Abstract: Nowadays, web-based technologies influence in
people-s daily life such as in education, business and others.
Therefore, many web developers are too eager to develop their web
applications with fully animation graphics and forgetting its
accessibility to its users. Their purpose is to make their web
applications look impressive. Thus, this paper would highlight on the
usability and accessibility of a voice recognition browser as a tool to
facilitate the visually impaired and blind learners in accessing virtual
learning environment. More specifically, the objectives of the study
are (i) to explore the challenges faced by the visually impaired
learners in accessing virtual learning environment (ii) to determine
the suitable guidelines for developing a voice recognition browser
that is accessible to the visually impaired. Furthermore, this study
was prepared based on an observation conducted with the Malaysian
visually impaired learners. Finally, the result of this study would
underline on the development of an accessible voice recognition
browser for the visually impaired.
Abstract: Elateriospermum tapos seed (buah perah) is the one
of the rich sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids. It contains high
percentage of oleic acid which is the important component to develop
nervous system and also α-linolenic acid (ALA) which is the
precursor of omega-3 fatty acids series to synthesize
eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
However, there is less study about this valuable oilseed and exploit
its potential. Therefore, this paper is to assess the comparison of
physico-chemical properties and fatty composition of perah oil to
palm oil and soybean oil. From the comparison, perah oil shows low
peroxide value means it has good oxidative stability and also high
iodine values shows that it can be used in paint industry. The study
shown that perah oil is comparable to palm oil and soybean oil, so it
has high potential to be exploited in the oleochemical,
pharmaceutical, cosmetics and paint industries.
Abstract: Fractional-order controller was proven to perform better than the integer-order controller. However, the absence of a pole at origin produced marginal error in fractional-order control system. This study demonstrated the enhancement of the fractionalorder PI over the integer-order PI in a steam temperature control. The fractional-order controller was cascaded with an error compensator comprised of a very small zero and a pole at origin to produce a zero steady-state error for the closed-loop system. Some modification on the error compensator was suggested for different order fractional integrator that can improve the overall phase margin.
Abstract: Advertising is one of the important marketing
strategies and the choice of media is an important aspect of
effectiveness of advertising media. The two most popular advertising
media, TV and web media are highly effective in creating successful
advertisements as they influence the purchase decision of the
viewers. Although TV and web are electronic media, they are unique
in their features and traits of advertising. Hence, the present study
attempts to analyze the influence of these two media towards buying
behavior of the viewers. The two media are analyzed separately to
determine its level of influence towards buying behavior and finally a
comparative analysis of these media is attempted to find the
difference in their level of influence.
Abstract: In order to monitor the water table depth on soil profile
salinity buildup, a field study was carried out during 2006-07. Wheat
(Rabi) and Sorghum (Kharif) fodder were sown in with three
treatments. The results showed that watertable depth lowered from
1.15m to 2.89 m depth at the end of experiment. With lower of
watertable depth, pH, ECe and SAR decreased under crops both
without and with gypsum and increased in fallowing. Soil moisture
depletion was directly proportional to lowering of watertable. With the
application of irrigation water (58cm) pH, ECe and SAR were reduced
in cropped plots, reduction was higher in gypsum applied plots than
non-gypsum plots. In case of fallowing, there was increase in pH, EC,
while slight reduction occurred in SAR values. However, soil salinity
showed an increasing upward trend under fallowing and its value in
0-30 cm soil layer was the highest amongst the treatments.
Abstract: Owing to the stringent environmental legislations,
CO2 capture and sequestration is one of the viable solutions to reduce
the CO2 emissions from various sources. In this context, Ionic liquids
(ILs) are being investigated as suitable absorption media for CO2
capture. Due to their non-evaporative, non-toxic, and non-corrosive
nature, these ILs have the potential to replace the existing solvents
like aqueous amine solutions for CO2 separation technologies. Thus,
the present work aims at studying the important aspects such as the
interactions of CO2 molecule with different anions (F-, Br-, Cl-, NO3
-,
BF4
-, PF6
-, Tf2N-, and CF3SO3
-) that are commonly used in ILs
through molecular modeling. In this, the minimum energy structures
have been obtained using Ab initio based calculations at MP2
(Moller-Plesset perturbation) level. Results revealed various degrees
of distortion of CO2 molecule (from its linearity) with the anions
studied, most likely due to the Lewis acid-base interactions between
CO2 and anion. Furthermore, binding energies for the anion-CO2
complexes were also calculated. The implication of anion-CO2
interactions to the solubility of CO2 in ionic liquids is also discussed.
Abstract: There has been gradual progress of late in construction projects, particularly in big-scale megaprojects. Due to the long-term construction period, however, with large-scale budget investment, lack of construction management technologies, and increase in the incomplete elements of project schedule management, a plan to conduct efficient operations and to ensure business safety is required. In particular, as the project management information system (PMIS) is meant for managing a single project centering on the construction phase, there is a limitation in the management of program-scale businesses like megaprojects. Thus, a program management information system (PgMIS) that includes program-level management technologies is needed to manage multiple projects. In this study, a support tool was developed for managing the cost and schedule information occurring in the construction phase, at the program level. In addition, a case study on the developed support tool was conducted to verify the usability of the system. With the use of the developed support tool program, construction managers can monitor the progress of the entire project and of the individual subprojects in real time.
Abstract: The aim of this study is to describe the associations
between the temperamental traits and the narrative emotional
expression. The Temperament Questionnaire was used: The FCB-TI
of Zawadzki & Strelau. A sample of 85 persons described three
emotional situations: love. hate, and anxiety. This study analyzes the
verbal form of expression by means of a written account of
emotions. The relationship between the narratives of love, hate and
anxiety and temperament characteristics were studied. Results
indicate that vigorousness (VI), perseverance (PE), sensory
sensitivity (SS), emotional reactivity (ER), endurance (EN) and
activeness (AC) have a significant impact on the emotional
expression in narratives. The temperamental traits are linked to the
form of emotional language. It means that temperament has an
impact on cognitive representations of emotions.
Abstract: South Africa is facing a crisis with not being able to produce enough graduates in the scarce skills areas to sustain economic growth. The crisis is fuelled by a school system that does not produce enough potential students with Mathematics, Accounting and Science. Since the introduction of the new school curriculum in 2008, there is no longer an option to take pure maths on a standard grade level. Instead, only two mathematical subjects are offered: pure maths (which is on par with higher grade maths) and mathematical literacy. It is compulsory to take one or the other. As a result, lees student finishes Grade 12 with pure mathematics every year. This national problem needs urgent attention if South Africa is to make any headway in critical skills development as mathematics is a gateway to scarce skills professions. Higher education institutions initiated several initiatives in an attempt to address the above, including preparatory courses, bridging programmes and extended curricula with foundation provisions. In view of the above, and government policy directives to broaden access in the scarce skills areas to increase student throughput, foundation provision was introduced for Commerce and Information Technology programmes at the Vaal Triangle Campus (VTC) of North-West University (NWU) in 2010. Students enrolling for extended programmes do not comply with the minimum prerequisites for the normal programmes. The question then arises as to whether these programmes have the intended impact? This paper reports the results of a two year longitudinal study, tracking the first year academic achievement of the two cohorts of enrolments since 2010. The results provide valuable insight into the structuring of an extended programme and its potential impact.
Abstract: A 3D simulation study for an incompressible
slip flow around a spherical aerosol particle was performed.
The full Navier-Stokes equations were solved and the velocity
jump at the gas-particle interface was treated numerically by
imposition of the slip boundary condition. Analytical solution
to the Stokesian slip flow past a spherical particle was used as
a benchmark for code verification, and excellent agreement
was achieved. The Simulation results showed that in addition
to the Knudsen number, the Reynolds number affects the slip
correction factor. Thus, the Cunningham-based slip corrections
must be augmented by the inclusion of the effect of
Reynolds number for application to Lagrangian tracking of
fine particles. A new expression for the slip correction factor
as a function of both Knudsen number and Reynolds number
was developed.
Abstract: Attachment theory focuses on the bond that develops between child and caretaker and the consequences that this bond has on the childs future relationships. Adolescents attempt to define their identity by experiencing various risky behaviors. The first aim of the study was whether risk taking behavior differs according to attachment styles. The second was to examine risk taking behavior differences according to gender. The third aim of this study was to examine attachment X gender interaction effect for risk taking behavior. And final was to investigate attachment styles differences according to gender. Data were collected from 218 participants (114 female and 104 male) who are university students. The results of this study showed that attachment styles differentiated by risk taking behavior and males had higher risk taking score than females. It was also found out that there was significant attachment X gender interaction effect for risk taking behavior. And finally, the results showed that attachment styles differentiated according to gender.KeywordsAttachment style, risk taking
Abstract: A CFD software was employed to analyze the
characteristics of the flat round porous aerostatic bearings. The effects
of gap between the bearing and the guide way and the porosity of the
porous material on the load capacity of the bearing were studied. The
adequacy of the simulation model and the approach was verified. From
the parametric study, it is found that the depth of the flow path does not
influence the load capacity of the bearing; the load capacity of the
bearing will decrease if the thickness of the porous material increases
or the porous material protrudes above the bearing housing; the
variation of the chamfer at the edge of the bearing does not affect the
bearing load capacity. For a bearing with an air gap of 5μm and a
porosity of 0.1, the average load capacity and the pressure distribution
of the bearing are nearly unchanged no matter the bearing moves at a
constant or a varying speed.
Abstract: The study was carried out to gather and identify
medicinal plants their curative effects and the part of them which is
used from the reservation area of Miankaleh. The region under study
has an area of 68800 hectares situated 12 kilometers north of the city
of Behshahr and northwest of the city of Gorgan. Results obtained
showed that out of a total of 43 families, 125 genera, and 155 species
found in the region, 33 families, 52 genera and 61 species (39% of all
the species) belonged to medicinal plants, among which the class
Asteraceae with 6 species and the class Chenopodiaceae with 5
species had the most medicinal species. The most used parts of the
plants were the leaves with 31%, the whole plants with 19%, and the
roots with 15%.
Abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate the kinematics of undulatory elongated fish swimming against a velocity flow. We perform the experiments on European eel Anguilla Anguilla swimming in a hydrodynamic re-circulating tank with the velocity flow fixed at 0.2 m/s. We find that the undulating shape of overall eel body changes when it swims slantwise from the flow direction, by comparison to axial undulation shape. We examine this kinematics and we propose a general equation describing the lateral position of undulation body taking into account the direction of the eel-s swimming.
Abstract: Throughout the world, the Islamic way of banking and
financing is increasing. The same trend is also visible in Pakistan, where the Islamic banking sector is increasing in size and volume
each year. The question immediately arises as why the Pakistanis patronize the Islamic banking system? This study was carried out to
find whether following the Islamic rules in finance is the main factor for such selection or whether other factors such as customer service,
location, banking hour, physical facilities of the bank etc also have
importance. The study was carried by distributing questionnaire and
200 responses were collected from the clients of Islamic banks. The result showed that the service quality and other factors are as
important as following the Islamic rules for finance to retain old ustomers and catch new customers. The result is important and
Islamic banks can take actions accordingly to look after both the factors
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: Curriculum is one of the most important inputs in higher education system and for knowing the strong and weak spots of it we need evaluation. The main purpose of this study was to survey of the curriculum quality of Insurance Management field. Case: University of Allameh Taba Tabaee(according to view point of students,alumni,employer and faculty members).Descriptive statistics (mean, tables, percentages, frequency distribution) and inferential statistics (CHI SQUARE) were used to analyze the data. Six criterions considered for the Quality of curriculum: objectives, content, teaching and learning methods, space and facilities, Time, assessment of learning. objectives, teaching and learning methods criterions was desirable level, content criteria was undesirable level, space and facilities, time and assessment of learning were rather desirable level. The quality of curriculum of insurance management field was relatively desirable level.
Abstract: The special constraints of sensor networks impose a
number of technical challenges for employing them. In this review,
we study the issues and existing protocols in three areas: coverage
and routing. We present two types of coverage problems: to
determine the minimum number of sensor nodes that need to perform
active sensing in order to monitor a certain area; and to decide the
quality of service that can be provided by a given sensor network.
While most routing protocols in sensor networks are data-centric,
there are other types of routing protocols as well, such as
hierarchical, location-based, and QoS-aware. We describe and
compare several protocols in each group. We present several multipath
routing protocols and single-path with local repair routing
protocols, which are proposed for recovering from sensor node
crashes. We also discuss some transport layer schemes for reliable
data transmission in lossy wireless channels.
Abstract: A Ground Control System (GCS), which controls Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and monitors their missionrelated data, is one of the major components of UAVs. In fact, some traditional GCSs were built on an expensive, complicated hardware infrastructure with workstations and PCs. In contrast, a GCS on a portable device – such as an Android phone or tablet – takes advantage of its light-weight hardware and the rich User Interface supported by the Android Operating System. We implemented that kind of GCS and called it Ground System Software (GSS) in this paper. In operation, our GSS communicates with UAVs or other GSS via TCP/IP connection to get mission-related data, visualizes it on the device-s screen, and saves the data in its own database. Our study showed that this kind of system will become a potential instrument in UAV-related systems and this kind of topic will appear in many research studies in the near future.
Abstract: Anaerobic Digestion has become a promising
technology for biological transformation of organic fraction of the
municipal solid wastes (MSW). In order to represent the kinetic
behavior of such biological process and thereby to design a reactor
system, development of a mathematical model is essential.
Addressing this issue, a simplistic mathematical model has been
developed for anaerobic digestion of MSW in a continuous flow
reactor unit under homogeneous steady state condition. Upon
simulated hydrolysis, the kinetics of biomass growth and substrate
utilization rate are assumed to follow first order reaction kinetics.
Simulation of this model has been conducted by studying sensitivity
of various process variables. The model was simulated using typical
kinetic data of anaerobic digestion MSW and typical MSW
characteristics of Kolkata. The hydraulic retention time (HRT) and
solid retention time (SRT) time were mainly estimated by varying
different model parameters like efficiency of reactor, influent
substrate concentration and biomass concentration. Consequently,
design table and charts have also been prepared for ready use in the
actual plant operation.