greater step size is recommended because the region of optima could
be reached more easily and rapidly.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of
setting up a learning community within an elementary school in
Ontario, Canada. The description is provided through reflection and
examination of field notes taken during the yearlong training and
implementation process. Specifically the impact of teachers- capacity
on the creation of a learning community was of interest. This paper is
intended to inform and add to the debate around the tensions that
exist in implementing a bottom-up professional development model
like the learning community in a top-down organizational structure.
My reflections of the process illustrate that implementation of the
learning community professional development model may be
difficult and yet transformative in the professional lives of the
teachers, students, and administration involved in the change process.
I conclude by suggesting the need for a new model of professional
development that requires a transformative shift in power dynamics
and a shift in the view of what constitutes effective professional
learning.
Abstract: In open settings, the participants in virtual
organization are autonomous and there is no central authority to
ensure the felicity of their interactions. When agents interact in such
settings, each relies upon being able to model the trustworthiness of
the agents with whom it interacts. Fundamentally, such models must
consider the past behavior of the other parties in order to predict their
future behavior. Further, it is sensible for the agents to share
information via referrals to trustworthy agents. In this article, trust is
a bet on the future contingent actions of others" and enumerates six
major factors supporting it: (1) reputation, (2) performance, (3)
appearance, (4) accountability, (5) precommitment, and (6)
contextual facilitation.
Abstract: During the past decade, pond aeration systems have
been developed which will sustain large quantities of fish and
invertebrate biomass. Dissolved Oxygen (DO) is considered to be
among the most important water quality parameters in fish culture.
Fishponds in aquaculture farms are usually located in remote areas
where grid lines are at far distance. Aeration of ponds is required to
prevent mortality and to intensify production, especially when
feeding is practical, and in warm regions. To increase pond
production it is necessary to control dissolved oxygen. Artificial
intelligence (AI) techniques are becoming useful as alternate
approaches to conventional techniques or as components of
integrated systems. They have been used to solve complicated
practical problems in various areas and are becoming more and more
popular nowadays. This paper presents a new design of diffused
aeration system using fuel cell as a power source. Also fuzzy logic
control Technique (FLC) is used for controlling the speed of air flow
rate from the blower to air piping connected to the pond by adjusting
blower speed. MATLAB SIMULINK results show high performance
of fuzzy logic control (FLC).
Abstract: A computationally simple approach of model order
reduction for single input single output (SISO) and linear timeinvariant
discrete systems modeled in frequency domain is proposed
in this paper. Denominator of the reduced order model is determined
using fuzzy C-means clustering while the numerator parameters are
found by matching time moments and Markov parameters of high
order system.
Abstract: The architecture of Safavid Dynasty can be considered the epitome of Iranian architectural beauty. Safavid dynasty (1501- 1722 AC) along with Ottoman in Turkey and Mughal Empire in India were the three great Islamic nations of their time (1500 AC) often known as the last Islamic countries with international authority up to the 20th Century. This era approximately coincide with Renaissance in Europe. In this era, large European countries begin amassing power thanks to significant scientific, cultural and religious revolutions of that time and colonizing nations such as England, Spain and Portugal began to influence international trends with in an increasing while other non-industrial nations diminished. The main objective of this paper is to give a typological overview of the development of decoration and ornament in the architecture of Safafid Dynasty in Iran. It is expected that it can start a wider discussion to enrich this nation-s heritage and contribute to the development of Islamic ornament in general.
Abstract: This study investigated the ecological effects of
particulate pollution from a cement factory on the vegetation in the
western Mediterranean coastal desert of Egypt. Variations in
vegetation, soil chemical characters, and some responses of Atriplex
halimus, as a dominant species in the study area, were investigated in
some sites located in different directions from the cement factory
between Burg El-Arab in the east and El-Hammam in the west. The
results showed an obvious decrease in vegetation diversity, in
response to cement-kiln dust pollution, that accompanied by a high
dominance attributed to the high contribution of Atriplex halimus.
Annual species were found to be more sensitive to cement dust
pollution as they all failed to persist in highly disturbed sites. It is
remarkable that cover and phytomass of Atriplex halimus were
increased greatly in response to cement dust pollution, and this was
accompanied by a reduction in the mature seeds and leaf-area of the
plant. The few seeds of the affected individuals seemed to be more
fertile and attained higher germination percentages and exhibited
hardening against drought stress.
Abstract: A new secure knapsack cryptosystem based on the
Merkle-Hellman public key cryptosystem will be proposed in this
paper. Although it is common sense that when the density is low, the
knapsack cryptosystem turns vulnerable to the low-density attack. The
density d of a secure knapsack cryptosystem must be larger than
0.9408 to avoid low-density attack. In this paper, we investigate a
new Permutation Combination Algorithm. By exploiting this
algorithm, we shall propose a novel knapsack public-key cryptosystem.
Our proposed scheme can enjoy a high density to avoid the
low-density attack. The density d can also exceed 0.9408 to avoid
the low-density attack.
Abstract: The risk of water erosion is one of the main
environmental concerns in the southern Mediterranean regions. Thus,
quantification of soil loss is an important issue for soil and water
conservation managers. The objective of this paper is to examine the
applicability of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model
in The Sarrath river catchment, North of Tunisia, and to identify the
most vulnerable areas in order to help manager implement an
effective management program. The spatial analysis of the results
shows that 7 % of the catchment experiences very high erosion risk,
in need for suitable conservation measures to be adopted on a priority
basis. The spatial distribution of erosion risk classes estimated 3%
high, 5,4% tolerable, and 84,6% low. Among the 27 delineated subcatchments
only 4 sub-catchments are found to be under high and
very high soil loss group, two sub-catchments fell under moderate
soil loss group, whereas other sub-catchments are under low soil loss
group.
Abstract: In this paper, we explore a new scheme for filtering spoofed packets (DDOS attack) which is a combination of path fingerprint and client puzzle concepts. In this each IP packet has a unique fingerprint is embedded that represents, the route a packet has traversed. The server maintains a mapping table which contains the client IP address and its corresponding fingerprint. In ingress router, client puzzle is placed. For each request, the puzzle issuer provides a puzzle which the source has to solve. Our design has the following advantages over prior approaches, 1) Reduce the network traffic, as we place a client puzzle at the ingress router. 2) Mapping table at the server is lightweight and moderate.
Abstract: We propose an all optical flip-flop circuit composedof two Silicon-on-insulator microring resonators coupled to straightwaveguides by exploiting the optical bistability behavior due to thenonlinear Kerr effect. We used the transfer matrix analysis toinvestigate continuous wave propagation through microrings, as wellwe considered the nonlinear switching characteristics of an opticaldevice using a double-coupler silicon ring resonator in presence ofthe Kerr nonlinearity, thus obtaining the bistability behavior of theoutput port, the drop port and also inside the silicon microringresonator. It is shown that the bistability behavior depends on thecontrol of the input wavelength.KeywordsAll optical flip-flops, Kerr effect, microringresonator, optical bistability.
Abstract: Bacillus subtilis strain LB5 produced lipopeptide
antibiotic iturin A-2 in liquid medium. Crude extract
from cell-free supernatant of B. subtilis cultivated broth extracted
with n-butanol showed antifungal activity to conidial germination of
Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. The germination of conidia was
completely inhibited by crude extract. The ultrastructure of conidia
after treated with crude extract was found an accumulation of vesiclelike
material between cell wall and plasma membrane while this
accumulation was not observed in untreated and germinated conidia.
Besides, the cell wall was not affected by crude extract.
Abstract: Hydrogen is regarded to play an important role in
future energy systems because it can be produced from abundant
resources and its combustion only generates water. The disposal of
waste tyres is a major problem in environmental management
throughout the world. The use of waste materials as a source of
hydrogen is particularly of interest in that it would also solve a waste
treatment problem. There is much interest in the use of alternative
feedstocks for the production of hydrogen since more than 95% of
current production is from fossil fuels. The pyrolysis of waste tyres
for the production of liquid fuels, activated carbons and gases has
been extensively researched. However, combining pyrolysis with
gasification is a novel process that can gasify the gaseous products
from pyrolysis. In this paper, an experimental investigation into the
production of hydrogen and other gases from the bench scale
pyrolysis-gasification of tyres has been investigated. Experiments
were carried using a two stage system consisting of pyrolysis of the
waste tyres followed by catalytic steam gasification of the evolved
gases and vapours in a second reactor. Experiments were conducted
at a pyrolysis temperature of 500 °C using Ni/Al2O3 as a catalyst. The
results showed that there was a dramatic increase in gas yield and the
potential H2 production when the gasification temperature was
increased from 600 to 900 oC. Overall, the process showed that high
yields of hydrogen can be produced from waste tyres.
Abstract: The present work deals with the calculation of
transport properties of Hg0.8Cd0.2Te (MCT) semiconductor in
degenerate case. Due to their energy-band structure, this material
becomes degenerate at moderate doping densities, which are around
1015 cm-3, so that the usual Maxwell-Boltzmann approximation is
inaccurate in the determination of transport parameters. This problem
is faced by using Fermi-Dirac (F-D) statistics, and the non-parabolic
behavior of the bands may be approximated by the Kane model. The
Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is used here to determinate transport
parameters: drift velocity, mean energy and drift mobility versus
electric field and the doped densities. The obtained results are in
good agreement with those extracted from literature.
Abstract: This paper presents a forgetting factor scheme for variable step-size affine projection algorithms (APA). The proposed scheme uses a forgetting processed input matrix as the projection matrix of pseudo-inverse to estimate system deviation. This method introduces temporal weights into the projection matrix, which is typically a better model of the real error's behavior than homogeneous temporal weights. The regularization overcomes the ill-conditioning introduced by both the forgetting process and the increasing size of the input matrix. This algorithm is tested by independent trials with coloured input signals and various parameter combinations. Results show that the proposed algorithm is superior in terms of convergence rate and misadjustment compared to existing algorithms. As a special case, a variable step size NLMS with forgetting factor is also presented in this paper.
Abstract: Many recent electrophysiological studies have
revealed the importance of investigating meditation state in order to
achieve an increased understanding of autonomous control of
cardiovascular functions. In this paper, we characterize heart rate
variability (HRV) time series acquired during meditation using
nonlinear dynamical parameters. We have computed minimum
embedding dimension (MED), correlation dimension (CD), largest
Lyapunov exponent (LLE), and nonlinearity scores (NLS) from HRV
time series of eight Chi and four Kundalini meditation practitioners.
The pre-meditation state has been used as a baseline (control) state to
compare the estimated parameters. The chaotic nature of HRV during
both pre-meditation and meditation is confirmed by MED. The
meditation state showed a significant decrease in the value of CD and
increase in the value of LLE of HRV, in comparison with premeditation
state, indicating a less complex and less predictable nature
of HRV. In addition, it was shown that the HRV of meditation state
is having highest NLS than pre-meditation state. The study indicated
highly nonlinear dynamic nature of cardiac states as revealed by
HRV during meditation state, rather considering it as a quiescent
state.