Abstract: This study was conducted to explore the effects of two
countries model comparison program in Taiwan and Singapore in
TIMSS database. The researchers used Multi-Group Hierarchical
Linear Modeling techniques to compare the effects of two different
country models and we tested our hypotheses on 4,046 Taiwan
students and 4,599 Singapore students in 2007 at two levels: the class
level and student (individual) level. Design quality is a class level
variable. Student level variables are achievement and self-confidence.
The results challenge the widely held view that retention has a positive
impact on self-confidence. Suggestions for future research are
discussed.
Abstract: In Multiple Sclerosis, pathological changes in the
brain results in deviations in signal intensity on Magnetic Resonance
Images (MRI). Quantitative analysis of these changes and their
correlation with clinical finding provides important information for
diagnosis. This constitutes the objective of our work. A new approach
is developed. After the enhancement of images contrast and the brain
extraction by mathematical morphology algorithm, we proceed to the
brain segmentation. Our approach is based on building statistical
model from data itself, for normal brain MRI and including clustering
tissue type. Then we detect signal abnormalities (MS lesions) as a
rejection class containing voxels that are not explained by the built
model. We validate the method on MR images of Multiple Sclerosis
patients by comparing its results with those of human expert
segmentation.
Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between
exercise imagery use and level of physical activity within a wide
range of exercisers in Klang valley, Malaysia. One hundred and
twenty four respondents (Mage = 28.92, SD = 9.34) completed two
sets of questionnaires (Exercise Imagery Inventory and Leisure-Time
Exercise Questionnaire) that measure the use of imagery and exercise
frequency of participants. From the result obtained, exercise imagery
is found to be significantly correlated to level of physical activity.
Besides that, variables such as gender, age and ethnicity that may
affect the use of imagery and exercise frequency were also being
assessed in this study. Among all variables, only ethnicity showed
significant difference in level of physical activity (p < 0.05). Findings
in this study suggest that further investigation should be done on
other variables such as socioeconomic, educational level, and selfefficacy
that may affect the imagery use and frequency of physical
activity among exercisers.
Abstract: This article presents the simulation, parameterization and optimization of an electromagnet with the C–shaped configuration, intended for the study of magnetic properties of materials. The electromagnet studied consists of a C-shaped yoke, which provides self–shielding for minimizing losses of magnetic flux density, two poles of high magnetic permeability and power coils wound on the poles. The main physical variable studied was the static magnetic flux density in a column within the gap between the poles, with 4cm2 of square cross section and a length of 5cm, seeking a suitable set of parameters that allow us to achieve a uniform magnetic flux density of 1x104 Gaussor values above this in the column, when the system operates at room temperature and with a current consumption not exceeding 5A. By means of a magnetostatic analysis by the finite element method, the magnetic flux density and the distribution of the magnetic field lines were visualized and quantified. From the results obtained by simulating an initial configuration of electromagnet, a structural optimization of the geometry of the adjustable caps for the ends of the poles was performed. The magnetic permeability effect of the soft magnetic materials used in the poles system, such as low– carbon steel (0.08% C), Permalloy (45% Ni, 54.7% Fe) and Mumetal (21.2% Fe, 78.5% Ni), was also evaluated. The intensity and uniformity of the magnetic field in the gap showed a high dependence with the factors described above. The magnetic field achieved in the column was uniform and its magnitude ranged between 1.5x104 Gauss and 1.9x104 Gauss according to the material of the pole used, with the possibility of increasing the magnetic field by choosing a suitable geometry of the cap, introducing a cooling system for the coils and adjusting the spacing between the poles. This makes the device a versatile and scalable tool to generate the magnetic field necessary to perform magnetic characterization of materials by techniques such as vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), Hall-effect, Kerr-effect magnetometry, among others. Additionally, a CAD design of the modules of the electromagnet is presented in order to facilitate the construction and scaling of the physical device.
Abstract: Active Vibration Control (AVC) is an important
problem in structures. One of the ways to tackle this problem is to
make the structure smart, adaptive and self-controlling. The objective
of active vibration control is to reduce the vibration of a system by
automatic modification of the system-s structural response. This
paper features the modeling and design of a Periodic Output
Feedback (POF) control technique for the active vibration control of
a flexible Timoshenko cantilever beam for a multivariable case with
2 inputs and 2 outputs by retaining the first 2 dominant vibratory
modes using the smart structure concept. The entire structure is
modeled in state space form using the concept of piezoelectric
theory, Timoshenko beam theory, Finite Element Method (FEM) and
the state space techniques. Simulations are performed in MATLAB.
The effect of placing the sensor / actuator at 2 finite element
locations along the length of the beam is observed. The open loop
responses, closed loop responses and the tip displacements with and
without the controller are obtained and the performance of the smart
system is evaluated for active vibration control.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine the self and
decision making levels of students receiving education in schools of
physical training and sports. The population of the study consisted
258 students, among which 152 were male and 106 were female
( X age=19,3713 + 1,6968), that received education in the schools of
physical education and sports of Selcuk University, Inonu University,
Gazi University and Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University. In order to
achieve the purpose of the study, the Melbourne Decision Making
Questionnary developed by Mann et al. (1998) [1] and adapted to
Turkish by Deniz (2004) [2] and the Self-Esteem Scale developed by
Aricak (1999) [3] was utilized. For analyzing and interpreting data
Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, t-test and one way anova test were used,
while for determining the difference between the groups Tukey test
and Multiple Linear Regression test were employed and significance
was accepted at P
Abstract: Modelling techniques for a fluid coupling taken from
published literature have been extended to include the effects of the
filling and emptying of the coupling with oil and the variation in
losses when the coupling is partially full. In the model, the fluid flow
inside the coupling is considered to have two principal velocity
components; one circumferentially about the coupling axis
(centrifugal head) and the other representing the secondary vortex
within the coupling itself (vortex head). The calculation of liquid
mass flow rate circulating between the two halves of the coupling is
based on: the assumption of a linear velocity variation in the
circulating vortex flow; the head differential in the fluid due to the
speed difference between the two shafts; and the losses in the
circulating vortex flow as a result of the impingement of the flow
with the blades in the coupling and friction within the passages
between the blades.
Abstract: The purpose of the study was to determine if, among
32 brain injured adults in community rehabilitation programs, there is
a statistically significant relationship between the degree of severity
of brain injury and these adults- level of self-esteem and stress. The
researcher hypothesized there would be a statistically significant
difference and a statistically significant relationship in self-esteem
and stress levels among and TBI adults. A Pearson product moment
correlational analysis was implemented and results found a
statistically significant relationship between self-esteem and stress
levels. Future recommendations were suggested upon completion of
research.
Abstract: The approach of subset selection in polynomial
regression model building assumes that the chosen fixed full set of
predefined basis functions contains a subset that is sufficient to
describe the target relation sufficiently well. However, in most cases
the necessary set of basis functions is not known and needs to be
guessed – a potentially non-trivial (and long) trial and error process.
In our research we consider a potentially more efficient approach –
Adaptive Basis Function Construction (ABFC). It lets the model
building method itself construct the basis functions necessary for
creating a model of arbitrary complexity with adequate predictive
performance. However, there are two issues that to some extent
plague the methods of both the subset selection and the ABFC,
especially when working with relatively small data samples: the
selection bias and the selection instability. We try to correct these
issues by model post-evaluation using Cross-Validation and model
ensembling. To evaluate the proposed method, we empirically
compare it to ABFC methods without ensembling, to a widely used
method of subset selection, as well as to some other well-known
regression modeling methods, using publicly available data sets.
Abstract: Average current analysis checking the impact of
current flow is very important to guarantee the reliability of
semiconductor systems. As semiconductor process technologies
improve, the coupling capacitance often become bigger than self
capacitances. In this paper, we propose an analytic technique for
analyzing average current on interconnects in multi-conductor
structures. The proposed technique has shown to yield the acceptable
errors compared to HSPICE results while providing computational
efficiency.
Abstract: Current research has explored the impact of
instructional immediacy, defined as those behaviors that help build
close relationships or feelings of closeness, both on cognition and
motivation in the traditional classroom and online classroom;
however, online courses continue to suffer from higher dropout rates.
Based on Albert Bandura-s Social Cognitive Theory, four primary
relationships or interactions in an online course will be explored in
light of how they can provide immediacy thereby reducing student
attrition and improving cognitive learning. The four relationships are
teacher-student, student-student, and student-content, and studentcomputer.
Results of a study conducted with inservice teachers
completing a 14-week online professional development technology
course will be examined to demonstrate immediacy strategies that
improve cognitive learning and reduce student attrition. Results of
the study reveal that students can be motivated through various
interactions and instructional immediacy behaviors which lead to
higher completion rates, improved self-efficacy, and cognitive
learning.
Abstract: Business process model describes process flow of a
business and can be seen as the requirement for developing a
software application. This paper discusses a BPM2CD guideline
which complements the Model Driven Architecture concept by
suggesting how to create a platform-independent software model in
the form of a UML class diagram from a business process model. An
important step is the identification of UML classes from the business
process model. A technique for object-oriented analysis called
domain analysis is borrowed and key concepts in the business
process model will be discovered and proposed as candidate classes
for the class diagram. The paper enhances this step by using ontology
search to help identify important classes for the business domain. As
ontology is a source of knowledge for a particular domain which
itself can link to ontologies of related domains, the search can give a
refined set of candidate classes for the resulting class diagram.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the development of Szuchung Creek take for the cause of the critical success factors, This research is to use the depth interviews, document analysis and Modified-Delphi technique survey of nine depth interviews with experts and 14 experts of Modified-Delphi technique questionnaire and inviting as the research object, Szuchung Creek Hot Springs for the scope of the study. The results show, Szuchung Creek Hot Springs development take for career success factors for the following reasons: 1. Government. 2. Opportunities. 3. Factors of production. 4. Demand conditions. 5. Corporate structure and the degree of competition. 6. Related and supporting industries. Furthermore, Szuchung Creek hot springs, itself already has a number of critical success factors. Contingent less than or inadequacies by Szuchung Creek take for the enterprise development to take for the cause of the critical success factors as the basis for correcting, planning out for local use improvement strategies to achieve the objective of sustainable management.
Abstract: The prediction of Software quality during development life cycle of software project helps the development organization to make efficient use of available resource to produce the product of highest quality. “Whether a module is faulty or not" approach can be used to predict quality of a software module. There are numbers of software quality prediction models described in the literature based upon genetic algorithms, artificial neural network and other data mining algorithms. One of the promising aspects for quality prediction is based on clustering techniques. Most quality prediction models that are based on clustering techniques make use of K-means, Mixture-of-Guassians, Self-Organizing Map, Neural Gas and fuzzy K-means algorithm for prediction. In all these techniques a predefined structure is required that is number of neurons or clusters should be known before we start clustering process. But in case of Growing Neural Gas there is no need of predetermining the quantity of neurons and the topology of the structure to be used and it starts with a minimal neurons structure that is incremented during training until it reaches a maximum number user defined limits for clusters. Hence, in this work we have used Growing Neural Gas as underlying cluster algorithm that produces the initial set of labeled cluster from training data set and thereafter this set of clusters is used to predict the quality of test data set of software modules. The best testing results shows 80% accuracy in evaluating the quality of software modules. Hence, the proposed technique can be used by programmers in evaluating the quality of modules during software development.
Abstract: The daily growing use of agents in software environments, because of many reasons such as independence and intelligence is not a secret anymore. One of such environments in which there is a prominent job for the agents would be emarketplaces in which a user is able to give those agents the responsibility of buying and selling, instead of searching the emarketplace himself. Making up a framework which has sufficient attention to the required roles and their relations, is the first step of achieving such e-markets. In this paper, we suggest a framework in order to establish such e-markets and we will continue investigating the roles such as seller or buyer and the relations in JADE environment in details.
Abstract: In this study, the powders of Ni and Ti with 50.5 at.%
Ni for 12 h were blended and cold pressed at the different pressures
(50, 75 and100 MPa).The porous product obtained after Ni-Ti
compacts were synthesized by SHS (self-propagating hightemperature
synthesis) in the different preheating temperatures (200,
250 and 300oC) and heating rates (30, 60 and 90oC/min). The effects
of the pressure, preheating temperature and heating rate were
investigated on biocompatibility in vivo. The porosity in the
synthesized products was in the range of 50.7–59.7 vol. %. The
pressure, preheating temperature and heating rate were found to have
an important effect on the biocompatibility in-vivo of the synthesized
products. Max. fibrotic tissue within the porous implant was found in
vivo periods (6 months), in which compacting pressure 100MPa.
Abstract: Face Recognition has always been a fascinating research area. It has drawn the attention of many researchers because of its various potential applications such as security systems, entertainment, criminal identification etc. Many supervised and unsupervised learning techniques have been reported so far. Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Self Organizing Maps (SOM) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) are the three techniques among many others as proposed by different researchers for Face Recognition, known as the unsupervised techniques. This paper proposes integration of the two techniques, SOM and PCA, for dimensionality reduction and feature selection. Simulation results show that, though, the individual techniques SOM and PCA itself give excellent performance but the combination of these two can also be utilized for face recognition. Experimental results also indicate that for the given face database and the classifier used, SOM performs better as compared to other unsupervised learning techniques. A comparison of two proposed methodologies of SOM, Local and Global processing, shows the superiority of the later but at the cost of more computational time.
Abstract: A current mirror (CM) based on self cascode MOSFETs low voltage analog and mixed mode structures has been proposed. The proposed CM has high output impedance and can operate at 0.5 V. P-Spice simulations confirm the high performance of this CM with a bandwidth of 6.0 GHz at input current of 100 μA.
Abstract: The Muslim faith requires individuals to fast between
the hours of sunrise and sunset during the month of Ramadan. Our
recent work has concentrated on some of the changes that take place
during the daytime when fasting. A questionnaire was developed to
assess subjective estimates of physical, mental and social activities,
and fatigue. Four days were studied: in the weeks before and after
Ramadan (control days) and during the first and last weeks of
Ramadan (experimental days). On each of these four days, this
questionnaire was given several times during the daytime and once
after the fast had been broken and just before individuals retired at
night.
During Ramadan, daytime mental, physical and social activities
all decreased below control values but then increased to abovecontrol
values in the evening. The desires to perform physical and
mental activities showed very similar patterns. That is, individuals
tried to conserve energy during the daytime in preparation for the
evenings when they ate and drank, often with friends. During
Ramadan also, individuals were more fatigued in the daytime and
napped more often than on control days. This extra fatigue probably
reflected decreased sleep, individuals often having risen earlier
(before sunrise, to prepare for fasting) and retired later (to enable
recovery from the fast).
Some physiological measures and objective measures of
performance (including the response to a bout of exercise) have also
been investigated. Urine osmolality fell during the daytime on
control days as subjects drank, but rose in Ramadan to reach values
at sunset indicative of dehydration. Exercise performance was also
compromised, particularly late in the afternoon when the fast had
lasted several hours. Self-chosen exercise work-rates fell and a set
amount of exercise felt more arduous. There were also changes in
heart rate and lactate accumulation in the blood, indicative of greater
cardiovascular and metabolic stress caused by the exercise in
subjects who had been fasting. Daytime fasting in Ramadan produces
widespread effects which probably reflect combined effects of sleep
loss and restrictions to intakes of water and food.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the learning
effects on dance domain in Arts Curriculum at junior and senior high
levels. A total of 1,366 students from 9th to 11th grade of different
areas from Taiwan were administered a self-designed dance
achievement test. Data were analyzed through descriptive analysis,
independent sample t test, one-way ANOVA and Post hoc comparison
analysis using Scheffé Test. The results showed (1) female students