Abstract: This study realizes an empirical investigation of main factors to develop an accounting career, stereotypes on accountants and accounting and perceptions on future career path for a sample of master students in accounting. The research provides some insight into what master students consider when choosing their future career paths. The most important two reasons chosen by students were “career opportunities" and “future earnings. They see accounting as structured, governed by conformity, requiring skills in working with numbers, monotonous, accurate, more efficient than effective but also absorbing, interesting and involving a certain degree of novelty. Although these students plan to start their careers in a multinational or accounting/audit firm, most of those plan to leave after five years. It resulted that women value more flexibility and time requiring special attention in retention policies practiced by firms.
Abstract: Islamic banking is one the most blossoming doctrine in
economic system of the world. The Fast growing awareness about
Islamic financial system has brought strong feeling to Muslims to
confront the western interest-based economic cycle. The Islamic
economic system is emerging as a reliable alternative to the interest
based system. This study is proposed to ascertain the motivational
factors encouraging people to go for Islamic banking in Pakistan.
These pulsing factors are determined by generation of hypothesis that
there are certain factors which are urging people to opt Islamic
banking system and to see the differences in their ranking by applying
Friedman test. These factors include: Economically derived factors
such as stability of Islamic banks in crisis, profit and loss sharing
doctrine and equity sharing etc. This study also highlights the
religiously derived factors such as interest free banking, Shariah
tenets and supervisory of Islamic Shariah board and sociopsychological
factors.
Abstract: Virtually all existing networked system management
tools use a Manager/Agent paradigm. That is, distributed agents are
deployed on managed devices to collect local information and report
it back to some management unit. Even those that use standard
protocols such as SNMP fall into this model. Using standard protocol
has the advantage of interoperability among devices from different
vendors. However, it may not be able to provide customized
information that is of interest to satisfy specific management needs.
In this dissertation work, different approaches are used to
collect information regarding the devices attached to a Local Area
Network. An SNMP aware application is being developed that will
manage the discovery procedure and will be used as data collector.
Abstract: Currently, there is no database or local norms for the
physical performance of Malaysian rugby players. This database or
norms are vital for Malaysian-s sports development as programs can
be setup to improve the current status. This pilot study was
conducted to evaluate the status of our semi professional rugby
players. The rugby players were randomly selected from the
Malaysian National team and several clubs in the Klang valley, Kuala
Lumpur Malaysia. 54 male rugby players (Age: 24.41 ± 4.06 years)
were selected for this pilot study. Height, bodyweight, percentage
body fat and body mass index (BMI) and several other physical tests
were performed. Results from the BLEEP test revealed an average of
level 9, shuttle 2 for the players. Interestingly, forwards were taller,
heavier, and had lower maximal aerobic power than backs in the
same team. In conclusion, the physical characteristics of the rugby
players were much lower when compared to international players
from other countries. From this pilot study, the physical performance
of the Malaysian team must be improved in order to further develop
the sports.
Abstract: Along with the basic features of students\' culture
information, with its widely usage oriented on implementation of the
new information technologies in educational process that determines
the search for ways of pointing to the similarity of interdisciplinary
connections content, aims and objectives of the study. In this regard,
the article questions about students\' information culture, and also
presented information about the aims and objectives of the
information culture process among students. In the formation of a
professional interest in relevant information, which is an opportunity
to assist in informing the professional activities of the essence of
effective use of interactive methods and innovative technologies in
the learning process. The result of the experiment proves the
effectiveness of the information culture process of students in
training the system of higher education based on the credit
technology. The main purpose of this paper is a comprehensive
review of students\' information culture.
Abstract: The use of wind energy for electricity generation is
growing rapidly across the world and in Portugal. However, the
geographical characteristics of the country along with the average
wind regime and with the environmental restrictions imposed to these
projects create limitations to the exploit of the onshore wind
resource. The best onshore wind spots are already committed and the
possibility of offshore wind farms in the Portuguese cost is now
being considered. This paper aims to make a contribution to the
evaluation of offshore wind power projects in Portugal. The technical
restrictions are addressed and the strategic, environmental and
financial interest of the project is analysed from the private company
and public points of view. The results suggest that additional support
schemes are required to ensure private investors interest for these
projects. Assuming an approach of direct substitution of energy
sources for electricity generation, the avoided CO2 equivalent
emissions for an offshore wind power project were quantified. Based
on the conclusions, future research is proposed to address the
environmental and social impacts of these projects.
Abstract: In the current study we present a system that is
capable to deliver proxy based differentiated service. It will help the
carrier service node to sell a prepaid service to clients and limit the
use to a particular mobile device or devices for a certain time. The
system includes software and hardware architecture for a mobile
device with moderate computational power, and a secure protocol for
communication between it and its carrier service node. On the
carrier service node a proxy runs on a centralized server to be
capable of implementing cryptographic algorithms, while the mobile
device contains a simple embedded processor capable of executing
simple algorithms. One prerequisite is needed for the system to run
efficiently that is a presence of Global Trusted Verification Authority
(GTVA) which is equivalent to certifying authority in IP networks.
This system appears to be of great interest for many commercial
transactions, business to business electronic and mobile commerce,
and military applications.
Abstract: The paper describes the workings for four models of
CONWIP systems used till date; the basic CONWIP system, the
hybrid CONWIP system, the multi-product CONWIP system, and the
parallel CONWIP system. The final novel model is introduced in this
paper in a general form. These models may be adopted for analysis
for both simulation studies and implementation on the shop floor. For
each model, input parameters of interest are highlighted and their
impacts on several system performance measures are addressed.
Abstract: Thousands of masters athletes participate
quadrennially in the World Masters Games (WMG), yet this cohort
of athletes remains proportionately under-investigated. Due to a
growing global obesity pandemic in context of benefits of physical
activity across the lifespan, the BMI trends for this unique population
was of particular interest. The nexus between health, physical
activity and aging is complex and has raised much interest in recent
times due to the realization that a multifaceted approach is necessary
in order to counteract the obesity pandemic. By investigating age
based trends within a population adhering to competitive sport at
older ages, further insight might be gleaned to assist in understanding
one of many factors influencing this relationship.BMI was derived
using data gathered on a total of 6,071 masters athletes (51.9% male,
48.1% female) aged 25 to 91 years ( =51.5, s =±9.7), competing at
the Sydney World Masters Games (2009). Using linear and loess
regression it was demonstrated that the usual tendency for prevalence
of higher BMI increasing with age was reversed in the sample. This
trend in reversal was repeated for both male and female only sub-sets
of the sample participants, indicating the possibility of improved
prevalence of BMI with increasing age for both the sample as a
whole and these individual sub-groups.This evidence of improved
classification in one index of health (reduced BMI) for masters
athletes (when compared to the general population) implies there are
either improved levels of this index of health with aging due to
adherence to sport or possibly the reduced BMI is advantageous and
contributes to this cohort adhering (or being attracted) to masters
sport at older ages.
Abstract: Wireless capsule Endoscopy (WCE) has rapidly
shown its wide applications in medical domain last ten years
thanks to its noninvasiveness for patients and support for thorough
inspection through a patient-s entire digestive system including
small intestine. However, one of the main barriers to efficient
clinical inspection procedure is that it requires large amount of
effort for clinicians to inspect huge data collected during the
examination, i.e., over 55,000 frames in video. In this paper, we
propose a method to compute meaningful motion changes of
WCE by analyzing the obtained video frames based on regional
optical flow estimations. The computed motion vectors are used to
remove duplicate video frames caused by WCE-s imaging nature,
such as repetitive forward-backward motions from peristaltic
movements. The motion vectors are derived by calculating
directional component vectors in four local regions. Our
experiments are performed on small intestine area, which is of
main interest to clinical experts when using WCEs, and our
experimental results show significant frame reductions comparing
with a simple frame-to-frame similarity-based image reduction
method.
Abstract: This paper provides a key driver-based conceptual framework that can be used to improve a firm-s success in commercializing technology and in new product innovation resulting from collaboration with other organizations through strategic alliances. Based on a qualitative study using an interview approach, strategic alliances of entrepreneurs in the food processing industry in Thailand are explored. This paper describes factors affecting decisions to collaborate through alliances. It identifies four issues: maintaining the efficiency of the value chain for production capability, adapting to present and future competition, careful assessment of value of outcomes, and management of innovation. We consider five driving factors: resource orientation, assessment of risk, business opportunity, sharing of benefits and confidence in alliance partners. These factors will be of interest to entrepreneurs and policy makers with regard to further understanding of the direction of business strategies.
Abstract: When acid is pumped into damaged reservoirs for
damage removal/stimulation, distorted inflow of acid into the
formation occurs caused by acid preferentially traveling into highly
permeable regions over low permeable regions, or (in general) into
the path of least resistance. This can lead to poor zonal coverage and
hence warrants diversion to carry out an effective placement of acid.
Diversion is desirably a reversible technique of temporarily reducing
the permeability of high perm zones, thereby forcing the acid into
lower perm zones.
The uniqueness of each reservoir can pose several challenges to
engineers attempting to devise optimum and effective diversion
strategies. Diversion techniques include mechanical placement and/or
chemical diversion of treatment fluids, further sub-classified into ball
sealers, bridge plugs, packers, particulate diverters, viscous gels,
crosslinked gels, relative permeability modifiers (RPMs), foams,
and/or the use of placement techniques, such as coiled tubing (CT)
and the maximum pressure difference and injection rate (MAPDIR)
methodology.
It is not always realized that the effectiveness of diverters greatly
depends on reservoir properties, such as formation type, temperature,
reservoir permeability, heterogeneity, and physical well
characteristics (e.g., completion type, well deviation, length of
treatment interval, multiple intervals, etc.). This paper reviews the
mechanisms by which each variety of diverter functions and
discusses the effect of various reservoir properties on the efficiency
of diversion techniques. Guidelines are recommended to help
enhance productivity from zones of interest by choosing the best
methods of diversion while pumping an optimized amount of
treatment fluid. The success of an overall acid treatment often
depends on the effectiveness of the diverting agents.
Abstract: Early detection of lung cancer through chest radiography is a widely used method due to its relatively affordable cost. In this paper, an approach to improve lung nodule visualization on chest radiographs is presented. The approach makes use of linear phase high-frequency emphasis filter for digital filtering and
histogram equalization for contrast enhancement to achieve improvements. Results obtained indicate that a filtered image can
reveal sharper edges and provide more details. Also, contrast enhancement offers a way to further enhance the global (or local) visualization by equalizing the histogram of the pixel values within
the whole image (or a region of interest). The work aims to improve lung nodule visualization of chest radiographs to aid detection of lung cancer which is currently the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide.
Abstract: This study examined the role of driving experience in hazard perception and categorization using traffic scene pictures. Specifically, young-inexperienced, moderately experienced and very experienced (taxi) drivers observed traffic scene pictures while connected to an eye tracking system and were asked to rate the level of hazardousness of each picture and to mention the three most prominent hazards in it. Target pictures included nine, nearly identical, pairs of pictures where one picture in each pair included an actual hazard as an additional element. Altogether, 22 areas of interest (AOIs) were predefined and included 13 potential hazards and 9 actual hazards. Data analysis included both verbal reports and eye scanning patterns of these AOIs. Generally, both experienced and taxi drivers noted a relatively larger number of potential hazards than young inexperienced drivers Thus, by relating to less salient potential hazards, experienced drivers have demonstrated a better situation model of the traffic environment.
Abstract: Coordinated supply chain represents major challenges
for the different actors involved in it, because each agent responds to
individual interests. The paper presents a framework with the
reviewed literature regarding the system's decision structure and
nature of demand. Later, it characterizes an agri food supply chain in
the Central Region of Colombia, it responds to a decentralized
distribution system and a stochastic demand. Finally, the paper
recommends coordinating the chain based on shared information, and
mechanisms for each agent, as VMI (vendor-managed inventory)
strategy for farmer-buyer relationship, information system for
farmers and contracts for transportation service providers.
Abstract: The goal of this study was to disclose the core of the advertising research based on the psychological aspects by acquainting with the nature of advertising research and revealing the importance of psychological aspects of advertising during the advertising research. The growing interest in consumer response to advertisement served as an encouragement to make the analysis of psychological aspects of the advertising research, because the information obtained during the advertising research helps to answer the question how advertising really works. In the research analysis focuses on the nature of advertising research. The place of advertising research in advertisement planning process and the advertising research process are unfolded. Moreover, the importance of psychological aspects in the advertising research is being examined. The certain psychological aspects like the particularities of advertising communication process, psychological process that are active at advertising acceptance and awareness process as well as the advertising effects are analysed in more detail.
Abstract: Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles which can convert near-infrared lights to visible lights have attracted growing interest because of their great potentials in fluorescence imaging. Upconversion fluorescence imaging technique with excitation in the near-infrared (NIR) region has been used for imaging of biological cells and tissues. However, improving the detection sensitivity and decreasing the absorption and scattering in biological tissues are as yet unresolved problems. In this present study, a novel NIR-reflected multispectral imaging system was developed for upconversion fluorescent imaging in small animals. Based on this system, we have obtained the high contrast images without the autofluorescence when biocompatible UCPs were injected near the body surface or deeply into the tissue. Furthermore, we have extracted respective spectra of the upconversion fluorescence and relatively quantify the fluorescence intensity with the multispectral analysis. To our knowledge, this is the first time to analyze and quantify the upconversion fluorescence in the small animal imaging.
Abstract: Policies that support entrepreneurship are keys to the
generation of new business. In Brazil, seed capital, installation of
technology parks, programs and zero interest financing, economic
subsidy as Program First Innovative Company (PRIME) are
examples of incentive policies. For the implementation of PRIME, in
particular the Brazilian Innovation Agency (FINEP) decentralized
operationalization so that business incubators could select innovative
projects. This paper analyzes the program PRIME Business Incubator
Center of the State of Sergipe (CISE) after calculating the mean and
standard deviation of the grades obtained by companies in the factors
of innovation, market potential, financial return economic, market
strategy and staff and application of the Mann-Whitney test.
Abstract: Electromyography (EMG) is the study of muscles function through analysis of electrical activity produced from muscles. This electrical activity which is displayed in the form of signal is the result of neuromuscular activation associated with muscle contraction. The most common techniques of EMG signal recording are by using surface and needle/wire electrode where the latter is usually used for interest in deep muscle. This paper will focus on surface electromyogram (SEMG) signal. During SEMG recording, several problems had to been countered such as noise, motion artifact and signal instability. Thus, various signal processing techniques had been implemented to produce a reliable signal for analysis. SEMG signal finds broad application particularly in biomedical field. It had been analyzed and studied for various interests such as neuromuscular disease, enhancement of muscular function and human-computer interface.
Abstract: In this paper, we introduce an e-collaborative learning circles methodology which utilizes the information and communication technologies (ICTs) in e-educational processes. In e-collaborative learning circles methodology, the teachers and students announce their research projects on various mailing lists and discussion boards using available ICTs. The teachers & moderators and students who are already members of the e-forums, discuss the project proposals in their classrooms sent out by the potential global partner schools and return the requested feed back to the proposing school(s) about their level of the participation and contribution in the research. In general, an e-collaborative learning circle project is implemented with a small and diverse group (usually 8-10 participants) from around the world. The students meet regularly over a period of weeks/months through the ICTs during the ecollaborative learning process. When the project is completed, a project product (e-book / DVD) is prepared and sent to the circle members. In this research, when taking into account the interests and motivation of the participating students with the facilitating role of the teacher(s), the students in each circle do research to obtain new data and information, thus enabling them to have the opportunity to meet both different cultures and international understandings across the globe. However, while the participants communicate along with the members in the circle they also practice and develop their communication language skills. Finally, teachers and students find the possibility to develop their skills in using the ICTs as well.