Abstract: Supermarkets are the most electricity-intensive type of
commercial buildings. The unsuitable indoor environment of a
supermarket provided by abnormal HVAC operations incurs waste
energy consumption in refrigeration systems. This current study
briefly describes significantly solid backgrounds and proposes easyto-
use analysis terminology for investigating the impact of HVAC
operations on refrigeration power consumption using the field-test
data obtained from building automation system (BAS). With solid
backgrounds and prior knowledge, expected energy interactions
between HVAC and refrigeration systems are proposed through
Pearson’s correlation analysis (R value) by considering correlations
between equipment power consumption and dominantly independent
variables (driving force conditions).The R value can be conveniently
utilized to evaluate how strong relations between equipment
operations and driving force parameters are. The calculated R values
obtained from field data are compared to expected ranges of R values
computed by energy interaction methodology. The comparisons can
separate the operational conditions of equipment into faulty and
normal conditions. This analysis can simply investigate the condition
of equipment operations or building sensors because equipment could
be abnormal conditions due to routine operations or faulty
commissioning processes in field tests. With systematically solid and
easy-to-use backgrounds of interactions provided in the present
article, the procedures can be utilized as a tool to evaluate the proper
commissioning and routine operations of HVAC and refrigeration
systems to detect simple faults (e.g. sensors and driving force
environment of refrigeration systems and equipment set-point) and
optimize power consumption in supermarket buildings. Moreover,
the analysis will be used to further study the FDD research for
supermarkets in future.
Abstract: The psychological impact of peer influence on its
individual group members, can make them resist HIV/AIDS
counselling and testing. This study investigated the correlate of peer
influence and resistance to HIV/AIDS counselling and testing among
students in tertiary institutions in Kano state, Nigeria. To achieve
this, three null hypotheses were postulated and tested. Cross-
Sectional Survey Design was employed in which 1512 sample was
selected from a student population of 104,841.Simple Random
Sampling was used in the selection. A self-developed 20-item scale
called Peer Influence and Psychological Resistance Inventory
(PIPRI) was used for data collection. Pearson Product Moment
Correlation (PPMCC) via test-retest method was applied to estimate a
reliability coefficient of 0.86 for the scale. Data obtained was
analyzed using t-test and PPMCC at 0.05 level of confidence. Results
reveal 26.3% (397) of the respondents being influenced by their peer
group, while 39.8% showed resistance. Also, the t-tests and PPMCC
statistics were greater than their respective critical values. This shows
that there was a significant gender difference in peer influence and a
difference between peer influence and resistance to HIV/AIDS
counselling and testing. However, a positive relationship between
peer influence and resistance to HIV/AIDS counselling and testing
was shown. A major recommendation offered suggests the use of
reinforcement and social support for positive attitudes and
maintenance of safe behaviour among students who patronize
HIV/AIDS counselling.
Abstract: Climate change will affect various aspects of
hydrological cycle such as rainfall. A change in rainfall will affect
flood magnitude and frequency in future which will affect the design
and operation of hydraulic structures. In this paper, trends in subhourly,
sub-daily, and daily extreme rainfall events from 18 rainfall
stations located in Tasmania, Australia are examined. Two nonparametric
tests (Mann-Kendall and Spearman’s Rho) are applied to
detect trends at 10%, 5%, and 1% significance levels. Sub-hourly (6,
12, 18, and 30 minutes) annual maximum rainfall events have been
found to experience statistically significant upward trends at 10%
level of significance. However, sub-daily durations (1 hour, 3 and 12
hours) exhibit decreasing trends and no trends exists for longer
duration rainfall events (e.g. 24 and 72 hours). Some of the durations
(e.g. 6 minutes and 6 hours) show similar results (with upward
trends) for both the tests. For 12, 18, 60 minutes and 3 hours
durations both the tests show similar downward trends. This finding
has important implication for Tasmania in the design of urban
infrastructure where shorter duration rainfall events are more relevant
for smaller urban catchments such as parking lots, roof catchments
and smaller sub-divisions.
Abstract: FengShui, an old Chinese discipline, dates back to
more than 5000 years, is one of the design principles that aim at
creating habitable and sustainable spaces in harmony with nature by
systematizing data within its own structure. Having emerged from
Chinese mysticism and embodying elements of faith in its principles,
FengShui argues that the positive energy in the environment channels
human behavior and psychology. This argument is supported with the
thesis of quantum physics that ‘everything is made up of energy’ and
gains an important place.
In spaces where living and working take place with several
principles and systematized rules, FengShui promises a happier, more
peaceful and comfortable life by influencing human psychology, acts,
and soul as well as the professional and social life of the individual.
Observing these design properties in houses, workplaces, offices, the
environment, and daily life as a design paradigm is significant. In this
study, how FengShui, a Central Asian culture emanated from Chinese
mysticism, shapes design and how it is used as an element of
sustainable design will be explained.
Abstract: The aim of present study was to monitor the presence
of Trichodina sp. in Rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss collected
from various fish farms in the western provinces of Iran during
January, 2013- January, 2014. Out of 675 sampled fish 335, (49.16%)
were infested with Trichodina. The highest prevalence was observed
in the spring and winter followed by autumn and summer. In general,
the intensity of infection was low except in cases where outbreaks of
Trichodiniasis endangered the survival of fish in some ponds. In light
infestation Trichodina is usually present on gills, fins and skin of
apparently healthy fish. Clinical signs of Trichodiniasis only appear
on fish with heavy infections and cases of moderate ones that are
usually exposed to one or more stress factors including, rough
handling during transportation from ponds, overcrowdness,
malnutrition, high of free ammonia and low of oxygen concentration.
Clinical signs of Trichodiniasis in sampled fish were sluggish
movement, loss of appetite, black coloration, necrosis and ulcer on
different parts of the body, detached scales and excessive
accumulation of mucous in gill pouches. The most obvious
histopathological changes in diseased fish were sloughing of the
epidermal layer, aggregation of leucocytes and melanine-carrying
cells (between the dermis and hypodermis) and proliferative changes
including hyperplasia and hypertrophy of the epithelial lining cells of
gill filaments which resulted in fusion of secondary lamellae. Control
of Trichodiniasis, has been achieved by formalin bath treatment at a
concentration of 250 ppm for one hour.
Abstract: In the present work, hydrogen gas sensor of modest
sensitivity utilizing functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes
partially decorated with tin oxide nanoparticles (F-MWCNTs/SnO2)
has been fabricated. This sensing material was characterized by
scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, a remarkable
finding was that the F-MWCNTs/SnO2 sensor shows good sensitivity
as compared to F-MWCNTs for low concentration (0.05-1% by
volume) of H2 gas. The fabricated sensors show complete resistance
recovery and good repeatability when exposed to H2 gas at the room
temperature conditions.
Abstract: The purpose of the present work is to review some
data for the management challenges that the aquaculture industry in
Greece is currently facing. The results indicate that Greek
aquaculture fish farms apply Human Resources Management (HRM)
practices which can increase motivation, commitment and job
satisfaction of their personnel. In turn, these practices can increase
the productivity of the business. The Greek fish farms appear to
invest in research and technological innovation with a good record in
research activities and the generation of patents. Interestingly, the
results of the present work were carried out during the period of the
recent economic crisis in Greece. Several sectors of the Greek
economy were severely affected by the financial problems of the
Greek government and the Greek banks. Under the adverse
economical conditions created by the Greek economic crisis, even the
Greek aquaculture industry, which historically is considered as a
thriving national exporting business sector, experienced harsh
economic and market conditions. As a result of the global, European
and national economic crisis, consumption of fish dropped while
companies had to hold most of their stocked fish in order to regulated
the flow to the market and the price. This occurred at a time where
Banks in Greece had their own financial crisis – banking crisis -
which resulted in limited access to lending for the all business sectors
of the national economy including the Greek aquaculture industry. In
spite of these economic conditions, the Greek aquaculture industry,
after a series of mergers and acquisitions, has now stabilized
production and exhibits very good prospects for future growth.
Evidently, the firms had to cut salaries and on some occasions even
pay their staff in arrears. Nevertheless, the results presented in this
paper indicate that during the economic crisis, the surveyed fish
farms maintained their HRM practices, investing in their human
capital and technological input. In fact, human capital and
technological input are the ticket for future success of companies in
any business sector.
Abstract: Online forum is part of a Learning Management
System (LMS) environment in which students share their opinions.
This study attempts to investigate the perceptions of students towards
online forum and their patterns of listening behavior during the forum
interaction. The students’ perceptions were measured using a
questionnaire, in which seven dimensions were used involving online
experience, benefits of forum participation, cost of participation,
perceived ease of use, usefulness, attitude, and intention. Meanwhile,
their patterns of listening behaviors were obtained using the log file
extracted from the LMS. A total of 25 postgraduate students
undertaking a course were involved in this study, and their activities
in the forum session were recorded by the LMS and used as a log file.
The results from the questionnaire analysis indicated that the students
perceived that the forum is easy to use, useful, and bring benefits to
them. Also, they showed positive attitude towards online forum, and
they have the intention to use it in future. Based on the log data, the
participants were also divided into six clusters of listening behavior,
in which they are different in terms of temporality, breadth, depth and
speaking level. The findings were compared to previous clusters
grouping and future recommendations are also discussed.
Abstract: In the culture of Thailand, the Yak serve as a mediated
icon representing strength, power, and mystical protection not only
for the Buddha, but for population of worshipers. Originating from
the forests of China, the Yak continues to stand guard at the gates of
Buddhist temples. The Yak represents Thai culture in the hearts of
Thai people. This paper presents a qualitative study regarding the
curious mix of media, culture, and religion that projects the Yak of
Thailand as a larger than life message throughout the political,
cultural, and religious spheres. The gate guardians, or gods as they
are sometimes called, appear throughout the religious temples of
Asian cultures. However, the Asian cultures demonstrate differences
in artistic renditions (or presentations) of such sentinels. Thailand
gate guards (the Yak) stand in front of many Buddhist temples, and
these iconic figures display unique features with varied symbolic
significance. The temple (or wat), plays a vital role in every
community; and, for many people, Thailand’s temples are the
country’s most endearing sights. The authors applied folknography as
a methodology to illustrate the importance of the Thai Yak in serving
as meaningful icons that transcend not only time, but the culture,
religion, and mass media. The Yak represents mythical, religious,
artistic, cultural, and militaristic significance for the Thai people.
Data collection included interviews, focus groups, and natural
observations. This paper summarizes the perceptions of the Thai
people concerning their gate sentries and the relationship,
communication, connection, and the enduring respect that Thai
people hold for their guardians of the gates.
Abstract: The detection of environmental gases, 12CO2, 13CO2,
and CH4, using near-infrared semiconductor lasers with a short
laser path length is studied by means of wavelength-modulation
spectroscopy. The developed system is compact and has high
sensitivity enough to detect the absorption peaks of isotopic 13CO2
of a 3-% CO2 gas at 2 μm with a path length of 2.4 m, where
its peak size is two orders of magnitude smaller than that of the
ordinary 12CO2 peaks. In addition, the detection of 12CO2 peaks of
a 385-ppm (0.0385-%) CO2 gas in the air is made at 2 μm with a
path length of 1.4 m. Furthermore, in pursuing the detection of an
ancient environmental CH4 gas confined to a bubble in ice at the
polar regions, measurements of the absorption spectrum for a trace
gas of CH4 in a small area are attempted. For a 100-% CH4 gas
trapped in a ∼ 1 mm3 glass container, the absorption peaks of CH4
are obtained at 1.65 μm with a path length of 3 mm, and also the
gas pressure is extrapolated from the measured data.
Abstract: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
are pervasive nowadays, including in education where they are
expected to improve the performance of learners. However, the hope
placed in ICTs to find viable solutions to the problem of poor
academic performance in schools in the developing world has not yet
yielded the expected benefits. This problem serves as a motivation to
this study whose aim is to examine the perceptions of educators on
the advantages and disadvantages of e-learning. This aim will be
subdivided into two types of research objectives. Objectives on the
identification and design of theories and models will be achieved
using content analysis and literature review. However, the objective
on the empirical testing of such theories and models will be achieved
through the survey of educators from different schools in the
Pinetown District of the South African Kwazulu-Natal province.
SPSS is used to quantitatively analyse the data collected by the
questionnaire of this survey using descriptive statistics and Pearson
correlations after assessing the validity and the reliability of the data.
The main hypothesis driving this study is that there is a relationship
between the demographics of educators’ and their adherence to
learning theories on one side, and their perceptions on the advantages
and disadvantages of e-learning on the other side, as argued by
existing research; but this research views these learning theories
under three perspectives: educators’ adherence to self-regulated
learning, to constructivism, and to progressivism. This hypothesis
was fully confirmed by the empirical study except for the
demographic factor where teachers’ level of education was found to
be the only demographic factor affecting the perceptions of educators
on the advantages and disadvantages of e-learning.
Abstract: Ongoing landscape transformation is one of the major
causes behind disappearance of traditional landscapes, and lead to
species and resource loss. Tree in paddy fields in the northeast of
Thailand is one of those traditional landscapes. Using three different
historical time layers, we acknowledged the severe deforestation and
rapid urbanization happened in the region. Despite the general
thinking of decline in tree density as consequences, the heterogeneous
trend of changes in total tree density in three studied landscapes denied
the hypothesis that number of trees in paddy field depend on the length
of land use practice. On the other hand, due to selection of planting
new trees on levees, existence of trees in paddy field now relies on
their values for human use. Besides, changes in land use and landscape
structure had a significant impact on decision of which tree density
level is considered as suitable for the landscape.
Abstract: The effect of particle size on shear strength of
granular materials are investigated using direct shear tests. Small
direct shear test (60 mm by 60 mm by 24 mm deep) were conducted
for particles passing the sieves with opening size of 2.36 mm.
Meanwhile, particles passing the standard 20 mm sieves were tested
using large direct shear test (300 mm by 300 mm by 200 mm deep).
The large direct shear tests and the small direct shear tests carried out
using the same shearing rate of 0.09 mm/min and similar normal
stresses of 100, 200 and 300 kPa. The results show that the peak and
residual shear strength increases as particle size increases.
Abstract: The organizations of European and Czech critical
infrastructure have specific position, mission, characteristics and
behaviour in European Union and Czech state/business environments,
regarding specific requirements for regional and global security
environments. They must respect policy of national security and
global rules, requirements and standards in all their inherent and
outer processes of supply - customer chains and networks. A
controlling is generalized capability to have control over situational
policy. This paper aims and purposes are to introduce the controlling
as quite new necessary process attribute providing for critical
infrastructure is environment the capability and profit to achieve its
commitment regarding to the effectiveness of the quality
management system in meeting customer/ user requirements and also
the continual improvement of critical infrastructure organization’s
processes overall performance and efficiency, as well as its societal
security via continual planning improvement via DYVELOP
modelling.
Abstract: In Capitalism all economic activity rests upon a set of
core institutional foundations, main from which are privately owned
capital assets and profit. How these core institutional foundations are
working in former soviet countries, in particular in Travel and
Tourism Industry of Georgia?
The role of Travel and Tourism as a key pillar of economic growth
is being increasingly recognized by governments in all regions of the
world. For the last few years Georgia succeeded in the World Bank
and IFC “Doing Business” rankings. Despite of that, during decades
totally different statistical data of the tourism sector were provided by
the different State bodies; economic parameters were published few,
or not published at all.
The frequency and extent of property rights violation in Georgia
has repeatedly been the subject of concern for the last decade. Total
value of abrogated by the former Georgian Government private
property is estimated approximately in US$4-5 billion.
Thus, if economic profitability is unknown and property rights are
not protected – that means that the main institutional foundations of
capitalism in Georgia, are not working properly yet, that cause
management problems at all levels of the national Travel and
Tourism industry of Georgia.
Abstract: Copper being one of the major intrinsic residual
impurities in steel possesses the tendency to induce severe
microstructural distortions if not controlled within certain limits.
Hence, this paper investigates the effect of this element on the
mechanical properties of construction steel with a view to ascertain
its safe limits for effective control. The experiment entails collection
of statistically scheduled samples of hot rolled profiles with varied
copper concentrations in the range of 0.12-0.39 wt. %. From these
samples were prepared standard test specimens subjected to tensile,
impact, hardness and microstructural analyses. Results show a rather
huge compromise in mechanical properties as the specimens
demonstrated 54.3%, 74.2% and 64.9% reduction in tensile strength,
impact energy and hardness respectively as copper content increases
from 0.12 wt. % to 0.39 wt. %. The steel’s abysmal performance is
due to the severe distortion of the microstructure occasioned by the
development of incoherent complex compounds which weaken the
pearlite reinforcing phase. It is concluded that the presence of copper
above 0.22 wt. % is deleterious to construction steel performance.
Abstract: This paper addresses the reduction of peak to average
power ratio (PAPR) for the OFDM in Mobile-WiMAX physical layer
(PHY) standard. In the process, the best achievable PAPR of 0 dB is
found for the OFDM spectrum using phase modulation technique
which avoids the nonlinear distortion. The performance of the
WiMAX PHY standard is handled by the software defined radio
(SDR) prototype in which GNU Radio and USRP N210 employed as
software and hardware platforms respectively. It is also found that
BER performance is shown for different coding and different
modulation schemes. To empathize wireless propagation in specific
environments, a sliding correlator wireless channel sounding system
is designed by using SDR testbed.
Abstract: The paper presents combined automatic speech
recognition (ASR) of English and machine translation (MT) for
English and Croatian and Croatian-English language pairs in the
domain of business correspondence. The first part presents results of
training the ASR commercial system on English data sets, enriched
by error analysis. The second part presents results of machine
translation performed by free online tool for English and Croatian
and Croatian-English language pairs. Human evaluation in terms of
usability is conducted and internal consistency calculated by
Cronbach's alpha coefficient, enriched by error analysis. Automatic
evaluation is performed by WER (Word Error Rate) and PER
(Position-independent word Error Rate) metrics, followed by
investigation of Pearson’s correlation with human evaluation.
Abstract: In order to efficiently solve the problems created by the deepening energy crisis affecting Europe and the world,
governments cannot neglect the opportunities of using the energy
produced by sun collectors. In many of the EU countries there are sun
collectors producing heat energy, e.g. in 2011 in the area of EU27
(countries which belong to European Union) + Switzerland altogether
37519126 m2 were operated, which are capable of producing 26.3
GWh heat energy. The energy produced by these sun collectors is
utilized at the place of production. In the near future governments
will have to focus more on spreading and using sun collectors.
Among the complex problems of operating sun collectors, this article
deals with determining the optimal tilt angle, directions of sun
collectors. We evaluate the contamination of glass surface of sun
collector to the produced energy. Our theoretically results are confirmed by laboratory measurements. The purpose of our work is to help users and engineers in determination of optimal operation
parameters of sun collectors.
Abstract: The main objective of this study was to identify
factors and conditions that motivated and encouraged students
towards the math class and the factors that made this class an
attractive and lovely one. To do this end, questionnaires consisting of
15 questions were distributed among 85 math teachers working in
schools of Zahedan. Having collected and reviewed these
questionnaires, it was shown that doing activity in math class
(activity of students while teaching) and previous math teachers'
behaviors have had much impact on encouraging the students
towards mathematics. Separation of educational classroom of
mathematics from the main classroom (which is decorated with crafts
created by students themselves with regard to math book including
article, wall newspaper, figures and formulas), peers, size and
appearance of math book, first grade teachers in each educational
level, among whom the Elementary first grade teachers had more
importance and impact, were among the most influential and
important factors in this regard. Then, school environment, family,
conducting research related to mathematics, its application in daily
life and other courses and studying the history of mathematics were
categorized as important factors that would increase the students’
interest in mathematics.