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The purpose of this paper is to compare the performance of neural networks (NNs) and support vector machines (SVMs) as text classifiers. SVMs are considered one of the best classifiers. NNs could be adopted as text classifiers if their performance is comparable to that of SVMs.

Several NNs are trained to classify the same set of text documents with SVMs and their effectiveness is measured. The performance of the two tools is then statistically compared.

For text classification (TC), the performance of NNs is statistically comparable to that of the SVMs even when a significantly reduced document size is used.

This research finds not only that NNs are very viable TC tools with comparable performance to SVMs, but also that it does so using a much reduced size of document. The successful use of NNs in classifying reduced text documents would be its great advantage as a classification tool, compared to others, as it can bring great savings in terms of computation time and costs.

This paper is of value by showing statistically that NNs could be adopted as text classifiers with effectiveness comparable to SVMs, one of the best text classifiers currently used. This research is the first step towards utilizing NNs in text mining and its sub‐areas.

The results of the corrosion of metals and alloys with the use of solvent mixtures covering a wide range of compositions are limited in the literature. These mixed solvent systems possess a wide range of viscosity, dielectric constant and acid‐base properties. With this view, a kinetic study on the corrosion of metals in different aquo‐organic solvent systems has been undertaken. The corrosion of metals and alloys is strongly affected by the presence of water, the latter being found to have a passivating effect and sometimes a passivity breakdown effect. It is therefore of much interest to study the influence of varying water concentration on the corrosion and electrochemical behaviour of metal and alloys. The present work is a continuation of our studies on the kinetic of corrosion of metals in mixed aqueous‐organic solvents. Also, the corrosion rates are correlated to the dielectric constant and the total number of moles (n1 + n2) of water and ethylene glycol. This latter new correlation is described by El‐Shazly et al. for calculating the chemical potential (Δμ*) from kinetic data and molar thermodynamic excess functions for binary mixtures.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the restructuring process of the University of Arizona libraries. The paper focuses more specifically on the research support services (RSS) team, one of the librarian teams, that moved from a subject liaison model to a domain model focused on different work areas.

The paper details the three phases of restructuring: building the general frame of change by the restructuring team, staffing outline by the implementation team, and how the resulting team, the research support team, managed its assigned work.

The restructuring resulted in a few changes to the library as whole but the largest change was the creation of the RSS team and the move from a subject specialist model to a domain model. The RSS model has allowed the team to accomplish their work with fewer staff.

The paper provides a new approach of how a research university is responding to economic and technological challenges.

This paper seeks to identify change factors within the various elements of the IS audit universe aiming to give practitioners and management insight about the state of the IS audit profession and its future directions, especially within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) context.

Potential change factors that are taking place in IS audit were initially identified based on a literature review and the experience of the authors within the field. These changes were then categorized within one of the elements of the IS audit universe. To validate the IS audit change factors, a questionnaire was chosen as a data collection tool. The survey was sent to relevant practitioners in the subject matter within the UAE and was completed by 62 respondents.

The study concluded that the role of IS auditors in lessening in applications and infrastructures audits and is strengthening in the arena of IT management audits.

The implication of study for IS audit practitioners is that they need to be better equipped to conduct IT management audits and to contribute value to their organization as part of IT governance endeavors rather than focusing on infrastructure and application audits. On the other hand, the implication for management is that they should be aware of the capabilities of IS audit and set their biggest value expectations in the area of IT management assurance and governance.

The paper makes a contribution by identifying change factors within the various elements of the IS audit universe aiming to give practitioners insight about the state of the profession and its future directions.

This study has two objectives:(1) to examine impacts of environmental activity, relational marketing, and corporate green image on firm’s competitive performance; and (2) to determine whether relational marketing and corporate green image mediate relationships between environmental activity and firm’s competitive performance. They were data from 375 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the food processing industry in Bangkok, Thailand. This study also investigates the relationships between environmental activity, green corporate image, relational marketing, and influences of these factors on firm’s competitive performance. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze data. Results reveal significant and positive relationships between environmental activity, green corporate image, relational marketing, and firm’s competitive performance. Moreover, environmental activity, an antecedent variable, indirectly affects a firm’s competitive performance mediated by green corporate image and relational marketing. Therefore, green corporate image and relational marketing can act as mediators between environmental activity and firm’s competitive performance. Findings suggested that firms should focus on improving green corporate image and relational marketing with an appropriate environmental activity strategy to enhance the firm’s competitive performance. Moreover, this study’s result is related to the economics of the environment in terms of cost and benefit. It provides firm’s decision on environmental activity.

The objective of the present work was to study the kinetics of copper cementation on Fe metal in an acetone‐water medium and in a dioxane‐water medium.

The impact of solvent concentration on cementation rate was determined by measuring the rate of copper cementation from CuSO₄ onto an iron plate in the absence and in the presence of acetone and dioxane solvents.The thermodynamic parameters ΔH^#, ΔS^# and ΔG^# of the cementation of CuSO₄‐organic solvents were calculated. Linear plots of ΔH^# versus ΔS^# were obtained.

It was demonstrated that the rate of cementation decreased with increasing concentration of solvents and increasing temperature. The isokinetic temperature data indicate that the cementation reaction is controlled by the entropy of the system.

The findings have important implications for the reclamation of toxic and valuable metals from industrial waste streams.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce an approach for m‐valued classical and non‐classical (reversible and quantum) optical computing. The developed approach utilizes new multiplexer‐based optical devices and circuits within switch logic to perform the required optical computing. The implementation of the new optical devices and circuits in the optical regular logic synthesis using new lattice and systolic architectures is introduced, and the extensions to quantum optical computing are also presented.

The new linear optical circuits and systems utilize coherent light beams to perform the functionality of the basic logic multiplexer. The 2‐to‐1 multiplexer is a basic building block in switch logic, where in switch logic a logic circuit is implemented as a combination of switches rather than a combination of logic gates as in the gate logic, which proves to be less‐costly in synthesizing wide variety of logic circuits and systems. The extensions to quantum optical computing using photon spins and the collision of Manakov solitons are also presented.

New circuits for the optical realizations of m‐valued classical and reversible logic functions are introduced. Optical computing extensions to linear quantum computing using photon spins and nonlinear quantum computing using Manakov solitons are also presented. Three new multiplexer‐based linear optical devices are introduced that utilize the properties of frequency, polarization and incident angle that are associated with any light‐matter interaction. The hierarchical implementation of the new optical primitives is used to synthesize regular optical reversible circuits such as the m‐valued regular optical reversible lattice and systolic circuits. The concept of parallel optical processing of an array of input laser beams using the new multiplexer‐based optical devices is also introduced. The design of regular quantum optical systems using regular quantum lattice and systolic circuits is introduced. New graph‐based quantum optical representations using various types of quantum decision trees are also presented to efficiently represent quantum optical circuits and systems.

The introduced methods for classical and non‐classical (reversible and quantum) optical regular circuits and systems are new and interesting for the design of several future technologies that require optimal design specifications such as super‐high speed, minimum power consumption and minimum size such as in quantum computing and nanotechnology.

The Nigerian construction industry is bedeviled with poor project performance and outcomes which value management (VM) could address if applied. The application of VM on Nigerian construction projects is very minimal due to certain obstacles, namely, lack of VM experts, paucity of knowledge on the techniques, etc., which inhibits the adoption into the construction industry. Therefore, this study aims to develop a conceptual framework of the adoption of VM on construction projects in a typical developing economy.

This study engaged 15 selected VM experts in two rounds of Delphi survey to develop a conceptual framework of VM adoption. The method of data analysis includes mean score, standard deviation, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance, chi-square (χ²) test, interrater agreement analysis and significant level analysis. The developed conceptual framework was sent to a team of local and international VM experts for validation.

This study reveals that the adoption of VM requires the collective effort of relevant stakeholders in the construction industry. The framework developed presents individual and collective activities to be undertaken by the stakeholders. The activities include training, legislation, government-funded research, etc. Thus, the adoption of innovative management methodology like VM requires the collaboration of academics, construction professional bodies and government parastatals. This will assist in the judicious use of limited construction resources and boost the relevance of the Nigerian construction industry among developing nations and in the global construction market.

This study used the opinions of few construction professionals that can be regarded as VM experts in Nigeria, as against engaging a pool of construction professionals who may not be knowledgeable in VM process. Engaging the few VM experts in the Nigerian construction industry is important to have a valid basis for drawing conclusion, as large questionnaire survey could be possibly filled by inexperienced or unqualified respondents if stringent criteria are not considered at the outset of this study.

The first part of this paper presents an incremental variational principle and an incremental finite element in time‐space domain for the analysis of large amplitude, periodic vibration of multilayer sandwich plates. A reduced basis composed of eigenvectors corresponding to linear free vibration is introduced to reduce the order of the resulting linearized equations governing the non‐linear motion which are solved incrementally in association with Newton‐Raphson iterative method and an extrapolating technique. In the second part the solution techniques are described in detail and a number of examples on various non‐linear responses of rectangular multilayer sandwich plates, including superharmonic, subharmonic and internal resonance, are included in the study. Viscous modal damping is also considered when the structure is under forced excitation.

The object of the present work is to study the kinetics of removal of Pb⁺⁺ on zinc rods in the presence and absence of three surface active substances (SAS) at different concentrations of SAS and different temperatures.

The paper uses a range of recently published (1973‐2003) works, which aim to provide practical and theoretical information about lead, which is a very toxic metal.

Lead tends to accumulate a sediment, from which it can be released by various processes of remobilization and in many cases it enters the food chain and is concentrated in fish and other edible organisms. The reaction can be considered as taking place via six steps.

The work is a list of recent papers which have been published in different European journals and magazines.

The determination of change of Pb⁺⁺ concentrations was carried out using a Perkin‐Elmer atomic absorption Spectrophotometer.

The rate of PbII/Zn cementation reaction in the presence of surfactants as non‐ionic (Triton‐X‐100), anionic (SDS) and cationic (CTAB) decreased compared with the blank solution (lead nitrate solution). The order of decreasing rate was as follows: Triton‐X‐100 > CTAB > SDS. The rate of cementation was increased by temperature and the value of ΔE* ranged between 27 and 33 kJmol⁻¹, which indicated that the reaction is a diffusion‐controlled process. The presence of two different SAS in the solution is more effective than the presence of one only.