Abstract: Benefits to the organisation are just as important as technical ability when it comes to software success. The challenge is to provide industry with professionals who understand this. In other words: How to teach computer engineering students to look beyond technology, and at the benefits of software to organizations? This paper reports on the conceptual design of a section of the computer networks module aimed to sensitize the students to the organisational context.
Checkland focuses on different worldviews represented by various role players in the organisation. He developed the Soft Systems Methodology that guides purposeful action in organisations, while incorporating different worldviews in the modeling process. If we can sensitize students to these methods, they are likely to appreciate the wider context of application of system software. This paper will provide literature on these concepts as well as detail on how the students will be guided to adopt these concepts.
Abstract: During last decades is widely discussed the
international harmonization of financial reporting. This
harmonization is also affected by national tax systems in analyzed
countries. This paper provides some evidence on current national tax
systems in selected countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The
linkage of accounting profit as a tax base might decrease the
administrative burden for majority of SMEs, which are the most
important engine of each national economy.
Abstract: This study aims to conduct a preliminary investigation to determine the topic to be focused in developing Virtual Laboratory For Biology (VLab-Bio). Samples involved in answering the questionnaire are form five students (equivalent to A-Level) and biology teachers. Time and economical resources for the setting up and construction of scientific laboratories can be solved with the adaptation of virtual laboratories as an educational tool. Thus, it is hoped that the proposed virtual laboratory will help students to learn the abstract concepts in biology. Findings show that the difficult topic chosen is Cell Division and the learning objective to be focused in developing the virtual lab is “Describe the application of knowledge on mitosis in cloning".
Abstract: e-mail has become an important means of electronic
communication but the viability of its usage is marred by Unsolicited
Bulk e-mail (UBE) messages. UBE consists of many types
like pornographic, virus infected and 'cry-for-help' messages as well
as fake and fraudulent offers for jobs, winnings and medicines. UBE
poses technical and socio-economic challenges to usage of e-mails.
To meet this challenge and combat this menace, we need to
understand UBE. Towards this end, the current paper presents a
content-based textual analysis of more than 2700 body enhancement
medicinal UBE. Technically, this is an application of Text Parsing
and Tokenization for an un-structured textual document and we
approach it using Bag Of Words (BOW) and Vector Space Document
Model techniques. We have attempted to identify the most
frequently occurring lexis in the UBE documents that advertise
various products for body enhancement. The analysis of such top
100 lexis is also presented. We exhibit the relationship between
occurrence of a word from the identified lexis-set in the given UBE
and the probability that the given UBE will be the one advertising for
fake medicinal product. To the best of our knowledge and survey of
related literature, this is the first formal attempt for identification of
most frequently occurring lexis in such UBE by its textual analysis.
Finally, this is a sincere attempt to bring about alertness against and
mitigate the threat of such luring but fake UBE.
Abstract: Bond Graph as a unified multidisciplinary tool is widely
used not only for dynamic modelling but also for Fault Detection and
Isolation because of its structural and causal proprieties. A binary
Fault Signature Matrix is systematically generated but to make the
final binary decision is not always feasible because of the problems
revealed by such method. The purpose of this paper is introducing a
methodology for the improvement of the classical binary method of
decision-making, so that the unknown and identical failure signatures
can be treated to improve the robustness. This approach consists of
associating the evaluated residuals and the components reliability data
to build a Hybrid Bayesian Network. This network is used in two
distinct inference procedures: one for the continuous part and the
other for the discrete part. The continuous nodes of the network are
the prior probabilities of the components failures, which are used by
the inference procedure on the discrete part to compute the posterior
probabilities of the failures. The developed methodology is applied
to a real steam generator pilot process.
Abstract: This paper includes two novel techniques for skew
estimation of binary document images. These algorithms are based on
connected component analysis and Hough transform. Both these
methods focus on reducing the amount of input data provided to
Hough transform. In the first method, referred as word centroid
approach, the centroids of selected words are used for skew detection.
In the second method, referred as dilate & thin approach, the selected
characters are blocked and dilated to get word blocks and later
thinning is applied. The final image fed to Hough transform has the
thinned coordinates of word blocks in the image. The methods have
been successful in reducing the computational complexity of Hough
transform based skew estimation algorithms. Promising experimental
results are also provided to prove the effectiveness of the proposed
methods.
Abstract: Exact expressions for bit-error probability (BEP) for
coherent square detection of uncoded and coded M-ary quadrature
amplitude modulation (MQAM) using an array of antennas with
maximal ratio combining (MRC) in a flat fading channel interference
limited system in a Nakagami-m fading environment is derived. The
analysis assumes an arbitrary number of independent and identically
distributed Nakagami interferers. The results for coded MQAM are
computed numerically for the case of (24,12) extended Golay code
and compared with uncoded MQAM by plotting error probabilities
versus average signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) for various values of
order of diversity N, number of distinct symbols M, in order to
examine the effect of cochannel interferers on the performance of the
digital communication system. The diversity gains and net gains are
also presented in tabular form in order to examine the performance of
digital communication system in the presence of interferers, as the
order of diversity increases. The analytical results presented in this
paper are expected to provide useful information needed for design
and analysis of digital communication systems with space diversity
in wireless fading channels.
Abstract: Cantilever L-shaped walls are known to be relatively economical as retaining solution. The design starts by proportioning the wall dimensions for which the stability is checked for. A ratio between the lengths of the base and the stem, falling between 0.5 to 0.7 ensure in most case the stability requirements, however, the displacement pattern of the wall in terms of rotations and translations, and the lateral pressure profile, do not have the same figure for all wall’s proportioning, as it is usually assumed. In the present work the results of a numerical analysis are presented, different wall geometries were considered. The results show that the proportioning governs the equilibrium between the instantaneous rotation and the translation of the wall-toe, also, the lateral pressure estimation based on the average value between the at-rest and the active pressure, recommended by most design standards, is found to be not applicable for all walls.
Abstract: Fuzzy Load forecasting plays a paramount role in the operation and management of power systems. Accurate estimation of future power demands for various lead times facilitates the task of generating power reliably and economically. The forecasting of future loads for a relatively large lead time (months to few years) is studied here (long term load forecasting). Among the various techniques used in forecasting load, artificial intelligence techniques provide greater accuracy to the forecasts as compared to conventional techniques. Fuzzy Logic, a very robust artificial intelligent technique, is described in this paper to forecast load on long term basis. The paper gives a general algorithm to forecast long term load. The algorithm is an Extension of Short term load forecasting method to Long term load forecasting and concentrates not only on the forecast values of load but also on the errors incorporated into the forecast. Hence, by correcting the errors in the forecast, forecasts with very high accuracy have been achieved. The algorithm, in the paper, is demonstrated with the help of data collected for residential sector (LT2 (a) type load: Domestic consumers). Load, is determined for three consecutive years (from April-06 to March-09) in order to demonstrate the efficiency of the algorithm and to forecast for the next two years (from April-09 to March-11).
Abstract: Data Warehouses (DWs) are repositories which contain the unified history of an enterprise for decision support. The data must be Extracted from information sources, Transformed and integrated to be Loaded (ETL) into the DW, using ETL tools. These tools focus on data movement, where the models are only used as a means to this aim. Under a conceptual viewpoint, the authors want to innovate the ETL process in two ways: 1) to make clear compatibility between models in a declarative fashion, using correspondence assertions and 2) to identify the instances of different sources that represent the same entity in the real-world. This paper presents the overview of the proposed framework to model the ETL process, which is based on the use of a reference model and perspective schemata. This approach provides the designer with a better understanding of the semantic associated with the ETL process.
Abstract: This paper aims to present knowledge management for solving economic problem and poverty in Thai community. A community in Thailand is studied as a case study for master plan or social and economic plan which derived form the research people conducted by themselves in their community. The result shows that community uses knowledge management in recording income and expense, analyzing their consumption, and then systematic planning of the production, distribution and consumption in the community. Besides, community enterprises, that people create as the by-products of master plan, can facilitate diverse economic activities which are able to reduce economic problem and poverty. The knowledge that people gain from solving their problem through building community enterprises are both tacit and explicit knowledge. Four styles of knowledge conversion: socialization,externalization, combination and internalization, are used. Besides, knowledge sharing inside the organization, between organizations and its environment are found. Keywordsknowledge management, community enterprise, Thailand.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to research on thoughts transmitted from virtual fitting-room and to deduce discussion in an auxiliary narrative way. The research structure is based on 3D virtual fitting-room as the research subject. Initially, we will discuss the principles of narrate study, User Demand and so on by using a narrative design pattern to transmit their objective indications of “people-situation-reason-object", etc, and then to analyze the virtual fitting-room examples that are able to provide a new thinking for designers who engaged in clothing related industry – which comes in “story telling" and “user-centered design" forms. Clothing designs are not just to cover up the body to keep warm but to draw closer to people-s demand physiologically and psychologically through interactive designs so as to achieve cognition between people and environment. In the “outside" goal of clothing-s functional designs, we use tribal group-s behavior characteristics to “transform" the existing personal cultural stories, and “reform" them to design appropriate interactive products. Synthesizing the above matters, apart from being able to regard “narrate" as a kind of functional thinking process, we are also able to regard it as a kind of choice, arrangement and an activity of story expression, allowing interactive design-s spirit, product characteristics and experience ideas be transmitted to target tribal group in a visual image performance method. It is a far more confident and innovative attempt, and meanwhile, able to achieve entertainment, joyful and so forth fundamental interactive transmissions. Therefore, this study takes “user-centered design" thinking as a basis to establish a set of clothing designs with interactive experience patterns and to assist designers to examine the five sensual feeling of interactive demands in order to initiate a new value in textile industry.
Abstract: This study focuses on an evaluation of Hokkaido which
is the northernmost and largest prefecture by surface area in Japan and
particularly on two points: the rivalry between all kinds of land use
such as urban land and agricultural and forestry land in various cities
and their surrounding areas and the possibilities for forestry biomass in
areas other than those mentioned above and grasps which areas require
examination of the nature of land use control and guidance through
conducting land use analysis at the district level using GIS
(Geographic Information Systems). The results of analysis in this
study demonstrated that it is essential to divide the whole of Hokkaido
into two areas: those within delineated city planning areas and those
outside of delineated city planning areas and to conduct an evaluation
of each land use control.
In delineated urban areas, particularly urban areas, it is essential to
re-examine land use from the point of view of compact cities or smart
cities along with conducting an evaluation of land use control that
focuses on issues of rivalry between all kinds of land use such as urban
land and agricultural and forestry land. In areas outside of delineated
urban areas, it is desirable to aim to build a specific community
recycling range based on forest biomass utilization by conducting an
evaluation of land use control concerning the possibilities for forest
biomass focusing particularly on forests within and outside of city
planning areas.
Abstract: OpenMP is an API for parallel programming model of shared memory multiprocessors. Novice OpenMP programmers often produce the code that compiler cannot find human errors. It was investigated how compiler coped with the common mistakes that can occur in OpenMP code. The latest version(4.4.3) of GCC is used for this research. It was found that GCC compiled the codes without any errors or warnings. In this paper the programming aid tool is presented for OpenMP programs. It can check 12 common mistakes that novice programmer can commit during the programming of OpenMP. It was demonstrated that the programming aid tool can detect the various common mistakes that GCC failed to detect.
Abstract: Power system stabilizers (PSS) are now routinely used in the industry to damp out power system oscillations. In this paper, particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is applied to design a robust power system stabilizer (PSS). The design problem of the proposed controller is formulated as an optimization problem and PSO is employed to search for optimal controller parameters. By minimizing the time-domain based objective function, in which the deviation in the oscillatory rotor speed of the generator is involved; stability performance of the system is improved. The non-linear simulation results are presented under wide range of operating conditions; disturbances at different locations as well as for various fault clearing sequences to show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller and their ability to provide efficient damping of low frequency oscillations. Further, all the simulations results are compared with a conventionally designed power system stabilizer to show the superiority of the proposed design approach.
Abstract: Asthma is a condition that causing chronic health problems in children. In addition to basic therapy against disease, we must try to reduce the impact of chronic health problems and also optimize their medical aspect of growth and development. A boy with mild asthma attack frequent episode did not showed any improvement with medical treatment and his asthma control test was 11. From radiologic examination he got hyperaerated lung and billateral sinusitis maxillaris; skin test results were house dust, food and pet allergy; an overweight body; bad school grades; psychological and environmental problem. We followed and evaluated this boy in 6 months, treated holistically. Even we could not do much on environmental but no more psychological and school problems, his on a good bodyweight and his asthma control test was 22. A case of a child with mild asthma attack frequent episode was reported. Asthma clinical course show no significant improvement when other predisposing factor is not well-controlled and a child’s growth and development may be affected. Improving condition of the patient can be created with the help of loving and caring way of nurturing from the parents and supportive peer group. Therefore, continuous and consistent monitoring is required because prognosis of asthma is generally good when regularly and properly controlled.
Abstract: The main purpose of this paper is to investigate thelong-run equilibrium and short-run dynamics of international housing prices when macroeconomic variables change. We apply the Pedroni’s, panel cointegration, using the unbalanced panel data analysis of 33 countries over the period from 1980Q1 to 2013Q1, to examine the relationships among house prices and macroeconomic variables. Our empirical results of panel data cointegration tests support the existence of a cointegration among these macroeconomic variables and house prices. Besides, the empirical results of panel DOLS further present that a 1% increase in economic activity, long-term interest rates, and construction costs cause house prices to respectively change 2.16%, -0.04%, and 0.22% in the long run.Furthermore, the increasing economic activity and the construction cost would cause strongerimpacts on the house prices for lower income countries than higher income countries.The results lead to the conclusion that policy of house prices growth can be regarded as economic growth for lower income countries. Finally, in America region, the coefficient of economic activity is the highest, which displays that increasing economic activity causes a faster rise in house prices there than in other regions. There are some special cases whereby the coefficients of interest rates are significantly positive in America and Asia regions.
Abstract: Fuzzy random variables have been introduced as an imprecise concept of numeric values for characterizing the imprecise knowledge. The descriptive parameters can be used to describe the primary features of a set of fuzzy random observations. In fuzzy environments, the expected values are usually represented as fuzzy-valued, interval-valued or numeric-valued descriptive parameters using various metrics. Instead of the concept of area metric that is usually adopted in the relevant studies, the numeric expected value is proposed by the concept of distance metric in this study based on two characters (fuzziness and randomness) of FRVs. Comparing with the existing measures, although the results show that the proposed numeric expected value is same with those using the different metric, if only triangular membership functions are used. However, the proposed approach has the advantages of intuitiveness and computational efficiency, when the membership functions are not triangular types. An example with three datasets is provided for verifying the proposed approach.
Abstract: Response surface methodology with Box–Benhken (BB) design of experiment approach has been utilized to study the mechanism of interface slip damping in layered and jointed tack welded beams with varying surface roughness. The design utilizes the initial amplitude of excitation, tack length and surface roughness at the interfaces to develop the model for the logarithmic damping decrement of the layered and jointed welded structures. Statistically designed experiments have been performed to estimate the coefficients in the mathematical model, predict the response, and check the adequacy of the model. Comparison of predicted and experimental response values outside the design conditions have shown good correspondence, implying that empirical model derived from response surface approach can be effectively used to describe the mechanism of interface slip damping in layered and jointed tack welded structures.
Abstract: In recent years Operational Transconductance Amplifier based high frequency integrated circuits, filters and systems have been widely investigated. The usefulness of OTAs over conventional OP-Amps in the design of both first order and second order active filters are well documented. This paper discusses some of the tunability issues using the Matlab/Simulink® software which are previously unreported for any commercial OTA. Using the simulation results two first order voltage controlled all pass filters with phase tuning capability are proposed.