Abstract: Composites depending on the nature of their
constituents and mode of production are regarded as one of the
advanced materials that drive today’s technology. This paper
attempts a short review of the subject matter with a general aim of
pushing to the next level the frontier of knowledge as it impacts the
technology of nano-particles manufacturing. The objectives entail an
effort to; aggregate recent research efforts in this field, analyse
research findings and observations, streamline research efforts and
support industry in taking decision on areas of fund deployment. It is
envisaged that this work will serve as a quick hand-on compendium
material for researchers in this field and a guide to relevant
government departments wishing to fund a research whose outcomes
have the potential of improving the nation’s GDP.
Abstract: Reduction of CO2 emissions has become a priority for
several countries due to increasing concerns about global warming
and climate change, especially in the developed countries. Residential
sector is considered one of the most important sectors for
considerable reduction of CO2 emissions since it represents a
significant amount of the total consumed energy in those countries. A
significant CO2 reduction cannot be achieved unless some initiatives
have been adopted in the policy of these countries. Introducing micro
combined heat and power (!CHP) systems into residential energy
systems is one of these initiatives, since such a technology offers
several advantages. Moreover, !CHP technology has the opportunity
to be operated not only by natural gas but it could also be operated by
renewable fuels. However, this technology can be operated by
different operation strategies. Each strategy has some advantages and
disadvantages.
This paper provides a review of different operation strategies of
such a technology used for residential energy systems, especially for
single dwellings. The review summarizes key points that outline the
trend of previous research carried out in this field.
Abstract: Time and cost are the main goals of the construction
project management. The first schedule developed may not be a
suitable schedule for beginning or completing the project to achieve
the target completion time at a minimum total cost. In general, there
are trade-offs between time and cost (TCT) to complete the activities
of a project. This research presents genetic algorithms (GAs) multiobjective
model for project scheduling considering different
scenarios such as least cost, least time, and target time.
Abstract: Using ETABS software, this study analyzed 23
buildings to evaluate effects of mistakes during construction phase on
buildings structural behavior. For modelling, two different loadings
were assumed: 1) design loading and 2) loading due to the effects of
mistakes in construction phase. Research results determined that
considering traditional construction methods for buildings resulted in
a significant increase in dead loads and consequently intensified the
displacements and base-shears of buildings under seismic loads.
Abstract: Collapsible soils go through radical rearrangement of
their particles when triggered by water, stress or/and vibration,
causing loss of volume. This loss of volume in soil as seen in
foundation failures has caused millions of dollars’ worth of damages
to public facilities and infrastructure and so has an adverse effect on
the society and people. Despite these consequences and the several
studies that are available, more research is still required in the study
of soil collapsibility. Discerning the pedogenesis (formation) of soils
and investigating the combined effects of the different geological soil
properties is key to elucidating and quantifying soils collapsibility.
This study presents a novel laboratory testing regime that would be
undertaken on soil samples where the effects of soil type, compactive
variables (moisture content, density, void ratio, degree of saturation)
and loading are analyzed. It is anticipated that results obtained would
be useful in mapping the trend of the combined effect thus the basis
for evaluating soil collapsibility or collapse potentials encountered in
construction with volume loss problems attributed to collapse.
Abstract: Columns have traditionally been constructed of
reinforced concrete or structural steel. Much attention was allocated
to estimate the axial capacity of the traditional column sections to the
detriment of other forms of construction. Other forms of column
construction such as Concrete Filled Double Skin Tubes received
little research attention, and almost no attention when subjected to
eccentric loading. This paper investigates the axial capacity of
columns when subjected to eccentric loading. The experimental axial
capacities are compared to other established theoretical formulae on
concentric loading to determine a possible relationship. The study
found a good correlation between the reduction in axial capacity for
different column lengths and hollow section ratios.
Abstract: This study offers a comprehensive review of the
research papers published in the field of cooling towers and gives an
insight into the latest developments of the natural draught cooling
towers. Different modeling, analysis and design techniques are
summarized and the challenges are discussed. The 118 references
included in this paper are mostly concentrated on the review of the
published papers after 2005. The present paper represents a complete
collection of the studies done for cooling towers and would give an
updated material for the researchers and design engineers in the field
of hyperbolic cooling towers.
Abstract: This paper presents a study on Proportional Resonant
(PR) current control with additional PR harmonic compensators for
Grid Connected Photovoltaic (PV) Inverters. Both simulation and
experimental results will be presented. Testing was carried out on a
3kW Grid-Connected PV Inverter which was designed and
constructed for this research.
Abstract: The use of information and communication
technologies such as computers, mobile phones and the Internet is
becoming prevalent in today’s world; and it is facilitating access to a
vast amount of data, services and applications for the improvement of
people’s lives. However, this prevalence of ICTs is hampered by the
problem of low income levels in developing countries to the point
where people cannot timeously replace or repair their ICT devices
when damaged or lost; and this problem serves as a motivation for
this study whose aim is to examine the perceptions of teachers on the
reliability of cellphones when used for teaching and learning
purposes. The research objectives unfolding this aim are of two
types: Objectives on the selection and design of theories and models,
and objectives on the empirical testing of these theories and models.
The first type of objectives is achieved using content analysis in an
extensive literature survey: and the second type of objectives is
achieved through a survey of high school teachers from the ILembe
and UMgungundlovu districts in the KwaZulu-Natal province of
South Africa. Data collected from this questionnaire based survey is
analysed in SPSS using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations
after checking the reliability and validity of the questionnaires. The
main hypothesis driving this study is that there is a relationship
between the demographics and the attribution identity of teachers on
one hand, and their perceptions on the reliability of cellphones on the
other hand, as suggested by existing literature; except that attribution
identities are considered in this study under three angles: intention,
knowledge and ability, and action. The results of this study confirm
that the perceptions of teachers on the reliability of cellphones for
teaching and learning are affected by the school location of these
teachers, and by their perceptions on learners’ cellphones usage
intentions and actual use.
Abstract: Self-service technologies (SSTs) make an important
contribution to the daily life of people nowadays. However, the
introduction of SST does not lead to its usage. Thereby, this paper
was an attempt on discovery of the most preferred SST in the
customers’ point of view. To fulfill this aim, the Analytical Hierarchy
Process (AHP) was applied based on Saaty’s questionnaire which
was administered to the customers of e-banking services located in
Golestan providence, northern Iran. This study used qualitative
factors in association with the intention of consumers’ usage of SSTs
to rank three SSTs: ATM, mobile banking and internet banking. The
results showed that mobile banking get the highest weight in
consumers’ point of view. This research can be useful both for
managers and service providers and also for customers who intend to
use e-banking.
Abstract: This paper is drawn from a wider study of the
management of gender, age and disability diversity in the banking
sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which aims to develop
a framework for diversity management (DM) in this sector. The
paper focuses on the management of disability diversity. The purpose
of the paper is to assist in understanding disability DM in the banking
sector in KSA and to make suggestions for its enhancement. Hence, it
contributes to filling a research gap, as there is a dearth of literature
on disability DM, in KSA in general, and in the banking sector
specifically.
Discrimination against people with disabilities is a social issue that
has not been entirely overcome in any society. However, in KSA,
Islam informs almost every aspect of daily life including work, and
Islam is against discrimination. Hence, in KSA, there are regulations
to accommodate people with disabilities; however, employers are still
free not to hire job applicants with disabilities specifically because of
their condition. Indeed, disabled people are almost entirely absent
from the labour market.
There are 12 Saudi-owned or part-Saudi-owned banks in KSA and
two managers from each of these were interviewed, making a total of
24. The interviews aimed to investigate empirically the understanding
of managers in the banking sector in KSA of diversity management,
including disability DM, in the banking sector. The interview data
were analysed using thematic analysis. Two interviewees stated that
banks used the employment of people with disabilities to enhance
their corporate image, while five expressed the opinion that disabled
employees could contribute to the bank provided they did not have to
deal with customers face-to-face. Nine of the interviewees perceived
that disabled employees could be of value to the bank for their own
sake, not only in ‘behind the scenes’ roles. Another two interviewees
mentioned that employing disabled people could be part of the bank’s
community service programme and one thought it would be part of
the bank’s Saudisation efforts. The remaining five interviewees did
not know how disabled people could contribute to the bank.
The findings show that disability DM in the banking sector in
KSA is a relatively new concept, and is not yet well understood. In
the light of the findings, in order to achieve the purpose of the paper,
the following suggestions were made for the enhancement of
disability DM in the banking sector in KSA. A change in attitudes
towards disabled people is necessary. Such a change in the workplace
can only be achieved if a top-down approach is taken to the
integration of disabled people. Hence, it is suggested that
management and employees follow a course in disability awareness.
Further, a diversity officer in the HR department could enhance the
integration of disabled people into the banking workforce. It is also
suggested that greater government support is required through closely
monitored and enforced anti-discrimination legislation. Moreover,
flexible working arrangements such as part-time work would
facilitate the employment of disabled people and benefit other groups
of employees.
Abstract: In today’s world, the LED display has been used for
presenting visual information under various circumstances. Such
information is an important intermediary in the human information
processing. Researchers have been investigated diverse factors that
influence this process effectiveness. The letter size is undoubtedly
one major factor that has been tested and recommended by many
standards and guidelines. However, viewing information on the
display from direct perpendicular position is a typical assumption
whereas many actual events are required viewing from the angles.
This current research aims to study the effect of oblique viewing
angle and viewing distance on ability to recognize alphabet, number,
and English word. The total of ten participants was volunteered to our
3 x 4 x 4 within subject study. Independent variables include three
distance levels (2, 6, and 12 m), four oblique angles (0, 45, 60, 75
degree), and four target types (alphabet, number, short word, and
long word). Following the method of constant stimuli our study
suggests that the larger oblique angle, ranging from 0 to 75 degree
from the line of sight, results in significant higher legibility threshold
or larger font size required (p-value < 0.05). Viewing distance factor
also shows to have significant effect on the threshold (p-value
Abstract: Thanks to informational technologies development
every sphere of economics is becoming more and more datacentralized
as people are generating huge datasets containing
information on any aspect of their life. Applying research of such
data to human resources management allows getting scarce statistics
on labor market state including salary expectations and potential
employees’ typical career behavior, and this information can become
a reliable basis for management decisions.
The following article presents results of career behavior research
based on freely accessible resume data. Information used for study is
much wider than one usually uses in human resources surveys. That
is why there is enough data for statistically significant results even
for subgroups analysis.
Abstract: In the second decade of the XXI century the role of
tourism destination attractiveness is becoming increasingly important
for destination management. Competition in tourism market moves
from ordinary service quality to provision of unforgettable emotional
experience for tourists. The main purpose of the present study is to
identify the perception of the tourism destinations based on the
number of factors related to its tourist attractiveness.
The content analysis method was used to analyze the on-line
tourist feedback data immensely available in Social Media and in
travel related sites. The collected data made it possible to procure the
information which is necessary to understand the perceived
attractiveness of the destinations and key destination appeal factors
that are important for Russian leisure travelers.
Results of the present study demonstrate key attractiveness factors
or destination ‘properties’ that were unveiled as the most important
for Russian leisure tourists. The study targeted five main Spanish
tourism destinations that initially were determined by in-depth
interview with a number of Russian nationals who had visited Spain
at least once.
The research results can be useful for Spanish Tourism
Organization Representation office in Russia as well as for the other
national tourism organizations in order to promote their respective
destinations for Russian travelers focusing on main attractiveness
factors identified in this study.
Abstract: The crude oil in an oil well exists in various phases
such as gas, seawater, and sand, as well as oil. Therefore, a phase
separator is needed at the front of a single-phase pump for
pressurization and transfer. On the other hand, the application of a
multiphase pump can provide such advantages as simplification of the
equipment structure and cost savings, because there is no need for a
phase separation process. Therefore, the crude oil transfer method
using a multiphase pump is being applied to recently developed oil
wells. Due to this increase in demand, technical demands for the
development of multiphase pumps are sharply increasing, but the
progress of research into related technologies is insufficient, due to the
nature of multiphase pumps that require high levels of skills. This
study was conducted to verify the reliability of pump performance
evaluation using numerical analysis, which is the basis of the
development of a multiphase pump. For this study, a model was
designed by selecting the specifications of this study. The performance
of the designed model was evaluated through numerical analysis and
experiment. The results of the performance evaluation were compared
to verify the reliability of the result using numerical analysis.
Abstract: Climate change will affect the hydrological cycle in
many different ways such as increase in evaporation and rainfalls.
There have been growing interests among researchers to identify the
nature of trends in historical rainfall data in many different parts of
the world. This paper examines the trends in annual maximum
rainfall data from 30 stations in New South Wales, Australia by using
two non-parametric tests, Mann-Kendall (MK) and Spearman’s Rho
(SR). Rainfall data were analyzed for fifteen different durations
ranging from 6 min to 3 days. It is found that the sub-hourly
durations (6, 12, 18, 24, 30 and 48 minutes) show statistically
significant positive (upward) trends whereas longer duration (subdaily
and daily) events generally show a statistically significant
negative (downward) trend. It is also found that the MK test and SR
test provide notably different results for some rainfall event durations
considered in this study. Since shorter duration sub-hourly rainfall
events show positive trends at many stations, the design rainfall data
based on stationary frequency analysis for these durations need to be
adjusted to account for the impact of climate change. These shorter
durations are more relevant to many urban development projects
based on smaller catchments having a much shorter response time.
Abstract: Supermarkets are the most electricity-intensive type of
commercial buildings. The unsuitable indoor environment of a
supermarket provided by abnormal HVAC operations incurs waste
energy consumption in refrigeration systems. This current study
briefly describes significantly solid backgrounds and proposes easyto-
use analysis terminology for investigating the impact of HVAC
operations on refrigeration power consumption using the field-test
data obtained from building automation system (BAS). With solid
backgrounds and prior knowledge, expected energy interactions
between HVAC and refrigeration systems are proposed through
Pearson’s correlation analysis (R value) by considering correlations
between equipment power consumption and dominantly independent
variables (driving force conditions).The R value can be conveniently
utilized to evaluate how strong relations between equipment
operations and driving force parameters are. The calculated R values
obtained from field data are compared to expected ranges of R values
computed by energy interaction methodology. The comparisons can
separate the operational conditions of equipment into faulty and
normal conditions. This analysis can simply investigate the condition
of equipment operations or building sensors because equipment could
be abnormal conditions due to routine operations or faulty
commissioning processes in field tests. With systematically solid and
easy-to-use backgrounds of interactions provided in the present
article, the procedures can be utilized as a tool to evaluate the proper
commissioning and routine operations of HVAC and refrigeration
systems to detect simple faults (e.g. sensors and driving force
environment of refrigeration systems and equipment set-point) and
optimize power consumption in supermarket buildings. Moreover,
the analysis will be used to further study the FDD research for
supermarkets in future.
Abstract: Molluca Collision Zone is located at the junction of
the Eurasian, Australian, Pacific and the Philippines plates. Between
the Sangihe arc, west of the collision zone, and to the east of
Halmahera arc is active collision and convex toward the Molluca Sea.
This research will analyze the behavior of earthquake occurrence in
Molluca Collision Zone related to the distributions of an earthquake
in each partition regions, determining the type of distribution of a
occurrence earthquake of partition regions, and the mean occurence
of earthquakes each partition regions, and the correlation between the
partitions region. We calculate number of earthquakes using partition
method and its behavioral using conventional statistical methods. In
this research, we used data of shallow earthquakes type and its
magnitudes ≥4 SR (period 1964-2013). From the results, we can
classify partitioned regions based on the correlation into two classes:
strong and very strong. This classification can be used for early
warning system in disaster management.
Abstract: Nations are still finding it quite difficult to win mega
sport competitions despite the major contribution of sport to society
in terms of social and economic development, personal health, and in
education. Even though the world of sports has been transformed into
a huge global economy, it is important to note that the first step of
sport is usually its introduction to children at school through physical
education or PE. In other words, nations who do not win mega sport
competitions also suffer from a weak and neglected PE system. This
problem of the neglect of PE systems is the main motivation of this
research aimed at examining the factors affecting the perceived
awareness of physical education teachers on the ICTs that are
adoptable for the teaching and learning of physical education. Two
types of research objectives will materialize this aim: relevant
theories will be identified in relation to the analysis of the perceived
ICT awareness of PE teachers and subsequent models will be
compiled and designed from existing literature; the empirical testing
of such theories and models will also be achieved through the survey
of PE teachers from the Camperdown magisterial district of the
KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The main hypothesis at the
heart of this study is the relationship between the demographics of PE
teachers, their behavior both as individuals and as social entities, and
their perceived awareness of the ICTs that are adoptable for PE, as
postulated by existing literature; except that this study categorizes
human behavior under performance expectancy, computer attitude,
and social influence. This hypothesis was partially confirmed by the
survey conducted by this research in the sense that performance
expectancy and teachers’ age, gender, computer usage, and class size
were found to be the only factors affecting their awareness of ICTs
for physical education.
Abstract: The world wide web network is a network with a
complex topology, the main properties of which are the distribution
of degrees in power law, A low clustering coefficient and a weak
average distance. Modeling the web as a graph allows locating the
information in little time and consequently offering a help in the
construction of the research engine. Here, we present a model based
on the already existing probabilistic graphs with all the aforesaid
characteristics. This work will consist in studying the web in order to
know its structuring thus it will enable us to modelize it more easily
and propose a possible algorithm for its exploration.