Abstract: The Internet has become an indispensable part of our lives. Witnessing recent web-based mass collaboration, e.g. Wikipedia, people are questioning whether the Internet has made fundamental changes to the society or whether it is merely a hyperbolic fad. It has long been assumed that collective action for a certain goal yields the problem of free-riding, due to its non-exclusive and non-rival characteristics. Then, thanks to recent technological advances, the on-line space experienced the following changes that enabled it to produce public goods: 1) decrease in the cost of production or coordination 2) externality from networked structure 3) production function which integrates both self-interest and altruism. However, this research doubts the homogeneity of on-line mass collaboration and argues that a more sophisticated and systematical approach is required. The alternative that we suggest is to connect the characteristics of the goal to the motivation. Despite various approaches, previous literature fails to recognize that motivation can be structurally restricted by the characteristic of the goal. First we draw a typology of on-line mass collaboration with 'the extent of expected beneficiary' and 'the existence of externality', and then we examine each combination of motivation using Benkler-s framework. Finally, we explore and connect such typology with its possible dominant participating motivation.
Abstract: The study of the variability of the postural strategies
in low back pain patients, as a criterion in evaluation of the
adaptability of this system to the environmental demands is the
purpose of this study. A cross-sectional case-control study was
performed on 21 recurrent non-specific low back pain patients and 21
healthy volunteers. The electromyography activity of Deltoid,
External Oblique (EO), Transverse Abdominis/Internal Oblique
(TrA/IO) and Erector Spine (ES) muscles of each person was
recorded in 75 rapid arm flexion with maximum acceleration.
Standard deviation of trunk muscles onset relative to deltoid muscle
onset were statistically analyzed by MANOVA . The results show
that chronic low back pain patients exhibit less variability in their
anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) in comparison with the
control group. There is a decrease in variability of postural control
system of recurrent non-specific low back pain patients that can
result in the persistence of pain and chronicity by decreasing the
adaptability to environmental demands.
Abstract: The use of Electronic Commerce (EC)
technologies enables Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to improve their efficiency and competitive position. Much of the literature proposes an extensive set of benefits for
organizations that choose to adopt and implement ECommerce
systems. Factors of Business –to-business (B2B)
E-Commerce adoption and implementation have been
extensively investigated. Despite enormous attention given to encourage Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to adopt and
implement E-Commerce, little research has been carried out in identifying the factors of Business-to-Consumer ECommerce adoption and implementation for SMEs. To conduct the study, Tornatsky and Fleischer model was adopted
and tested in four SMEs located in Christchurch, New
Zealand. This paper explores the factors that impact the
decision and method of adoption and implementation of ECommerce
systems in automobile industry. Automobile
industry was chosen because the product they deal with i.e.
cars are not a common commodity to be sold online, despite this fact the eCommerce penetration in automobile industry is
high. The factors that promote adoption and implementation of
E-Commerce technologies are discussed, together with the
barriers. This study will help SME owners to effectively
handle the adoption and implementation process and will also
improve the chance of successful E-Commerce
implementation. The implications of the findings for
managers, consultants, and government organizations engaged in promoting E-Commerce adoption and implementation in
small businesses and future research are discussed.
Abstract: An experiment was conducted with 80 unsexed
broilers of the Arbor Acress strain to determine the capability of a
carrot and fruit juice wastes mixture (carrot, apple, manggo, avocado,
orange, melon and Dutch egg plant) in the same proportion for
replacing corn in broiler diet. This study involved a completely
randomized design (CRD) with 5 treatments (0, 5, 10, 15, and 20% of
juice wastes mixture in diets) and 4 replicates per treatment. Diets
were isonitrogenous (22% crude protein) and isocaloric (3000 kcal/kg
diet). Measured variables were feed consumption, average daily
gain, feed conversion, as well as percentages of abdominal fat pad,
carcass, digestive organs (liver, pancreas and gizzard), and heart.
Data were analyzed by analysis of variance for CRD. Increasing
juice wastes mixture levels in diets increased feed consumption
(P
Abstract: Numerous concrete structures projects are currently running in Libya as part of a US$50 billion government funding. The
quality of concrete used in 20 different construction projects were assessed based mainly on the concrete compressive strength achieved. The projects are scattered all over the country and are at
various levels of completeness. For most of these projects, the
concrete compressive strength was obtained from test results of a
150mm standard cube mold. Statistical analysis of collected concrete
compressive strengths reveals that the data in general followed a
normal distribution pattern. The study covers comparison and assessment of concrete quality aspects such as: quality control, strength range, data standard deviation, data scatter, and ratio of minimum strength to design strength. Site quality control for these projects ranged from very good to poor according to ACI214 criteria [1]. The ranges (Rg) of the strength (max. strength – min. strength) divided by average strength are from (34% to 160%). Data scatter is
measured as the range (Rg) divided by standard deviation () and is
found to be (1.82 to 11.04), indicating that the range is ±3σ.
International construction companies working in Libya follow
different assessment criteria for concrete compressive strength in lieu
of national unified procedure. The study reveals that assessments of
concrete quality conducted by these construction companies usually
meet their adopted (internal) standards, but sometimes fail to meet
internationally known standard requirements. The assessment of
concrete presented in this paper is based on ACI, British standards
and proposed Libyan concrete strength assessment criteria.
Abstract: This paper describes the design and fabrication of a clock and data recovery circuit (CDR). We propose a new clock and data recovery which is based on a 1/4-rate frequency detector (QRFD). The proposed frequency detector helps reduce the VCO frequency and is thus advantageous for high speed application. The proposed frequency detector can achieve low jitter operation and extend the pull-in range without using the reference clock. The proposed CDR was implemented using a 1/4-rate bang-bang type phase detector (PD) and a ring voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). The CDR circuit has been fabricated in a standard 0.18 CMOS technology. It occupies an active area of 1 x 1 and consumes 90 mW from a single 1.8V supply.
Abstract: As emails communications have no consistent
authentication procedure to ensure the authenticity, we present an
investigation analysis approach for detecting forged emails based on
Random Forests and Naïve Bays classifiers. Instead of investigating
the email headers, we use the body content to extract a unique writing
style for all the possible suspects. Our approach consists of four main
steps: (1) The cybercrime investigator extract different effective
features including structural, lexical, linguistic, and syntactic
evidence from previous emails for all the possible suspects, (2) The
extracted features vectors are normalized to increase the accuracy
rate. (3) The normalized features are then used to train the learning
engine, (4) upon receiving the anonymous email (M); we apply the
feature extraction process to produce a feature vector. Finally, using
the machine learning classifiers the email is assigned to one of the
suspects- whose writing style closely matches M. Experimental
results on real data sets show the improved performance of the
proposed method and the ability of identifying the authors with a
very limited number of features.
Abstract: The Bayesian Optimization Algorithm (BOA) is an algorithm based on the estimation of distributions. It uses techniques from modeling data by Bayesian networks to estimating the joint distribution of promising solutions. To obtain the structure of Bayesian network, different search algorithms can be used. The key point that BOA addresses is whether the constructed Bayesian network could generate new and useful solutions (strings), which could lead the algorithm in the right direction to solve the problem. Undoubtedly, this ability is a crucial factor of the efficiency of BOA. Varied search algorithms can be used in BOA, but their performances are different. For choosing better ones, certain suitable method to present their ability difference is needed. In this paper, a greedy search algorithm and a stochastic search algorithm are used in BOA to solve certain optimization problem. A method using Kullback-Leibler (KL) Divergence to reflect their difference is described.
Abstract: This paper presents the visual control flow support of Visual Modeling and Transformation System (VMTS), which facilitates composing complex model transformations out of simple transformation steps and executing them. The VMTS Visual Control Flow Language (VCFL) uses stereotyped activity diagrams to specify control flow structures and OCL constraints to choose between different control flow branches. This work discusses the termination properties of VCFL and provides an algorithm to support the termination analysis of VCFL transformations.
Abstract: The objective of this research was to find the
relationship between auspicious meaning in eastern wisdom and the
interpretation as a guideline for the design and development of
community souvenirs. The sample group included 400 customers in
Bangkok who used to buy community souvenir products. The
information was applied to design the souvenirs which were
considered for the appropriateness by 5 design specialists. The data
were analyzed to find frequency, percentage, and SD with the results
as follows. 1) The best factor referring to the auspicious meaning is
color. The application of auspicious meaning can make the value
added to the product and bring the fortune to the receivers. 2) The
effectiveness of the auspicious meaning integration on the design of
community souvenir product was in high level. When considering in
each aspect, it was found that the interpretation aspect was in high
level, the congruency of the auspicious meaning and the utility of the
product was in high level. The attractiveness and the good design
were in very high level while the potential of the value added in the
product design was in high level. The suitable application to the
design of community souvenir product was in high level.
Abstract: Malware is software which was invented and meant for doing harms on computers. Malware is becoming a significant threat in computer network nowadays. Malware attack is not just only involving financial lost but it can also cause fatal errors which may cost lives in some cases. As new Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) emerged, many people believe this protocol could solve most malware propagation issues due to its broader addressing scheme. As IPv6 is still new compares to native IPv4, some transition mechanisms have been introduced to promote smoother migration. Unfortunately, these transition mechanisms allow some malwares to propagate its attack from IPv4 to IPv6 network environment. In this paper, a proof of concept shall be presented in order to show that some existing IPv4 malware detection technique need to be improvised in order to detect malware attack in dual-stack network more efficiently. A testbed of dual-stack network environment has been deployed and some genuine malware have been released to observe their behaviors. The results between these different scenarios will be analyzed and discussed further in term of their behaviors and propagation methods. The results show that malware behave differently on IPv6 from the IPv4 network protocol on the dual-stack network environment. A new detection technique is called for in order to cater this problem in the near future.
Abstract: The major urban centers are all facing rapid growth is
most often associated with spreading urbanization, social status of the
car has also changed: it has become a commodity of mass
consumption. There are currently about 5 million and 260 cars in
Algeria (2008), this number increases every year 200,000 new cars.
These phenomena induce a demand for greater mobility and a
significant need for transport infrastructure. Faced with these
problems and development of the growing use of the automobile,
central governments and local authorities in charge of urban transport
issues are aware of the need to develop their urban transport systems
but often lack opportunities.
Urban Transport Plans (PDU) were born in reaction to the "culture
of automobile." Their existence in the world the '80s, however, they
had little success before laws on air and rational use of energy in 90
years does not alter substantially their content and make mandatory
their implementation in cities of over 100,000 inhabitants (Abroad)
[1].
The objective of this work is to use the tool and specifically
Geomatics techniques as decision support in the organization and
management of travel while taking into consideration the influence,
which will then translate by National Urban Transport Plan.
Abstract: In the 21. century it comes true, that competitiveness of the firm is - to a considerable level - influenced by its participation in the chain of suppliers, customers and partners and by the way how the subject cooperates in the chain. This is valid also for new forms of enterprise such as virtual organization or virtual firm. In the first part of the paper there are determined the differences between these forms of enterprise. Another part will bring methodological framework for analysis of the factors, that influence the competitiveness of the virtual organization from spontaneity and order point of view.
Abstract: Abrasive waterjet cutting (AWJ) is a highly efficient
method for cutting almost any type of material. When holes shall be
cut the waterjet first needs to pierce the material.This paper presents a
vast experimental analysis of piercing parameters effect on piercing
time. Results from experimentation on feed rates, work piece
thicknesses, abrasive flow rates, standoff distances and water
pressure are also presented as well as studies on three methods for
dynamic piercing. It is shown that a large amount of time and
resources can be saved by choosing the piercing parameters in a
correct way. The large number of experiments puts demands on the
experimental setup. An automated experimental setup including
piercing detection is presented to enable large series of experiments
to be carried out efficiently.
Abstract: This paper describes a novel monitoring scheme to
minimize total active power in digital circuits depend on the demand
frequency, by adjusting automatically both supply voltage and
threshold voltages based on circuit operating conditions such as
temperature, process variations, and desirable frequency. The delay
monitoring results, will be control and apply so as to be maintained at
the minimum value at which the chip is able to operate for a given
clock frequency. Design details of power monitor are examined using
simulation framework in 32nm BTPM model CMOS process.
Experimental results show the overhead of proposed circuit in terms
of its power consumption is about 40 μW for 32nm technology;
moreover the results show that our proposed circuit design is not far
sensitive to the temperature variations and also process variations.
Besides, uses the simple blocks which offer good sensitivity, high
speed, the continuously feedback loop. This design provides up to
40% reduction in power consumption in active mode.
Abstract: The scientific perspective, the practice area of physical education and sports activities improve power capacity in all its forms of expression, being a generator of the research topics. Today theories that strength training athletes and slow down development progress will affect the strength and flexibility are discredited. On the other hand there are sectors and / or samples whose results are sports of the way higher manifestation of power as a result of the composition of the force and velocity, being based in this respect on the systematic and continuous development of both bio-motric capacities said. Training of force for children was and is controversial. Teama de accidentări sau a stopării premature a procesului de creştere a făcut ca în trecut copiii să fie ţinuţi departe de lucrul cu diferite greutăţi.Fear of injury or premature stop the growth process in the past made the children to be kept away from working with different weights. Recent studies have shown that the risk of accidents is relatively small and the strength training can help prevent them. For example, most accidents occur at the level of athletics ligaments and tendons. From this point of view, it can be said that a progressive intervention of force training, optimal design, will help enhancing their process, such as athlete much better prepared to meet training requests and competitions. Preparation of force provides a solid basis for further phases in the highest performance.
Abstract: The tree structured approach of non-uniform filterbank
(NUFB) is normally used in perfect reconstruction (PR). The PR is
not always feasible due to certain limitations, i.e, constraints in
selecting design parameters, design complexity and some times
output is severely affected by aliasing error if necessary and
sufficient conditions of PR is not satisfied perfectly. Therefore, there
has been generalized interest of researchers to go for near perfect
reconstruction (NPR). In this proposed work, an optimized tree
structure technique is used for the design of NPR non-uniform
filterbank. Window functions of Blackman family are used to design
the prototype FIR filter. A single variable linear optimization is used
to minimize the amplitude distortion. The main feature of the
proposed design is its simplicity with linear phase property.
Abstract: Authentication of multimedia contents has gained much attention in recent times. In this paper, we propose a secure semi-fragile watermarking, with a choice of two watermarks to be embedded. This technique operates in integer wavelet domain and makes use of semi fragile watermarks for achieving better robustness. A self-recovering algorithm is employed, that hides the image digest into some Wavelet subbands to detect possible malevolent object manipulation undergone by the image (object replacing and/or deletion). The Semi-fragility makes the scheme tolerant for JPEG lossy compression as low as quality of 70%, and locate the tempered area accurately. In addition, the system ensures more security because the embedded watermarks are protected with private keys. The computational complexity is reduced using parameterized integer wavelet transform. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme guarantees the safety of watermark, image recovery and location of the tempered area accurately.
Abstract: Open urban public spaces comprise an important
element for the development of social, cultural and economic
activities of the population in the modern cities. These spaces are also
considered regulators of the region-s climate conditions, providing
better thermal, visual and auditory conditions which can be optimized
by the application of appropriate strategies of bioclimatic design. The
paper focuses on the analysis and evaluation of the recent unification
of the open spaces in the centre of Xanthi, a medium – size city in
northern Greece, from a bioclimatic perspective, as well as in the
creation of suitable methodology. It is based both on qualitative
observation of the interventions by fieldwork research and
assessment and on quantitative analysis and modeling of the research
area.
Abstract: The Expert Witness Testimony in the Battered
Woman Syndrome Expert witness testimony (EWT) is a kind of
information given by an expert specialized in the field (here in BWS)
to the jury in order to help the court better understand the case. EWT
does not always work in favor of the battered women. Two main
decision-making models are discussed in the paper: the Mathematical
model and the Explanation model. In the first model, the jurors
calculate ″the importance and strength of each piece of evidence″
whereas in the second model they try to integrate the EWT with the
evidence and create a coherent story that would describe the crime.
The jury often misunderstands and misjudges battered women for
their action (or in this case inaction). They assume that these women
are masochists and accept being mistreated for if a man abuses a
woman constantly, she should and could divorce him or simply leave
at any time. The research in the domain found that indeed, expert
witness testimony has a powerful influence on juror’s decisions thus
its quality needs to be further explored. One of the important factors
that need further studies is a bias called the dispositionist worldview
(a belief that what happens to people is of their own doing). This
kind of attributional bias represents a tendency to think that a
person’s behavior is due to his or her disposition, even when the
behavior is clearly attributed to the situation. Hypothesis The
hypothesis of this paper is that if a juror has a dispositionist
worldview then he or she will blame the rape victim for triggering the
assault. The juror would therefore commit the fundamental
attribution error and believe that the victim’s disposition caused the
rape and not the situation she was in. Methods The subjects in the
study were 500 randomly sampled undergraduate students from
McGill, Concordia, Université de Montréal and UQAM.
Dispositional Worldview was scored on the Dispositionist
Worldview Questionnaire. After reading the Rape Scenarios, each
student was asked to play the role of a juror and answer a
questionnaire consisting of 7 questions about the responsibility,
causality and fault of the victim. Results The results confirm the
hypothesis which states that if a juror has a dispositionist worldview
then he or she will blame the rape victim for triggering the assault.
By doing so, the juror commits the fundamental attribution error
because he will believe that the victim’s disposition, and not the
constraints or opportunities of the situation, caused the rape scenario.