Abstract: The study focused on the analysis of the Adjusted
Rorschach Comprehensive System’s responses. The objective of this
study is to analyse the participants’ response rate of the Adjusted
Rorschach Comprehensive System with regards to critical
psychology approach. The use of critical psychology theory in this
study was crucial because it responds to the current inadequate
western theory or practice in the field of psychology. The study
adopted a qualitative approach and a case study design. The study
was grounded on interpretivist paradigm. The sample size comprised
six learners (three boys and three girls, aged of 14 years) from
historically disadvantaged school in the Western Cape, South Africa.
The Adjusted Rorschach Comprehensive System (ARCS)
administration procedure, biographical information, semi-structured
interviews, and observation were used to collect data. Data was
analysed using thematic framework. The study found out that, factors
that increased the response rates during the administration of ARCS
were, language, seating arrangement, drawing, viewing, and
describing. The study recommended that, psychological test
designers take into consideration the philosophy or worldviews of the
local people for whom the test is designed to minimize low response
rates.
Abstract: The current tools for real time management of sewer
systems are based on two software tools: the software of weather
forecast and the software of hydraulic simulation. The use of the first
ones is an important cause of imprecision and uncertainty, the use of
the second requires temporal important steps of decision because of
their need in times of calculation. This way of proceeding fact that
the obtained results are generally different from those waited. The major idea of this project is to change the basic paradigm by
approaching the problem by the "automatic" face rather than by that
"hydrology". The objective is to make possible the realization of a
large number of simulations at very short times (a few seconds)
allowing to take place weather forecasts by using directly the real
time meditative pluviometric data. The aim is to reach a system
where the decision-making is realized from reliable data and where
the correction of the error is permanent. A first model of control laws was realized and tested with different
return-period rainfalls. The gains obtained in rejecting volume vary
from 19 to 100 %. The development of a new algorithm was then
used to optimize calculation time and thus to overcome the
subsequent combinatorial problem in our first approach. Finally, this
new algorithm was tested with 16- year-rainfall series. The obtained
gains are 40 % of total volume rejected to the natural environment
and of 65 % in the number of discharges.
Abstract: There is currently a gap in the technology covering the
rapid establishment of control after a reconfiguration in a
Reconfigurable Manufacturing System. This gap involves the
detection of the factory floor state and the communication link
between the factory floor and the high-level software. In this paper, a
thin, hardware-supported Middleware Management System (MMS) is
proposed and its design and implementation are discussed. The
research found that a cost-effective localization technique can be
combined with intelligent software to speed up the ramp-up of a
reconfigured system. The MMS makes the process more intelligent,
more efficient and less time-consuming, thus supporting the
industrial implementation of the RMS paradigm.
Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) enable new
applications and need non-conventional paradigms for the protocol
because of energy and bandwidth constraints, In WSN, sensor node’s
life is a critical parameter. Research on life extension is based on
Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH) scheme,
which rotates Cluster Head (CH) among sensor nodes to distribute
energy consumption over all network nodes. CH selection in WSN
affects network energy efficiency greatly. This study proposes an
improved CH selection for efficient data aggregation in sensor
networks. This new algorithm is based on Bacterial Foraging
Optimization (BFO) incorporated in LEACH.
Abstract: Current systems complexity has reached a degree that
requires addressing conception and design issues while taking into
account environmental, operational, social, legal and financial
aspects. Therefore, one of the main challenges is the way complex
systems are specified and designed. The exponential growing effort,
cost and time investment of complex systems in modeling phase
emphasize the need for a paradigm, a framework and an environment
to handle the system model complexity. For that, it is necessary to
understand the expectations of the human user of the model and his
limits. This paper presents a generic framework for designing
complex systems, highlights the requirements a system model needs
to fulfill to meet human user expectations, and suggests a graphbased
formalism for modeling complex systems. Finally, a set of
transformations are defined to handle the model complexity.
Abstract: This article is to introduce the meaning and form of
social quality moving process as indicated by members of two suburb
communities with different social and cultural contexts. The form of
social quality moving process is very significant for the community
and social development, because it will make the people living
together with sustainable happiness.
This is a qualitative study involving 30 key-informants from two
suburb communities. Data were collected though key-informant
interviews, and analyzed using logical content description and
descriptive statistics.
This research found that on the social quality component, the
people in both communities stressed the procedure for social qualitymaking.
This includes the generousness, sharing and assisting among
people in the communities. These practices helped making people to
live together with sustainable happiness. Living as a family or appear
to be a family is the major social characteristic of these two
communities.
This research also found that form of social quality’s moving
process of both communities stress relation of human and nature;
“nature overpower humans” paradigm and influence of religious
doctrine that emphasizes relations among humans. Both criteria make
the form of social’s moving process simple, adaptive to nature and
caring for opinion sharing and understanding among each other
before action. This form of social quality’s moving process is
composed of 4 steps; (1) awareness building, (2) motivation to
change, (3) participation from every party which is concerned (4)
self-reliance.
Abstract: The article proposed intends to analyze the possibility
(and conditions) of a media regulation law in a democratic rule of law
in the twenty-first century. To do so, will be presented initially the
idea of the public sphere (by Jürgen Habermas), showing how it is
presented as an interface between the citizen and the state (or the
private and public) and how important is it in a deliberative
democracy. Based on this paradigm, the traditional perception of the
role of public information (such as system functional element) and on
the possibility of media regulation will be exposed, due to the public
nature of their activity. A critical argument will then be displayed
from two different perspectives: a) the formal function of the current
media information, considering that the digital age has fragmented
the information access; b) the concept of a constructive democracy,
which reduces the need for representation, changing the strategic
importance of the public sphere. The question to be addressed (based
on the comparative law) is if the regulation is justified in a
polycentric democracy, especially when it operates under the digital
age (with immediate and virtual communication). The proposal is to
be presented in the sense that even in a twenty-first century the media
in a democratic rule of law still has an extremely important role and
may be subject to regulation, but this should be on terms very
different (and narrower) from those usually defended.
Abstract: In the Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM) paradigm
the effect of overlap between inputs on the activation of columns in
the spatial pooler is studied. Numerical results suggest that similar
inputs are represented by similar sets of columns and dissimilar inputs
are represented by dissimilar sets of columns. It is shown that the
spatial pooler produces these results under certain conditions for
the connectivity and proximal thresholds. Following the discussion
of the initialization of parameters for the thresholds, corresponding
qualitative arguments about the learning dynamics of the spatial
pooler are discussed.
Abstract: These days customer satisfaction plays vital role in
any business. When customer searches for a product, significantly a
junk of irrelevant information is what is given, leading to customer
dissatisfaction. To provide exactly relevant information on the
searched product, we are proposing a model of KaaS (Knowledge as
a Service), which pre-processes the information using decision
making paradigm using Multi-agents.
Information obtained from various sources is taken to derive
knowledge and they are linked to Cloud to capture new idea. The
main focus of this work is to acquire relevant information
(knowledge) related to product, then convert this knowledge into a
service for customer satisfaction and deploy on cloud.
For achieving these objectives we are have opted to use multi
agents. They are communicating and interacting with each other,
manipulate information, provide knowledge, to take decisions. The
paper discusses about KaaS as an intelligent approach for Knowledge
acquisition.
Abstract: The adaptation of social networking sites within
higher education has garnered significant interest in the recent years
with numerous researches considering it as a possible shift from the
traditional classroom based learning paradigm. Notwithstanding this
increase in research and conducted studies however, the adaption of
SNS based modules have failed to proliferate within Universities.
This paper commences its contribution by analyzing the various
models and theories proposed in literature and amalgamate together
various effective aspects for the inclusion of social technology within
e-Learning. A three phased framework is further proposed which
details the necessary considerations for the successful adaptation of
SNS in enhancing the students learning experience. This proposal
outlines the theoretical foundations which will be analyzed in
practical implementation across international university campuses.
Abstract: This paper analyzes the political and economic issues
that people with disabilities face related to globalization; how people
with disabilities have been adapting globalization and surviving under
worldwide competition system. It explains that economic
globalization exacerbates inequality and deprivation of people with
disabilities. The rising tide of neo-liberal welfare policies emphasized
efficiency, downsized social expenditure for people with disabilities,
excluded people with disabilities against labor market, and shifted
them from welfare system to nothing. However, there have been
people with disabilities' political responses to globalization, which are
characterized by a global network of people with disabilities as well as
participation to global governance. Their resistance can be seen as an
attempt to tackle the problems that economic globalization has
produced. It is necessary paradigm shift of disability policy from
dependency represented by disability benefits to independency
represented by labor market policies for people with disabilities.
Abstract: Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) coupled with
Case Based Reasoning (CBR) is a paradigm that is becoming
increasingly popular in the diagnosis and therapy planning of medical
ailments utilizing the digital content of medical images. This paper
presents a survey of some of the promising approaches used in the
detection of abnormalities in retina images as well in
mammographic screening and detection of regions of interest
in MRI scans of the brain. We also describe our proposed
algorithm to detect hard exudates in fundus images of the
retina of Diabetic Retinopathy patients.
Abstract: This paper develops and extended eclectic paradigm
to fit the firm internationalization process with the real international
business world. The approach is based on Dunning´s, introducing
new concepts like mode of entry, international joint venture o
international mergers and acquisitions. At the same time is presented
a model to describe the Spanish international mergers and
acquisitions in order to determinate the most important factor that
influence in this type of foreign direct investment.
Abstract: Cloud service brokering is a new service paradigm that
provides interoperability and portability of application across multiple
Cloud providers. In this paper, we designed Cloud service brokerage
system, anyBroker, supporting integrated service provisioning and
SLA based service lifecycle management. For the system design, we
introduce the system concept and whole architecture, details of main
components and use cases of primary operations in the system. These
features ease the Cloud service provider and customer’s concern and
support new Cloud service open market to increase Cloud service
profit and prompt Cloud service echo system in Cloud computing
related area.
Abstract: FengShui, an old Chinese discipline, dates back to
more than 5000 years, is one of the design principles that aim at
creating habitable and sustainable spaces in harmony with nature by
systematizing data within its own structure. Having emerged from
Chinese mysticism and embodying elements of faith in its principles,
FengShui argues that the positive energy in the environment channels
human behavior and psychology. This argument is supported with the
thesis of quantum physics that ‘everything is made up of energy’ and
gains an important place.
In spaces where living and working take place with several
principles and systematized rules, FengShui promises a happier, more
peaceful and comfortable life by influencing human psychology, acts,
and soul as well as the professional and social life of the individual.
Observing these design properties in houses, workplaces, offices, the
environment, and daily life as a design paradigm is significant. In this
study, how FengShui, a Central Asian culture emanated from Chinese
mysticism, shapes design and how it is used as an element of
sustainable design will be explained.
Abstract: In this study, we develop a performance evaluation
model based on a multi-attribute utility approach aiming at reaching
the sustainable banking (SB) status. This model is built accounting
for various banks’ stakeholders in a win-win paradigm. In addition, it
offers the opportunity for adopting a global measure of performance
as an indication of a bank’s sustainability degree. This measure is
referred to as banking sustainability performance index (BSPI). This
index may constitute a basis for ranking banks. Moreover, it may
constitute a bridge between the assessment types of financial and
extra-financial rating agencies. A real application is performed on
three French banks.
Abstract: An analysis of word semantics focusing on the invariance of advanced imagery in several pressing problems. Interest in the language of imagery is caused by the introduction, in the linguistics sphere, of a new paradigm, the center of which is the personality of the speaker (the subject of the language). Particularly noteworthy is the question of the place of the image when discussing the lexical, phraseological values and the relationship of imagery and metaphors. In part, the formation of a metaphor, as an interaction between two intellective entities, occurs at a cognitive level, and it is the category of the image, having cognitive roots, which aides in the correct interpretation of the results of this process on the lexical-semantic level.
Abstract: The cloud computing is an innovative paradigm that introduces several changes in technology that have resulted a new ways for cloud providers to deliver their services to cloud consumers mainly in term of security risk assessment, thus, adapting a current risk assessment tools to cloud computing is a very difficult task due to its several characteristics that challenge the effectiveness of risk assessment approaches. As consequence, there is a need of risk assessment model adapted to cloud computing. This paper requires a new risk assessment model based on multi-agent system and AHP model as fundamental steps towards the development of flexible risk assessment approach regarding cloud consumers.
Abstract: Customer relationship management (CRM) systems in business are a reality of the contemporary business world for the last decade or so. Still, there are grey areas regarding the successful implementation and operation of CRM systems in business. This paper, through the systematic study of the CRM implementation paradigm, attempts to identify the most important challenges and opportunities that the CRM systems face in a rapidly changing business world.
Abstract: The objectives of memorabilia of Suan Sunandha are to develop a general knowledge presentation about the historical royal garden through interactive graphic simulation technique and to employ high-functionality context in enhancing interactive user navigation. The approach infers non-intrusive display of relevant history in response to situational context. User’s navigation runs through the virtual reality campus, consisting of new and restored buildings. A flash back presentation of information pertaining to the history in the form of photos, paintings, and textual descriptions are displayed along each passing-by building. To keep the presentation lively, graphical simulation is created in a serendipity game play so that the user can both learn and enjoy the educational tour. The benefits of this human-computer interaction development are two folds. First, lively presentation technique and situational context modeling are developed that entail a usable paradigm of knowledge and information presentation combinations. Second, cost effective training and promotion for both internal personnel and public visitors to learn and keep informed of this historical royal garden can be furnished without the need for a dedicated public relations service. Future improvement on graphic simulation and ability based display can extend this work to be more realistic, user-friendly, and informative for all.