Abstract: The aim of this qualitative case study is to examine how school principals perform their new roles and responsibilities defined in accordance with the new curriculum. Of ten primary schools that the new curriculum was piloted in Istanbul in school year of 2004-2005, one school was randomly selected as the sample of the study. The participants of the study were comprised of randomly-selected 26 teachers working in the case school. To collect data, an interview schedule was developed based on the new role definitions for school principals by the National Ministry of Education. Participants were interviewed on one-to-one basis in February and March 2007. Overall results showed that the school principal was perceived to be successful in terms of the application of the new curriculum in school. According to the majority of teachers, the principal has done his best to establish the infrastructure that is necessary for successful application of the new program. In addition to these, the principal was reported to adopt a collegial and participatory leadership style by creating a positive school atmosphere that enables the school community (teachers, parents and students) to involve school more than before. Keywordscase study, curriculum implementation, school principals and curriculum
Abstract: An emotional speech recognition system for the
applications on smart phones was proposed in this study to combine
with 3G mobile communications and social networks to provide users
and their groups with more interaction and care. This study developed
a mechanism using the support vector machines (SVM) to recognize
the emotions of speech such as happiness, anger, sadness and normal.
The mechanism uses a hierarchical classifier to adjust the weights of
acoustic features and divides various parameters into the categories of
energy and frequency for training. In this study, 28 commonly used
acoustic features including pitch and volume were proposed for
training. In addition, a time-frequency parameter obtained by
continuous wavelet transforms was also used to identify the accent and
intonation in a sentence during the recognition process. The Berlin
Database of Emotional Speech was used by dividing the speech into
male and female data sets for training. According to the experimental
results, the accuracies of male and female test sets were increased by
4.6% and 5.2% respectively after using the time-frequency parameter
for classifying happy and angry emotions. For the classification of all
emotions, the average accuracy, including male and female data, was
63.5% for the test set and 90.9% for the whole data set.
Abstract: This study was carried out to investigate lamb mortalities relating to ewes' breed and some managemental factors on 250 pregnant ewes (190-Rahmani, 30-Ossimi and 30-Romanov) at Mehallet Mousa, Animal Production Research Station, Kafr El- Sheikh Province, Egypt. These animals divided into five groups according to the managemental factors used. The results revealed that the lamb mortality was higher in Ossimi breed and lower in Romanov one. In addition, the highest lamb mortality occurred among lambs for unsupplemented ewes, for those had body condition score two and for lambs which born outdoor. Moreover, the lamb survivability was increased by the parity of ewes. From this study it can be concluded that the lamb mortality depends on ewes' body condition score, parity, lambing system (indoor or outdoor), nutrition during pregnancy period and selected breed. In addition, the most important period for lamb survival is the first week of age.
Abstract: Successive event of explosion earthquake and harmonic tremor recorded at Semeru volcano were analyzed to investigate the dynamical system regarding to their eruptive mechanism. The eruptive activity at Semeru volcano East Java, Indonesia is intermittent emission of ash and bombs with Strombolian style which occurred at interval of 15 to 45 minutes. The explosive eruptions accompanied by explosion earthquakes and followed by volcanic tremor which generated by continuous emission of volcanic ash. The spectral and Lyapunov exponent of successive event of explosion and harmonic tremor were analyzed. Peak frequencies of explosion earthquakes range 1.2 to 1.9 Hz and those of the harmonic tremor have peak frequency range 1.5 — 2.2 Hz. The phase space is reconstructed and evaluated based on the Lyapunov exponents. Harmonic tremors have smaller Lyapunov exponent than explosion earthquakes. It can be considerably as correlated complexity of the mechanism from the variance of spectral and fractal dimension and can be concluded that the successive event of harmonic tremor and explosions are chaotic.
Abstract: The occurrence of missing values in database is a serious problem for Data Mining tasks, responsible for degrading data quality and accuracy of analyses. In this context, the area has shown a lack of standardization for experiments to treat missing values, introducing difficulties to the evaluation process among different researches due to the absence in the use of common parameters. This paper proposes a testbed intended to facilitate the experiments implementation and provide unbiased parameters using available datasets and suited performance metrics in order to optimize the evaluation and comparison between the state of art missing values treatments.
Abstract: This research is designed for helping a WAPbased mobile phone-s user in order to analyze of logistics in the traffic area by applying and designing the accessible processes from mobile user to server databases. The research-s design comprises Mysql 4.1.8-nt database system for being the server which there are three sub-databases, traffic light – times of intersections in periods of the day, distances on the road of area-blocks where are divided from the main sample-area and speeds of sample vehicles (motorcycle, personal car and truck) in periods of the day. For interconnections between the server and user, PHP is used to calculate distances and travelling times from the beginning point to destination, meanwhile XHTML applied for receiving, sending and displaying data from PHP to user-s mobile. In this research, the main sample-area is focused at the Huakwang-Ratchada-s area, Bangkok, Thailand where usually the congested point and 6.25 km2 surrounding area which are split into 25 blocks, 0.25 km2 for each. For simulating the results, the designed server-database and all communicating models of this research have been uploaded to www.utccengineering.com/m4tg and used the mobile phone which supports WAP 2.0 XHTML/HTML multimode browser for observing values and displayed pictures. According to simulated results, user can check the route-s pictures from the requiring point to destination along with analyzed consuming times when sample vehicles travel in various periods of the day.
Abstract: Quality costs are the costs associated with preventing,
finding, and correcting defective work. Since the main language of
corporate management is money, quality-related costs act as means of
communication between the staff of quality engineering departments
and the company managers. The objective of quality engineering is to
minimize the total quality cost across the life of product. Quality
costs provide a benchmark against which improvement can be
measured over time. It provides a rupee-based report on quality
improvement efforts. It is an effective tool to identify, prioritize and
select quality improvement projects. After reviewing through the
literature it was noticed that a simplified methodology for data
collection of quality cost in a manufacturing industry was required.
The quantified standard methodology is proposed for collecting data
of various elements of quality cost categories for manufacturing
industry. Also in the light of research carried out so far, it is felt
necessary to standardise cost elements in each of the prevention,
appraisal, internal failure and external failure costs. . Here an attempt
is made to standardise the various cost elements applicable to
manufacturing industry and data is collected by using the proposed
quantified methodology. This paper discusses the case study carried
in luggage manufacturing industry.
Abstract: Functional imaging procedures for the non-invasive assessment of tissue microcirculation are highly requested, but require a mathematical approach describing the trans- and intercapillary passage of tracer particles. Up to now, two theoretical, for the moment different concepts have been established for tracer kinetic modeling of contrast agent transport in tissues: pharmacokinetic compartment models, which are usually written as coupled differential equations, and the indicator dilution theory, which can be generalized in accordance with the theory of lineartime- invariant (LTI) systems by using a convolution approach. Based on mathematical considerations, it can be shown that also in the case of an open two-compartment model well-known from functional imaging, the concentration-time course in tissue is given by a convolution, which allows a separation of the arterial input function from a system function being the impulse response function, summarizing the available information on tissue microcirculation. Due to this reason, it is possible to integrate the open two-compartment model into the system-theoretic concept of indicator dilution theory (IDT) and thus results known from IDT remain valid for the compartment approach. According to the long number of applications of compartmental analysis, even for a more general context similar solutions of the so-called forward problem can already be found in the extensively available appropriate literature of the seventies and early eighties. Nevertheless, to this day, within the field of biomedical imaging – not from the mathematical point of view – there seems to be a trench between both approaches, which the author would like to get over by exemplary analysis of the well-known model.
Abstract: The two significant overvoltages in power system,
switching overvoltage and lightning overvoltage, are investigated in
this paper. Firstly, the effect of various power system parameters on
Line Energization overvoltages is evaluated by simulation in ATP.
The dominant parameters include line parameters; short-circuit
impedance and circuit breaker parameters. Solutions to reduce
switching overvoltages are reviewed and controlled closing using
switchsync controllers is proposed as proper method.
This paper also investigates lightning overvoltages in the
overhead-cable transition. Simulations are performed in
PSCAD/EMTDC. Surge arresters are applied in both ends of cable to
fulfill the insulation coordination. The maximum amplitude of
overvoltages inside the cable is surveyed which should be of great
concerns in insulation coordination studies.
Abstract: The nearly 21-year-old Jiujiang Bridge, which is suffering from uneven line shape, constant great downwarping of the main beam and cracking of the box girder, needs reinforcement and cable adjustment. It has undergone cable adjustment for twice with incomplete data. Therefore, the initial internal force state of the Jiujiang Bridge is identified as the key for the cable adjustment project. Based on parameter identification by means of static force test data, this paper suggests determining the initial internal force state of the cable-stayed bridge according to the cable force-displacement relationship parameter identification method. That is, upon measuring the displacement and the change in cable forces for twice, one can identify the parameters concerned by means of optimization. This method is applied to the cable adjustment, replacement and reinforcement project for the Jiujiang Bridge as a guidance for the cable adjustment and reinforcement project of the bridge.
Abstract: This paper proposes a meta-heuristic called Ant Colony Optimization to solve multi-objective production problems. The multi-objective function is to minimize lead time and work in process. The problem is related to the decision variables, i.e.; distance and process time. According to decision criteria, the mathematical model is formulated. In order to solve the model an ant colony optimization approach has been developed. The proposed algorithm is parameterized by the number of ant colonies and the number of pheromone trails. One example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. The proposed formulations; Max-Min Ant system are then used to solve the problem and the results evaluate the performance and efficiency of the proposed algorithm using simulation.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate
the scale of implementation of Just-In-Time (JIT) in the different industrial sectors in the Middle East. This study analyzes the empirical data collected by a questionnaire survey distributed to
companies in three main industrial sectors in the Middle East, which
are: food, chemicals and fabrics. The following main hypotheses is formulated and tested: (The requirements of JIT application differ
according to the type of industrial sector).Descriptive statistics and Box plot analysis were used to examine the hypotheses. This study indicates a reasonable evidence for accepting the main hypotheses. It
reveals that there is no standard way to adopt JIT as a production system. But each industrial sector should concentrate in the
investment on critical requirements that differ according to the nature
and strategy of production followed in that sector.
Abstract: The study of the stress distribution on a hollow
cylindrical fiber placed in a composite material is considered in this
work and an analytical solution for this stress distribution has been
constructed. Finally some parameters such as fiber-s thickness and
fiber-s length are considered and their effects on the distribution of
stress have been investigated. For finding the governing relations,
continuity equations for the axisymmetric problem in cylindrical
coordinate (r,o,z) are considered. Then by assuming some conditions
and solving the governing equations and applying the boundary
conditions, an equation relates the stress applied to the representative
volume element with the stress distribution on the fiber has been
found.
Abstract: The effect of seed inoculation by VA- mycorrhiza and
different levels of phosphorus fertilizer on growth and yield of
sunflower (Azargol cultivar) was studied in experiment farm of
Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch during 2008 growing season.
The experiment treatments were arranged in factorial based on a
complete randomized block design with three replications. Four
phosphorus fertilizer levels of 25%, 50% 75% and 100% P
recommended with two levels of Mycorrhiza: with and without
Mycorrhiza (control) were assigned in a factorial combination.
Results showed that head diameter, number of seeds in head, seed
yield and oil yield were significantly higher in inoculated plants than
in non-inoculated plants. Head diameter, number of seeds in head,
1000 seeds weight, biological yield, seed yield and oil yield increased
with increasing P level above 75% P recommended in non-inoculated
plants, whereas no significant difference was observed between 75%
and 100% P recommended. The positive effect of mycorrhizal
inoculation decreased with increasing P levels due to decreased
percent root colonization at higher P levels. According to the results
of this experiment, application of mycorrhiza in present of 50% P
recommended had an appropriate performance and could increase
seed yield and oil production to an acceptable level, so it could be
considered as a suitable substitute for chemical phosphorus fertilizer
in organic agricultural systems.
Abstract: Recently the usefulness of Concept Abduction, a novel non-monotonic inference service for Description Logics (DLs), has been argued in the context of ontology-based applications such as semantic matchmaking and resource retrieval. Based on tableau calculus, a method has been proposed to realize this reasoning task in ALN, a description logic that supports simple cardinality restrictions as well as other basic constructors. However, in many ontology-based systems, the representation of ontology would require expressive formalisms for capturing domain-specific constraints, this language is not sufficient. In order to increase the applicability of the abductive reasoning method in such contexts, we would like to present in the scope of this paper an extension of the tableaux-based algorithm for dealing with concepts represented inALCQ, the description logic that extends ALN with full concept negation and quantified number restrictions.
Abstract: We consider a typical problem in the assembly of
printed circuit boards (PCBs) in a two-machine flow shop system to
simultaneously minimize the weighted sum of weighted tardiness and
weighted flow time. The investigated problem is a group scheduling
problem in which PCBs are assembled in groups and the interest is to
find the best sequence of groups as well as the boards within each
group to minimize the objective function value. The type of setup
operation between any two board groups is characterized as carryover
sequence-dependent setup time, which exactly matches with the real
application of this problem. As a technical constraint, all of the
boards must be kitted before the assembly operation starts (kitting
operation) and by kitting staff. The main idea developed in this paper
is to completely eliminate the role of kitting staff by assigning the
task of kitting to the machine operator during the time he is idle
which is referred to as integration of internal (machine) and external
(kitting) setup times. Performing the kitting operation, which is a
preparation process of the next set of boards while the other boards
are currently being assembled, results in the boards to continuously
enter the system or have dynamic arrival times. Consequently, a
dynamic PCB assembly system is introduced for the first time in the
assembly of PCBs, which also has characteristics similar to that of
just-in-time manufacturing. The problem investigated is
computationally very complex, meaning that finding the optimal
solutions especially when the problem size gets larger is impossible.
Thus, a heuristic based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) is employed. An
example problem on the application of the GA developed is
demonstrated and also numerical results of applying the GA on
solving several instances are provided.
Abstract: This article provides partial evaluation index and its
standard of sports aerobics, including the following 12 indexes: health
vitality, coordination, flexibility, accuracy, pace, endurance, elasticity,
self-confidence, form, control, uniformity and musicality. The
three-layer BP artificial neural network model including input layer,
hidden layer and output layer is established. The result shows that the
model can well reflect the non-linear relationship between the
performance of 12 indexes and the overall performance. The predicted
value of each sample is very close to the true value, with a relative
error fluctuating around of 5%, and the network training is successful.
It shows that BP network has high prediction accuracy and good
generalization capacity if being applied in sports aerobics performance
evaluation after effective training.
Abstract: Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is widely used today in the areas of geodesy and topography as well as in aeronautics mainly for military purposes. Due to the military usage of GPS, full access and use of this technology is being denied to the civilian user who must then work with a less accurate version. In this paper we focus on the estimation of the receiver coordinates ( X, Y, Z ) and its clock bias ( δtr ) of a fixed point based on pseudorange measurements of a single GPS receiver. Utilizing the instantaneous coordinates of just 4 satellites and their clock offsets, by taking into account the atmospheric delays, we are able to derive a set of pseudorange equations. The estimation of the four unknowns ( X, Y, Z , δtr ) is achieved by introducing an extended Kalman filter that processes, off-line, all the data collected from the receiver. Higher performance of position accuracy is attained by appropriate tuning of the filter noise parameters and by including other forms of biases.
Abstract: Sleep stage scoring is the process of classifying the
stage of the sleep in which the subject is in. Sleep is classified into
two states based on the constellation of physiological parameters.
The two states are the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and the
rapid eye movement (REM). The NREM sleep is also classified into
four stages (1-4). These states and the state wakefulness are
distinguished from each other based on the brain activity. In this
work, a classification method for automated sleep stage scoring
based on a single EEG recording using wavelet packet decomposition
was implemented. Thirty two ploysomnographic recording from the
MIT-BIH database were used for training and validation of the
proposed method. A single EEG recording was extracted and
smoothed using Savitzky-Golay filter. Wavelet packets
decomposition up to the fourth level based on 20th order Daubechies
filter was used to extract features from the EEG signal. A features
vector of 54 features was formed. It was reduced to a size of 25 using
the gain ratio method and fed into a classifier of regression trees. The
regression trees were trained using 67% of the records available. The
records for training were selected based on cross validation of the
records. The remaining of the records was used for testing the
classifier. The overall correct rate of the proposed method was found
to be around 75%, which is acceptable compared to the techniques in
the literature.
Abstract: Information and communication service providers
(ICSP) that are significant in size and provide Internet-based services
take administrative, technical, and physical protection measures via
the information security check service (ISCS). These protection
measures are the minimum action necessary to secure the stability and
continuity of the information and communication services (ICS) that
they provide. Thus, information assets are essential to providing ICS,
and deciding the relative importance of target assets for protection is a
critical procedure. The risk analysis model designed to decide the
relative importance of information assets, which is described in this
study, evaluates information assets from many angles, in order to
choose which ones should be given priority when it comes to
protection. Many-sided risk analysis (MSRS) grades the importance of
information assets, based on evaluation of major security check items,
evaluation of the dependency on the information and communication
facility (ICF) and influence on potential incidents, and evaluation of
major items according to their service classification, in order to
identify the ISCS target. MSRS could be an efficient risk analysis
model to help ICSPs to identify their core information assets and take
information protection measures first, so that stability of the ICS can
be ensured.