Abstract: Geopolymer mortar is produced by alkaline activation of pozzolanic materials such as fly ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) and fly ash (FA). Its unique reaction pathway facilitates rapid strength development in comparison with hydration of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Geopolymer can be fabricated using various types and dosages of alkali-activator, which effectively gives a wider control over the performance of the final product. The present study investigates the effect of types of precursors and curing conditions on the fresh state and strength development characteristics of geopolymers, thereby comparatively exploring the effect of precursors from various sources of origin. The obtained result showed that the setting time and strength development of the specimens with the identical mix proportion but different precursors displayed significant variations.
Abstract: Cocoa beans (Theobroma cocoa L.) are the main components for chocolate manufacturing. The beans must be correctly fermented at first. Traditional process to perform the first fermentation (lactic fermentation) often consists in confining cacao beans using banana leaves or a fermentation basket, both of them leading to a poor product thermal insulation and to an inability to mix the product. Box fermenter reduces this loss by using a wood with large thickness (e>3cm), but mixing to homogenize the product is still hard to perform. Automatic fermenters are not rentable for most of producers. Heat (T>45°C) and acidity produced during the fermentation by microbiology activity of yeasts and bacteria are enabling the emergence of potential flavor and taste of future chocolate. In this study, a cylindro-rotative fermenter (FCR-V1) has been built and coconut fibers were used in its structure to confine heat. An axis of rotation (360°) has been integrated to facilitate the turning and homogenization of beans in the fermenter. This axis permits to put fermenter in a vertical position during the anaerobic alcoholic phase of fermentation, and horizontally during acetic phase to take advantage of the mid height filling. For circulation of air flow during turning in acetic phase, two woven rattan with grid have been made, one for the top and second for the bottom of the fermenter. In order to reduce air flow during acetic phase, two airtight covers are put on each grid cover. The efficiency of the turning by this kind of rotation, coupled with homogenization of the temperature, caused by the horizontal position in the acetic phase of the fermenter, contribute to having a good proportion of well-fermented beans (83.23%). In addition, beans’pH values ranged between 4.5 and 5.5. These values are ideal for enzymatic activity in the production of the aromatic compounds inside beans. The regularity of mass loss during all fermentation makes it possible to predict the drying surface corresponding to the amount being fermented.
Abstract: At present actual tourism indicators cannot be calculated in Georgia, making it impossible to perform their quantitative analysis. Therefore, the study conducted by us is highly important from a theoretical as well as practical standpoint. The main purpose of the article is to make complex statistical analysis of tourist expenses of foreign visitors and to calculate statistical attractiveness indices of the tourism potential of Georgia. During the research, the method involving random and proportional selection has been applied. Computer software SPSS was used to compute statistical data for corresponding analysis. Corresponding methodology of tourism statistics was implemented according to international standards. Important information was collected and grouped from major Georgian airports, and a representative population of foreign visitors and a rule of selection of respondents were determined. The results show a trend of growth in tourist numbers and the share of tourists from post-soviet countries are constantly increasing. The level of satisfaction with tourist facilities and quality of service has improved, but still we have a problem of disparity between the service quality and the prices. The design of tourist expenses of foreign visitors is diverse; competitiveness of tourist products of Georgian tourist companies is higher. Attractiveness of popular cities of Georgia has increased by 43%.
Abstract: In a fast growing region, conversion of agricultural lands which are surrounded by some new development sites will occur sooner than expected. This phenomenon has been experienced by many regions in Indonesia, especially the fringe of Jakarta (BoDeTaBek). Being Indonesia’s capital city, rapid conversion of land in this area is an unavoidable process. The land conversion expands spatially into the fringe regions, which were initially dominated by agricultural land or conservation sites. Without proper control or growth management, this activity will invite greater costs than benefits. The current land use is the use which maximizes its value. In order to maintain land for agricultural activity or conservation, some efforts are needed to keep the land value of this activity as high as possible. In this case, the knowledge regarding the functional relationship between land value and its driving forces is necessary. In a fast growing region, development externalities are the assumed dominant driving force. Land value is the product of the past decision of its use leading to its value. It is also affected by the local characteristics and the observed surrounded land use (externalities) from the previous period. The effect of each factor on land value has dynamic and spatial virtues; an empirical spatial dynamic land value model will be more useful to capture them. The model will be useful to test and to estimate the extent of land use externalities on land value in the short run as well as in the long run. It serves as a basis to formulate an effective urban growth management’s policy. This study will apply the model to the case of land value in the fringe of Jakarta Metropolitan. The model will be used further to predict the effect of externalities on land value, in the form of prediction map. For the case of Jakarta’s fringe, there is some evidence about the significance of neighborhood urban activity – negative externalities, the previous land value and local accessibility on land value. The effects are accumulated dynamically over years, but they will fully affect the land value after six years.
Abstract: Spatial, Temporal, and Spectral Resolution (STSR) are three key characteristics of Earth observation satellite sensors; however, any single satellite sensor cannot provide Earth observations with high STSR simultaneously because of the hardware technology limitations of satellite sensors. On the other hand, a conflicting circumstance is that the demand for high STSR has been growing with the remote sensing application development. Although image fusion technology provides a feasible means to overcome the limitations of the current Earth observation data, the current fusion technologies cannot enhance all STSR simultaneously and provide high enough resolution improvement level. This study proposes a Hybrid Spatial-Temporal-Spectral image Fusion Model (HSTSFM) to generate synthetic satellite data with high STSR simultaneously, which blends the high spatial resolution from the panchromatic image of Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), the high temporal resolution from the multi-spectral image of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and the high spectral resolution from the hyper-spectral image of Hyperion to produce high STSR images. The proposed HSTSFM contains three fusion modules: (1) spatial-spectral image fusion; (2) spatial-temporal image fusion; (3) temporal-spectral image fusion. A set of test data with both phenological and land cover type changes in Beijing suburb area, China is adopted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method. The experimental results indicate that HSTSFM can produce fused image that has good spatial and spectral fidelity to the reference image, which means it has the potential to generate synthetic data to support the studies that require high STSR satellite imagery.
Abstract: The increasing digitalization of value chains can help companies to handle rising complexity in their processes and thereby reduce the steadily increasing planning and control effort in order to raise performance limits. Due to technological advances, companies face the challenge of smart value chains for the purpose of improvements in productivity, handling the increasing time and cost pressure and the need of individualized production. Therefore, companies need to ensure quick and flexible decisions to create self-optimizing processes and, consequently, to make their production more efficient. Lean production, as the most commonly used paradigm for complexity reduction, reaches its limits when it comes to variant flexible production and constantly changing market and environmental conditions. To lift performance limits, which are inbuilt in current value chains, new methods and tools must be applied. Digitalization provides the potential to derive these new methods and tools. However, companies lack the experience to harmonize different digital technologies. There is no practicable framework, which instructs the transformation of current value chains into digital pervasive value chains. Current research shows that a connection between lean production and digitalization exists. This link is based on factors such as people, technology and organization. In this paper, the introduced method for the determination of digitally pervasive value chains takes the factors people, technology and organization into account and extends existing approaches by a new dimension. It is the first systematic approach for the digital transformation of lean production and consists of four steps: The first step of ‘target definition’ describes the target situation and defines the depth of the analysis with regards to the inspection area and the level of detail. The second step of ‘analysis of the value chain’ verifies the lean-ability of processes and lies in a special focus on the integration capacity of digital technologies in order to raise the limits of lean production. Furthermore, the ‘digital evaluation process’ ensures the usefulness of digital adaptions regarding their practicability and their integrability into the existing production system. Finally, the method defines actions to be performed based on the evaluation process and in accordance with the target situation. As a result, the validation and optimization of the proposed method in a German company from the electronics industry shows that the digital transformation of current value chains based on lean production achieves a raise of their inbuilt performance limits.
Abstract: The authors discuss the collecting abilities of desorbable species (DS) of saturated fatty acids. The DS species of the reagent are understood as species capable of moving from the surface of the mineral particle to the bubble at the moment of the rupture of the interlayer of liquid separating these objects of interaction. DS species of carboxylic acids (molecules and ionic-molecular complexes) have the ability to spread over the surface of the bubble. The rate of their spreading at pH 7 and 10 over the water surface is determined. The collectibility criterion of saturated fatty acids is proposed. The values of forces exerted by the spreading DS species of reagents on liquid in the interlayer and the liquid flow rate from the interlayer are determined.
Abstract: Meaningful work is the topic that will be discussed in this article, especially in changing period. It has an important role because by reaching meaningful work, it will drive to be positive in the workplace. Therefore, task performance will be increased and cynicism about organizational change (CAOC) will be reduced. Moreover, it is influenced by situational factor, which is transformational leadership. In this conceptual paper, the author discusses how the construct of meaningful work influenced by transformational leadership that will have impact on the follower’ work outcomes in the organizational change. It is proposed that the construct of meaningful work are susceptible with situational variable. Transformational leaders who are respectful on the process of humanizing the followers affect task performance and reduce CAOC in organizational change.
Abstract: Faced with a sudden, unexpected, and overwhelming event, the individual's normal cognitive processing may cease to function, trapping the psyche in "speechless terror", while images, feelings and sensations are experienced with emotional intensity. Unable to master such situation, the individual becomes a trauma victim who will be susceptible to traumatic recollections like intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, and repetitive re-living of the primal event in a way that blurs the distinction between past and present, and forecloses the future. Trauma is timeless, repetitious, and contagious; a trauma observer could fall prey to "secondary victimhood". Central to the process of healing the psychic wounds in the aftermath of trauma is verbalizing the traumatic experience (i.e., putting it into words) – an act which provides a chance for assimilation, testimony, and reevaluation. In light of this paradigm, this paper proposes a reading of Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol, written shortly after his release from prison, as a post-traumatic text which traces the disruptive effects of the traumatic experience of Wilde's imprisonment for homosexual offences and the ensuing reversal of fortune he endured. Post-traumatic writing demonstrates the process of "working through" a trauma which may lead to the possibility of ethical agency in the form of a "survivor mission". This paper draws on fundamental concepts and key insights in literary trauma theory which is characterized by interdisciplinarity, combining the perspectives of different fields like critical theory, psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, history, and social studies. Of particular relevance to this paper are the concepts of "vicarious traumatization" and "survivor mission", as The Ballad of Reading Gaol was written in response to Wilde's own prison trauma and the indirect traumatization he experienced as a result of witnessing the execution of a fellow prisoner whose story forms the narrative base of the poem. The Ballad displays Wilde's sense of mission which leads him to recognize the social as well as ethical implications of personal tragedy. Through a close textual analysis of The Ballad of Reading Gaol within the framework of literary trauma theory, the paper aims to: (a) demonstrate how the poem's thematic concerns, structure and rhetorical figures reflect the structure of trauma; (b) highlight Wilde's attempts to come to terms with the effects of the cataclysmic experience which transformed him into a social outcast; and (c) show how Wilde manages to transcend the victim status and assumes the role of ethical agent to voice a critique of the Victorian penal system and the standards of morality underlying the cruelties practiced against wrong doers and to solicit social action.
Abstract: This work aims to compare various techniques used in order to mitigate Inter-Cell Interference (ICI) in Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced systems. For that, we will evaluate the performance of each one. In mobile communication networks, systems are limited by ICI particularly caused by deployment of small cells in conventional cell’s implementation. Therefore, various mitigation techniques, named Inter-Cell Interference Coordination techniques (ICIC), enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC) techniques and Coordinated Multi-Point transmission and reception (CoMP) are proposed. This paper presents a comparative study of these strategies. It can be concluded that CoMP techniques can ameliorate SINR and capacity system compared to ICIC and eICIC. In fact, SINR value reaches 15 dB for a distance of 0.5 km between user equipment and servant base station if we use CoMP technology whereas it cannot exceed 12 dB and 9 dB for eICIC and ICIC approaches respectively as reflected in simulations.
Abstract: Rice plant hoppers (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) have been causing extensive economic damage in rice and are considered as serious threat in rice producing countries of Asia. They have developed resistance to major groups of chemical insecticide, and severe outbreaks occur commonly throughout Asia. To control these nuisance pests, Nihon Nohyaku Co., Ltd., recently discovered an insecticide, benzpyrimoxan (proposed ISO name), which is under development as NNI-1501 (development code). Benzpyrimoxan has a unique chemical structure which contains benzyloxy and cyclic acetal groups on pyrimidine moiety (5-(1,3-dioxan-2-yl)-4-[4- (trifluoromethyl)benzyloxy]pyrimidine). In order to clarify the biological properties of benzpyrimoxan, we conducted several experiments and found the following results. Benzpyrimoxan has high activity against nymphal stages of rice plant hoppers without any adulticidal activity. It provides excellent and long lasting control against rice plant hoppers, including populations that have developed resistance to several other chemical groups of insecticide. The study on its mode of action is undergoing. These features highlight the versatility of this insecticide as an effective and valuable tool from the viewpoints of insecticide resistance management and integrated pest management program. With the use of benzpyrimoxan, farmers shall be able to lead the best yield potential by keeping the population density of rice plant hoppers and associated virus diseases under control.
Abstract: Dependencies between diverse factors involved in probabilistic seismic loss evaluation are recognized to be an imperative issue in acquiring accurate loss estimates. Dependencies among component damage costs could be taken into account considering two partial distinct states of independent or perfectly-dependent for component damage states; however, in our best knowledge, there is no available procedure to take account of loss dependencies in story level. This paper attempts to present a method called "modal cost superposition method" for decoupling story damage costs subjected to earthquake ground motions dealt with closed form differential equations between damage cost and engineering demand parameters which should be solved in complex system considering all stories' cost equations by the means of the introduced "substituted matrixes of mass and stiffness". Costs are treated as probabilistic variables with definite statistic factors of median and standard deviation amounts and a presumed probability distribution. To supplement the proposed procedure and also to display straightforwardness of its application, one benchmark study has been conducted. Acceptable compatibility has been proven for the estimated damage costs evaluated by the new proposed modal and also frequently used stochastic approaches for entire building; however, in story level, insufficiency of employing modification factor for incorporating occurrence probability dependencies between stories has been revealed due to discrepant amounts of dependency between damage costs of different stories. Also, more dependency contribution in occurrence probability of loss could be concluded regarding more compatibility of loss results in higher stories than the lower ones, whereas reduction in incorporation portion of cost modes provides acceptable level of accuracy and gets away from time consuming calculations including some limited number of cost modes in high mode situation.
Abstract: Standard routes for upgrading existing buildings to improve their seismic response can be expensive in terms of both time and cost due to the modifications required to the foundations. As a result, interest has grown in the installation of viscoelastic dampers (VEDs) in mid and high-rise buildings. Details of a low-cost viscoelastic passive control device, the rotary rubber braced damper (RRBD), are presented in this paper. This design has the added benefits of being lightweight and simple to install. Experimental methods and finite element modeling were used to assess the performance of the proposed VED design and its effect on building response during earthquakes. The analyses took into account the behaviors of non-linear materials and large deformations. The results indicate that the proposed RRBD provides high levels of energy absorption, ensuring the stable cyclical response of buildings in all scenarios considered. In addition, time history analysis was employed in this study to evaluate the RRBD’s ability to control the displacements and accelerations experienced by steel frame structures. It was demonstrated that the device responds well even at low displacements, highlighting its suitability for use in seismic events of varying severity.
Abstract: National bridge inventory in Korea shows that the number of old prestressed concrete (PSC) bridgeover 30 years of service life is rapidly increasing. Recently tendon corrosion is one of the most critical issues in the maintenance of PSC bridges. In this paper, mechanical properties of corroded strands, which were removed from old bridges, were evaluated using tensile test. In the result, the equations to express the mechanical behavior of corroded strand were derived and compared to existing equation. For the decision of tendon replacement, it is necessary to evaluate the effect of corrosion level on strength and ductility of the structure. Considerations on analysis of PSC girders were introduced, and decision making on tendon replacement was also proposed.
Abstract: This paper presents an original approach to student and group activity level assessment that relies on certainty factors theory. Activity level is used to represent quantity and continuity of student’s contributions in individual and collaborative e‑learning activities (e‑tivities) and is calculated to assist teachers in assessing quantitative aspects of student's achievements. Calculated activity levels are also used to raise awareness and provide recommendations during the learning process. The proposed approach was implemented within the educational recommender system ELARS and validated using data obtained from e‑tivity realized during a blended learning course. The results showed that the proposed approach can be used to estimate activity level in the context of e-tivities realized using Web 2.0 tools as well as to facilitate the assessment of quantitative aspect of students’ participation in e‑tivities.
Abstract: The objective of this study is to identify and explore how adequate is modern innovation support mechanism to developed creative industries. We argue that current development and support strategy for creative industries, although acknowledge high correlation between innovation and creativity, do not seek to improve conditions to promote systematic innovation development in the creative sector. Using the Lithuanian animation industry as a case study, this paper will examine innovation contribution to creativity and, for that matter, the competitiveness of animation enterprises. This paper proposes insights that contribute to theoretical and practical discussions on how creative profile companies build national and international competitiveness through innovations. The conclusions suggest that development of creative industries could greatly benefit if policymakers would implement tools that would encourage creative profile enterprises to invest in to development of innovation at a constant rate.
Abstract: In railways transition zone is present at the boundaries of zones with different stiffness. When a train rides from an embankment onto a stiff structure, such as a bridge, tunnel or culvert, an abrupt change in the support stiffness occurs possibly inducing differential settlements. This in long term can yield to the degradation of the tracks and foundations in the transition zones. A number of techniques have been proposed or implemented to provide gradual stiffness transition at the problem zones, such as methods to ensure gradually changing pad stiffness, application of long sleepers or installation of auxiliary rails in the transition zone. Aim of the research presented in this paper is to analyze the 3D and the dynamic effects induced by the passing train over an area where significant difference in the support stiffness exists. The effects were analyzed for different arrangements associated with certain differential settlement mitigation strategies of the transition zones.
Abstract: In this paper, an improved method for estimating fundamental matrix is proposed. The method is applied effectively to monocular camera based moving object detection. The method consists of corner points detection, moving object’s motion estimation and fundamental matrix calculation. The corner points are obtained by using Harris corner detector, motions of moving objects is calculated from pyramidal Lucas-Kanade optical flow algorithm. Through epipolar geometry analysis using RANSAC, the fundamental matrix is calculated. In this method, we have improved the performances of moving object detection by using two threshold values that determine inlier or outlier. Through the simulations, we compare the performances with varying the two threshold values.
Abstract: Incorporating Home eNodeB (HeNB) in cellular networks, e.g. Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A), is beneficial for extending coverage and enhancing capacity at low price especially within the non-line-of sight (NLOS) environments such as homes. HeNB or femtocell is a small low powered base station which provides radio coverage to the mobile users in an indoor environment. This deployment results in a heterogeneous network where the available spectrum becomes shared between two layers. Therefore, a problem of Inter Cell Interference (ICI) appears. This issue is the main challenge in LTE-A. To deal with this challenge, various techniques based on frequency, time and power control are proposed. This paper deals with the impact of carrier aggregation and higher order MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) schemes on the LTE-Advanced performance. Simulation results show the advantages of these schemes on the system capacity (4.109 b/s/Hz when bandwidth B=100 MHz and when applying MIMO 8x8 for SINR=30 dB), maximum theoretical peak data rate (more than 4 Gbps for B=100 MHz and when MIMO 8x8 is used) and spectral efficiency (15 b/s/Hz and 30b/s/Hz when MIMO 4x4 and MIMO 8x8 are applying respectively for SINR=30 dB).
Abstract: Algebra is one of the important fields of mathematics. It concerns with the study and manipulation of mathematical symbols. It also concerns with the study of abstractions such as groups, rings, and fields. Due to the development of these abstractions, it is extended to consider other structures, such as vectors, matrices, and polynomials, which are non-numerical objects. Computer algebra is the implementation of algebraic methods as algorithms and computer programs. Recently, many algebraic cryptosystem protocols are based on non-commutative algebraic structures, such as authentication, key exchange, and encryption-decryption processes are adopted. Cryptography is the science that aimed at sending the information through public channels in such a way that only an authorized recipient can read it. Ring theory is the most attractive category of algebra in the area of cryptography. In this paper, we employ the algebraic structure called skew -Armendariz rings to design a neoteric algorithm for zero knowledge proof. The proposed protocol is established and illustrated through numerical example, and its soundness and completeness are proved.