Abstract: The present paper summarizes the analysis of the
request for consultation of information and data on industrial
emissions made publicly available on the web site of the Ministry of
Environment, Land and Sea on integrated pollution prevention and
control from large industrial installations, the so called “AIA Portal”.
As a matter of fact, a huge amount of information on national
industrial plants is already available on internet, although it is usually
proposed as textual documentation or images.
Thus, it is not possible to access all the relevant information
through interoperability systems and also to retrieval relevant
information for decision making purposes as well as rising of
awareness on environmental issue.
Moreover, since in Italy the number of institutional and private
subjects involved in the management of the public information on
industrial emissions is substantial, the access to the information is
provided on internet web sites according to different criteria; thus, at
present it is not structurally homogeneous and comparable.
To overcome the mentioned difficulties in the case of the
Coordinating Committee for the implementation of the Agreement
for the industrial area in Taranto and Statte, operating before the
IPPC permit granting procedures of the relevant installation located
in the area, a big effort was devoted to elaborate and to validate data
and information on characterization of soil, ground water aquifer and
coastal sea at disposal of different subjects to derive a global
perspective for decision making purposes. Thus, the present paper
also focuses on main outcomes matured during such experience.
Abstract: In this paper we describe one critical research
program within a complex, ongoing multi-year project (2010 to 2014
inclusive) with the overall goal to improve the learning outcomes for
first year undergraduate commerce/business students within an
Information Systems (IS) subject with very large enrolment. The
single research program described in this paper is the analysis of
student attitudes and decision making in relation to the availability of
formative assessment feedback via Web-based real time conferencing
and document exchange software (Adobe Connect). The formative
assessment feedback between teaching staff and students is in respect
of an authentic problem-based, team-completed assignment. The
analysis of student attitudes and decision making is investigated via
both qualitative (firstly) and quantitative (secondly) application of the
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) with a two statistically-significant
and separate trial samples of the enrolled students. The initial
qualitative TPB investigation revealed that perceived self-efficacy,
improved time-management, and lecturer-student relationship
building were the major factors in shaping an overall favorable
student attitude to online feedback, whilst some students expressed
valid concerns with perceived control limitations identified within the
online feedback protocols. The subsequent quantitative TPB
investigation then confirmed that attitude towards usage, subjective
norms surrounding usage, and perceived behavioral control of usage
were all significant in shaping student intention to use the online
feedback protocol, with these three variables explaining 63 percent of
the variance in the behavioral intention to use the online feedback
protocol. The identification in this research of perceived behavioral
control as a significant determinant in student usage of a specific
technology component within a virtual learning environment (VLE)
suggests that VLEs could now be viewed not as a single, atomic
entity, but as a spectrum of technology offerings ranging from the
mature and simple (e.g., email, Web downloads) to the cutting-edge
and challenging (e.g., Web conferencing and real-time document
exchange). That is, that all VLEs should not be considered the same.
The results of this research suggest that tertiary students have the
technological sophistication to assess a VLE in this more selective
manner.
Abstract: Verification and Validation of Simulated Process
Model is the most important phase of the simulator life cycle.
Evaluation of simulated process models based on Verification and
Validation techniques checks the closeness of each component model
(in a simulated network) with the real system/process with respect to
dynamic behaviour under steady state and transient conditions. The
process of Verification and Validation helps in qualifying the process
simulator for the intended purpose whether it is for providing
comprehensive training or design verification. In general, model
verification is carried out by comparison of simulated component
characteristics with the original requirement to ensure that each step
in the model development process completely incorporates all the
design requirements. Validation testing is performed by comparing
the simulated process parameters to the actual plant process
parameters either in standalone mode or integrated mode.
A Full Scope Replica Operator Training Simulator for PFBR -
Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor has been developed at IGCAR,
Kalpakkam, INDIA named KALBR-SIM (Kalpakkam Breeder
Reactor Simulator) where in the main participants are
engineers/experts belonging to Modeling Team, Process Design and
Instrumentation & Control design team. This paper discusses about
the Verification and Validation process in general, the evaluation
procedure adopted for PFBR operator training Simulator, the
methodology followed for verifying the models, the reference
documents and standards used etc. It details out the importance of
internal validation by design experts, subsequent validation by
external agency consisting of experts from various fields, model
improvement by tuning based on expert’s comments, final
qualification of the simulator for the intended purpose and the
difficulties faced while co-coordinating various activities.
Abstract: Fast changing knowledge systems on the Internet can
be accessed more efficiently with the help of automatic document
summarization and updating techniques. The aim of multi-document
update summary generation is to construct a summary unfolding the
mainstream of data from a collection of documents based on the
hypothesis that the user has already read a set of previous documents.
In order to provide a lot of semantic information from the documents,
deeper linguistic or semantic analysis of the source documents were
used instead of relying only on document word frequencies to select
important concepts. In order to produce a responsive summary,
meaning oriented structural analysis is needed. To address this issue,
the proposed system presents a document summarization approach
based on sentence annotation with aspects, prepositions and named
entities. Semantic element extraction strategy is used to select
important concepts from documents which are used to generate
enhanced semantic summary.
Abstract: Image or document encryption is needed through egovernment
data base. Really in this paper we introduce two matrices
images, one is the public, and the second is the secret (original). The
analyses of each matrix is achieved using the transformation of
singular values decomposition. So each matrix is transformed or
analyzed to three matrices say row orthogonal basis, column
orthogonal basis, and spectral diagonal basis. Product of the two row
basis is calculated. Similarly the product of the two column basis is
achieved. Finally we transform or save the files of public, row
product and column product. In decryption stage, the original image
is deduced by mutual method of the three public files.
Abstract: Member States shall establish zones and
agglomerations throughout their territory to assess and manage air
quality in order to comply with European directives.
In Italy decree 155/2010, transposing Directive 2008/50/EC on
ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe, merged into a single
act the previous provisions on ambient air quality assessment and
management, including those resulting from the implementation of
Directive 2004/107/EC relating to arsenic, cadmium, nickel, mercury
and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air.
Decree 155/2010 introduced stricter rules for identifying zones on
the basis of the characteristics of the territory in spite of considering
pollution levels, as it was in the past. The implementation of such
new criteria has reduced the great variability of the previous zoning,
leading to a significant reduction of the total number of zones and to
a complete and uniform ambient air quality assessment and
management throughout the Country.
The present document is related to the new zones definition in
Italy according to Decree 155/2010. In particular the paper contains
the description and the analysis of the outcome of zoning and
classification.
Abstract: Bacterial strains capable of degradation of malathion
from the domestic sewage were isolated by an enrichment culture
technique. Three bacterial strains were screened and identified as
Acinetobacter baumannii (AFA), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PS1),
and Pseudomonas mendocina (PS2) based on morphological,
biochemical identification and 16S rRNA sequence analysis.
Acinetobacter baumannii AFA was the most efficient malathion
degrading bacterium, so used for further biodegradation study. AFA
was able to grow in mineral salt medium (MSM) supplemented with
malathion (100 mg/l) as a sole carbon source, and within 14 days,
84% of the initial dose was degraded by the isolate measured by high
performance liquid chromatography. Strain AFA could also degrade
other organophosphorus compounds including diazinon, chlorpyrifos
and fenitrothion. The effect of different culture conditions on the
degradation of malathion like inoculum density, other carbon or
nitrogen sources, temperature and shaking were examined.
Degradation of malathion and bacterial cell growth were accelerated
when culture media were supplemented with yeast extract, glucose
and citrate. The optimum conditions for malathion degradation by
strain AFA were; an inoculum density of 1.5x 10^12CFU/ml at 30°C
with shaking. A specific polymerase chain reaction primers were
designed manually using multiple sequence alignment of the
corresponding carboxylesterase enzymes of Acinetobacter species.
Sequencing result of amplified PCR product and phylogenetic
analysis showed low degree of homology with the other
carboxylesterase enzymes of Acinetobacter strains, so we suggested
that this enzyme is a novel esterase enzyme. Isolated bacterial strains
may have potential role for use in bioremediation of malathion
contaminated.
Abstract: The thyroid gland is the largest classic endocrine
organ that effects many organs of the body and plays a significant
role in the process of Metabolism in animals. The aim of this study
was to investigate the prevalence of thyroid disorders diagnosed by
ultrasound and microscopic Lesions of the thyroid during the
slaughter of apparently healthy One Humped Camels (Camelus
dromedarius) in Iran. Randomly, 520 male camels (With an age
range of 4 to 8 years), were studied in 2012 to 2013. The Camels’
thyroid glands were evaluated by sonographic examination. In both
longitudinal and transverse view and then tissue sections were
provide and stained with H & E and finally examined by light
microscopy. The results obtained indicated the following:
hyperplastic goiter (21%), degenerative changes (12%), follicular
cysts (8%), follicular atrophy (4%), nodular hyperplasia (3%),
adenoma (1%), carcinoma (1%) and simple goiter colloid (1%).
Ultrasound evaluation of thyroid gland in adenoma and carcinoma
showed enlargement and irregular of the gland, decreased
echogenicity, and the heterogeneous thyroid parenchyma. Also, in
follicular cysts were observed in the enlarged gland with no echo
structures of different sizes and decreased echogenicity as a local or
general. In nodular hyperplasia, increase echogenicity and
heterogeneous parenchymal were seen. These findings suggest the
use of sonography and pathology as a screening test in the diagnosis
of complications of thyroid disorders.
Abstract: Validity, integrity, and impacts of the IT systems of
the US federal courts have been studied as part of the Human Rights
Alert-NGO (HRA) submission for the 2015 Universal Periodic
Review (UPR) of human rights in the United States by the Human
Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations (UN). The current
report includes overview of IT system analysis, data-mining and case
studies. System analysis and data-mining show: Development and
implementation with no lawful authority, servers of unverified
identity, invalidity in implementation of electronic signatures,
authentication instruments and procedures, authorities and
permissions; discrimination in access against the public and
unrepresented (pro se) parties and in favor of attorneys; widespread
publication of invalid judicial records and dockets, leading to their
false representation and false enforcement. A series of case studies
documents the impacts on individuals' human rights, on banking
regulation, and on international matters. Significance is discussed in
the context of various media and expert reports, which opine
unprecedented corruption of the US justice system today, and which
question, whether the US Constitution was in fact suspended. Similar
findings were previously reported in IT systems of the State of
California and the State of Israel, which were incorporated, subject to
professional HRC staff review, into the UN UPR reports (2010 and
2013). Solutions are proposed, based on the principles of publicity of
the law and the separation of power: Reliance on US IT and legal
experts under accountability to the legislative branch, enhancing
transparency, ongoing vigilance by human rights and internet
activists. IT experts should assume more prominent civic duties in the
safeguard of civil society in our era.
Abstract: Over the last few decades, oilfield service rolling
equipment has significantly increased in weight, primarily because of
emissions regulations, which require larger/heavier engines, larger
cooling systems, and emissions after-treatment systems, in some
cases, etc. Larger engines cause more vibration and shock loads,
leading to failure of electronics and control systems.
If the vibrating frequency of the engine matches the system
frequency, high resonance is observed on structural parts and mounts.
One such existing automated control equipment system comprising
wire rope mounts used for mounting computers was designed
approximately 12 years ago. This includes the use of an industrialgrade
computer to control the system operation. The original
computer had a smaller, lighter enclosure. After a few years, a newer
computer version was introduced, which was 10 lbm heavier. Some
failures of internal computer parts have been documented for cases in
which the old mounts were used. Because of the added weight, there
is a possibility of having the two brackets impact each other under
off-road conditions, which causes a high shock input to the computer
parts. This added failure mode requires validating the existing mount
design to suit the new heavy-weight computer.
This paper discusses the modal finite element method (FEM)
analysis and experimental modal analysis conducted to study the
effects of vibration on the wire rope mounts and the computer. The
existing mount was modelled in ANSYS software, and resultant
mode shapes and frequencies were obtained. The experimental modal
analysis was conducted, and actual frequency responses were
observed and recorded.
Results clearly revealed that at resonance frequency, the brackets
were colliding and potentially causing damage to computer parts. To
solve this issue, spring mounts of different stiffness were modeled in
ANSYS software, and the resonant frequency was determined.
Increasing the stiffness of the system increased the resonant
frequency zone away from the frequency window at which the engine
showed heavy vibrations or resonance. After multiple iterations in
ANSYS software, the stiffness of the spring mount was finalized,
which was again experimentally validated.
Abstract: The globalization of markets, the need to develop
competitive advantages and core competencies, among other things,
lead organizations to increasingly cross borders to operate in other
countries. The expatriation of professionals who go to work in
another country besides their own becomes increasingly common. In
order to generate data about this issue, research was conducted
concerning the perception of expatriate employees concerning
expatriation success. The research method used was case study
through a qualitative approach. This research was done through
interviews with five India expatriates and five China expatriates,
interview with expatriate department heads and analysis of company
documents. It was found that there are differences between the
organizational perception and perception of expatriates of what
constitutes mission success. The paper also provides suggestions for
further research and suggestions for future expatriates.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a robust algorithm to recognize extracted text from grocery product images captured by mobile phone cameras. Recognition of such text is challenging since text in grocery product images varies in its size, orientation,
style, illumination, and can suffer from perspective distortion.
Pre-processing is performed to make the characters scale and
rotation invariant. Since text degradations can not be appropriately
defined using well-known geometric transformations such
as translation, rotation, affine transformation and shearing, we
use the whole character black pixels as our feature vector.
Classification is performed with minimum distance classifier
using the maximum likelihood criterion, which delivers very
promising Character Recognition Rate (CRR) of 89%. We
achieve considerably higher Word Recognition Rate (WRR) of
99% when using lower level linguistic knowledge about product
words during the recognition process.
Abstract: The use of eXtensible Markup Language (XML) in
web, business and scientific databases lead to the development of
methods, techniques and systems to manage and analyze XML data.
Semi-structured documents suffer due to its heterogeneity and
dimensionality. XML structure and content mining represent
convergence for research in semi-structured data and text mining. As
the information available on the internet grows drastically, extracting
knowledge from XML documents becomes a harder task. Certainly,
documents are often so large that the data set returned as answer to a
query may also be very big to convey the required information. To
improve the query answering, a Semantic Tree Based Association
Rule (STAR) mining method is proposed. This method provides
intentional information by considering the structure, content and the
semantics of the content. The method is applied on Reuter’s dataset
and the results show that the proposed method outperforms well.
Abstract: The tomato is a very important crop, whose
cultivation in the Mediterranean basin is severely affected by the
phytoparasitic weed Phelipanche ramosa. The semiarid regions of
the world are considered the main areas where this parasitic weed is
established causing heavy infestation as it is able to produce high
numbers of seeds (up to 500,000 per plant), which remain viable for
extended period (more than 20 years). In this paper the results
obtained from eleven treatments in order to control this parasitic
weed including chemical, agronomic, biological and biotechnological
methods compared with the untreated test under two plowing depths
(30 and 50 cm) are reported. The split-plot design with 3 replicates
was adopted. In 2014 a trial was performed in Foggia province
(southern Italy) on processing tomato (cv Docet) grown in the field
infested by Phelipanche ramosa. Tomato seedlings were transplant
on May 5, on a clay-loam soil. During the growing cycle of the
tomato crop, at 56-78 and 92 days after transplantation, the number
of parasitic shoots emerged in each plot was detected. At tomato
harvesting, on August 18, the major quantity-quality yield parameters
were determined (marketable yield, mean weight, dry matter, pH,
soluble solids and color of fruits). All data were subjected to analysis
of variance (ANOVA) and the means were compared by Tukey's test.
Each treatment studied did not provide complete control against
Phelipanche ramosa. However, among the different methods tested,
some of them which Fusarium, gliphosate, radicon biostimulant and
Red Setter tomato cv (improved genotypes obtained by Tilling
technology) under deeper plowing (50 cm depth) proved to mitigate
the virulence of the Phelipanche ramose attacks. It is assumed that
these effects can be improved combining some of these treatments
each other, especially for a gradual and continuing reduction of the
“seed bank” of the parasite in the soil.
Abstract: This paper presents observations on the early
supervised internships in Psychology, currently called basic
internships in Brazil, and its importance in professional training. The
work is an experience report and focuses on the Professional training,
illustrated by the reality of a Brazilian institution, used as a case
study. It was developed from the authors' experience as academic
supervisors of this kind of practice throughout this undergraduate
course, combined with aspects investigated in the post-doctoral
research of one of them. Theoretical references on the subject and
related national legislation are analyzed, as well as reports of students
who experienced at least one semester of this type of practice,
articulated to the observations of the authors. The results demonstrate
the importance of the early supervised internships as a way of
creating opportunities for the students of a first contact with the
professional reality and the practice of psychologists in different
fields of insertion, preparing them for further experiments that require
more involvement in activities of training and practices in
Psychology.
Abstract: Knowledge management is considered as an important
factor in improving health care services. KM facilitates the transfer of
existing knowledge and the development of new knowledge in
hospitals. This paper reviews practices adopted by doctors in Kuwait
for capturing, sharing, and generating knowledge. It also discusses
the perceived impact of KM practices on performance of hospitals.
Based on a survey of 277 doctors, the study found that KM practices
among doctors in the sampled hospitals were not very effective. Little
attention was paid to the main activities that support the transfer of
expertise among doctors in hospitals. However, as predicted by
previous studies, good km practices were perceived by doctors to
have a positive impact on performance of hospitals. It was concluded
that through effective KM practices hospitals could improve the
services they provide. Documentation of best practices and capturing
of lessons learnt for re-use of knowledge could help transform the
hospitals into learning organizations.
Abstract: Metal matrix composites (MMCs) attract considerable
attention as a result from its ability in providing a high strength, high
modulus, high toughness, high impact properties, improving wear
resistance and providing good corrosion resistance compared to
unreinforced alloy. Aluminium Silicon (Al/Si) alloy MMC has been
widely used in various industrial sectors such as in transportation,
domestic equipment, aerospace, military, construction, etc.
Aluminium silicon alloy is an MMC that had been reinforced with
aluminium nitrate (AlN) particle and become a new generation
material use in automotive and aerospace sector. The AlN is one of
the advance material that have a bright prospect in future since it has
features such as lightweight, high strength, high hardness and
stiffness quality. However, the high degree of ceramic particle
reinforcement and the irregular nature of the particles along the
matrix material that contribute to its low density is the main problem
which leads to difficulties in machining process. This paper examined
the tool wear when milling AlSi/AlN Metal Matrix Composite using
a TiB2 (Titanium diboride) coated carbide cutting tool. The volume
of the AlN reinforced particle was 10% and milling process was
carried out under dry cutting condition. The TiB2 coated carbide
insert parameters used were at the cutting speed of (230, 300 and
370m/min, feed rate of 0.8, Depth of Cut (DoC) at 0.4m). The
Sometech SV-35 video microscope system used to quantify of the
tool wear. The result shown that tool life span increasing with the
cutting speeds at (370m/min, feed rate of 0.8mm/tooth and DoC at
0.4mm) which constituted an optimum condition for longer tool life
lasted until 123.2 mins. Meanwhile, at medium cutting speed which
at 300m/m, feed rate of 0.8mm/tooth and depth of cut at 0.4mm we
found that tool life span lasted until 119.86 mins while at low cutting
speed it lasted in 119.66 mins. High cutting speed will give the best
parameter in cutting AlSi/AlN MMCs material. The result will help
manufacturers in machining process of AlSi/AlN MMCs materials.
Abstract: The classroom of the 21st century is an ever changing
forum for new and innovative thoughts and ideas. With increasing
technology and opportunity, students have rapid access to
information that only decades ago would have taken weeks to obtain.
Unfortunately, new techniques and technology are not the cure for
the fundamental problems that have plagued the classroom ever since
education was established. Class size has been an issue long debated
in academia. While it is difficult to pin point an exact number, it is
clear that in this case more does not mean better. By looking into the
success and pitfalls of classroom size the true advantages of smaller
classes will become clear. Previously, one class was comprised of 50
students. Being seventeen and eighteen- year- old students,
sometimes it was quite difficult for them to stay focused. To help
them understand and gain much knowledge, a researcher introduced
“The Theory of Multiple Intelligence” and this, in fact, enabled
students to learn according to their own learning preferences no
matter how they were being taught. In this lesson, the researcher
designed a cycle of learning activities involving all intelligences so
that everyone had equal opportunities to learn.
Abstract: The growth in the volume of text data such as books
and articles in libraries for centuries has imposed to establish
effective mechanisms to locate them. Early techniques such as
abstraction, indexing and the use of classification categories have
marked the birth of a new field of research called "Information
Retrieval". Information Retrieval (IR) can be defined as the task of
defining models and systems whose purpose is to facilitate access to
a set of documents in electronic form (corpus) to allow a user to find
the relevant ones for him, that is to say, the contents which matches
with the information needs of the user.
Most of the models of information retrieval use a specific data
structure to index a corpus which is called "inverted file" or "reverse
index".
This inverted file collects information on all terms over the corpus
documents specifying the identifiers of documents that contain the
term in question, the frequency of each term in the documents of the
corpus, the positions of the occurrences of the word...
In this paper we use an oriented object database (db4o) instead of
the inverted file, that is to say, instead to search a term in the inverted
file, we will search it in the db4o database.
The purpose of this work is to make a comparative study to see if
the oriented object databases may be competing for the inverse index
in terms of access speed and resource consumption using a large
volume of data.
Abstract: Ontologies offer a means for representing and sharing
information in many domains, particularly in complex domains. For
example, it can be used for representing and sharing information
of System Requirement Specification (SRS) of complex systems
like the SRS of ERTMS/ETCS written in natural language. Since
this system is a real-time and critical system, generic ontologies,
such as OWL and generic ERTMS ontologies provide minimal
support for modeling temporal information omnipresent in these SRS
documents. To support the modeling of temporal information, one
of the challenges is to enable representation of dynamic features
evolving in time within a generic ontology with a minimal redesign
of it. The separation of temporal information from other information
can help to predict system runtime operation and to properly design
and implement them. In addition, it is helpful to provide a reasoning
and querying techniques to reason and query temporal information
represented in the ontology in order to detect potential temporal
inconsistencies. To address this challenge, we propose a lightweight
3-layer temporal Quality of Service (QoS) ontology for representing,
reasoning and querying over temporal and non-temporal information
in a complex domain ontology. Representing QoS entities in separated
layers can clarify the distinction between the non QoS entities
and the QoS entities in an ontology. The upper generic layer of
the proposed ontology provides an intuitive knowledge of domain
components, specially ERTMS/ETCS components. The separation of
the intermediate QoS layer from the lower QoS layer allows us to
focus on specific QoS Characteristics, such as temporal or integrity
characteristics. In this paper, we focus on temporal information that
can be used to predict system runtime operation. To evaluate our
approach, an example of the proposed domain ontology for handover
operation, as well as a reasoning rule over temporal relations in this
domain-specific ontology, are presented.