Abstract: The value co-creation has gained much attention in
sales research, but less is known about how salespeople and
customers interact in the authentic business to business (B2B) sales
meetings. The study presented in this paper empirically contributes to
existing research by presenting authentic B2B sales meetings that
were video recorded and analyzed using observation and qualitative
content analysis methods. This paper aims to study key elements of
successful sales interactions between salespeople and customers/
buyers. This study points out that salespeople are selling value rather
than the products or services themselves, which are only enablers in
realizing business benefits. Therefore, our findings suggest that
promoting and easing open discourse is an essential part of a
successful sales encounter. A better understanding of how
salespeople and customers successfully interact would help
salespeople to develop their interpersonal sales skills.
Abstract: The objective of countercyclical capital buffer is to
encourage banks to build up buffers in good times that can be drawn
down in bad times. The aim of the report is to assess such decisions
by banks derived from three approaches. The approaches are the
aggregate credit-to-GDP ratio, credit growth as well as banking
sector profits. The approaches are implemented for Estonia, Latvia
and Lithuania for the time period 2000-2012. The report compares
three approaches and analyses their relevance to the Baltic States by
testing the correlation between a growth in studied variables and a
growth of corresponding gaps. Methods used in the empirical part of
the report are econometric analysis as well as economic analysis,
development indicators, relative and absolute indicators and other
methods. The research outcome is a cross-Baltic comparison of two
alternative approaches to establish or release a countercyclical capital
buffer by banks and their implications for each Baltic country.
Abstract: The effects of hypertension are often lethal thus its
early detection and prevention is very important for everybody. In
this paper, a neural network (NN) model was developed and trained
based on a dataset of hypertension causative parameters in order to
forecast the likelihood of occurrence of hypertension in patients. Our
research goal was to analyze the potential of the presented NN to
predict, for a period of time, the risk of hypertension or the risk of
developing this disease for patients that are or not currently
hypertensive. The results of the analysis for a given patient can
support doctors in taking pro-active measures for averting the
occurrence of hypertension such as recommendations regarding the
patient behavior in order to lower his hypertension risk. Moreover,
the paper envisages a set of three example scenarios in order to
determine the age when the patient becomes hypertensive, i.e.
determine the threshold for hypertensive age, to analyze what
happens if the threshold hypertensive age is set to a certain age and
the weight of the patient if being varied, and, to set the ideal weight
for the patient and analyze what happens with the threshold of
hypertensive age.
Abstract: The objectives of the study were to determine the
marketing mix factors that influencing tourist’s destination decision
making for cultural tourism in the Chonburi province. Both
quantitative and qualitative data were applied in this study. The
samples of 400 cases for quantitative analysis were tourists (both
Thai and foreign) who were interested in cultural tourism in the
Chonburi province, and traveled to cultural sites in Chonburi and 14
representatives from provincial tourism committee of Chonburi and
local tourism experts. Statistics utilized in this research included
frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and multiple
regression analysis. The study found that Thai and foreign tourists
are influenced by different important marketing mix factors. The
important factors for Thai respondents were physical evidence, price,
people, and place at high importance level. For foreign respondents,
physical evidence, price, people, and process were high importance
level, whereas, product, place and promotion were moderate
importance level.
Abstract: The explosion of the World Wide Web and the
electronic trend of university teaching have transformed the learning
style to become more learner-centered, which has popularized the
digital delivery of mediated lectures as an alternative or an adjunct to
traditional lectures. Despite its potential and popularity, virtual
lectures have not been adopted yet in Jordanian universities. This
research aimed to fill this gap by studying the factors that influence
students’ willingness to accept virtual lectures in one Jordanian
University. A quantitative approach was followed, by obtaining 216
survey responses and statistically applying the UTAUT model with
some modifications. Results revealed that performance expectancy,
effort expectancy, social influences, and self-efficacy could
significantly influence students’ attitudes towards virtual lectures.
Additionally, Facilitating conditions and attitudes towards virtual
lectures were found with significant influence on students’ intention
to take virtual lectures. Research implications and future work were
specified afterwards.
Abstract: Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
often experience social-communication difficulties that negatively
impact their social interactions with typical peers. However, unlike
other age and disability groups, there is little intervention research to
inform best practice for these students. One evidence-based strategy
for younger students with ASD is peer-mediated intervention (PMI).
PMI may be particularly promising for use with adolescents, as peers
are readily available and are natural experts for encouraging authentic
high school conversations. This paper provides a review of previous
research that evaluated the use of PMI to improve the socialcommunication
skills of students with ASD. Specific intervention
features associated with positive student outcomes are identified and
recommendations for future research are provided. Adolescents with
ASD are targeted due the critical importance of social conversation at
the high school level.
Abstract: This study aimed to examine the management and
development of forest tourism Kamchanoad. Ban Dung, Udon Thani
sustainability. Data were collected by means of qualitative research
including in-depth interviews, semi- structured, and then the data
were summarized and discussed in accordance with the objectives.
And make a presentation in the form of lectures. The target
population for the study consisted of 16 people, including
representatives from government agencies, community leaders and
the community. The results showed that Guidelines for the
Management and Development of Forest Tourism Kamchanoad
include management of buildings and infrastructure such as roads,
water, electricity, toilets. Other developments are the establishment
of a service center that provides information and resources to
facilitate tourists.; nature trails and informative signage to educate
visitors on the path to the jungle Kamchanoad; forest activities for
tourists who are interested only in occasional educational activities
such as vegetation, etc.; disseminating information on various aspects
of tourism through various channels in both Thailand and English, as
well as a web site to encourage community involvement in the
planning and management of tourism together with the care and
preservation of natural resources and preserving the local cultural
tourist area of Kamchanoad.
Abstract: To determine the potential of a low cost Irish
engineered timber product to replace high cost solid timber for use in
bending active structures such as gridshells a single Irish engineered
timber product in the form of orientated strand board (OSB) was
selected. A comparative study of OSB and solid timber was carried
out to determine the optimum properties that make a material suitable
for use in gridshells. Three parameters were identified to be relevant
in the selection of a material for gridshells. These three parameters
are the strength to stiffness ratio, the flexural stiffness of
commercially available sections, and the variability of material and
section properties. It is shown that when comparing OSB against
solid timber, OSB is a more suitable material for use in gridshells that
are at the smaller end of the scale and that have tight radii of
curvature. Typically, for solid timber materials, stiffness is used as an
indicator for strength and engineered timber is no different. Thus, low
flexural stiffness would mean low flexural strength. However, when
it comes to bending active gridshells, OSB offers a significant
advantage. By the addition of multiple layers, an increased section
size is created, thus endowing the structure with higher stiffness and
higher strength from initial low stiffness and low strength materials
while still maintaining tight radii of curvature. This allows OSB to
compete with solid timber on large scale gridshells. Additionally, a
preliminary sustainability study using a set of sustainability indicators
was carried out to determine the relative sustainability of building a
large-scale gridshell in Ireland with a primary focus on economic
viability but a mention is also given to social and environmental
aspects. For this, the Savill garden gridshell in the UK was used as
the functional unit with the sustainability of the structural roof
skeleton constructed from UK larch solid timber being compared
with the same structure using Irish OSB. Albeit that the advantages of
using commercially available OSB in a bending active gridshell are
marginal and limited to specific gridshell applications, further study
into an optimised engineered timber product is merited.
Abstract: Most people today are aware that global climate
change is not just a scientific theory but also a fact with worldwide
consequences. Global climate change is due to rapid urbanization,
industrialization, high population growth and current vulnerability of
the climatic condition. Water is becoming scarce as a result of global
climate change. To mitigate the problem arising due to global climate
change and its drought effect, harvesting rainwater from green roofs,
an environmentally-friendly and versatile technology, is becoming
one of the best assessment criteria and gaining attention in Malaysia.
This paper addresses the sustainability of green roofs and examines
the quality of water harvested from green roofs in comparison to
rainwater. The factors that affect the quality of such water, taking
into account, for example, roofing materials, climatic conditions, the
frequency of rainfall frequency and the first flush. A green roof was
installed on the Humid Tropic Centre (HTC) is a place of the study
on monitoring program for urban Stormwater Management Manual
for Malaysia (MSMA), Eco-Hydrological Project in Kuala Lumpur,
and the rainwater was harvested and evaluated on the basis of four
parameters i.e., conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH and
temperature. These parameters were found to fall between Class I and
Class III of the Interim National Water Quality Standards (INWQS)
and the Water Quality Index (WQI). Some preliminary treatment
such as disinfection and filtration could likely to improve the value of
these parameters to class I. This review paper clearly indicates that
there is a need for more research to address other microbiological and
chemical quality parameters to ensure that the harvested water is
suitable for use potable water for domestic purposes. The change in
all physical, chemical and microbiological parameters with respect to
storage time will be a major focus of future studies in this field.
Abstract: In the past few decades, the field of chemistry
education has grown tremendously and researches indicated that after
traditional chemistry instruction students often lacked deep
conceptual understanding and failed to integrate their ideas into
coherent conceptual framework. For several concepts in chemistry,
students at all levels have demonstrated difficulty in changing their
initial perceptions. Their perceptions are most often wrong and don't
agree with correct scientific concepts. This study explored the
effectiveness of intervention discussion sections for a college general
chemistry course designed to apply research on students
preconceptions, knowledge integration and student explanation.
Three interventions discussions lasting three hours on bond energy
and spontaneity were done tested and intervention (treatment)
students’ performances were compared with that of control group
which did not use the experimental pedagogy. Results indicated that
this instruction which was capable of identifying students'
misconceptions, initial conceptions and integrating those ideas into
class discussion led to enhanced conceptual understanding and better
achievement for the experimental group.
Abstract: Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond coated
cutting tool has excellent cutting performance, it is the most ideal tool
for the processing of nonferrous metals and alloys, composites,
nonmetallic materials and other difficult-to-machine materials
efficiently and accurately. Depositing CVD diamond coating on the
cemented carbide with high cobalt content can improve its toughness
and strength, therefore, it is very important to research on the
preparation technology and cutting properties of CVD diamond coated
cemented carbide cutting tool with high cobalt content. The
preparation technology of boron-doped diamond (BDD) coating has
been studied and the coated drills were prepared. BDD coating were
deposited on the drills by using the optimized parameters and the SEM
results show that there are no cracks or collapses in the coating.
Cutting tests with the prepared drills against the silumin and aluminum
base printed circuit board (PCB) have been studied. The results show
that the wear amount of the coated drill is small and the machined
surface has a better precision. The coating does not come off during
the test, which shows good adhesion and cutting performance of the
drill.
Abstract: Hybrid bioreactor having both suspended-growth and
attached-growth bacteria is found a novel and excellent bioreactor
system for treating the municipal wastewater containing inhibitory
substrates too. In this reactor a fraction of substrate is used by
suspended biomass and the remaining by attached biomass resulting
in the competition between the two growths for the substrate. The
combination of suspended and attached growth provides the system
with enhanced biomass concentration and sludge age more than those
in ASP. Similar to attached growth system, the hybrid bioreactor
ensures considerable efficiency for treating toxic and refractory
substances in wastewater. For the process design of hybrid bioreactor
a suitable mathematical model is required. Although various
mathematical models were developed on hybrid bioreactor in due
course of time in earlier research works, none of them was found
having a specific simplified solution of the corresponding models and
without having any drawback. To overcome this drawback authors
already developed a simplified mathematical model for process
design of a hybrid bioreactor. The present paper briefly highlights on
the various aspects of process design of an aerobic hybrid bioreactor
for the treatment of municipal wastewater.
Abstract: In this work, we begin with the presentation of the
Tθ family of usual similarity measures concerning multidimensional
binary data. Subsequently, some properties of these measures are
proposed. Finally the impact of the use of different inter-elements
measures on the results of the Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering
Methods is studied.
Abstract: Theory of interpretation of electromagnetic fields studied in the electrical prospecting with direct current is mainly developed for the case of a horizontal surface observation. However in practice we often have to work in difficult terrain surface. Conducting interpretation without the influence of topography can cause non-existent anomalies on sections. This raises the problem of studying the impact of different shapes of ground surface relief on the results of electrical prospecting's research. This research examines the numerical solutions of the direct problem of electrical prospecting for two-dimensional and three-dimensional media, taking into account the terrain. The problem is solved using the method of integral equations. The density of secondary currents on the relief surface is obtained.
Abstract: Now in some countries of the world the cellular
market is on the point of saturation, in others - positive dynamics of
development kept on. The reasons for it are also different, but there
are united by their general susceptibility to innovation changes, if
they are really innovative. If to take as an example the cellular market
of Kazakhstan it is defined by the low percent of smart phones at
consumers, the low population density, undercapacity of the 3G
channel, and absence of universal access to the LTE technology that
limits dynamical growth of this branch. These moments are
aggravated by failures of starting commercial projects by private
companies which prevent to be implemented and widely adopted to a
new product among consumers. The object of the research is possible
integration of wireless and program technologies at which
introduction the idea can regenerate in an innovation. The analysis of
existing projects in the market and the possible union of the
technologies through a prism of theoretical bases of innovative
activity shows that efficiency of the company by development and
introduction of innovations is possible only thanks to strict
observance of all terms and conditions of the innovative process
which main term is profit. Despite that fact that on a global scale the
innovativeness issue of companies is very popular, there are no
researches about possibility of innovative breaks in the field of
wireless access to the Internet in the cellular market of Kazakhstan.
Abstract: The present work describes the implementation of the
Enhanced Collaborative Optimization (ECO) multilevel architecture
with a gradient-based optimization algorithm with the aim of
performing a multidisciplinary design optimization of a generic
unmanned aerial vehicle with morphing technologies. The concepts
of weighting coefficient and dynamic compatibility parameter are
presented for the ECO architecture. A routine that calculates the
aircraft performance for the user defined mission profile and vehicle’s
performance requirements has been implemented using low fidelity
models for the aerodynamics, stability, propulsion, weight, balance
and flight performance. A benchmarking case study for evaluating
the advantage of using a variable span wing within the optimization
methodology developed is presented.
Abstract: Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) is a functional
capability that has been developed to allow the United Kingdom Fire
and Rescue Service to deal with ‘major incidents’ primarily involving
structural collapse. The nature of the work undertaken by USAR
means that staying out of a damaged or collapsed building structure is
not usually an option for search and rescue personnel. As a result
there is always a risk that they themselves could become victims. For
this paper, a systematic and investigative review using desk research
was undertaken to explore the role which structural engineering can
play in assisting search and rescue personnel to conduct structural
assessments when in the field. The focus is on how search and rescue
personnel can assess damaged and collapsed building structures, not
just in terms of structural damage that may been countered, but also
in relation to structural stability. Natural disasters, accidental
emergencies, acts of terrorism and other extreme events can vary
significantly in nature and ferocity, and can cause a wide variety of
damage to building structures. It is not possible or, even realistic, to
provide search and rescue personnel with definitive guidelines and
procedures to assess damaged and collapsed building structures as
there are too many variables to consider. However, understanding
what implications damage may have upon the structural stability of a
building structure will enable search and rescue personnel to better judge
and quantify risk from a life-safety standpoint. It is intended that this
will allow search and rescue personnel to make informed decisions
and ensure every effort is made to mitigate risk, so that they
themselves do not become victims.
Abstract: Background: The objectives of this study were to
assess patient’s knowledge of appropriate sublingual glyceryl
trinitrate (GTN) use as well as to investigate how patients commonly
store and carry their sublingual GTN tablets. Methodology: This was
a cross-sectional survey, using a validated researcher-administered
questionnaire. The study involved cardiac patients receiving
sublingual GTN attending the outpatient and inpatient departments of
Taiping Hospital, a non-academic public care hospital. The minimum
calculated sample size was 92, but 100 patients were conveniently
sampled. Respondents were interviewed on 3 areas, including
demographic data, knowledge and use of sublingual GTN. Eight
items were used to calculate each subject’s knowledge score and six
items were used to calculate use score. Results: Of the 96 patients
who consented to participate, majority (96.9%) were well aware of
the indication of sublingual GTN. With regards to the mechanism of
action of sublingual GTN, 73 (76%) patients did not know how the
medication works. Majority of the patients (66.7%) knew about the
proper storage of the tablet. In relation to the maximum number of
sublingual GTN tablets that can be taken during each angina episode,
36.5% did not know that up to 3 tablets of sublingual GTN can be
taken during each episode of angina. Fifty four (56.2%) patients were
not aware that they need to replace sublingual GTN every 8 weeks
after receiving the tablets. Majority (69.8%) of the patients
demonstrated lack of knowledge with regards to the use of sublingual
GTN as prevention of chest pain. Conclusion: Overall, patients’
knowledge regarding the self-administration of sublingual GTN is
still inadequate. The findings support the need for more frequent
reinforcement of patient education, especially in the areas of
preventive use, storage and drug stability.
Abstract: The building sector is responsible, in many
industrialized countries, for about 40% of the total energy
requirements, so it seems necessary to devote some efforts in this
area in order to achieve a significant reduction of energy
consumption and of greenhouse gases emissions.
The paper presents a study aiming at providing a design
methodology able to identify the best configuration of the system
building/plant, from a technical, economic and environmentally point
of view.
Normally, the classical approach involves a building's energy
loads analysis under steady state conditions, and subsequent selection
of measures aimed at improving the energy performance, based on
previous experience made by architects and engineers in the design
team. Instead, the proposed approach uses a sequence of two wellknown
scientifically validated calculation methods (TRNSYS and
RETScreen), that allow quite a detailed feasibility analysis.
To assess the validity of the calculation model, an existing,
historical building in Central Italy, that will be the object of
restoration and preservative redevelopment, was selected as a casestudy.
The building is made of a basement and three floors, with a
total floor area of about 3,000 square meters.
The first step has been the determination of the heating and
cooling energy loads of the building in a dynamic regime by means,
which allows simulating the real energy needs of the building in
function of its use. Traditional methodologies, based as they are on
steady-state conditions, cannot faithfully reproduce the effects of
varying climatic conditions and of inertial properties of the structure.
With this model is possible to obtain quite accurate and reliable
results that allow identifying effective combinations building-HVAC
system.
The second step has consisted of using output data obtained as
input to the calculation model, which enables to compare different
system configurations from the energy, environmental and financial
point of view, with an analysis of investment, and operation and
maintenance costs, so allowing determining the economic benefit of
possible interventions.
The classical methodology often leads to the choice of
conventional plant systems, while our calculation model provides a
financial-economic assessment for innovative energy systems and
low environmental impact.
Computational analysis can help in the design phase, particularly
in the case of complex structures with centralized plant systems, by
comparing the data returned by the calculation model for different
design options.
Abstract: Comparing other methods of waste water treatment,
constructed wetlands are one of the most fascinating practices
because being a natural process they are eco-friendly have low
construction and maintenance cost and have considerable capability
of wastewater treatment. The current research was focused mainly on
comparison of Ranunculus muricatus and Typha latifolia as wetland
plants for domestic wastewater treatment by designing and
constructing efficient pilot scale horizontal subsurface flow
mesocosms. Parameters like chemical oxygen demand, biological
oxygen demand, phosphates, sulphates, nitrites, nitrates, and
pathogenic indicator microbes were studied continuously with
successive treatments. Treatment efficiency of the system increases
with passage of time and with increase in temperature. Efficiency of
T. latifolia planted setups in open environment was fairly good for
parameters like COD and BOD5 which was showing reduction up to
82.5% for COD and 82.6% for BOD5 while DO was increased up to
125%. Efficiency of R. muricatus vegetated setup was also good but
lowers than that of T. latifolia planted showing 80.95% removal of
COD and BOD5. Ranunculus muricatus was found effective in
reducing bacterial count in wastewater. Both macrophytes were
found promising in wastewater treatment.