Abstract: The study explored the role of metacognition in foreign language anxiety on a sample of 411 Taiwanese students of English as a Foreign Language. The reading strategy inventory was employed to evaluate the tertiary learners’ level of metacognitive awareness and a semi-structured background questionnaire was also used to examine the learners’ perceptions of their English proficiency and satisfaction of their current English learning. In addition, gender and academic level differences in employment of reading strategies were investigated. The results showed the frequency of reading strategy use increase slightly along with academic years and males and females actually employ different reading strategies. The EFL tertiary learners in the present study utilized cognitive strategies more frequently than metacognitive strategies or support strategies. Male students use metacognitive strategy more often while female students use cognitive and support strategy more frequently.
Abstract: In this study, a liquid phase microextraction by hollow fiber (HF-LPME) combined with high performance liquid chromatography-UV detector was applied to preconcentrate and determine trace levels of Cyproheptadine in human urine and plasma samples. Cyproheptadine was extracted from 10 mL alkaline aqueous solution (pH: 9.81) into an organic solvent (n-octnol) which was immobilized in the wall pores of a hollow fiber. Then was back-extracted into an acidified aqueous solution (pH: 2.59) located inside the lumen of the hollow fiber. This method is simple, efficient and cost-effective. It is based on pH gradient and differences between two aqueous phases. In order to optimize the HF-LPME some affecting parameters including the pH of donor and acceptor phases, the type of organic solvent, ionic strength, stirring rate, extraction time and temperature were studied and optimized. Under optimal conditions enrichment factor, limit of detection (LOD) and relative standard deviation (RSD(%), n=3) were up to 112, 15 μg.L−1 and 2.7, respectively.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the antimicrobial effect of Helichrysum arenarium L. essential oil in "in-vitro" condition on the growth of seven microbial species including Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Saccharomyces cereviciae, Candida albicans, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus using micro-dilution method. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal or fungicidal concentration (MBC, MFC) were determined for the essential oil at ten concentrations. Finally, the sensitivity of tested microbes to essential oil of H. arenarium was investigated. Results showed that Bacillus subtilis (MIC=781.25 and MBC=6250 µg/ml) was more resistance than two other bacterial species. Among the tested yeasts, Saccharomyces cereviciae (MIC=97.65 and MFC=781.25 µg/ml) was more sensitive than Candida albicans while among the fungal species, growth of Aspergillus parasiticus inhibited at lower concentration of oil than the Aspergillus flavus. The extracted essential oil exhibited the same MIC value in the liquid medium against all fungal strains (48.82 µg/ml), while different activity against A. flavus and A. parasiticus was observed in this medium with MFC values of 6250 and 390.625µg/ml, respectively. The results of the present study indicated that Helichrysum arenarium L essential oil had significant (P
Abstract: This research aims to study the level of democratic political culture and the factors that affect the democratic political culture of 5th and 6th graders under the authority of Dusit District Office, Bangkok by using stratified sampling for probability sampling and using purposive sampling for non-probability sampling to collect data toward the distribution of questionnaires to 300 respondents. This covers all of the schools under the authority of Dusit District Office. The researcher analyzed the data by using descriptive statistics which include arithmetic mean, standard deviation, and inferential statistics which are Independent Samples T-test (T-test) and One-Way ANOVA (F-test). The researcher also collected data by interviewing the target groups, and then analyzed the data by the use of descriptive analysis. The result shows that 5th and 6th graders under the authority of Dusit District Office, Bangkok have exposed to democratic political culture at high level in overall. When considering each part, it found out that the part that has highest mean is “the constitutional democratic governmental system is suitable for Thailand” statement. The part with the lowest mean is “corruption (cheat and defraud) is normal in Thai society” statement. The factor that affects democratic political culture is grade levels, occupations of mothers, and attention in news and political movements.
Abstract: Each of the countries around the world has different
ways of management and many of them depend on people to
administrate their country. Thailand, for example, empowers the
sovereignty of Thai people under constitution; however, our Thai
voting system is not able to flow fast enough under the current
Political management system. The sovereignty of Thai people is
addressing this problem through representatives during current
elections, in order to set a new policy for the countries ideology to
change in the House and the Cabinet.
This is particularly important in a democracy to be developed
under our current political institution. The Organic Act on Political
Parties 2007 is the establishment we have today that is causing
confrontations within the establishment. There are many political
parties that will soon be abolished. Many political parties have
already been subsidized. This research study is to analyze the legal
problems with the political party establishment under the Organic Act
on Political Parties 2007.
This will focus on the freedom of each political establishment
compared to an effective political operation. Textbooks and academic
papers will be referenced from studies home and abroad.
The study revealed that Organic Act on Political Parties 2007 has
strict provisions on the political structure over the number of
members and the number of branches involved within political
parties system.
Such operations shall be completed within one year; but under the
existing laws the small parties are not able to participate with the
bigger parties. The cities are capable of fulfilling small political party
requirements but fail to become coalesced because the current laws
won't allow them to be united as one. It is important to allow all
independent political parties to join our current political structure.
Board members can’t help the smaller parties to become a large
organization under the existing Thai laws.
Creating a new establishment that functions efficiently throughout
all branches would be one solution to these legal problems between
all political parties. With this new operation, individual political
parties can participate with the bigger parties during elections. Until
current political institutions change their system to accommodate
public opinion, these current Thai laws will continue to be a problem
with all political parties in Thailand.
Abstract: The objectives were to study language learning strategies (LLSs) employed by Chinese students, and the frequency of LLSs they used, and examine the relationship between the use of LLSs and gender. The Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) by Oxford was administered to thirty-six Chinese students at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University in Thailand. The data obtained was analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square tests. Three useful findings were found on the use of LLSs reported by Chinese students. First, Chinese students used overall LLSs at a high level. Second, among the six strategy groups, Chinese students employed compensation strategy most frequently and memory strategy least frequently. Third, the research results also revealed that gender had significant effect on Chinese Student’s use of overall LLSs.
Abstract: Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is a non-invasive and
non-ionizing imaging modality that combines the absorption contrast
of light with ultrasound resolution. Laser is used to deposit optical
energy into a target (i.e., optical fluence). Consequently, the target
temperature rises, and then thermal expansion occurs that leads to
generating a PA signal. In general, most image reconstruction
algorithms for PAI assume uniform fluence within an imaging object.
However, it is known that optical fluence distribution within the
object is non-uniform. This could affect the reconstruction of PA
images. In this study, we have investigated the influence of optical
fluence distribution on PA back-propagation imaging using finite
element method. The uniform fluence was simulated as a triangular
waveform within the object of interest. The non-uniform fluence
distribution was estimated by solving light propagation within a
tissue model via Monte Carlo method. The results show that the PA
signal in the case of non-uniform fluence is wider than the uniform
case by 23%. The frequency spectrum of the PA signal due to the
non-uniform fluence has missed some high frequency components in
comparison to the uniform case. Consequently, the reconstructed
image with the non-uniform fluence exhibits a strong smoothing
effect.
Abstract: In this paper, a backward semi-Lagrangian scheme
combined with the second-order backward difference formula
is designed to calculate the numerical solutions of nonlinear
advection-diffusion equations. The primary aims of this paper are
to remove any iteration process and to get an efficient algorithm
with the convergence order of accuracy 2 in time. In order to achieve
these objects, we use the second-order central finite difference and the
B-spline approximations of degree 2 and 3 in order to approximate
the diffusion term and the spatial discretization, respectively. For the
temporal discretization, the second order backward difference formula
is applied. To calculate the numerical solution of the starting point
of the characteristic curves, we use the error correction methodology
developed by the authors recently. The proposed algorithm turns out
to be completely iteration free, which resolves the main weakness
of the conventional backward semi-Lagrangian method. Also, the
adaptability of the proposed method is indicated by numerical
simulations for Burgers’ equations. Throughout these numerical
simulations, it is shown that the numerical results is in good
agreement with the analytic solution and the present scheme offer
better accuracy in comparison with other existing numerical schemes.
Abstract: In this paper, we introduce a method for improving
the embedded Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg4(5) method. At each integration
step, the proposed method is comprised of two equations for the
solution and the error, respectively. These solution and error are
obtained by solving an initial value problem whose solution has the
information of the error at each integration step. The constructed algorithm
controls both the error and the time step size simultaneously and
possesses a good performance in the computational cost compared to
the original method. For the assessment of the effectiveness, EULR
problem is numerically solved.
Abstract: Data Grid is a geographically distributed environment that deals with data intensive application in scientific and enterprise computing. Data replication is a common method used to achieve efficient and fault-tolerant data access in Grids. In this paper, a dynamic data replication strategy, called Enhanced Latest Access Largest Weight (ELALW) is proposed. This strategy is an enhanced version of Latest Access Largest Weight strategy. However, replication should be used wisely because the storage capacity of each Grid site is limited. Thus, it is important to design an effective strategy for the replication replacement task. ELALW replaces replicas based on the number of requests in future, the size of the replica, and the number of copies of the file. It also improves access latency by selecting the best replica when various sites hold replicas. The proposed replica selection selects the best replica location from among the many replicas based on response time that can be determined by considering the data transfer time, the storage access latency, the replica requests that waiting in the storage queue and the distance between nodes. Simulation results utilizing the OptorSim show our replication strategy achieve better performance overall than other strategies in terms of job execution time, effective network usage and storage resource usage.
Abstract: Children today use computer based application in
various activities especially for learning and education. Many of
these tools and application such as the Computer Aided
Pronunciation Training (CAPT) systems enable children to explore
and experience them with little supervision from the adults. In order
for these tools and application to have maximum effect on the
children’s learning and education, it must be attractive to the children
to use them. This could be achieved with the proper user interface
(UI) design. As children grow, so do their ability, taste and
preferences. They interact differently with these applications as they
grow older. This study reviews several articles on how age factors
influence the UI design. The review focuses on age related abilities
such as cognitive, literacy, concentration and feedback requirement.
We have also evaluated few of existing CAPT systems and determine
the influence of age-based factors on the interface design.
Abstract: Microwave dielectric ceramic materials of
(Mg1-xNix)2(Ti0.95Sn0.05)O4 for x = 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07 and 0.09 were
prepared and sintered at 1250–1400 ºC. The microstructure and
microwave dielectric properties of the ceramic materials were
examined and measured. The observations shows that the content of
Ni2+ ions has little effect on the crystal structure, dielectric constant,
temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τf) and sintering
temperatures of the ceramics. However, the quality values (Q×f) are
greatly improved due to the addition of Ni2+ ions. The present study
showed that the ceramic material prepared for x = 0.05 and sintered at
1325ºC had the best Q×f value of 392,000 GHz, about 23%
improvement compared with that of Mg2(Ti0.95Sn0.05)O4.
Abstract: This paper presents a neural network based model predictive control (MPC) strategy to control a strongly exothermic reaction with complicated nonlinear kinetics given by Chylla-Haase polymerization reactor that requires a very precise temperature control to maintain product uniformity. In the benchmark scenario, the operation of the reactor must be guaranteed under various disturbing influences, e.g., changing ambient temperatures or impurity of the monomer. Such a process usually controlled by conventional cascade control, it provides a robust operation, but often lacks accuracy concerning the required strict temperature tolerances. The predictive control strategy based on the RBF neural model is applied to solve this problem to achieve set-point tracking of the reactor temperature against disturbances. The result shows that the RBF based model predictive control gives reliable result in the presence of some disturbances and keeps the reactor temperature within a tight tolerance range around the desired reaction temperature.
Abstract: This paper proposes a linear mixed model (LMM) with spatial effects to forecast rice and cassava yields in Thailand at the same time. A multivariate conditional autoregressive (MCAR) model is assumed to present the spatial effects. A Bayesian method is used for parameter estimation via Gibbs sampling Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). The model is applied to the rice and cassava yields monthly data which have been extracted from the Office of Agricultural Economics, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand. The results show that the proposed model has better performance in most provinces in both fitting part and validation part compared to the simple exponential smoothing and conditional auto regressive models (CAR) from our previous study.
Abstract: This research aimed to study on the efficiency of wastewater treatment by comparing the different aeration times of surface aerators in Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. In doing so, the operation of surface aerators was divided into 2 groups which included the groups of 8 hours (8-0/opened-closed) and 4 hours (2-2/opened-closed) of aeration time per day. As a result of the study, it was found that the efficiency of wastewater treatment in the forms of DO, BOD, turbidity and NO2- by 8 hours (8-0/opened-closed) and 4 hours (2-2/opened-closed) of aeration time per day of surface aerators was not statistically different [Sig. = .644, .488, .716 and .054 > α (.05)] while the efficiency in the forms of NO3- and P was significantly different at the statistical level of .01 [Sig. = .001 and .000 < α (.01)].
Abstract: High resolution seismic reflection has recently been carried out on Zaria batholith, with the aim of characterizing the granitic Zaria batholiths in terms of its lithology. The geology of the area has revealed that the older granite outcrops in the vicinity of Zaria are exposures of a syntectonics to late-tectonic granite batholiths which intruded a crystalline gneissic basement during the Pan-African Orogeny. During the data acquisition the geophone were placed at interval of 1 m, variable offset of 1 and 10 m was used. The common midpoint (CMP) method with 12 fold coverage was employed for the survey. Analysis of the generated 3D surface of the p wave velocities from different profiles for densities and bulk modulus revealed that the rock material is more consolidated in South East part of the batholith and less consolidated in the North Western part. This was in conformity with earlier identified geology of the area, with the South Eastern part majorly of granitic outcrop, while the North Western part is characterized with the exposure of gneisses and thick overburden cover. The difference in lithology was also confirmed by the difference in seismic sections and Arial satellite photograph. Hence two major lithologies were identified, the granitic and gneisses complex which are characterized by gradational boundaries.
Abstract: The effects of varying air temperature (full, ¾ full, ½ full aircon adjustment, no aircon) in polishing component of Single-Pass Mill on the quality of Philippine inbred rice variety, was investigated. Parameters measured were milling recovery (MR), headrice recovery (HR), and percentage with bran streaks. Cooling method (with aircon) increased MR, HR, and percentage with bran streaks of milled rice. Highest MR and HR (67.62%; 47.33%) were obtained from ¾ full adjustment whereas no aircon were lowest (66.27%; 39.76%). Temperature in polishing component at ¾ full adjustment was 33oC whereas no aircon was 45oC. There was increase of 1.35% in MR and 7.57% in HR. Additional cost of milling per kg due to aircon cooling was P0.04 at 300 tons/yr volume, with 0.15 yr payback period. Net income was estimated at ₱98,100.00. Percentage of kernels with bran streaks increased from 5%–14%, indicating more nutrients of milled rice.
Abstract: This study investigates the role and impact of English loan words on Japanese language in travel brochures. The issues arising from a potential switch to English as a tool to absorb the West’s advanced knowledge and technology in the modernization of Japan to a means of linking Japan with the rest of the world and enhancing the country’s international presence. Sociolinguistic contexts was used to analyze data collected from the Nippon Travel agency "HIS"’s brochures in Thailand, revealing that English plays the most important role as lexical gap fillers and special effect givers. An increasing mixer of English to Japanese affects how English is misused, the way the Japanese see the world and the present generation’s communication gap.
Abstract: Tsunami early detection and warning systems have proved to be of ultimate importance, especially after the destructive tsunami that hit Japan in March 2012. Such systems are crucial to inform the authorities of any risk of a tsunami and of the degree of its danger in order to make the right decision and notify the public of the actions they need to take to save their lives. The purpose of this research is to enhance existing tsunami detection and warning systems. We first propose an automated and miniaturized model of an early tsunami detection and warning system. The model for the operation of a tsunami warning system is simulated using the data acquisition toolbox of Matlab and measurements acquired from specified internet pages due to the lack of the required real-life sensors, both seismic and hydrologic, and building a graphical user interface for the system. In the second phase of this work, we implement various satellite image filtering schemes to enhance the acquired synthetic aperture radar images of the tsunami affected region that are masked by speckle noise. This enables us to conduct a post-tsunami damage extent study and calculate the percentage damage. We conclude by proposing improvements to the existing telecommunication infrastructure of existing warning tsunami systems using a migration to IP-based networks and fiber optics links.
Abstract: The process of thermoforming a carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP) has increased its presence in the automotive industry for its wide applicability to the mass production car. A non-isothermal forming for CFRTP can shorten its cycle time to less than 1 minute. In this paper, the textile reinforcement FE model which the authors proposed in a previous work is extended to the CFRTP model for non-isothermal forming simulation. The effect of thermoplastic is given by adding shell elements which consider thermal effect to the textile reinforcement model. By applying Reuss model to the stress calculation of thermoplastic, the proposed model can accurately predict in-plane shear behavior, which is the key deformation mode during forming, in the range of the process temperature. Using the proposed model, thermoforming simulation was conducted and the results are in good agreement with the experimental results.