Abstract: This paper reports the empirical investigation on the
effect of involuntary displacement of indigenous tribes on their sociocultural
and food practices. A descriptive research design using the
quantitative approach was applied and individual of indigenous tribes
as unit of analysis. Through a self-administered survey among two
selected Malaysia indigenous tribes, one hundred fifty questionnaires
were successfully collected. With the application of descriptive and
inferential statistic some useful insights pertaining to the issue
investigated was significantly obtained. Findings revealed that
improvement on the socio-culture, economy and knowledge is
apparent on the indigenous groups’ resulted from displacement
program. Displacement also has a slight impact on indigenous
groups’ food practices. These positive indications provide significant
implications, not only for the indigenous groups themselves, but also
for the responsible authorities.
Abstract: This paper aims at finding a suitable neural network
for monitoring congestion level in electrical power systems. In this
paper, the input data has been framed properly to meet the target
objective through supervised learning mechanism by defining normal
and abnormal operating conditions for the system under study. The
congestion level, expressed as line congestion index (LCI), is
evaluated for each operating condition and is presented to the NN
along with the bus voltages to represent the input and target data.
Once, the training goes successful, the NN learns how to deal with a
set of newly presented data through validation and testing
mechanism. The crux of the results presented in this paper rests on
performance comparison of a multi-layered feed forward neural
network with eleven types of back propagation techniques so as to
evolve the best training criteria. The proposed methodology has been
tested on the standard IEEE-14 bus test system with the support of
MATLAB based NN toolbox. The results presented in this paper
signify that the Levenberg-Marquardt backpropagation algorithm
gives best training performance of all the eleven cases considered in
this paper, thus validating the proposed methodology.
Abstract: This research paper aims to identify, analyze and rank
factors affecting labor productivity in Spain with respect to their
relative importance. Using a selected set of 35 factors, a structured
questionnaire survey was utilized as the method to collect data from
companies. Target population is comprised by a random
representative sample of practitioners related with the Spanish
construction industry. Findings reveal the top five ranked factors are
as follows: (1) shortage or late supply of materials; (2) clarity of the
drawings and project documents; (3) clear and daily task assignment;
(4) tools or equipment shortages; (5) level of skill and experience of
laborers. Additionally, this research also pretends to provide simple
and comprehensive recommendations so that they could be
implemented by construction managers for an effective management
of construction labor forces.
Abstract: Anultra-low power capacitor less low-dropout voltage
regulator with improved transient response using gain enhanced feed
forward path compensation is presented in this paper. It is based on a
cascade of a voltage amplifier and a transconductor stage in the feed
forward path with regular error amplifier to form a composite gainenhanced
feed forward stage. It broadens the gain bandwidth and thus
improves the transient response without substantial increase in power
consumption. The proposed LDO, designed for a maximum output
current of 100 mA in UMC 180 nm, requires a quiescent current of
69 )A. An undershot of 153.79mV for a load current changes from
0mA to 100mA and an overshoot of 196.24mV for current change of
100mA to 0mA. The settling time is approximately 1.1 )s for the
output voltage undershooting case. The load regulation is of 2.77
)V/mA at load current of 100mA. Reference voltage is generated by
using an accurate band gap reference circuit of 0.8V.The costly
features of SOC such as total chip area and power consumption is
drastically reduced by the use of only a total compensation
capacitance of 6pF while consuming power consumption of 0.096
mW.
Abstract: Frequent, continuous speech training has proven to be
a necessary part of a successful speech therapy process, but
constraints of traveling time and employment dispensation become
key obstacles especially for individuals living in remote areas or for
dependent children who have working parents. In order to ameliorate
speech difficulties with ample guidance from speech therapists, a
website has been developed that supports speech therapy and training
for people with articulation disorders in the standard Thai language.
This web-based program has the ability to record speech training
exercises for each speech trainee. The records will be stored in a
database for the speech therapist to investigate, evaluate, compare
and keep track of all trainees’ progress in detail. Speech trainees can
request live discussions via video conference call when needed.
Communication through this web-based program facilitates and
reduces training time in comparison to walk-in training or
appointments. This type of training also allows people with
articulation disorders to practice speech lessons whenever or
wherever is convenient for them, which can lead to a more regular
training processes.
Abstract: The article presents the trends in Georgian wine
market development and evaluates the competitive advantages of
Georgia to enter the wine market based on its customs, traditions and
historical practices combined with modern technologies.
In order to analyze the supply of wine, dynamics of vineyard land
area and grape varieties are discussed, trends in wine production are
presented, trends in export and import are evaluated, local wine
market, its micro and macro environments are studied and analyzed
based on the interviews with experts and analysis of initial recording
materials.
For strengthening its position on the international market, the level
of competitiveness of Georgian wine is defined, which is evaluated
by “ex-ante” and “ex-post” methods, as well as by four basic and two
additional factors of the Porter’s diamond method; potential
advantages and disadvantages of Georgian wine are revealed.
Conclusions are made by identifying the factors that hinder the
development of Georgian wine market. Based on the conclusions,
relevant recommendations are developed.
Abstract: A method is proposed for stable detection of
seismoacoustic sources in C-OTDR systems that guarantee given
upper bounds for probabilities of type I and type II errors. Properties
of the proposed method are rigorously proved. The results of
practical applications of the proposed method in a real C-OTDRsystem
are presented.
Abstract: The effect of various humidities on process yields and
degrees of crystallinity for spray-dried powders from spray drying of
lactose with humid air in a straight-through system have been
studied. It has been suggested by Williams–Landel–Ferry kinetics
(WLF) that a higher particle temperature and lower glass-transition
temperature would increase the crystallization rate of the particles
during the spray-drying process. Freshly humidified air produced by
a Buchi-B290 spray dryer as a humidifier attached to the main spray
dryer decreased the particle glass-transition temperature (Tg), while
allowing the particle temperature (Tp) to reach higher values by using
an insulated drying chamber. Differential scanning calorimetry
(DSC) and moisture sorption analysis were used to measure the
degree of crystallinity for the spray-dried lactose powders. The
results showed that higher Tp-Tg, as a result of applying humid air,
improved the process yield from 21 ± 4 to 26 ± 2% and crystallinity
of the particles by decreasing the latent heat of crystallization from
43 ± 1 to 30 ± 11 J/g and the sorption peak height from 7.3 ± 0.7% to
6 ± 0.7%.
Abstract: An analysis of the Australian Diabetes Screening
Study estimated undiagnosed diabetes mellitus [DM] prevalence in a
high risk general practice based cohort. DM prevalence varied from
9.4% to 18.1% depending upon the diagnostic criteria utilised with
age being a highly significant risk factor. Utilising the gold standard
oral glucose tolerance test, the prevalence of DM was 22-23% in
those aged >= 70 years and
Abstract: The objectives of this study are to find out the
approaches to promote healthy recreation activities for elderly
tourists and develop Bang Nam Phueng Floating Market to be a
health tourism attraction. The research methodology was to analyze
internal and external situations according to MP-MF and the MCSTEPS
principles.
As for the results of this study the researcher found that the
healthy recreational activities for elderly tourists could be divided in
7 groups; travelling Bang Nam Phueng Floating Market activity,
homestay relaxation, arts center platform activity, healthy massage
activity, paying homage to a Buddha image activity, herbal joss-stick
home activity, making local desserts and food activity.
Abstract: Three dimensional non-Interlaced carbon fibre
reinforced silicon carbide (3-D-Cf/SiC) composites with pyrocarbon
interphase were fabricated using isothermal chemical vapor
infiltration (ICVI) combined with polymer impregnation pyrolysis
(PIP) process. Polysilazane (PSZ) is used as a preceramic polymer to
obtain silicon carbide matrix. Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA),
Infrared spectroscopic analysis (IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD)
analysis were carried out on PSZ pyrolysed at different temperatures
to understand the pyrolysis and obtaining the optimum pyrolysing
condition to yield β-SiC phase. The density of the composites was
1.94 g cm-3 after the 3-D carbon preform was SiC infiltrated for 280 h
with one intermediate polysilazane pre-ceramic PIP process.
Mechanical properties of the composite materials were investigated
under tensile, flexural, shear and impact loading. The values of
tensile strength were 200 MPa at room temperature (RT) and 195
MPa at 500°C in air. The average RT flexural strength was 243 MPa.
The lower flexural strength of these composites is because of the
porosity. The fracture toughness obtained from single edge notched
beam (SENB) technique was 39 MPa.m1/2. The work of fracture
obtained from the load-displacement curve of SENB test was 22.8
kJ.m-2. The composites exhibited excellent impact resistance and the
dynamic fracture toughness of 44.8 kJ.m-2 is achieved as determined
from instrumented Charpy impact test. The shear strength of the
composite was 93 MPa, which is significantly higher compared 2-D
Cf/SiC composites. Microstructure evaluation of fracture surfaces
revealed the signatures of fracture processes and showed good
support for the higher toughness obtained.
Abstract: The ever increasing amount of solid waste (SW)
generated which is exacerbated by lack of proper waste management
system is of growing concern worldwide and in major cities in
developing countries due to its social, economic and environmental
implications. This study attempts to describe the aspects of solid
waste management (SWM) in Adama, one of the fast urbanizing
cities in Ethiopia, and highlights the challenges thereof. Data were
gathered through interview supplemented by field observation and
self-administered questionnaire. Then, the data were analyzed using
the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. In
addition, secondary data were gathered from documents. Findings
revealed that the current SWM practice couldn’t cope with the fast
urbanizing needs and the rapid population growth exhibited by the
city. Besides, major factors contributing to the inefficient system
were identified. The study would provide practical insights to
decision makers in developing a sustainable SWM system leading to
minimized risk in the city.
Abstract: Analysis of real life problems often results in linear
systems of equations for which solutions are sought. The method to
employ depends, to some extent, on the properties of the coefficient
matrix. It is not always feasible to solve linear systems of equations
by direct methods, as such the need to use an iterative method
becomes imperative. Before an iterative method can be employed
to solve a linear system of equations there must be a guaranty that
the process of solution will converge. This guaranty, which must
be determined apriori, involve the use of some criterion expressible
in terms of the entries of the coefficient matrix. It is, therefore,
logical that the convergence criterion should depend implicitly on the
algebraic structure of such a method. However, in deference to this
view is the practice of conducting convergence analysis for Gauss-
Seidel iteration on a criterion formulated based on the algebraic
structure of Jacobi iteration. To remedy this anomaly, the Gauss-
Seidel iteration was studied for its algebraic structure and contrary
to the usual assumption, it was discovered that some property of the
iteration matrix of Gauss-Seidel method is only diagonally dominant
in its first row while the other rows do not satisfy diagonal dominance.
With the aid of this structure we herein fashion out an improved
version of Gauss-Seidel iteration with the prospect of enhancing
convergence and robustness of the method. A numerical section is
included to demonstrate the validity of the theoretical results obtained
for the improved Gauss-Seidel method.
Abstract: Biological conversion of biomass to methane has
received increasing attention in recent years. Grasses have been
explored for their potential anaerobic digestion to methane. In this
review, extensive literature data have been tabulated and classified.
The influences of several parameters on the potential of these
feedstocks to produce methane are presented. Lignocellulosic
biomass represents a mostly unused source for biogas and ethanol
production. Many factors, including lignin content, crystallinity of
cellulose, and particle size, limit the digestibility of the hemicellulose
and cellulose present in the lignocellulosic biomass. Pretreatments
have used to improve the digestibility of the lignocellulosic biomass.
Each pretreatment has its own effects on cellulose, hemicellulose and
lignin, the three main components of lignocellulosic biomass. Solidstate
anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) generally occurs at solid
concentrations higher than 15%. In contrast, liquid anaerobic
digestion (AD) handles feedstocks with solid concentrations between
0.5% and 15%. Animal manure, sewage sludge, and food waste are
generally treated by liquid AD, while organic fractions of municipal
solid waste (OFMSW) and lignocellulosic biomass such as crop
residues and energy crops can be processed through SS-AD. An
increase in operating temperature can improve both the biogas yield
and the production efficiency, other practices such as using AD
digestate or leachate as an inoculant or decreasing the solid content
may increase biogas yield but have negative impact on production
efficiency. Focus is placed on substrate pretreatment in anaerobic
digestion (AD) as a means of increasing biogas yields using today’s
diversified substrate sources.
Abstract: It is known that residual welding deformations give
negative effect to processability and operational quality of welded
structures, complicating their assembly and reducing strength.
Therefore, selection of optimal technology, ensuring minimum
welding deformations, is one of the main goals in developing a
technology for manufacturing of welded structures.
Through years, JSC SSTC has been developing a theory for
estimation of welding deformations and practical activities for
reducing and compensating such deformations during welding
process. During long time a methodology was used, based on analytic
dependence. This methodology allowed defining volumetric changes
of metal due to welding heating and subsequent cooling. However,
dependences for definition of structures deformations, arising as a
result of volumetric changes of metal in the weld area, allowed
performing calculations only for simple structures, such as units, flat
sections and sections with small curvature. In case of complex 3D
structures, estimations on the base of analytic dependences gave
significant errors.
To eliminate this shortage, it was suggested to use finite elements
method for resolving of deformation problem. Here, one shall first
calculate volumes of longitudinal and transversal shortenings of
welding joints using method of analytic dependences and further,
with obtained shortenings, calculate forces, which action is
equivalent to the action of active welding stresses. Further, a finiteelements
model of the structure is developed and equivalent forces
are added to this model. Having results of calculations, an optimal
sequence of assembly and welding is selected and special measures to
reduce and compensate welding deformations are developed and
taken.
Abstract: This study aims to examine the role of career
advancement and job security as predictors of employee commitment
to their organization. Data was collected from 580 frontline
employees attached to two departments of 29 luxury hotels in
Peninsular Malaysia. Statistical results using Partial Least Squares
technique provided support for the proposed hypotheses. In view of
the findings, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Abstract: Because of high thermal efficiency and low CO2
emission, diesel engines are being used widely in many industrial
fields although it makes many PM and NOx which give both human
health and environment a negative effect. NOx regulations for diesel
engines, however, are being strengthened and it is impossible to meet
the emission standard without NOx reduction devices such as SCR
(Selective Catalytic Reduction), LNC (Lean NOx Catalyst), and LNT
(Lean NOx Trap). Among the NOx reduction devices, urea-SCR
system is known as the most stable and efficient method to solve the
problem of NOx emission. But this device has some issues associated
with the ammonia slip phenomenon which is occurred by shortage of
evaporation and thermolysis time, and that makes it difficult to achieve
uniform distribution of the injected urea in front of monolith.
Therefore, this study has focused on the mixing enhancement between
urea and exhaust gases to enhance the efficiency of the SCR catalyst
equipped in catalytic muffler by changing inlet gas temperature and
spray conditions to improve the spray uniformity of the urea water
solution. Finally, it can be found that various parameters such as inlet
gas temperature and injector and injection angles significantly affect
the evaporation and mixing of the urea water solution with exhaust
gases, and therefore, optimization of these parameters are required.
Abstract: We present our approach on using continuous delivery
pattern for release management. One of the key practices of agile and
lean teams is the continuous delivery of new features to stakeholders.
The main benefits of this approach lie in the ability to release new
applications rapidly which has real strategic impact on the
competitive advantage of an organization. Organizations that
successfully implement Continuous Delivery have the ability to
evolve rapidly to support innovation, provide stable and reliable
software in more efficient ways, decrease the amount of resources
need for maintenance, and lower the software delivery time and costs.
One of the objectives of this paper is to elaborate a case study where
IT division of Central Securities Depository Institution (MKK) of
Turkey apply Continuous Delivery pattern to improve release
management process.
Abstract: As Malaysia aims to be a developed country by year 2020; the construction industry has since been identified as a major catalyst for the country to attain the status. It is one of the sectors that contribute to most environmental pollutions. It is, therefore, important for the industry to implement sustainable construction practices to reduce the negative impacts that it has on the environment. However, most Malaysian developers have placed much focus on market demand and economic factors; neglecting the need for attention on environmental issues. The practice of sustainable construction is deemed to be an obstacle to achieve short-term economic goals due to the higher cost incurred in the operations. Hence, choices need to be made and a balance needs to be struck in weighing the long-term environmental benefits against immediate economic factors. This paper discusses the challenges faced by Malaysian developers in adopting sustainable practices in the construction industry and the cause of these challenges. It also looks into the achievements and breakthroughs that developers in Malaysia have achieved so far. The paper aims explores the long-term benefits of sustainable practices that would potentially raise awareness on the feasibility and economic potential of sustainable construction.
Abstract: Image segmentation process based on mathematical morphology has been studied in the paper. It has been established from the first principles of the morphological process, the entire segmentation is although a nonlinear signal processing task, the constituent wise, the intermediate steps are linear, bilinear and conformal transformation and they give rise to a non linear affect in a cumulative manner.