Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of the solution-focused brief therapy on improving the psychological wellbeing of family supervisor woman. This study has been carried out by semi-experimental method and in the form of pre-test, post-test performance on two groups (experimental and control), so that one sample group of 30 individuals was randomly achieved and were randomly divided in two groups of experimental (n=15) and control (n=15). To collect data, Ryff scale psychological wellbeing was used. After conducting pre-test (RSPWB) for two experimental and control groups, Solution-focused brief therapy interference was conducted on the experimental group during five two-hour sessions. Finally, Ryff scale psychological wellbeing was reused for the two groups as post-test and achieved outcomes that were analyzed using covariance. The results indicated that the significant increase of average marks of the experimental group in psychological wellbeing had better function than that of the control group. Finally, solution-focused brief therapy for improving psychological well-being of family supervisor women has a suitable capability and could be used in this way.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of solution-focused group therapy on improving the depressed mothers of child abuser families. This study was carried out in the form of a semi-pilot, pre-test and post-test on two groups (experimental and control). Subjects include all mothers and their children that are the members of Shush and Naser Khosro child home. Beck Depression Inventory and Child Trauma Questionnaire were used to collect data. First, child abuse questionnaire was completed by children, Then Beck Depression Inventory was completed by their mothers that 22 of them were recognized as depressed and randomly divided in two groups of experimental and control. After applying pre-test for both of these groups, the intervention of solution- focused group therapy was performed in five sessions on experimental group. Finally, post-test was applied on both groups and subsequently in a month, follow-up test was performed. T-test, multivariate variance, and repeated measurement analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. According to the findings, it can be concluded that this therapy leads to the improvement of depressed mother's mood. As a result, the intervention of solution-focused group therapy is useful in order to improve the depressing mood of mothers of child abuser families.
Abstract: Feedback is a vital element for improving student
learning in a simulation-based training as it guides and refines
learning through scaffolding. A number of studies in literature have
shown that students’ learning is enhanced when feedback is provided
with personalized tutoring that offers specific guidance and adapts
feedback to the learner in a one-to-one environment. Thus, emulating
these adaptive aspects of human tutoring in simulation provides an
effective methodology to train individuals. This paper presents the results of a study that investigated the
effectiveness of automating different types of feedback techniques
such as Knowledge-of-Correct-Response (KCR) and Answer-Until-
Correct (AUC) in software simulation for learning basic information
technology concepts. For the purpose of comparison, techniques like
simulation with zero or no-feedback (NFB) and traditional hands-on
(HON) learning environments are also examined. The paper presents the summary of findings based on quantitative
analyses which reveal that the simulation based instructional
strategies are at least as effective as hands-on teaching methodologies
for the purpose of learning of IT concepts. The paper also compares
the results of the study with the earlier studies and recommends
strategies for using feedback mechanism to improve students’
learning in designing and simulation-based IT training.
Abstract: AmI proposes a new way of thinking about computers, which follows the ideas of the Ubiquitous Computing vision of Mark Weiser. In these, there is what is known as a Disappearing Computer Initiative, with users immersed in intelligent environments. Hence, technologies need to be adapted so that they are capable of replacing the traditional inputs to the system by embedding these in every-day artifacts. In this work, we present an approach, which uses Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) and Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies. In the latter, a new form of interaction appears by contact. We compare both technologies by analyzing their requirements and advantages. In addition, we propose using a combination of RFID and NFC.
Abstract: We investigate the performance of an integrated cascade (IC) refrigeration system which uses environment friendly zeotropic mixtures. Computational calculation has been carried out by varying pressure level at the evaporator and the condenser of the system. Effects of mass flow rate of the refrigerant on the coefficient of performance (COP) are presented. We show that the integrated cascade system produces ultra-low temperatures in the evaporator by using environment friendly zeotropic mixture.
Abstract: This paper presents results of numerical and experimental studies on a two-dimensional (2D) flapping elliptic airfoil in a forward flight condition at Reynolds number of 5000. The study is motivated from an earlier investigation which shows that the deterioration in thrust performance of a sinusoidal heaving and pitching 2D (NACA0012) airfoil at high flapping frequency can be recovered by changing the effective angle of attack profile to square wave, sawtooth, or cosine wave shape. To better understand why such modifications lead to superior thrust performance, we take a closer look at the transient aerodynamic force behavior of an airfoil when the effective angle of attack profile changes gradually from a generic smooth trapezoidal profile to a sinusoid shape by modifying the base length of the trapezoid. The choice of using a smooth trapezoidal profile is to avoid the infinite acceleration condition encountered in the square wave profile. Our results show that the enhancement in the time-averaged thrust performance at high flapping frequency can be attributed to the delay and reduction in the drag producing valley region in the transient thrust force coefficient when the effective angle of attack profile changes from sinusoidal to trapezoidal.
Abstract: Among other traditional and non-traditional
additives, polymers have shown an efficient performance in the field
and improved sustainability. Polyacrylamide (PAM) is one such
additive that has demonstrated many advantages including a
reduction in permeability, an increase in durability and the provision
of strength characteristics. However, information about its effect on
the improved geotechnical characteristics is very limited to the field
performance monitoring. Therefore, a laboratory investigation was
carried out to examine the basic and engineering behaviors of three
types of soils treated with a PAM additive. The results showed an
increase in dry density and unconfined compressive strength for all
the soils. The results further demonstrated an increase in unsoaked
CBR and a reduction in permeability for all stabilized samples.
Abstract: Mining big data represents a big challenge nowadays. Many types of research are concerned with mining massive amounts of data and big data streams. Mining big data faces a lot of challenges including scalability, speed, heterogeneity, accuracy, provenance and privacy. In telecommunication industry, mining big data is like a mining for gold; it represents a big opportunity and maximizing the revenue streams in this industry. This paper discusses the characteristics of big data (volume, variety, velocity and veracity), data mining techniques and tools for handling very large data sets, mining big data in telecommunication and the benefits and opportunities gained from them.
Abstract: 10 clinically healthy hemal nodes were collected from male bulls aged 2-3 years. Light microscopy revealed a capsule of connective tissue consisted mainly of collagen fiber surrounding hemal node, numerous erythrocytes were found in wide subcapsular sinus under the capsule. The parenchyma of the hemal node was divided into cortex and medulla. Diffused lymphocytes, and lymphoid follicles, having germinal centers were the main components of the cortex, while in the medulla there was wide medullary sinus, diffused lymphocytes and few lymphoid nodules. The area occupied with lymph nodules was larger than that occupied with non-nodular structure of lymphoid cords and blood sinusoids. Electron microscopy revealed the cellular components of hemal node including elements of circulating erythrocytes intermingled with lymphocytes, plasma cells, mast cells, reticular cells, macrophages, megakaryocytes and endothelial cells lining the blood sinuses. The lymphocytes were somewhat triangular in shape with cytoplasmic processes extending between adjacent erythrocytes. Nuclei were triangular to oval in shape, lightly stained with clear nuclear membrane indentation and clear nucleoli. The reticular cells were elongated in shape with cytoplasmic processes extending between adjacent lymphocytes, rough endoplasmic reticulum, ribosomes and few lysosomes were seen in their cytoplasm. Nucleus was elongated in shape with less condensed chromatin. Plasma cells were oval to irregular in shape with numerous dilated rough endoplasmic reticulum containing electron lucent material occupying the whole cytoplasm and few mitochondria were found. Nuclei were centrally located and oval in shape with heterochromatin emarginated and often clumped near the nuclear membrane. Occasionally megakaryocytes and mast cells were seen among lymphocytes. Megakaryocytes had multilobulated nucleus and free ribosomes often appearing as small aggregates in their cytoplasm, while mast cell had their characteristic electron dense granule in the cytoplasm, few electron lucent granules were found also, we conclude that, the main function of the hemal node of cattle is proliferation of lymphocytes. No role for plasma cell in erythrophagocytosis could be suggested.
Abstract: The soil profile at site of the bridge project includes soft fine grained soil layer located between 5.0 m to 11.0 m in depth, it has high water content, low SPT no., and low bearing capacity. The clay layer induces high settlement due to surcharge application of earth embankment at ramp T1, ramp T2, and ramp T3 especially at heights from 9m right 3m. Calculated settlement for embankment heights less than 3m may be accepted regarding Saudi Code for soil and foundation. The soil and groundwater at the project site comprise high contents of sulfates and chlorides of high aggressively on concrete and steel bars, respectively. Regarding results of the study, it has been recommended to use stone column piles or new technology named PCC piles as soil improvement to improve the bearing capacity of the weak layer. The new technology is cast in-situ thin wall concrete pipe piles (PCC piles), it has economically advantageous and high workability. The technology can save time of implementation and cost of application is almost 30% of other types of piles.
Abstract: Healthcare waste management continues to present an
array of challenges for developing countries, and Liberia is of no
exception. There is insufficient information available regarding the
generation, handling, and disposal of health care waste. This face
serves as an impediment to healthcare management schemes. The
specific objective of this study is to present an evaluation of the
current health care management practices in Liberia. It also presented
procedures, techniques used, methods of handling, transportation, and
disposal methods of wastes as well as the quantity and composition
of health care waste. This study was conducted as an investigative
case study, covering three different health care facilities; a hospital, a
health center, and a clinic in Monrovia, Montserrado County. The
average waste generation was found to be 0-7kg per day at the clinic
and health center and 8-15kg per/day at the hospital. The composition
of the waste includes hazardous and non-hazardous waste i.e. plastic,
papers, sharps, and pathological elements etc. Nevertheless, the
investigation showed that the healthcare waste generated by the
surveyed healthcare facilities were not properly handled because of
insufficient guidelines for separate collection, and classification, and
adequate methods for storage and proper disposal of generated
wastes. This therefore indicates that there is a need for improvement
within the healthcare waste management system to improve the
existing situation.
Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to establish the relationship between models of state organization and the various types of collective identity expressed by the Spanish. The question of nationalism and identity ascription in Spain has always been a topic of special importance due to the presence in that country of territories where the population emits very different opinions of nationalist sentiment than the rest of Spain. The current situation of sovereignty challenge of Catalonia to the central government exemplifies the importance of the subject matter. In order to analyze this process of interrelation, we use a secondary data mining by applying the multiple correspondence analysis technique (MCA). As a main result a typology of four types of expression of collective identity based on models of State organization are shown, which are connected with the party position on this issue.
Abstract: This paper is a qualitative research report. A group of
students form a public university in a small town in Colombia
participated in this study which aimed at describing to what extend
the use of social ads, published on the internet, helped to develop
their critical thinking skills. Students’ productions, field notes, video
recordings and direct observation were the instruments and
techniques used by the researches in order to gather the data which
was analyzed under the principles of grounded theory and
triangulation. The implementation of social ads into the classroom
evidenced a noticeable improvement in students’ ability to interpret
and argue social issues, as well as, their self-improvement in oral and
written production in English, as a foreign language.
Abstract: Despite the benefits of innovation diffusion in the
South African public service, implementation thereof seems to be
problematic, particularly with regard to e-governance which would
enhance the quality of service delivery, especially accessibility,
choice, and mode of operation. This paper reports on differences
between the public service and the private sector in terms of
innovation diffusion. Innovation diffusion will be investigated to
explore identified obstacles that are hindering successful
implementation of e-governance. The research inquiry is underpinned
by the diffusion of innovation theory, which is premised on the
assumption that innovation has a distinct channel, time, and mode of
adoption within the organisation. A comparative thematic document
analysis was conducted to investigate organisational differences with
regard to innovation diffusion. A similar approach has been followed
in other countries, where the same conceptual framework has been
used to guide document analysis in studies in both the private and the
public sectors. As per the recommended conceptual framework, three
organisational characteristics were emphasised, namely the external
characteristics of the organisation, the organisational structure, and
the inherent characteristics of the leadership. The results indicated
that the main difference in the external characteristics lies in the
focus and the clientele of the private sector. With regard to
organisational structure, private organisations have veto power,
which is not the case in the public service. Regarding leadership,
similarities were observed in social and environmental responsibility
and employees’ attitudes towards immediate supervision. Differences
identified included risk taking, the adequacy of leadership
development, organisational approaches to motivation and
involvement in decision making, and leadership style. Due to the
organisational differences observed, it is recommended that
differentiated strategies be employed to ensure effective innovation
diffusion, and ultimately e-governance. It is recommended that the
results of this research be used to stimulate discussion on ways to
improve collaboration between the mentioned sectors, to capitalise on
the benefits of each sector.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to show how state plays a
regulatory role in the relations of distribution by analyzing tax and
expenditure in Turkey. This paper has two main arguments. First,
state intervenes in economic and social life via budget policies and
steers the relations of distribution within the scope of the
reproduction of the capital accumulation and legitimacy. Secondly, a
great amount of public expenditure benefits capital owners while
state gains its tax income mainly from low and middle income
groups.
Abstract: This project aims at building an efficient and
automatic power monitoring SCADA system, which is capable of
monitoring the electrical parameters of high voltage powered devices
in real time for example RMS voltage and current, frequency, energy
consumed, power factor etc. The system uses RS-485 serial
communication interface to transfer data over longer distances.
Embedded C programming is the platform used to develop two
hardware modules namely: RTU and Master Station modules, which
both use the CC2540 BLE 4.0 microcontroller configured in slave /
master mode. The Si8900 galvanic ally isolated microchip is used to
perform ADC externally. The hardware communicates via UART
port and sends data to the user PC using the USB port. Labview
software is used to design a user interface to display current state of
the power loads being monitored as well as logs data to excel
spreadsheet file. An understanding of the Si8900’s auto baud rate
process is key to successful implementation of this project.
Abstract: The effect of upstream surface roughness over a
smooth forward facing step in an open channel was investigated
using a particle image velocimetry technique. Three different
upstream surface topographies consisting of hydraulically smooth
wall, sandpaper 36 grit and sand grains were examined. Besides the
wall roughness conditions, all other upstream flow characteristics
were kept constant. It was also observed that upstream roughness
decreased the approach velocity by 2% and 10% but increased the
turbulence intensity by 14% and 35% at the wall-normal distance
corresponding to the top plane of the step compared to smooth
upstream. The results showed that roughness decreased the
reattachment lengths by 14% and 30% compared to smooth upstream.
Although the magnitudes of maximum positive and negative
Reynolds shear stress in separated and reattached region were 0.02Ue
for all the cases, the physical size of both the maximum and
minimum contour levels were decreased by increasing upstream
roughness.
Abstract: By using an adequate thermal barrier coating in
buildings the energy saving will be happened. In this study, a range
of wall paints with different absorption coefficient in different
climates has been investigated. In order to study these effects, heating
and cooling loads of a common building with different ordinary
paints and paint with mineral coating have been calculated. The
effect of building paint in different climatic condition was studied
and comparison was done between ordinary paints and paint with
mineral insulators in temperate climate to obtain optimized energy
consumption. The results have been shown that coatings with
inorganic micro particles as insulation reduce the energy
consumption of buildings around 14%.
Abstract: Social networks have recently gained a growing
interest on the web. Traditional formalisms for representing social
networks are static and suffer from the lack of semantics. In this
paper, we will show how semantic web technologies can be used to
model social data. The SemTemp ontology aligns and extends
existing ontologies such as FOAF, SIOC, SKOS and OWL-Time to
provide a temporal and semantically rich description of social data.
We also present a modeling scenario to illustrate how our ontology
can be used to model social networks.
Abstract: In recent years, a wide variety of applications are developed with Support Vector Machines -SVM- methods and Artificial Neural Networks -ANN-. In general, these methods depend on intrusion knowledge databases such as KDD99, ISCX, and CAIDA among others. New classes of detectors are generated by machine learning techniques, trained and tested over network databases. Thereafter, detectors are employed to detect anomalies in network communication scenarios according to user’s connections behavior. The first detector based on training dataset is deployed in different real-world networks with mobile and non-mobile devices to analyze the performance and accuracy over static detection. The vulnerabilities are based on previous work in telemedicine apps that were developed on the research group. This paper presents the differences on detections results between some network scenarios by applying traditional detectors deployed with artificial neural networks and support vector machines.