bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Concreting Workmanship in Indonesia Study Case: Padang City, West Sumatra, Indonesia
Authors: Juliafad Eka , Rani Iskandar G. , Rifwan Fitra , P Yose Fajar
Published: March 2019

This research gives information about the practice of concreting work in Reinforced Concrete (RC) building project in Indonesia. The study area is Padang City, which has suffered severe damages due to September 2009 Earthquake. The target interviewee is 100 builders who are constructing RC buildings. This interview together with observation was conducted by directly visiting the construction sites. While collecting information about the main factors which contribute to RC building quality, e.g., concrete mixing, compaction, concrete placing and curing, the information about the profile of the builders have been collected.  The results show that the workers dominate the profile of builders in productive age with 30 years experiences on average. However, 90% of the builders yet experience any construction workshop. The concreting work, which is conducted by the builders, yet reaches the required standard. More than 50% of the builders produced concrete with the higher water-cement ratio, and almost 65% admitted that they add more water after concrete`s setting time is finished. There are 3common methods of concrete compaction which is used.  6% of the builders use a vibrator, 43% use the rodding method, 28% use hummer, and 8% choose to add more water to placed concrete to increase concrete workability. Meanwhile, more than 60% of the builders do not cure the placed concrete. The results show that construction practice that is conducted by the local builders is needed to be improved. The mistakes seem to be repeated over a generation since the source of learning of the builders is mainly from their senior builder (77.25%) and self-learning (2.5%). Only 7.5% that admitted they had experienced on construction workshop.
Prediction of Hourly Cooling Energy Consumption of Educational Buildings Using Artificial Neural Network
Authors: Jaber Alaa Abdulhady , Saleh Ahmed , Mohammed Ali Hussein Fouad
Published: March 2019

Predicating the required building energy when it is in the design stage and before being constructed considers a crucial step for in charge people. Hence, the main aim of this research is to accurately forecast the needed building cooling energy per hour for educational buildings at University of Technology in Iraq. For this purpose, the feed forward artificial neural network (ANN) has been selected as an efficient technique to develop such a predication system.  Firstly, the main building parameters have been investigated and then only the most important ones were chosen to be used as inputs to the ANN model. However, due to the long time period that is required to collect actual consumed building energy in order to be employed for ANN model training, the hourly analysis program (HAP), which is a building simulation software, has been utilized to produce a database covering the summer months in Iraq. Different training algorithms and range of learning rate values have been investigated, and the Bayesian regularization backpropagation training algorithm and 0.05 learning rate were found very suitable for precise cooling energy prediction. To evaluate the performance of the optimized ANN model, mean square error (MSE) and correlation coefficient (R) have been adopted. The MSE and R indices for the predication results proved that the optimized ANN model is having a high predication accuracy with 5.99*10-6 and 0.9994, respectively.
Compressive and Flexural Strength Behavior of Ultra-high Performance Mortar Reinforced with Cellulose Nano-fibers
Authors: Supit Steve W.M , Nishiwaki Tomoya
Published: March 2019

Cellulose fibers, because of their chemical and physical characteristics, are compatible with other materials to be used for the production of building components. This paper presents the influence of using cellulose nano fibers (CNFs) made from plant-derived cellulose as a reinforcement in ultra-high performance (UHP) mortar. In this study, the dispersion method of CNFs using manual and mechanical mixing was also observed. The effects of different dosage of CNFs, namely, 0.005%, 0.01% and 0.015% by wt. of binders (premixed low-heat cement and silica fume) with a constant waterto binder ratio of 0.15, were evaluated based on the compressive and flexural strengths at the seventh day after steam curing. Results show that the highest compressive strength value of 184MPa was reached by UHP mortar sample containing 0.005% CNFs by wt. of binders. However, addition of more CNFs content up to 0.015% did not result in further improvement. Based on load-CMOD curves, UHP mortar reinforced with 0.005% CNFs was found most effective in enhancing the energy absorption capacity and toughness index with flexural strength at peak load of 14.44MPa (36% higher than control UHP mortar). The results indicate the well-post crack behavior of CNFs mortars in comparison with control UHP low-heat cement mortar. Moreover, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis shows that the phenomenon of bridging effect of CNFs could not be significantly detected since the short fiber might be fractured under loading due to less bonding. Furthermore, this study concludes that even a low volume fraction, i.e 0.005%, of CNFs is very sufficient in increasing the ductility of ultra-high performance mortar.
Analysis of Image Transmission using MIMO-Alamouti Space-Time Encoding
Authors: Kaur Manpreet , Kansal Lavish , Kaur Navjot , Gaba Gurjot Singh , Agrawal Dharma P.
Published: March 2019

Rapid increase in requirements of high speed transmission of multi-media information resulted in development of MIMO systems. MIMO systems have emerged as the most efficient methodology for the high speed robust data transmission. In this paper, the performance of Alamouti Space-time block coded MIMO system is analysed using the metric of efficient image transmission over the Rayleigh fading channel. The transmitted image is modulated using M-PSK modulation technique, and its reconstructed version is plotted as an output function. Zero-forcing equalization is done for the detection of the original symbols from the received symbols which are influenced by the multipath fading and the channel noise. The results for image transmission using 2í—1 and 2í—2 Alamouti STBC are evaluated for different SNR values. The inverse relationship between the SNR and BER in the results depict that the high value of SNR and receiver antenna leads to enhanced system efficiency with reduced BER and distortion less recovery of image. It is very evident from the analysis of the received images that as we increase the SNR or the number of the antennas at the receiving side, the quality of the received image improves for the same channel environment. During the analysis, it is also found that increasing the number of bits forming one symbol in M-PSK modulation increase the BER which is undesirable. Thus, trade-off between the number of antenna, SNR and the M value of PSK is an essential requirement for achieving enhanced performance.
Visual Analytics: Design Study for Exploratory Analytics on Peer Profiles, Activity and Learning Performance for MOOC Forum Activity Assessment
Authors: Asli Mohammad Fadhli , Hamzah Muzaffar , Ag Ibrahim Ag Asri , Embug Alter Jimat
Published: March 2019

The massively open online course (MOOC) has become an increasingly popular alternative platform for education due to its open concept and free features. Due to its features that allow enrolment on a massive scale and participation across the globe, it presented new analytic challenges. The vast amount and variety of data generated pose challenges for the learning analytics community to analyse especially concerning peer presence and peer learning. Forum activity data offers the opportunity to assess the relationship between forum activities and user backgrounds with the learner’s progression and retention rate. Furthermore, there are several challenges in implementing data visualization in real-world scenarios such as different task characterisation compared to the existing analytics, along with varied factors on the usability of visualization among the domain analysts. Despite many research on learning analytics, most of the approaches were data-driven and there were only a handful of studies that were focused on interactive visualization design to facilitate MOOC forum user activity assessment using real-world scenarios and educational theories-driven. Our design study aims to investigate and formulate a visual analytic design to facilitate enriched visual analysis towards assessing forum activity in Malaysian MOOC, particularly in pattern and relationship exploration on the user diverse background and activities with the learning performance. This paper presents our review on visual learning analytics and current MOOC practice in Malaysia, our design study methodology and proposed conceptual visual analytics design on visualizing forum activity data.
Wi-Fi Signals Database Construction using Chebyshev Wavelets for Indoor Positioning Systems
Authors: Narzullaev Anvar , Muminov Zahriddin , Ibragimov Gafurjan
Published: March 2019

Nowadays fast and accurate positioning of assets and people is as a crucial part of many businesses, such as, warehousing, manufacturing and logistics. Applications that offer different services based on mobile user location gaining more and more attention. Some of the most common applications include location-based advertising, directory assistance, point-to-point navigation, asset tracking, emergency and fleet management. While outdoors mostly covered by the Global Positioning System, there is no one versatile solution for indoor positioning. For the past decade Wi-Fi fingerprinting based indoor positioning systems gained a lot of attention by enterprises as an affordable and flexible solution to track their assets and resources more effectively. The concept behind Wi-Fi fingerprinting is to create signal strength database of the area prior to the actual positioning. This process is known as a calibration carried out manually and the indoor positioning system accuracy highly depends on a calibration intensity. Unfortunately, this procedure requires huge amount of time, manpower and effort, which makes extensive deployment of indoor positioning system a challenging task.  approach of constructing signal strength database from a minimal number of measurements using Chebyshev wavelets approximation. The main objective of the research is to minimize the calibration workload while providing high positioning accuracy.  The field tests as well as computer simulation results showed significant improvement in signal strength prediction accuracy compared to existing approximation algorithms. Furhtermore, the proposed algorithm can recover missing signal values with much smaller number of on-site measurements compared to conventional calibration algorithm.
Design and implementation of a Marking Strategy to Increase the Contactability in the Call Centers, Based on Machine Learning
Authors: Hernandez Leonel , Guzman Henner , Ospino Jose , Freyle Jean , Pranolo Andri
Published: March 2019

Jamar is a company that belongs to the furniture sector, which manufactures and sells furniture and accessories for the home. Customer calls are one of the most trusted channels used in contact centers. Currently, the contactability indicator has a goal of 40% and is at 31%. The enemies of the efficiency of this channel are the terrible dimensioning, customers who evade answering these calls by identifying the numbers, non-market numbers in the databases, failures in the technological resources. Therefore, a proposal was made to design and implement a marking strategy in the call center, supported by a statistical model for dimensioning. Likewise, emerging technology such as Machine Learning is performed to help the marking strategy in outbound campaigns, reconfiguration of the dialplan to make it more efficient, and a redundant architecture design in the operators. Basic concepts of Teletraffic are explained, showing its primary functions, relevant for the management of the company's telephone system. In the same way, fundamentals of the Asterisk IP PBX are exposed, one of the most used in our environment due to its versatility and low implementation cost. The methodology of descriptive and applied research is used for the development of the project. The results and discussion show the dialing strategy and some call statistics from previous years, necessary to establish a correct dimensioning of the solution. The proposed solution allows having redundancy management for SIP and trunk operators, to have backup and reliability in case of failure.
SMS-Based ICT Tool for Knowledge Sharing in Agriculture
Authors: Galeon Dario H. , Garcia Jr. Paul G. , Palaoag Thelma D.
Published: March 2019

Agriculture is the world’s major industry with 60% of the global population depending on it.  Being the major source of livelihood, agriculture is challenged by issues such as food shortage, food security problems, climate change affecting crop yield, land degradation, decrease of crop varieties and others. There is a huge amount of knowledge products generated by the government agencies, local universities, private civic groups, local government units and non-government organizations (NGOs) to address these issues however the information has difficulty reaching the intended farm practitioners as end-user. With this aforesaid challenge, a technology based information sharing and access among stakeholders such as agricultural knowledge experts (academe) and knowledge end-users (farmers) is a dire need.  Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has always been an indispensable tool that can provide an environment where knowledge generators and knowledge users can use to exchange information any time and place.  Retooling and scaling up the process how information and knowledge products is being accessed and shared is indeed a critical consideration. Using descriptive research and qualitative approach, this study determined an ICT tool, a managed SMS-based system to be highly acceptable to the identified stakeholders as an information sharing medium and model and is therefore recommended for use.  The result of this research shall serve as an implementation guide for government, non-government organizations(NGOs), extension service providers, system integrators, researchers, and other related groups offering or planning to engage in similar service.
Artificial Intelligence in Diagnosing Tuberculosis: A Review
Authors: Meraj Syeda Shaizadi , Yaakob Razali , Azman Azreen , Mohd Rum Siti Nuralain , Ahmad Nazri Azree Shahrel
Published: March 2019

Tuberculosis (TB) is among top ten causes of deaths worldwide. It is the single most cause of deaths by an infectious disease and is ranked 2nd only after the HIV/AIDS. In third world countries, the diagnosis of TB is done through conventional methods. To diagnostic results are obtain from conventional methods such as blood, culture, sputum and biopsies. They are tedious as well as take long time like 1-2 weeks or maybe evenmore. Therefore, to lower the detection time and raise the accuracy of diagnosis several researches have been carried out. In the past fifty years, due to the advanced and sophisticated technologies, in medical as well as computer science fields, have paved a way to utilize the essence of both the areas. In Artificial Intelligence (AI) various Machine Learning (ML) algorithms have furthered the interests in Computer-aided Detection (CADe) and Diagnosis (CADx) methods. These methodologies assist in medical field for diagnosing the diseases through clinical signs and symptoms as well as radiological images of the patient. They have been implemented for the diagnosis of TB. Advances in AI algorithms, has unveiled great promises in identifying the presence and absence of TB.  As of late, many attempts have been made to formulate the strategies to increase the classification accuracy of TB diagnosis using the AI and machine learning approach. This review paper, aims to describes the diverse AI approaches employed in the diagnosis of TB.
A Comparative Analysis of Web Search Query: Informational Vs. Navigational Queries
Authors: Yusuf Nuhu , Mohd Yunus Mohd Amin , Wahid Norfaradilla
Published: March 2019

The search engines are mainly used to retrieve relevant information. Information retrieval researchers show that queries are the basis for providing better search engine performance. The search query is becoming a means for users to search for their needed information. Web search query is one of the common search queries that is widely used in domain areas. However, the main challenge is the absence of a clear understanding of how web search query influences the users’ behavior on different web search engines. With the emergence of different types of a web search query, the understanding of user behavior on a web search query guides in improving the performance of many web search engines. Current research focused on using informational queries to search relevance information from a database while ignoring the importance of navigational queries. In this paper, we compared the informational and navigational type of a web search query that is mostly used in academic settings. Specifically, we examine the problems, solutions and techniques used in each of these types. We used a query log to conduct an experiment using BM25 mathematical model. The results indicated that the informational search query performed best because several keywords have been included to properly explain the queries. Also, language vocabularies used in informational queries contributed to better search performance. We believed that the outcomes of our comparisons will guide web search engine developers on the right search query for their web search engines.
Rate Movie App: Implementation of K-Nearest Neighbors Algorithm in the Development of Decision Support System for Philippine Movie Rating and Classification
Authors: SiÃ±el Ian Dexter M. , Comendador Benilda Eleonor V.
Published: March 2019

Movies that are publicly exhibited in the Philippine Cinema, regardless if produced locally (local films) and/or outside the country (foreign films) undergo a thorough evaluation before public exhibition to properly identify suited audiences. There are many factors that contribute to the classification and rating of a specific movie. Movies play a vital role for Filipino culture as for some people; these serve as their leisure activity, for other people, these are not just a leisure activity instead a form of visual art that may send important messages to the audiences and/or may re-enact human personal experiences. It is very important that movie(s) will be classified accordingly without any form of biases. This paper promotes a Decision Support System that can be used in predicting movie classification and rating using historically evaluated movies from 2010 to 2017. The study considers the user ratings on the following attributes: Sex & Nudity, Violence & Gore, Profanity, Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking and Frightening and Intense Scenes scrapped from a public movie database. Along with these considerations are the genre(s) associated with a movie. The study conducted revealed that K-Nearest Neighbors Algorithm outperforms Naive Bayes and J48/C4.5 Algorithm in classifying Philippine Movie rating with 92.80% accuracy as compared to 68.70% and 56.79% for Naive Bayes and J48/C4.5 algorithm respectively. The developed decision support system implements the K-Nearest Neighbors algorithm to satisfy the objectives mentioned. With this, Review Committees who evaluate movies may have guides in making critical decisions in the domain of movie evaluation.
New Functions and Evaluation for Learning Effects of Acceleration Experiment Support Software
Authors: Hoshino Takahiro , Ota Yuki , Tomaru Kohei , Hamamatsu Yoshio , Komuro Takafumi
Published: March 2019

In Japan, junior high and high school students typically learn the concept of velocity by experiments with a timer and recording tape. To promote more intuitive understanding and provide a flexible lesson length, we developed the AES (Accelerated Motion Experiments Support) software and experimental system. To verify the effectiveness of the experimental system, we observed students conducting experiments of descending motion on a slope using the system. This paper reports newly implemented functions for displaying mechanical (kinetic and potential) energy and improving operability. We show example applications using these functions: accelerated motion on a horizontal rail. In the experiments, it is clear that the measuring values measured using AES have accuracy that is the same as or better than the values measured using a traditional recording timer. We conducted a comprehension test for the theory relating to the experiments before and after the experiments. From the results, we discuss educational effects about the experiment system using AES and the experimental procedure. Learning comprehension tests find that the correct answer rate of almost questions is improved after the experiments. However, the correct answer rate does not increase in the question about the change in acceleration values. The displayed values are lower than actual sensor values because of filtering process which makes reduce the influence of errors due to the sensitivity. This may cause students to make the wrong choice. Questionnaire results indicate that the system is easy to operate and promote active participation in the experiments.
Dynamic Message Puzzle as Pre-Authentication Scheme in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Afianti Farah , Wirawan Wirawan , Suryani Titiek
Published: March 2019

Denial of Service (DoS) is a type of attack that has a huge impact on a computer system. This can deplete and shorten the lifetime of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Signature-based DoS is a kind of DoS attack that exploits the high computation of a public key cryptography based authentication. The adversaries have the opportunity to send a large number of a fake signature to the WSNs. Message Specific Puzzle (MSP) was developed to defend against this type of attack. This scheme utilizes a hash function as an irreversible method to create a puzzle and produce a session key. Furthermore, this has low complexity in the sender and receiver for construction and verification process. However, the sender-side delay occurred. The higher the security expected for the system leads to the more time is needed for the user to send messages. The number of hash iteration in the puzzle construction cannot be controlled. This paper proposes the Dynamic Message Puzzle scheme that uses the power of first quartile (Q1power1) and the exponential of second quartile (Q2exp) threshold functions. These limit the maximum number of hash iterations for each puzzle construction. Consequently, this mechanism can decrease sender-side delay by at least 60%. Besides avoiding zero solution and has a high value of mean absolute deviation, this scheme also increases the adversaries’ complexity in attacking the system. The proposed scheme transmits index implicitly. This obscures the portion of each parameter in the transmitted packet.
Performance Analysis of Loss Multilevel Quantization on the Secret Key Generation Scheme in Indoor Wireless Environment
Authors: Yuliana Mike , Wirawan Wirawan , Suwadi Suwadi
Published: March 2019

The necessity for secured communication devices that has limited computing power has encouraged the development of key generation scheme. The generation of a symmetric key scheme that utilizes randomness of wireless channels offers a most promising solution as a result of the easy distribution of secret key mechanisms. In the last few years, various schemes have been proposed, but there are trade-offs between the performance parameters used. The expected parameters are the low Key Disagreement Rate (KDR), the high Key Generation Rate (KGR), and the fulfillment of standard of randomness. In this paper, we propose the use of a combination of pre-processing methods with multilevel lossy quantization to overcome the trade-off of performance parameters of the Secret Key Generation (SKG) scheme. Pre-process method used to improve reciprocity so as to reduce KDR, whereas multilevel quantization is used to improve the KGR. We use Kalman as the pre-processing method and Adaptive Quantization, Modified Multi-Bit (MMB), and 2-ary Quantization as the multilevel lossy quantization. Testing is conducted by comparing the performance between direct quantization with the addition of the pre-processing method in various multilevel lossy quantization schemes. The test results show that the use of Kalman as pre-processing methods and multilevel lossy quantization can overcome the trade-off performance parameters by reducing KDR and increasing KGR, with the best performance, was obtained when we use adaptive quantization. The resulting secret key has also fulfilled 6 random tests with p values greater than 0.01.
A Data Driven Approach to Wind Plant Control using Moth-Flame Optimization (MFO) Algorithm
Authors: Md Idris Muhammad Azizan , Hao Mok Ren , Ahmad Mohd Ashraf
Published: March 2019

One of the main issues of the wind plant power generation nowadays is that the current stand alone controller of each turbine in the wind plant is not able to cope with chaotic nature of wake aerodynamic effect. Therefore, it is necessary to re-tune the controller of each turbine in the wind plant such that the total power generation is improved. This article presents an investigation of a data driven approach using moth-flame optimization algorithm (MFO) to the problem of improving wind plants power generation. The MFO based technique is applied to search the turbine’s optimum controller such that the aggregation power generation of a wind plant is maximized. The MFO is a population based optimization method that mimics the behavior of moths that navigate on specific angle with respect to the moon location. Here, it is expected that the MFO can solve the control accuracy problem in the existing algorithms for maximizing wind plant. A row of wind turbines plant with wake aerodynamic effect among turbines is adopted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the MFO based technique. The model of the wind plant is derived based on the real Horns Rev wind plant in Denmark. The performance of the proposed MFO algorithm is analyzed in terms of the statistical analysis of the total power generation. Numerical results show that the MFO based approach generates better total wind power generation than spiral dynamic algorithm (SDA) based approach and safe experimentation dynamics (SED) based approach.
Competency Discovery System: Integrating the Enhanced ID3 Decision Tree Algorithm to Predict the Assessment Competency of Senior High School Students
Authors: Vasquez Jestoni , Comendador Benilda Eleonor
Published: March 2019

The study presents the development of Competency Discovery System, which integrates enhanced Iterative Dichometer 3 (ID3) decision tree algorithm, to predict assessment competency of senior high school students. It was also successful in integrating the feature selection to select the data attributes that have impact on the performance of students. Pre-processing of data collected from school database and available spreadsheets was performed to determine the attributes that may possibly influenced the students’ competency assessment. It provides a decision tool for teachers to enhance students’ performance, particularly in the academic and technical aspect, based on factors that might affect their learning process. The academic and technical performance is often used for predicting the learning behaviour of the students and can be a crucial factor in building their better future. Moreover, the system identifies students that were likely to fail, and that may need assistance in view of the National Certificate programming-related assessment. The National Certificate assessment aim to regulate the students can perform to the standards expected in the workplace based on the defined competency standards. Passing the competency assessment shows that the students is ready to join the labour workforce. Predicting the future outcomes based on the historical records can help the teacher guide the students’ assessment performance. This is also beneficial to students as they have the opportunity to prepare for taking the assessment. Majority of the participants assessed the software as 'highly acceptable’ with support on its implied functions in terms of reliability, efficiency, usability, security, and user-friendliness.
Requirements Engineering (RE) Process for The Adaptation of The Hospital Information System (HIS)
Authors: Abd Malik Sofianiza , Nordin Azlin , Al-Ehaidib Reem Nasser
Published: March 2019

Requirements Engineering (RE) process is an initial stage for any software development process. In this research, we adopted the RE process into a system adaptation software project for a Hospital Information System (HIS) in a Saudi Arabian hospital.  Instead of developing from scratch, the adaptation of an existing system enables a working system to be configured into use in a similar situation in another organization, or use it in a different organization in a different geographical area. Nonetheless, the approach of systems adaptation has its own issues and challenges. This research considers investigating culture-specific behaviors when adapting a system to another environment. The research is motivated by the challenges faced by real-life cases of implementation of a HIS developed in South Korea at one of Kingdom of Saudi Arabian (KSA) hospital. The cultural behavioral requirements were identified using focus group technique and the outcomes were analyzed and represented using Unified Modelling Language (UML). The outcome of the research is validated through evaluation of feedback from a review session and academic experts. This work investigates cultural and behavioral features that have the potentials to support software engineers, who are considering new systematic techniques and approaches to improve systems adaptation processes, especially in HIS domain. This work could be used as a reference to guide developers to adapt similar systems in similar culture and environment settings. In addition to an adaptation to a specific environment, the outcome could also be useful for designing system for-reuse facet from the perspective of reusability.
A Study on the Breaking and Winnowing Machine for Cocoa Beans at Small Industrial Scale in Vietnam
Authors: Nguyen Huy-Bich , Pham Duy-Lam , Nguyen Van-Lanh
Published: March 2019

In the chocolate or cocoa powder processing process, the roasted cocoa beans have to pass to the breaking and winnowing step to obtain the nibs. The quality of chocolate or cocoa powder depends strongly on the amount of shell that is not separated and still mixing on the nibs. Recently, most of the cocoa bean breaking machines are based on the principle of grinding. This leads to some disadvantages as (1) the shells might be not separated from the cocoa kernel after the shattering that results in low efficiency of the cleaning process (<96%); and (2) the nibs are also crushed so much to become smaller so that they are easy to moving out together with the shell in the winnowing step due to the similar density. As a result, the ratio of nibs loss during the cleaning process is very high as around 11.3%. Therefore, the shattering and cleaning process has strongly affected the economic efficiency of cocoa production. One of the new methods for cocoa breaking and winnowing in order to increase the cleanness level and to reduce the nibs loss rate has been developed and studied. The cocoa seeds breaking based on the centrifugal mechanism in combination with the pneumatic cleaning have been conducted to manufacturing breaking and winnowing machine with a capacity of about 80 kg/hour. The experimental results indicate that the efficiency of the cleaning process rises to more than 99% and the ratio of nibs loss reduces to 1.6% only which leads to increase the economic efficiency of the cocoa processing process.
Updated Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection Rules (GOMS) with Touch Screen Operations for Quantitative Analysis of User Interfaces
Authors: Setthawong Pisal , Setthawong Rachsuda
Published: March 2019

When developing applications, User Interfaces (UI) are considered as an important and integral component of any application.  With badly designed UI, users are less likely to use the application, leading to low adoption rates and is not desirable in any application development setting.  The process of developing good intuitive and stream-lined UI for users is complex, that requires many processes and experts from many fields to contribute.  When evaluating potential UI designs, there are many attributes and features that could be examined either in a qualitative and/or quantitative standpoint.  The Updated Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection Rules (GOMS) model is an approach that has been used in the area.  With the Keystroke Level (KLM) extension, it is possible to quantitatively estimate the time requirement or efficiency of UI for completing different tasks with minimal effort, and has been adopted in many GUI improvement projects.  Due to the usefulness, extensions to the GOMS model had been proposed over the years including extensions to account for motion control interfaces.  Though the GOMS model has been useful for quantitatively evaluating UI design, the main input device of modern smartphones and tablets are touch screens, which are different in nature when compared to traditional computer inputs.  The differences leads to the point that GOMS model with KLM is ill-suited for touch screen based applications.  This research paper addresses the issue by proposing extensions to the GOMS model to account for UI that are based on touch screen input devices.
Experimental Analysis on the Ultrasound-based Mixing Technique Applied to Ultra-low Sulphur Diesel and Bio-oils
Authors: Hoang Anh Tuan , Tran Viet Dung
Published: March 2019

Pollution in the maritime field is considered as such a serious problem that scientists, policymakers, and managers are always urged with a desire to find solutions and strategies one way or another to minimize its negative impacts on the environment and the life. Among the effective solutions, the use of fuels with limited-sulfur content or bio-based fuels has been paid much attention to due to their advantages in the use of marine diesel engines. In the current study, a type of fossil diesel fuel with ultra-low sulfur content (ULSD) was mixed with coconut oil (CO) through the ultrasonic treatment under the changes in volume fraction of as-used fuels, the correlation on viscosity selected the rate mixing between ULSD and coconut oil. After 12 minutes of ultrasound treatment, the highest stability of the ULSD-CO emulsion was achieved correspondingly to 97.8% for a mixing rate of 76%(ULSD):24%(CO) along with the distance of 85mm from the containing-vessel bottom to the ultrasound horn tip. Moreover, the spray characteristics including penetration length and a cone angle of ULSD, CO, and ULSD-CO emulsion were also examined and compared to diesel fuel. The similarity of spray characteristics to diesel fuel, containing ultra-low sulfur content and oxygen content, renewability are considered as some advantages of ULSD-CO emulsion as used for diesel engines aiming to meet the stricter requirements of IMO regulations about the strategies of environmental protection.
Active Teaching Techniques for Engineering Students to Ensure The Learning Outcomes of Training Programs by CDIO Approach
Authors: Le Tien Quoc , Do Thu Thi Anh
Published: March 2019

Recent research results show that students' ability to absorb and apply lessons increases when they are actively learning. In the innovative teaching method, learners - objects of teaching activities as well as subjects of learning activities - are attracted to active learning activities organized and instructed by teachers. By this way, learners are self-reliant to discover what they do not know, not passively absorb the knowledge arranged by the teacher. Placed in situations of real life, learners experience, directly observe, discuss, experiment, solve problems posed by their thinking, both working in groups, thereby gaining new knowledge, new skills, promoting creative potential. Depending on the objectives of the specific subject, which level of knowledge or skill needs to be achieved according to the CDIO approach, the lecturer will organize appropriate activities to help students actively learn to achieve the goals. The paper explores and evaluates innovative teaching methods to help students actively learn and experience to achieve the subject’s goals and training program following the CDIO approach, as well as meet the requirements of society.
Addition of Spirulina as Feed Supplement in The Ration on Production and Eggs Quality of The Sentul Chickens
Authors: Widjasuti Tuti , Sujana Endang , Balia Roostita Lobo
Published: March 2019

Sentul chicken is a specific chicken from Ciamis region, West Java, Indonesia, and it is a dual purpose type. To improve performance can be added with spirulina meal as a feed supplement.  Spirulina is classified as blue-green algae or blue-green bacteria and can be as the  source of protein.  Spirulina is a source of carotenoids with the high content of beta-carotene and xanthopyl, so it can be used in rations to increase egg production. The purpose of this study was to obtain an effective level of use n of spirulina in the Sentul chicken ration of the layer phase. The study used 50 female chickens aged 7 months, which was kept in cages until 2 months and each cage contains 2 chickens. The method used was a completely randomized design with 5 treatments namely R0 (ration without spirulina ), R1 (ration with 1% spirulina addition), R 2 (addition of 1.5% ), R3 (addition of 2%) and R4 (addition of 2, 5%) with five replications. Furthermore, treatment differences were tested using Duncan Multiple Range test. The measured variables were feed consumption, egg weight, hen day production, feed conversion, thick of shell and egg yolk color. The results showed the addition of spirulina of 1.5 - 2% in the ration increased hen day production and egg quality but with the addition of 2.5%, feed consumption, hen day production, and feed conversion decreased. It can be concluded that spirulina can be used as feed supplement until 2% to gave the best on production and eggs quality of Sentul chicken.
The Location-allocation Decision under The Dynamic Increment of Demand for Selecting The Local Distribution Centers to Face Sumatra Megathrust: Study Case of Padang City
Authors: Inca Liperda Rahmad , Nikorn Sirivongpaisal
Published: March 2019

The efforts of providing effective relief assistance in the aftermath of the disaster is prominent to prevent losses and suffering. During the emergency response, the level of preparedness becomes a decisive factor to obtain an immediate countermeasure in order to enhance the capability and to reduce the impact caused by the disaster. Due to its vital role as a transit point to manage large inflow and outflow of the relief commodities, the location-allocation decision to select the appropriate Local Distribution Centers (LDCs) is essential. This research proposes the location-allocation planning for encountering Sumatra Megathrust during 72 hours of the critical period. The dynamic increment of demand over the planning period is considered as a constraint to obtain the set of appropriate LDCs to be established per day. The consideration regarding the expected impassable paths based on the worst case tsunami inundation scenario is acknowledged to ensure the proper access for distributing the relief aids. This work utilizes Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with the maximum coverage analysis to generate the set of alternative LDCs per day. The effectiveness of the alternative LDCs is measured by calculating the opening cost and transportation cost. The finding recommends two LDCs to be opened in the first two days, and three LDCs are considered to be established on the third day. The total costs of the LDCs establishment per day are 1369.05 USD, 669.85 USD, and 1126.53 USD. The depiction of the selected depots-recipient counterparts is provided to acquire the spatial information of the study area.
Application of Road Engineering NSPM Action Programs on Sub-National Roads in Indonesia
Authors: Sutandi Anastasia Caroline , Mulyono Agus Taufik
Published: March 2019

In Indonesia, the norm, the standard, the guidelines, and the manual regarding road engineering for sub-national roads are known as road engineering NSPM. Application of a road engineering NSPM action program is crucial to increase roadworthiness and infrastructure resilience. Sub-national roads in Indonesia are roads at a province, regency, and city level. This research aims to find out the identification and evaluation of existing road conditions of sub-national roads in Indonesia. This research also aims to identify difficulties to increase road engineering NSPM application on sub-national roads. This research recommends action programs to attain roadworthiness of 75 percent of sub-national road length in Indonesia between the years 2015-2019. Sub-national roads in six provinces in Indonesia are the location of case studies. The provinces are Riau, particular region province of Yogyakarta, province of South Kalimantan, province of South Sulawesi, province of Bali, and the province of Maluku. Survey data show that province roads have fulfilled 66 percent of roadworthiness, regency roads have fulfilled 63 percent, and city road has fulfilled 81 percent. The difficulties in NSPM application are the limited support of the financial facility, and substandard application of human resource ability, dissemination of NSPM, evaluation of performance, road technical guidance, and observation on-site. The research methodology used is based on a physical existing road condition. Finally, there  is a recommendation of action programs that can be instituted, i.e. dissemination of regulations regarding guidelines of road function and status in Indonesia, regulation of Public Work Ministry of Republic of Indonesia no 03/PRT/M/2012, regular application of technical training and coaching about accurate location where road engineering NSPM will be applied to local government by central government, regular application of technical training and coaching about road infrastructure resilience, and application of road engineering NSPM on sub-national roads, including monitoring and evaluation both internally and externally.
A Resilient Environment through The Integration of CCA and DRR: An Overview of Existing Challenges
Authors: Dias Nuwan , Clegg Georgina , Amaratunga Dilanthi , Haigh Richard
Published: March 2019

Creating a resilient environment for disasters is a primary contemporary challenge. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) are well-known concepts, and practices used to reduce vulnerability and thereby contribute to the creation of a resilient environment. There is growing recognition that the theory and practice of CCA and DRR are converging and therefore, CCA and DRR efforts should be integrated to bring about effective solutions to reduce vulnerability and to create a resilient environment to disasters. However, the integration of CCA and DRR has always been a challenge due to several factors that hinder the process. Asia is highly vulnerable to disasters due to its geographical location, unplanned development, undistributed internal migration for urban areas and so on. Within this context, it is extremely important that the region undertakes strategies to create a resilient environment. In order to create a resilient environment, CCA and DRR integration plays a vital role, but within the current social, economic, political and demographic context of Asia, integration of CCA and DRR has become difficult. Based on the findings of a global analysis conducted as part of the research project ESPREssO, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme, this paper provides a critical review of the existing challenges associated with integrating DRR and CCA in order to create a resilient environment in Asia. During the first phase of the study, a narrative desk-based literature review was conducted, and during the second stage, extensive primary data collection was undertaken. The primary data collection methods were semi-structured expert interviews, expert focus group discussions, and an online questionnaire survey. Analysis revealed that a chaotic institutional set-up, political priorities, funding issues, stakeholder interests, and communication barriers are the prominent challenges to the integration of CCA and DRR in Asia, which must be overcome in order to establish a resilient environment.
Regional Cooperation towards Effective Multi-Hazard Early Warnings in Asia
Authors: Hemachandra Kinkini , Haigh Richard , Amaratunga Dilanthi
Published: March 2019

Abstract— Due to the unprecedented rate of climate change, the number of coastal hazards have been significantly increased causing a large number of deaths and economic losses during the 21st century. Hence, leading global initiatives emphasise the necessity of multi-hazard early warnings for effective disaster risk reduction and resilience across the world. Asia reported the largest share of deaths and economic losses from all type of natural hazards, showing gaps within their coping capacities and gaps in present preparedness measures. Multi-hazard early warnings play a significant role within present disaster risk reduction measures irrespective of disaster type. Regional cooperation in this effort could be further benefitted due to its ability of sharing knowledge and costs among member countries. Nevertheless, present situation of multi-hazard early warnings in Asia does not deliver its expected results due to many uncovered reasons. Hence, this paper is written with the objective of identifying enablers and barriers that affect effective multi-hazard early warnings in Asia. This paper is based on the findings of an initial stage of a project aimed at enhancing capacity building among Asian higher education institutions through capacity development programmes for an effective risk reduction and resilience mechanisms. Accordingly, the study conducted an online survey among experts in multi-hazard early warnings and found that, risk warnings, governance, awareness and education, preparedness culture and resources as the enablers for effective multi-hazard early warnings in Asia. The study also revealed that weak monitoring, weak preparedness and response capacities and weak regional and political support as the barriers for successful implementation.