Abstract: The Taiwan Health Literacy Scale (THLS) was developed to cope with the need of measuring heath literacy of Chinese-speaking adults in Taiwan. Although the scale was proven having good reliability and validity, it was not popularly adopted by the practitioners due to the length, and the time required completing. Based on the THLS, this research further invited healthcare professionals to review the original scale for a possible shorten work. Under the logic of THLS, the research adopted an analytic hierarchy process technique to consolidate the healthcare experts- assessments to shorten the original scale. There are fifteen items out of the original 66 items were identified having higher loadings. Confirmed by the experts and passed a pilot test with 40 undergraduate students, a short form of THLS is then introduced. This research then used 839 samples from the major cities of the Hua-lien county in the eastern part of Taiwan to test the reliability and validity of this new scale. The reliability of the scale is high and acceptable. The current scale is also highly correlated with the original, of which provide evidence for the validity of the scale.
Abstract: The one of best robust search technique on large scale
search area is heuristic and meta heuristic approaches. Especially in
issue that the exploitation of combinatorial status in the large scale
search area prevents the solution of the problem via classical
calculating methods, so such problems is NP-complete. in this
research, the problem of winner determination in combinatorial
auctions have been formulated and by assessing older heuristic
functions, we solve the problem by using of genetic algorithm and
would show that this new method would result in better performance
in comparison to other heuristic function such as simulated annealing
greedy approach.
Abstract: The proposed Multimedia Pronunciation Learning
Management System (MPLMS) in this study is a technology with
profound potential for inducing improvement in pronunciation
learning. The MPLMS optimizes the digitised phonetic symbols with
the integration of text, sound and mouth movement video. The
components are designed and developed in an online management
system which turns the web to a dynamic user-centric collection of
consistent and timely information for quality sustainable learning.
The aim of this study is to design and develop the MPLMS which
serves as an innovative tool to improve English pronunciation. This
paper discusses the iterative methodology and the three-phase Alessi
and Trollip model in the development of MPLMS. To align with the
flexibility of the development of educational software, the iterative
approach comprises plan, design, develop, evaluate and implement is
followed. To ensure the instructional appropriateness of MPLMS, the
instructional system design (ISD) model of Alessi and Trollip serves
as a platform to guide the important instructional factors and process.
It is expected that the results of future empirical research will support
the efficacy of MPLMS and its place as the premier pronunciation
learning system.
Abstract: The study aimed to identify the nature of autistic
talent, the manifestations of their weak central coherence, and their
sensory characteristics. The case study consisted of four talented
autistic males. Two of them in drawing, one in clay formation and
one in jigsaw puzzle. Tools of data collection were Group Embedded
Figures Test, Block Design Test, Sensory Profile Checklist Revised,
Interview forms and direct observation. Results indicated that talent
among autistics emerges in limited domain and being extraordinary
for each case. Also overlapping construction properties. Indeed, they
show three perceptual aspects of weak central coherence: The weak
in visual spatial-constructional coherence, the weak in perceptual
coherence and the weak in verbal – semantic coherence. Moreover,
the majority of the study cases used the three strategies of weak
central coherence (segmentation, obliqueness and rotation). As for
the sensory characteristics, all study cases have numbers of that
characteristics that especially emerges in the visual system.
Abstract: The current study has investigated the ageing
phenomena of silica optical fibres in relation to water activity which might be accelerated when exposed to a supplementary energy, such as microwaves. A controlled stress by winding fibres onto accurate
diameter mandrel was applied. Taking into account that normally a
decrease in fibre strength is induced in time by chemical action of water, the effects of cumulative reagents such as: water, applied stress and supplementary energy (microwave) in some cases acted in
the opposite manner. The microwave effect as a structural relaxation
catalyst appears unexpected, even if the overall gain in fibre strength is not high, but the stress corrosion factor revealed significant
increase in certain simulation conditions.
Abstract: A novel method of individual level adaptive mutation rate control called the rank-scaled mutation rate for genetic algorithms is introduced. The rank-scaled mutation rate controlled genetic algorithm varies the mutation parameters based on the rank of each individual within the population. Thereby the distribution of the fitness of the papulation is taken into consideration in forming the new mutation rates. The best fit mutate at the lowest rate and the least fit mutate at the highest rate. The complexity of the algorithm is of the order of an individual adaptation scheme and is lower than that of a self-adaptation scheme. The proposed algorithm is tested on two common problems, namely, numerical optimization of a function and the traveling salesman problem. The results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms both the fixed and deterministic mutation rate schemes. It is best suited for problems with several local optimum solutions without a high demand for excessive mutation rates.
Abstract: An efficient transient flow simulation for gas
pipelines and networks is presented. The proposed transient flow
simulation is based on the transfer function models and MATLABSimulink.
The equivalent transfer functions of the nonlinear
governing equations are derived for different types of the boundary
conditions. Next, a MATLAB-Simulink library is developed and
proposed considering any boundary condition type. To verify the
accuracy and the computational efficiency of the proposed
simulation, the results obtained are compared with those of the
conventional finite difference schemes (such as TVD, method of
lines, and other finite difference implicit and explicit schemes). The
effects of the flow inertia and the pipeline inclination are
incorporated in this simulation. It is shown that the proposed
simulation has a sufficient accuracy and it is computationally more
efficient than the other methods.
Abstract: A reliable estimate of the average bond stress within
the anchorage of steel reinforcing bars in tension is critically
important for the design of reinforced concrete member. This paper
describes part of a recently completed experimental research program
in the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety (CIES) at the
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia aimed at
assessing the effects of different factors on the anchorage
requirements of modern high strength steel reinforcing bars. The
study found that an increase in the anchorage length and bar diameter
generally leads to a reduction of the average ultimate bond stress. By
the extension of a well established analytical model of bond and
anchorage, it is shown here that the differences in the average
ultimate bond stress for different anchorage lengths is associated with
the variable degree of plastic deformation in the tensile zone of the
concrete surrounding the bar.
Abstract: The game of Maundy Block is the three-player variant
of Maundy Cake, a classical combinatorial game. Even though to
determine the solution of Maundy Cake is trivial, solving Maundy
Block is challenging because of the identification of queer games,
i.e., games where no player has a winning strategy.
Abstract: In this communication a quantitative modeling
approach is applied to construct model for the exchange of gases
from open sewer channel to the atmosphere. The data for the
exchange of gases of the open sewer channel for the year January
1979 to December 2006 is utilized for the construction of the model.
The study reveals that stream flow of the open sewer channel
exchanges the toxic gases continuously with time varying scale. We
find that the quantitative modeling approach is more parsimonious
model for these exchanges. The usual diagnostic tests are applied for
the model adequacy. This model is beneficial for planner and
managerial bodies for the improvement of implemented policies to
overcome future environmental problems.
Abstract: Conventional approaches in the implementation of logic programming applications on embedded systems are solely of software nature. As a consequence, a compiler is needed that transforms the initial declarative logic program to its equivalent procedural one, to be programmed to the microprocessor. This approach increases the complexity of the final implementation and reduces the overall system's performance. On the contrary, presenting hardware implementations which are only capable of supporting logic programs prevents their use in applications where logic programs need to be intertwined with traditional procedural ones, for a specific application. We exploit HW/SW codesign methods to present a microprocessor, capable of supporting hybrid applications using both programming approaches. We take advantage of the close relationship between attribute grammar (AG) evaluation and knowledge engineering methods to present a programmable hardware parser that performs logic derivations and combine it with an extension of a conventional RISC microprocessor that performs the unification process to report the success or failure of those derivations. The extended RISC microprocessor is still capable of executing conventional procedural programs, thus hybrid applications can be implemented. The presented implementation is programmable, supports the execution of hybrid applications, increases the performance of logic derivations (experimental analysis yields an approximate 1000% increase in performance) and reduces the complexity of the final implemented code. The proposed hardware design is supported by a proposed extended C-language called C-AG.
Abstract: Full adders are important components in applications
such as digital signal processors (DSP) architectures and
microprocessors. In addition to its main task, which is adding two
numbers, it participates in many other useful operations such as
subtraction, multiplication, division,, address calculation,..etc. In
most of these systems the adder lies in the critical path that
determines the overall speed of the system. So enhancing the
performance of the 1-bit full adder cell (the building block of the
adder) is a significant goal.Demands for the low power VLSI have
been pushing the development of aggressive design methodologies to
reduce the power consumption drastically. To meet the growing
demand, we propose a new low power adder cell by sacrificing the
MOS Transistor count that reduces the serious threshold loss
problem, considerably increases the speed and decreases the power
when compared to the static energy recovery full (SERF) adder. So a
new improved 14T CMOS l-bit full adder cell is presented in this
paper. Results show 50% improvement in threshold loss problem,
45% improvement in speed and considerable power consumption
over the SERF adder and other different types of adders with
comparable performance.
Abstract: In this work we present some matrix operators named
circulant operators and their action on square matrices. This study on
square matrices provides new insights into the structure of the space
of square matrices. Moreover it can be useful in various fields as in
agents networking on Grid or large-scale distributed self-organizing
grid systems.
Abstract: Malaria is transmitted to the human by biting of
infected Anopheles mosquitoes. This disease is a serious, acute and
chronic relapsing infection to humans. Fever, nausea, vomiting, back
pain, increased sweating anemia and splenomegaly (enlargement of
the spleen) are the symptoms of the patients who infected with this
disease. It is caused by the multiplication of protozoa parasite of the
genus Plasmodium. Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax,
Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium ovale are the four types of
Plasmodium malaria. A mathematical model for the transmission of
Plasmodium Malaria is developed in which the human and vector
population are divided into two classes, the susceptible and the
infectious classes. In this paper, we formulate the dynamical model
of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria. The
standard dynamical analysis is used for analyzing the behavior for
the transmission of this disease. The Threshold condition is found
and numerical results are shown to confirm the analytical results.
Abstract: In this paper, by using Mawhin-s continuation theorem of coincidence degree and a method based on delay differential inequality, some sufficient conditions are obtained for the existence and global exponential stability of periodic solutions of cellular neural networks with distributed delays and impulses on time scales. The results of this paper generalized previously known results.
Abstract: The process of wafer fabrication is arguably the most
technologically complex and capital intensive stage in semiconductor
manufacturing. This large-scale discrete-event process is highly reentrant,
and involves hundreds of machines, restrictions, and
processing steps. Therefore, production control of wafer fabrication
facilities (fab), specifically scheduling, is one of the most challenging
problems that this industry faces. Dispatching rules have been
extensively applied to the scheduling problems in semiconductor
manufacturing. Moreover, lot release policies are commonly used in
this manufacturing setting to further improve the performance of such
systems and reduce its inherent variability. In this work, simulation is
used in the scheduling of re-entrant flow shop manufacturing systems
with an application in semiconductor wafer fabrication; where, a
simulation model has been developed for the Intel Five-Machine Six
Step Mini-Fab using the ExtendTM simulation environment. The
Mini-Fab has been selected as it captures the challenges involved in
scheduling the highly re-entrant semiconductor manufacturing lines.
A number of scenarios have been developed and have been used to
evaluate the effect of different dispatching rules and lot release
policies on the selected performance measures. Results of simulation
showed that the performance of the Mini-Fab can be drastically
improved using a combination of dispatching rules and lot release
policy.
Abstract: A low cost Short Message System (SMS) based Home security system equipped with motion, smoke, temperature, humidity and light sensors has been studied and tested. The sensors are controlled by a microprocessor PIC 18F4520 through the SMS having password protection code for the secure operation. The user is able to switch light and the appliances and get instant feedback. Also in cases of emergencies such as fire or robbery the system will send alert message to occupant and relevant civil authorities. The operation of the home security has been tested on Vodafone- Fiji network and Digicel Fiji Network for emergency and feedback responses for 25 samples. The experiment showed that it takes about 8-10s for the security system to respond in case of emergency. It takes about 18-22s for the occupant to switch and monitor lights and appliances and then get feedback depending upon the network traffic.
Abstract: There are reports of gas and oil wells fire due to different accidents. Many different methods are used for fire fighting in gas and oil industry. Traditional fire extinguishing techniques are mostly faced with many problems and are usually time consuming and needs lots of equipments. Besides, they cause damages to facilities, and create health and environmental problems. This article proposes innovative approach in fire extinguishing techniques in oil and gas industry, especially applicable for burning oil wells located offshore. Fire extinguishment employing a turbojet is a novel approach which can help to extinguishment the fire in short period of time. Divergent and convergent turbojets modeled in laboratory scale along with a high pressure flame were used. Different experiments were conducted to determine the relationship between output discharges of trumpet and oil wells. The results were corrected and the relationship between dimensionless parameters of flame and fire extinguishment distances and also the output discharge of turbojet and oil wells in specified distances are demonstrated by specific curves.
Abstract: The modeling of water transfer in the unsaturated zone
uses techniques and methods of the soil physics to solve the
Richards-s equation. However, there is a disaccord between the size
of the measurements provided by the soil physics and the size of the
fields of hydrological modeling problem, to which is added the
strong spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties. The objective of
this work was to develop a methodology to estimate the
hydrodynamic parameters for modeling water transfers at different
hydrological scales in the soil-plant atmosphere systems.
Abstract: This paper presents an automatic feature recognition
method based on center-surround difference detecting and fuzzy logic
that can be applied in ground-penetrating radar (GPR) image
processing. Adopted center-surround difference method, the salient
local image regions are extracted from the GPR images as features of
detected objects. And fuzzy logic strategy is used to match the
detected features and features in template database. This way, the
problem of objects detecting, which is the key problem in GPR image
processing, can be converted into two steps, feature extracting and
matching. The contributions of these skills make the system have the
ability to deal with changes in scale, antenna and noises. The results of
experiments also prove that the system has higher ratio of features
sensing in using GPR to image the subsurface structures.