Abstract: This study investigated morphology of the Spanner Barb (Puntius lateristriga Valenciennes, 1842) and water quality at Thepchana waterfall. This study was conducted at Thepchana Waterfall, Khao Nan National Park from March to May 2007. There were 40 Spanner Barb collected with 20 males and 20 females. Males had an average of 5.57 cm in standard length, 6.62 cm in total length and 5.18 g in total body weight. Females had an average of 7.25 cm in standard length, 8.24 cm in total length and 10.96 g in total body weight. The length (L) – weight (W) relationships for combining sexes, males and females were LogW = -2.137 + 3.355logL, log W = -0.068 + 3.297logL, and log W = -2.068 + 3.297logL, respectively. The Spanner Barb were smaller size fish with a compressed form; terminal mouth; villiform teeth; ctenoid scale; concave tail; general body color yellowish olive, with slight reddish tint to fins; vertical band beginning below dorsal and horizontal stripe from base of tail almost to vertical band. They also had a vertical band midway between the eye and first vertical band. There was a black spot above anal fin. The bladder looked like J-shape. Inside of the bladder was found small insects and insect lava. The body length and the bowels length was 1:1 ratio. The water temperature ranged from 25.00 – 27.00 °C which was appropriate for their habitat characteristics. Acid - alkalinity ranged from 6.65 – 6.90 mg/l. Dissolved oxygen ranged from 4.55 – 4.70 mg/l. Water hardness ranged from 31.00 – 48.00 mg/l. The amount of ammonia was about 0.25 mg/l.
Abstract: Alkali Activated Slag Concrete (AASC) mixes are manufactured by activating ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) using sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate solutions. The aim of the present experimental research was to investigate the effect of increasing the dosages of sodium oxide (Na2O, in the range of 4 to 8%) and the activator modulus (Ms) (i.e. the SiO2/Na2O ratio, in the range of 0.5 to 1.5) of the alkaline solutions, on the workability and strength characteristics of self-cured (air-cured) alkali activated Indian slag concrete mixes. Further the split tensile and flexure strengths for optimal mixes were studied for each dosage of Na2O.It is observed that increase in Na2O concentration increases the compressive, split-tensile and flexural strengths, both at the early and later-ages, while increase in Ms, decreases the workability of the mixes. An optimal Ms of 1.25 is found at various Na2O dosages. No significant differences in the strength performances were observed between AASCs manufactured with alkali solutions prepared using either of potable and de-ionized water.
Abstract: The development of wearable sensing technologies is a great challenge which is being addressed by the Proetex FP6 project (www.proetex.org). Its main aim is the development of wearable sensors to improve the safety and efficiency of emergency personnel. This will be achieved by continuous, real-time monitoring of vital signs, posture, activity, and external hazards surrounding emergency workers. We report here the development of carbon dioxide (CO2) sensing boot by incorporating commercially available CO2 sensor with a wireless platform into the boot assembly. Carefully selected commercially available sensors have been tested. Some of the key characteristics of the selected sensors are high selectivity and sensitivity, robustness and the power demand. This paper discusses some of the results of CO2 sensor tests and sensor integration with wireless data transmission
Abstract: Optimum communication and performance in
Wireless Sensor Networks, constitute multi-facet challenges due to
the specific networking characteristics as well as the scarce resource
availability. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly apparent that
isolated layer based approaches often do not meet the demands posed
by WSNs applications due to omission of critical inter-layer
interactions and dependencies. As a counterpart, cross-layer is
receiving high interest aiming to exploit these interactions and
increase network performance. However, in order to clearly identify
existing dependencies, comprehensive performance studies are
required evaluating the effect of different critical network parameters
on system level performance and behavior.This paper-s main
objective is to address the need for multi-parametric performance
evaluations considering critical network parameters using a well
known network simulator, offering useful and practical conclusions
and guidelines. The results reveal strong dependencies among
considered parameters which can be utilized by and drive future
research efforts, towards designing and implementing highly efficient
protocols and architectures.
Abstract: Occurrences of spurious crests on the troughs of large,
relatively steep second-order Stokes waves are anomalous and not an
inherent characteristic of real waves. Here, the effects of such
occurrences on the statistics described by the standard second-order
stochastic model are examined theoretically and by way of
simulations. Theoretical results and simulations indicate that when
spurious occurrences are sufficiently large, the standard model leads
to physically unrealistic surface features and inaccuracies in the
statistics of various surface features, in particular, the troughs and
thus zero-crossing heights of large waves. Whereas inaccuracies can
be fairly noticeable for long-crested waves in both deep and
shallower depths, they tend to become relatively insignificant in
directional waves.
Abstract: The availability of broadband internet and increased
access to computers has been instrumental in the rise of internet
literacy in Malaysia. This development has led to the adoption of
online shopping by many Malaysians. On another note, the
Government has supported the development and production of local
herbal products. This has resulted in an increase in the production and
diversity of products by SMEs. The purpose of this study is to
evaluate the influence of the Malaysian demographic factors and
selected attitudinal characteristics in relation to the online purchasing
of herbal products. In total, 1054 internet users were interviewed
online and Chi-square analysis was used to determine the relationship
between demographic variables and different aspects of online
shopping for herbal products. The overall results show that the
demographic variables such as age, gender, education level, income
and ethnicity were significant when considering the online shopping
antecedents of trust, quality of herbal products, perceived risks and
perceived benefits.
Abstract: In sport, human resources management gives special
attention to method of applying volunteers, their maintenance, and
participation of volunteers with each other and management
approaches for better operation of events celebrants. The recognition
of volunteers- characteristics and motives is important to notice,
because it makes the basis of their participation and commitment at
sport environment. The motivation and commitment of 281
volunteers were assessed using the organizational commitment scale,
motivation scale and personal characteristics questionnaire.The
descriptive results showed that; 64% of volunteers were women with
age average 21/24 years old. They were physical education student,
single (71/9%), without occupation (53%) and with average of 5
years sport experience. Their most important motivation was career
factor and the most important commitment factor was normative
factor. The results of examining the hypothesized showed that; age,
sport experience and education are effective in the amount of
volunteers- commitment. And the motive factors such as career,
material, purposive and protective factors also have the power to
predict the amount of sports volunteers- commitment value.
Therefore it is recommended to provide possible opportunities for
volunteers and carrying out appropriate instructional courses by
events executive managers.
Abstract: The birdhouses and dovecotes, which are the indicator
of naturalness and human-animal relationship, are one of the
traditional cultural values of Turkey. With their structures compatible
with nature and respectful to humans the bird houses and dovecotes,
which have an important position in local urbanization models as a
representative of the civil architecture with their unique form and
function are important subjects that should be evaluated in a wide
frame comprising from architecture to urbanism, from ecologic
agriculture to globalization. The traditional bird houses and
dovecotes are disregarded due to the insensitivity affecting the city
life and the change in the public sense of art. In this study, the
characteristic properties of traditional dovecotes and birdhouses,
started in 13th century and ended in 19th century in Anatolia, are
tried to be defined for the sustainability of the tradition and for giving
a new direction to the designers.
Abstract: An effective approach for unbalanced three-phase
distribution power flow solutions is proposed in this paper. The
special topological characteristics of distribution networks have been
fully utilized to make the direct solution possible. Two matrices–the
bus-injection to branch-current matrix and the branch-current to busvoltage
matrix– and a simple matrix multiplication are used to
obtain power flow solutions. Due to the distinctive solution
techniques of the proposed method, the time-consuming LU
decomposition and forward/backward substitution of the Jacobian
matrix or admittance matrix required in the traditional power flow
methods are no longer necessary. Therefore, the proposed method is
robust and time-efficient. Test results demonstrate the validity of the
proposed method. The proposed method shows great potential to be
used in distribution automation applications.
Abstract: In the globalized e-learning environment, students coming from different cultures and countries have different characteristics and require different support designed for their approaches to study and learning styles. This paper explores the ways in which cultural background influences students- approaches to study and learning styles. Participants in the study consisted of 131 eastern students and 54 western students from an Australian university. The students were tested using the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) for assessing their approaches to study and the Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire (ILS) for assessing their learning styles. The results of the study led to a set of principles being proposed to guide personalization of e-learning system design on the basis of cultural differences.
Abstract: Acoustical properties of speech have been shown to
be related to mental states of speaker with symptoms: depression
and remission. This paper describes way to address the issue of
distinguishing depressed patients from remitted subjects based on
measureable acoustics change of their spoken sound. The vocal-tract
related frequency characteristics of speech samples from female
remitted and depressed patients were analyzed via speech
processing techniques and consequently, evaluated statistically by
cross-validation with Support Vector Machine. Our results
comparatively show the classifier's performance with effectively
correct separation of 93% determined from testing with the subjectbased
feature model and 88% from the frame-based model based on
the same speech samples collected from hospital visiting interview
sessions between patients and psychiatrists.
Abstract: After the Terengganu state government decided to give a boost in teaching and learning through the allocation of free ebooks to all Primary five and six students; it was time to examine the presence of e-books in the classrooms. A survey was conducted on 101 students to determine how they felt about using the e-book and their experiences. It was discovered that a majority of these students liked using the e-book. However, although they had little problems using the e-book and the e-book helped to lighten the schoolbags, these new-age textbooks were not fully utilized. It is implied that perhaps the school administrators, teachers and students may not be able to overcome the unfamiliar characteristics of the e-book and its limitations.
Abstract: Buildings are one of the valuable assets to provide
people with shelters for work, leisure and rest. After years of
attacks by weather, buildings will deteriorate which need proper
maintenance in order to fulfill the requirements and satisfaction of
the users. Poorly managed buildings not just give a negative image
to the city itself, but also pose potential risk hazards to the health
and safety of the general public. As a result, the management of
maintenance projects has played an important role in cities like
Hong Kong where the problem of urban decay has drawn much
attention. However, most research has focused on managing new
construction, and little research effort has been put on maintenance
projects. Given the short duration and more diversified nature of
work, repair and maintenance works are found to be more difficult
to monitor and regulate when compared with new works. Project
participants may face with problems in running maintenance
projects which should be investigated so that proper strategies can
be established. This paper aims to provide a thorough analysis on
the problems of running maintenance projects. A review of
literature on the characteristics of building maintenance projects
was firstly conducted, which forms a solid basis for the empirical
study. Results on the problems and difficulties of running
maintenance projects from the viewpoints of industry practitioners
will also be delivered with a view to formulating effective
strategies for managing maintenance projects successfully.
Abstract: In recent years in Kazakhstan, as well as in all countries, we have been talking not only about the professional stress, but also professional Burnout Syndrome of employees. Burnout is essentially a response to chronic emotional stress – manifests itself in the form of chronic fatigue, despondency, unmotivated aggression, anger, and others. This condition is due to mental fatigue among teachers as a sort of payment for overstrain when professional commitments include the impact of “heat your soul", emotional investment. The emergence of professional Burnout among teachers is due to the system of interrelated and mutually reinforcing factors relating to the various levels of the personality: individually-psychological level is psychodynamic special subject characteristics of valuemotivational sphere and formation of skills and habits of selfregulation; the socio-psychological level includes especially the Organization and interpersonal interaction of a teacher. Signs of the Burnout were observed in 15 testees, and virtually a symptom could be observed in every teacher. As a result of the diagnosis 48% of teachers had the signs of stress (phase syndrome), resulting in a sense of anxiety, mood, heightened emotional susceptibility. The following results have also been got:-the fall of General energy potential – 14 pers. -Psychosomatic and psycho vegetative syndrome – 26 pers. -emotional deficit-34 pers. -emotional Burnout Syndrome-6 pers. The problem of professional Burnout of teachers in the current conditions should become not only meaningful, but particularly relevant. The quality of education of the younger generation depends on professional development; teachers- training level, and how “healthy" teachers are. That is why the systematic maintenance of pedagogic-professional development for teachers (including disclosure of professional Burnout Syndrome factors) takes on a special meaning.
Abstract: The ever increasing product diversity and competition on the market of goods and services has dictated the pace of growth in the number of advertisements. Despite their admittedly diminished effectiveness over the recent years, advertisements remain the favored method of sales promotion. Consequently, the challenge for an advertiser is to explore every possible avenue of making an advertisement more noticeable, attractive and impellent for consumers. One way to achieve this is through invoking celebrity endorsements. On the one hand, the use of a celebrity to endorse a product involves substantial costs, however, on the other hand, it does not immediately guarantee the success of an advertisement. The question of how celebrities can be used in advertising to the best advantage is therefore of utmost importance. Celebrity endorsements have become commonplace: empirical evidence indicates that approximately 20 to 25 per cent of advertisements feature some famous person as a product endorser. The popularity of celebrity endorsements demonstrates the relevance of the topic, especially in the context of the current global economic downturn, when companies are forced to save in order to survive, yet simultaneously to heavily invest in advertising and sales promotion. The issue of the effective use of celebrity endorsements also figures prominently in the academic discourse. The study presented below is thus aimed at exploring what qualities (characteristics) of a celebrity endorser have an impact on the ffectiveness of the advertisement in which he/she appears and how.
Abstract: In industry, on of the most important subjects is die
and it's characteristics in which for cutting and forming different
mechanical pieces, various punch and matrix metal die are used.
whereas the common parts which form the main frame die are not
often proportion with pieces and dies therefore using a part as socalled
common part for frames in specified dimension ranges can
decrease the time of designing, occupied space of warehouse and
manufacturing costs. Parts in dies with getting uniform in their shape
and dimension make common parts of dies. Common parts of punch
and matrix metal die are as bolster, guide bush, guide pillar and
shank. In this paper the common parts and effective parameters in
selecting each of them as the primary information are studied,
afterward for selection and design of mechanical parts an
introduction and investigation based on the Mech. Desk. software is
done hence with developing this software can standardize the metal
common parts of punch and matrix. These studies will be so useful
for designer in their designing and also using it has with very much
advantage for manufactures of products in decreasing occupied
spaces by dies.
Abstract: Pulse code modulation is a widespread technique
in digital communication with significant impact on existing
modern and proposed future communication technologies. Its
widespread utilization is due to its simplicity and attractive
spectral characteristics. In this paper, we present a new
approach to the spectral analysis of PCM signals using
Riemann-Stieltjes integrals, which is very accurate for high bit
rates. This approach can serve as a model for similar spectral
analysis of other competing modulation schemes.
Abstract: High level and high velocity flood flows are
potentially harmful to bridge piers as evidenced in many toppled
piers, and among them the single-column piers were considered as
the most vulnerable. The flood flow characteristic parameters
including drag coefficient, scouring and vortex shedding are built into
a pier-flood interaction model to investigate structural safety against
flood hazards considering the effects of local scouring, hydrodynamic
forces, and vortex induced resonance vibrations. By extracting the
pier-flood simulation results embedded in a neural networks code,
two cases of pier toppling occurred in typhoon days were reexamined:
(1) a bridge overcome by flash flood near a mountain side;
(2) a bridge washed off in flood across a wide channel near the
estuary. The modeling procedures and simulations are capable of
identifying the probable causes for the tumbled bridge piers during
heavy floods, which include the excessive pier bending moments and
resonance in structural vibrations.
Abstract: Fossil fuels are the major source to meet the world
energy requirements but its rapidly diminishing rate and adverse
effects on our ecological system are of major concern. Renewable
energy utilization is the need of time to meet the future challenges.
Ocean energy is the one of these promising energy resources. Threefourths
of the earth-s surface is covered by the oceans. This enormous
energy resource is contained in the oceans- waters, the air above the
oceans, and the land beneath them. The renewable energy source of
ocean mainly is contained in waves, ocean current and offshore solar
energy. Very fewer efforts have been made to harness this reliable
and predictable resource. Harnessing of ocean energy needs detail
knowledge of underlying mathematical governing equation and their
analysis. With the advent of extra ordinary computational resources
it is now possible to predict the wave climatology in lab simulation.
Several techniques have been developed mostly stem from numerical
analysis of Navier Stokes equations. This paper presents a brief over
view of such mathematical model and tools to understand and
analyze the wave climatology. Models of 1st, 2nd and 3rd generations
have been developed to estimate the wave characteristics to assess the
power potential. A brief overview of available wave energy
technologies is also given. A novel concept of on-shore wave energy
extraction method is also presented at the end. The concept is based
upon total energy conservation, where energy of wave is transferred
to the flexible converter to increase its kinetic energy. Squeezing
action by the external pressure on the converter body results in
increase velocities at discharge section. High velocity head then can
be used for energy storage or for direct utility of power generation.
This converter utilizes the both potential and kinetic energy of the
waves and designed for on-shore or near-shore application. Increased
wave height at the shore due to shoaling effects increases the
potential energy of the waves which is converted to renewable
energy. This approach will result in economic wave energy
converter due to near shore installation and more dense waves due to
shoaling. Method will be more efficient because of tapping both
potential and kinetic energy of the waves.
Abstract: In this paper we are to find the optimum multiwavelet for compression of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals and then, selecting it for using with SPIHT codec. At present, it is not well known which multiwavelet is the best choice for optimum compression of ECG. In this work, we examine different multiwavelets on 24 sets of ECG data with entirely different characteristics, selected from MIT-BIH database. For assessing the functionality of the different multiwavelets in compressing ECG signals, in addition to known factors such as Compression Ratio (CR), Percent Root Difference (PRD), Distortion (D), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) in compression literature, we also employed the Cross Correlation (CC) criterion for studying the morphological relations between the reconstructed and the original ECG signal and Signal to reconstruction Noise Ratio (SNR). The simulation results show that the Cardinal Balanced Multiwavelet (cardbal2) by the means of identity (Id) prefiltering method to be the best effective transformation. After finding the most efficient multiwavelet, we apply SPIHT coding algorithm on the transformed signal by this multiwavelet.