Abstract: Food safety is an important concern for holiday
makers in foreign and unfamiliar tourist destinations. In fact, risk
from food in these tourist destinations has an influence on tourist
perception. This risk can potentially affect physical health and lead to
an inability to pursue planned activities. The objective of this paper
was to compare foreign tourists- demographics including gender, age
and education level, with the level of perceived risk towards food
safety. A total of 222 foreign tourists during their stay at Khao San
Road in Bangkok were used as the sample. Independent- samples ttest,
analysis of variance, and Least Significant Difference or LSD
post hoc test were utilized. The findings revealed that there were few
demographic differences in level of perceived risk among the foreign
tourists. The post hoc test indicated a significant difference among
the old and the young tourists, and between the higher and lower
level of education. Ranks of tourists- perceived risk towards food
safety unveiled some interesting results. Tourists- perceived risk of
food safety in established restaurants can be ranked as i) cleanliness
of dining utensils, ii) sanitation of food preparation area, and iii)
cleanliness of food seasoning and ingredients. Whereas, the tourists-
perceived risk of food safety in street food and drink can be ranked
as i) cleanliness of stalls and pushcarts, ii) cleanliness of food sold,
and iii) personal hygiene of street food hawkers or vendors.
Abstract: Current research on semantic web aims at making intelligent web pages meaningful for machines. In this way, ontology plays a primary role. We believe that logic can help ontology languages (such as OWL) to be more fluent and efficient. In this paper we try to combine logic with OWL to reduce some disadvantages of this language. Therefore we extend OWL by logic and also show how logic can satisfy our future expectations of an ontology language.
Abstract: The objective of this research was to find the diffusion properties of vehicles on the road by using the V-Sphere Code. The diffusion coefficient and the size of the height of the wake were estimated with the LES option and the third order MUSCL scheme. We evaluated the code with the changes in the moments of Reynolds Stress along the mean streamline. The results show that at the leading part of a bluff body the LES has some advantages over the RNS since the changes in the strain rates are larger for the leading part. We estimated that the diffusion coefficient with the computed Reynolds stress (non-dimensional) was about 0.96 times the mean velocity.
Abstract: The impact of noise upon live quality has become an
important aspect to make both urban and environmental policythroughout
Europe and in Turkey. Concern over the quality of urban
environments, including noise levels and declining quality of green
space, is over the past decade with increasing emphasis on designing
livable and sustainable communities. According to the World Health
Organization, noise pollution is the third most hazardous
environmental type of pollution which proceeded by only air (gas
emission) and water pollution. The research carried out in two
phases, the first stage of the research noise and plant types providing
the suction of noise was evaluated through literature study and at the
second stage, definite types (Juniperus horizontalis L., Spirea
vanhouetti Briot., Cotoneaster dammerii C.K., Berberis thunbergii
D.C., Pyracantha coccinea M. etc.) were selected for the city of
Konya. Trials were conducted on the highway of Konya. The biggest
value of noise reduction was 6.3 dB(A), 4.9 dB(A), 6.2 dB(A) value
with compared to the control which includes the group that formed
by the bushes at the distance of 7m, 11m, 20m from the source and
5m, 9m, 20m of plant width, respectively. In this paper, definitions
regarding to noise and its sources were made and the precautions
were taken against to noise that mentioned earlier with the adverse
effects of noise. Plantation design approaches and suggestions
concerning to the diversity to be used, which are peculiar to roadside,
were developed to discuss the role and the function of plant material
to reduce the noise of the traffic.
Abstract: Electro Chemical Discharge Machining (ECDM) is an
emerging hybrid machining process used in precision machining of hard and brittle non-conducting materials. The present paper gives a
critical review on materials machined by ECDM under the prevailing machining conditions; capability indicators of the process are
reported. Some results obtained while performing experiments in micro-channeling on soda lime glass using ECDM are also presented. In these experiments, Tool Wear (TW) and Material Removal (MR)
were studied using design of experiments and L–4 orthogonal array. Experimental results showed that the applied voltage was the most influencing parameter in both MR and TW studies. Field
emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) results obtained on the microchannels confirmed the presence of micro-cracks, primarily responsible for MR. Chemical etching was also seen along the edges.
The Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) results were used to detect the elements present in the debris and specimens.
Abstract: Dengue fever is prevalent in Malaysia with numerous
cases including mortality recorded over the years. Public education
on the prevention of the desease through various means has been
carried out besides the enforcement of legal means to eradicate
Aedes mosquitoes, the dengue vector breeding ground. Hence, other
means need to be explored, such as predicting the seasonal peak
period of the dengue outbreak and identifying related climate factors
contributing to the increase in the number of mosquitoes. Simulation
model can be employed for this purpose. In this study, we created a
simulation of system dynamic to predict the spread of dengue
outbreak in Hulu Langat, Selangor Malaysia. The prototype was
developed using STELLA 9.1.2 software. The main data input are
rainfall, temperature and denggue cases. Data analysis from the graph
showed that denggue cases can be predicted accurately using these
two main variables- rainfall and temperature. However, the model
will be further tested over a longer time period to ensure its
accuracy, reliability and efficiency as a prediction tool for dengue
outbreak.
Abstract: In this study, the Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP)with Back-Propagation learning algorithm are used to classify to effective diagnosis Parkinsons disease(PD).It-s a challenging problem for medical community.Typically characterized by tremor, PD occurs due to the loss of dopamine in the brains thalamic region that results in involuntary or oscillatory movement in the body. A feature selection algorithm along with biomedical test values to diagnose Parkinson disease.Clinical diagnosis is done mostly by doctor-s expertise and experience.But still cases are reported of wrong diagnosis and treatment. Patients are asked to take number of tests for diagnosis.In many cases,not all the tests contribute towards effective diagnosis of a disease.Our work is to classify the presence of Parkinson disease with reduced number of attributes.Original,22 attributes are involved in classify.We use Information Gain to determine the attributes which reduced the number of attributes which is need to be taken from patients.The Artificial neural networks is used to classify the diagnosis of patients.Twenty-Two attributes are reduced to sixteen attributes.The accuracy is in training data set is 82.051% and in the validation data set is 83.333%.
Abstract: Majority of researches conducted on Iranian urban
development plans indicate that they have been almost unsuccessful
in terms of draft, execution and goal achievement. Lack or shortage
of essential statistics and information can be listed as an important
reason of the failure of these plans. Lack of figures and information
has turned into an obvious part of the country-s statistics officials.
This problem has made urban planner themselves to embark on
physical surveys including real estate and land pricing, population
and economic census of the city. Apart from the problems facing
urban developers, the possibility of errors is high in such surveys.
In the present article, applying the interview technique, it has
been mentioned that utilizing multipurpose cadastre system as a land
information system is essential for urban development plans in Iran.
It can minimize or even remove the failures facing urban
development plans.
Abstract: An automatic speech recognition system for the
formal Arabic language is needed. The Quran is the most formal
spoken book in Arabic, it is spoken all over the world. In this
research, an automatic speech recognizer for Quranic based speakerindependent
was developed and tested. The system was developed
based on the tri-phone Hidden Markov Model and Maximum
Likelihood Linear Regression (MLLR). The MLLR computes a set
of transformations which reduces the mismatch between an initial
model set and the adaptation data. It uses the regression class tree, as
well as, estimates a set of linear transformations for the mean and
variance parameters of a Gaussian mixture HMM system. The 30th
Chapter of the Quran, with five of the most famous readers of the
Quran, was used for the training and testing of the data. The chapter
includes about 2000 distinct words. The advantages of using the
Quranic verses as the database in this developed recognizer are the
uniqueness of the words and the high level of orderliness between
verses. The level of accuracy from the tested data ranged 68 to 85%.
Abstract: This study presents a mathematical modeling approach to the planning of HIV therapies on an individual basis. The model replicates clinical data from typical-progressors to AIDS for all stages of the disease with good agreement. Clinical data from rapid-progressors and long-term non-progressors is also matched by estimation of immune system parameters only. The ability of the model to reproduce these phenomena validates the formulation, a fact which is exploited in the investigation of effective therapies. The therapy investigation suggests that, unlike continuous therapy, structured treatment interruptions (STIs) are able to control the increase in both the drug-sensitive and drug-resistant virus population and, hence, prevent the ultimate progression from HIV to AIDS. The optimization results further suggest that even patients characterised by the same progression type can respond very differently to the same treatment and that the latter should be designed on a case-by-case basis. Such a methodology is presented here.
Abstract: In this study, an investigation over digestive diseases has been done in which the sound acts as a detector medium. Pursue to the preprocessing the extracted signal in cepstrum domain is registered. After classification of digestive diseases, the system selects random samples based on their features and generates the interest nonstationary, long-term signals via inverse transform in cepstral domain which is presented in digital and sonic form as the output. This structure is updatable or on the other word, by receiving a new signal the corresponding disease classification is updated in the feature domain.
Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the appearance of the giant component in random subgraphs G(p) of a given large finite graph family Gn = (Vn, En) in which each edge is present independently with probability p. We show that if the graph Gn satisfies a weak isoperimetric inequality and has bounded degree, then the probability p under which G(p) has a giant component of linear order with some constant probability is bounded away from zero and one. In addition, we prove the probability of abnormally large order of the giant component decays exponentially. When a contact graph is modeled as Gn, our result is of special interest in the study of the spread of infectious diseases or the identification of community in various social networks.
Abstract: Rapid advancement in computing technology brings
computers and humans to be seamlessly integrated in future. The
emergence of smartphone has driven computing era towards
ubiquitous and pervasive computing. Recognizing human activity has
garnered a lot of interest and has raised significant researches-
concerns in identifying contextual information useful to human
activity recognition. Not only unobtrusive to users in daily life,
smartphone has embedded built-in sensors that capable to sense
contextual information of its users supported with wide range
capability of network connections. In this paper, we will discuss the
classification algorithms used in smartphone-based human activity.
Existing technologies pertaining to smartphone-based researches in
human activity recognition will be highlighted and discussed. Our
paper will also present our findings and opinions to formulate
improvement ideas in current researches- trends. Understanding
research trends will enable researchers to have clearer research
direction and common vision on latest smartphone-based human
activity recognition area.
Abstract: Tensile armour wires provide a flexible pipe's
resistance to longitudinal stresses. Flexible pipe manufacturers need
to know the effect of defects such as scratches and cracks, with
dimensions less than 0.2mm which is the limit of the current nondestructive
detection technology, on the fracture stress and fracture
strain of the wire for quality assurance purposes. Recent research
involving the determination of the fracture strength of cracked wires
employed laboratory testing and classical fracture mechanics
approach using non-standardised fracture mechanics specimens
because standard test specimens could not be manufactured from the
wires owing to their sizes. In this work, the effect of miniature
cracks on the fracture properties of tensile armour wires was
investigated using laboratory and finite element tensile testing
simulations with the phenomenological shear fracture model. The
investigation revealed that the presence of cracks shallower than
0.2mm is worse on the fracture strain of the wire.
Abstract: Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in mathematical education is a very active field of research and innovation, where learning is understood to be meaningful and grasping multiple linked representation rather than rote memorization, a great amount of literature offering a wide range of theories, learning approaches, methodologies and interpretations, are generally stressing the potentialities for teaching and learning using ICT. Despite the utilization of new learning approaches with ICT, students experience difficulties in learning concepts relevant to understanding mathematics, much remains unclear about the relationship between the computer environment, the activities it might support, and the knowledge that might emerge from such activities. Many questions that might arise in this regard: to what extent does the use of ICT help students in the process of understanding and solving tasks or problems? Is it possible to identify what aspects or features of students' mathematical learning can be enhanced by the use of technology? This paper will highlight the interest of the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into the teaching and learning of mathematics (quadratic functions), it aims to investigate the effect of four instructional methods on students- mathematical understanding and problem solving. Quantitative and qualitative methods are used to report about 43 students in middle school. Results showed that mathematical thinking and problem solving evolves as students engage with ICT activities and learn cooperatively.
Abstract: A concern that researchers usually face in different
applications of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is determination of
the size of effective domain in time series. In this paper, trial and
error method was used on groundwater depth time series to determine
the size of effective domain in the series in an observation well in
Union County, New Jersey, U.S. different domains of 20, 40, 60, 80,
100, and 120 preceding day were examined and the 80 days was
considered as effective length of the domain. Data sets in different
domains were fed to a Feed Forward Back Propagation ANN with
one hidden layer and the groundwater depths were forecasted. Root
Mean Square Error (RMSE) and the correlation factor (R2) of
estimated and observed groundwater depths for all domains were
determined. In general, groundwater depth forecast improved, as
evidenced by lower RMSEs and higher R2s, when the domain length
increased from 20 to 120. However, 80 days was selected as the
effective domain because the improvement was less than 1% beyond
that. Forecasted ground water depths utilizing measured daily data
(set #1) and data averaged over the effective domain (set #2) were
compared. It was postulated that more accurate nature of measured
daily data was the reason for a better forecast with lower RMSE
(0.1027 m compared to 0.255 m) in set #1. However, the size of input
data in this set was 80 times the size of input data in set #2; a factor
that may increase the computational effort unpredictably. It was
concluded that 80 daily data may be successfully utilized to lower the
size of input data sets considerably, while maintaining the effective
information in the data set.
Abstract: This study examines perception of environmental
approach in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – the
process by which firms integrate environmental concern into
business. Based on a review of the literature, the paper synthesizes
focus on environmental issues with the reflection in a case study in
the Czech Republic. Two themes of corporate environmentalism are
discussed – corporate environmental orientation and corporate
stances toward environmental concerns. It provides theoretical
material on greening organizational culture that is helpful in
understanding the response of contemporary business to
environmental problems. We integrate theoretical predictions with
empirical findings confronted with reality. Scales to measure these
themes are tested in a survey of managers in 229 Czech firms. We
used the process of in-depth questioning. The research question was
derived and answered in the context of the corresponding literature
and conducted research. A case study showed us that environmental
approach is variety different (depending on the size of the firm) in
SMEs sector. The results of the empirical mapping demonstrate
Czech company’s approach to environment and define the problem
areas and pinpoint the main limitation in the expansion of
environmental aspects. We contribute to the debate for recognition of
the particular role of environmental issues in business reality.
Abstract: The presence of toxic heavy metals in industrial
effluents is one of the serious threats to the environment. Heavy
metals such as Cadmium, Chromium, Lead, Nickel, Zinc, Mercury,
Copper, Arsenic are found in the effluents of industries such as
foundries, electroplating, petrochemical, battery manufacturing,
tanneries, fertilizer, dying, textiles, metallurgical and metal finishing.
Tremendous increase of industrial copper usage and its presence in
industrial effluents has lead to a growing concern about the fate and
effects of Copper in the environment. Percolation of industrial
effluents through soils leads to contamination of ground water and
soils. The transport of heavy metals and their diffusion into the soils
has therefore, drawn the attention of the researchers.
In this study, an attempt has been made to delineate the
mechanisms of transport and fate of copper in terrestrial
environment. Column studies were conducted using perplex glass
square column of dimension side 15 cm and 1.35 m long. The soil
samples were collected from a natural drain near Mohali (India). The
soil was characterized to be poorly graded sandy loam. The soil was
compacted to the field dry density level of about 1.6 g/cm3. Break
through curves for different depths of the column were plotted. The
results of the column study indicated that the copper has high
tendency to flow in the soils and fewer tendencies to get absorbed on
the soil particles. The t1/2 estimates obtained from the studies can be
used for design copper laden wastewater disposal systems.
Abstract: Residue Number System (RNS) is a modular representation and is proved to be an instrumental tool in many digital signal processing (DSP) applications which require high-speed computations. RNS is an integer and non weighted number system; it can support parallel, carry-free, high-speed and low power arithmetic. A very interesting correspondence exists between the concepts of Multiple Valued Logic (MVL) and Residue Number Arithmetic. If the number of levels used to represent MVL signals is chosen to be consistent with the moduli which create the finite rings in the RNS, MVL becomes a very natural representation for the RNS. There are two concerns related to the application of this Number System: reaching the most possible speed and the largest dynamic range. There is a conflict when one wants to resolve both these problem. That is augmenting the dynamic range results in reducing the speed in the same time. For achieving the most performance a method is considere named “One-Hot Residue Number System" in this implementation the propagation is only equal to one transistor delay. The problem with this method is the huge increase in the number of transistors they are increased in order m2 . In real application this is practically impossible. In this paper combining the Multiple Valued Logic and One-Hot Residue Number System we represent a new method to resolve both of these two problems. In this paper we represent a novel design of an OHRNS-based adder circuit. This circuit is useable for Multiple Valued Logic moduli, in comparison to other RNS design; this circuit has considerably improved the number of transistors and power consumption.
Abstract: This paper will discuss about an active power generator scheduling method in order to increase the limit level of steady state systems. Some power generator optimization methods such as Langrange, PLN (Indonesian electricity company) Operation, and the proposed Z-Thevenin-based method will be studied and compared in respect of their steady state aspects. A method proposed in this paper is built upon the thevenin equivalent impedance values between each load respected to each generator. The steady state stability index obtained with the REI DIMO method. This research will review the 500kV-Jawa-Bali interconnection system. The simulation results show that the proposed method has the highest limit level of steady state stability compared to other optimization techniques such as Lagrange, and PLN operation. Thus, the proposed method can be used to create the steady state stability limit of the system especially in the peak load condition.