Abstract: Sweet potato products are necessary for the provision
of essential nutrients in every household, regardless of their poverty
status. Their consumption appears to be highly influenced by socioeconomic
factors, such as malnutrition, food insecurity and
unemployment. Therefore, market availability is crucial for these
cultivars to resolve some of the socio-economic factors. The aim of
the study was to investigate market availability of sweet potato
cultivars in the North West Province. In this study, both qualitative
and quantitative research methodologies were used. Qualitative
methodology was used to explain the quantitative outcomes of the
variables. On the other hand, quantitative results were used to test the
hypothesis. The study used SPSS software to analyse the data. Crosstabulation
and Chi-square statistics were used to obtain the
descriptive and inferential analyses, respectively. The study found
that the Blesbok cultivar is dominating the markets of the North West
Province, with the Monate cultivar dominating in the Bojanala
Platinum (75%) and Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati (25%) districts. It
is also found that a unit increase in the supply of sweet potato
cultivars in both local and district municipal markets is accompanied
by a reduced demand of 28% and 33% at district and local markets,
respectively. All these results were found to be significant at p
Abstract: The myocardial sintigraphy is an imaging modality which provides functional informations. Whereas, coronarography modality gives useful informations about coronary arteries anatomy. In case of coronary artery disease (CAD), the coronarography can not determine precisely which moderate lesions (artery reduction between 50% and 70%), known as the “gray zone", are haemodynamicaly significant. In this paper, we aim to define the relationship between the location and the degree of the stenosis in coronary arteries and the observed perfusion on the myocardial scintigraphy. This allows us to model the impact evolution of these stenoses in order to justify a coronarography or to avoid it for patients suspected being in the gray zone. Our approach is decomposed in two steps. The first step consists in modelling a coronary artery bed and stenoses of different location and degree. The second step consists in modelling the left ventricle at stress and at rest using the sphercical harmonics model and myocardial scintigraphic data. We use the spherical harmonics descriptors to analyse left ventricle model deformation between stress and rest which permits us to conclude if ever an ischemia exists and to quantify it.
Abstract: Views on therapists- attraction have influenced the ethical and professional development of the mental health fields. Because the majority of therapist attraction literature (63.6%) has been conducted from a psychoanalytic standpoint, approaches to attraction from feminist perspectives have not been adequately developed. Considering the lack of a feminist voice regarding attraction, this article attempts to offer a feminist perspective on this issue. The purpose of this article is to offer a feminist perspective on the phenomenon of attraction in order to raise awareness about the importance of power inequalities, intersectionalities, contextual variables and the need for action in the field.
Abstract: This paper presents an improved image segmentation
model with edge preserving regularization based on the
piecewise-smooth Mumford-Shah functional. A level set formulation
is considered for the Mumford-Shah functional minimization in
segmentation, and the corresponding partial difference equations are
solved by the backward Euler discretization. Aiming at encouraging
edge preserving regularization, a new edge indicator function is
introduced at level set frame. In which all the grid points which is used
to locate the level set curve are considered to avoid blurring the edges
and a nonlinear smooth constraint function as regularization term is
applied to smooth the image in the isophote direction instead of the
gradient direction. In implementation, some strategies such as a new
scheme for extension of u+ and u- computation of the grid points and
speedup of the convergence are studied to improve the efficacy of the
algorithm. The resulting algorithm has been implemented and
compared with the previous methods, and has been proved efficiently
by several cases.
Abstract: Because of the reservoir effect, dynamic analysis of concrete dams is more involved than other common structures. This problem is mostly sourced by the differences between reservoir water, dam body and foundation material behaviors. To account for the reservoir effect in dynamic analysis of concrete gravity dams, two methods are generally employed. Eulerian method in reservoir modeling gives rise to a set of coupled equations, whereas in Lagrangian method, the same equations for dam and foundation structure are used. The Purpose of this paper is to evaluate and study possible advantages and disadvantages of both methods. Specifically, application of the above methods in the analysis of dam-foundationreservoir systems is leveraged to calculate the hydrodynamic pressure on dam faces. Within the frame work of dam- foundationreservoir systems, dam displacement under earthquake for various dimensions and characteristics are also studied. The results of both Lagrangian and Eulerian methods in effects of loading frequency, boundary condition and foundation elasticity modulus are quantitatively evaluated and compared. Our analyses show that each method has individual advantages and disadvantages. As such, in any particular case, one of the two methods may prove more suitable as presented in the results section of this study.
Abstract: The amount of urban artificial heat which affects the
urban temperature rise in urban meteorology was investigated in order
to clarify the relationships between urbanization and urban
meteorology in this study.
The results of calculation to identify how urban temperate was
increased through the establishment of a model for measuring the
amount of urban artificial heat and theoretical testing revealed that the
amount of urban artificial heat increased urban temperature by plus or
minus 0.23 ˚ C in 2007 compared with 1996, statistical methods
(correlation and regression analysis) to clarify the relationships
between urbanization and urban weather were as follows.
New design techniques and urban growth management are
necessary from urban growth management point of view suggested
from this research at city design phase to decrease urban temperature
rise and urban torrential rain which can produce urban disaster in terms
of urban meteorology by urbanization.
Abstract: This paper introduces a new approach for the performance
analysis of adaptive filter with error saturation nonlinearity in
the presence of impulsive noise. The performance analysis of adaptive
filters includes both transient analysis which shows that how fast
a filter learns and the steady-state analysis gives how well a filter
learns. The recursive expressions for mean-square deviation(MSD)
and excess mean-square error(EMSE) are derived based on weighted
energy conservation arguments which provide the transient behavior
of the adaptive algorithm. The steady-state analysis for co-related
input regressor data is analyzed, so this approach leads to a new
performance results without restricting the input regression data to
be white.
Abstract: The objective of this research is to study the people’s level of participation in activities of the community, their satisfaction towards the community, the attachment they have to the community, factors that influence the attachment, as well as the characteristics of the relationships of military families’ of the Royal Guards community of Dusit District. The method used was non-probability sampling by quota sampling according to people’s age. The determined age group was 18 years or older.
One set of a sample group was done per family. The questionnaires were conducted by 287 people. Snowball sampling was also used by interviewing people of the community, starting from the Royal Guards Community’s leader, then by 20 of the community’s well-respected persons. The data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics, such as arithmetic mean and standard deviation, as well as by inferential statistics, such as Independent - Samples T test (T-test), One-Way ANOVA (F-test), Chi-Square. Descriptive analysis according to the structure of the interview content was also used. The results of the research is that the participation of the population in the Royal Guards Community in various activities is at a medium level, with the average participation level during Mother’s and Father’s Days. The people’s general level of satisfaction towards the premises of the Royal Guards Community is at the highest level.
The people were most satisfied with the transportation within the community and in contacting with people from outside the premises. The access to the community is convenient and there are various entrances. The attachment of the people to the Royal Guards Community in general and by each category is at a high level. The feeling that the community is their home rated the highest average. Factors that influence the attachment of the people of the Royal Guards Community are age, status, profession, income, length of stay in the community, membership of social groups, having neighbors they feel close and familiar with, and as well as the benefits they receive from the community. In addition, it was found that people that participate in activities have a high level of positive relationship towards the attachment of the people to the Royal Guards Community. The satisfaction of the community has a very high level of positive relationship with the attachment of the people to the Royal Guards Community.
The characteristics of the attachment of military families’ is that they live in big houses that everyone has to protect and care for, starting from the leader of the family as well as all members. Therefore, they all love the community they live in. The characteristics that show the participation of activities within the community and the high level of satisfaction towards the premises of the community will enable the people to be more attached to the community. The people feel that everyone is close neighbors within the community, as if they are one big family.
Abstract: Smoke from domestic wood burning has been
identified as a major contributor to air pollution, motivating detailed
emission measurements under controlled conditions. A series of
experiments was performed to characterise the emissions from wood
combustion in a fireplace and in a woodstove of two common species
of trees grown in Spain: Pyrenean oak (Quercus pyrenaica) and
black poplar (Populus nigra). Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in
the exhaust emissions were collected in Tedlar bags, re-sampled in
sorbent tubes and analysed by thermal desorption-gas
chromatography-flame ionisation detection. Pyrenean oak presented
substantially higher emissions in the woodstove than in the fireplace,
for the majority of compounds. The opposite was observed for
poplar. Among the 45 identified species, benzene and benzenerelated
compounds represent the most abundant group, followed by
oxygenated VOCs and aliphatics. Emission factors obtained in this
study are generally of the same order than those reported for
residential experiments in the USA.
Abstract: In real-field applications, the correct determination of voice segments highly improves the overall system accuracy and minimises the total computation time. This paper presents reliable measures of speech compression by detcting the end points of the speech signals prior to compressing them. The two different compession schemes used are the Global threshold and the Level- Dependent threshold techniques. The performance of the proposed method is tested wirh the Signal to Noise Ratios, Peak Signal to Noise Ratios and Normalized Root Mean Square Error parameter measures.
Abstract: Malate dehydrogenase-glutamate oxaloacetate
aminotransferase (MDh-GOAT) enzyme complex (the EC) was
isolated and purified from wheat and rise, their some main physicchemical
properties were studied. Michael-s constants of the EC
MDh-GOAT to malate, glutamate and NAD were investigated. This
kinetic results show a high relationship to glutamate. Taking into
account important role of the the EC in catabolism of glutamate – the
central amino acid of a nitric exchange, there is a sharp necessity of
deeper studying of this enzyme complex. Therefore the basic purpose
of the work is studying the basic physical and chemical properties of
this enzyme complex discovered by us, which would be very
important for understanding the mechanisms of reaction catalyzed by
the EC.
Abstract: Recently, genetic algorithms (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique have attracted considerable attention among various modern heuristic optimization techniques. The GA has been popular in academia and the industry mainly because of its intuitiveness, ease of implementation, and the ability to effectively solve highly non-linear, mixed integer optimization problems that are typical of complex engineering systems. PSO technique is a relatively recent heuristic search method whose mechanics are inspired by the swarming or collaborative behavior of biological populations. In this paper both PSO and GA optimization are employed for finding stable reduced order models of single-input- single-output large-scale linear systems. Both the techniques guarantee stability of reduced order model if the original high order model is stable. PSO method is based on the minimization of the Integral Squared Error (ISE) between the transient responses of original higher order model and the reduced order model pertaining to a unit step input. Both the methods are illustrated through numerical example from literature and the results are compared with recently published conventional model reduction technique.
Abstract: This study performs a comparative analysis of the 21 Greek Universities in terms of their public funding, awarded for covering their operating expenditure. First it introduces a DEA/MCDM model that allocates the fund into four expenditure factors in the most favorable way for each university. Then, it presents a common, consensual assessment model to reallocate the amounts, remaining in the same level of total public budget. From the analysis it derives that a number of universities cannot justify the public funding in terms of their size and operational workload. For them, the sufficient reduction of their public funding amount is estimated as a future target. Due to the lack of precise data for a number of expenditure criteria, the analysis is based on a mixed crisp-ordinal data set.
Abstract: Conventionally the selection of parameters depends
intensely on the operator-s experience or conservative technological
data provided by the EDM equipment manufacturers that assign
inconsistent machining performance. The parameter settings given by
the manufacturers are only relevant with common steel grades. A
single parameter change influences the process in a complex way.
Hence, the present research proposes artificial neural network (ANN)
models for the prediction of surface roughness on first commenced
Ti-15-3 alloy in electrical discharge machining (EDM) process. The
proposed models use peak current, pulse on time, pulse off time and
servo voltage as input parameters. Multilayer perceptron (MLP) with
three hidden layer feedforward networks are applied. An assessment
is carried out with the models of distinct hidden layer. Training of the
models is performed with data from an extensive series of
experiments utilizing copper electrode as positive polarity. The
predictions based on the above developed models have been verified
with another set of experiments and are found to be in good
agreement with the experimental results. Beside this they can be
exercised as precious tools for the process planning for EDM.
Abstract: Supplier selection is a multi criteria decision-making process that comprises tangible and intangible factors. The majority of previous supplier selection techniques do not consider strategic perspective. Besides, uncertainty is one of the most important obstacles in supplier selection. For the first, time in this paper, the idea of the algorithm " Knapsack " is used to select suppliers Moreover, an attempt has to be made to take the advantage of a simple numerical method for solving model .This is an innovation to resolve any ambiguity in choosing suppliers. This model has been tried in the suppliers selected in a competitive environment and according to all desired standards of quality and quantity to show the efficiency of the model, an industry sample has been uses.
Abstract: Different numerical methods are employed and developed for simulating interfacial flows. A large range of applications belong to this group, e.g. two-phase flows of air bubbles in water or water drops in air. In such problems surface tension effects often play a dominant role. In this paper, various models of surface tension force for interfacial flows, the CSF, CSS, PCIL and SGIP models have been applied to simulate the motion of small air bubbles in water and the results were compared and reviewed. It has been pointed out that by using SGIP or PCIL models, we are able to simulate bubble rise and obtain results in close agreement with the experimental data.
Abstract: Over half of the total electricity consumption is used in buildings. Air-conditioning and electric lighting are the two main resources of electricity consumption in high rise buildings. One way to reduce electricity consumption would be to limit heat gain into buildings, therefore reduce the demand for air-conditioning during hot summer months especially in hot regions. On the other hand natural daylight can be used to reduce the use of electricity for artificial lighting. In this paper effective factors on minimizing heat gain and achieving required day light were reviewed .As daylight always accompanied by solar heat gain. Also interactions between heat gain and daylight were discussed through previous studies and equations which are related to heat gain and day lighting especially in high rise buildings. As a result importance of building-s form and its component on energy consumption in buildings were clarified.
Abstract: Green Forestation Plan (GFP) was expected to promote the reforestation of plains totaling 60,000 has within the first 8 years. Annual subsidies were budgeted at $120,000 per ha, and $2.4 million for 20 years. In this research we have surveyed landlords- opinions toward the GFP in an attempt to understand landlords- incentives for participating in the GFP and their levels of concern and agreement toward the policy design. Based our analysis of landlords- opinions on the policy design, we expect to derive appropriate complementary measures, establish effective promotional schemes, and raise the policy effectiveness of the GFP. According to the results of this research, there was still a relatively high proportion of population who were not aware of GFP; more than 50% of landlords were neutral or willing to participate given high reforestation subsidies; approximately 30% of landlords were unwilling to participate. In terms of the designs of GFP, more than 50% of respondents were concerned and agreed with the policy design. In terms of the period of this policy, 52.7% of respondents indicated that it should be shortened to 15 years or lower. In terms of the amount of the subsidy, 41.7% of respondents showed that it should be raised to approximately $250,000/ha. In terms of land area restrictions, 88.0% of respondents believed that the minimum should be lowered to 0.4 ha. More than 70% of respondents owned less than 0.4 has of land, and since they do not own enough land to be eligible for the program, more than 80% of landlords wished to lower the minimum requirements of land area. In addition, 59.3% of respondents were reluctant to participate in reforestation because their lands were too small to be eligible; 15.0% of respondents were reluctant because the duration was too long. Responses to the question about “how the policy can be adjusted to provide incentives for landlords- participation" revealed that almost 40% of respondents desired higher subsidies. Some policy suggestions are provided as follows: (1) many landlords are still unaware of the GFP so the government should enhance the promotion of the policy; (2) many landlords are unwilling to participate in GFP mainly because they do not own enough lands to be eligible, hence the government should consider adjusting its requirements for minimum agricultural land area; (3) for subsequent promotions on GFP, the government may consider targeting on the landlords with high income and high level of education; (4) because the subsidy of this policy alone provides limited help to landlords, the government should help the landlords to explore other revenue possibilities from afforestation in addition to the existing subsidies and raise the participation incentives.
Abstract: Contamination of heavy metals in tin tailings has
caused an interest in the scientific approach of their remediation. One
of the approaches is through phytoremediation, which is using tree
species to extract the heavy metals from the contaminated soils. Tin
tailings comprise of slime and sand tailings. This paper reports only
on the finding of the four timber species namely Acacia mangium,
Hopea odorata, Intsia palembanica and Swietenia macrophylla on
the removal of cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) from the slime tailings.
The methods employed for sampling and soil analysis are established
methods. Six trees of each species were randomly selected from a
0.25 ha plot for extraction and determination of their heavy metals.
The soil samples were systematically collected according to 5 x 5 m
grid from each plot. Results showed that the concentration of heavy
metals in soils and trees varied according to species. Higher
concentration of heavy metals was found in the stem than the
primary roots of all the species. A. Mangium accumulated the highest
total amount of Pb per hectare basis.
Abstract: The rangelands, as one of the largest dynamic biomes
in the world, have very capabilities. Regulation of greenhouse gases
in the Earth's atmosphere, particularly carbon dioxide as the main
these gases, is one of these cases. The attention to rangeland, as
cheep and reachable resources to sequestrate the carbon dioxide,
increases after the Industrial Revolution. Rangelands comprise the
large parts of Iran as a steppic area. Rudshur (Saveh), as area index of
steppic area, was selected under three sites include long-term
exclosure, medium-term exclosure, and grazable area in order to the
capable of carbon dioxide’s sequestration of dominated species.
Canopy cover’s percentage of two dominated species (Artemisia
sieberi Besser & Stipa barbata Desf) was determined via establishing
of random 1 square meter plot. The sampling of above and below
ground biomass style was obtained by complete random. After
determination of ash percentage in the laboratory; conversion ratio of
plant biomass to organic carbon was calculated by ignition method.
Results of the paired t-test showed that the amount of carbon
sequestration in above ground and underground biomass of Artemisia
sieberi Besser & Stipa barbata Desf is different in three regions. It,
of course, hasn’t any difference between under and surface ground’s
biomass of Artemisia sieberi Besser in long-term exclosure. The
independent t-test results indicate differences between underground
biomass corresponding each other in the studied sites. Carbon
sequestration in the Stipa barbata Desf was totally more than
Artemisia sieberi Besser. Altogether, the average sequestration of the
long-term exclosure was 5.842gr/m², the medium-term exclosure was
4.115gr/m², and grazable area was 5.975gr/m² so that there isn’t
valuable statistical difference in term of total amount of carbon
sequestration to three sites.