Abstract: We propose that Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) should be designed by taking into account the characteristics, the special needs and the specific operating rules of the academic institutions in which they are employed. In this context, we describe a VLE module that extends the support of the organization and delivery of course material by including administration activities related to the various stages of teaching. These include the co-ordination, collaboration and monitoring of the course material development process and institution-specific course material delivery modes. Our specialized module, which enhances VLE capabilities by Helping Educators and Learners through a Laboratory Assistance System, is willing to assist the Greek tertiary technological sector, which includes Technological Educational Institutes (T.E.I.).
Abstract: Supply chain networks are frequently hit by
unplanned events which lead to disruptions and cause operational and
financial consequences. It is neither possible to avoid disruption risk
entirely, nor are network members able to prepare for every possible
disruptive event. Therefore a continuity planning should be set up
which supports effective operational responses in supply chain
networks in times of emergencies. In this research network related
degrees of freedom which determine the options for responsive
actions are derived from interview data. The findings are further
embedded into a common risk management process. The paper
provides support for researchers and practitioners to identify the
network related options for responsive actions and to determine the
need for improving the reaction capabilities.
Abstract: The evaluation of residual reliability of large sized
parallel computer interconnection systems is not practicable with
the existing methods. Under such conditions, one must go for
approximation techniques which provide the upper bound and lower
bound on this reliability. In this context, a new approximation method
for providing bounds on residual reliability is proposed here. The
proposed method is well supported by two algorithms for simulation
purpose. The bounds on residual reliability of three different categories
of interconnection topologies are efficiently found by using
the proposed method
Abstract: In most of the cases, natural disasters lead to the
necessity of evacuating people. The quality of evacuation
management is dramatically improved by the use of information
provided by decision support systems, which become indispensable
in case of large scale evacuation operations. This paper presents a
best practice case study. In November 2007, officers from the
Emergency Situations Inspectorate “Crisana" of Bihor County from
Romania participated to a cross-border evacuation exercise, when
700 people have been evacuated from Netherlands to Belgium. One
of the main objectives of the exercise was the test of four different
decision support systems. Afterwards, based on that experience,
software system called TEVAC (Trans Border Evacuation) has been
developed “in house" by the experts of this institution. This original
software system was successfully tested in September 2008, during
the deployment of the international exercise EU-HUROMEX 2008,
the scenario involving real evacuation of 200 persons from Hungary
to Romania. Based on the lessons learned and results, starting from
April 2009, the TEVAC software is used by all Emergency
Situations Inspectorates all over Romania.
Abstract: The inphase/quadrature (I/Q) amplitude and phase
imbalance effects are studied in coherent optical orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing (CO-OFDM) systems. An analytical
model for the I/Q imbalance is developed and supported by
simulation results. The results indicate that the I/Q imbalance degrades the BER performance considerably.
Abstract: Generally, administrative systems in an academic
environment are disjoint and support independent queries. The
objective in this work is to semantically connect these independent
systems to provide support to queries run on the integrated platform.
The proposed framework, by enriching educational material in the
legacy systems, provides a value-added semantics layer where
activities such as annotation, query and reasoning can be carried out
to support management requirements. We discuss the development of
this ontology framework with a case study of UAE University
program administration to show how semantic web technologies can
be used by administration to develop student profiles for better
academic program management.
Abstract: Internet computer games turn to be more and more
attractive within the context of technology enhanced learning.
Educational games as quizzes and quests have gained significant
success in appealing and motivating learners to study in a different
way and provoke steadily increasing interest in new methods of
application. Board games are specific group of games where figures
are manipulated in competitive play mode with race conditions on a
surface according predefined rules. The article represents a new,
formalized model of traditional quizzes, puzzles and quests shown as
multimedia board games which facilitates the construction process of
such games. Authors provide different examples of quizzes and their
models in order to demonstrate the model is quite general and does
support not only quizzes, mazes and quests but also any set of
teaching activities. The execution process of such models is
explained and, as well, how they can be useful for creation and
delivery of adaptive e-learning courseware.
Abstract: Silver nano-particles have been used for antibacterial
purpose and it is also believed to have removal of odorous compounds,
oxidation capacity as a metal catalyst. In this study, silver
nano-particles in nano sizes (5-30 nm) were prepared on the surface of
NaHCO3, the supporting material, using a sputtering method that
provided high silver content and minimized conglomerating problems
observed in the common AgNO3 photo-deposition method. The silver
nano-particles were dispersed by dissolving Ag-NaHCO3 into water,
and the dispersed silver nano-particles in the aqueous phase were
applied to remove inorganic odor compounds, H2S, in a scrubbing
reactor. Hydrogen sulfide in the gas phase was rapidly removed by the
silver nano-particles, and the concentration of sulfate (SO4
2-) ion
increased with time due to the oxidation reaction by silver as a
catalyst. Consequently, the experimental results demonstrated that the
silver nano-particles in the aqueous solution can be successfully
applied to remove odorous compounds without adding additional
energy sources and producing any harmful byproducts
Abstract: The new optimization method for fiber orientation
angle optimization of symmetrical multilayer plates like plywood is
proposed. Optimization method consists of seeking for minimal
compliance by choosing appropriate fiber orientation angle in outer
layers of flexural plate. The discrete values of fiber orientation angles
are used in method. Optimization results of simply supported plate
and multispan plate with uniformly distributed load are provided.
Results show that stiffness could be increased up to 20% by changing
wood fiber orientation angle in one or two outer layers.
Abstract: A new conceptual architecture for low-level neural
pattern recognition is presented. The key ideas are that the brain
implements support vector machines and that support vectors are
represented as memory patterns in competitive queuing memories. A
binary classifier is built from two competitive queuing memories
holding positive and negative valence training examples respectively.
The support vector machine classification function is calculated in
synchronized evaluation cycles. The kernel is computed by bisymmetric
feed-forward networks feed by sensory input and by
competitive queuing memories traversing the complete sequence of
support vectors. Temporary summation generates the output
classification. It is speculated that perception apparatus in the brain
reuses structures that have evolved for enabling fluent execution of
prepared action sequences so that pattern recognition is built on
internalized motor programmes.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to identify the practical strategies of R&D (research and development) entities for developing converging technology in organizational context. Based on the multi-assignation technological domains of patents derived from entire government-supported R&D projects for 13 years, we find that technology convergence is likely to occur when a university solely develops technology or when university develops technology as one of the collaborators. These results reflect the important role of universities in developing converging technology
Abstract: Our study proposes an alternative method in building
Fuzzy Rule-Based System (FRB) from Support Vector Machine
(SVM). The first set of fuzzy IF-THEN rules is obtained through
an equivalence of the SVM decision network and the zero-ordered
Sugeno FRB type of the Adaptive Network Fuzzy Inference System
(ANFIS). The second set of rules is generated by combining the
first set based on strength of firing signals of support vectors using
Gaussian kernel. The final set of rules is then obtained from the
second set through input scatter partitioning. A distinctive advantage
of our method is the guarantee that the number of final fuzzy IFTHEN
rules is not more than the number of support vectors in the
trained SVM. The final FRB system obtained is capable of performing
classification with results comparable to its SVM counterpart, but it
has an advantage over the black-boxed SVM in that it may reveal
human comprehensible patterns.
Abstract: TUSAT is a prospective Turkish
Communication Satellite designed for providing mainly data
communication and broadcasting services through Ku-Band
and C-Band channels. Thermal control is a vital issue in
satellite design process. Therefore, all satellite subsystems and
equipments should be maintained in the desired temperature
range from launch to end of maneuvering life. The main
function of the thermal control is to keep the equipments and
the satellite structures in a given temperature range for various
phases and operating modes of spacecraft during its lifetime.
This paper describes the thermal control design which uses
passive and active thermal control concepts. The active
thermal control is based on heaters regulated by software via
thermistors. Alternatively passive thermal control composes of
heat pipes, multilayer insulation (MLI) blankets, radiators,
paints and surface finishes maintaining temperature level of
the overall carrier components within an acceptable value.
Thermal control design is supported by thermal analysis using
thermal mathematical models (TMM).
Abstract: Support Vector Domain Description (SVDD) is one of the best-known one-class support vector learning methods, in which one tries the strategy of using balls defined on the feature space in order to distinguish a set of normal data from all other possible abnormal objects. As all kernel-based learning algorithms its performance depends heavily on the proper choice of the kernel parameter. This paper proposes a new approach to select kernel's parameter based on maximizing the distance between both gravity centers of normal and abnormal classes, and at the same time minimizing the variance within each class. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated on several benchmarks. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and the effectiveness of the presented method.
Abstract: The article is about government programs and projects
and their description which are aimed at improving the socioeconomic
situation in the Republic of Kazakhstan. A brief historical
overview, as well as information about current socio-economic,
political and transitional contexts of the country are provided. Two
theories were described in the article to inform this descriptive study.
According to the United Nation's Development Reports for 2005 and
2011, the country's human development index (HDI) rose by several
points despite the socio-economic and political imbalances taking
place in the republic since it gained its independence in 1991. It is
stated in the article that government support programs are one of the
crucial factors that increase the population welfare which in its turn
may lead to reduction of social crisis processes in the country.
Abstract: This paper investigates the effectiveness of the use of
seismic isolation devices on the overall 3D seismic response of
curved highway viaducts with an emphasis on expansion joints.
Furthermore, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the use of cable
restrainers is presented. For this purpose, the bridge seismic
performance has been evaluated on four different radii of curvature,
considering two cases: restrained and unrestrained curved viaducts.
Depending on the radius of curvature, three-dimensional non-linear
dynamic analysis shows the vulnerability of curved viaducts to
pounding and deck unseating damage. In this study, the efficiency of
using LRB supports combined with cable restrainers on curved
viaducts is demonstrated, not only by reducing in all cases the
possible damage, but also by providing a similar behavior in the
viaducts despite of curvature radius.
Abstract: This paper presents the results of an analytical study
on the seismic response of a Multi-Span-Simply-Supported precast
bridge in Washington State. The bridge was built in the early 1960's
along Interstate 5 and was widened the first time in 1979 and the
second time in 2001. The primary objective of this research project
is to determine the seismic vulnerability of the bridge in order to
develop the required retrofit measure. The seismic vulnerability of
the bridge is evaluated using two seismic evaluation methods
presented in the FHWA Seismic Retrofitting Manual for Highway
Bridges, Method C and Method D2. The results of the seismic
analyses demonstrate that Method C and Method D2 vary markedly
in terms of the information they provide to the bridge designer
regarding the vulnerability of the bridge columns.
Abstract: In this paper, an analytical approach for free vibration
analysis of four edges simply supported rectangular Kirchhoff plates
is presented. The method is based on wave approach. From wave
standpoint vibration propagate, reflect and transmit in a structure.
Firstly, the propagation and reflection matrices for plate with simply
supported boundary condition are derived. Then, these matrices are
combined to provide a concise and systematic approach to free
vibration analysis of a simply supported rectangular Kirchhoff plate.
Subsequently, the eigenvalue problem for free vibration of plates is
formulated and the equation of plate natural frequencies is
constructed. Finally, the effectiveness of the approach is shown by
comparison of the results with existing classical solution.
Abstract: The main mission of Ezilla is to provide a friendly
interface to access the virtual machine and quickly deploy the high
performance computing environment. Ezilla has been developed by
Pervasive Computing Team at National Center for High-performance
Computing (NCHC). Ezilla integrates the Cloud middleware,
virtualization technology, and Web-based Operating System (WebOS)
to form a virtual computer in distributed computing environment. In
order to upgrade the dataset and speedup, we proposed the sensor
observation system to deal with a huge amount of data in the
Cassandra database. The sensor observation system is based on the
Ezilla to store sensor raw data into distributed database. We adopt the
Ezilla Cloud service to create virtual machines and login into virtual
machine to deploy the sensor observation system. Integrating the
sensor observation system with Ezilla is to quickly deploy experiment
environment and access a huge amount of data with distributed
database that support the replication mechanism to protect the data
security.
Abstract: This paper aims to argue that religion and Faith-based
Organizations (FBOs) contribute to building democratic process
through the provision of education in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone
experienced a civil war from 1991 to 2002 and about 70 percent of the
population lives in poverty. While the government has been in the
process of rebuilding the nation, many forms of Civil Society
Organizations (CSOs), including FBOs, have played a significant role
in promoting social development. Education plays an important role in
supporting people-s democratic movements through knowledge
acquisition, spiritual enlightenment and empowerment. This paper
discusses religious tolerance in Sierra Leone and how FBOs have
contributed to the provision of primary education in Sierra Leone. This
study is based on the author-s field research, which involved
interviews with teachers and development stakeholders, notably
government officials, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and
FBOs, as well as questionnaires completed by pupils, parents and
teachers.