Abstract: Currently, there are few user friendly Weigh-in-
Motion (WIM) data analysis softwares available which can produce
traffic input data for the recently developed AASHTOWare pavement
Mechanistic-Empirical (ME) design software. However, these
softwares have only rudimentary Quality Control (QC) processes.
Therefore, they cannot properly deal with erroneous WIM data. As
the pavement performance is highly sensible to the quality of WIM
data, it is highly recommended to use more refined QC process on
raw WIM data to get a good result. This study develops a userfriendly
software, which can produce traffic input for the ME design
software. This software takes the raw data (Class and Weight data)
collected from the WIM station and processes it with a sophisticated
QC procedure. Traffic data such as traffic volume, traffic distribution,
axle load spectra, etc. can be obtained from this software; which can
directly be used in the ME design software.
Abstract: The main objective of this research is to describe the
relationship between organizational climate and organizational
citizenship behavior. In order to examine this relationship, a research
is intended to be carried out in relevant institutions and organizations
operating in the health sector in Turkey. It will be researched that
whether there is a statistically significant relationship between
organizational climate and organizational citizenship behavior
through elated scientific research methods and statistical analysis. In
addition, relationships between the dimensions of organizational
climate and organizational citizenship behavior subscales will be
questioned statistically.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is analyzing the relationship
between trust and social capital of people with using Social Network
Analysis. In this study, two aspects of social capital will be focused:
Bonding, homophilous social capital (BoSC), and Bridging,
heterophilous social capital (BrSC). These two aspects diverge each
other regarding to the social theories. The other concept of the study
is Trust (Tr), namely interpersonal trust, willing to ascribe good
intentions to and have confidence in the words and actions of other
people. In this study, the sample group, 61 people, was selected from
a private firm from the defense industry. The relation between
BoSC/BrSC and Tr is shown by using Social Network Analysis
(SNA) and statistical analysis with Likert type-questionnaire. The
results of the analysis show the Cronbach’s alpha value is 0.756 and
social capital values (BoSC/BrSC) is not correlated with Tr values of
the people.
Abstract: Result from the constant dwindle in natural resources,
the alternative way to reduce the costs in our daily life would be urgent
to be found in the near future. As the ancient technique based on the
theory of solar chimney since roman times, the double-skin façade are
simply composed of two large glass panels in purpose of daylighting
and also natural ventilation in the daytime. Double-skin façade is
generally installed on the exterior side of buildings as function as the
window, so there is always a huge amount of passive solar energy the
façade would receive to induce the airflow every sunny day. Therefore,
this article imposes a domestic double-skin window for residential
usage and attempts to improve the volume flow rate inside the cavity
between the panels by the frame geometry design, the installation of
outlet guide plate and the solar energy collection system. Note that the
numerical analyses are applied to investigate the characteristics of flow
field, and the boundary conditions in the simulation are totally based
on the practical experiment of the original prototype. Then we
redesign the prototype from the knowledge of the numerical results
and fluid dynamic theory, and later the experiments of modified
prototype will be conducted to verify the simulation results. The
velocities at the inlet of each case are increase by 5%, 45% and 15%
from the experimental data, and also the numerical simulation results
reported 20% improvement in volume flow rate both for the frame
geometry design and installation of outlet guide plate.
Abstract: In this paper, a linear mixed model which has two
random effects is broken up into two models. This thesis gets
the parameter estimation of the original model and an estimation’s
statistical qualities based on these two models. Then many important
properties are given by comparing this estimation with other general
estimations. At the same time, this paper proves the analysis of
variance estimate (ANOVAE) about σ2 of the original model is equal
to the least-squares estimation (LSE) about σ2 of these two models.
Finally, it also proves that this estimation is better than ANOVAE
under Stein function and special condition in some degree.
Abstract: The social logic of 'Sequina' slum area in Alexandria details the integral measure of space syntax at the room-level of twenty-building samples. The essence of spatial structure integrates the central 'visitor' domain with the 'living' frontage of the 'children' zone against the segregated privacy of the opposite 'parent' depth. Meanwhile, the multifunctioning of shallow rooms optimizes the integral 'visitor' structure through graph and visibility dimensions in contrast to the 'inhabitant' structure of graph-tails out of sight. Common theme of the layout integrity increases in compensation to the decrease of room visibility. Despite the 'pheno-type' of collective integration, the individual layouts observe 'geno-type' structure of spatial diversity per room adjoins. In this regard, the layout integrity alternates the cross-correlation of the 'kitchen & living' rooms with the 'inhabitant & visitor' domains of 'motherhood' dynamic structure. Moreover, the added 'grandparent' restructures the integral measure to become the deepest space, but opens to the 'living' of 'household' integrity. Some isomorphic layouts change the integral structure just through the 'balcony' extension of access, visual or ignored 'ringiness' of space syntax. However, the most integrated or segregated layouts invert the 'geno-type' into a shallow 'inhabitant' centrality versus the remote 'visitor' structure. Overview of the multivariate social logic of spatial integrity could never clarify without the micro-data analysis.
Abstract: Mineral product, waste concrete (fine aggregates),
waste in the optical field, industry, and construction employ separators
to separate solids and classify them according to their size. Various
sorting machines are used in the industrial field such as those operating
under electrical properties, centrifugal force, wind power, vibration,
and magnetic force. Study on separators has been carried out to
contribute to the environmental industry. In this study, we perform
CFD analysis for understanding the basic mechanism of the separation
of waste concrete (fine aggregate) particles from air with a machine
built with a rotor with blades. In CFD, we first performed
two-dimensional particle tracking for various particle sizes for the
model with 1 degree, 1.5 degree, and 2 degree angle between each
blade to verify the boundary conditions and the method of rotating
domain method to be used in 3D. Then we developed 3D numerical
model with ANSYS CFX to calculate the air flow and track the
particles. We judged the capability of particle separation for given size
by counting the number of particles escaping from the domain toward
the exit among 10 particles issued at the inlet. We confirm that
particles experience stagnant behavior near the exit of the rotating
blades where the centrifugal force acting on the particles is in balance
with the air drag force. It was also found that the minimum particle
size that can be separated by the machine with the rotor is determined
by its capability to stay at the outlet of the rotor channels.
Abstract: Background modeling and subtraction in video
analysis has been widely used as an effective method for moving
objects detection in many computer vision applications. Recently, a
large number of approaches have been developed to tackle different
types of challenges in this field. However, the dynamic background
and illumination variations are the most frequently occurred problems
in the practical situation. This paper presents a favorable two-layer
model based on codebook algorithm incorporated with local binary
pattern (LBP) texture measure, targeted for handling dynamic
background and illumination variation problems. More specifically,
the first layer is designed by block-based codebook combining with
LBP histogram and mean value of each RGB color channel. Because
of the invariance of the LBP features with respect to monotonic
gray-scale changes, this layer can produce block wise detection results
with considerable tolerance of illumination variations. The pixel-based
codebook is employed to reinforce the precision from the output of the
first layer which is to eliminate false positives further. As a result, the
proposed approach can greatly promote the accuracy under the
circumstances of dynamic background and illumination changes.
Experimental results on several popular background subtraction
datasets demonstrate very competitive performance compared to
previous models.
Abstract: Rapid developments in technology in the present age
have made it necessary for communities to follow technological
developments and adapt themselves to these developments. One of
the fields that are most rapidly affected by these developments is
undoubtedly education. Determination of the attitudes of preservice
teachers, who live in an age of technology and get ready to raise
future individuals, is of paramount importance both educationally and
professionally. The purpose of this study was to analyze attitudes of
preservice teachers towards technology and some variables that
predict these attitudes (gender, daily duration of internet use, and the
number of technical devices owned). 329 preservice teachers
attending the education faculty of a large university in central Turkey
participated, on a volunteer basis, in this study, where relational
survey model was used as the research method. Research findings
reveal that preservice teachers’ attitudes towards technology are
positive and at the same time, the attitudes of male preservice
teachers towards technology are more positive than their female
counterparts. As a result of the stepwise multiple regression analysis
where factors predicting preservice teachers’ attitudes towards
technology, it was found that duration of daily internet use was the
strongest predictor of attitudes towards technology.
Abstract: Web Usage Mining is the application of data mining
techniques to find usage patterns from web log data, so as to grasp
required patterns and serve the requirements of Web-based
applications. User’s expertise on the internet may be improved by
minimizing user’s web access latency. This may be done by
predicting the future search page earlier and the same may be prefetched
and cached. Therefore, to enhance the standard of web
services, it is needed topic to research the user web navigation
behavior. Analysis of user’s web navigation behavior is achieved
through modeling web navigation history. We propose this technique
which cluster’s the user sessions, based on the K-medoids technique.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to analyze the temporal
and spatial variability of thermal conditions in the Republic of
Armenia. The paper describes annual fluctuations in air temperature.
Research has been focused on case study region of Armenia and
surrounding areas, where long–term measurements and observations
of weather conditions have been performed within the National
Meteorological Service of Armenia and its surrounding areas. The
study contains yearly air temperature data recorded between 1961-
2012. Mann-Kendal test and the autocorrelation function were
applied to detect the change trend of annual mean temperature, as
well as other parametric and non-parametric tests searching to find
the presence of some breaks in the long term evolution of
temperature. The analysis of all records reveals a tendency mostly
towards warmer years, with increased temperatures especially in
valleys and inner basins. The maximum temperature increase is up to
1,5°C. Negative results have not been observed in Armenia. The
patterns of temperature change have been observed since the 1990’s
over much of the Armenian territory. The climate in Armenia was
influenced by global change in the last 2 decades, as results from the
methods employed within the study.
Abstract: River Hindon is an important river catering the
demand of highly populated rural and industrial cluster of western
Uttar Pradesh, India. Water quality of river Hindon is deteriorating at
an alarming rate due to various industrial, municipal and agricultural
activities. The present study aimed at identifying the pollution
sources and quantifying the degree to which these sources are
responsible for the deteriorating water quality of the river. Various
water quality parameters, like pH, temperature, electrical
conductivity, total dissolved solids, total hardness, calcium, chloride,
nitrate, sulphate, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen
demand, and total alkalinity were assessed. Water quality data
obtained from eight study sites for one year has been subjected to the
two multivariate techniques, namely, principal component analysis
and cluster analysis. Principal component analysis was applied with
the aim to find out spatial variability and to identify the sources
responsible for the water quality of the river. Three Varifactors were
obtained after varimax rotation of initial principal components using
principal component analysis. Cluster analysis was carried out to
classify sampling stations of certain similarity, which grouped eight
different sites into two clusters. The study reveals that the
anthropogenic influence (municipal, industrial, waste water and
agricultural runoff) was the major source of river water pollution.
Thus, this study illustrates the utility of multivariate statistical
techniques for analysis and elucidation of multifaceted data sets,
recognition of pollution sources/factors and understanding
temporal/spatial variations in water quality for effective river water
quality management.
Abstract: English like any other language is rich by means of arbitrary, conventional, symbols which lend it to lot of inconsistencies in spelling, phonology, syntax, and morphology. The research examines the irregularities prevalent in the structure and meaning of some ‘er’ lexical items in English and its implication to vocabulary acquisition. It centers its investigation on the derivational suffix ‘er’, which changes the grammatical category of word. English language poses many challenges to Second Language Learners because of its irregularities, exceptions, and rules. One of the meaning of –er derivational suffix is someone or somebody who does something. This rule often confuses the learners when they meet with the exceptions in normal discourse. The need to investigate instances of such inconsistencies in the formation of –er words and the meanings given to such words by the students motivated this study. For this purpose, some senior secondary two (SS2) students in six randomly selected schools in the metropolis were provided a large number of alphabetically selected ‘er’ suffix ending words, The researcher opts for a test technique, which requires them to provide the meaning of the selected words with- er. The marking of the test was scored on the scale of 1-0, where correct formation of –er word and meaning is scored one while wrong formation and meaning is scored zero. The number of wrong and correct formations of –er words meaning were calculated using percentage. The result of this research shows that a large number of students made wrong generalization of the meaning of the selected -er ending words. This shows how enormous the inconsistencies are in English language and how are affect the learning of English. Findings from the study revealed that though students mastered the basic morphological rules but the errors are generally committed on those vocabulary items that are not frequently in use. The study arrives at this conclusion from the survey of their textbook and their spoken activities. Therefore, the researcher recommends that there should be effective reappraisal of language teaching through implementation of the designed curriculum to reflect on modern strategies of teaching language, identification, and incorporation of the exceptions in rigorous communicative activities in language teaching, language course books and tutorials, training and retraining of teachers on the strategies that conform to the new pedagogy.
Abstract: Green and renewable energy is getting extraordinary
consideration today, because of ecological concerns made by blazing
of fossil powers. Photovoltaic and wind power generation are the
basic decisions for delivering power in this respects. Producing
power by the sun based photovoltaic systems is known to the world,
yet control makers may get confounded to pick between on-grid and
off-grid systems. In this exploration work, an endeavor is made to
compare the off-grid (stand-alone) and on-grid (grid-connected)
frameworks. The work presents relative examination, between two
distinctive PV frameworks situated at V.V.P. Engineering College,
Rajkot. The first framework is 100 kW remain solitary and the
second is 60 kW network joined. The real-time parameters compared
are; output voltage, load current, power in-flow, power output,
performance ratio, yield factor, and capacity factor. The voltage
changes and the power variances in both frameworks are given
exceptional consideration and the examination is made between the
two frameworks to judge the focal points and confinements of both
the frameworks.
Abstract: Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)
technology is the most promising technology for the proper
utilization of huge raw bandwidth provided by an optical fiber. One
of the key problems in implementing the all-optical WDM network is
the packet contention. This problem can be solved by several
different techniques. In time domain approach the packet contention
can be reduced by incorporating Fiber Delay Lines (FDLs) as optical
buffer in the switch architecture. Different types of buffering
architectures are reported in literatures. In the present paper a
comparative performance analysis of three most popular FDL
architectures are presented in order to obtain the best contention
resolution performance. The analysis is further extended to consider
the effect of different fiber non-linearities on the network
performance.
Abstract: Cadmium oxide (CdO) nanoparticles have been
prepared by chemical coprecipitation method. The synthesized
nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis
(XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron
microscopy (TEM), UV analysis, and dielectric studies. The
crystalline nature and particle size of the CdO nanoparticles were
characterized by Powder X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). The
morphology of prepared CdO nanoparticles was studied by scanning
electron microscopy. The particle size was studied using the
transmission electron microscopy (TEM).The optical properties were
obtained from UV-Vis absorption spectrum. The dielectric properties
of CdO nanoparticles were studied in the frequency range of 50 Hz–5
MHz at different temperatures. The frequency dependence of the
dielectric constant and dielectric loss is found to decrease with an
increase in the frequency at different temperatures. The ac
conductivity of CdO nanoparticle has been studied.
Abstract: The research investigates the causes of unemployment
in Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa and the role of Capital
Accumulation in reducing the unemployment profile of these
economies as proposed by the post-Keynesian economics. This is
conducted through extensive review of literature on the NAIRU
models and focused on the post-Keynesian view of unemployment
within the NAIRU framework. The NAIRU (non-accelerating
inflation rate of unemployment) model has become a dominant
framework used in macroeconomic analysis of unemployment. The
study views the post-Keynesian economics arguments that capital
accumulation is a major determinant of unemployment.
Unemployment remains the fundamental socio-economic challenge
facing African economies. It has been a burden to citizens of those
economies. Namibia, Nigeria, and South Africa are great African
nations battling with high unemployment rates. The high
unemployment rate in the country led the citizens to chase away
foreigners in the country claiming that they have taken away their
jobs. The study proposes there is a strong relationship between
capital accumulation and unemployment in Namibia, Nigeria, and
South Africa, and capital accumulation is responsible for high
unemployment rates in these countries. For the economies to achieve
steady state level of employment and satisfactory level of economic
growth and development, there is need for capital accumulation to
take place. The countries in the study have been selected after a
critical research and investigations. They are selected based on the
following criteria; African economies with high unemployment rates
above 15% and have about 40% of their workforce unemployed. This
level of unemployment is the critical level of unemployment in
Africa as expressed by International Labour Organization (ILO). And
finally, the African countries experience a slow growth in their Gross
fixed capital formation. Adequate statistical measures have been
employed using a time-series analysis in the study and the results
revealed that capital accumulation is the main driver of
unemployment performance in the chosen African countries. An
increase in the accumulation of capital causes unemployment to
reduce significantly. The results of the research work will be useful
and relevant to federal governments and ministries, departments and
agencies (MDAs) of Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa to resolve
the issue of high and persistent unemployment rates in their
economies which are great burden that slows growth and
development of developing economies. Also, the result can be useful
to World Bank, African Development Bank and International Labour
Organization (ILO) in their further research and studies on how to
tackle unemployment in developing and emerging economies.
Abstract: The strain intensity and redundant strains, dependent
in multistage TRIP wire drawing processes from values used single
partial reductions, should influence on the intensity of transformation
the retained austenite into martensite and thereby on mechanical
properties of drawn wires. The numerical analysis of drawing
processes with use of Drawing 2D programme, for steel wires made
from TRIP steel with 0,29% has been shown in the work. The change
of strain intensity εc and the values of redundant strain εxy, has been
determined for particular draws in dependence of used single partial
reductions.
Abstract: The increase in electric power demand in face of
environmental issues has intensified the participation of renewable
energy sources such as photovoltaics, in the energy matrix of various
countries. Due to their operational characteristics, they can generate
time-varying harmonic and inter-harmonic distortions. For this
reason, the application of methods of measurement based on
traditional Fourier analysis, as proposed by IEC 61000-4-7, can
provide inaccurate results. Considering the aspects mentioned herein,
came the idea of the development of this work which aims to present
the results of a comparative evaluation between a methodology
arising from the combination of the Prony method with the Kalman
filter and another method based on the IEC 61000-4-30 and IEC
61000-4-7 standards. Employed in this study were synthetic signals
and data acquired through measurements in a 50kWp photovoltaic
installation.
Abstract: Value addition to agricultural produce is of possible
potential in reducing poverty, improving food security and
malnutrition, therefore the need to develop small and microenterprises
of sweet potato production. A study was carried out in Nigeria to determine the acceptability
of blends sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) and commodities yellow
maize (Zea mays), millet (Pennisetum glaucum), soybean (Glycine
max), bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean), guinea corn
(Sorghum vulgare), wheat (Triticum aestivum), and roselle (Hibiscus
sabdariffa) through sensory evaluation. Sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) roots were processed using two
methods: oven and sun drying. The blends were also assessed in
terms of functional, chemical and color properties. Most acceptable blends include BAW (80:20 of sweet
potato/wheat), BBC (80:20 of sweet potato/guinea corn), AAB (60:40
of sweet potato/guinea corn), YTE (100% soybean), TYG (100%
sweet potato), KTN (100% wheat flour), XGP (80:20 of sweet
potato/soybean), XAX (60:40 of sweet potato/wheat), LSS (100%
Roselle), CHK (100% Guinea corn), and ABC (60:40% of sweet
potato/ yellow maize). In addition, carried out chemical analysis
revealed that sweet potato has high percentage of vitamins A and C,
potassium (K), manganese (Mn), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and
iron (Fe) and fibre content. There is also an increase of vitamin A and
Iron in the blended products.