Abstract: This paper explores and provides substantiated
evidence on the usage patterns of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) by female users at Vhembe District in Limpopo-
Province, South Africa. The study presents a comprehensive picture
on the usage of ICTs from female users’ perspective. The
significance of this study stems from the need to assess the role,
relevance and usage patterns of ICTs such as smartphones,
computers, laptops, and iPods, the internet and social networking
sites among females following the developments of new media
technologies in society. The objective of the study is to investigate
the usability and accessibility of ICTs to empower female users in
South Africa. The study used quantitative and qualitative research
methods to determine the major ideas, perceptions and usage patterns
of ICTs by users. Data collection involved the use of structured selfadministered
questionnaire from two groups of respondents who
participated in this study. Thus, (n=50) female students at the
University of Venda provided their ideas and perceptions about the
usefulness and usage patterns of ICTs such as smartphones, the
Internet and computers at the university level, whereas, the second
group were (n=50) learners from Makhado Comprehensive School
who provided their perceptions and ideas about the use of ICTs at the
high school level. The researcher also noted that the findings of the
study were useful as a guideline and model for ICT intervention that
could work as an empowerment to women in South Africa. It was
observed that the central purpose of ICTs among female users was to
search for information regarding assignment writing, conducting
research, dating, exchanging ideas and networking with friends and
relatives. This was demonstrated by a high number of females who
used ICTs for e-learning (62%) and social purposes (85%).
Therefore, the study revealed that most females used ICTs for social
purposes and accessing the internet rather than for entertainment, a
gesture that provides an opportune space to empower rural women in
South Africa.
Abstract: For a rigid body sliding on a rough surface, a range of
uncertainty or non-uniqueness of solution could be found, which is
termed: Painlevé paradox. Painlevé paradox is the reason of a wide
range of bouncing motion, observed during sliding of robotic
manipulators on rough surfaces. In this research work, the existence
of the paradox zone during the sliding motion of a two-link (P-R)
robotic manipulator with a unilateral constraint is investigated.
Parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of friction,
link-length ratio, total height and link-mass ratio on the paradox zone.
Abstract: Networked environments which provide platforms for
business organizations are configured in different forms depending
on many factors including life time, member characteristics,
communication structure, and business objectives, among others.
With continuing advances in digital technologies the distance has
become a less barrier for business minded collaboration among
organizations. With the need and ease to make business collaborate
nowadays organizations are sometimes forced to co-work with others
that are either unknown or less known to them in terms of history and
performance. A promising approach for sustaining established
collaboration has been establishment of trust relationship among
organizations based on assessed trustworthiness for each participating
organization. It has been stated in research that trust in organization is
dynamic and thus assessment of trust level must address such
dynamic nature. This paper assesses relevant aspects of trust and
applies the assessed concepts to propose a semi-automated system for
the management of Sustainability and Evolution of trust in
organizations participating in specific objective in a networked
organizations environment.
Abstract: To decrease the grating scale thermal expansion error,
a novel method which based on multiple temperature detection is
proposed. Several temperature sensors are installed on the grating
scale and the temperatures of these sensors are recorded. The
temperatures of every point on the grating scale are calculated by
interpolating between adjacent sensors. According to the thermal
expansion principle, the grating scale thermal expansion error model
can be established by doing the integral for the variations of position
and temperature. A novel compensation method is proposed in this
paper. By applying the established error model, the grating scale
thermal expansion error is decreased by 90% compared with no
compensation. The residual positioning error of the grating scale is
less than 15μm/10m and the accuracy of the machine tool is
significant improved.
Abstract: Wire Electric Discharge Machining (WEDM) is
thermal machining process capable of machining very hard
electrically conductive material irrespective of their hardness.
WEDM is being widely used to machine micro scale parts with the
high dimensional accuracy and surface finish. The objective of this
paper is to optimize the process parameters of wire EDM to fabricate
the micro channels and to calculate the surface finish and material
removal rate of micro channels fabricated using wire EDM. The
material used is aluminum 6061 alloy. The experiments were
performed using CNC wire cut electric discharge machine. The effect
of various parameters of WEDM like pulse on time (TON) with the
levels (100, 150, 200), pulse off time (TOFF) with the levels (25, 35,
45) and current (IP) with the levels (105, 110, 115) were investigated
to study the effect on output parameter i.e. Surface Roughness and
Material Removal Rate (MRR). Each experiment was conducted
under different conditions of pulse on time, pulse off time and peak
current. For material removal rate, TON and Ip
were the most significant process parameter. MRR increases with the increase in
TON and Ip and decreases with the increase in TOFF. For surface
roughness, TON and Ip have the maximum effect and TOFF was found
out to be less effective.
Abstract: In internet of things (IoT) system, the communication
scheme with reliability and low power is required to connect a
terminal. Cooperative communication can achieve reliability and
lower power than multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system.
Cooperative communication increases the reliability with low
power, but decreases a throughput. It has a weak point that the
communication throughput is decreased. In this paper, a novel scheme
is proposed to increase the communication throughput. The novel
scheme is a transmission structure that increases transmission rate.
A decoding scheme according to the novel transmission structure is
proposed. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme increases
the throughput without bit error rate (BER) performance degradation.
Abstract: A biosphere reserve is developed to create harmony
amongst economic development, community development, and
environmental protection, through partnership between human and
nature. Giam Siak Kecil Bukit Batu Biosphere Reserve (GSKBB BR)
in Riau Province, Indonesia, is unique in that it has peat soil
dominating the area, many springs essential for human livelihood,
high biodiversity. Furthermore, it is the only biosphere reserve
covering privately managed production forest areas. In this research, we aimed at analyzing the threat of deforestation
and forest fire, and the potential of CO2 emission at GSKBB BR. We
used Landsat image, arcView software, and ERDAS IMAGINE 8.5
Software to conduct spatial analysis of land cover and land use
changes, calculated CO2 emission based on emission potential from
each land cover and land use type, and exercised simple linear
regression to demonstrate the relation between CO2 emission
potential and deforestation. The result showed that, beside in the buffer zone and transition
area, deforestation also occurred in the core area. Spatial analysis of
land cover and land use changes from years 2010, 2012, and 2014
revealed that there were changes of land cover and land use from
natural forest and industrial plantation forest to other land use types,
such as garden, mixed garden, settlement, paddy fields, burnt areas,
and dry agricultural land. Deforestation in core area, particularly at
the Giam Siak Kecil Wildlife Reserve and Bukit Batu Wildlife
Reserve, occurred in the form of changes from natural forest in to
garden, mixed garden, shrubs, swamp shrubs, dry agricultural land,
open area, and burnt area. In the buffer zone and transition area,
changes also happened, what once swamp forest changed into garden,
mixed garden, open area, shrubs, swamp shrubs, and dry agricultural
land. Spatial analysis on land cover and land use changes indicated
that deforestation rate in the biosphere reserve from 2010 to 2014 had
reached 16 119 ha/year. Beside deforestation, threat toward the
biosphere reserve area also came from forest fire. The occurrence of forest fire in 2014 had burned 101 723 ha of the
area, in which 9 355 ha of core area, and 92 368 ha of buffer zone
and transition area. Deforestation and forest fire had increased CO2
emission as much as 24 903 855 ton/year.
Abstract: This paper discusses the question whether a person
diagnosed with dyslexia will necessarily have difficulty in reading
musical notes. The author specifies the characteristics of alphabet
reading in comparison to musical notation reading, and concludes
that there should be no contra-indication for teaching standard music
reading to children with dyslexia if an appropriate process is offered.
This conclusion is based on a long term case study and relies on two
main characteristics of music reading: (1) musical notation system is
a systematic, logical, relative set of symbols written on a staff; and
(2) music reading learning connected with playing a musical
instrument is a multi-sensory activity that combines sight, hearing,
touch, and movement. The paper describes music reading teaching
procedures, using soprano recorders, and provides unique teaching
methods that have been found to be effective for students who were
diagnosed with dyslexia. It provides theoretical explanations in
addition to guidelines for music education practices.
Abstract: Malaysia’s green building development is gaining
momentum and green buildings have become a key focus area,
especially within the commercial sector with the encouragement of
government legislation and policy. Due to the emerging awareness
among the market players’ views of the benefits associated with the
ownership of green buildings in Malaysia, there is a need for valuers
to incorporate consideration of sustainability into their assessments of
property market value to ensure the green buildings continue to
increase in the market. This paper analyses the valuers’ current
perception on the valuation practices with regard to the green issues
in Malaysia. The study was based on a survey of registered real estate
valuers and the experts whose work related to valuation in the Klang
Valley area to rate their view regarding the perception on valuation of
green building. The findings present evidence that even though
Malaysian valuers have limited knowledge of green buildings, they
recognise the importance of incorporating the green features in the
valuation process. The inclusion of incorporating the green features
in valuations in practice was hindered by the inadequacy of sufficient
transaction data in the market. Furthermore, valuers experienced
difficulty in identifying what are the various input parameters of
green building and how to adjust it in order to reflect the benefit of
sustainability features correctly in the valuation process. This paper
focuses on the present challenges confronted by Malaysian valuers
with regards to incorporating the green features in their valuation.
Abstract: The effect of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) on the
electrical properties of Poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene)
(P(VdF-HFP)) based gel polymer electrolytes has been investigated
in the present work. The length and diameter ranges of CNFs used in
the present work are 5-50 μm and 200-600 nm respectively. The
nanocomposite gel polymer electrolytes have been synthesized by
solution casting technique with varying CNFs content in terms of
weight percentage. Electrochemical impedance analysis demonstrates
that the reinforcement of carbon nanofibers significantly enhances the
ionic conductivity of the polymer electrolyte. The decrease of
crystallinity of P(VdF-HFP) due the addition of CNFs has been
confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The interaction of CNFs with
various constituents of nanocomposite gel polymer electrolytes has
been assessed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy.
Moreover CNFs added gel polymer electrolytes offer superior
thermal stability as compared to that of CNFs free electrolytes as
confirmed by Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).
Abstract: This paper considers the design of Dual Proportional-
Integral (DPI) Load Frequency Control (LFC), using gravitational
search algorithm (GSA). The design is carried out for nonlinear
hydrothermal power system where generation rate constraint (GRC)
and governor dead band are considered. Furthermore, time delays
imposed by governor-turbine, thermodynamic process, and
communication channels are investigated. GSA is utilized to search
for optimal controller parameters by minimizing a time-domain based
objective function. GSA-based DPI has been compared to Ziegler-
Nichols based PI, and Genetic Algorithm (GA) based PI controllers
in order to demonstrate the superior efficiency of the proposed
design. Simulation results are carried for a wide range of operating
conditions and system parameters variations.
Abstract: Carefully scheduling the operations of pumps can be
resulted to significant energy savings. Schedules can be defined
either implicit, in terms of other elements of the network such as tank
levels, or explicit by specifying the time during which each pump is
on/off. In this study, two new explicit representations based on timecontrolled
triggers were analyzed, where the maximum number of
pump switches was established beforehand, and the schedule may
contain fewer switches than the maximum. The optimal operation of
pumping stations was determined using a Jumping Particle Swarm
Optimization (JPSO) algorithm to achieve the minimum energy cost.
The model integrates JPSO optimizer and EPANET hydraulic
network solver. The optimal pump operation schedule of VanZyl
water distribution system was determined using the proposed model
and compared with those from Genetic and Ant Colony algorithms.
The results indicate that the proposed model utilizing the JPSO
algorithm is a versatile management model for the operation of realworld
water distribution system.
Abstract: Healthcare safety has been perceived important. It is
essential to prevent troubles in healthcare processes for healthcare
safety. Trouble prevention is based on trouble prediction using
accumulated knowledge on processes, troubles, and countermeasures.
However, information on troubles has not been accumulated in
hospitals in the appropriate structure, and it has not been utilized
effectively to prevent troubles. In the previous study, however a
detailed knowledge acquisition process for trouble prediction was
proposed, the knowledgebase for countermeasures was not involved.
In this paper, we aim to propose the structure of the knowledgebase for
countermeasures, in the knowledge acquisition process for trouble
prediction in healthcare process. We first design the structure of
countermeasures and propose the knowledge representation form on
countermeasures. Then, we evaluate the validity of the proposal, by
applying it into an actual hospital.
Abstract: The current study aims to highlight the loading
characteristics impact on the time evolution (focusing particularly on
long term effects) of the deformation of realized reinforced concrete
beams. Namely the tension stiffening code provisions (i.e. within
Eurocode 2) are reviewed with a clear intention to reassess their
operational value and predicting capacity. In what follows the
experimental programme adopted along with some preliminary
findings and numerical modeling attempts are presented. For a range of long slender reinforced concrete simply supported
beams (4200 mm) constant static sustained and repeated cyclic
loadings were applied mapping the time evolution of deformation.
All experiments were carried out at the Heavy Structures Lab of the
University of Leeds. During tests the mid-span deflection, creep
coefficient and shrinkage strains were monitored for duration of 90
days. The obtained results are set against the values predicted by
Eurocode 2 and the tools within an FE commercial package (i.e.
Midas FEA) to yield that existing knowledge and practise is at times
over-conservative.
Abstract: Group decision making with multiple attribute has
attracted intensive concern in the decision analysis area. This paper
assumes that the contributions of all the decision makers (DMs) are not
equal to the decision process based on different knowledge and
experience in group setting. The aim of this paper is to develop a novel
approach to determine weights of DMs in the group decision making
problems. In this paper, the weights of DMs are determined in the
group decision environment via angle cosine and projection method.
First of all, the average decision of all individual decisions is defined
as the ideal decision. After that, we define the weight of each decision
maker (DM) by aggregating the angle cosine and projection between
individual decision and ideal decision with associated direction
indicator μ. By using the weights of DMs, all individual decisions are
aggregated into a collective decision. Further, the preference order of
alternatives is ranked in accordance with the overall row value of
collective decision. Finally, an example in a chemical company is
provided to illustrate the developed approach.
Abstract: This paper seeks to assess the implications of bank
consolidation on lending, which largely determine the survival and
performance of small and medium scale enterprises and in turn the
development of the Nigerian economy. Ordinary least square
technique, correlation matrix test and Granger –causality test were
employed to measure the extent to which lending to small and
medium scale enterprises were influenced. The result showed that
bank deposit (BD) impacted on lending to small and medium scale
enterprises. Commercial and merchant bank lending rate had
statistically insignificant effect on the dependent variable. There is a
shift of focus by commercial banks from small and medium scale
enterprises (small customers) to major investors (big customers).
While micro finance banks work hard at providing funds to small and
medium scale entrepreneurs, their capacity to meet the needs of these
entrepreneurs is constrained. The capital and deposits of micro
finance bank should be boosted in order to effectively support small
and medium scale enterprises through loans.
Abstract: Drought is one of the most serious problems posing a
grave threat to cereals production including maize. Maize
improvement in drought-stress tolerance poses a great challenge as
the global need for food and bio-energy increases. Thus, the current
study was planned to explore the variations and determine the
performance of target traits of maize hybrids at grain growth stage
under drought conditions during 2014 under Adana, Mediterranean
climate conditions, Turkey. Maize hybrids (Sancia, Indaco,
71May69, Aaccel, Calgary, 70May82, 72May80) were evaluated
under (irrigated and water stress). Results revealed that, grain yield
and yield traits had a negative effects because of water stress
conditions compared with the normal irrigation. As well as, based on
the result under normal irrigation, the maximum biological yield and
harvest index were recorded. According to the differences among
hybrids were found that, significant differences were observed among
hybrids with respect to yield and yield traits under current research. Based on the results, grain weight had more effect on grain yield
than grain number during grain filling growth stage under water
stress conditions. In this concern, according to low drought
susceptibility index (less grain yield losses), the hybrid (Indaco) was
more stable in grain number and grain weight. Consequently, it may
be concluded that this hybrid would be recommended for use in the
future breeding programs for production of drought tolerant hybrids.
Abstract: This paper describes how to dimension the electric
components of a 48V hybrid system considering real customer use.
Furthermore, it provides information about savings in energy and
CO2 emissions by a customer-tailored 48V hybrid. Based on measured customer profiles, the electric units such as the
electric motor and the energy storage are dimensioned. Furthermore,
the CO2 reduction potential in real customer use is determined
compared to conventional vehicles. Finally, investigations are carried
out to specify the topology design and preliminary considerations in
order to hybridize a conventional vehicle with a 48V hybrid system.
The emission model results from an empiric approach also taking into
account the effects of engine dynamics on emissions. We analyzed
transient engine emissions during representative customer driving
profiles and created emission meta models. The investigation showed
a significant difference in emissions when simulating realistic
customer driving profiles using the created verified meta models
compared to static approaches which are commonly used for vehicle
simulation.
Abstract: Ultraviolet photocatalytic oxidation (UV-PCO)
technology has been recommended as a green approach to health
indoor environment when it is integrated into mechanical ventilation
systems for inorganic and organic compounds removal as well as
energy saving due to less outdoor air intakes. Although much research
has been devoted to UV-PCO, limited information is available on the
UV-PCO behavior tested by the mixtures in literature. This project
investigated UV-PCO performance and by-product generation using a
single and a mixture of acetone and MEK at 100 ppb each in a
single-pass duct system in an effort to obtain knowledge associated
with competitive photochemical reactions involved in. The
experiments were performed at 20 % RH, 22 °C, and a gas flow rate of
128 m3/h (75 cfm). Results show that acetone and MEK mutually
reduced each other’s PCO removal efficiency, particularly negative
removal efficiency for acetone. These findings were different from
previous observation of facilitatory effects on the adsorption of
acetone and MEK on photocatalyst surfaces.
Abstract: Damaturu is the capital of Yobe State in northeastern
Nigeria where civic amenities and facilities are not adequate even
after 24 years of its existence. The volatile security and political
situations are most significant causes for the same. The basic facility
for the citizens in terms of drinking water and electricity are not
available. For the drinking water, they have to rely on personal
boreholes or the filtered borehole waters available in packaged
sachets in market. The present study is concerned with environmental
impact of indiscriminate disposal of drinking synthetic polythene
water sachets in Damaturu. The sachet water is popularly called as
“pure water”, but its purity is questionable. Increased production and
consumption of sachet water has led to indiscriminate dumping and
disposal of empty sachets leading to serious environmental threat.
The evidence of this is seen for sachets littering the streets and the
drainages blocked by ‘blocks’ of water sachet waste. Sachet water
gained much popularity in Nigeria because the product is convenient
for use, affordable and economically viable. The present study aims
to find out the solution to this environmental problem. The fieldbased
study has found some significant factors that cause
environmental and socio economic effect due to this. Some
recommendations have been made based on research findings
regarding sustainable waste management, recycling and re-use of the
non-biodegradable products in society.