Abstract: Construction in Finland is focusing increasingly on
renovation instead of conventional new construction, and this trend
will continue to grow in the coming years and decades. Renovation of
the large number of suburban residential apartment buildings built in
the 1960s and 1970s poses a particular challenge. However,
renovation projects are demanding for the residents of these
buildings, since they usually are uninitiated in construction issues. On
the other hand, renovation projects generally apply the operating
models of new construction.
Nevertheless, the residents of an existing residential apartment
building are some of the best experts on the site. Thus, in this
research project we applied a relational model in developing and
testing at case sites a planning process that employs interactive
planning methods. Current residents, housing company managers, the
city zoning manager, the contractor’s and prefab element supplier’s
representatives, professional designers and researchers all took part in
the planning. The entire interactive planning process progressed
phase by phase as the participants’ and designers’ concerted
discussion and ideation process, so that the end result was a
renovation plan desired by the residents.
Abstract: An extensive amount of work has been done in data
clustering research under the unsupervised learning technique in Data
Mining during the past two decades. Moreover, several approaches
and methods have been emerged focusing on clustering diverse data
types, features of cluster models and similarity rates of clusters.
However, none of the single clustering algorithm exemplifies its best
nature in extracting efficient clusters. Consequently, in order to
rectify this issue, a new challenging technique called Cluster
Ensemble method was bloomed. This new approach tends to be the
alternative method for the cluster analysis problem. The main
objective of the Cluster Ensemble is to aggregate the diverse
clustering solutions in such a way to attain accuracy and also to
improve the eminence the individual clustering algorithms. Due to
the massive and rapid development of new methods in the globe of
data mining, it is highly mandatory to scrutinize a vital analysis of
existing techniques and the future novelty. This paper shows the
comparative analysis of different cluster ensemble methods along
with their methodologies and salient features. Henceforth this
unambiguous analysis will be very useful for the society of clustering
experts and also helps in deciding the most appropriate one to resolve
the problem in hand.
Abstract: This research aims to study tourism data and behavior
of foreign tourists visited Wat Phrachetuponwimolmangkalaram (Wat
Po) Sample groups are tourists who visited inside the temple, during
February, March, April and May 2013. Tools used in the research are
questionnaires constructed by the researcher, and samples are dawn
by Convenience sampling. There are 207 foreign tourists who are
willing to be respondents. Statistics used are percentage, average
mean and standard deviation.
The results of the research reveal that:
A. General Data of Respondents
The foreign tourists who visited the temple are mostly female
(57.5 %), most respondents are aged between 20-29 years (37.2%).
Most respondents live in Europe (62.3%), most of them got the
Bachelor’s degree (40.1%), British are mostly found (16.4%),
respondents who are students are also found (23.2%), and Christian
are mostly found (60.9%).
B. Tourists’ Behavior While Visiting the Temple Compound.
The result shows that the respondents came with family (46.4%),
have never visited the temples (40.6%), and visited once (42 %). It is
found that the foreign tourists’ inappropriate behavior are wearing
revealing attires (58.9%), touching or getting closed to the monks
(55.1%), and speaking loudly (46.9%) respectively.
The respondents’ outstanding objectives are to visit inside the
temple (57.5%), to pay respect to the Reclining Buddha Image in the
Viharn (44.4%) and to worship the Buddha image in the Phra Ubosod
(37.7%) respectively.
C. The Respondents’ Self-evaluation of Performance
It is found that over all tourists evaluated themselves in the highest
level averaged 4.40. When focusing on each item, it is shown that
they evaluated themselves in the highest level on obeying the temple
staff averaged 4.57, and cleanness concern of the temple averaged
4.52, well-behaved performance during the temple visit averaged
4.47 respectively.
Abstract: The design of an optimised horizontal axis 5-meter-long wind turbine rotor blade in according with IEC 61400-2 standard is a research and development project in order to fulfil the requirements of high efficiency of torque from wind production and to optimise the structural components to the lightest and strongest way possible. For this purpose, a research study is presented here by focusing on the structural characteristics of a composite wind turbine blade via finite element modelling and analysis tools. In this work, first, the required data regarding the general geometrical parts are gathered. Then, the airfoil geometries are created at various sections along the span of the blade by using CATIA software to obtain the two surfaces, namely; the suction and the pressure side of the blade in which there is a hat shaped fibre reinforced plastic spar beam, so-called chassis starting at 0.5m from the root of the blade and extends up to 4 m and filled with a foam core. The root part connecting the blade to the main rotor differential metallic hub having twelve hollow threaded studs is then modelled. The materials are assigned as two different types of glass fabrics, polymeric foam core material and the steel-balsa wood combination for the root connection parts. The glass fabrics are applied using hand wet lay-up lamination with epoxy resin as METYX L600E10C-0, is the unidirectional continuous fibres and METYX XL800E10F having a tri-axial architecture with fibres in the 0,+45,-45 degree orientations in a ratio of 2:1:1. Divinycell H45 is used as the polymeric foam. The finite element modelling of the blade is performed via MSC PATRAN software with various meshes created on each structural part considering shell type for all surface geometries, and lumped mass were added to simulate extra adhesive locations. For the static analysis, the boundary conditions are assigned as fixed at the root through aforementioned bolts, where for dynamic analysis both fixed-free and free-free boundary conditions are made. By also taking the mesh independency into account, MSC NASTRAN is used as a solver for both analyses. The static analysis aims the tip deflection of the blade under its own weight and the dynamic analysis comprises normal mode dynamic analysis performed in order to obtain the natural frequencies and corresponding mode shapes focusing the first five in and out-of-plane bending and the torsional modes of the blade. The analyses results of this study are then used as a benchmark prior to modal testing, where the experiments over the produced wind turbine rotor blade has approved the analytical calculations.
Abstract: Laser beam welding has wide acceptability due to least welding distortion, low labour costs and convenient operation. However, laser welding for dissimilar titanium and aluminium alloys is a new area which is having wider applications in aerospace, aircraft, automotive, electronics and other industries. The present study is concerned with welding parameters namely laser power, welding speed, focusing distance and type of shielding gas and thereby evaluate welding performance of titanium and aluminium alloy thin sheets. This paper reviews the basic concepts associated with different parameters of Ti/Al sheet joint using Laser beam welding.
Abstract: An analysis of word semantics focusing on the invariance of advanced imagery in several pressing problems. Interest in the language of imagery is caused by the introduction, in the linguistics sphere, of a new paradigm, the center of which is the personality of the speaker (the subject of the language). Particularly noteworthy is the question of the place of the image when discussing the lexical, phraseological values and the relationship of imagery and metaphors. In part, the formation of a metaphor, as an interaction between two intellective entities, occurs at a cognitive level, and it is the category of the image, having cognitive roots, which aides in the correct interpretation of the results of this process on the lexical-semantic level.
Abstract: Several researches have been conducted to study
consumption of energy in cutting process. Most of these researches
are focusing to measure the consumption and propose consumption
reduction methods. In this work, the relation between the cutting
parameters and the consumption is investigated in order to establish a
generalized energy consumption model that can be used for process
and production planning in real production lines. Using the
generalized model, the process planning will be carried out by taking
into account the energy as a function of the selected process
parameters. Similarly, the generalized model can be used in
production planning to select the right operational parameters like
batch sizes, routing, buffer size, etc. in a production line. The
description and derivation of the model as well as a case study are
given in this paper to illustrate the applicability and validity of the
model.
Abstract: The advances in technology in the last five years
allowed an improvement in the educational area, as the increasing in
the development of educational software. One of the techniques that
emerged in this lapse is called Gamification, which is the utilization of
video game mechanics outside its bounds. Recent studies involving
this technique provided positive results in the application of these
concepts in many areas as marketing, health and education. In the last
area there are studies that covers from elementary to higher education,
with many variations to adequate to the educators methodologies.
Among higher education, focusing on IT courses, data structures are
an important subject taught in many of these courses, as they are
base for many systems. Based on the exposed this paper exposes
the development of an interactive web learning environment, called
DSLEP (Data Structure Learning Platform), to aid students in higher
education IT courses. The system includes basic concepts seen on
this subject such as stacks, queues, lists, arrays, trees and was
implemented to ease the insertion of new structures. It was also
implemented with gamification concepts, such as points, levels, and
leader boards, to engage students in the search for knowledge and
stimulate self-learning.
Abstract: Due to the volatile global economy, enterprises are increasingly focusing on logistics. By investing in suitable measures a company can increase their logistic performance and assert themselves over the competition. However, enterprises are also faced with the challenge of investing available capital for maximum profits. In order to be able to create an informed and quantifiably comprehensible basis for a decision, enterprises need a suitable model for logistically and monetarily evaluating measures in production. Previously, within the frame of Collaborate Research Centre 489 (SFB 489) at the Institute for Production Systems and Logistics, (IFA) a Logistic Information System was developed specifically for providing enterprises in the forging industry with support when making decisions. Based on this research, a new initiative referred to as ‘Transfer Project T7’, aims to develop a universal approach for logistically and monetarily evaluating production measures. This paper focuses on the structural measure echelon storage and their impact on the entire production system.
Abstract: In the age of globalization, higher education
institutions attempt to equip students with global competence. In
response, most universities have been developing and running various
international programs. However, teacher education has been a
neglected area in this trend. Therefore, in this study, we suggest a
program that offers a dual bachelor’s degree from both universities
located on different countries, focusing on teacher education
institutions with different policies and regulations of teacher education
programs that may become obstacles to designing a dual degree
program. We discuss a possible way to get a dual degree including a
teaching certificate at a specialized college, college of secondary
education. To be specific, this research presents a way to attain two
diplomas from Jeju National University (JNU) in Korea and Boise
State University (BSU) in the U.S. It attempts to build an effective
plan for students to declare simultaneous degrees at both universities.
From the study, we find that it takes about 5 years to fulfill
requirements for the dual degree at the undergraduate level.
Abstract: The energy-level structure of a pair of electron and positron confined in a quasi-one-dimensional nano-scale potential well has been investigated focusing on its trend in the small limit of confinement strength ω, namely, the Wigner molecular regime. An anisotropic Gaussian-type basis functions supplemented by high angular momentum functions as large as l = 19 has been used to obtain reliable full configuration interaction (FCI) wave functions. The resultant energy spectrum shows a band structure characterized by ω for the large ω regime whereas for the small ω regime it shows an energy-level pattern dominated by excitation into the in-phase motion of the two particles. The observed trend has been rationalized on the basis of the nodal patterns of the FCI wave functions.
Abstract: Over the past epoch a rampant amount of work has been done in the data clustering research under the unsupervised learning technique in Data mining. Furthermore several algorithms and methods have been proposed focusing on clustering different data types, representation of cluster models, and accuracy rates of the clusters. However no single clustering algorithm proves to be the most efficient in providing best results. Accordingly in order to find the solution to this issue a new technique, called Cluster ensemble method was bloomed. This cluster ensemble is a good alternative approach for facing the cluster analysis problem. The main hope of the cluster ensemble is to merge different clustering solutions in such a way to achieve accuracy and to improve the quality of individual data clustering. Due to the substantial and unremitting development of new methods in the sphere of data mining and also the incessant interest in inventing new algorithms, makes obligatory to scrutinize a critical analysis of the existing techniques and the future novelty. This paper exposes the comparative study of different cluster ensemble methods along with their features, systematic working process and the average accuracy and error rates of each ensemble methods. Consequently this speculative and comprehensive analysis will be very useful for the community of clustering practitioners and also helps in deciding the most suitable one to rectify the problem in hand.
Abstract: The German manufacturing industry has to withstand an increasing global competition on product quality and production costs. As labor costs are high, several industries have suffered severely under the relocation of production facilities towards aspiring countries, which have managed to close the productivity and quality gap substantially. Established manufacturing companies have recognized that customers are not willing to pay large price premiums for incremental quality improvements. As a consequence, many companies from the German manufacturing industry adjust their production focusing on customized products and fast time to market. Leveraging the advantages of novel production strategies such as Agile Manufacturing and Mass Customization, manufacturing companies transform into integrated networks, in which companies unite their core competencies. Hereby, virtualization of the process- and supply-chain ensures smooth inter-company operations providing real-time access to relevant product and production information for all participating entities. Boundaries of companies deteriorate, as autonomous systems exchange data, gained by embedded systems throughout the entire value chain. By including Cyber-Physical-Systems, advanced communication between machines is tantamount to their dialogue with humans. The increasing utilization of information and communication technology allows digital engineering of products and production processes alike. Modular simulation and modeling techniques allow decentralized units to flexibly alter products and thereby enable rapid product innovation. The present article describes the developments of Industry 4.0 within the literature and reviews the associated research streams. Hereby, we analyze eight scientific journals with regards to the following research fields: Individualized production, end-to-end engineering in a virtual process chain and production networks. We employ cluster analysis to assign sub-topics into the respective research field. To assess the practical implications, we conducted face-to-face interviews with managers from the industry as well as from the consulting business using a structured interview guideline. The results reveal reasons for the adaption and refusal of Industry 4.0 practices from a managerial point of view. Our findings contribute to the upcoming research stream of Industry 4.0 and support decision-makers to assess their need for transformation towards Industry 4.0 practices.
Abstract: Nowadays the promotion of the public transportation system in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area is increased such as the “Free Bus for Thai Citizen” Campaign and the prospect of the several MRT routes to increase the convenient and comfortable to the Bangkok Metropolitan area citizens. But citizens do not make full use of them it because the citizens are lack of the data and information and also the confident to the public transportation system of Thailand especially in the time and safety aspects. This research is the Public Transport Planning System by Dijkstra Algorithm: Case Study Bangkok Metropolitan Area by focusing on buses, BTS and MRT schedules/routes to give the most information to passengers. They can choose the way and the routes easily by using Dijkstra STAR Algorithm of Graph Theory which also shows the fare of the trip. This Application was evaluated by 30 normal users to find the mean and standard deviation of the developed system. Results of the evaluation showed that system is at a good level of satisfaction (4.20 and 0.40). From these results we can conclude that the system can be used properly and effectively according to the objective.
Abstract: Globally, issues of sustainable development have become the fulcrum around which current international discourse revolves. Many governments in both the developed and the developing countries are focusing on strategies to achieve sustainable growth. Tourism has been identified as a major sector in safeguarding a sustainable future. However, research has shown that tourism if not properly managed can be detrimental. This paper posits tourism in the sustainable development discourse, exploring how the historical evolution of tourism and issues of sustainability have informed the state of tourism activities in the developing countries. Using secondary data analysis, the paper reveals that current conceptual explanations of tourism are linked to sustainable development. However, tourism activities in developing countries are usually driven by profit without adequate consideration for environmental and social factors. The paper raises two questions and further recommends that tourism activities should be informed by sustainable development principles.
Abstract: In this article, a study of employee’s opinion to the factors that affect to the flood preventive and the corrective action plan in an electronic industry at the Sharp Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd. has been investigated. The surveys data of 175 workers and supervisors have, however, been selected for data analysis. The results is shown that the employees emphasize about the needs in a subsidy at the time of disaster at high levels of 77.8%, as the plan focusing on flood prevention of the rehabilitation equipment is valued at the intermediate level, which is 79.8%. Demonstration of the hypothesis has found that the different education levels has thus been affected to the needs factor at the flood disaster time. Moreover, most respondents give priority to flood disaster risk management factor. Consequently, we found that the flood prevention plan is valued at high level, especially on information monitoring, which is 93.4% for the supervisor item. The respondents largely assume that the flood will have impacts on the industry, up to 80%, thus to focus on flood management plans is enormous.
Abstract: The paper is the first output of a larger research project conducted at the Faculty of Education of the University of Hradec Králové, which deals with an improved understanding of teachers' work in the subject of National History and Geography. Partial findings focusing on the use of didactic material resources in teaching are presented in this phase. With the regard to promotion of independent activity of students within learner based education, material equipment of schools with didactic aids is becoming increasingly important. This paper is based on qualitative research, where the possibilities and mainly the reasons for use of material didactic resources in teaching were investigated through semi-structured interviews. Attention was focused on ways of working with different teaching aids and their implementation in the educational process. It turns out that teachers accept current constructivist and humanistic approaches to education associated with the requirement to prepare students for life in an information society, and accordingly they adjust their teaching.
Abstract: The brand storytelling themes and emotional appeals of three major global brands were analysed by means of visual rhetoric in a digital environment focusing on the ethos communication technique. A well-known framework of five basic brand personality dimensions was used to delineate the analysis. Brand storytelling as a branding technique is becoming increasingly popular, especially since all brands can tell a story to connect and engage with consumers on an emotional level. Social media have changed the way in which brand stories are shared with online consumers, while social video networking sites in particular create an opportunity to share brand stories with a much greater target audience through electronic word of mouth (eWOM). The findings not only confirm three dimensions in the traditional brand personality framework, but can also serve as a heuristic tool for other researchers analyzing brand storytelling in a social video sharing network environment.
Abstract: People at workplace always face with stress and feel it in their lives. There are many factors that create stress and mobbing is one of them. Mobbing is a psychological terror, conducted systematically toward an individual by others at the same workplace. Mobbing started to become a famous subject last years in U.S and Europe. In Turkey, it is a new concept not because it does not occur, because of human nature that does not allow confessing it. Mobbing is being ignored by people, organizations and also government in our country. The focus of this study will be mobbing in Turkey by examining the workplace mobbing among Turkish academicians. There are other studies about mobbing in Turkey but none of them studied academy. Because mobbing methods change according to sectors and occupations, it is important to analyze each sector to understand the methods used in mobbing and the reactions of victims to these actions. The concept is analyzed in detail before focusing on mobbing at universities. This paper will be unique because there is no information about this specific subject in Turkish literature. In this paper, both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to describe the mobbing at Turkish academic environment.
Abstract: Debates on residential satisfaction topic have been
vigorously discussed in family house setting. Nonetheless, less or
lack of attention was given to survey on student residential
satisfaction in the campus house setting. This study, however, tried to
fill in the gap by focusing more on the relationship between students-
socio-economic backgrounds and student residential satisfaction with
their on-campus student housing facilities. Two-stage cluster
sampling method was employed to classify the respondents. Then,
self-administered questionnaires were distributed face-to-face to the
students. In general, it was confirmed that the students- socioeconomic
backgrounds have significantly influence the students-
satisfaction with their on-campus student housing facilities. The main
influential factors were revealed as the economic status, sense of
sharing, and the ethnicity of roommates. Likewise, this study could
also provide some useful feedback for the universities administration
in order to improve their student housing facilities.