Search results for: open information extraction

Authors: Jinen Daghrir, Anis Kricha, Karim Kalti

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The amount of incoming administrative documents is massive and manually processing these documents is a costly task especially on the timescale. In fact, this problem has led an important amount of research and development in the context of automatically extracting fields from administrative documents, in order to reduce the charges and to increase the citizen satisfaction in administrations. In this matter, we introduce an administrative document understanding system. Given a document in which a user has to select fields that have to be retrieved from a document class, a document model is automatically built. A document model is represented by an attributed relational graph (ARG) where nodes represent fields to extract, and edges represent the relation between them. Both of vertices and edges are attached with some feature vectors. When another document arrives to the system, the layout objects are extracted and an ARG is generated. The fields extraction is translated into a problem of matching two ARGs which relies mainly on the comparison of the spatial relationships between layout objects. Experimental results yield accuracy rates from 75% to 100% tested on eight document classes. Our proposed method has a good performance knowing that the document model is constructed using only one single document.

Keywords: administrative document understanding, logical labelling, logical layout analysis, fields extraction from administrative documents

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Authors: Doni Dermawan

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Modern sports competition as a consequence of the increase in the value of the business and entertainment in the field of sport has been demanding athletes to always have excellent physical endurance performance. Physical exercise is done in a long time, and intensive may pose a risk of muscle tissue damage caused by the increase of the enzyme creatine kinase. Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) is an essential amino acid that is composed of leucine, isoleucine, and valine which serves to maintain muscle tissue, keeping the immune system, and prevent further loss of coordination and muscle pain. Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is a kind of leguminous plants that are rich in Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) where every one gram of protein pea contains 82.7 mg of leucine; 56.3 mg isoleucine; and 56.0 mg of valine. This research aims to develop Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) from pea extract is applied in dosage forms Gel PVP Kinesio Tape technology using Ultrasound-assisted Extraction. The method used in the writing of this paper is the Cochrane Collaboration Review that includes literature studies, testing the quality of the study, the characteristics of the data collection, analysis, interpretation of results, and clinical trials as well as recommendations for further research. Extraction of BCAA in pea done using ultrasound-assisted extraction technology with optimization variables includes the type of solvent extraction (NaOH 0.1%), temperature (20-250C), time (15-30 minutes) power (80 watt) and ultrasonic frequency (35 KHz). The advantages of this extraction method are the level of penetration of the solvent into the membrane of the cell is high and can increase the transfer period so that the BCAA substance separation process more efficient. BCAA extraction results are then applied to the polymer PVP (Polyvinylpyrrolidone) Gel powder composed of PVP K30 and K100 HPMC dissolved in 10 mL of water-methanol (1: 1) v / v. Preparations Kinesio Tape Gel PVP is the BCAA in the gel are absorbed into the muscle tissue, and joints through tensile force then provides stimulation to the muscle circulation with variable pressure so that the muscle can increase the biomechanical movement and prevent damage to the muscle enzyme creatine kinase. Analysis and evaluation of test preparation include interaction, thickness, weight uniformity, humidity, water vapor permeability, the levels of the active substance, content uniformity, percentage elongation, stability testing, release profile, permeation in vitro and in vivo skin irritation testing.

Keywords: branched chain amino acid, BCAA, Kinesio tape, pea, PVP gel, ultrasound-assisted extraction

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Authors: M. F. Miah, K. M. A. Zinnah, M. J. Raihan, H. Ali, M. N. Naser

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As genetic diversity is most important for existing, breeding and production of any fish; this study was undertaken for investigating genetic diversity of freshwater mud eel, Monopterus cuchia at population level where three ecological populations such as flooded area of Sylhet (P1), open water of Moulvibazar (P2) and open water of Sunamganj (P3) districts of Bangladesh were considered. Four arbitrary RAPD primers (OPB-12, C0-4, B-03 and OPB-08) were screened and RAPD banding patterns were analyzed among the populations considering 15 individuals of each population. In total 174, 138 and 149 bands were detected in the populations of P1, P2 and P3 respectively; however, each primer revealed less number of bands in each population. 100% polymorphic loci were recorded in P2 and P3 whereas only one monomorphic locus was observed in P1, recorded 97.5% polymorphism. Different genetic parameters such as inter-individual pairwise similarity, genetic distance, Nei genetic similarity, linkage distances, cluster analysis and allelic information, etc. were considered for measuring genetic diversity. The average inter-individual pairwise similarity was recorded 2.98, 1.47 and 1.35 in P1, P2 and P3 respectively. Considering genetic distance analysis, the highest distance 1 was recorded in P2 and P3 and the lowest genetic distance 0.444 was found in P2. The average Nei genetic similarity was observed 0.19, 0.16 and 0.13 in P1, P2 and P3, respectively; however, the average linkage distance was recorded 24.92, 17.14 and 15.28 in P1, P3 and P2 respectively. Based on linkage distance, genetic clusters were generated in three populations where 6 clades and 7 clusters were found in P1, 3 clades and 5 clusters were observed in P2 and 4 clades and 7 clusters were detected in P3. In addition, allelic information was observed where the frequency of p and q alleles were observed 0.093 and 0.907 in P1, 0.076 and 0.924 in P2, 0.074 and 0.926 in P3 respectively. The average gene diversity was observed highest in P2 (0.132) followed by P3 (0.131) and P1 (0.121) respectively.

Keywords: genetic diversity, Monopterus cuchia, population, RAPD, Bangladesh

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Authors: G. Venkata Rao, R. Srinivasa Rao, B. Neelima Sri Priya

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The over extraction of groundwater from the coastal aquifers, result in reduction of groundwater resource and lowering of water level. In general, the depletion of groundwater level enhances the landward migration of saltwater wedge. Now a days the ground water extraction increases by year to year because increased population and industrialization. The ground water is the only source of irrigation, domestic and Industrial purposes at Pydibhimavaram industrial area, which is located in the coastal belt of Srikakulam district, India of Latitudes 18.145N 83.627E and Longitudes 18.099N 83.674E. The present study has been attempted to calculate amount of water getting recharged into this aquifer, status of rainfall pattern for the past two decades and the runoff is calculated by using Khosla’s formula with available rainfall and temperature in the study area. A decision support model has been developed on the basis of Monthly Extractions of the water from the ground through bore wells and the Net Recharge of the aquifer. It is concluded that the amount of extractions is exceeding the amount of recharge from May to October in a given year which will in turn damage the water balance in the subsurface layers.

Keywords: aquifer, decision support model, groundwater extraction, run off estimation and rainfall

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Authors: Huayuan Lu, Chunfang Yang, Ma Zhu, Baojun Qi, Yaqiong Qiao, Jiangqian Xu

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Image geolocalization has great application prospects in fields such as autonomous driving and virtual/augmented reality. In practical application scenarios, the size of the image to be located is not fixed; it is impractical to train different networks for all possible sizes. When its size does not match the size of the input of the descriptor extraction model, existing image geolocalization methods usually directly scale or crop the image in some common ways. This will result in the loss of some information important to the geolocalization task, thus affecting the performance of the image geolocalization method. For example, excessive down-sampling can lead to blurred building contour, and inappropriate cropping can lead to the loss of key semantic elements, resulting in incorrect geolocation results. To address this problem, this paper designs a learnable image resizer and proposes an arbitrary-sized image geolocation method. (1) The designed learnable image resizer employs the self-attention mechanism to enhance the geometric features of the resized image. Firstly, it applies bilinear interpolation to the input image and its feature maps to obtain the initial resized image and the resized feature maps. Then, SKNet (selective kernel net) is used to approximate the best receptive field, thus keeping the geometric shapes as the original image. And SENet (squeeze and extraction net) is used to automatically select the feature maps with strong contour information, enhancing the geometric features. Finally, the enhanced geometric features are fused with the initial resized image, to obtain the final resized images. (2) The proposed image geolocalization method embeds the above image resizer as a fronting layer of the descriptor extraction network. It not only enables the network to be compatible with arbitrary-sized input images but also enhances the geometric features that are crucial to the image geolocalization task. Moreover, the triplet attention mechanism is added after the first convolutional layer of the backbone network to optimize the utilization of geometric elements extracted by the first convolutional layer. Finally, the local features extracted by the backbone network are aggregated to form image descriptors for image geolocalization. The proposed method was evaluated on several mainstream datasets, such as Pittsburgh30K, Tokyo24/7, and Places365. The results show that the proposed method has excellent size compatibility and compares favorably to recently mainstream geolocalization methods.

Keywords: image geolocalization, self-attention mechanism, image resizer, geometric feature

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Authors: Sina Abadzadesahraei, Stephen Déry, John Rex

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Climate research has repeatedly identified strong associations between anthropogenic emissions of ‘greenhouses gases’ and observed increases of global mean surface air temperature over the past century. Studies have also demonstrated that the degree of warming varies regionally. Canada is not exempt from this situation, and evidence is mounting that climate change is beginning to cause diverse impacts in both environmental and socio-economic spheres of interest. For example, northeastern British Columbia (BC), whose climate is controlled by a combination of maritime, continental and arctic influences, is warming at a greater rate than the remainder of the province. There are indications that these changing conditions are already leading to shifting patterns in the region’s hydrological cycle, and thus its available water resources. Coincident with these changes, northeastern BC is undergoing rapid development for oil and gas extraction: This depends largely on subsurface hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’), which uses enormous amounts of freshwater. While this industrial activity has made substantial contributions to regional and provincial economies, it is important to ensure that sufficient and sustainable water supplies are available for all those dependent on the resource, including ecological systems. In this turn demands a comprehensive understanding of how water in all its forms interacts with landscapes, the atmosphere, and of the potential impacts of changing climatic conditions on these processes. The aim of this study is therefore to characterize and quantify all components of the water budget in the small watershed of Coles Lake (141.8 km², 100 km north of Fort Nelson, BC), through a combination of field observations and numerical modelling. Baseline information will aid the assessment of the sustainability of current and future plans for freshwater extraction by the oil and gas industry, and will help to maintain the precarious balance between economic and environmental well-being. This project is a perfect example of interdisciplinary research, in that it not only examines the hydrology of the region but also investigates how natural gas operations and growth can affect water resources. Therefore, a fruitful collaboration between academia, government and industry has been established to fulfill the objectives of this research in a meaningful manner. This project aims to provide numerous benefits to BC communities. Further, the outcome and detailed information of this research can be a huge asset to researchers examining the effect of climate change on water resources worldwide.

Keywords: northeastern British Columbia, water resources, climate change, oil and gas extraction

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Authors: Mohamed Nasraoui

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Spatial ore distribution, ore heterogeneity and their links with geological processes involved in Niobium concentration are all factors for consideration when bridging field observations to extraction scheme. Indeed, mineralogy changes of Nb-hosting phases, their textural relationships with hydrothermal or secondary minerals, play a key control over mineral processing. This study based both on filed work and ore characterization presents data from several Nb-deposits related to carbonatite complexes. The results obtained by a wide range of analytical techniques, including, XRD, XRF, ICP-MS, SEM, Microprobe, Spectro-CL, FTIR-DTA and Mössbauer spectroscopy, demonstrate how geometallurgical assessment, at all stage of mine development, can greatly assist in the design of a suitable extraction flowsheet and data reconciliation.

Keywords: carbonatites, Nb-geometallurgy, Nb-mineralogy, mineral processing.

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Authors: Lizhu Y. Davis, Gretchen Higginbottom, Vang Vang

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This presentation explores the adoption of library resources to engage students in a Visual Merchandising course during the 2016 spring semester. This study was a cross-disciplinary collaboration between the Fashion Merchandising Program and the Madden Library at California State University, Fresno. The goal of the project was to explore and assess the students’ use of library resources as a part of the Affordable Learning Solutions Initiative, a California State University (CSU) Office of the Chancellor Program that enables faculty to choose and provide high-quality, free or low-cost educational materials for their students. Students were interviewed afterwards and the results were generally favorable and provided insight into how students perceive and use library resources to support their research needs. This study reveals an important step in examining how open educational resources impact student learning.

Keywords: collaboration, library resources, open educational resources, visual merchandising

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Authors: Bahareh Ansari

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Background: The Open Government Data (OGD) movement in the last decade has encouraged many government organizations around the world to make their data publicly available to advance democratic processes. But current open data platforms have not yet reached to their full potential in supporting all interested parties. To make the data useful and understandable for everyone, scholars suggested that opening the data should be supplemented by visualization. However, different visualizations of the same information can dramatically change an individual’s cognitive and emotional experience in working with the data. This study reviews the data visualization literature to create a list of the methods empirically tested to enhance users’ performance and experience in working with a visualization tool. This list can be used in evaluating the OGD visualization practices and informing the future open data initiatives. Methods: Previous reviews of visualization literature categorized the visualization outcomes into four categories including recall/memorability, insight/comprehension, engagement, and enjoyment. To identify the papers, a search for these outcomes was conducted in the abstract of the publications of top-tier visualization venues including IEEE Transactions for Visualization and Computer Graphics, Computer Graphics, and proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. The search results are complemented with a search in the references of the identified articles, and a search for 'open data visualization,' and 'visualization evaluation' keywords in the IEEE explore and ACM digital libraries. Articles are included if they provide empirical evidence through conducting controlled user experiments, or provide a review of these empirical studies. The qualitative synthesis of the studies focuses on identification and classifying the methods, and the conditions under which they are examined to positively affect the visualization outcomes. Findings: The keyword search yields 760 studies, of which 30 are included after the title/abstract review. The classification of the included articles shows five distinct methods: interactive design, aesthetic (artistic) style, storytelling, decorative elements that do not provide extra information including text, image, and embellishment on the graphs), and animation. Studies on decorative elements show consistency on the positive effects of these elements on user engagement and recall but are less consistent in their examination of the user performance. This inconsistency could be attributable to the particular data type or specific design method used in each study. The interactive design studies are consistent in their findings of the positive effect on the outcomes. Storytelling studies show some inconsistencies regarding the design effect on user engagement, enjoyment, recall, and performance, which could be indicative of the specific conditions required for the use of this method. Last two methods, aesthetics and animation, have been less frequent in the included articles, and provide consistent positive results on some of the outcomes. Implications for e-government: Review of the visualization best-practice methods show that each of these methods is beneficial under specific conditions. By using these methods in a potentially beneficial condition, OGD practices can promote a wide range of individuals to involve and work with the government data and ultimately engage in government policy-making procedures.

Keywords: best practices, data visualization, literature review, open government data

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Authors: Haibo Zhao, Thomas Andre, Katherine Avery, Alper Kiziltas, Deborah Mielewski

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Silica aerogels were fabricated through a modified rapid supercritical extraction (RSCE) process. The silica aerogels were made using a tetramethyl orthosilicate precursor and then placed in a hot press and brought to the supercritical point of the solvent, ethanol. In order to control the pressure release without a pressure controller, a needle valve was used. The resulting aerogels were then characterized for their physical and chemical properties and compared to silica aerogels created using similar methods. The aerogels fabricated using this modified RSCE method were found to have similar properties to those in other papers using the unmodified RSCE method. Silica aerogel infused glass blanket composite, graphene reinforced silica aerogel composite were also successfully fabricated by this new method. The modified RSCE process and system is a prototype for better gas outflow control with a lower cost of equipment setup. Potentially, this process could be evolved to a continuous low-cost high-volume production process to meet automotive requirements.

Keywords: aerogel, automotive, rapid supercritical extraction process, low cost production

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Authors: Robin Singh, Mayank Nautiyal, Priyank Jain, Vatasta Koul, Vaibhav Sharma

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The curiosity to investigate the space and its mysteries was dependably the main impetus of human interest, as the particle of livings exists from the "debut de l'Univers" (beginning of the Universe) typified with its few other living things. The sharp drive to uncover the secrets of stars and their unusual deportment was dependably an ignitor of stars investigation. As humankind lives in civilizations and states, stars likewise live in provinces named ‘clusters’. Clusters are separates into 2 composes i.e. open clusters and globular clusters. An open cluster is a gathering of thousand stars that were moulded from a comparable goliath sub-nuclear cloud and for the most part; contain Propulsion I (extremely metal-rich) and Propulsion II (mild metal-rich), where globular clusters are around gathering of more than thirty thousand stars that circles a galactic focus and basically contain Propulsion III (to a great degree metal-poor) stars. Futurology of this paper lies in the spectroscopic investigation of globular clusters like M92 and NGC419 and open clusters like M34 and IC2391 in different color bands by using software like VIREO virtual observatory, Aladin, CMUNIWIN, and MS-Excel. Assessing the outcome Hertzsprung-Russel (HR) diagram with exemplary cosmological models like Einstein model, De Sitter and Planck survey demonstrate for a superior age estimation of respective clusters. Colour-Magnitude Diagram of these clusters was obtained by photometric analysis in g and r bands which further transformed into BV bands which will unravel the idea of stars exhibit in the individual clusters.

Keywords: color magnitude diagram, globular clusters, open clusters, Einstein model

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Authors: Majid Forghani, Michael Khachay

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In genetics, the impact of neighboring amino acids on a target site is referred as the nearest-neighbor effect or simply neighbor effect. In this paper, a new method called wavelet particle decomposition representing the one-dimensional neighbor effect using wavelet packet decomposition is proposed. The main idea lies in known dependence of wavelet packet sub-bands on location and order of neighboring samples. The method decomposes the value of a signal sample into small values called particles that represent a part of the neighbor effect information. The results have shown that the information obtained from the particle decomposition can be used to create better model variables or features. As an example, the approach has been applied to improve the correlation of test and reference sequence distance with titer in the hemagglutination inhibition assay.

Keywords: antigenic variants, neighbor effect, wavelet packet, wavelet particle decomposition

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Authors: Abd Latif Abdul Rahman, Zuraidah Arif, Muhammad Faizal Iylia, Mohd Ghazali, Asmadi Mohammed Ghazali

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Mobile information is a significant access point for human information activities. Theories and models of human information behavior have developed over several decades but have not yet considered the role of the user’s computing device in digital information interactions. This paper reviews the literature that leads to developing a conceptual framework of a study on the managers mobile information behavior. Based on the literature review, dimensions of mobile information behavior are identified, namely, dimension information needs, dimension information access, information retrieval and dimension of information use. The study is significant to understand the nature of librarians’ behavior in searching, retrieving and using information via the mobile device. Secondly, the study would provide suggestions about various kinds of mobile applications which organization can provide for their staff to improve their services.

Keywords: mobile information behavior, information behavior, mobile information, mobile devices

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Authors: Andrew C. Eloka Eboka, Freddie L. Inambao

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Comparative investigation and assessment of microalgal technology as a biodiesel production option was studied alongside other second generation feedstocks. This was carried out by comparing the fuel properties of species of Chlorella vulgaris, Duneliella spp, Synechococus spp and Senedesmus spp with the feedstock of Jatropha (ex-basirika variety), Hura crepitans, rubber and Natal mahogany seed oils. The micro-algae were cultivated in an open pond using a photobioreactor (New Brunsink set-up model BF-115 Bioflo/CelliGen made in the US) with operating parameters: 14L capacity, working volume of 7.5L media, including 10% inoculum, at optical density of 3.144 @540nm and light intensity of 200 lux, for 23 and 16 days respectively. Various produced/accumulated biomasses were harvested by draining, flocculation, centrifugation, drying and then subjected to lipid extraction processes. The oils extracted from the algae and feedstocks were characterised and used to produce biodiesel fuels, by the transesterification method, using modified optimization protocol. Fuel properties of the final biodiesel products were evaluated for chemo-physical and fuel properties. Results revealed Chlorella vulgaris as the best strain for biomass cultivation, having the highest lipid productivity (5.2mgL-1h-1), the highest rate of CO2 absorption (17.85mgL-1min-1) and the average carbon sequestration in the form of CO2 was 76.6%. The highest biomass productivity was 35.1mgL-1h-1 (Chlorella), while Senedesmus had the least output (3.75mgL-1h-1, 11.73mgL-1min-1). All species had good pH value adaptation, ranging from 6.5 to 8.5. The fuel properties of the micro-algal biodiesel in comparison with Jatropha, rubber, Hura and Natal mahogany were within ASTM specification and AGO used as the control. Fuel cultivation from microalgae is feasible and will revolutionise the biodiesel industry.

Keywords: biodiesel, fuel properties, microalgae, second generation, seed oils, feedstock, photo-bioreactor, open pond

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Authors: Abdulmannan Fadel

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Arabinoxylan is a non-starch polysaccharide (NSP), which is one of the most important polysaccharides contained within cereal grains. Wheat endosperm pentosan and rice bran contain a significant amount of arabinoxylan (7% in rice bran and 10-12% in wheat endosperm pentosan). Several methods have been used for arabinoxylan extraction with varying degrees of success e.g. enzymatic and alkaline treatment. Yet, the use of extrusion alone as a pre-treatment to increase the yield and reduce the molecular weight in wheat endosperm pentosan and rice bran has not been investigated. The samples (wheat pentosan and rice bran) were extruded using a Twin-screw extruder at a range of screw speeds (80 and 160 rpm) and barrel temperatures range (80 to 140°C) with a throughput of 30 Kg hr-1 and moisture content of 25%. Arabinoxylans were extracted with water and the extraction yield and molecular weight was determined using size exclusion high-pressure liquid chromatography system. It was found that increasing screw speed from 80 rpm to 160 rpm, did not effect the extraction yield (p < 0.05) of arabinoxylan from either the wheat endosperm pentosan or the rice bran. However, the molecular weight of the extracted arabinoxylans from pentosan was found to decrease with increasing screw speed in wheat endosperm pentosan. These low molecular weight arabinoxylans have been suggested as immunomodulators.

Keywords: arabinoxylans, extrusion, wheat endosperm pentosan, rice bran

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Authors: Flordeliza L. Mercado, Teresito G. Aguinaldo, Helen F. Gavino, Victorino T. Taylan

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Most fruits and vegetables are available in large quantities during peak season which are oftentimes marketed at low price and left to rot or fed to farm animals. The lack of efficient storage facilities, and the additional cost and unavailability of small machinery for food processing, results to low price and wastage. Incidentally, processed fresh fruits and vegetables are gaining importance nowadays and health conscious people are also into ‘juicing’. One way to reduce wastage and ensure an all-season availability of crop juices at reasonable costs is to develop equipment for effective extraction of juice. The study was conducted to design, fabricate and evaluate a multi-juice extractor using locally available materials, making it relatively cheaper and affordable for medium-scale enterprises. The study was also conducted to formulate juice blends using extracted juices and calamansi juice at different blending percentage, and evaluate its chemical properties and sensory attributes. Furthermore, the chemical properties of extracted meals were evaluated for future applications. The multi-juice extractor has an overall dimension of 963mm x 300mm x 995mm, a gross weight of 82kg and 5 major components namely; feeding hopper, extracting chamber, juice and meal outlet, transmission assembly, and frame. The machine performance was evaluated based on juice recovery, extraction efficiency, extraction rate, extraction recovery, and extraction loss considering type of crop as apple and carrot with three replications each and was analyzed using T-test. The formulated juice blends were subjected to sensory evaluation and data gathered were analyzed using Analysis of Variance appropriate for Complete Randomized Design. Results showed that the machine’s juice recovery (73.39%), extraction rate (16.40li/hr), and extraction efficiency (88.11%) for apple were significantly higher than for carrot while extraction recovery (99.88%) was higher for apple than for carrot. Extraction loss (0.12%) was lower for apple than for carrot, but was not significantly affected by crop. Based on adding percentage mark-up on extraction cost (Php 2.75/kg), the breakeven weight and payback period for a 35% mark-up is 4,710.69kg and 1.22 years, respectively and for a 50% mark-up, the breakeven weight is 3,492.41kg and the payback period is 0.86 year (10.32 months). Results on the sensory evaluation of juice blends showed that the type of juice significantly influenced all the sensory parameters while the blending percentage including their respective interaction, had no significant effect on all sensory parameters, making the apple-calamansi juice blend more preferred than the carrot-calamansi juice blend in terms of all the sensory parameter. The machine’s performance is higher for apple than for carrot and the cost analysis on the use of the machine revealed that it is financially viable with a payback period of 1.22 years (35% mark-up) and 0.86 year (50% mark-up) for machine cost, generating an income of Php 23,961.60 and Php 34,444.80 per year using 35% and 50% mark-up, respectively. The juice blends were of good qualities based on the values obtained in the chemical analysis and the extracted meal could also be used to produce another product based on the values obtained from proximate analysis.

Keywords: food processing, fruits and vegetables, juice extraction, multi-juice extractor

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Authors: Miracle Ajah

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One of the biggest challenges facing Theological/Religious Education in Nigeria is access to quality learning materials. For instance at the Trinity (Union) Theological College, Umuahia, it was difficult for lecturers to access suitable and qualitative materials for instruction especially the ones that would suit the African context and stimulate a deep rooted interest among the students. Some textbooks written by foreign authors were readily available in the School Library, but were lacking in the College bookshops for students to own copies. Even when the College was able to order some of the books from abroad, it did not usher in the needed enthusiasm expected from the students because they were either very expensive or very difficult to understand during private studies. So it became necessary to develop contextual materials which were affordable and understandable, though with little success. The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN)’s innovation in the development and sharing of learning resources through its Open Course ware is a welcome development and of great assistance to students. Apart from NOUN students who could easily access the materials, many others from various theological/religious institutes across the nation have benefited immensely. So, the thesis of this paper is that the promotion of open educational resources in theological/religious education in Nigeria would facilitate a better informed/equipped religious leadership, which would in turn impact its adherents for a healthier society and national development. Adopting a narrative and historical approach within the context of Nigeria’s educational system, the paper discusses: educational traditions in Nigeria; challenges facing theological/religious education in Nigeria; and benefits of open educational resources. The study goes further to making recommendations on how OER could positively influence theological/religious education in Nigeria. It is expected that theologians, religious educators, and ODL practitioners would find this work very useful.

Keywords: OER, theological education, religious education, Nigeria

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Authors: Nardjes Hamini, Mohamed Bachir Yagoubi

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Precision agriculture has revolutionized farming by enabling farmers to monitor their crops remotely in real-time. By utilizing technologies such as sensors, farmers can detect the state of growth, hydration levels, and nutritional status and even identify diseases affecting their crops. With this information, farmers can make informed decisions regarding irrigation, fertilization, and pesticide application. Automated agricultural tasks, such as plowing, seeding, planting, and harvesting, are carried out by autonomous robots and have helped reduce costs and increase production. Despite the advantages of precision agriculture, its high cost makes it inaccessible to small and medium-sized farms. To address this issue, this paper presents an open-source guidance system for an autonomous planter robot. The system is composed of a Raspberry Pi-type nanocomputer equipped with Wi-Fi, a GPS module, a gyroscope, and a power supply module. The accompanying application allows users to enter and calibrate maps with at least four coordinates, enabling the localized contour of the parcel to be captured. The application comprises several modules, such as the mission entry module, which traces the planting trajectory and points, and the action plan entry module, which creates an ordered list of pre-established tasks such as loading, following the plan, returning to the garage, and entering sleep mode. A remote control module enables users to control the robot manually, visualize its location on the map, and use a real-time camera. Wi-Fi coverage is provided by an outdoor access point, covering a 2km circle. This open-source system offers a low-cost alternative for small and medium-sized farms, enabling them to benefit from the advantages of precision agriculture.

Keywords: autonomous robot, guidance system, low-cost, medium farms, open-source system, planter robot, precision agriculture, real-time monitoring, remote control, small farms

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Authors: Jia-Jin He, Tzu-Yuan Stessa Chao

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It is generally accepted that community residents with abundant open space have better health status on average, and thus more and more cities around the world began their pursuit of the greatest possible amount of green space within urban areas through urban planning approach. Nevertheless, only a few studies managed to provide empirical evidence regarding the actual relationship between 'providing' green space and 'improving' human health at city level. There is also lack of evidence of direct positive improvement of health by increasing the amount of green space. For urban planning professional, it is important to understand citizens’ usage behaviour towards green space as a critical evidence for future planning and design strategies. There is a research need to further investigate the amount of green space, user behaviour of green spaces and the health outcome of urban dwellers. To this end, we would like to find out other important factors for urban dwellers’ usage behaviours of green spaces. 'Average green spaces per person' is one of the National well-being Indicators in Taiwan as in many other countries. Through our preliminary research, we collected and analyzed the official data of planned open space coverages, average life expectancy, exercise frequency and obesity ratio in all cities of Taiwan. The study result indicates an interesting finding that Kaohsiung city, the second largest city in Taiwan, tells a completely different story. Citizens in Kaosiung city have more open spaces than any other city through urban planning, yet have relatively unhealthy condition in contrary. Whether it pointed out that the amount of the open spaces per person has would not direct to the health outcome. Therefore, the pre-established view which states that open spaces must have positive effects on human health should be examined more prudently. Hence, this paper intends to explore the relationship between user behaviour of open spaces and citizens’ health conditions by critically analyzing past related literature and collecting selective data from government health database in 2015. We also take Kaohsiung city, as a case study area to conduct statistical analysis first followed by questionnaire survey to gain a better understanding. Finally, we aim to feedback our findings to the current planning system in Taiwan for better health promotion urbanized areas.

Keywords: open spaces, urban planning systems, healthy cities, health outcomes

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Authors: Saeed Ullah Jan, Muhammad Ali, Misbah Ullah Awan

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Purpose: This study investigated the information needs and seeking behaviour, and hurdles to information seeking of Post Graduate students of Kohat University of Science and Technology (KUST), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It focused on the information requirements of the post-graduate students of the university, the pattern they use for seeking information, and the difficulties they face while seeking information. Design/Methodology/approach: This study used a quantitative approach, adapting a survey questionnaire method for data collection. The population of this study was composed of M.Phil. and Ph.D. students of 2019 and 2020 in the faculties of Physical and Numerical Sciences, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biological Sciences, and Social Sciences of KUST. The sample size was 260. Students were selected randomly. The study response rate was 77%, and data were analyzed through SPSS (22 versions). Key findings: The study revealed that Most students' information needs were for study and research activities, new knowledge, and career development. To fulfill these needs, the scholars use various sources and resources. The sources they used for information needs were journal articles, textbooks, and research projects commonly. For the information-seeking purpose, often, students prefer books that have some importance. The other factors that played an essential role in selecting material were topical relevance, Novelty, Recommended by colleagues, and publisher's reputation. Most of the students thought that Book Exhibitions, Open Access systems in the Library, and the Display of new arrivals could enhance the students' information-seeking. The main problem seeking information was faced by them was a shortage of printed information resources. Overall they wanted more facilities, enhancement in the library collection, and better services. Delimitations of the study: This study has not included 1) BS and M.Sc. Students of KUST; 2) The colleges and institutions affiliated with KUST; 3) This study was delimited only to the Post Graduate students of KUST. Practical implication(s): The findings of the study motivate the policymakers and authorities of KUST to restructure the information literacy programs to fulfill the scholars' information needs. It may inform the policymakers to know the difficulties faced by scholars during information seeking. Contribution to the knowledge: No significant work has been done on the students' information needs and seeking behaviour at KUST. The study analyzed the information needs and seeking behaviour of post graduate students. It brought a clear picture of information needs and seeking behaviour of scholars and addressed the problems faced by them during the seeking process.

Keywords: information needs of Pakistan, information-seeking behaviors, postgraduate students, university libraries, Kohat university of science and technology, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

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Authors: R. Charoen, S. Tipkanon, W. Savedboworn, N. Phonsatta, A. Panya

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Rice bran protein hydrolysates (RBPH) were prepared from defatted rice bran of two different Thai rice cultivars (Plai-Ngahm-Prachinburi; PNP and Khao Dok Mali 105; KDM105) using an enzymatic method. This research aimed to optimize enzyme-assisted protein extraction. In addition, the functional properties of RBPH and their stabilities to environmental stresses including pH (3 to 8), ionic strength (0 mM to 500 mM) and the thermal treatment (30 °C to 90 °C) were investigated. Results showed that enzymatic process for protein extraction of defatted rice bran was as follows: enzyme concentration 0.075 g/ 5 g of protein, extraction temperature 50 °C and extraction time 4 h. The obtained protein hydrolysate powders had a degree of hydrolysis (%) of 21.05% in PNP and 19.92% in KDM105. The solubility of protein hydrolysates at pH 4-6 was ranged from 27.28-38.57% and 27.60-43.00% in PNP and KDM105, respectively. In general, antioxidant activities indicated by total phenolic content, FRAP, ferrous ion-chelating (FIC), and 2,2’-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS) of KDM105 had higher than PNP. In terms of functional properties, the emulsifying activity index (EAI) was was 8.78 m²/g protein in KDM105, whereas PNP was 5.05 m²/g protein. The foaming capacity at 5 minutes (%) was 47.33 and 52.98 in PNP and KDM105, respectively. Glutamine, Alanine, Valine, and Leucine are the major amino acid in protein hydrolysates where the total amino acid of KDM105 gave higher than PNP. Furthermore, we investigated environmental stresses on the stability of 5% oil in water emulsion (5% oil, 10 mM citrate buffer) stabilized by RBPH (3.5%). The droplet diameter of emulsion stabilized by KDM105 was smaller (d < 250 nm) than produced by PNP. For environmental stresses, RBPH stabilized emulsions were stable at pH around 3 and 5-6, at high salt (< 400 mM, pH 7) and at temperatures range between 30-50°C.

Keywords: functional properties, oil in water emulsion, protein hydrolysates, rice bran protein

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Authors: Trevor Toy, Josef Langerman

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Around a quarter of the world’s data is generated by financial with an estimated 708.5 billion global non-cash transactions reached between 2018 and. And with Open Banking still a rapidly developing concept within the financial industry, there is an opportunity to create a secure mechanism for connecting its stakeholders to openly, legitimately and consensually share the data required to enable it. Integration and data sharing of anonymised transactional data are still operated in silos and centralised between the large corporate entities in the ecosystem that have the resources to do so. Smaller fintechs generating data and businesses looking to consume data are largely excluded from the process. Therefore there is a growing demand for accessible transactional data for analytical purposes and also to support the rapid global adoption of Open Banking. The following research has provided a solution framework that aims to provide a secure decentralised marketplace for 1.) data providers to list their transactional data, 2.) data consumers to find and access that data, and 3.) data subjects (the individuals making the transactions that generate the data) to manage and sell the data that relates to themselves. The platform also provides an integrated system for downstream transactional-related data from merchants, enriching the data product available to build a comprehensive view of a data subject’s spending habits. A robust and sustainable data market can be developed by providing a more accessible mechanism for data producers to monetise their data investments and encouraging data subjects to share their data through the same financial incentives. At the centre of the platform is the market mechanism that connects the data providers and their data subjects to the data consumers. This core component of the platform is developed on a decentralised blockchain contract with a market layer that manages transaction, user, pricing, payment, tagging, contract, control, and lineage features that pertain to the user interactions on the platform. One of the platform’s key features is enabling the participation and management of personal data by the individuals from whom the data is being generated. This framework developed a proof-of-concept on the Etheruem blockchain base where an individual can securely manage access to their own personal data and that individual’s identifiable relationship to the card-based transaction data provided by financial institutions. This gives data consumers access to a complete view of transactional spending behaviour in correlation to key demographic information. This platform solution can ultimately support the growth, prosperity, and development of economies, businesses, communities, and individuals by providing accessible and relevant transactional data for big data analytics and open banking.

Keywords: big data markets, open banking, blockchain, personal data management

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Authors: Aubry Martin, Nehed Amara, Jeff Nyalosaso, Audrey Potdevin, FrançOis ReVeret, Michel Langlet, Genevieve Chadeyron

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Energy-saving lighting devices based on LightEmitting Diodes (LEDs) combine a semiconductor chip emitting in the ultraviolet or blue wavelength region to one or more phosphor(s) deposited in the form of coatings. The most common ones combine a blue LED with the yellow phosphor Y₃Al₅O₁₂:Ce³⁺ (YAG:Ce) and a red phosphor. Even if these devices are characterized by satisfying photometric parameters (Color Rendering Index, Color Temperature) and good luminous efficiencies, further improvements can be carried out to enhance light extraction efficiency (increase in phosphor forward emission). One of the possible strategies is to pattern the phosphor coatings. Here, we have worked on different ways to nanostructure the coating surface. On the one hand, we used the colloidal lithography combined with the Langmuir-Blodgett technique to directly pattern the surface of YAG:Tb³⁺ sol-gel derived coatings, YAG:Tb³⁺ being used as phosphor model. On the other hand, we achieved composite architectures combining YAG:Ce coatings and ZnO nanowires. Structural, morphological and optical properties of both systems have been studied and compared to flat YAG coatings. In both cases, nanostructuring brought a significative enhancement of photoluminescence properties under UV or blue radiations. In particular, angle-resolved photoluminescence measurements have shown that nanostructuring modifies photons path within the coatings, with a better extraction of the guided modes. These two strategies have the advantage of being versatile and applicable to any phosphor synthesizable by sol-gel technique. They then appear as promising ways to enhancement luminescence efficiencies of both phosphor coatings and the optical devices into which they are incorporated, such as LED-based lighting or safety devices.

Keywords: phosphor coatings, nanostructuring, light extraction, ZnO nanowires, colloidal lithography, LED devices

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Authors: E. C. du Plessis

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Teaching practice is a major component of teacher education and the preparation of teachers for the real-life classroom throughout the world. Learning is seen as a constructive process, whether it is classroom based or takes place by means of distance education. Blending theory and practice with effective education in distance context as part of situated learning is crucial. Therefore, the aim of this research was to determine distance education student teachers' classroom readiness on completion of the teaching practice modules of their Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course. A qualitative research approach was used for the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. A total of 15 student teachers enrolled at the College of Education of an ODL (Open and Distance Learning) institution were selected and volunteered to participate in the research. In the light of the results of the research, it is recommended that more attention is given to the interaction between mentor teachers, academic lecturers, and student teachers, as well as the expectations and responsibilities of these role-players.

Keywords: communities of practice, mentor teachers, open and distance learning, practicum, professional development, student teachers, teaching practice

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Authors: Sandip Mitra

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Studies on Governance and Accountability has often stressed the need to release Data in public domain to increase transparency ,which otherwise act as an evidence of performance. However, inefficient handling, lack of capacity and the dynamics of transfers (especially fund transfers) are important issues which need appropriate attention. E-Governance alone can not serve as a measure of transparency as long as a comprehensive planning is instituted. Studies on Governance and public exposure has often triggered public opinion in favour or against any government. The root of the problem (especially in local governments) lies in the management of the governance. The participation of the people in the local government functioning, the networks within and outside the locality, synergy with various layers of Government are crucial in understanding the activities of any government. Unfortunately, data on such issues are not released in the public domain .If they are at all released , the extraction of information is often hindered for complicated designs. A Study has been undertaken with a few local Governments in India. The data has been analysed to substantiate the views.

Keywords: accountability, e-governance, transparency, local government

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Authors: Deepak Kumar, Jahangeer, Brijesh Kumar Yadav, Shashi Mathur

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In-situ remediation is a technique which can remediate either surface or groundwater at the site of contamination. In the present study, simulation optimization approach has been used to develop management strategy for remediating LNAPL (Light Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid) contaminated aquifers. Benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene are the main component of LNAPL contaminant. Collectively, these contaminants are known as BTEX. In in-situ bioremediation process, a set of injection and extraction wells are installed. Injection wells supply oxygen and other nutrient which convert BTEX into carbon dioxide and water with the help of indigenous soil bacteria. On the other hand, extraction wells check the movement of plume along downstream. In this study, optimal design of the system has been done using PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) algorithm. A comprehensive management strategy for pumping of injection and extraction wells has been done to attain a maximum allowable concentration of 5 ppm and 4.5 ppm. The management strategy comprises determination of pumping rates, the total pumping volume and the total running cost incurred for each potential injection and extraction well. The results indicate a high pumping rate for injection wells during the initial management period since it facilitates the availability of oxygen and other nutrients necessary for biodegradation, however it is low during the third year on account of sufficient oxygen availability. This is because the contaminant is assumed to have biodegraded by the end of the third year when the concentration drops to a permissible level.

Keywords: groundwater, in-situ bioremediation, light non-aqueous phase liquid, BTEX, particle swarm optimization

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Authors: Sajeeha Ansar, Asad Ali Safi, Sheikh Ziauddin, Ahmad R. Shahid, Faraz Ahsan

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The most aggressive form of brain tumor is called glioma. Glioma is kind of tumor that arises from glial tissue of the brain and occurs quite often. A fully automatic 2D-CNN model for brain tumor segmentation is presented in this paper. We performed pre-processing steps to remove noise and intensity variances using N4ITK and standard intensity correction, respectively. We used Keras open-source library with Theano as backend for fast implementation of CNN model. In addition, we used BRATS 2015 MRI dataset to evaluate our proposed model. Furthermore, we have used SimpleITK open-source library in our proposed model to analyze images. Moreover, we have extracted random 2D patches for proposed 2D-CNN model for efficient brain segmentation. Extracting 2D patched instead of 3D due to less dimensional information present in 2D which helps us in reducing computational time. Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) is used as performance measure for the evaluation of the proposed method. Our method achieved DSC score of 0.77 for complete, 0.76 for core, 0.77 for enhanced tumor regions. However, these results are comparable with methods already implemented 2D CNN architecture.

Keywords: brain tumor segmentation, convolutional neural networks, deep learning, LGG

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Authors: Randa Boukhris, Alima Damak, Dorra Sellami

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Fingervein biometric authentication is one of the most popular and accurate technologies. However, low cost embedded solution is still an open problem. In this paper, a real-time implementation of fingervein recognition process embedded in Raspberry-Pi has been proposed. The use of Raspberry-Pi reduces overall system cost and size while allowing an easy user interface. Implementation of a target technology has guided to opt some specific parallel and simple processing algorithms. In the proposed system, we use four structural directional kernel elements for filtering finger vein images. Then, a Top-Hat and Bottom-Hat kernel filters are used to enhance the visibility and the appearance of venous images. For feature extraction step, a simple Local Directional Code (LDC) descriptor is applied. The proposed system presents an Error Equal Rate (EER) and Identification Rate (IR), respectively, equal to 0.02 and 98%. Furthermore, experimental results show that real-time operations have good performance.

Keywords: biometric, Bottom-Hat, Fingervein, LDC, Rasberry-Pi, ROI, Top-Hat

Procedia PDF Downloads 192

Authors: Ramorola Mmankoko Ziphorah

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Videoconference technology represents a recent experiment of technology integration into teaching and learning in South Africa. Increasingly, videoconference technology is commonly used as a substitute for the traditional face-to-face approaches to teaching and learning in helping tutors to reshape and change their teaching practices. Interestingly, though, some studies point out that videoconference technology is commonly used for knowledge dissemination by tutors and not so much for the actual teaching of course content in Open and Distance Learning context. Though videoconference technology has become one of the dominating technologies available among Open and Distance Learning institutions, it is not clear that it has been used as effectively to bridge the learning distance in time, geography, and economy. While tutors are prepared theoretically, in most tutor preparation programs, on the use of videoconference technology, there are still no practical guidelines on how they should go about integrating this technology into their course teaching. Therefore, there is an urgent need to focus on tutor development, specifically on their capacities and skills to use videoconference technology. The assumption is that if tutors become competent in the use of the videoconference technology for course teaching, then their use in Open and Distance Learning environment will become more commonplace. This is the imperative of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) on education generally. Against the current vacuum in the practice of using videoconference technology for course teaching, the current study proposes a qualitative phenomenological approach to investigate the efficacy of videoconferencing as an approach to student learning. Using interviews and observation data from ten participants in Open and Distance Learning institution, the author discusses how dialogue and structure interacted to provide the participating tutors with a rich set of opportunities to deliver course content. The findings to this study highlight various challenges experienced by tutors when using videoconference technology. The study suggests tutor development programs on their capacity and skills and on how to integrate this technology with various teaching strategies in order to enhance student learning. The author argues that it is not merely the existence of the structure, namely the videoconference technology, that provides the opportunity for effective teaching, but that is the interactions, namely, the dialogue amongst tutors and learners that make videoconference technology an attractive vehicle for challenging and changing tutors practice.

Keywords: open distance learning, transactional distance, tutor, videoconference

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Mahsa Ghafouri, Guita Farivarsadri

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In urban open spaces, furniture plays a crucial role in meeting various needs of the users over time. Furniture consists of elements that not only can facilitate physical needs individually but also fulfill social, psychological, and cultural demands on an urban scale. Creating adjustable urban spaces and using flexible furniture can provide the possibility of using urban spaces for a wide range of uses and activities and allow the engagement of users with distinct abilities and limitations in these activities. Flexibility in urban furniture can be seen as designing a number of modular components that are movable, expandable, adjustable, and changeable to accommodate various functions. Although there is a great amount of research related to flexibility and its distinct insights into achieving spaces that can cope with changing demands, this fundamental issue is often neglected in the design of urban furniture. However, in the long term, to address changing public needs over time, it can be logical to bring this quality into the design process to make spaces that can be sustained for a long time. This study aims to first introduce diverse kinds of flexible furniture that can be designed for urban public spaces and then to realize how this flexible furniture can improve the quality of public open spaces and social interaction and make them more adaptable over time and, as a result, achieve social sustainability. This research is descriptive and is mainly based on an extensive literature review and the analysis and classification of existing examples around the world. This research tends to illustrate various kinds of approaches that can help designers create flexible furniture to enhance the sustainability and quality of urban open spaces and, in this way, act as a guide for urban designers in this respect.

Keywords: flexible furniture, flexible design, urban open spaces, adaptability, moveability, social sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 39