Abstract: A clay soil classified as A-7-6 and CH soil according
to AASHTO and unified soil classification system respectively, was
stabilized using A-3 soil (AASHTO soil classification system). The
clay soil was replaced with 0%, 10%, 20%, to 100% A-3 soil,
compacted at both British Standard Light (BSL) and British Standard
Heavy (BSH) compaction energy levels and using Unconfined
Compressive Strength (UCS) as evaluation criteria. The Maximum
Dry Density (MDD) of the treated soils at both the BSL and BSH
compaction energy levels showed increase from 0% to 40% A-3 soil
replacement after which the values reduced to 100% replacement.
The trend of the Optimum Moisture Content (OMC) with varied A-3
soil replacement was similar to that of MDD but in a reversed order.
The OMC reduced from 0% to 40% A-3 soil replacement after which
the values increased to 100% replacement. This trend was attributed
to the observed reduction in void ratio from 0% to 40% replacement
after which the void ratio increased to 100% replacement. The
maximum UCS for the soil at varied A-3 soil replacement increased
from 272 and 770 kN/m2 for BSL and BSH compaction energy level
at 0% replacement to 295 and 795 kN/m2 for BSL and BSH
compaction energy level respectively at 10% replacement after which
the values reduced to 22 and 60 kN/m2 for BSL and BSH compaction
energy level respectively at 70% replacement. Beyond 70%
replacement, the mixtures could not be moulded for UCS test.
Abstract: In this paper, we describe an application for face
recognition. Many studies have used local descriptors to characterize
a face, the performance of these local descriptors remain low by
global descriptors (working on the entire image). The application of
local descriptors (cutting image into blocks) must be able to store
both the advantages of global and local methods in the Discrete
Cosine Transform (DCT) domain. This system uses neural network
techniques. The letter method provides a good compromise between
the two approaches in terms of simplifying of calculation and
classifying performance. Finally, we compare our results with those
obtained from other local and global conventional approaches.
Abstract: The traditional rhythms of the West African country
of Guinea have played a centuries-long role in defining the different
people groups that make up the country. Throughout their history,
before and since colonization by the French, the different ethnicities
have used their traditional music as a distinct part of their historical
identities. That is starting to change. Guinea is an impoverished
nation created in the early twentieth-century with little regard for the
history and cultures of the people who were included. The traditional
rhythms of the different people groups and their heritages have
remained. Fifteen individual traditional Guinean rhythms were
chosen to represent popular rhythms from the four geographical
regions of Guinea. Each rhythm was traced back to its native village
and video recorded on-site by as many different local performing
groups as could be located. The cyclical patterns rhythms were
transcribed via a circular, spatial design and then copied into a box
notation system where sounds happening at the same time could be
studied. These rhythms were analyzed for their consistency-overperformance
in a Fundamental Rhythm Pattern analysis so rhythms
could be compared for how they are changing through different
performances. The analysis showed that the traditional rhythm
performances of the Middle and Forest Guinea regions were the most
cohesive and showed the least evidence of change between
performances. The role of music in each of these regions is both
limited and focused. The Coastal and High Guinea regions have
much in common historically through their ethnic history and
modern-day trade connections, but the rhythm performances seem to
be less consistent and demonstrate more changes in how they are
performed today. In each of these regions the role and usage of music
is much freer and wide-spread. In spite of advances being made as a
country, different ethnic groups still frequently only respond and
participate (dance and sing) to the music of their native ethnicity.
There is some evidence that this self-imposed musical barrier is
beginning to change and evolve, partially through the development of
better roads, more access to electricity and technology, the nationwide
Ebola health crisis, and a growing self-identification as a
unified nation.
Abstract: In this paper, we present an application of Riemannian
geometry for processing non-Euclidean image data. We consider the
image as residing in a Riemannian manifold, for developing a new
method to brain edge detection and brain extraction. Automating this
process is a challenge due to the high diversity in appearance brain
tissue, among different patients and sequences. The main contribution, in this paper, is the use of an edge-based
anisotropic diffusion tensor for the segmentation task by integrating
both image edge geometry and Riemannian manifold (geodesic,
metric tensor) to regularize the convergence contour and extract
complex anatomical structures. We check the accuracy of the
segmentation results on simulated brain MRI scans of single
T1-weighted, T2-weighted and Proton Density sequences. We
validate our approach using two different databases: BrainWeb
database, and MRI Multiple sclerosis Database (MRI MS DB). We
have compared, qualitatively and quantitatively, our approach with
the well-known brain extraction algorithms. We show that using
a Riemannian manifolds to medical image analysis improves the
efficient results to brain extraction, in real time, outperforming the
results of the standard techniques.
Abstract: The aim of the study is to compare behavioral and
EEG reactions in Turkic-speaking inhabitants of Siberia (Tuvinians
and Yakuts) and Russians during the recognition of syntax errors in
native and foreign languages. Sixty-three healthy aboriginals of the
Tyva Republic, 29 inhabitants of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, and
55 Russians from Novosibirsk participated in the study. EEG were
recorded during execution of error-recognition task in Russian and
English language (in all participants) and in native languages
(Tuvinian or Yakut Turkic-speaking inhabitants). Reaction time (RT)
and quality of task execution were chosen as behavioral measures.
Amplitude and cortical distribution of P300 and P600 peaks of ERP
were used as a measure of speech-related brain activity. In Tuvinians,
there were no differences in the P300 and P600 amplitudes as well as
in cortical topology for Russian and Tuvinian languages, but there
was a difference for English. In Yakuts, the P300 and P600
amplitudes and topology of ERP for Russian language were the same
as Russians had for native language. In Yakuts, brain reactions during
Yakut and English language comprehension had no difference, while
the Russian language comprehension was differed from both Yakut
and English. We found out that the Tuvinians recognized both Russian and
Tuvinian as native languages, and English as a foreign language. The
Yakuts recognized both English and Yakut as foreign languages, but
Russian as a native language. According to the inquirer, both
Tuvinians and Yakuts use the national language as a spoken
language, whereas they do not use it for writing. It can well be a
reason that Yakuts perceive the Yakut writing language as a foreign
language while writing Russian as their native.
Abstract: Software testing has become a mandatory process in
assuring the software product quality. Hence, test management is
needed in order to manage the test activities conducted in the
software test life cycle. This paper discusses on the challenges faced
in the software test life cycle, and how the test processes and test
activities, mainly on test cases creation, test execution, and test
reporting is being managed and automated using several test
automation tools, i.e. Jira, Robot Framework, and Jenkins.
Abstract: Electronic mediums such as websites, feeds, blogs and
social media sites are on a daily basis influencing our decision
making, are improving our productivity and are shaping futures of
many consumers and service/product providers. This research
identifies that both customers and business providers heavily rely on
smart phone applications. Based on this, mobile applications
available on iTunes store were studied. It was identified that fruit and
vegetable related applications used by consumers can broadly be
categorized into purchase applications, diaries, tracking health
applications, trip farm location and cooking applications. On the
other hand, applications used by farmers can broadly be classified as:
weather tracking, pests / fertilizer applications and general social
media applications such as Facebook. To blur this farmer-consumer
application divide, our research utilizes Context Specific
eTransformation Framework and based on it identifies characteristic
future consumer-farmer applications will need to have so that the
current divide can be narrowed and consequently better farmerconsumer
supply chain link established.
Abstract: The last two decades witnessed a movement towards
harmonization of international financial reporting standards (IFRS)
throughout the global economy. This investigation seeks to identify
the factors that could explain the adoption of IFRS by poor
jurisdictions. While there has been a considerable amount of
literature published on the effects and key drivers of IFRS adoption
in both developed and developing countries, little attention has been
paid to jurisdictions with less developed capital markets and low
income levels exclusively. Drawing upon the Institutional Isomorphism theory and analyzing
a sample of 45 poor jurisdictions between 2008 and 2013, the study
empirically shows that poor jurisdictions are driven by legitimacy
concerns rather than by economic reasoning to adopt an international
accounting perspective. This in turn has implications for the IASB, as
it should seek to influence institutional pressures within a particular
jurisdiction in order to promote IFRS adoption.
Abstract: Hydrogels are three-dimensional, hydrophilic,
polymeric networks composed of homopolymers or copolymers and
are insoluble in water due to the presence of chemical or physical
cross-links. When hydrogels come in contact with aqueous solutions,
they can effectively sorb and retain the dissolved substances,
depending on the nature of the monomeric units comprising the
hydrogel. For this reason, hydrogels have been proposed in several
studies as water purification agents. At the present work anionic
hydrogels bearing negatively charged –COO- groups were prepared
and investigated. These gels are based on sodium acrylate (ANa),
either homopolymerized (poly(sodiumacrylate), PANa) or
copolymerized (P(DMAM-co-ANa)) with N,N Dimethylacrylamide
(DMAM). The hydrogels were used to extract some model organic
dyes from water. It is found that cationic dyes are strongly sorbed and
retained by the hydrogels, while sorption of anionic dyes was
negligible. In all cases it was found that both maximum sorption
capacity and equilibrium binding constant varied from one dye to the
other depending on the chemical structure of the dye, the presence of
functional chemical groups and the hydrophobic-hydrophilic balance.
Finally, the nonionic hydrogel of the homopolymer poly(N,Ndimethylacrylamide),
PDMAM, was also used for reasons of
comparison.
Abstract: Revenue leakages are one of the major challenges
manufacturers face in production processes, as most of the input
materials that should emanate as products from the lines are lost as
waste. Rather than generating income from material input which is
meant to end-up as products, losses are further incurred as costs in
order to manage waste generated. In addition, due to the lack of a
clear view of the flow of resources on the lines from input to output
stage, acquiring information on the true cost of waste generated have
become a challenge. This has therefore given birth to the
conceptualization and implementation of waste minimization
strategies by several manufacturing industries. This paper reviews the
principles and applications of three environmental management
accounting tools namely Activity-based Costing (ABC), Life-Cycle
Assessment (LCA) and Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) in
the manufacturing industry and their effectiveness in curbing revenue
leakages. The paper unveils the strengths and limitations of each of
the tools; beaming a searchlight on the tool that could allow for
optimal resource utilization, transparency in production process as
well as improved cost efficiency. Findings from this review reveal
that MFCA may offer superior advantages with regards to the
provision of more detailed information (both in physical and
monetary terms) on the flow of material inputs throughout the
production process compared to the other environmental accounting
tools. This paper therefore makes a case for the adoption of MFCA as
a viable technique for the identification and reduction of waste in
production processes, and also for effective decision making by
production managers, financial advisors and other relevant
stakeholders.
Abstract: This paper evaluates the accrual based scheduling for
cloud in single and multi-resource system. Numerous organizations
benefit from Cloud computing by hosting their applications. The
cloud model provides needed access to computing with potentially
unlimited resources. Scheduling is tasks and resources mapping to a
certain optimal goal principle. Scheduling, schedules tasks to virtual
machines in accordance with adaptable time, in sequence under
transaction logic constraints. A good scheduling algorithm improves
CPU use, turnaround time, and throughput. In this paper, three realtime
cloud services scheduling algorithm for single resources and
multiple resources are investigated. Experimental results show
Resource matching algorithm performance to be superior for both
single and multi-resource scheduling when compared to benefit first
scheduling, Migration, Checkpoint algorithms.
Abstract: In this numerical study, effects of using Al2O3-water
nanofluid on the rate of heat transfer have been investigated. Physical
model is a square enclosure with insulated top and bottom horizontal
walls, while the vertical walls are kept at different constant
temperatures. Two appropriate models are used to evaluate the
viscosity and thermal conductivity of nanofluid. The governing
stream-vorticity equations are solved using a second order central
finite difference scheme, coupled to the conservation of mass and
energy. The study has been carried out for the nanoparticle diameter
30, 60 and 90 nm and the solid volume fraction 0 to 0.04. Results are
presented by average Nusselt number and normalized Nusselt number
in different range of φ and D for mixed convection dominated
regime. It is found that different heat transfer rate is predicted when
the effect of nanoparticle diameter is taken into account.
Abstract: This study was conducted to investigate the extent
with which knowledge of results influences the performance of
cricket players. A sample of 160 fresh students in the Department of
Physical and Health Education who are novice in the game were
randomly assigned into two groups. The first group of eighty (80)
subjects was classified as experimental group while the second group
of eighty (80) subjects was the control group. Subjects in both groups
were asked to bowl and bat ten times each for a period of six weeks.
After the first round, the subjects in the experimental group were
allowed feedback on their performance in the first trial while those in
the control group were denied feedback. Two null hypotheses
generated for the study were tested using percentages and chi-square
statistical analysis at 0.05 level of significance. Analysis of data
showed that knowledge of results influenced the performance of
cricket players. It was concluded that knowledge of results is
pertinent for effective skill acquisition and could enhance better
performance among unskilled cricket players. Hence, it is suggested
that immediate feedback on the level of skill acquisition by the
prospective and unskilled cricket players would inspire them for
better performance in cricket tournaments.
Abstract: This study focuses on the hydro-geology and chemical
constituents analysis of Ikogosi Warm Spring waters in South West
Nigeria. Ikogosi warm spring is a global tourist attraction because it
has both warm and cold spring sources. Water samples from the cold
spring, warm spring and the meeting point were collected, analyzed
and the result shows close similarity in temperature, hydrogen iron
concentration (pH), alkalinity, hardness, Calcium, Magnesium,
Sodium, Iron, total dissolved solid and heavy metals. The measured
parameters in the water samples are within World Health
Organisation standards for fresh water. The study of the geology of
the warm spring reveals that the study area is underlain by a group of
slightly migmatised to non-migmatised paraschists and meta-igneous
rocks. Also, concentration levels of selected heavy metals, (Copper,
Cadmium, Zinc, Arsenic and Cromium) were determined in the water
(ppm) samples. Chromium had the highest concentration value of
1.52ppm (an average of 49.67%) and Cadmium had the lowest
concentration with value of 0.15ppm (an average of 4.89%).
Comparison of these results showed that, their mean levels are within
the standard values obtained in Nigeria. It can be concluded that both
warm and spring water are safe for drinking.
Abstract: This paper integrates Octagon and Square Search
pattern (OCTSS) motion estimation algorithm into H.264/AVC
(Advanced Video Coding) video codec in Adaptive Group of Pictures
(AGOP) mode. AGOP structure is computed based on scene change
in the video sequence. Octagon and square search pattern block-based
motion estimation method is implemented in inter-prediction process
of H.264/AVC. Both these methods reduce bit rate and computational
complexity while maintaining the quality of the video sequence
respectively. Experiments are conducted for different types of video
sequence. The results substantially proved that the bit rate,
computation time and PSNR gain achieved by the proposed method
is better than the existing H.264/AVC with fixed GOP and AGOP.
With a marginal gain in quality of 0.28dB and average gain in bitrate
of 132.87kbps, the proposed method reduces the average computation
time by 27.31 minutes when compared to the existing state-of-art
H.264/AVC video codec.
Abstract: The present study focused on the investigation of the
effects of roughness elements on heat transfer during natural
convection in a rectangular cavity using numerical technique.
Roughness elements were introduced on the bottom hot wall with a
normalized amplitude (A*/H) of 0.1. Thermal and hydrodynamic
behaviors were studied using computational method based on Lattice
Boltzmann method (LBM). Numerical studies were performed for a
laminar flow in the range of Rayleigh number (Ra) from 103 to 106
for a rectangular cavity of aspect ratio (L/H) 2.0 with a fluid of
Prandtl number (Pr) 1.0. The presence of the sinusoidal roughness
elements caused a minimum to maximum decrease in the heat
transfer as 7% to 17% respectively compared to smooth enclosure.
The results are presented for mean Nusselt number (Nu), isotherms
and streamlines.
Abstract: In the last decade the emergence of new social needs
as an effect of the economic crisis has stimulated the flourishing of
business endeavours characterised by explicit social goals. Social
start-ups, social enterprises or Corporate Social Responsibility
operations carried out by traditional companies are quintessential
examples in this regard. This paper analyses these kinds of initiatives
in order to discover the main characteristics of social business models
and to provide insights to social entrepreneurs for developing or
improving their strategies. The research is conducted through the
integration of literature review and case study analysis and, thanks to
the recognition of the importance of both profits and social impacts
as the key success factors for a social business model, proposes a
framework for identifying indicators suitable for measuring the social
impacts generated.
Abstract: The Green Urban Lab took the form of public
installations that were placed at various locations in four cities in
Cyprus. These installations - through which a series of events,
activities, workshops and research took place - were the main tools in
regenerating a series of urban public spaces in Cyprus. The purpose
of this project was to identify issues and opportunities related to
public space and to offer guidelines on how design and participatory
democracy improvements could strengthen civil society, while
raising the quality of the urban public scene. Giant inflatable
structures were injected in important urban fragments in order to
accommodate series of events. The design and playful installation
generated a wide community engagement. The fluid presence of the
installations acted as a catalyst for social interaction. They were
accessed and viewed effortlessly and surprisingly, creating
opportunities to rediscover public spaces.
Abstract: A mixed method for model order reduction is
presented in this paper. The denominator polynomial is derived by
matching both Markov parameters and time moments, whereas
numerator polynomial derivation and error minimization is done
using Genetic Algorithm. The efficiency of the proposed method can
be investigated in terms of closeness of the response of reduced order
model with respect to that of higher order original model and a
comparison of the integral square error as well.
Abstract: The reheating furnace is used to reheat the steel slabs
before the hot-rolling process. The supported system includes the
stationary/moving beams, and the skid buttons which block some
thermal radiation transmitted to the bottom of the slabs. Therefore, it is
important to analyze the steel slab temperature distribution during the
heating period. A three-dimensional mathematical transient heat
transfer model for the prediction of temperature distribution within the
slab has been developed. The effects of different skid button height
(H=60mm, 90mm, and 120mm) and different gap distance between
two slabs (S=50mm, 75mm, and 100mm) on the slab skid mark
formation and temperature profiles are investigated. Comparison with
the in-situ experimental data from Steel Company in Taiwan shows
that the present heat transfer model works well for the prediction of
thermal behavior of the slab in the reheating furnace. It is found that
the skid mark severity decreases with an increase in the skid button
height. The effect of gap distance is important only for the slab edge
planes, while it is insignificant for the slab central planes.