Abstract: Solar water heating (SWH) systems are gaining popularity in ASEAN in the midst of increasing number of affluent population in society and environmental concerns from seemingly unchanged reliance on fossil-based fuels. The penetration of these systems and technologies into ASEAN markets is a welcome development; however there is a need for the method of assessment of their thermal performances. This paper discusses the reasons for this need and a suitable method for thermal performance evaluation of SWH systems in ASEAN. The paper also calls on research to be focused on the establishment of reliable data to be entered into the performance rating software. The establishment of accredited solar systems testing facilities can help boost the competitiveness of ASEAN solar industry.
Abstract: Rapid enlargement and physical development of cities
have facilitated the emergence of a number of city life crises and
decrease of environment quality. Subsequently, the need for noticing
the concept of quality and its improvement in urban environments,
besides quantitative issues, is obviously recognized. In the domain of
urban ideas the importance of taking these issues into consideration
is obvious not only in accordance to sustainable development
concepts and improvement of public environment quality, but also in
the enhancement of social and behavioral models.
The major concern of present article is to study the nature of urban
environment quality in urban development plans, which is important
not only in the concept and the aim of projects but also in their
execution procedure. As a result, this paper is going to utilize
planning capacities caused by environmental virtues in the planning
procedure of Moft Abad neighborhood. Thus, at the first step,
applying the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), it has assessed
quantitative environmental issues. The present conditions of Moft
Abad state that “the neighborhood is generally suffering from the
lack of qualitative parameters, and the previously formed planning
procedures could not take the sustainable and developmental paths
which are aimed at environment quality virtues." The diminution of
economical and environmental virtues has resulted in the diminution
of residential and social virtues. Therefore, in order to enhance the
environment quality in Moft Abad, the present paper has tried to
supply the subject plans in order to make a safe, healthy, and lively
neighborhood.
Abstract: In today-s competitive environment, the security concerns have grown tremendously. In the modern world, possession is known to be 9/10-ths of the law. Hence, it is imperative for one to be able to safeguard one-s property from worldly harms such as thefts, destruction of property, people with malicious intent etc. Due to the advent of technology in the modern world, the methodologies used by thieves and robbers for stealing have been improving exponentially. Therefore, it is necessary for the surveillance techniques to also improve with the changing world. With the improvement in mass media and various forms of communication, it is now possible to monitor and control the environment to the advantage of the owners of the property. The latest technologies used in the fight against thefts and destruction are the video surveillance and monitoring. By using the technologies, it is possible to monitor and capture every inch and second of the area in interest. However, so far the technologies used are passive in nature, i.e., the monitoring systems only help in detecting the crime but do not actively participate in stopping or curbing the crime while it takes place. Therefore, we have developed a methodology to detect the motion in a video stream environment and this is an idea to ensure that the monitoring systems not only actively participate in stopping the crime, but do so while the crime is taking place. Hence, a system is used to detect any motion in a live streaming video and once motion has been detected in the live stream, the software will activate a warning system and capture the live streaming video.
Abstract: This paper presents the review of past studies
concerning mathematical models for rescheduling passenger railway
services, as part of delay management in the occurrence of railway
disruption. Many past mathematical models highlighted were aimed
at minimizing the service delays experienced by passengers during
service disruptions. Integer programming (IP) and mixed-integer
programming (MIP) models are critically discussed, focusing on the
model approach, decision variables, sets and parameters. Some of
them have been tested on real-life data of railway companies
worldwide, while a few have been validated on fictive data. Based
on selected literatures on train rescheduling, this paper is able to
assist researchers in the model formulation by providing
comprehensive analyses towards the model building. These analyses
would be able to help in the development of new approaches in
rescheduling strategies or perhaps to enhance the existing
rescheduling models and make them more powerful or more
applicable with shorter computing time.
Abstract: The present study was done primarily to address two major research gaps: firstly, development of an empirical measure of life meaningfulness for substance users and secondly, to determine the psychosocial determinants of life meaningfulness among the substance users. The study is classified into two phases: the first phase which dealt with development of Life Meaningfulness Scale and the second phase which examined the relationship between life meaningfulness and social support, abstinence self efficacy and depression. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used for framing items. A Principal Component Analysis yielded three components: Overall Goal Directedness, Striving for healthy lifestyle and Concern for loved ones which collectively accounted for 42.06% of the total variance. The scale and its subscales were also found to be highly reliable. Multiple regression analyses in the second phase of the study revealed that social support and abstinence self efficacy significantly predicted life meaningfulness among 48 recovering inmates of a de-addiction center while level of depression failed to predict life meaningfulness.
Abstract: The purpose of the present study is to determine the level of reading habit of future classroom teachers, to discuss the obtained results according to their socio-demographic features and to define the factors which are influential on taking up reading in the context of future teachers experiences. The target population of the study consists of the fourth grade students at 62 faculties of education, department of classroom teaching from Turkish state universities. The sampling of the study consists of the fourth grade students from seven faculties of education, department of classroom teaching from each region. In the study, in the first and the second aspects, there will be a questionnaire to be developed concerning the measurement of future teachers level of reading habits and their socio-demographic features. The questionnaire was applied to all the students in the sample.
Abstract: Biometrics methods include recognition techniques
such as fingerprint, iris, hand geometry, voice, face, ears and gait. The gait recognition approach has some advantages, for example it
does not need the prior concern of the observed subject and it can
record many biometric features in order to make deeper analysis, but
most of the research proposals use high computational cost. This
paper shows a gait recognition system with feature subtraction on a
bundle rectangle drawn over the observed person. Statistical results
within a database of 500 videos are shown.
Abstract: This article discusses the concept of student ownership of knowledge and seeks to determine how to move students from knowledge acquisition to knowledge application and ultimately to knowledge generation in a virtual setting. Instructional strategies for fostering student engagement in a virtual environment are critical to the learner-s strategic ownership of the knowledge. A number of relevant theories that focus on learning, affect, needs and adult concerns are presented to provide a basis for exploring the transfer of knowledge from teacher to learner. A model under development is presented that combines the dimensions of knowledge approach, the teacher-student relationship with regards to knowledge authority and teaching approach to demonstrate the recursive and scaffolded design for creation of virtual learning environments.
Abstract: Safety of bus journey is a fundamental concern. Risk of injuries and fatalities is severe when bus superstructure fails during rollover accident. Adequate design and sufficient strength of bus superstructure can reduce the number of injuries and fatalities. This paper deals with structural analysis of bus superstructure undergoes rollover event. Several value of mass will be varied in multiple simulations. The purpose of this work is to analyze structural response of bus superstructure in terms of deformation, stress and strain under several loading and constraining conditions. A complete bus superstructure with forty four passenger-s capability was developed using finite element analysis software. Simulations have been conducted to observe the effect of total mass of bus on the strength of superstructure. These simulations are following United Nation Economic Commission of Europe regulation 66 which focuses on strength of large vehicle superstructure. Validation process had been done using simple box model experiment and results obtained are comparing with simulation results. Inputs data from validation process had been used in full scale simulation. Analyses suggested that, the failure of bus superstructure during rollover situation is basically dependent on the total mass of bus and on the strength of bus superstructure.
Abstract: Chemical industry project management involves
complex decision making situations that require discerning abilities
and methods to make sound decisions. Project managers are faced
with decision environments and problems in projects that are
complex. In this work, case study is Research and Development
(R&D) project selection. R&D is an ongoing process for forward
thinking technology-based chemical industries. R&D project
selection is an important task for organizations with R&D project
management. It is a multi-criteria problem which includes both
tangible and intangible factors. The ability to make sound decisions
is very important to success of R&D projects. Multiple-criteria
decision making (MCDM) approaches are major parts of decision
theory and analysis. This paper presents all of MCDM approaches
for use in R&D project selection. It is hoped that this work will
provide a ready reference on MCDM and this will encourage the
application of the MCDM by chemical engineering management.
Abstract: We study in this paper the effect of the scene
changing on image sequences coding system using Embedded
Zerotree Wavelet (EZW). The scene changing considered here is the
full motion which may occurs. A special image sequence is generated
where the scene changing occurs randomly. Two scenarios are
considered: In the first scenario, the system must provide the
reconstruction quality as best as possible by the management of the
bit rate (BR) while the scene changing occurs. In the second scenario,
the system must keep the bit rate as constant as possible by the
management of the reconstruction quality. The first scenario may be
motivated by the availability of a large band pass transmission
channel where an increase of the bit rate may be possible to keep the
reconstruction quality up to a given threshold. The second scenario
may be concerned by the narrow band pass transmission channel
where an increase of the bit rate is not possible. In this last case,
applications for which the reconstruction quality is not a constraint
may be considered. The simulations are performed with five scales
wavelet decomposition using the 9/7-tap filter bank biorthogonal
wavelet. The entropy coding is performed using a specific defined
binary code book and EZW algorithm. Experimental results are
presented and compared to LEAD H263 EVAL. It is shown that if
the reconstruction quality is the constraint, the system increases the
bit rate to obtain the required quality. In the case where the bit rate
must be constant, the system is unable to provide the required quality
if the scene change occurs; however, the system is able to improve
the quality while the scene changing disappears.
Abstract: In this paper, we introduce GODYS-PC software
package for modeling, simulating and analyzing dynamic systems.
To illustrate the use of GODYS-PC we present a few examples
which concern modeling and simulating of engineering systems. In
order to compare GODYS-PC with widely used in academia and
industry Simulink®, the same examples are provided both in
GODYS-PC and Simulink®.
Abstract: Palestinian cities face the challenges of land scarcity,
high population growth rates, rapid urbanization, uneven
development and territorial fragmentation. Due to geopolitical
constrains and the absence of an effective Palestinian planning
institution, urban development in Palestinian cities has not followed
any discernable planning scheme. This has led to a number of
internal contradictions in the structure of cities, and adversely
affected land use, the provision of urban services, and the quality of
the living environment.
This paper explores these challenges, and the potential that exists
for introducing a more sustainable urban development pattern in
Palestinian cities. It assesses alternative development approaches
with a particular focus on sustainable development, promoting ecodevelopment
imperatives, limiting random urbanization, and meeting
present and future challenges, including fulfilling the needs of the
people and conserving the scarce land and limited natural resources.
This paper concludes by offering conceptual proposals and guidelines
for promoting sustainable physical development in Palestinian cities.
Abstract: This paper describes how the correct endian mode of
the TMS320C6713 DSK board can be identified. It also explains how
the TMS320C6713 DSK board can be used in the little endian and in
the big endian modes for assembly language programming in
particular and for signal processing in general. Similarly, it discusses
how crucially important it is for a user of the TMS320C6713 DSK
board to identify the mode of operation and then use it correctly
during the development stages of the assembly language
programming; otherwise, it will cause unnecessary confusion and
erroneous results as far as storing data into the memory and loading
data from the memory is concerned. Furthermore, it highlights and
strongly recommends to the users of the TMS320C6713 DSK board
to be aware of the availability and importance of various display
options in the Code Composer Studio (CCS) for correctly
interpreting and displaying the desired data in the memory. The
information presented in this paper will be of great importance and
interest to those practitioners and developers who wants to use the
TMS320C6713 DSK board for assembly language programming as
well as input-output signal processing manipulations. Finally,
examples that clearly illustrate the concept are presented.
Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the study of techniques
for scheduling users for resource allocation in the case of multiple
input and multiple output (MIMO) packet transmission systems. In
these systems, transmit antennas are assigned to one user or
dynamically to different users using spatial multiplexing. The
allocation of all transmit antennas to one user cannot take full
advantages of multi-user diversity. Therefore, we developed the case
when resources are allocated dynamically. At each time slot users
have to feed back their channel information on an uplink feedback
channel. Channel information considered available in the schedulers
is the zero forcing (ZF) post detection signal to interference plus
noise ratio. Our analysis study concerns the round robin and the
opportunistic schemes.
In this paper, we present an overview and a complete capacity
analysis of these schemes. The main results in our study are to give
an analytical form of system capacity using the ZF receiver at the
user terminal. Simulations have been carried out to validate all
proposed analytical solutions and to compare the performance of
these schemes.
Abstract: This paper applies fuzzy AHP to evaluate the service
quality of online auction. Service quality is a composition of various
criteria. Among them many intangible attributes are difficult to
measure. This characteristic introduces the obstacles for respondents
on reply in the survey. So as to overcome this problem, we invite
fuzzy set theory into the measurement of performance and use AHP in
obtaining criteria. We found the most concerned dimension of service
quality is Transaction Safety Mechanism and the least is Charge Item.
Other criteria such as information security, accuracy and information
are too vital.
Abstract: The utility of expert system generators has been
widely recognized in many applications. Several generators based on
concept of the paradigm object, have been recently proposed. The
generator of oriented object expert system (GSEOO) offers
languages that are often complex and difficult to use. We propose in
this paper an extension of the expert system generator, JESS, which
permits a friendly use of this expert system. The new tool, called
VISUAL JESS, bring two main improvements to JESS. The first
improvement concerns the easiness of its utilization while giving
back transparency to the syntax and semantic aspects of the JESS
programming language. The second improvement permits an easy
access and modification of the JESS knowledge basis. The
implementation of VISUAL JESS is made so that it is extensible and
portable.
Abstract: By taking advantage of computer-s processing power, an unlimited number of variations and parameters in both spatial and environmental can be provided while following the same set of rules and constraints. This paper focuses on using the tools of parametric urbanism towards a more responsive environmental and sustainable urban morphology. It presents an understanding to Parametric Urban Comfort Envelope (PUCE) as an interactive computational assessment urban model. In addition, it investigates the applicability potentials of this model to generate an optimized urban form to Borg El Arab city (a new Egyptian Community) concerning the human comfort values specially wind and solar envelopes. Finally, this paper utilizes its application outcomes -both visual and numerical- to extend the designer-s limitations by decrease the concern of controlling and manipulation of geometry, and increase the designer-s awareness about the various potentials of using the parametric tools to create relationships that generate multiple geometric alternatives.
Abstract: This paper focuses on PSS/E modeling of wind farms
of Doubly-fed Induction Generator (DFIG) type and their impact on
issues of power system operation. Since Wind Turbine Generators
(WTG) don-t have the same characteristics as synchronous
generators, the appropriate modeling of wind farms is essential for
transmission system operators to analyze the best options of
transmission grid reinforcements as well as to evaluate the wind
power impact on reliability and security of supply. With the high
excepted penetration of wind power into the power system a
simultaneous loss of Wind Farm generation will put at risk power
system security and reliability. Therefore, the main wind grid code
requirements concern the fault ride through capability and frequency
operation range of wind turbines. In case of grid faults wind turbines
have to supply a definite reactive power depending on the
instantaneous voltage and to return quickly to normal operation.
Abstract: Empirical insights into the implementation of logistics competencies at the top management level are scarce. This paper addresses this issue with an explorative approach which is based on a dataset of 872 observations in the years 2000, 2004 and 2008 using quantitative content analysis from annual reports of the 500 publicly listed firms with the highest global research and development expenditures according to the British Department for Business Innovation and Skills. We find that logistics competencies are more pronounced in Asian companies than in their European or American counterparts. On an industrial level the results are quite mixed. Using partial point-biserial correlations we show that logistics competencies are positively related to financial performance.