Abstract: The Beshar River is one of the most important aquatic ecosystems in the upstream of the Karun watershed in south of Iran which is affected by point and non point pollutant sources . This study was done in order to evaluate the effects of pollutants activities on the water quality of the Beshar river and its aquatic ecosystems. This river is approximately 190 km in length and situated at the geographical positions of 51° 20´ to 51° 48´ E and 30° 18´ to 30° 52´ N it is one of the most important aquatic ecosystems of Kohkiloye and Boyerahmad province in south-west Iran. In this research project, five study stations were selected to examine water pollution in the Beshar River systems. Human activity is now one of the most important factors affecting on hydrology and water quality of the Beshar river. Humans use large amounts of resources to sustain various standards of living, although measures of sustainability are highly variable depending on how sustainability is defined. The Beshar river ecosystems are particularly sensitive and vulnerable to human activities. Therefore, to determine the impact of human activities on the Beshar River, the most important water quality parameters such as pH, dissolve oxygen (DO), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Total Dissolve Solids (TDS), Nitrates (NO3-N) and Phosphates (PO4) were estimated at the five stations. As the results show, the most important pollution index parameters such as BOD5, NO3 and PO4 increase and DO and pH decrease according to human activities (P
Abstract: Building condition assessment is a critical activity in Malaysia-s Comprehensive Asset Management Model. It is closely related to building performance that impact user-s life and decision making. This study focuses on public primary school, one of the most valuable assets for the country. The assessment was carried out based on CSP1 Matrix in Kuching Division of Sarawak, Malaysia. Based on the matrix used, three main criteria of the buildings has successfully evaluate: the number of defects; schools rating; and total schools rating. The analysis carried out on 24 schools found that the overall 4, 725 defects has been identified. Meanwhile, the overall score obtained was 45, 868 and the overall rating is 9.71, which is at the fair condition. This result has been associated with building age to evaluate its impacts on school buildings condition. The findings proved that building condition is closely related to building age and its support the theory that 'the ageing building has more defect than the new one'.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to reveal the principles, which have the highest impact on determining the Strategic Quality Management (SQM) implementation perceptions of managers. In order to accomplish this goal, first of all, a factor analysis is conducted on the attitudes of managers at 80 large-scale firms in Turkey for SQM principles. Secondly, utilizing t tests and discriminant analysis, the most effective items are determined. The results show that “process improvement" and “assessment of competitiveness" are the management principles, which have the highest impact on determining the SQM implementation perceptions of Turkish managers.
Abstract: Dissolved gas analysis has been accepted as a sensitive, informative and reliable technique for incipient faults detection in power transformers and is widely used. In the last few years this method, which has been recommended by IEEE Power & Energy society, has been applied for fault detection in load tap changers. Regarding the critical role of load tap changers in electrical network and essential of catastrophic failures prevention, it is necessary to choose "condition based preventative maintenance strategy" which leads to reduction in costs, the number of unnecessary visits as well as the probability of interruptions and also increment in equipment reliability. In current work, considering the condition based preventative maintenance strategy, condition assessment of an Elin tap changer was carried out using dissolved gas analysis.
Abstract: In Egypt, the concept of Asset Management (AM) is
new; however, the need for applying it has become crucial because
deteriorating or losing an asset is unaffordable in a developing
country like Egypt. Therefore the current study focuses on
educational buildings as one of the most important assets regarding
planning, building, operating and maintenance expenditures. The
main objective of this study is to develop a SAMF for educational
buildings in Egypt. The General Authority for Educational Buildings
(GAEB) was chosen as a case study of the current research as it
represents the biggest governmental organization responsible for
planning, operating and maintaining schools in Egypt. To achieve the
research objective, structured interviews were conducted with senior
managers of GAEB using a pre designed questionnaire to explore the
current practice of AM. Gab analysis technique was applied against
best practices compounded from a vast literature review to identify
gaps between current practices and the desired one. The previous
steps mainly revealed; limited knowledge about strategic asset
management, no clear goals, no training, no real risk plan and lack of
data, technical and financial resources. Based on the findings, a
SAMF for GAEB was introduced and Framework implementation
steps and assessment techniques were explained in detail.
Abstract: Success is a European project that will implement several clean transport offers in three European cities and evaluate the environmental impacts. The goal of these measures is to improve urban mobility or the displacement of residents inside cities. For e.g. park and ride, electric vehicles, hybrid bus and bike sharing etc. A list of 28 criteria and 60 measures has been established for evaluation of these transport projects. The evaluation criteria can be grouped into: Transport, environment, social, economic and fuel consumption. This article proposes a decision support system based that encapsulates a hybrid approach based on fuzzy logic, multicriteria analysis and belief theory for the evaluation of impacts of urban mobility solutions. A web-based tool called DeSSIA (Decision Support System for Impacts Assessment) has been developed that treats complex data. The tool has several functionalities starting from data integration (import of data), evaluation of projects and finishes by graphical display of results. The tool development is based on the concept of MVC (Model, View, and Controller). The MVC is a conception model adapted to the creation of software's which impose separation between data, their treatment and presentation. Effort is laid on the ergonomic aspects of the application. It has codes compatible with the latest norms (XHTML, CSS) and has been validated by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). The main ergonomic aspect focuses on the usability of the application, ease of learning and adoption. By the usage of technologies such as AJAX (XML and Java Script asynchrones), the application is more rapid and convivial. The positive points of our approach are that it treats heterogeneous data (qualitative, quantitative) from various information sources (human experts, survey, sensors, model etc.).
Abstract: The excessive use of agricultural pesticides and the
resulting contamination of food and beds of rivers have been a
recurring problem nowadays. Some of these substances can cause
changes in endocrine balance and impair reproductive function of
human and animal population. In the present study, we evaluated the
possible effects of the fungicide cuprous copper oxide Sandoz® on
pregnant Wistar rats. They received a daily oral administration of 103
or 3.103 mg/kg of the fungicide from the 6th to the 15th day of
gestation. On day 21 of gestation, the maternal and fetal toxicity
parameters and indices were determined. The administration of
cuprous oxide (Copper Sandoz) in Wistar rats, the period of
organogenesis, revealed no evidence of maternal toxicity or embryo
at the studied doses.
Abstract: Nowadays the devices of night vision are widely used both for military and civil applications. The variety of night vision applications require a variety of the night vision devices designs. A web-based architecture of a software system for design assessment before producing of night vision devices is developed. The proposed architecture of the web-based system is based on the application of a mathematical model for designing of night vision devices. An algorithm with two components – for iterative design and for intelligent design is developed and integrated into system architecture. The iterative component suggests compatible modules combinations to choose from. The intelligent component provides compatible combinations of modules satisfying given user requirements to device parameters. The proposed web-based architecture of a system for design assessment of night vision devices is tested via a prototype of the system. The testing showed the applicability of both iterative and intelligent components of algorithm.
Abstract: Metrics is the process by which numbers or symbols
are assigned to attributes of entities in the real world in such a way as
to describe them according to clearly defined rules. Software metrics
are instruments or ways to measuring all the aspect of software
product. These metrics are used throughout a software project to
assist in estimation, quality control, productivity assessment, and
project control. Object oriented software metrics focus on
measurements that are applied to the class and other characteristics.
These measurements convey the software engineer to the behavior of
the software and how changes can be made that will reduce
complexity and improve the continuing capability of the software.
Object oriented software metric can be classified in two types static
and dynamic. Static metrics are concerned with all the aspects of
measuring by static analysis of software and dynamic metrics are
concerned with all the measuring aspect of the software at run time.
Major work done before, was focusing on static metric. Also some
work has been done in the field of dynamic nature of the software
measurements. But research in this area is demanding for more work.
In this paper we give a set of dynamic metrics specifically for
polymorphism in object oriented system.
Abstract: This research was aimed to develop and determine the
quality of online learning activities kit as well as to examine the
learning achievement of students and their satisfaction towards the kit
through authentic assessment. The tools in this research contained
online learning activities kit on plant in Thai literature in compliance
with the School Botanical Garden of Plant Genetic Conservation
Project under the Royal Initiative of Her Royal Highness Princess
Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the assessment form, the learning
achievement test, the satisfaction form and the authentic assessment
form. The population consisted of 40 students in the second range of
primary years (Prathomsuksa 4 to 6) at Ban Khao Rak School,
Suratthani Province, Thailand. The research results showed that the
content quality of the developed online learning activities kit as
assessed by the experts was 4.70 on average or at very high level.
The pre-test and post-test comparison was made to examine the
learning achievement and it revealed that the post-test score was
higher than the pre-test score with statistical significance at the .01
level. The satisfaction of the sampling group towards the online
learning activities kit was 4.74 or at the highest level. The authentic
assessment showed an average of 1.69 or at good level. Therefore,
the online learning activities kit on plant in Thai literature in
compliance with the School Botanical Garden of Plant Genetic
Conservation Project under the Royal Initiative of Her Royal
Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn could be used in real
classroom situations.
Abstract: Depression is a serious mental health problem that
affects people of all ages, including children and adolescents. Studies
showed that female gender is one of the risk factors may influence
the development of depression in adolescents. However, some of the
studies from Turkey suggested that gender does not lead to any
significant difference in the youth depression level. Therefore, the
presented study investigated whether girls differ from boys in respect
of depression. The association between genders and test scores for
the adolescents in a population of primary and secondary school
students was also evaluated. The study was consisting of 254
adolescents (122 boys and 132 girls) with a mean age of 13.86±1.43
(Mean±SD) ranging from 12-16 years. Psychological assessment was
performed using Children-s Depression Inventory (CDI). Chi-square
and Student-s t-test statistics were employed to analyze the data. The
mean of the CDI scores of the girls were higher than boys- CDI
scores (t = -4.580, p = 0.001). Higher ratio appeared for the girls
when they compared with boy group-s depression levels using a CDI
cut-off point of 19 (p = 0.001, Odds Ratio = 2,603). The findings of
the present study suggested that adolescent girls have high level of
depression than adolescent boys aged between 12-16 years in
Turkey. Although some studies reported that there is no any
differences depression level between adolescent boys and girls in
Turkey, result of the present study showed that adolescent girls have
high level of depression than adolescent boys in Turkey.
Abstract: This paper presents an innovative computer system
that contributes to sustainable development of the enterprise. The
research refers to a rethinking of traditional systems of collaboration
and risk assessment, present in any organization, leading to a
sustainable enterprise. This concept integrates emerging tools that
allow the implementation and exploitation of the collective
intelligence of the enterprise, allowing the exchange of contextual,
agile and simplified information, and collaboration with networks of
customers and partners in an environment where risks are controlled.
Risk assessment is done in a systemic way: the enterprise as the
system compared to the contained departments and the enterprise as a
subsystem compared to: families of international standards and
sustainability-s responsibilities. The enterprise, in this systemic
vision, responds to the requirements that any existing system to
operate continuously in an indefinite future without reaching key
resource depletion. The research is done by integrating collaborative
science, engineering, management, psychology, obtaining thus a
cornerstone of sustainable development of the enterprise.
Abstract: Intelligent Transportation System integrates various modern advanced technologies into the ground transportation system, and it will be the goal of urban transport system in the future because of its comprehensive effects. However, it also brings some problems, such as project performance assessment, fairness of benefiting groups, fund management, which are directly related to its operation and implementation. Wuhan has difficulties in organizing transportation because of its nature feature (river and lake), therefore, calling Service of Taxi plays an important role in transportation. This paper researches on calling Service of Taxi in Wuhan, based on quantitative and qualitative analysis. It analyzes its operations management systematically, including business model, finance, usage analysis and users evaluation. As for business model, it is that the government leads the operation at the initial stage, and the third part dominates the operation at the mature stage, which not only eases the pressure of the third part and benefits the spread of the calling service at the initial stage, but also alleviates financial pressure of government and improve the efficiency of the operation at the mature stage. As for finance, it draws that this service will bring heavy financial burden of equipments, but it will be alleviated in the future because of its spread. As for usage analysis, through data comparison, this service can bring some benefits for taxi drivers, and time and spatial distribution of usage have certain features. As for user evaluation, it analyzes using group and the reason why choosing it. At last, according to the analysis above, the paper puts forward the potentials, limitations, and future development strategies for it.
Abstract: The research on two-wheels balancing robot has
gained momentum due to their functionality and reliability when
completing certain tasks. This paper presents investigations into the
performance comparison of Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) and
PID-PID controllers for a highly nonlinear 2–wheels balancing robot.
The mathematical model of 2-wheels balancing robot that is highly
nonlinear is derived. The final model is then represented in statespace
form and the system suffers from mismatched condition. Two
system responses namely the robot position and robot angular
position are obtained. The performances of the LQR and PID-PID
controllers are examined in terms of input tracking and disturbances
rejection capability. Simulation results of the responses of the
nonlinear 2–wheels balancing robot are presented in time domain. A
comparative assessment of both control schemes to the system
performance is presented and discussed.
Abstract: Patients with diabetes are susceptible to chronic foot
wounds which may be difficult to manage and slow to heal.
Diagnosis and treatment currently rely on the subjective judgement of
experienced professionals. An objective method of tissue assessment
is required. In this paper, a data fusion approach was taken to wound
tissue classification. The supervised Maximum Likelihood and
unsupervised Multi-Modal Expectation Maximisation algorithms
were used to classify tissues within simulated wound models by
weighting the contributions of both colour and 3D depth information.
It was found that, at low weightings, depth information could show
significant improvements in classification accuracy when compared
to classification by colour alone, particularly when using the
maximum likelihood method. However, larger weightings were
found to have an entirely negative effect on accuracy.
Abstract: This study on “The relationship between human
resource practices and Firm Performance is a speculative
investigation research. The purpose of this research are (1) to provide
and to understand of HRM history and current HR practices in the
Philippines (2) to examine the extent of HRM practice among its
Philippine firms effectively; (3) to investigate the relationship
between HRM practice and firm performance in the Philippines. The
survey was done to 233 companies in the Philippines. The
questionnaire is divided into three parts a) to gathers information on
the profile of respondent, b) to measures the extent to which human
resource practices are being practiced in their organization c) to
measure the organizations performance as perceived by human
resource managers and top executives as compared with their
competitors in the same industry. As a result an interesting finding
was that almost 50 percent of firm performance is affected by the
extent of implementation of HR practices in the firm. These results
show that HR practices that are in line with the organization’s
strategic goals are important for future performance.
Abstract: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin condition
which affects 2-3% of population around the world. Psoriasis Area
and Severity Index (PASI) is a gold standard to assess psoriasis
severity as well as the treatment efficacy. Although a gold standard,
PASI is rarely used because it is tedious and complex. In practice,
PASI score is determined subjectively by dermatologists, therefore
inter and intra variations of assessment are possible to happen even
among expert dermatologists. This research develops an algorithm to
assess psoriasis lesion for PASI scoring objectively. Focus of this
research is thickness assessment as one of PASI four parameters
beside area, erythema and scaliness. Psoriasis lesion thickness is
measured by averaging the total elevation from lesion base to lesion
surface. Thickness values of 122 3D images taken from 39 patients
are grouped into 4 PASI thickness score using K-means clustering.
Validation on lesion base construction is performed using twelve
body curvature models and show good result with coefficient of
determinant (R2) is equal to 1.
Abstract: This paper describes the evolution of strategies to
evaluate ePortfolios in an online Master-s of Education (M.Ed.)
degree in Instructional Technology. The ePortfolios are required as a
culminating activity for students in the program. By using Web 2.0
tools to develop the ePortfolios, students are able to showcase their
technical skills, integrate national standards, demonstrate their
professional understandings, and reflect on their individual learning.
Faculty have created assessment strategies to evaluate student
achievement of these skills. To further develop ePortfolios as a tool
promoting authentic learning, faculty are moving toward integrating
transparency as part of the evaluation process.
Abstract: The method of gait identification based on the nearest neighbor classification technique with motion similarity assessment by the dynamic time warping is proposed. The model based kinematic motion data, represented by the joints rotations coded by Euler angles and unit quaternions is used. The different pose distance functions in Euler angles and quaternion spaces are considered. To evaluate individual features of the subsequent joints movements during gait cycle, joint selection is carried out. To examine proposed approach database containing 353 gaits of 25 humans collected in motion capture laboratory is used. The obtained results are promising. The classifications, which takes into consideration all joints has accuracy over 91%. Only analysis of movements of hip joints allows to correctly identify gaits with almost 80% precision.
Abstract: This study was initiated with a three prong objective.
One, to identify the relationship between Technological
Competencies factors (Technical Capability, Firm Innovativeness
and E-Business Practices and professional service firms- business
performance. To investigate the predictors of professional service
firms business performance and finally to evaluate the predictors of
business performance according to the type of professional service
firms, a survey questionnaire was deployed to collect empirical data.
The questionnaire was distributed to the owners of the professional
small medium size enterprises services in the Accounting, Legal,
Engineering and Architecture sectors. Analysis showed that all three
Technology Competency factors have moderate effect on business
performance. In addition, the regression models indicate that
technical capability is the most highly influential that could
determine business performance, followed by e-business practices
and firm innovativeness. Subsequently, the main predictor of
business performance for all types of firms is Technical capability.