Abstract: The present research was focused to investigate the
role of investment in the course of economic growth with reference to
Pakistan. The study analyzed the role of the public and private
investment and impact of the political and macroeconomic
uncertainty on economic growth of Pakistan by using the vector
autoregressive approach (VAR). In long-run both public and private
investment showed a positive impact on economic growth but the
growth was largely driven by private investment as compared to
public investment. Government consumption expenditure, economic
uncertainty and political instability hampered the economic growth of
Pakistan. In short-run the private investment positively influences the
growth but there was negative and insignificant effect of the public
investment and government consumption expenditure on the growth.
There was a positive relationship found between economic
uncertainty (proxy for inflation) and GDP in short run.
Abstract: A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect
of periodically use of garlic on performance and carcass
characteristics in broiler chickens. 240 1-day-old Ross broiler chicks
randomly allocated into the 10 dietary treatments (A, B, C, D, E, F,
G, H, I and J) for 6 wk. Treatment A or control group, received basal
diet (based on standards of Ross management guidelines) without
supplementation of garlic powder while B, C and D dietary
treatments were basal diet supplemented with 0.5, 1 and 3% garlic
powder, respectively for the whole time of experiment (6 weeks).
Birds in group E, F and G were fed control diet supplemented with
0.5, 1 and 3% garlic powder, respectively just in their starter diet (0-
21d). Birds in three other treatments (H, I and J) received control diet
for the first 21 days and 0.5, 1 and 3% of garlic powder was added to
their finisher diets, respectively. 1 and 3% supplemented groups in
finisher period had better performance as compared with other
groups. Since present study conducted in optimum and antiseptic
conditions, it seems that better or more responses could be expected
in performance if the raising conditions would not be healthy.
Abstract: Geographic Profiling has successfully assisted investigations for serial crimes. Considering the multi-cluster feature of serial criminal spots, we propose a Multi-point Centrography model as a natural extension of Single-point Centrography for geographic profiling. K-means clustering is first performed on the data samples and then Single-point Centrography is adopted to derive a probability distribution on each cluster. Finally, a weighted combinations of each distribution is formed to make next-crime spot prediction. Experimental study on real cases demonstrates the effectiveness of our proposed model.
Abstract: Real options theory suggests that managerial flexibility embedded within irreversible investments can account for a significant value in project valuation. Although the argument has become the dominant focus of capital investment theory over decades, yet recent survey literature in capital budgeting indicates that corporate practitioners still do not explicitly apply real options in investment decisions. In this paper, we explore how real options decision criteria can be transformed into equivalent capital budgeting criteria under the consideration of uncertainty, assuming that underlying stochastic process follows a geometric Brownian motion (GBM), a mixed diffusion-jump (MX), or a mean-reverting process (MR). These equivalent valuation techniques can be readily decomposed into conventional investment rules and “option impacts", the latter of which describe the impacts on optimal investment rules with the option value considered. Based on numerical analysis and Monte Carlo simulation, three major findings are derived. First, it is shown that real options could be successfully integrated into the mindset of conventional capital budgeting. Second, the inclusion of option impacts tends to delay investment. It is indicated that the delay effect is the most significant under a GBM process and the least significant under a MR process. Third, it is optimal to adopt the new capital budgeting criteria in investment decision-making and adopting a suboptimal investment rule without considering real options could lead to a substantial loss in value.
Abstract: Radio frequency identification (RFID) applications have grown rapidly in many industries, especially in indoor location identification. The advantage of using received signal strength indicator (RSSI) values as an indoor location measurement method is a cost-effective approach without installing extra hardware. Because the accuracy of many positioning schemes using RSSI values is limited by interference factors and the environment, thus it is challenging to use RFID location techniques based on integrating positioning algorithm design. This study proposes the location estimation approach and analyzes a scheme relying on RSSI values to minimize location errors. In addition, this paper examines different factors that affect location accuracy by integrating the backpropagation neural network (BPN) with the LANDMARC algorithm in a training phase and an online phase. First, the training phase computes coordinates obtained from the LANDMARC algorithm, which uses RSSI values and the real coordinates of reference tags as training data for constructing an appropriate BPN architecture and training length. Second, in the online phase, the LANDMARC algorithm calculates the coordinates of tracking tags, which are then used as BPN inputs to obtain location estimates. The results show that the proposed scheme can estimate locations more accurately compared to LANDMARC without extra devices.
Abstract: The project was undertaken to determine the effects of modified tissue culture protocols e.g. age of culture and hormone levels (2,4-D) in generating somaclonal variation. Moreover, the utility of molecular markers (SSR and MSAP) in sorting off types/somaclones were investigated.
Results show that somaclonal variation is in effect due to prolonged subculture and high 2,4-D concentration. The resultant variation was observed to be due to high level of methylation events specifically cytosine methylation either at the internal or external cytosine and was identified by methylation sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP).Simple sequence repeats (SSR) on the other hand, was able to associate a marker to a trait of interest.
These therefore, show that molecular markers can be an important tool in sorting out variation/mutants at an early stage.
Abstract: Attempts to add fibre and polyphenols (PPs) into
popular beverages present challenges related to the properties of
finished products such as smoothies. Consumer acceptability,
viscosity and phenolic composition of smoothies containing high
levels of fruit fibre (2.5-7.5 g per 300 mL serve) and PPs (250-750
mg per 300 mL serve) were examined. The changes in total
extractable PP, vitamin C content, and colour of selected smoothies
over a storage stability trial (4°C, 14 days) were compared. A set of
acidic aqueous model beverages were prepared to further examine
the effect of two different heat treatments on the stability and
extractability of PPs. Results show that overall consumer
acceptability of high fibre and PP smoothies was low, with average
hedonic scores ranging from 3.9 to 6.4 (on a 1-9 scale). Flavour,
texture and overall acceptability decreased as fibre and polyphenol
contents increased, with fibre content exerting a stronger effect.
Higher fibre content resulted in greater viscosity, with an elevated PP
content increasing viscosity only slightly. The presence of fibre also
aided the stability and extractability of PPs after heating. A reduction
of extractable PPs, vitamin C content and colour intensity of
smoothies was observed after a 14-day storage period at 4°C. Two
heat treatments (75°C for 45 min or 85°C for 1 min) that are
normally used for beverage production, did not cause significant
reduction of total extracted PPs. It is clear that high levels of added
fibre and PPs greatly influence the consumer appeal of smoothies,
suggesting the need to develop novel formulation and processing
methods if a satisfactory functional beverage is to be developed
incorporating these ingredients.
Abstract: World population growth drives food demand, promotes intensification of agriculture, development of new production technologies and varieties more suitable for regional nature conditions. Climate change can affect the length of growing period, biomass and carbon accumulation in winter wheat. The increasing mean air temperature resulting from climate change can reduce the length of growth period of cereals, and without adequate adjustments in growing technologies or varieties, can reduce biomass and carbon accumulation. Deeper understanding and effective measures for monitoring and management of cereal growth process are needed for adaptation to changing climate and technological conditions.
Abstract: It is suggested to evaluate environmental performance
of energy sector using Data Envelopment Analysis with nondiscretionary
factors (DEA-ND) with relative indicators as inputs and
outputs. The latter allows for comparison of the objects essentially
different in size. Inclusion of non-discretionary factors serves
separation of the indicators that are beyond the control of the objects.
A virtual perfect object comprised of maximal outputs and minimal
inputs was added to the group of actual ones. In this setting, explicit
solution of the DEA-ND problem was obtained. Energy sector of the
United States was analyzed using suggested approach for the period
of 1980 – 2006 with expected values of economic indicators for 2030
used for forming the perfect object. It was obtained that
environmental performance has been increasing steadily for the
period from 7.7% through 50.0% but still remains well below the
prospected level
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to develop a security model for voice eavesdropping protection over digital networks. The proposed model provides an encryption scheme and a personal secret key exchange between communicating parties, a so-called voice data transformation system, resulting in a real-privacy conversation. The operation of this system comprises two main steps as follows: The first one is the personal secret key exchange for using the keys in the data encryption process during conversation. The key owner could freely make his/her choice in key selection, so it is recommended that one should exchange a different key for a different conversational party, and record the key for each case into the memory provided in the client device. The next step is to set and record another personal option of encryption, either taking all frames or just partial frames, so-called the figure of 1:M. Using different personal secret keys and different sets of 1:M to different parties without the intervention of the service operator, would result in posing quite a big problem for any eavesdroppers who attempt to discover the key used during the conversation, especially in a short period of time. Thus, it is quite safe and effective to protect the case of voice eavesdropping. The results of the implementation indicate that the system can perform its function accurately as designed. In this regard, the proposed system is suitable for effective use in voice eavesdropping protection over digital networks, without any requirements to change presently existing network systems, mobile phone network and VoIP, for instance.
Abstract: Identifying and classifying intersections according to
severity is very important for implementation of safety related
counter measures and effective models are needed to compare and
assess the severity. Highway safety organizations have considered
intersection safety among their priorities. In spite of significant
advances in highways safety, the large numbers of crashes with high
severities still occur in the highways. Investigation of influential
factors on crashes enables engineers to carry out calculations in order
to reduce crash severity. Previous studies lacked a model capable of
simultaneous illustration of the influence of human factors, road,
vehicle, weather conditions and traffic features including traffic
volume and flow speed on the crash severity. Thus, this paper is
aimed at developing the models to illustrate the simultaneous
influence of these variables on the crash severity in urban highways.
The models represented in this study have been developed using
binary Logit Models. SPSS software has been used to calibrate the
models. It must be mentioned that backward regression method in
SPSS was used to identify the significant variables in the model.
Consider to obtained results it can be concluded that the main
factor in increasing of crash severity in urban highways are driver
age, movement with reverse gear, technical defect of the vehicle,
vehicle collision with motorcycle and bicycle, bridge, frontal impact
collisions, frontal-lateral collisions and multi-vehicle crashes in
urban highways which always increase the crash severity in urban
highways.
Abstract: The purpose of the current study is to gain insight into the relative role of professional self-image (PSI) for service providers among leader-member exchange (LMX), career success. Lack of studies demonstrated that PSI of service providers affect on their CS. So, it is necessary to, according to service providers- perspective, explore the relationship among LMX and CS in hospitality industry. The result of the current study can suggest strategic directions for hospitality practitioners in terms of constructing LMX relationship, so as to make service providers realize and build their PSI, and to promote their CS. Implications of these findings for hospitality implementations as well as future research directions are subsequently discussed.
Abstract: Educational games (EG) seem to have lots of potential due to digital games popularity and preferences of our younger generations of learners. However, most studies focus on game design and its effectiveness while little has been known about the factors that can affect users to accept or to reject EG for their learning. User acceptance research try to understand the determinants of information systems (IS) adoption among users by investigating both systems factors and users factors. Upon the lack of knowledge on acceptance factors for educational games, we seek to understand the issue. This study proposed a model of acceptance factors based on Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). We use original model (performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence) together with two new determinants (learning opportunities and enjoyment). We will also investigate the effect of gender and gaming experience that moderate the proposed factors.
Abstract: In this paper the authors propose and verify an approach to control heat flow in machine tool components. Thermal deformations are a main aspect that affects the accuracy of machining. Due to goals of energy efficiency, thermal basic loads should be reduced. This leads to inhomogeneous and time variant temperature profiles. To counteract these negative consequences, material with high melting enthalpy is used as a method for thermal stabilization. The increased thermal capacity slows down the transient thermal behavior. To account for the delayed thermal equilibrium, a control mechanism for thermal flow is introduced. By varying a gap in a heat flow path the thermal resistance of an assembly can be controlled. This mechanism is evaluated in two experimental setups. First to validate the ability to control the thermal resistance and second to prove the possibility of a self-sufficient option based on the selfsensing abilities of thermal shape memory alloys.
Abstract: Mobile banking services present a unique growth
opportunity for mobile operators in emerging markets, and have
already made good progress in bringing financial services to the
previously unbanked populations of many developing countries. The
potential is amazing, but what about the risks? In the complex
process of establishing a mobile banking business model, many kinds
of risks and factors need to be monitored and well-managed. Risk
identification is the first stage of risk management. Correct risk
identification ensures risk management effectiveness. Keeping the
risks low makes it possible to use the full potential of mobile banking
and carry out the planned business strategy. The focus should be on
adoption of consumers which is the main risk factor of mobile
banking services.
Abstract: Optical burst switching(OBS) is considered as one of
preferable network technologies for the next generation Internet. The
Internet has two traffic classes, i.e. real-time bursts and reliable bursts.
It is an important subject for OBS to achieve cooperated operation of
real-time bursts and reliable bursts. In this paper, we proposes a new
effective traffic control method named Separate TB+LB (Token
Bucket + Leaky Bucket : TB+LB) method. The proposed method
presents a new Token Bucket scheme for real-time bursts called as
RBO-TB (Real-time Bursts Oriented Token Bucket). The method also
applies the LB method to reliable bursts for obtaining better
performance. This paper verifies the effectiveness of the Separate
TB+LB method through the performance evaluation.
Abstract: In this paper, a new reversible watermarking method is presented that reduces the size of a stereoscopic image sequence while keeping its content visible. The proposed technique embeds the residuals of the right frames to the corresponding frames of the left sequence, halving the total capacity. The residual frames may result in after a disparity compensated procedure between the two video streams or by a joint motion and disparity compensation. The residuals are usually lossy compressed before embedding because of the limited embedding capacity of the left frames. The watermarked frames are visible at a high quality and at any instant the stereoscopic video may be recovered by an inverse process. In fact, the left frames may be exactly recovered whereas the right ones are slightly distorted as the residuals are not embedded intact. The employed embedding method reorders the left frame into an array of consecutive pixel pairs and embeds a number of bits according to their intensity difference. In this way, it hides a number of bits in intensity smooth areas and most of the data in textured areas where resulting distortions are less visible. The experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed scheme is quite effective.
Abstract: The reduction of hexavalent chromium by scrap iron
was investigated in continuous system, using long-term column
experiments, for aqueous Cr(VI) solutions having low buffering
capacities, over the Cr(VI) concentration range of 5 – 40 mg/L. The
results showed that the initial Cr(VI) concentration significantly
affects the reduction capacity of scrap iron. Maximum reduction
capacity of scrap iron was observed at the beginning of the column
experiments; the lower the Cr(VI) concentration, the greater the
experiment duration with maximum scrap iron reduction capacity.
However, due to passivation of active surface, scrap iron reduction
capacity continuously decreased in time, especially after Cr(VI)
breakthrough. The experimental results showed that highest
reduction capacity recorded until Cr(VI) breakthrough was 22.8 mg
Cr(VI)/g scrap iron, at CI = 5 mg/L, and decreased with increasing
Cr(VI) concentration. In order to assure total reduction of greater
Cr(VI) concentrations for a longer period of time, either the mass of
scrap iron filling, or the hydraulic retention time should be increased.
Abstract: The efficient operation of any biological treatment
process requires pre-treatment of incompatible pollutants such as
acids, bases, oil, toxic substances, etc. which hamper the treatment
of other major components which are otherwise degradable. The
pre-treatment of alkaline waste-waters, generated from various
industries like textile, paper & pulp, potato-processing industries,
etc., having a pH of 10 or higher, is essential. The pre-treatment,
i.e., neutralization of such alkaline waste-waters can be achieved by
chemical as well as biological means. However, the biological pretreatment
offers better package over the chemical means by being
safe and economical. The biological pre-treatment can be
accomplished by using a blend of microorganisms able to withstand
such harsh alkaline conditions. In the present study, for the proper
pre-treatment of alkaline waste-waters, a package of alkalophilic
bacteria is formulated to neutralise the alkaline pH of the industrial
waste-waters. The developed microbial package is cost-effective as
well as environmental friendly.
Abstract: Existing underground pipe jacking methods use a
reinforcing rod in a steel tube to obtain structural stiffness. However,
some problems such as inconvenience of works and expensive
materials resulted from limited working space and reinforcing works
are existed. To resolve these problems, a new pipe jacking method,
namely PST (Prestressed Segment Tunnel) method, was developed
which used joint to connect the steel segment and form erection
structure. For evaluating the flexural capacity of the PST method
structure, a experimental test was conducted. The parameters
considered in the test were span-to-depth ratio of segment, diameter of
steel tube at the corner, prestressing force, and welding of joint. The
flexural behaviours with the effect of load capacity in serviceability
state according to different parameters were examined.. The frame
with long segments could increase flexural stiffness and the specimen
with large diameter of concave corner showed excellent resistance
ability to the negative moment. In addition, welding of joints increased
the flexural capacity.