Abstract: The market transformation in Kazakhstan during the
last two decades has essentially strengthened a gap between
development of urban and rural areas. Implementation of market
institutes, transition from public financing to paid rendering of social
services, change of forms of financing of social and economic
infrastructure have led to strengthening of an economic inequality of
social groups, including growth of stratification of the city and the
village. Sociological survey of urban and rural households in Almaty
city and villages of Almaty region has been carried out within the
international research project “Livelihoods Strategies of Private
Households in Central Asia: A Rural–Urban Comparison in
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan" (Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan).
The analysis of statistical data and results of sociological research of
urban and rural households allows us to reveal issues of territorial
development, to investigate an availability of medical, educational
and other services in the city and the village, to reveal an evaluation
urban and rural dwellers of living conditions, to compare economic
strategies of households in the city and the village.
Abstract: Curriculum is one of the most important inputs in higher education system and for knowing the strong and weak spots of it we need evaluation. The main purpose of this study was to survey of the curriculum quality of Insurance Management field. Case: University of Allameh Taba Tabaee(according to view point of students,alumni,employer and faculty members).Descriptive statistics (mean, tables, percentages, frequency distribution) and inferential statistics (CHI SQUARE) were used to analyze the data. Six criterions considered for the Quality of curriculum: objectives, content, teaching and learning methods, space and facilities, Time, assessment of learning. objectives, teaching and learning methods criterions was desirable level, content criteria was undesirable level, space and facilities, time and assessment of learning were rather desirable level. The quality of curriculum of insurance management field was relatively desirable level.
Abstract: In this paper a combined feature selection method is
proposed which takes advantages of sample domain filtering,
resampling and feature subset evaluation methods to reduce
dimensions of huge datasets and select reliable features. This method
utilizes both feature space and sample domain to improve the process
of feature selection and uses a combination of Chi squared with
Consistency attribute evaluation methods to seek reliable features.
This method consists of two phases. The first phase filters and
resamples the sample domain and the second phase adopts a hybrid
procedure to find the optimal feature space by applying Chi squared,
Consistency subset evaluation methods and genetic search.
Experiments on various sized datasets from UCI Repository of
Machine Learning databases show that the performance of five
classifiers (Naïve Bayes, Logistic, Multilayer Perceptron, Best First
Decision Tree and JRIP) improves simultaneously and the
classification error for these classifiers decreases considerably. The
experiments also show that this method outperforms other feature
selection methods.
Abstract: The rapid advance of communication technology is
evolving the network environment into the broadband convergence
network. Likewise, the IT services operated in the individual network
are also being quickly converged in the broadband convergence
network environment. VoIP and IPTV are two examples of such new
services. Efforts are being made to develop the video phone service,
which is an advanced form of the voice-oriented VoIP service.
However, the new IT services will be subject to stability and reliability
vulnerabilities if the relevant security issues are not answered during
the convergence of the existing IT services currently being operated in
individual networks within the wider broadband network
environment. To resolve such problems, this paper attempts to analyze
the possible threats and identify the necessary security measures
before the deployment of the new IT services. Furthermore, it
measures the quality of the encryption algorithm application example
to describe the appropriate algorithm in order to present security
technology that will have no negative impact on the quality of the
video phone service.
Abstract: Existing experiences indicate that one of the most
prominent reasons that some ERP implementations fail is related to
selecting an improper ERP package. Among those important factors
resulting in inappropriate ERP selections, one is to ignore preliminary
activities that should be done before the evaluation of ERP packages.
Another factor yielding these unsuitable selections is that usually
organizations employ prolonged and costly selection processes in
such extent that sometimes the process would never be finalized
or sometimes the evaluation team might perform many key final
activities in an incomplete or inaccurate way due to exhaustion, lack
of interest or out-of-date data. In this paper, a systematic approach
that recommends some activities to be done before and after the
main selection phase is introduced for choosing an ERP package. On
the other hand, the proposed approach has utilized some ideas that
accelerates the selection process at the same time that reduces the
probability of an erroneous final selection.
Abstract: When designing information systems that deal with
large amount of domain knowledge, system designers need to consider
ambiguities of labeling termsin domain vocabulary for navigating
users in the information space. The goal of this study is to develop a
methodology for system designers to label navigation items, taking
account of ambiguities stems from synonyms or polysemes of labeling
terms. In this paper, we propose a method for concept labeling based
on mappings between domain ontology andthesaurus, and report
results of an empirical evaluation.
Abstract: Despite the extensive use of eLearning systems, there
is no consensus on a standard framework for evaluating this kind of
quality system. Hence, there is only a minimum set of tools that can
supervise this judgment and gives information about the course
content value. This paper presents two kinds of quality set evaluation
indicators for eLearning courses based on the computational process
of three known metrics, the Euclidian, Hamming and Levenshtein
distances. The “distance" calculus is applied to standard evaluation
templates (i.e. the European Commission Programme procedures vs.
the AFNOR Z 76-001 Standard), determining a reference point in the
evaluation of the e-learning course quality vs. the optimal concept(s).
The case study, based on the results of project(s) developed in the
framework of the European Programme “Leonardo da Vinci", with
Romanian contractors, try to put into evidence the benefits of such a
method.
Abstract: This paper presents a large scale, quantitative investigation of the impact of discipline differences on the student experience of using an online learning environment (OLE). Based on a representative sample of 2526 respondents, a number of significant differences in the mean rating by broad discipline area of the importance of, and satisfaction with, a range of elements of an OLE were found. Broadly speaking, the Arts and Science and Technology discipline areas reported the lowest importance and satisfaction ratings for the OLE, while the Health and Behavioural Sciences area was the most satisfied with the OLE. A number of specific, systematic discipline differences are reported and discussed. Compared to the observed significant differences in mean importance ratings, there were fewer significant differences in mean satisfaction ratings, and those that were observed were less systematic than for importance ratings.
Abstract: Visible Light Communication (VLC) offers advantages of low energy consumption, licence free and RF interference free operation. One application area for VLC is in the provision of health centred services circumventing issues of interference with any biomedical device within the environment. VLC performamce is affected by natural light restricting systems avilability and relibility. The paper presents an analysis of the performance of VLC systems under different meteorological conditions. The evaluation considered the impact of natural light as a function of different reflection surfaces in different room sizes.
Abstract: White scar oyster (Crassostrea belcheri) is often eaten
raw and being the leading vehicle for foodborne disease, especially
Salmonella Weltevreden which exposed the prominent and most
resistant to radiation. Gamma irradiation at a low dose of 1 kGy was
enough to eliminate S. Weltevreden contaminated in oyster meat at a
level up to 5 log CFU/g while it still retain the raw characteristics and
equivalent sensory quality as the non-irradiated one. Process
development of ready-to-eat chilled oyster meat was conducted by
shucking the meat, individually packed in plastic bags, subjected to 1
kGy gamma radiation at chilled condition and then stored in 4oC
refrigerated temperature. Microbiological determination showed the
absence of S. Weltevreden (5 log CFU/g initial inoculated) along the
whole storage time of 30 days. Sensory evaluation indicated the
decreasing in sensory scores along storage time which determining
the product shelf life to be 18 days compared to 15 days of nonirradiated
one. The most advantage of developed process was to
provide the safe raw oyster to consumers and in addition sensory
quality retained and 3-day extension shelf life also exist.
Abstract: Multimedia courseware has been accepted as a tool
that can support teaching and learning process. 'Li2D' courseware
was developed to assist student-s visualization on the topic of Loci in
Two Dimension. This paper describes an evaluation on the
effectiveness and usability of a 'Li2D' courseware. The quasi
experiment was used for the effectiveness evaluation. Usability
evaluation was accomplished based on four constructs of usability,
namely: efficiency, learnability, screen design and satisfaction. An
evaluation on the multimedia elements was also conducted. A total of
63 students of Form Two are involved in the study. The students are
divided into two groups: control and experimental. The experimental
group had to interact with 'Li2D' courseware as part of the learning
activities while the control group used the conventional learning
methods. The results indicate that the experimental group performed
better than the control group in understanding the Loci in Two
Dimensions topic. In terms of usability, the results showed that the
students agreed on the usability in multimedia elements in the 'Li2D'
courseware.
Abstract: ERP systems are the largest software applications adopted by universities, along with quite significant investments in their implementation. However, unlike other applications little research has been conducted regarding these systems in a university environment. This paper aims at providing a critical review of previous research in ERP system in higher education with a special focus on higher education in Australia. The research not only forms the basis of an evaluation of previous research and research needs, it also makes inroads in identifying the payoff of ERPs in the sector from different perspectives with particular reference to the user. The paper is divided into two parts, the first part focuses on ERP literature in higher education at large, while the second focuses on ERP literature in higher education in Australia.
Abstract: A series of Ti based shape memory alloys with
composition of Ti50Ni49Cr1, Ti50Ni47Cr3 and Ti50Ni45Cr5 were
developed by vacuum arc-melting under a purified argon atmosphere.
The histometric and corrosion evaluation of Ti-Ni-Cr shape memory
alloys have been considered in this research work. The alloys were
developed by vacuum arc melting and implanted subcutaneously in
rabbits for 4, 8 and 12 weeks. Metallic implants were embedded in
order to determine the outcome of implantation on histometric and
corrosion evaluation of Ti-Ni-Cr metallic strips. Encapsulating
membrane formation around the alloys was minimal in the case of all
materials. After histomorphometric analyses it was possible to
demonstrate that there were no statistically significant differences
between the materials. Corrosion rate was also determined in this
study which is within acceptable range. The results showed the Ti-
Ni-Cr alloy was neither cytotoxic, nor have any systemic reaction on
living system in any of the test performed. Implantation shows good
compatibility and a potential of being used directly in vivo system.
Abstract: SoftBoost is a recently presented boosting algorithm,
which trades off the size of achieved classification margin and
generalization performance. This paper presents a performance
evaluation of SoftBoost algorithm on the generic object recognition
problem. An appearance-based generic object recognition
model is used. The evaluation experiments are performed using
a difficult object recognition benchmark. An assessment with respect
to different degrees of label noise as well as a comparison to
the well known AdaBoost algorithm is performed. The obtained
results reveal that SoftBoost is encouraged to be used in cases
when the training data is known to have a high degree of noise.
Otherwise, using Adaboost can achieve better performance.
Abstract: This paper presents a formant-tracking linear prediction
(FTLP) model for speech processing in noise. The main focus of this
work is the detection of formant trajectory based on Hidden Markov
Models (HMM), for improved formant estimation in noise. The
approach proposed in this paper provides a systematic framework for
modelling and utilization of a time- sequence of peaks which satisfies
continuity constraints on parameter; the within peaks are modelled
by the LP parameters. The formant tracking LP model estimation
is composed of three stages: (1) a pre-cleaning multi-band spectral
subtraction stage to reduce the effect of residue noise on formants
(2) estimation stage where an initial estimate of the LP model of
speech for each frame is obtained (3) a formant classification using
probability models of formants and Viterbi-decoders. The evaluation
results for the estimation of the formant tracking LP model tested
in Gaussian white noise background, demonstrate that the proposed
combination of the initial noise reduction stage with formant tracking
and LPC variable order analysis, results in a significant reduction in
errors and distortions. The performance was evaluated with noisy
natual vowels extracted from international french and English vocabulary
speech signals at SNR value of 10dB. In each case, the
estimated formants are compared to reference formants.
Abstract: The need to evaluate and understand the natural
drainage pattern in a flood prone, and fast developing environment is
of paramount importance. This information will go a long way to
help the town planners to determine the drainage pattern, road
networks and areas where prominent structures are to be located. This
research work was carried out with the aim of studying the Bayelsa
landscape topography using digitized topographic information, and to
model the natural drainage flow pattern that will aid the
understanding and constructions of workable drainages. To achieve
this, digitize information of elevation and coordinate points were
extracted from a global imagery map. The extracted information was
modeled into 3D surfaces. The result revealed that the average
elevation for Bayelsa State is 12 m above sea level. The highest
elevation is 28 m, and the lowest elevation 0 m, along the coastline.
In Yenagoa the capital city of Bayelsa were a detail survey was
carried out showed that average elevation is 15 m, the highest
elevation is 25 m and lowest is 3 m above the mean sea level. The
regional elevation in Bayelsa, showed a gradation decrease from the
North Eastern zone to the South Western Zone. Yenagoa showed an
observed elevation lineament, were low depression is flanked by high
elevation that runs from the North East to the South west. Hence,
future drainages in Yenagoa should be directed from the high
elevation, from South East toward the North West and from the
North West toward South East, to the point of convergence which is
at the center that flows from South East toward the North West.
Bayelsa when considered on a regional Scale, the flow pattern is from
the North East to the South West, and also North South. It is
recommended that in the event of any large drainage construction at
municipal scale, it should be directed from North East to the South
West or from North to South. Secondly, detail survey should be
carried out to ascertain the local topography and the drainage pattern
before the design and construction of any drainage system in any part
of Bayelsa.
Abstract: In this paper, we have proposed a low cost optimized solution for the movement of a three-arm manipulator using Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). A scheme is given for optimizing the movement of robotic arm with the help of Genetic Algorithm so that the minimum energy consumption criteria can be achieved. As compared to Direct Kinematics, Inverse Kinematics evolved two solutions out of which the best-fit solution is selected with the help of Genetic Algorithm and is kept in search space for future use. The Inverse Kinematics, Fitness Value evaluation and Binary Encoding like tasks are simulated and tested. Although, three factors viz. Movement, Friction and Least Settling Time (or Min. Vibration) are used for finding the Fitness Function / Fitness Values, however some more factors can also be considered.
Abstract: This paper introduces and studies new indexing techniques for content-based queries in images databases. Indexing is the key to providing sophisticated, accurate and fast searches for queries in image data. This research describes a new indexing approach, which depends on linear modeling of signals, using bases for modeling. A basis is a set of chosen images, and modeling an image is a least-squares approximation of the image as a linear combination of the basis images. The coefficients of the basis images are taken together to serve as index for that image. The paper describes the implementation of the indexing scheme, and presents the findings of our extensive evaluation that was conducted to optimize (1) the choice of the basis matrix (B), and (2) the size of the index A (N). Furthermore, we compare the performance of our indexing scheme with other schemes. Our results show that our scheme has significantly higher performance.
Abstract: This paper introduces an approach to construct a set of criteria for evaluating alternative options. Content analysis was used to collet criterion elements. Then the elements were classified and organized yielding to hierarchic structure. The reliability of the constructed criteria was evaluated in an experiment. Finally the criteria were used to evaluate alternative options indecision-making.
Abstract: Society has grown to rely on Internet services, and the
number of Internet users increases every day. As more and more
users become connected to the network, the window of opportunity
for malicious users to do their damage becomes very great and
lucrative. The objective of this paper is to incorporate different
techniques into classier system to detect and classify intrusion from
normal network packet. Among several techniques, Steady State
Genetic-based Machine Leaning Algorithm (SSGBML) will be used
to detect intrusions. Where Steady State Genetic Algorithm (SSGA),
Simple Genetic Algorithm (SGA), Modified Genetic Algorithm and
Zeroth Level Classifier system are investigated in this research.
SSGA is used as a discovery mechanism instead of SGA. SGA
replaces all old rules with new produced rule preventing old good
rules from participating in the next rule generation. Zeroth Level
Classifier System is used to play the role of detector by matching
incoming environment message with classifiers to determine whether
the current message is normal or intrusion and receiving feedback
from environment. Finally, in order to attain the best results,
Modified SSGA will enhance our discovery engine by using Fuzzy
Logic to optimize crossover and mutation probability. The
experiments and evaluations of the proposed method were performed
with the KDD 99 intrusion detection dataset.