Abstract: The paper examines the interaction between the
environmental taxation, size of government spending on
environmental protection and greenhouse gas emissions and gross
inland energy consumption. The aim is to analyze the effects of
environmental taxation and government spending on environmental
protection as an environmental policy instruments on greenhouse gas
emissions and gross inland energy consumption in the EU15. The
empirical study is performed using a VAR approach with the
application of aggregated data of EU15 over the period 1995 to 2012.
The results provide the evidence that the reactions of greenhouse gas
emission and gross inland energy consumption to the shocks of
environmental policy instruments are strong, mainly in the short term
and decay to zero after about 8 years. Further, the reactions of the
environmental policy instruments to the shocks of greenhouse gas
emission and gross inland energy consumption are also strong in the
short term, however with the deferred effects. In addition, the results
show that government spending on environmental protection together
with gross inland energy consumption has stronger effect on
greenhouse gas emissions than environmental taxes in EU15 over the
examined period.
Abstract: Background: Taiwan now is an aging society. Research
on the elderly should not be confined to caring for seniors, but should
also be focused on ways to improve health and the quality of life.
Senior citizens who participate in volunteer services could become
less lonely, have new growth opportunities, and regain a sense of
accomplishment. Thus, the question of how to get the elderly to
participate in volunteer service is worth exploring. Objective: Apply
the Transtheoretical Model to understand stages of change in regular
volunteer service and voluntary service behaviour among the seniors.
Methods: 1525 adults over the age of 65 from the Renai district of
Keelung City were interviewed. The research tool was a
self-constructed questionnaire, and individual interviews were
conducted to collect data. Then the data was processed and analyzed
using the IBM SPSS Statistics 20 (Windows version) statistical
software program. Results: In the past six months, research subjects
averaged 9.92 days of volunteer services. A majority of these elderly
individuals had no intention to change their regular volunteer services.
We discovered that during the maintenance stage, the self-efficacy for
volunteer services was higher than during all other stages, but
self-perceived barriers were less during the preparation stage and
action stage. Self-perceived benefits were found to have an important
predictive power for those with regular volunteer service behaviors in
the previous stage, and self-efficacy was found to have an important
predictive power for those with regular volunteer service behaviors in
later stages. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: The research
results support the conclusion that community nursing staff should
group elders based on their regular volunteer services change stages
and design appropriate behavioral change strategies.
Abstract: This paper provides a comparative study on the
performances of standard PID and adaptive PID controllers tested on
travel angle of a 3-Degree-of-Freedom (3-DOF) Quanser bench-top
helicopter. Quanser, a well-known manufacturer of educational
bench-top helicopter has developed Proportional Integration
Derivative (PID) controller with Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR)
for all travel, pitch and yaw angle of the bench-top helicopter. The
performance of the PID controller is relatively good; however, its
performance could also be improved if the controller is combined
with adaptive element. The objective of this research is to design
adaptive PID controller and then compare the performances of the
adaptive PID with the standard PID. The controller design and test is
focused on travel angle control only. Adaptive method used in this
project is self-tuning controller, which controller’s parameters are
updated online. Two adaptive algorithms those are pole-placement
and deadbeat have been chosen as the method to achieve optimal
controller’s parameters. Performance comparisons have shown that
the adaptive (deadbeat) PID controller has produced more desirable
performance compared to standard PID and adaptive (poleplacement).
The adaptive (deadbeat) PID controller attained very fast
settling time (5 seconds) and very small percentage of overshoot (5%
to 7.5%) for 10° to 30° step change of travel angle.
Abstract: Periventricular Leukomalacia (PVL) is a White Matter
Injury (WMI) of preterm neonatal brain. Objectives of the study were
to assess the neuro-developmental outcome at one year of age and to
determine a good protocol of cranial ultrasonography to detect PVL.
Two hundred and sixty four preterm neonates were included in the
study. Series of cranial ultrasound scans were done by using a
dedicated neonatal head probe 4-10 MHz of Logic e portable
ultrasound scanner. Clinical history of seizures, abnormal head
growth (hydrocephalus or microcephaly) and developmental
milestones were assessed and neurological examinations were done
until one year of age. Among live neonates, 57% who had cystic PVL
(Grades 2 and 3) manifested as cerebral palsy. In conclusion cystic
PVL has permanent neurological disabilities like cerebral palsy.
Good protocol of real time cranial ultrasonography to detect PVL is
to perform scans at least once a week until one month and at term (40
weeks of gestation).
Abstract: With a long history, dual-task has become one of the
most intriguing research fields regarding human brain functioning
and cognition. However, findings considering effects of taskinterrelations
are limited (especially, in combined motor and
cognitive tasks). Therefore, we aimed at developing a measurement
system in order to analyse interrelation effects of cognitive and motor
tasks. On the one hand, the present study demonstrates the
applicability of the measurement system and on the other hand first
results regarding a systematisation of different task combinations are
shown. Future investigations should combine imagine technologies
and this developed measurement system.
Abstract: Science and technology has a major impact on many
societal domains such as communication, medicine, food,
transportation, etc. However, this dominance of modern technology
can have a negative unintended impact on indigenous systems, and in
particular on indigenous foods. This problem serves as a motivation
to this study whose aim is to examine the perceptions of learners on
the usefulness of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) for learning about indigenous foods. This aim will be
subdivided into two types of research objectives. The design and
identification of theories and models will be achieved using literature
content analysis. The objective on the empirical testing of such
theories and models will be achieved through the survey of
Hospitality studies learners from different schools in the iLembe and
Umgungundlovu Districts of the South African Kwazulu-Natal
province. SPSS is used to quantitatively analyze the data collected by
the questionnaire of this survey using descriptive statistics and
Pearson correlations after the assessment of the validity and the
reliability of the data. The main hypothesis behind this study is that
there is a connection between the demographics of learners, their
perceptions on the usefulness of ICTs for learning about indigenous
foods, and the following personality and eLearning related theories
constructs: Computer self-efficacy, Trust in ICT systems, and
Conscientiousness; as suggested by existing studies on learning
theories. This hypothesis was fully confirmed by the survey
conducted by this study except for the demographic factors where
gender and age were not found to be determinant factors of learners’
perceptions on the usefulness of ICTs for learning about indigenous
foods.
Abstract: Geopolymer concretes are new class of construction
materials that have emerged as an alternative to Ordinary Portland
cement concrete. Considerable researches have been carried out on
material development of geopolymer concrete; however, a few studies
have been reported on the structural use of them. This paper presents
the bond behaviors of reinforcement embedded in fly ash based
geopolymer concrete. The development lengths of reinforcement for
various compressive strengths of concrete, 20, 30 and 40 MPa, and
reinforcement diameters, 10, 16 and 25 mm, are investigated. Total 27
specimens were manufactured and pull-out test according to EN 10080
was applied to measure bond strength and slips between concrete and
reinforcements. The average bond strengths decreased from 23.06MPa
to 17.26 MPa, as the diameters of reinforcements increased from
10mm to 25mm. The compressive strength levels of geopolymer
concrete showed no significant influence on bond strengths in this
study. Also, the bond-slip relations between geopolymer concrete and
reinforcement are derived using non-linear regression analysis for
various experimental conditions.
Abstract: Nowadays, Photovoltaic-PV Farms/ Parks and large
PV-Smart Grid Interface Schemes are emerging and commonly
utilized in Renewable Energy distributed generation. However, PVhybrid-
Dc-Ac Schemes using interface power electronic converters
usually has negative impact on power quality and stabilization of
modern electrical network under load excursions and network fault
conditions in smart grid. Consequently, robust FACTS based
interface schemes are required to ensure efficient energy utilization
and stabilization of bus voltages as well as limiting switching/fault
onrush current condition. FACTS devices are also used in smart grid-
Battery Interface and Storage Schemes with PV-Battery Storage
hybrid systems as an elegant alternative to renewable energy
utilization with backup battery storage for electric utility energy and
demand side management to provide needed energy and power
capacity under heavy load conditions. The paper presents a robust
interface PV-Li-Ion Battery Storage Interface Scheme for
Distribution/Utilization Low Voltage Interface using FACTS
stabilization enhancement and dynamic maximum PV power tracking
controllers.
Digital simulation and validation of the proposed scheme is done
using MATLAB/Simulink software environment for Low Voltage-
Distribution/Utilization system feeding a hybrid Linear-Motorized
inrush and nonlinear type loads from a DC-AC Interface VSC-6-
pulse Inverter Fed from the PV Park/Farm with a back-up Li-Ion
Storage Battery.
Abstract: In this work, neural networks methods MLP type were
applied to a database from an array of six sensors for the detection of
three toxic gases. The choice of the number of hidden layers and the
weight values are influential on the convergence of the learning
algorithm. We proposed, in this article, a mathematical formula to
determine the optimal number of hidden layers and good weight
values based on the method of back propagation of errors. The results
of this modeling have improved discrimination of these gases and
optimized the computation time. The model presented here has
proven to be an effective application for the fast identification of
toxic gases.
Abstract: The continuous decline of petroleum and natural gas
reserves and non linear rise of oil price has brought about a
realisation of the need for a change in our perpetual dependence on
the fossil fuel. A day to day increased consumption of crude and
petroleum products has made a considerable impact on our foreign
exchange reserves. Hence, an alternate resource for the conversion of
energy (both liquid and gas) is essential for the substitution of
conventional fuels. Biomass is the alternate solution for the present
scenario. Biomass can be converted into both liquid as well as
gaseous fuels and other feedstocks for the industries.
Abstract: The exact theoretical expression describing the
probability distribution of nonlinear sea-surface elevations derived
from the second-order narrowband model has a cumbersome form
that requires numerical computations, not well-disposed to theoretical
or practical applications. Here, the same narrowband model is reexamined
to develop a simpler closed-form approximation suitable
for theoretical and practical applications. The salient features of the
approximate form are explored, and its relative validity is verified
with comparisons to other readily available approximations, and
oceanic data.
Abstract: The globalization of markets, the need to develop
competitive advantages and core competencies, among other things,
lead organizations to increasingly cross borders to operate in other
countries. The expatriation of professionals who go to work in
another country besides their own becomes increasingly common. In
order to generate data about this issue, research was conducted
concerning the perception of expatriate employees concerning
expatriation success. The research method used was case study
through a qualitative approach. This research was done through
interviews with five India expatriates and five China expatriates,
interview with expatriate department heads and analysis of company
documents. It was found that there are differences between the
organizational perception and perception of expatriates of what
constitutes mission success. The paper also provides suggestions for
further research and suggestions for future expatriates.
Abstract: The ad hoc networks are the future of wireless
technology as everyone wants fast and accurate error free information
so keeping this in mind Bit Error Rate (BER) and power is optimized
in this research paper by using the Genetic Algorithm (GA). The
digital modulation techniques used for this paper are Binary Phase
Shift Keying (BPSK), M-ary Phase Shift Keying (M-ary PSK), and
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). This work is
implemented on Wireless Ad Hoc Networks (WLAN). Then it is
analyze which modulation technique is performing well to optimize
the BER and power of WLAN.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a robust algorithm to recognize extracted text from grocery product images captured by mobile phone cameras. Recognition of such text is challenging since text in grocery product images varies in its size, orientation,
style, illumination, and can suffer from perspective distortion.
Pre-processing is performed to make the characters scale and
rotation invariant. Since text degradations can not be appropriately
defined using well-known geometric transformations such
as translation, rotation, affine transformation and shearing, we
use the whole character black pixels as our feature vector.
Classification is performed with minimum distance classifier
using the maximum likelihood criterion, which delivers very
promising Character Recognition Rate (CRR) of 89%. We
achieve considerably higher Word Recognition Rate (WRR) of
99% when using lower level linguistic knowledge about product
words during the recognition process.
Abstract: In this paper, we present preconditioned generalized
accelerated overrelaxation (GAOR) methods for solving certain
nonsingular linear system. We compare the spectral radii of the
iteration matrices of the preconditioned and the original methods. The
comparison results show that the preconditioned GAOR methods
converge faster than the GAOR method whenever the GAOR method
is convergent. Finally, we give two numerical examples to confirm our
theoretical results.
Abstract: In recent years, the compression of date (Phoenix
dactylifera L.) fruit powders (DP) to obtain date tablets (DT) has
been suggested as a promising form of valorization of non
commercial valuable date fruit (DF) varieties. To further improve
and characterize DT, the present study aims to investigate the
influence of the DP particle size and compression force on some
physical properties of DT. The results show that independently of
particle size, the hardness (y) of tablets increases with the increase of
the compression force (x) following a logarithmic law (y = a ln (bx)
where a and b are the constants of model). Further, a full factorial
design (FFD) at two levels, applied to investigate the erosion %,
reveals that the effects of time and particle size are the same in
absolute value and they are beyond the effect of the compression.
Regarding the disintegration time, the obtained results also by means
of a FFD show that the effect of the compression force exceeds 4
times that of the DP particle size. As final stage, the color parameters
in the CIELab system of DT immediately after their obtaining are
differently influenced by the size of the initial powder.
Abstract: The use of eXtensible Markup Language (XML) in
web, business and scientific databases lead to the development of
methods, techniques and systems to manage and analyze XML data.
Semi-structured documents suffer due to its heterogeneity and
dimensionality. XML structure and content mining represent
convergence for research in semi-structured data and text mining. As
the information available on the internet grows drastically, extracting
knowledge from XML documents becomes a harder task. Certainly,
documents are often so large that the data set returned as answer to a
query may also be very big to convey the required information. To
improve the query answering, a Semantic Tree Based Association
Rule (STAR) mining method is proposed. This method provides
intentional information by considering the structure, content and the
semantics of the content. The method is applied on Reuter’s dataset
and the results show that the proposed method outperforms well.
Abstract: A field experiment was carried out at Arab El-
Awammer Research Station, Agric. Res. Center. Assiut Governorate
during summer seasons of 2013 and 2014. The present study assessed
the effect of cowpea with maize intercropping on yield and its
components. The experiment comprised of three treatments (sole
cowpea, sole maize and cowpea-maize intercrop). The experimental
design was a randomized complete block with four replications.
Results indicated that intercropped maize plants with cowpea,
exhibited greater potentiality and resulted in higher values of most of
the studied criteria viz., plant height, number of ears/plant, number of
rows/ear, number of grains/row, grains weight/ear, 100–grain weight
and straw and grain yields. Fresh and dry forage yields of cowpea
were lower in intercropping with maize than sole. Furthermore, the
combined of the two seasons revealed that the total Land Equivalent
Ratio (LER) between cowpea and maize was 1.65. The Aggressivity
(A) maize was 0.45 and cowpea was -0.45. This showed that maize
was the dominant crop, whereas cowpea was the dominated. The
Competitive Ratio (CR) indicated that maize more competitive than
cowpea, maize was 1.75 and cowpea was 0.57. The Actual Yield
Loss (AYL) maize was 0.05 and cowpea was -0.40. The Monetary
Advantage Index (MAI) was 2360.80.
Abstract: E-learning has become an efficient and widespread
means of education at all levels of human activities. Statistics is no
exception. Unfortunately the main focus in statistics teaching is
usually paid to the substitution in formulas. Suitable websites can
simplify and automate calculations and provide more attention and
time to the basic principles of statistics, mathematization of real-life
situations and following interpretation of results. We now introduce
our own web-site for hypothesis testing. Its didactic aspects, the
technical possibilities of the individual tools, the experience of use
and the advantages or disadvantages are discussed in this paper. This
web-site is not a substitute for common statistical software but should
significantly improve the teaching of statistics at universities.
Abstract: The main purpose of this research is to
comprehensively explore and identify the problems of attestation of
the public servants and to propose solutions for these issues through
deeply analyzing laws and the legal theoretical literature. For the
detailed analysis of the above-mentioned problems we will use some
research methods, the implementation of which has a goal to ensure
the objectivity and clarity of scientific research and its results.