The Using of Rasch-Model in Validating the Arabic Version of Multiple Intelligence Development Assessment Scale (MIDAS)

This article addresses the procedures to validate the Arabic version of Multiple Intelligence Development Assessment Scale (MIDAS). The content validity was examined based on the experts- judgments on the MIDAS-s items in the Arabic version. The content of eleven items in the Arabic version of MIDAS was modified to match the Arabic context. Then a translation from original English version of MIDAS into Arabic language was performed. The reliability of the Arabic MIDAS was calculated based on test and retest method and found to be 0.85 for the overall MIDAS and for the different subscales ranging between 0.78 - 0.87. The examination of construct validity for the overall Arabic MIDAS and its subscales was established by using Winsteps program version 6 based on Rasch model in order to fit the items into the Arabic context. The findings indicated that, the eight subscales in Arabic version of MIDAS scale have a unidimensionality, and the total number of kept items in the overall scale is 108 items.

A Strategy for Address Coding from HouseHold Registry Database

Address Matching is an important application of Geographic Information System (GIS). Prior to Address Matching working, obtaining X,Y coordinates is necessary, which process is calling Address Geocoding. This study will illustrate the effective address geocoding process of using household registry database, and the check system for geocoded address.

Effect of Addition of Separan at Different Concentrations as a Flocculants on Quality of Sugar Cane Juice

The study was designed to evaluate the use of low concentrations of separan flocculent (Less than 3 ppm) on physicochemical properties of sugar cane juice. Colour, pH, purity, turbidity, pol, brix, reducing sugars tannins and polyphenols of crushed cane (green and burned) juice, mixed juice and clarified juice were studied. The results showed that pol, brix, reducing sugar and turbidity are higher in crushed cane juice. Clarified burned juice had low turbidity, reducing sugars, pol and brix but had significantly lower pH, purity and colour when compared to crushed juice. Polyphenols of the crushed juice (1.19%) decreased significantly in the clarified juice to 0.006%. Addition of separan at a concentration of 0.015 ppm reduced significantly colour, polyphenols and tannins and reducing sugar compared to the control.

Estimating Enzyme Kinetic Parameters from Apparent KMs and Vmaxs

The kinetic properties of enzymes are often reported using the apparent KM and Vmax appropriate to the standard Michaelis-Menten enzyme. However, this model is inappropriate to enzymes that have more than one substrate or where the rate expression does not apply for other reasons. Consequently, it is desirable to have a means of estimating the appropriate kinetic parameters from the apparent values of KM and Vmax reported for each substrate. We provide a means of estimating the range within which the parameters should lie and apply the method to data for glutamate dehydrogenase from the nematode parasite of sheep Teladorsagia circumcincta.

Effect of Strain and Storage Period on Some Qualitative and Quantitative Traits of Table Eggs

This study include the effect of strain and storage period and their interaction on some quantitative and qualitative traits and percentages of the egg components in the eggs collected at the start of production (at age 24 weeks). Eggs were divided into three storage periods (1, 7 and 14) days under refrigerator temperature (5- 7)0C. Fifty seven eggs obtained randomly from each strain including Isa Brown and Lohman White. General Linear Model within SAS programme was used to analyze the collected data and correlations between the studied traits were calculated for each strain.Average egg weight (EW), Haugh Unit (HU), yolk index (YI), yolk % (HP), albumin % (AP) and yolk to albumin ratio (YAR) was 56.629 gm, 87.968 %, 0.493, 22.13%, 67.74% and 32.76 respectively. Egg produced from ISA Brown surpassed those produced by Lohman White significantly (P

Exploring the Effects of Top Managements Commitment on Knowledge Management Success in Academia: A Case Study

In this paper the effects of top management commitment on knowledge management activities has been analyzed. This research has been conducted as a case study in an academic environment. The data collection was carried out in the form of semi-structured interview with an interview guide. This study shows the effects of knowledge management strategic plan developing in academia strategic plan on knowledge management success. This paper shows the importance top management commitment factors including strategic plan, communication, and training on knowledge management success in academia. In particular the most important role of Strategic planning in knowledge management success is clarified. This study explores one of the necessary organizational infrastructures of successful implementation of knowledge management. The idea of this research could be applied in the other context especially in the industrial organizations.

Implementation of SSL Using Information Security Component Interface

Various security APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are being used in a variety of application areas requiring the information security function. However, these standards are not compatible, and the developer must use those APIs selectively depending on the application environment or the programming language. To resolve this problem, we propose the standard draft of the information security component, while SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) using the confidentiality and integrity component interface has been implemented to verify validity of the standard proposal. The implemented SSL uses the lower-level SSL component when establishing the RMI (Remote Method Invocation) communication between components, as if the security algorithm had been implemented by adding one more layer on the TCP/IP.

Efficient Program Slicing Algorithms for Measuring Functional Cohesion and Parallelism

Program slicing is the task of finding all statements in a program that directly or indirectly influence the value of a variable occurrence. The set of statements that can affect the value of a variable at some point in a program is called a program slice. In several software engineering applications, such as program debugging and measuring program cohesion and parallelism, several slices are computed at different program points. In this paper, algorithms are introduced to compute all backward and forward static slices of a computer program by traversing the program representation graph once. The program representation graph used in this paper is called Program Dependence Graph (PDG). We have conducted an experimental comparison study using 25 software modules to show the effectiveness of the introduced algorithm for computing all backward static slices over single-point slicing approaches in computing the parallelism and functional cohesion of program modules. The effectiveness of the algorithm is measured in terms of time execution and number of traversed PDG edges. The comparison study results indicate that using the introduced algorithm considerably saves the slicing time and effort required to measure module parallelism and functional cohesion.

Ideological Tendencies of the Teachers about the Causes of Vandalism in Schools and Solution Proposals

Aggression is a behavior that cannot be approved by the society. Vandalism which is aggression towards objects is an action that tends to damage public or personal property. The behaviors that are described as vandalism can often be observed in the schools as well. According to Zwier and Vaughan (1) previous research about the reasons of and precautionary measures for vandalism in schools can be grouped in three tendency categories: conservative, liberal and radical. In this context, the main aim of this study is to discover which ideological tendency of the reasons of school vandalism is adopted by the teachers and what are their physical, environmental, school system and societal solutions for vandalism. A total of 200 teachers participated in this study, and the mean age was 34.20 years (SD = 6.54). The sample was made up of 109 females and 91 males. For the analysis of the data, SPSS 15.00, frequency, percentage, and t-test were used. The research showed that the teachers have tendencies in the order of conservative, liberal and radical for the reasons of vandalism. The research also showed that the teachers do not have any tendency for eliminating vandalism physically and general solutions on the level of society; on the other hand they mostly adopt a conservative tendency in terms of precautions against vandalism in the school system. Second most, they adopt the liberal tendency in terms of precautions against vandalism in the school system. . It is observed that the findings of this study are comparable to the existing literature on the subject. Future studies should be conducted with multiple variants and bigger sampling.

Design of Tracking Controllers for Medical Equipment Holders Using AHRS and MEMS Sensors

There are various kinds of medical equipment which requires relatively accurate positional adjustments for successful treatment. However, patients tend to move without notice during a certain span of operations. Therefore, it is common practice that accompanying operators adjust the focus of the equipment. In this paper, tracking controllers for medical equipment are suggested to replace the operators. The tracking controllers use AHRS sensor information to recognize the movements of patients. Sensor fusion is applied to reducing the error magnitudes through linear Kalman filters. The image processing of optical markers is included to adjust the accumulation errors of gyroscope sensor data especially for yaw angles. The tracking controller reduces the positional errors between the current focus of a device and the target position on the body of a patient. Since the sensing frequencies of AHRS sensors are very high compared to the physical movements, the control performance is satisfactory. The typical applications are, for example, ESWT or rTMS, which have the error ranges of a few centimeters.

Tractive Performance Prediction for Intelligent Air-Cushion Track Vehicle: Fuzzy Logic Approach

Fuzzy logic approach is used in this study to predict the tractive performance in terms of traction force, and motion resistance for an intelligent air cushion track vehicle while it operates in the swamp peat. The system is effective to control the intelligent air –cushion system with measuring the vehicle traction force (TF), motion resistance (MR), cushion clearance height (CH) and cushion pressure (CP). Sinkage measuring sensor, magnetic switch, pressure sensor, micro controller, control valves and battery are incorporated with the Fuzzy logic system (FLS) to investigate experimentally the TF, MR, CH, and CP. In this study, a comparison for tractive performance of an intelligent air cushion track vehicle has been performed with the results obtained from the predicted values of FLS and experimental actual values. The mean relative error of actual and predicted values from the FLS model on traction force, and total motion resistance are found as 5.58 %, and 6.78 % respectively. For all parameters, the relative error of predicted values are found to be less than the acceptable limits. The goodness of fit of the prediction values from the FLS model on TF, and MR are found as 0.90, and 0.98 respectively.

Experimental Study of Open Water Non-Series Marine Propeller Performance

Later marine propeller is the main component of ship propulsion system. For a non-series propeller, it is difficult to indicate the open water marine propeller performance without an experimental study to measure the marine propeller parameters. In the present study, the open water performance of a non-series marine propeller has been carried out experimentally. The geometrical aspects of a commercial non-series marine propeller have been measured for a propeller blade area ratio of 0.3985. The measured propeller performance parameters were the thrust and torque coefficients for different propeller rotational speed and different water channel flow velocity, then the open water performance for the propeller has been plotted. In addition, a direct comparison between the obtained experimental results and a theoretical study of a B-series marine propeller of the same blade area ratio has been carried out. A correction factor has been introduced to apply the operating conditions of the experimental results to that of the theoretical study for the studied marine propeller.

Implemented 5-bit 125-MS/s Successive Approximation Register ADC on FPGA

Implemented 5-bit 125-MS/s successive approximation register (SAR) analog to digital converter (ADC) on FPGA is presented in this paper.The design and modeling of a high performance SAR analog to digital converter are based on monotonic capacitor switching procedure algorithm .Spartan 3 FPGA is chosen for implementing SAR analog to digital converter algorithm. SAR VHDL program writes in Xilinx and modelsim uses for showing results.

Milling Chatter Prevention by Adaptive Spindle Speed Tuning

This paper presents how the real-time chatter prevention can be realized by feedback of acoustic cutting signal, and the efficacy of the proposed adaptive spindle speed tuning algorithm is verified by intensive experimental simulations. A pair of microphones, perpendicular to each other, is used to acquire the acoustic cutting signal resulting from milling chatter. A real-time feedback control loop is constructed for spindle speed compensation so that the milling process can be ensured to be within the stability zone of stability lobe diagram. Acoustic Chatter Signal Index (ACSI) and Spindle Speed Compensation Strategy (SSCS) are proposed to quantify the acoustic signal and actively tune the spindle speed respectively. By converting the acoustic feedback signal into ACSI, an appropriate Spindle Speed Compensation Rate (SSCR) can be determined by SSCS based on real-time chatter level or ACSI. Accordingly, the compensation command, referred to as Added-On Voltage (AOV), is applied to increase/decrease the spindle motor speed. By inspection on the precision and quality of the workpiece surface after milling, the efficacy of the real-time chatter prevention strategy via acoustic signal feedback is further assured.

Zno Nanocomposites: Control of Enviromental Effects for Preservation of old Manuscripts

We investigate the ZnO role in the inherent protection of old manuscripts to protect them against environmental damaging effect of ultraviolet radiation, pollutant gasses, mold and bacteria. In this study a cellulosic nanocomposite of ZnO were used as protective coating on the surface of paper fibers. This layered nanocomposite can act as a consolidate materials too. Furthermore, to determine how well paper works screen objects from the damaging effects, two accelerated aging mechanisms due to light and heat are discussed. Results show good stability of papers with nanocomposite coating. Also, a good light stability was shown in the colored paper that treated with this nanocomposite. Furthermore, to demonstrate the degree of antifungal and antibacterial properties of coated papers, papers was treated with four common molds and bacteria and the good preventive effects of coated paper against molds and bacteria are described.

Estimating Word Translation Probabilities for Thai – English Machine Translation using EM Algorithm

Selecting the word translation from a set of target language words, one that conveys the correct sense of source word and makes more fluent target language output, is one of core problems in machine translation. In this paper we compare the 3 methods of estimating word translation probabilities for selecting the translation word in Thai – English Machine Translation. The 3 methods are (1) Method based on frequency of word translation, (2) Method based on collocation of word translation, and (3) Method based on Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm. For evaluation we used Thai – English parallel sentences generated by NECTEC. The method based on EM algorithm is the best method in comparison to the other methods and gives the satisfying results.

The Relationship between Knowledge Management Strategy and Information Technology Strategy

Recently, a great number of theoretical frameworks have been proposed to develop the linkages between knowledge management (KM) and organizational strategies. However, while there has been much theorizing and case study in the area, validated research models integrating KM and information technology strategies for empirical testing of these theories have been scarce. In this research, we try to develop a research model for explaining the relationship between KM strategy and IT strategy and their effects on performance. Finally, meaningful propositions and conclusions are derived, and suggestions for future research are proposed and discussed.

Tropical Peat Soil Stabilization using Class F Pond Ash from Coal Fired Power Plant

This paper presents the stabilization potential of Class F pond ash (PA) from a coal fired thermal power station on tropical peat soil. Peat or highly organic soils are well known for their high compressibility, natural moisture content, low shear strength and long-term settlement. This study investigates the effect of different amount (i.e., 5, 10, 15 and 20%) of PA on peat soil, collected from Sarawak, Malaysia, mainly compaction and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) properties. The amounts of PA added to the peat soil sample as percentage of the dry peat soil mass. With the increase in PA content, the maximum dry density (MDD) of peat soil increases, while the optimum moisture content (OMC) decreases. The UCS value of the peat soils increases significantly with the increase of PA content and also with curing periods. This improvement on compressive strength of tropical peat soils indicates that PA has the potential to be used as a stabilizer for tropical peat soil. Also, the use of PA in soil stabilization helps in reducing the pond volume and achieving environment friendly as well as a sustainable development of natural resources.

Determinants of Aggression among Young Adolescents

Aggression is a multi- factorial concept and multilevel in nature. The Young Adolescent is being influenced by family, school and community. This paper is aimed to determine the following: aggression level among young adolescents, difference of level of aggression on school and year levels and to determine the correlates of aggression. There were 142 high school students from two different national highs schools (Region 3 and National Capital Region).Convenience sampling was use in this study. The following measures were used namely: Aggression Scale, Parental Support Fighting Scale, Positive Behavior Scale and Exposure to Violence and Trauma questionnaire. There was no significant difference in aggression level among different year level and schools. The findings of the study suggested that high level of community violence and having low parental support for non-aggressive behavior contribute to the prediction of aggression.

Kinetic Energy Recovery System Using Spring

New advancement of technology and never satisfying demands of the civilization are putting huge pressure on the natural fuel resources and these resources are at a constant threat to its sustainability. To get the best out of the automobile, the optimum balance between performance and fuel economy is important. In the present state of art, either of the above two aspects are taken into mind while designing and development process which puts the other in the loss as increase in fuel economy leads to decrement in performance and vice-versa. In-depth observation of the vehicle dynamics apparently shows that large amount of energy is lost during braking and likewise large amount of fuel is consumed to reclaim the initial state, this leads to lower fuel efficiency to gain the same performance. Current use of Kinetic Energy Recovery System is only limited to sports vehicles only because of the higher cost of this system. They are also temporary in nature as power can be squeezed only during a small time duration and use of superior parts leads to high cost, which results on concentration on performance only and neglecting the fuel economy. In this paper Kinetic Energy Recovery System for storing the power and then using the same while accelerating has been discussed. The major storing element in this system is a Flat Spiral Spring that will store energy by compression and torsion. The use of spring ensure the permanent storage of energy until used by the driver unlike present mechanical regeneration system in which the energy stored decreases with time and is eventually lost. A combination of internal gears and spur gears will be used in order to make the energy release uniform which will lead to safe usage. The system can be used to improve the fuel efficiency by assisting in overcoming the vehicle’s inertia after braking or to provide instant acceleration whenever required by the driver. The performance characteristics of the system including response time, mechanical efficiency and overall increase in efficiency are demonstrated. This technology makes the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) more flexible and economical allowing specific application while at the same time increasing the time frame and ease of usage.