Problematic Factors Research Articles

정확한 방위각 추정을 위한 차수 변환 방식 자기왜곡 보상 메커니즘

One of the most problematic factors in inertial/magnetic sensing-based tilt/azimuth estimation is magnetic distortion that can be added in magnetometer signals and may decrease the azimuth estimation accuracy. In this paper, we propose an orderswitching magnetic distortion compensation mechanism for accurate azimuth estimation. The proposed compensation mechanism switches between a first-order Gauss-Markov (GM) model and a second-order GM model of magnetic distortion. When the secondorder model is selected, the time-derivative of the magnetic distortion is additionally augmented in the states of the corresponding second-order azimuth Kalam filter. The proposed mechanism was experimentally validated in four different magnetically distorted conditions. The results show that the azimuth estimation error of the proposed method was less than 3° in all the tests and the proposed mechanism outperformed conventional approaches in the azimuth estimation.

ŠEIMŲ, AUGINANČIŲ VAIKUS SU AUTIZMO SPEKTRO SUTRIKIMU, GYVENIMO GEROVĖ

Straipsnio tikslas - atskleisti tėvų, auginančių ikimokyklinio ar mokyklinio amžiaus vaiką su autizmo spektro sutrikimu, šeimos gyvenimo gerovės probleminius veiksnius. Tyrime dalyvavo 100 tėvų, auginančių ikimokyklinio ar mokyklinio amžiaus vaiką su autizmo spektro sutrikimu. Naudota nuoseklaus tyrimo strategija taikant anketinę apklausą su uždaro ir atviro tipo klausimais. Anketoje uždaro tipo klausimai skirti ištirti šeimos, auginančios vaiką su autizmo spektro sutrikimu, gyvenimo kokybę (angl. Family quality of life scale), o atviro tipo klausimai – šeimos specialiųjų poreikių tenkinimo ypatumus. Tyrimo duomenų analizė atlikta naudojant Microsoft Office Excel ir SPSS programas. Rezultatai. Auginančios neįgalų ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaiką šeimos narių tarpusavio sąveikai svarbus neįgalaus vaiko auklėjimas (r=0,66), materiali (r=0,53) ir emocinė (r=0,51) šeimos gerovė, o tėvams, auginantiems mokyklinio amžiaus neįgalų vaiką, – auklėjimas (r= 0,53) bei materiali gerovė (r=0,53). Respondentai prastai įvertino paramą, gaunamą iš valstybės, šeimos specialiesiems poreikiams tenkinti. Tik dalį reikalingų jų neįgalaus vaiko raidai paslaugų galėjo įpirkti patys, o kitos dalies paslaugų įpirkti negalėjo dėl šeimos prastos finansinės padėties. Išvados. Visuomenės pastangos tinkamai pasirūpinti šeimos, auginančios neįgalų vaiką, gyvenimo gerove, priklauso nuo gebėjimo sistemiškai atskleisti santykių šeimoje ir socialinių santykių psichosocialinio funkcionavimo ypatumus bei specialistų teikiamos pagalbos šeimai iš formalių ir/ar neformalių struktūrų poreikį ir lūkesčius.

Problematics of Direct Elections for Local Head after the Amendment of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia

The amendment of the 1945 Constitution sets that governors, regents, and local mayors are democratic in their election, originally selected by the legislative assembly and latterly sifted into direct election from the people. Based on the regulation No. 22 of 2007, it states that the election of local leader and co-leader is characterized as the part of general election regime, and thus it brings impact on local election, which should run directly as well. This article examines the arising problems on local election after the amendment of the 1945 Constitution, which reveals various problematic factors in the implementation of direct election for local head has been officially established. Indonesia has run local election many times in different eras, including in Dutch colonialism, Japan colonialism, and post-independence era. In post-independence era, Indonesia also has various political climates and traditions and including Old Order, New Order, and reformation era. The alteration of this general election system aims to provide fair democracy for all people to vote for their local leaders. The implementation, however, encounters several factors and problems derived from the level of participation up to the readiness of local election committee.

Factors Affecting Business Stability Among ASEAN Member States

This paper employed exploratory data analysis or data mining to determine the problematic factors that will characterize the common concerns of business investors in the ASEAN countries. More specifically, the researchers grouped and categorized these factors that had affected the current condition of businesses and determine their effect on the extent of doing businesses among ASEAN member states. Factor analysis has identified three factors, namely, legal and judicial climate, economic climate and labor climate. These factors were used as bases to determine the extent of problematic factors of doing businesses in an ASEAN country through a model obtained using principal components analysis. With this model, the overall results revealed that Singapore emerged as the most enticing place to do business among the ASEAN member states. This finding is mainly due to the positive opinions Singapore received in terms of legal and judicial climate and labor climate. On the conrtrary, Thailand is considered as having the most problematic variables in investing business as revealed by the study. This is largely due to the recent political turmoil it experienced in the late 2013 up to mid 2014. With the identified problems these ASEAN nations face based on the above-identified factors, it can be concluded that ASEAN nations should come to terms in identifying their strengths and weaknesses before considering the idea of integration. This is to ensure that business investors that ASEAN nations can address these pressing problems especially in factors that business executives see.This action has to happen to help them welcome more investors and to create a business environment more conducive to progress.

Studying the ability to absorb heavy metal of cadmium on the amount of sugar and chlorophyll using seedlings of berry specie (Morus alba) in pollution area

Heavy metals are from the group of problematic factors in the ecosystem that due to being non-absorbable and having physiological effects on the activity of living organisms at low concentrations are of particular importance. In this study, the ability of berry specie to absorb heavy metal of cadmium was studied. One year old seedlings of berry specie were prepared from the nursery, concentrations of zero and 100mg per liter of cadmium chloride solution were added to the seedlings pots soil after calculation, and after a three-month period of seedling growth, shoots and roots were separated, then the concentration amount of cadmium in the samples was determined and data were examined. The results of data analysis showed that the highest rate of cadmium accumulation in stems, roots and soil in treatment concentration is 54.76, 107.75 and 8.825mg per kg, respectively, and the rate of cadmium accumulation in total chlorophyll and sugar in treatment concentration is 3.16 and 0.6693mg per g, respectively, and based on the results of this research berry specie is relatively suitable for remediation of soils contaminated with cadmium.

Implementation of technology for business cluster management: a prototype of sharing economy among customs broker SMEs in Thailand

This study is aimed at investigating business operational problems and factors affecting competition among customs brokers, specifically Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand. Qualitative data was collected from 15 in-depth interviews of customs broker SME entrepreneurs who provide logistics services involving customs clearance, freight forwarding, transportation, and warehousing. All data was analysed by utilising the NVivo qualitative data analysis software. Results of the study revealed three factors as barriers to increasing competitive advantages among SMEs in the customs broker business, especially in transportation areas. These problematic factors had to do with competitive pricing from customers and competitors, continuing high capital and operational costs and under-utilised resource capacities. Utilising technological management, a prototyping model of a sharing economy among customs broker SME is proposed as a significant result of this study. It is anticipated that the proposed prototyping model of technological adoption would lead to competitive service improvement, reduced costs, and full capability of resource utilisation in customs broker businesses in Thailand.

Implementation of technology for business cluster management: a prototype of sharing economy among customs broker SMEs in Thailand

This study is aimed at investigating business operational problems and factors affecting competition among customs brokers, specifically Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand. Qualitative data was collected from 15 in-depth interviews of customs broker SME entrepreneurs who provide logistics services involving customs clearance, freight forwarding, transportation, and warehousing. All data was analysed by utilising the NVivo qualitative data analysis software. Results of the study revealed three factors as barriers to increasing competitive advantages among SMEs in the customs broker business, especially in transportation areas. These problematic factors had to do with competitive pricing from customers and competitors, continuing high capital and operational costs and under-utilised resource capacities. Utilising technological management, a prototyping model of a sharing economy among customs broker SME is proposed as a significant result of this study. It is anticipated that the proposed prototyping model of technological adoption would lead to competitive service improvement, reduced costs, and full capability of resource utilisation in customs broker businesses in Thailand.

Financial Model Of Viability Gap Fund : Case Study on Palembang - Indralaya Toll Road Project

Inadequate supply of infrastructure is number five of the most problematic factors for doing business in Indonesia. Therefore Government of Indonesia (GoI) continues to accelerate the development of infrastructure either in terms of financing, incentives, and especially through Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme. One of the breakthroughs made by the government in the PPP scheme is by providing support in the form of cash funds for the construction cost of the project also called Viability Gap Fund (VGF), in order to make a project that was previously financially unviable to become financially viable. This study aims to describe about the possibility of VGF in accelerating infrastructure development through PPP scheme, as well as conduct a financial model to calculate whether VGF really can make a project financially viable with a case study on the Palembang - Indralaya Toll Road Project. Methodology used in this study is quantitative method with the financial analysis. IRR and NPV are used as main financial parameters to determine financial viability of the project. The research shows that VGF will make Palembang-Indralaya Toll Road Project become financially viable.

РЕФОРМУВАННЯ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ В УКРАЇНІ

У статті розглянуті основні правові, організаційні, фінансові засади функціонування системи вищої освіти, які створюють умови для поєднання освіти з наукою та виробництвом з метою підготовки конкурентоспроможного людського капіталу для високотехнологічного та інноваційного розвитку країни, самореалізації особистості, забезпечення потреб суспільства, ринку праці та держави у кваліфікованих фахівцях. Автори статті аналізують ключові проблеми розвитку системи освіти, підвищення якості професійної підготовки фахівців, законодавчого регулювання розвитку системи вищої освіти в Україні в контексті Болонського процесу. Висвітлено стан і перспективи змін освітньої системи України в аспектах використання та вдосконалення різних засобів забезпечення якості навчального процесу і заключних освітніх кваліфікацій. Розглянуто проблемні фактори функціонування вищої освіти України під кутом зору нагальних потреб модернізації вітчизняного освітнього середовища, тобто приведення його у відповідність до імперативних вимог сучасності. Особлива увага приділяється міжнародному співробітництву в галузі освіти, інтеграції національної освіти до міжнародного освітянського простору.

The implementation deficits of adaptation and mitigation: green buildings and water security in Amsterdam and Boston

Frameworks of environmental regulations are fundamental yet problematic factors in achieving climate mitigation and adaptation policy goals. Recent theoretical arguments claim the value of general legal frameworks to enable experimentation and contextual adaptation of policies. However, empirical research regarding the effects of both general and specific norms in the practice of urban intervention remains limited. In this article we empirically discern how city governments deal with the tension between control and flexibility in the implementation of urban climate change goals. We argue that policies of adaptation/mitigation face two types of implementation problems: non-adaptive implementation and non-implementation. The first stems from an excessively constraining use of rules, while the second derives from a too general and undefined regulatory framework. Analysing two empirical cases in Amsterdam, Netherlands and Boston, MA, USA, we conclude that there are three elements that affect the way actors deal with these deficits: the level of scale at which regulations are established, the degree of land ownership which provides margin of manoeuvre to public authorities, and the sense of political urgency behind mitigation and adaptation policies.

An exploratory examination of practitioners’ and offenders’ perceptions of the effectiveness of an individual workbook approach for treating intimate partner violence offenders

ABSTRACTPerceptions of probation staff and offenders were explored regarding the effectiveness of an individual workbook intervention for intimate partner violence (IPV), based on the Integrated Domestic Abuse Programme, a group intervention for IPV offenders in the UK. Using thematic analysis, interview transcripts from 11 probation staff and 2 offenders were examined. Two global themes were identified: Promising alternative to IPV interventions, representing positive perceptions of the workbook and Compromises made in using the workbook, reflecting negative perceptions and challenges. The identified strengths were that the workbook provided staff with a framework to deliver individualised intervention (deemed to be more difficult in group treatment formats), employed a strength-based and directive approach to discussions to develop offenders’ skills and behaviours that may assist in improving deficits linked to their use of violence. However, identified problematic factors related to treatment integrity including delivery, content and format, its capacity to create change, and a need for further development. As a concept the workbook intervention should not be discounted since it offers an opportunity to offer individualised treatment and interventions to those unable to attend groups; however, the intervention requires development and further research to examine its effectiveness.

Supervised Filter Learning for Representation Based Face Recognition.

Representation based classification methods, such as Sparse Representation Classification (SRC) and Linear Regression Classification (LRC) have been developed for face recognition problem successfully. However, most of these methods use the original face images without any preprocessing for recognition. Thus, their performances may be affected by some problematic factors (such as illumination and expression variances) in the face images. In order to overcome this limitation, a novel supervised filter learning algorithm is proposed for representation based face recognition in this paper. The underlying idea of our algorithm is to learn a filter so that the within-class representation residuals of the faces' Local Binary Pattern (LBP) features are minimized and the between-class representation residuals of the faces' LBP features are maximized. Therefore, the LBP features of filtered face images are more discriminative for representation based classifiers. Furthermore, we also extend our algorithm for heterogeneous face recognition problem. Extensive experiments are carried out on five databases and the experimental results verify the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.

Fuzzy Multiple Criteria Decision-Making Assessment of Urban Conservation in Historic Districts: Case Study of Wenming Historic Block in Kunming City, China

AbstractLike most historic district in China, Wenming Historic Block in Kunming City is facing complex problems in the process of a property-led urban conservation project. This study presents the methodology of fuzzy multiple criteria decision-making (FMCDM) to figure out the most problematic issues among stakeholders in the process of urban conservation. First, this study reviewed related papers and government documents and then conducted fieldwork. This process made it possible to confirm the status quo of the urban conservation project in Wenming Historic Block. Thereafter, this study assessed the project. FMCDM was used to reveal the priority criteria of different stakeholder groups using a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and to figure out the most problematic factors in the process of urban conservation with fuzzy simple additive weighting (FSAW) under the evaluation of four stakeholder groups. The criteria (1) management policy and regulation, (2) public engagement and information openness,...

Towards multi-modal integrated mobility systems: Views from Panama City and Barranquilla

This paper undertakes the assessment of the bus transport systems of two port cities in the Caribbean, the BRT system Transmetro in Barranquilla, and Metrobus, a ‘light’ BRT system, in Panama City. Although the systems have different contexts, design and operational characteristics, they have in common that over the last years their service quality has deteriorated, leading to negative users' perception and consequently decrease in patronage levels. Understanding these problematic factors is key for the mobility of these cities as they are both planning to expand their systems and consolidate multi-modal integrated transport systems in the upcoming years. Through a series of interviews with several stakeholders from institutions related to the mobility sector in each city our analysis identifies aspects of conceptual design, planning and implementation of institutional, operational, financial and management frameworks that might have been preventing the systems from achieving a better performance. Moreover, our analysis highlights two factors embedded at the core of the systems' difficulties: First, BRT technology transfer with limited understanding of context and little adaptation to local user's expectations and preferences; and second, design criteria that address financial requirements at the expense of quality of service for people's needs.

Corruption and Internal Control Weaknesses: Case Study Romania

Corruption represents one of the major causes of poverty all over the world and European Union is fighting against it. In the last few years, the corruption phenomenon registered a high level in some European countries and became one of the most problematic factors for doing business, due to the evolution of the perceived top five global risks: interstate conflict and regional consequences, extreme weather events, failure of national governance, state collapse or crises, high structural unemployment or underemployment (WEF-Global Risk Report 2015, p. 14). One of the modalities in combating corruption is implementing the internal control and most of the governments and organizations adopted strong control techniques. Most of the control weaknesses are related to the financial procedures and the number of controllers. Some of the controllers do not have enough financial expertise or do not understand the importance of informatics systems.

Added value from European Territorial Co-operation: the impact of demographic change in the Alps on the young

Abstract The article sets demographic change in the Alps in the framework of European Territorial Cooperation programs. A statistical overview of selected regions in five Alpine countries serves as a basis for further policy analysis. The latter was undertaken to reveal how transnational projects tackle youth issues, including the difficulties within the labour and real estate markets that appeared to be the most problematic factors influencing (out) migration of the youth. While there is only a minor recognition of the young in current policymaking on supranational, regional and local levels, the analysis showed that the added value of transnational programs for mountain regions and localities can be recognized in the development of multi-stakeholder environments, creating and transferring new solutions for the labour market as well as empowering youth participation in policy processes. However, the extent to which these solutions might contribute to overcoming the challenges of demographic change because of transnational programs is limited by various factors. Among these are the precise governance framework, administrative capacity, and population figures.

Стимулирование гражданской инициативы НКО современным российским законотворчеством

The article deals with the transformation of the legal field activities by NGOs in the regions of the Central Federal District as a form of civil initiative. Highlighted problems in the formation of legal field of activities by NGOs in the regions of Russia. The author concludes that one of the problematic factors cost-effective activities by NGOs is tax policy. The features of the choice of organizational form with NGOs. The study was funded by RFH in the framework of a research project RHF "Transformation of social stability-oriented non-profit organizations in the conditions of formation of inter-sectoral social partnership in the Russian Federation", the project number 14-02-00119

Problems and prospects of providing library and information services to the prisoners in Nigeria

Purpose– The purposes of this paper were to find out the problematic factors in providing library and information services to Nigeria prisoners and the strategies for solving them, thereby enhancing adequate provision of the required services to these prisoners.Design/methodology/approach– Seven main prisons were used for the study with a population of about 6,430 prisoners and 21 prison library/welfare workers. The sample size was 1,322 prisoners and the whole 21 workers. Questionnaires and focus group discussion (FGD) were the main instruments used for data collection. Data from the questionnaire were analyzed using frequencies and mean scores while data from FGD were analyzed descriptively.Findings– Major findings showed that problems like funding, censorship of reading materials, restrictions due to prison policy and staffing hinder to a high extent the provision of library and information services for these prisoners. Also, improved funding of the prisons and prison libraries, services and resource sharing with other libraries, NGOs and other information providers were all seen as strategies to enhance adequate library and information services provision to the prisoners.Originality/value– Library and information services are needed by everybody in today’s society. Prisoners, although incarcerated, will find useful a variety of library and information services provided to them. This paper delved into the problems of providing library and information services to Nigeria prisoners. The results of the study, if adhered to by the Nigerian prison authorities, will help a great deal in making the prisoners better citizens after release.

The Analysis of the Visual-Effects used in the Film Pohang

Today, visual-special effects in films do not merely focus on creating impossible expressions, but can also be found in various other instances, such as the reconstruction of reality and in predicting the outcome of shots through pre-visualization. However, it also has disadvantages, such as an increase in production costs if the pre-planning process has not been executed properly. This study intends to analyze how visual effects have been applied in the film by providing examples of the visual-special effects processes that were used in the film Pohang, and by proposing the most effective special effects techniques. This study selects some of the film’s scenes in order to investigate the content, what objectives were intended to be expressed, and what the director’s requirements were, and then identifies the plan and composition that were designed to complete these scenes. In addition, it explains problematic factors that the visual effects team encountered and presents technical methods used to solve these issues. It also explores how problems are assessed and rectified, identifies the limits of visual-special effects production during the post-production process in low-budget filmmaking, and presents methods of circumventing such limits.

Robust visual odometry estimation of road vehicle from dominant surfaces for large‐scale mapping

Every urban environment contains a rich set of dominant surfaces which can provide a solid foundation for visual odometry estimation. In this work visual odometry is robustly estimated by computing the motion of camera mounted on a vehicle. The proposed method first identifies a planar region and dynamically estimates the plane parameters. The candidate region and estimated plane parameters are then tracked in the subsequent images and an incremental update of the visual odometry is obtained. The proposed method is evaluated on a navigation dataset of stereo images taken by a car mounted camera that is driven in a large urban environment. The consistency and resilience of the method has also been evaluated on an indoor robot dataset. The results suggest that the proposed visual odometry estimation can robustly recover the motion by tracking a dominant planar surface in the Manhattan environment. In addition to motion estimation solution a set of strategies are discussed for mitigating the problematic factors arising from the unpredictable nature of the environment. The analyses of the results as well as dynamic environmental strategies indicate a strong potential of the method for being part of an autonomous or semi-autonomous system.