Abstract: Due to the mobility of users, many information
systems are now developed with the capability of supporting retrieval
of information from both static and mobile users. Hence, the
amount, content and format of the information retrieved will need to
be tailored according to the device and the user who requested for it.
Thus, this paper presents a framework for the design and
implementation of such a system, which is to be developed for
communicating final examination related information to the
academic community at one university in Malaysia. The concept of
personalization will be implemented in the system so that only highly
relevant information will be delivered to the users. The
personalization concept used will be based on user profiling as well
as context. The system in its final state will be accessible through cell
phones as well as intranet connected personal computers.
Abstract: The most reliable and accurate description of the actual behavior of a software system is its source code. However, not all questions about the system can be answered directly by resorting to this repository of information. What the reverse engineering methodology aims at is the extraction of abstract, goal-oriented “views" of the system, able to summarize relevant properties of the computation performed by the program. While concentrating on reverse engineering we had modeled the C++ files by designing the translator.
Abstract: There are four challenges of sustainable development
and in corporate level sustainability management-s role is to answer
for ecological sustainability challenge, social sustainability challenge,
economic sustainability challenges to environment and social
management and integration challenge of corporate sustainable
challenges by the help of different concepts, methods, instruments,
which are in the toolbox of sustainability management. These
instruments, concepts have different relevance in these challenges,
and according to different literatures environmental management is
outside of social and integration challenge. Main aim of this paper is
to represent the answer for the question that: is it true that social and
integration point of view is outside of the concept environmental
accounting? Using literature review and primer research at the end of
the paper the answer will be confirmed.
Abstract: Understanding proteins functions is a major goal in
the post-genomic era. Proteins usually work in context of other
proteins and rarely function alone. Therefore, it is highly relevant to
study the interaction partners of a protein in order to understand its
function. Machine learning techniques have been widely applied to
predict protein-protein interactions. Kernel functions play an
important role for a successful machine learning technique. Choosing
the appropriate kernel function can lead to a better accuracy in a
binary classifier such as the support vector machines. In this paper,
we describe a Bayesian kernel for the support vector machine to
predict protein-protein interactions. The use of Bayesian kernel can
improve the classifier performance by incorporating the probability
characteristic of the available experimental protein-protein
interactions data that were compiled from different sources. In
addition, the probabilistic output from the Bayesian kernel can assist
biologists to conduct more research on the highly predicted
interactions. The results show that the accuracy of the classifier has
been improved using the Bayesian kernel compared to the standard
SVM kernels. These results imply that protein-protein interaction can
be predicted using Bayesian kernel with better accuracy compared to
the standard SVM kernels.
Abstract: Although services play a crucial role in economy,
service did not gain as much importance as productivity management
in manufacturing. This paper presents key findings from literature
and practice. Based on an initial definition of complex services, seven
productivity concepts are briefly presented and assessed by relevant,
complex service specific criteria. Following the findings a complex
service productivity model is proposed. The novel model comprises
of all specific dimensions of service provision from both, the
provider-s as well as costumer-s perspective. A clear assignment of
identified value drivers and relationships between them is presented.
In order to verify the conceptual service productivity model a case
study from a project engineering department of a chemical plant
development and construction company is presented.
Abstract: Complex engineering design problems consist of
numerous factors of varying criticalities. Considering fundamental features of design and inferior details alike will result in an extensive
waste of time and effort. Design parameters should be introduced gradually as appropriate based on their significance relevant to the
problem context. This motivates the representation of design parameters at multiple levels of an abstraction hierarchy. However, developing abstraction hierarchies is an area that is not well
understood. Our research proposes a novel hierarchical abstraction methodology to plan effective engineering designs and processes. It
provides a theoretically sound foundation to represent, abstract and stratify engineering design parameters and tasks according to causality and criticality. The methodology creates abstraction
hierarchies in a recursive and bottom-up approach that guarantees no
backtracking across any of the abstraction levels. The methodology consists of three main phases, representation, abstraction, and layering to multiple hierarchical levels. The effectiveness of the
developed methodology is demonstrated by a design problem.
Abstract: A heuristic conceptual model for to develop the
Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), especially in preventive
strategy, has been explored during this paper. In most real cases
which complicity of system obligates high degree of reliability, this
model proposes a more appropriate reliability function between life
time distribution based and another which is based on relevant
Extreme Value (EV) distribution. A statistical and mathematical
approach is used to estimate and verify these two distribution
functions. Then best one is chosen just among them, whichever is
more reliable. A numeric Industrial case study will be reviewed to
represent the concepts of this paper, more clearly.
Abstract: It has been established that microRNAs (miRNAs) play
an important role in gene expression by post-transcriptional regulation
of messengerRNAs (mRNAs). However, the precise relationships
between microRNAs and their target genes in sense of numbers,
types and biological relevance remain largely unclear. Dissecting the
miRNA-target relationships will render more insights for miRNA
targets identification and validation therefore promote the understanding
of miRNA function. In miRBase, miRanda is the key
algorithm used for target prediction for Zebrafish. This algorithm
is high-throughput but brings lots of false positives (noise). Since
validation of a large scale of targets through laboratory experiments
is very time consuming, several computational methods for miRNA
targets validation should be developed. In this paper, we present an
integrative method to investigate several aspects of the relationships
between miRNAs and their targets with the final purpose of extracting
high confident targets from miRanda predicted targets pool. This is
achieved by using the techniques ranging from statistical tests to
clustering and association rules. Our research focuses on Zebrafish.
It was found that validated targets do not necessarily associate with
the highest sequence matching. Besides, for some miRNA families,
the frequency of their predicted targets is significantly higher in the
genomic region nearby their own physical location. Finally, in a case
study of dre-miR-10 and dre-miR-196, it was found that the predicted
target genes hoxd13a, hoxd11a, hoxd10a and hoxc4a of dre-miR-
10 while hoxa9a, hoxc8a and hoxa13a of dre-miR-196 have similar
characteristics as validated target genes and therefore represent high
confidence target candidates.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a system for content-based
retrieval of large database of classified satellite images, based on
user's relevance feedback (RF).Through our proposed system, we
divide each satellite image scene into small subimages, which stored
in the database. The modified radial basis functions neural network
has important role in clustering the subimages of database according
to the Euclidean distance between the query feature vector and the
other subimages feature vectors. The advantage of using RF
technique in such queries is demonstrated by analyzing the database
retrieval results.
Abstract: Based on the standard finite element method, a new
finite element method which is known as nonlocal finite element
method (NL-FEM) is numerically implemented in this article to
study the nonlocal effects for solving 1D nonlocal elastic problem.
An Eringen-type nonlocal elastic model is considered. In this model,
the constitutive stress-strain law is expressed interms of integral
equation which governs the nonlocal material behavior. The new
NL-FEM is adopted in such a way that the postulated nonlocal elastic
behavior of material is captured by a finite element endowed with a
set of (cross-stiffness) element itself by the other elements in mesh.
An example with their analytical solutions and the relevant numerical
findings for various load and boundary conditions are presented and
discussed in details. It is observed from the numerical solutions that
the torsional deformation angle decreases with increasing nonlocal
nanoscale parameter. It is also noted that the analytical solution fails
to capture the nonlocal effect in some cases where numerical
solutions handle those situation effectively which prove the
reliability and effectiveness of numerical techniques.
Abstract: In the present paper, we-ll explore how social media tools provide an opportunity for new developments of the e-Learning in the context of managing personal knowledge. There will be a discussion how social media tools provide a possibility for helping knowledge workersand students to gather, organize and manage their personal information as a part of the e-learning process. At the centre of this social software driven approach to e-learning environments are the challenges of personalization and collaboration. We-ll share concepts of how organizations are using social media for e-Learning and believe that integration of these tools into traditional e-Learning is probably not a choice, but inevitability. Students- Survey of use of web technologies and social networking tools is presented. Newly developed framework for semantic blogging capable of organizing results relevant to user requirements is implemented at Varna Free University (VFU) to provide more effective navigation and search.
Abstract: This paper presents an exploration into the structure of the corporate governance network and interlocking directorates in the Czech Republic. First a literature overview and a basic terminology of the network theory is presented. Further in the text, statistics and other calculations relevant to corporate governance networks are presented. For this purpose an empirical data set consisting of 2 906 joint stock companies in the Czech Republic was examined. Industries with the highest average number of interlocks per company were healthcare, and energy and utilities. There is no observable link between the financial performance of the company and the number of its interlocks. Also interlocks with financial companies are very rare.
Abstract: In the globalization context and competitiveness, the role of a university is further enhanced. University is no longer confined to traditional roles. Universities need to interact with others in order to be relevant and progressive. Symbiosis relationships between the university and industry are very significant because the relationship between those two can foster economic development of a nation. In a world of fast changing technology and competition, it is necessary for the university to collaborate with industry to combine efforts fostering the diffusion of knowledge, increasing research and development, patenting innovation and commercializing products. It has become increasingly accepted that the necessity of close university-industry interactions as a mean of national economic prosperity. Therefore, this paper is aim to examine the level of linkages in university-industry interactions to which promotes the regional economic growth and development. This paper will explore the formation of linkages between the Higher Education Institution (University Technology MARA) and industries located in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia. It will present the university-industry linkages with emphasis on the type of linkages existed, the benefits of having such linkages to promote regional economic development and finally the constraints that might impede the linkages and potentials to enhance the linkages towards economic growth and development.
Abstract: This study defines a methodology to compute unitary costs for freight transportation modes. The main objective was to gather relevant costs data to support the formulation and evaluation of railway, road, pipelines and port projects. This article will concentrate on the following steps: Compilation and analysis of relevant modal cost studies, Methodological adjustments to make cost figures comparable between studies, Definition of typology and scope of transportation modes, Analysis and validation of cost values for relevant freight transportation modes in Chile. In order to define the comparison methodology for the costs between the different transportation modes, it was necessary to consider that the relevant cost depends on who performs the comparison. Thus, for the transportation user (e.g. exporter) the pertinent costs are the mode tariffs, whereas from the operators perspective (e.g. rail manager), the pertinent costs are the operating costs of each mode.
Abstract: Palladium-catalyzed hydrodechlorination is a
promising alternative for the treatment of environmentally relevant
water bodies, such as groundwater, contaminated with chlorinated
organic compounds (COCs). In the aqueous phase
hydrodechlorination of COCs, Pd-based catalysts were found to have
a very high catalytic activity. However, the full utilization of the
catalyst-s potential is impeded by the sensitivity of the catalyst to
poisoning and deactivation induced by reduced sulfur compounds
(e.g. sulfides). Several regenerants have been tested before to recover
the performance of sulfide-fouled Pd catalyst. But these only
delivered partial success with respect to re-establishment of the
catalyst activity. In this study, the deactivation behaviour of
Pd/Al2O3 in the presence of sulfide was investigated. Subsequent to
total deactivation the catalyst was regenerated in the aqueous phase
using potassium permanganate. Under neutral pH condition,
oxidative regeneration with permanganate delivered a slow recovery
of catalyst activity. However, changing the pH of the bulk solution to
acidic resulted in the complete recovery of catalyst activity within a
regeneration time of about half an hour. These findings suggest the
superiority of permanganate as regenerant in re-activating Pd/Al2O3
by oxidizing Pd-bound sulfide.
Abstract: The paper focuses on the enhanced stiffness modeling
of robotic manipulators by taking into account influence of the external force/torque acting upon the end point. It implements the
virtual joint technique that describes the compliance of manipulator elements by a set of localized six-dimensional springs separated by
rigid links and perfect joints. In contrast to the conventional
formulation, which is valid for the unloaded mode and small
displacements, the proposed approach implicitly assumes that the loading leads to the non-negligible changes of the manipulator posture and corresponding amendment of the Jacobian. The
developed numerical technique allows computing the static
equilibrium and relevant force/torque reaction of the manipulator for
any given displacement of the end-effector. This enables designer
detecting essentially nonlinear effects in elastic behavior of
manipulator, similar to the buckling of beam elements. It is also proposed the linearization procedure that is based on the inversion of
the dedicated matrix composed of the stiffness parameters of the
virtual springs and the Jacobians/Hessians of the active and passive
joints. The developed technique is illustrated by an application example that deals with the stiffness analysis of a parallel
manipulator of the Orthoglide family
Abstract: e-Government is already in its second decade. Prerequisite for further development and adaptation to new realities is the optimal management of administrative information and knowledge production by those involved, i.e. the public sector, citizens and businesses. Nowadays, the amount of information displayed or distributed on the Internet has reached enormous dimensions, resulting in serious difficulties when extracting and managing knowledge. The semantic web is expected to play an important role in solving this problem and the technologies that support it. In this article, we address some relevant issues.
Abstract: Commercial nanocomposite food packaging type nano-silver containers were characterised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The presence of nanoparticles consistent with the incorporation of 1% nano-silver (Ag) and 0.1% titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticle into polymeric materials formed into food containers was confirmed. Both nanomaterials used in this type of packaging appear to be embedded in a layered configuration within the bulk polymer. The dimensions of the incorporated nanoparticles were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and determined by calculation using the Scherrer Formula; these were consistent with Ag and TiO2 nanoparticles in the size range 20-70nm both were spherical shape nanoparticles. Antimicrobial assessment of the nanocomposite container has also been performed and the results confirm the antimicrobial activity of Ag and TiO2 nanoparticles in food packaging containers. Migration assessments were performed in a wide range of food matrices to determine the migration of nanoparticles from the packages. The analysis was based upon the relevant European safety Directives and involved the application of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to identify the range of migration risk. The data pertain to insignificance levels of migration of Ag and TiO2 nanoparticles into the selected food matrices.
Abstract: Gradual patterns have been studied for many years as
they contain precious information. They have been integrated in
many expert systems and rule-based systems, for instance to reason
on knowledge such as “the greater the number of turns, the greater
the number of car crashes”. In many cases, this knowledge has been
considered as a rule “the greater the number of turns → the greater
the number of car crashes” Historically, works have thus been
focused on the representation of such rules, studying how implication
could be defined, especially fuzzy implication. These rules were
defined by experts who were in charge to describe the systems they
were working on in order to turn them to operate automatically. More
recently, approaches have been proposed in order to mine databases
for automatically discovering such knowledge. Several approaches
have been studied, the main scientific topics being: how to determine
what is an relevant gradual pattern, and how to discover them as
efficiently as possible (in terms of both memory and CPU usage).
However, in some cases, end-users are not interested in raw level
knowledge, and are rather interested in trends. Moreover, it may be
the case that no relevant pattern can be discovered at a low level of
granularity (e.g. city), whereas some can be discovered at a higher
level (e.g. county). In this paper, we thus extend gradual pattern
approaches in order to consider multiple level gradual patterns. For
this purpose, we consider two aggregation policies, namely
horizontal and vertical.
Abstract: This paper presents the development techniques
for a complete autonomous design model of an advanced train
control system and gives a new approach for the
implementation of multi-agents based system. This research
work proposes to develop a novel control system to enhance
the efficiency of the vehicles under constraints of various
conditions, and contributes in stability and controllability
issues, considering relevant safety and operational
requirements with command control communication and
various sensors to avoid accidents. The approach of speed
scheduling, management and control in local and distributed
environment is given to fulfill the dire needs of modern trend
and enhance the vehicles control systems in automation. These
techniques suggest the state of the art microelectronic
technology with accuracy and stability as forefront goals.