Flexibility in Modular Furniture Systems in Open Offices, Famagusta, North Cyprus

Nowadays, flexibility introduced as a modern technology in furniture systems especially in interior planning design. According to results, the most important impact of these systems can be seen on open plan design that makes workspaces comfortable and increases the productivity of employees besides making good relationship between them. Briefly, there are some factors along with new systems in furniture design help create inappropriate space to make working better and easier while it has modular planning organization. It brings about some approaches to have a successful space for open offices with modular design and flexible furniture systems. These approaches have been investigated in open and close offices at Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) in Famagusta, Cyprus, using information extracted from questionnaires.

Sensory Characterization of Cookies with Chestnut Flour

In this work sensory characteristics of cookies with different amount of chestnut flour were determined by sensory and instrumental methods. The wheat flour for cookies was substituted with chestnut flour in three different levels (20, 40 and 60%) and the dough moisture was 22%. The control sample was with 100% of wheat flour. Sensory quality of the cookies was described using quantity descriptive method (QDA) by six trained members of descriptive panel. Instrumental evaluation included texture characterization by texture analyzer, the color measurements (CIE L*a*b* system) and determination by videometer. The samples with 20% of chestnut flour were with highest ponderated score for overall sensory impression (17.6), which is very close to score for control sample (18). Increase in amount of chestnut flour caused decrease in scores for all sensory properties, thus overall sensory score decreased also. Compared to control sample and with increase in amount of chestnut flour, instrumental determination of the samples confirmed the sensory analysis results. The hardness of the cookies increased, as well as the values of red a* and yellow (b*) component coordinate, but the values for lightness (L*) decreased. Also the values, evaluated by videometer at defined wavelength, were the highest for control cookies and decreased with increase in amount of chestnut flour.

Real Time Acquisition and Analysis of Neural Response for Rehabilitative Control

Non-invasive Brain Computer Interface like Electroencephalography (EEG) which directly taps neurological signals, is being widely explored these days to connect paralytic patients/elderly with the external environment. However, in India the research is confined to laboratory settings and is not reaching the mass for rehabilitation purposes. An attempt has been made in this paper to analyze real time acquired EEG signal using cost effective and portable headset unit EMOTIV. Signal processing of real time acquired EEG is done using EEGLAB in MATLAB and EDF Browser application software platforms. Independent Component Analysis algorithm of EEGLAB is explored to identify deliberate eye blink in the attained neural signal. Time Frequency transforms and Data statistics obtained using EEGLAB along with component activation results of EDF browser clearly indicate voluntary eye blink in AF3 channel. The spectral analysis indicates dominant frequency component at 1.536000Hz representing the delta wave component of EEG during voluntary eye blink action. An algorithm is further designed to generate an active high signal based on thoughtful eye blink that can be used for plethora of control applications for rehabilitation.

The Relationship between Turkish and Armenian regarding the Ottoman Empire and Contributions of Armenian Artists to the Turkish Opera

In history, the relationship between Turks and Armenians was started when Turks entered Anatolia. Before, Armenian people lived in dominion of Persians, Macedonians, Selefkits, Romans, Sasanis, Byzantinians and Arabs. After Turks had entered Anatolia, Armenian people lived together with the people in the Ottoman Empire, and these two people’s living together made Armenians gain citizens’ rights in this empire. Armenian people were excused from the military services and some taxes. They got opportunities to promote in trade, craft, farming and administrative affairs. Firstly, the Ottoman Empire met with opera in 1720s via the embassy, and so with the help of Armenian artists, opera was introduced and developed. In this study, the development of terms related to the opera arts in the Ottoman Empire and the importance of Bosco and Naum theatres and the help and contributions of Armenian artists will be analyzed.

A Study of Management Principles Incorporating Corporate Governance and Advocating Ethics to Reduce Fraud at a South African Bank

In today’s world, internal fraud remains one of the most challenging problems within companies worldwide and despite investment in controls and attention given to the problem, the instances of internal fraud has not abated. To the contrary it appears that internal fraud is on the rise especially in the wake of the economic downturn. Leadership within companies believes that the more sophisticated the controls employed the less likely it would be for employees to pilfer. This is a very antiquated view as investment in controls may not be enough to curtail internal fraud; however, ensuring that a company drives the correct culture and behavior within the organization is likely to yield desired results. This research aims to understand how creating a strong ethical culture and embedding the principle of good corporate governance impacts on levels of internal fraud with an organization (a South African Bank).

Exploring the Sources of Innovation in Food Processing SMEs of Kerala

Indian food processing industry is one of the largest in the world in terms of production, consumption, exports and growth opportunities. SMEs play a crucial role within this. Large manufacturing firms largely dominate innovation studies in India. Innovation sources used by SMEs are often different from that of large firms. This paper focuses on exploring various sources of innovation adopted by food processing SMEs in Kerala, South India. Outcome suggests that SMEs use various sources like suppliers, competitors, employees, government/research institutions and customers to get new ideas.

Modeling and Simulation for 3D Eddy Current Testing in Conducting Materials

The numerical simulation of electromagnetic interactions is still a challenging problem, especially in problems that result in fully three dimensional mathematical models. The goal of this work is to use mathematical modeling to characterize the reliability and capacity of eddy current technique to detect and characterize defects embedded in aeronautical in-service pieces. The finite element method is used for describing the eddy current technique in a mathematical model by the prediction of the eddy current interaction with defects. However, this model is an approximation of the full Maxwell equations. In this study, the analysis of the problem is based on a three dimensional finite element model that computes directly the electromagnetic field distortions due to defects.

Frequent and Systematic Timing Enhancement of Congestion Window in Typical Transmission Control Protocol

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) among the wired and wireless networks, it still has a practical problem; where the congestion control mechanism does not permit the data stream to get complete bandwidth over the existing network links. To solve this problem, many TCP protocols have been introduced with high speed performance. Therefore, an enhanced congestion window (cwnd) for the congestion control mechanism is proposed in this article to improve the performance of TCP by increasing the number of cycles of the new window to improve the transmitted packet number. The proposed algorithm used a new mechanism based on the available bandwidth of the connection to detect the capacity of network path in order to improve the regular clocking of congestion avoidance mechanism. The work in this paper based on using Network Simulator 2 (NS-2) to simulate the proposed algorithm.

Organic Contribution on Particles Formed on Pacific Ocean: From Phytoplankton Blooms to Climate

These SOAP project Pacific Ocean measurements reveal that phytoplankton blooms with sunny conditions make possible secondary organic contribution to ultrafine particles size and composition, and thus on cloud formation ability, and finally on climate. This is in agreement with other biologically active region observations about the presence of secondary organics even the exact fraction is also depending on the local marine life (e.g. plankton blooms, seaweeds, corals). An organic contribution is clearly needed to add to CLAW hypothesis.

The Contribution of Sulfate and Oxidized Organics in Climatically Important Ultrafine Particles at a Coral Reef Environment

In order to investigate the properties of coral reef origin secondary aerosol and especially the contribution of secondary organic aerosol, ethanol affinity to atmospheric nucleation mode particles (diameter

Secondary Organic Contribution to Particles Formed on the Ice Melted Arctic Ocean

Due to climate warming and consequently due to ice and snow melting of the Arctic Ocean, the highly biologically active ocean surface area has been expanding quickly making possible longer marine biota growth seasons during polar summers. That increase the probability of the remote marine environment secondary contribution, especially secondary organic contribution, to the particle production and particle growth events and particle properties, consequently effecting on the open ocean, pack ice and ground based regions radiation budget and thus on the feedbacks between arctic biota, particles, clouds, and climate.

Design of a Reduced Order Robust Convex Controller for Flight Control System

In this paper an optimal convex controller is designed to control the angle of attack of a FOXTROT aircraft. Then the order of the system model is reduced to a low-dimensional state space by using Balanced Truncation Model Reduction Technique and finally the robust stability of the reduced model of the system is tested graphically by using Kharitonov rectangle and Zero Exclusion Principle for a particular range of perturbation value. The same robust stability is tested theoretically by using Frequency Sweeping Function for robust stability.

Numerical Study on Improving Indoor Thermal Comfort Using a PCM Wall

A one-dimensional mathematical model was developed in order to analyze and optimize the latent heat storage wall. The governing equations for energy transport were developed by using the enthalpy method and discretized with volume control scheme. The resulting algebraic equations were next solved iteratively by using TDMA algorithm. A series of numerical investigations were conducted in order to examine the effects of the thickness of the PCM layer on the thermal behavior of the proposed heating system. Results are obtained for thermal gain and temperature fluctuation. The charging discharging process was also presented and analyzed.

Crack Opening Investigation in Fiberconcrete

This work had three stages. In the first stage was examined pull-out process for steel fiber was embedded into a concrete by one end and was pulled out of concrete under the angle to pulling out force direction. Angle was varied. On the obtained forcedisplacement diagrams were observed jumps. For such mechanical behavior explanation, fiber channel in concrete surface microscopical experimental investigation, using microscope KEYENCE VHX2000, was performed. At the second stage were obtained diagrams for load- crack opening displacement for breaking homogeneously reinforced and layered fiberconcrete prisms (with dimensions 10x10x40cm) subjected to 4-point bending. After testing was analyzed main crack. At the third stage elaborated prediction model for the fiberconcrete beam, failure under bending, using the following data: a) diagrams for fibers pulling out at different angles; b) experimental data about steel-straight fibers locations in the main crack. Experimental and theoretical (modeling) data were compared.

DSLEP (Data Structure Learning Platform to Aid in Higher Education IT Courses)

The advances in technology in the last five years allowed an improvement in the educational area, as the increasing in the development of educational software. One of the techniques that emerged in this lapse is called Gamification, which is the utilization of video game mechanics outside its bounds. Recent studies involving this technique provided positive results in the application of these concepts in many areas as marketing, health and education. In the last area there are studies that covers from elementary to higher education, with many variations to adequate to the educators methodologies. Among higher education, focusing on IT courses, data structures are an important subject taught in many of these courses, as they are base for many systems. Based on the exposed this paper exposes the development of an interactive web learning environment, called DSLEP (Data Structure Learning Platform), to aid students in higher education IT courses. The system includes basic concepts seen on this subject such as stacks, queues, lists, arrays, trees and was implemented to ease the insertion of new structures. It was also implemented with gamification concepts, such as points, levels, and leader boards, to engage students in the search for knowledge and stimulate self-learning.

Designing an Optimal Safe Layout for a Fuel Storage Tanks Farm: Case Study of Jaipur Oil Depot

Storage tank farms are essential industrial facilities to accumulate oil, petrochemicals and gaseous products. Since tank farms contain huge mass of fuel and hazardous materials, they are always targets of serious accidents such as fire, explosion, spill and toxic release which may cause severe impacts on human health, environmental and properties. Although having a safe layout is not able to prevent initiating accidents, however it effectively controls and reduces the adverse impact of such accidents. The aim of this paper is to determine the optimal layout for a storage tank contains different type of hydrocarbon fuels. A quantitative risk assessment is carried out on a selected tank farm in Jaipur, India, with particular attention given to both the consequence modeling and the overall risk assessment using PHAST Software. Various designs of tank layouts are examined taking into consideration several issues of plant operations and maintenance. In all stages of the work, standard guidelines specified by the industry are considered and recommendations are substantiated with simulation results and risk quantification.

Optimization of Artificial Ageing Time and Temperature on Evaluation of Hardness and Resistivity of Al-Si-Mg (Cu or/& Ni) Alloys

The factors necessary to obtain an optimal heat treatment that influence the hardness and resistivity of Al-6Si-0.5Mg casting alloys with Cu or/and Ni additions were investigated. The alloys were homogenised (24hr at 500oC), solutionized (2hr at 540oC) and artificially ageing at various times and temperatures. The alloys were aged isochronally for 60 minutes at temperatures up to 400oC and isothermally at 150, 175, 200, 225, 250 & 300oC for different periods in the range 15 to 360 minutes. The hardness and electrical resistivity of the alloys were measured for various artificial ageing times and temperatures. From the isochronal ageing treatment, hardness found maximum ageing at 225oC. And from the isothermal ageing treatment, hardness found maximum for 60 minutes at 225oC. So the optimal heat treatment consists of 60 minutes ageing at 225oC.

On the Relationship between Language Output and Second Language Acquisition

Many researchers have been discussing the importance of language input in second language acquisition. The author holds that the bigger problem lies in how to activate language learners' language knowledge and raise their language output consciousness and competence. Analyzing the importance of language output based on theory and reality, this paper mainly explores the essence of language output and its revelation for second language acquisition in order to make second language learners really raise their communicative competence.

Dynamic Analysis of Transmission Line Towers

The transmission line towers are one of the important life line structures in the distribution of power from the source to the various places for several purposes. The predominant external loads which act on these towers are wind and earthquake loads. In this present study tower is analyzed using Indian Standards IS: 875:1987(Wind Load), IS: 802:1995(Structural steel), IS:1893:2002 (Earthquake) and dynamic analysis of tower has been performed considering ground motion of 2001 Bhuj Earthquake (India). The dynamic analysis was performed considering a tower system consisting two towers spaced 800m apart and 35m height each. This analysis has been performed using numerical time stepping finite difference method which is central difference method were employed by a developed MATLAB program to get the normalized ground motion parameters includes acceleration, frequency, velocity which are important in designing the tower. The tower is analyzed using response spectrum analysis.

The Existence of Field Corn Networks on the Thailand-Burma Border under the Patron-Client Contract Farming System

This study aimed to investigate the existence of field corn networks on the Thailand-Burma border under the patron-client contract farming system. The data of this qualitative study were collected through in-depth interviews with nine key informants. The results of the study revealed that the existence of the field corn networks was associated with the relationship where farmers had to share their crops with protectors in the areas under the influence of the KNU (Karen National Union) and the DKBA (Democratic Karen Buddhist Army) or Burmese soldiers. A Mae Liang, the person who starts a network has a connection with a Thaokae, Luk Rai Hua Chai or the head of a group of farmers, and farmers. They are under the patron-client system with trust and loyalty that enable the head of the group and the farmers in the Burma border side to remain under the same Mae Liang even though the business has been passed down to later generations.