Opinion Formation by Informed Agents

Opinion formation and innovation diffusion have gained lots of attention in the last decade due to its application in social and political science. Control of the diffusion process usually takes place using the most influential people in the society, called opinion leaders or key players. But the opinion leaders can hardly be accessed or hired for spreading the desired opinion or information. This is where informed agents can play a key role. Informed agents are common people, not distinguishable from the other members of the society that act in coordination. In this paper we show that informed agents are able to gradually shift the public opinion toward a desired goal through microscopic interactions. In order to do so they pretend to have an opinion similar to others, but while interacting with them, gradually and intentionally change their opinion toward the desired direction. In this paper a computational model for opinion formation by the informed agents based on the bounded confidence model is proposed. The effects of different parameter settings including population size of the informed agents, their characteristics, and network structure, are investigated. The results show that social and open-minded informed agents are more efficient than selfish or closed-minded agents in control of the public opinion.Social Networks, Informed Agents, Innovation Diffusion, Bounded Confidence, Opinion Dynamics, Opinion Formation

Automated Attendance System using Active RFID

The main focus ofthis project is to enhance the integrity and the authenticity ofdata, whereby, conventional system couldn't ensure the safety of the data. As the result, many employees neglect the importance of attitude in working environment. This project offers a safety towards the data, and in the same time helping in monitoring the movement of employees. Given a number of time, this project will undergo several phases which are planning, analysis, design and implementation. Lastly, the success ofthis project will be determined, and a conclusion should be made based on the result obtained, whether the objective has been met or not

The Use of Hedging Devices in English and Persian Abstracts of Persian Literature and Civil Engineering MA/MS Theses of Iranian Writers

AbstractThe present study compared and contrasted the frequency of incidence of hedges in 40 MA/MS abstracts of Persian Literature and Civil Engineering theses written both in Persian and English against the taxonomy of hedges proposed by Salager-Meyer (1994). Running Chi-square analyses, it was found that, firstly, there were no significant differences in the frequency of incidence of hedges used in the abstracts written both in English and Persian in both disciplines and secondly, discipline had no effect on the frequency of incidence of hedges. Thirdly, Iranian graduate students made relatively lower use of hedges compared with their English speaking counterparts

Performance of An Airlift Membrane Bioreactor Under Different Aeration Rates

The treatment of a synthetic oily wastewater in an airlift submerged membrane bioreactor (AMBR) has been studied. A flat sheet Kubota membrane has been used for this purpose in the reactor with a working volume of 19 L. The volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient, oxygen uptake rate, treatment efficiency and fouling intensity were investigated for various aeration rates (0.2, 0.5, 0.7 and 1 m3/h). Based on the results, a COD removal efficiency of more than 93% - even for the lowest aeration rate – is reported. However, increasing the aeration rate resulted in higher kLa and higher microbial activity. The high aeration intensity resulted in breakage of activated sludge flocs and hence reduction in mean flocs size and release of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). At an aeration intensity as high as 1m3/h, the maximum irreversible fouling was observed which is due to higher concentration of EPS and colloids that are the major foulants. Although the aeration may scour the membrane surface and avoid the formation of cake layer, it could induce more pore blocking fouling. In the studied range, the 0.7 m3/h is found to be the optimum aeration rate and the alteration of the aeration rate deteriorated the AMBR’s performance

Vocabulary knowledge learning and reading comprehension performance: which one is superior - breadth or depth?

Reading has been and is a demanding task for foreign language learners. Correspondingly, vocabulary knowledge plays an extremely vital role in foreign language learning and numerous researchers have investigated the correlation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. However, research on breadth and depth of EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge and their mutual interactions is inadequate. Accordingly, the present paper intends to review the relationships between EFL students’ vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension and analyze whether breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge are correlated to each other. Having reviewed numerous studies in this regard, it was found that whereas both breadth and depth vocabulary knowledge have vital roles in EFL learners' reading comprehension performance, depth of vocabulary knowledge plays a more significant role. It was also found that depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge are positively correlated, that is, those learners who had large vocabulary size will have a deeper knowledge of the words, too.La lectura ha sido y es una tarea demandada para los aprendices de segundas lenguas. Igualmente, el aprendizaje de vocabulario juega un papel vital en el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera y numerosos investigadores han establecido la correlación entre conocimiento del vocabulario y la comprensión lectora. Sin embargo, la investigación sobre la amplitud y la profundidad en el conocimiento del vocabulario de aprendices de inglés como lengua extranjera (EFL – English as a Foreign Language) y sus interacciones mutuas es inadecuada. De manera similar, este artículo intenta revisar las relaciones entre el conocimiento del vocabulario de alumnado EFL y su comprensión lectora, así como analizar si la amplitud y la profundidad de dicho conocimiento de vocabulario están correlacionadas. Habiendo revisado numerosos estudios al respecto, encontramos que al tiempo que la profundidad y la amplitud en el conocimiento del vocabulario tienen papeles esenciales en la comprensión lectora de los aprendices EFL, la profundidad juega un papel más esencial, si cabe. También encontramos que la profundidad y la amplitud en el conocimiento del vocabulario están correlacionadas de manera positiva, es decir, aquel alumnado que mostraba un amplio conocimiento en el número de palabras, también mostraba un conocimiento más profundo de esas palabras

Measuring the concentration of information and communication technology infrastructure in Australia: do affordability and remoteness matter?

This study measures the concentration of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and expenditure inequality in the disaggregated spatial unit of various locations in Australia. Using survey data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia, a composite concentration index for ICT infrastructure is constructed for urban and rural households. In addition, the Gini coefficient of ICT expenditure is computed to measure the concentration of affordability of ICT services. Findings demonstrate that the concentrations of ICT infrastructure and affosrdability are profound in the Greater Sydney and Greater Melbourne areas. Nevertheless, results indicate that the remoteness of spatial units has a noteworthy impact on the concentration of ICT frastructure. In addition, canonical correlation analysis reveals that the association between the concentration of ICT infrastructure and inequality in the affordability of ICT services is statistically significant. These findings imply that policy makers should employ a holistic approach that will not only include technological and economic considerations but also examine place-based context in designing an all-inclusive ICT policy

Evaluation of Results and Patients’ Satisfaction of Alar Base Resection Surgery after Rhinoplasty Operations in 15 Khordad Hospital

Background: Alar base surgery is one of the controversial issues in rhinoplasty. In this surgery the nasal base width and alar flaring is got smaller with some kind of procedures. One of these procedures is wedge resection of alar base. This procedure may accompany with either some dissatisfaction of scars and adverse effects or complications. In this study, we evaluate the patient satisfaction of scar and possible complications.Materials and Methods: A total of 120 rhinoplasty patients at 15 khordad hospital were candidates for alar base wedge resection due to broad nasal base and / or alar flaring who were chosen for this study. We recorded and examined these patients before and minimum 6 months after surgery, then evaluated these information and data, which finally, compared all the preoperation and postoperation findings.Results: Mean age of patients was 30.11 years old. The full satisfaction of scar was 85.5% (103), but 6.7% (8) of patients had not satisfaction of scar due to visible scar in their alar facial groove. The rate of nostril symmetry satisfaction was 79.2% (95) and 8.3% (10) was dissatisfied due to nostril asymmetry. There was no external valve incompetency nor alar and sill notching in our study. There was not any narrowing of nostrils as well. The mean interalar distance preoperatively was 35.88 mm, which reduced to 32.61mm of mean diameter after surgery, (P-value = 0.000). Alar flaring correction was 88% (106) which was an acceptable consequence.Conclusion: The results of present study showed that in spite of surgeons fear for scar and some common complications after alar base resection, the satisfaction rate of our patients in this study were high, and complications frequencies were low. Therefore, we advise that it is better and wiser to do this operation in indicated patients surely within primary rhinoplasty and do not postpone it to another surgery

Covariant Poisson's equation in torsional Newton-Cartan gravity

We derive the covariant Poisson's equation of (d+1)-dimensional Newton-Cartan gravity with (twistless) torsion by applying the `non-relativistic conformal method' introduced in arXiv:1512.06277. We apply this method on-shell to a Schr\"odinger field theory on the curved Newton-Hooke background. The covariance of the field equation in the presence of the non-relativistic cosmological constant, entails fixing all coefficients in the covariant Poisson's equation for (twistless) torsional Newton-Cartan gravity. We further derive Ehlers conditions and an equation associated to the torsion in this method.Comment: 20 pages, v2 references adde

Automated Attendance System using Active RFID

The main focus ofthis project is to enhance the integrity and the authenticity ofdata, whereby, conventional system couldn't ensure the safety of the data. As the result, many employees neglect the importance of attitude in working environment. This project offers a safety towards the data, and in the same time helping in monitoring the movement of employees. Given a number of time, this project will undergo several phases which are planning, analysis, design and implementation. Lastly, the success ofthis project will be determined, and a conclusion should be made based on the result obtained, whether the objective has been met or not