Search results for: requirement engineering

Authors: Bhaskar M. Murai, Neeraj Banchor, Ishveen Chabbra, Madhusudhan Nadgir, S. Vidhya

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Sol-gel technology combined with electronics and biochemistry helps to overcome the problems caused by mosquitoes by developing a portable, low-cost device which enables controlled release of trapped compound inside it. It is a wet-chemical technique which is used primarily for fabrication of silicate gel which is usually allowed to dry as per requirement. The outcome is solid rock hard material which is porous and has lots of applications in different fields. Taking porosity as a key factor, allethrin a naturally occurring synthetic compound with molecular mass 302.40 was entrapped inside the sol-gel matrix as a dopant. Allethrin is commonly used as an insecticide and is a key ingredient in commercially available mosquitoes repellent in Asian and subtropical countries. It has low toxicity for humans and birds, and are used in many household insecticides such as RAID as well as mosquito coils. They are however highly toxic to fish and bees. Insects subject to its exposure become paralyzed (nervous system effect) before dying. They are also used as an ultra-low volume spray for outdoor mosquito control. Therefore, there is a need for controlled release of allethrin in the environment. For controlled release of allethrin from sol-gel matrix, its (allethrin) we utilized temperature based controlled evaporation through porous sol-gel. Different types of fabric like cotton, Terri-cotton, polyester, surgical cap, knee-cap etc are studied and the best with maximum absorption capacity is selected to hold the sol-gel matrix with maximum quantity. For sol-gel coating 2 x 2cm cloth pieces are dipped in sol-gel solution for 10 minutes and by calculating the weight difference we concluded that Terri cotton is best suitable for our project. An electronic circuit with heating plate is developed in to test the controlled release of compound. An oscillatory circuit is used to produce the required heat.

Keywords: sol-gel, allethrin, TEOS, biochemistry

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Authors: Malathi Balakrishnan, Cheng Lee Ooi, Chander Vengadasalam

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The purpose of this study is to explore a case study of trainee teachers’ learning experience on innovating traditional games during the traditional game carnival. It explores issues arising from multiple case studies of trainee teachers learning experiences in innovating traditional games. A qualitative methodology was adopted through observations, semi-structured interviews and reflective journals’ content analysis of trainee teachers’ learning experiences creating and implementing innovative traditional games. Twelve groups of 36 trainee teachers who registered for Sports and Physical Education Management Course were the participants for this research during the traditional game carnival. Semi structured interviews were administrated after the trainee teachers learning experiences in creating innovative traditional games. Reflective journals were collected after carnival day and the content analyzed. Inductive data analysis was used to evaluate various data sources. All the collected data were then evaluated through the Nvivo data analysis process. Inductive reasoning was interpreted based on the Self Determination Theory (SDT). The findings showed that the trainee teachers had positive game participation experiences, game knowledge about traditional games and positive motivation to innovate the game. The data also revealed the influence of themes like cultural significance and creativity. It can be concluded from the findings that the organized game carnival, as a requirement of course work by the Institute of Teacher Training Malaysia, was able to enhance teacher trainers’ innovative thinking skills. The SDT, as a multidimensional approach to motivation, was utilized. Therefore, teacher trainers may have more learning experiences using the SDT.

Keywords: learning experiences, innovation, traditional games, trainee teachers

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Authors: Joel S. Akintayo, Ramat T. Salman

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The stakeholders’ pressure on corporate managers to maintain firm’s profitability has created economic incentives for management to engage in earnings management practices. Therefore, this study examines the effects of audit quality and corporate governance on earnings management of quoted deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. This study specifically investigates the influence of audit tenure, audit fee, board independence, and board size on earnings management of DMBs. Explanatory research design was employed in carrying out the study while secondary data were sourced from the annual reports and accounts of all the 15 quoted DMBs in Nigerian Stock Exchange as at December 31, 2015 for a period of 10 years covering from 2006 to 2015. The data obtained for the study were analyzed using panel regression analysis approach. The findings reveal that board independence has a negative significant effect on earnings management at a 5% level of significance (p=0.002), while audit fee has a positive significant effect on earnings management at a 5% level of significance (p=0.013) and audit tenure has a negative significant effect on earnings management of DMBs at a 5% level of significance (p=0.003). Surprisingly, board size was statistically not significant at a 5% level of significance (p=0.086). The study concludes that high audit quality and sound corporate governance could improve the earnings quality of DMBs. Hence, the study recommends that the authorities saddled with the responsibility of banking supervision in Nigeria such the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and CBN to advise the National Assembly in Nigeria to pass into law the three years professional requirement for audit tenure.

Keywords: audit quality, audit tenure, audit fee, board independence, corporate governance, earnings management

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Authors: S. Brain, P. J. Storer, H. Strydom, Z. M. Solaiman

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Increasing farmer awareness of soil health, the impact of agricultural management practices, and the requirement for high-quality agricultural produce are major factors driving the rapid adoption of biological seed treatments - currently valued globally at USD 1.5 billion. Biological seed coatings with multistrain plant beneficial microbial technology have the capability to affect plant establishment, growth, and development positively. These beneficial plant microbes can potentially increase soil health, plant yield, and nutrition – acting as bio fertilisers, rhizoremediators, phytostimulators, and stress modulators, and can ultimately reduce the overall use of agrichemicals. A field trial was conducted on MACE wheat in the central wheat belt of Western Australia to evaluate a proprietary seed coating technology (Langleys Bio-EnergeticTM Microbe blend (BMB)) on a conventional program (+/- BMB microbes) and a Regenerative Biomineral fertiliser program (+/- BMB microbes). The Conventional (+BMB) and Biomineral (+BMB) treated plants had no fungicide treatments and had no disease issues. Control (No fertiliser, No microbes), Conventional (No Microbes), and Biomineral (No Microbes) were treated with fungicides (seed dressing and foliar). From the research findings, compared to control and no microbe treatments, both the Conventional (+ BMB) and Biomineral (+ BMB) showed significant increases in Soil Carbon (SOC), Seed germination, nutrient use efficiency (NUE) of nitrogen, phosphate and mineral nutrients, grain mineral nutrient uptake, protein %, hectolitre weight, and fewer screenings, yield, and gross margins.

Keywords: biological seed coating, biomineral fertiliser, plant nutrition, regenerative and conventional agriculture

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Authors: Wahyu Riawanti

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Food safety is the one of a prominent issue for globalization era. The more concern is paid in international food and agriculture trade; the more consumers will consider raising the standard of food safety. For this reason, the role of the issue is not only in term of added value but since then also the main requirement in import export activity, including agriculture products. Unfortunately, Indonesia and other developing countries found it difficult to fulfill some of the technical issues and end it up with the lower export activity. In this case, the technical requirements of food safety become an obstacle rather than challenging. Furthermore for local farmers’ activity, food safety is more or less a threat. The study is aimed to reveal on how Indonesian government had dealt with the certification regulation to face problem on competitiveness of Indonesian products. Local government has conducted the regulation of food certification. The study used the case of Salak Pondoh fruit (Salacca zalacca) certification process on Sleman District- Yogyakarta. Triangulation method was used to analyze the effectiveness of the certification program. The quantitative data series taken from 7 farmer groups during the certification processes were used for the research main data. The supporting qualitative data was obtained from in-depth interview with the members of farmers group. The pre-research result has shown that the impact varied from different groups. Conclusively the certification regulation has partly failed to make a significant change in local farmers’ competitiveness. Even the profit was increased, the highly amount budget of the program did not significantly increase the economic incentives for local farmers.

Keywords: economic incentive, food security, government regulation, international trade, local commodity, Salacca zalacca

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Authors: Sajan Antony Mathew, Bhukya Ramdas

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Abstract—The impetus of wind energy deployment over the last few decades has seen potential sites being harvested very actively for wind farm development. Due to the scarce availability of highly potential sites, the turbines are getting more optimized in its location wherein minimum spacing between the turbines are resorted without comprising on the optimization of its energy yield. The optimization of the energy yield from a wind turbine is achieved by effective micrositing techniques. These time-tested techniques which are applied from site to site on terrain conditions that meet the requirements of the International standard for power performance measurements of wind turbines result in the positioning of wind turbines for optimized energy yields. The international standard for Power Curve Measurements has rules of procedure and methodology to evaluate the terrain, obstacles and sector for measurements. There are many challenges at the sites for complying with the requirements for terrain, obstacles and sector for measurements. Studies are being attempted to carry out these measurements within the scope of the international standard as various other procedures specified in alternate standards or the integration of LIDAR for Power Curve Measurements are in the nascent stage. The paper strives to assist in the understanding of the fact that if positioning of a wind turbine at a site is based on an optimized output, then there are no wake effects seen on the power curve of an adjacent wind turbine. The paper also demonstrates that an invalid sector for measurements could be used in the analysis in alteration to the requirement as per the international standard for power performance measurements. Therefore the paper strives firstly to demonstrate that if a wind turbine is optimally positioned, no wake effects are seen and secondly the sector for measurements in such a case could include sectors which otherwise would have to be excluded as per the requirements of International standard for power performance measurements.

Keywords: micrositing, optimization, power performance, wake effects

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Authors: Yolla Miranda, Marini Altyra, Karina Kalmapuspita Imas

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Oily sludge wastes always fill in upstream and downstream petroleum industry process. Sludge still contains oil that can use for energy storage. Recycling sludge is a method to handling it for reduce the toxicity and very probable to get the remaining oil around 20% from its volume. Froth flotation, a common method based on chemical unit for separate fine solid particles from an aqueous suspension. The basic composition of froth flotation is the capture of oil droplets or small solids by air bubbles in an aqueous slurry, followed by their levitation and collection in a froth layer. This method has been known as no intensive energy requirement and easy to apply. But the low efficiency and unable treat the high viscosity become the biggest problem in froth flotation unit. This study give the design to manage the high viscosity of sludge first and then entering the froth flotation including cavitation tube on it to change the bubbles into nano particles. The recovery in flotation starts with the collision and adhesion of hydrophobic particles to the air bubbles followed by transportation of the hydrophobic particle-bubble aggregate from the collection zone to the froth zone, drainage and enrichment of the froth, and finally by its overflow removal from the cell top. The effective particle separation by froth flotation relies on the efficient capture of hydrophobic particles by air bubbles in three steps. The important step is collision. Decreasing the bubble particles will increasing the collision effect. It cause the process more efficient. The pre-treatment, froth flotation, and cavitation tube integrated each other. The design shows the integrated unit and its process.

Keywords: sludge oil recovery, froth flotation, cavitation tube, nanobubbles, high viscosity

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Authors: Bassam Istanbouli

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With the technology evolving every day and with the increase in global competition, industries are always under the pressure to be the best. They need to provide good quality products at competitive prices, when and how the customer wants them.  In order to achieve this level of service, products and their respective supply chain processes need to be flexible and evolvable; otherwise changes will be extremely expensive, slow and with many combinatorial effects. Those combinatorial effects impact the whole organizational structure, from a management, financial, documentation, logistics and specially the information system Enterprise Requirement Planning (ERP) perspective. By applying the normalized system concept/theory to segments of the supply chain, we believe minimal effects, especially at the time of launching an organization global software project. The purpose of this paper is to point out that if an organization wants to develop a software from scratch or implement an existing ERP software for their business needs and if their business processes are normalized and modular then most probably this will yield to a normalized and modular software system that can be easily modified when the business evolves. Another important goal of this paper is to increase the awareness regarding the design of the business processes in a software implementation project. If the blueprints created are normalized then the software developers and configurators will use those modular blueprints to map them into modular software. This paper only prepares the ground for further studies;  the above concept will be supported by going through the steps of developing, configuring and/or implementing a software system for an organization by using two methods: The Software Development Lifecycle method (SDLC) and the Accelerated SAP implementation method (ASAP). Both methods start with the customer requirements, then blue printing of its business processes and finally mapping those processes into a software system.  Since those requirements and processes are the starting point of the implementation process, then normalizing those processes will end up in a normalizing software.

Keywords: blueprint, ERP, modular, normalized

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Authors: Adegoriola Mayowa I., Lai Joseph H. K., Yung Esther H. K., Chan Edwin H. K.

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Heritage buildings (HBs) as structures with historical and architectural relevance that form an integral part of contemporary society. These buildings deserve to be protected for as long as possible to retain their significance. Therefore, the need to prioritize HB maintenance management is pertinent. However, the decision-making process of HBMM can be relatively daunting. The decision-making challenge may be attributed to the multiple 'stakeholders' expectation and requirement which needs to be met. To this end, professionals in the built environment have identified the need to apply the strategic concept of facilities management (FM) in decision making. Furthermore, the different maintenance dimensions have been applied to maintenance management of residential, commercial, and health facilities. Unfortunately, these different maintenance approaches, such as FM, sustainable FM, urban FM, green FM, and strategic FM, are yet to be fully explored in the decision-making process of HBMM. To bridge this gap, this study focuses on developing a framework for strategic decision-making HBMM, which helps achieve HBMM sustainability. At the study's inception, relevant works of literature in the domains of HBMM and FM were conducted. This review helped in the identification of contemporary maintenance practices and their applicability to HBMM. Afterward, a conceptual framework to aid decision-making in HBMM was developed. This framework integrated the concept of FM scope (people, place, process, and technology) while ensuring that decisions plans were made at strategic, tactical, and operational levels. Also, the different characteristics of HBs and stakeholders' requirements were considered in the framework. The conceptual framework presents a holistic guide for professionals in HBMM to ensure that decision processes and outcomes are practical and efficient. It also contributes to the existing body of knowledge on the integration of FM in HBMM. Furthermore, it will serve as a basis for future studies by applying the conceptualized framework in actual cases.

Keywords: decision-making, facility management, strategy, sustainability, heritage building, maintenance

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Authors: Javed Iqbal

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Filling of Xiangjiaba Reservoir Lake in Southwest China triggered and re-activated numerous landslides due to water fluctuation. In order to understand the relationship between reservoirs and slope instability, a typical reservoir landslide (Dasha landslide) at right bank of Jinsha River was selected as a case study for in-depth investigations. The detailed field investigations were carried out in order to identify the landslide with respect to its surroundings and to find out the slip-surface. Boreholes were drilled in order to find out the subsurface lithology and the depth of failure of Dasha landslide. The in-situ geotechnical tests were performed, and the soil samples from exposed slip surface were retrieved for geotechnical laboratory analysis. Finally, stability analysis was done using 3D strength reduction method under different conditions of reservoir water level fluctuations and rainfall conditions. The in-depth investigations show that the Dasha landslide is a bedding rockslide which was once activated in 1986. The topography of Dasha landslide is relatively flat, while the back scarp and local terrain are relatively steep. The landslide area is about 29 × 104 m², and the maximum thickness of the landslide deposits revealed by drilling is about 40 m with the average thickness being about 20 m, and the volume is thus estimated being about 580 × 10⁴ m³. Bedrock in the landslide area is composed of Suining Formation of Jurassic age. The main rock type is silty mudstone with sandstone, and bedding orientation is 300~310° ∠ 7~22°. The factor of safety (FOS) of Dasha landslide obtained by 3D strength reduction cannot meet the minimum safety requirement under the working condition of reservoir level fluctuation as designed, with effect of rainfall and rapid drawdown.

Keywords: Dasha landslide, Xiangjiaba reservoir, strength reduction method, bedding rockslide

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Authors: Aravind Ravichandran, Marc Ramuz, Sylvain Blayac

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With the rapid development of wearable electronics and sensor networks, batteries cannot meet the sustainable energy requirement due to their limited lifetime, size and degradation. Ambient energies such as wind have been considered as an attractive energy source due to its copious, ubiquity, and feasibility in nature. With miniaturization leading to high-power and robustness, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) have been conceived as a promising technology by harvesting mechanical energy for powering small electronics. TENG integration in large-scale applications is still unexplored considering its attractive properties. In this work, a state of the art design TENG based on wind venturi system is demonstrated for use in any complex environment. When wind introduces into the air gap of the homemade TENG venturi system, a thin flexible polymer repeatedly contacts with and separates from electrodes. This device structure makes the TENG suitable for large scale harvesting without massive volume. Multiple stacking not only amplifies the output power but also enables multi-directional wind utilization. The system converts ambient mechanical energy to electricity with 400V peak voltage by charging of a 1000mF super capacitor super rapidly. Its future implementation in an array of applications aids in environment friendly clean energy production in large scale medium and the proposed design performs with an exhaustive material testing. The relation between the interfacial micro-and nano structures and the electrical performance enhancement is comparatively studied. Nanostructures are more beneficial for the effective contact area, but they are not suitable for the anti-adhesion property due to the smaller restoring force. Considering these issues, the nano-patterning is proposed for further enhancement of the effective contact area. By considering these merits of simple fabrication, outstanding performance, robust characteristic and low-cost technology, we believe that TENG can open up great opportunities not only for powering small electronics, but can contribute to large-scale energy harvesting through engineering design being complementary to solar energy in remote areas.

Keywords: triboelectric nanogenerator, wind energy, vortex design, large scale energy

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Authors: Mehmet Bulent Topkaya, Mustafa Yildirim

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Wastewater treatment systems are designed and used to minimize adverse impacts of the wastewater on the environment before discharging. Various treatment options for wastewater treatment have been developed, and each of them has different performance characteristics and environmental impacts (e.g. material and land usage, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emission, water and soil emission) during construction, operation or maintenance phases. Assessing the environmental impacts during these phases are essential for the overall evaluation of the treatment systems. In this study, wastewater treatment options, such as vegetated land treatment, constructed wetland, rotating biological contactor, conventional activated sludge treatment, membrane bioreactor, extended aeration and stabilization pond are evaluated. The comparison of the environmental impacts is conducted under the assumption that the effluents will be discharged to sensitive and less sensitive areas respectively. The environmental impacts of each alternative are evaluated by life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. For this purpose, data related to energy usage, land requirement, raw material consumption, and released emissions from the life phases were collected with inventory studies based on field studies and literature. The environmental impacts were assessed by using SimaPro 7.1 LCA software. As the scale of the LCA results is global, an MS-Excel based decision support tool that includes the LCA result is developed in order to meet also the local demands. Using this tool, it is possible to assign weight factors on the LCA results according to local conditions by using Analytical Hierarchy Process and finally the most environmentally appropriate treatment option can be selected.

Keywords: analytical hierarchy process, decision support system, life cycle assessment, wastewater treatment

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Authors: Bello Abdullahi, Kabir Bala, Yahaya M. Ibrahim, Ahmed D. Ibrahim

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Public sector tendering has traditionally been conducted using manual paper-based processes which are known to be inefficient, less transparent, and more prone to manipulations and errors. However, the advent of the Internet and its associated technologies has led to the development of numerous e-Tendering systems that addressed many of the problems associated with the manual paper-based tendering system. Currently, in Nigeria, the public tendering processes are largely conducted based on manual paper-based system that is bedevilled by a number of problems such as inordinate delays, inefficiencies, manipulation of the tender evaluation process, corruption, lack of transparency and competition, among other problems. These problems can be addressed through the adoption of existing web-based e-Tendering systems which are known to address most of these problems. However, these existing e-Tendering systems that have been developed are not based on the Nigerian legal procurement processes and as such their suitability for local application is very limited. This paper is part of a larger study that attempt to address this problem through the development of an e-Tendering system that is based on the requirements of the Nigerian public procuring entities. In this paper, the identified tendering processes commonly used by Nigerian public procuring entities in the selection of construction sources are presented. A multi-methods research approach was used to identify those tendering processes. Specifically, 19 existing business use cases used by Nigerian public procuring entities were identified and 61 system use cases were prescribed based on the identified business use cases. The use cases were used as the basis for the development of domain and software conceptual models. The models were successfully used to guide the development of an e-Tendering system called NPS-eTender. Ripple and Unified Process were adopted as the software development methodologies.

Keywords: e-tendering, e-procurement, requirement model, conceptual model, public sector tendering, public procurement

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Authors: Hussain Sajid, Jung-Hun Shin, Kum-Won Cho

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Image super-resolution is the most common computer vision problem with many important applications. Generative adversarial networks (GANs) have promoted remarkable advances in single-image super-resolution (SR) by recovering photo-realistic images. However, high memory requirements of GAN-based SR (mainly generators) lead to performance degradation and increased energy consumption, making it difficult to implement it onto resource-constricted devices. To relieve such a problem, In this paper, we introduce an optimized and highly efficient architecture for SR-GAN (generator) model by utilizing model compression techniques such as Knowledge Distillation and pruning, which work together to reduce the storage requirement of the model also increase in their performance. Our method begins with distilling the knowledge from a large pre-trained model to a lightweight model using different loss functions. Then, iterative weight pruning is applied to the distilled model to remove less significant weights based on their magnitude, resulting in a sparser network. Knowledge Distillation reduces the model size by 40%; pruning then reduces it further by 18%. To accelerate the learning process, we employ the Horovod framework for distributed training on a cluster of 2 nodes, each with 8 GPUs, resulting in improved training performance and faster convergence. Experimental results on various benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed compressed model significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index measure (SSIM), and image quality for x4 super-resolution tasks.

Keywords: single-image super-resolution, generative adversarial networks, knowledge distillation, pruning

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Authors: Lim Poh Im

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This paper examines the current strategic and planning issues in the provision of affordable housing in urban centres in Malaysia from the perspective of sustainability. Sustainability here refers to social sustainability such as the need to address urban poverty and ensure better quality of life; economic sustainability in ensuring that the financial mechanisms are healthy and stable in the long-run, and to a lesser extent, environmental sustainability in reducing pollution related problems and building footprint. The Malaysian affordable housing sector has undergone tremendous transformations since the sixties, transcending from the earlier social housing catering to the poorer strata of the society, to the current state of housing woes plaguing the young urban middle class. The increase in urban land prices and construction costs, coupled with rampant property speculative and manipulative activities have resulted in situations of housing that are largely unaffordable even to the middle income sector of the urban populations. To overcome such scenario, the public as well as private sectors in the recent years, have came up with various intermediate, as well as medium-term policies aimed to curb the burning housing needs of the urban populations. Key strategies include financial intervention in regulating the interests rates, imposing property gain taxes; loosening the requirement for density and other planning requirements, faster approval of projects, compulsory contribution from developers, etc. Some of the policies are commendable, while others are ad-hoc by nature, and are not able to resolve the long-term socio-economic challenges. This paper discusses and examines the issues from the ‘sustainability’ perspective, focusing on key fiscal, land use and planning policies, as well as the more subtle (but important) political and institutional factors shaping the provision of mass housing for the urban populations in Malaysia.

Keywords: affordable housing, urban housing, sustainable housing, planning for urban housing

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Authors: Sonia Arradaza-Pajaron

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Speaking English, as a medium of instruction among students who are non-native English speakers poses a real challenge to achieve proficiency, especially so if it is a requirement in most communicative classroom instruction. It becomes a real burden among students whose English language orientation is not well facilitated and encouraged by teachers among national high schools. This study, which utilized a descriptive-correlational research, examined the relationship between the select communicative approaches commonly utilized in classroom instruction to the level of speaking skills among the identified high school students. Survey questionnaires, interview, and observations sheets were researcher instruments used to generate salient information. Data were analyzed and treated statistically utilizing weighted mean speaking skills levels and Pearson r to determine the relationship between the two identified variables of the study. Findings revealed that the level of English speaking skills of the high school students is just average. Further, among the identified speaking sub-skills, namely, grammar, pronunciation and fluency, the students were considered above average level. There was also a clear relationship of some communicative approaches to the respondents’ speaking skills. Most notable among the select approaches is that of role-playing, compared to storytelling, informal debate, brainstorming, oral reporting, and others. It may be because role-playing is the most commonly used approach in the classroom. This implies that when these high school students are given enough time and autonomy on how they could express their ideas or comprehension of some lessons, they are shown to have a spontaneous manner of expression, through the maximization of the second language. It can be concluded further that high school students have the capacity to express ideas even in the second language, only if they are encouraged and well-facilitated by teachers. Also, when a better communicative approach is identified and better implemented, thus, will level up students’ classroom engagement.

Keywords: communicative approaches, comprehension, role playing, speaking skills

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Authors: Leo Paul Vaurs, Sonia Heaven, Charles Banks

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Municipal solid waste (MSW) is a virtually unlimited source of lignocellulosic material in the form of a waste paper/cardboard mixture which can be converted into fermentable sugars via cellulolytic enzyme hydrolysis in a biorefinery. The extraction of the lignocellulosic fraction and its preparation, however, are energy and water demanding processes. The waste water generated is a rich organic liquor with a high Chemical Oxygen Demand that can be partially cleaned while generating biogas in an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket bioreactor and be further re-used in the process. In this work, an experiment was designed to determine the critical contaminant concentrations in water affecting either anaerobic digestion or enzymatic hydrolysis by simulating multiple water re-circulations. It was found that re-using more than 16.5 times the same water could decrease the hydrolysis yield by up to 65 % and led to a complete granules desegregation. Due to the complexity of the water stream, the contaminant(s) responsible for the performance decrease could not be identified but it was suspected to be caused by sodium, potassium, lipid accumulation for the anaerobic digestion (AD) process and heavy metal build-up for enzymatic hydrolysis. The experimental data were incorporated into a Water Pinch technology based model that was used to optimize the water re-utilization in the modelled system to reduce fresh water requirement and wastewater generation while ensuring all processes performed at optimal level. Multiple scenarios were modelled in which sub-process requirements were evaluated in term of importance, operational costs and impact on the CAPEX. The best compromise between water usage, AD and enzymatic hydrolysis yield was determined for each assumed contaminant degradations by anaerobic granules. Results from the model will be used to build the first MSW based biorefinery in the USA.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, enzymatic hydrolysis, municipal solid waste, water optimization

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Authors: A. Ishag, E. Witruk, C. Altmayer

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Motivation and attitudes are considered as hypothetical psychological constructs in explaining the process of second language learning. Gardner (1985) – who first systematically investigated the motivational factors in second language acquisition – found that L2 achievement is related not only to the individual learner’s linguistic aptitude or general intelligence but also to the learner’s motivation and interest in learning the target language. Traditionally language learning motivation can be divided into two types: integrative motivation – the desire to integrate oneself with the target culture; and instrumental motivation – the desire to learn a language in order to meet a specific language requirement such as for employment. One of the Gardner’s main ideas is that the integrative motivation plays an important role in second language acquisition. It is directly and positively related to second language achievement more than instrumental motivation. However, the significance of integrative motivation reflects a rather controversial set of findings. On the other hand, Students’ attitudes towards the target language, its speakers and the learning context may all play some part in explaining their success in learning a language. Accordingly, the present study aims at exploring the significance of motivational and attitudinal factors in learning foreign languages, namely English and German among Sudanese undergraduate students from a psycholinguistic and interdisciplinary perspective. The sample composed of 221 students from the English and German language departments respectively at the University of Khartoum in Sudan. The results indicate that English language’s learners are instrumentally motivated and that German language’s learners have positive attitudes towards the German language community and culture. Furthermore, there are statistical significant differences in the attitudes toward the two languages due to gender; where female students have more positive attitudes than their male counterparts. However, there are no differences along the variables of academic grade and study level. Finally, the reasons of studying the English or German language have also been indicated.

Keywords: motivation and attitudes, foreign language learning, english language, german language

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Authors: Izabel Cristina Zattar, Gilberto Passos Lima, Guilherme Schünemann de Oliveira

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In Brazil, there are several institutions committed to the development of new businesses based on product innovation. Among them are business incubators, universities and science institutes. Business incubators can be defined as nurseries for new companies, which may be in the technology segment, discussed in this article. Business incubators provide services related to infrastructure, such as physical space and meeting rooms. Besides these services, incubators also offer assistance in the form of information and communication, access to finance, relationship networks and business monitoring and mentoring processes. Business incubators support not all technology companies. One of the business incubators tasks is to assess the nature and feasibility of new business proposals. To assist this goal, this paper proposes a methodology for evaluating new business using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This paper presents the concepts used in the assessing methodology application for new business, concepts that have been tested with positive results in practice. This study counts on three main steps: first, a hierarchy was built, based on new business manuals used by the business incubators. These books and manuals relate business selection requirements, such as the innovation status and other technological aspects. Then, a questionnaire was generated, in order to guide incubator experts in the parity comparisons at all hierarchy levels. The weights of each requirement are calculated from information obtained from the questionnaire responses. Finally, the proposed method was applied to evaluate five new business proposals, which were applying to be part of a company incubator. The main result is the classification of these new businesses, which helped the incubator experts to decide what companies were more eligible to work with. This classification may also be helpful to the decision-making process of business incubators in future selection processes.

Keywords: Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Brazilian companies incubators, technology companies, incubator

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Authors: Darshana Rathod, Kirtikumar Rathod, Kamlesh Kumari, Abhilasha Motghare

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Background and Aims: Hypospadias is one of the common congenital anomalies in males. Various modalities are used for pain management, including caudal, penile, pudendal, ring blocks, and systemic analgesics. There has yet to be a consensus regarding the most effective and safe analgesic method for controlling pain in these children. We planned this study to determine our institute's pain management practices for hypospadias surgeries. Material and Methods: This retrospective cohort study reviewed 150 children with hypospadias undergoing surgery from January 2020 to December 2023. Data regarding the mode of pain management, postoperative opioid requirement, PACU discharge, and complications was collected from the records. Results: For postoperative pain, 33 (22%) children received caudal block, 60 (40%) penile block, and 57 (38%) were managed by intravenous analgesics. A significant difference was found in the three groups, with the IV analgesic group requiring significantly higher opioid boluses in PACU [43 (75.4%) required two boluses (p < 0.05)]. The difference in PACU discharge time among the three groups was statistically significant (p< 0.05), with IV analgesics groups having the highest (55 mins [47, 60]), the Caudal group at 35mins (30, 40), and the dorsal penile block group at 35mins (25, 40). There was no significant difference in complications like edema, meatal stenosis, urethra-cutaneous fistula, or wound dehiscence among all three groups. Conclusion: Intravenous analgesics and regional blocks like caudal and penile blocks are the common pain management modalities in our institute. The regional blocks are effective in managing pain in the postoperative period and are not significantly associated with complications.

Keywords: caudal block, hypospadias, pain management, penile block

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Authors: M. R. Ahmad, I. Musirin, M. M. Othman, N. A. Rahmat

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Plug-in Hybrid-Electric Vehicle (PHEV) has gained immense popularity in recent years. PHEV offers numerous advantages compared to the conventional internal-combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. Millions of PHEVs are estimated to be on the road in the USA by 2020. Uncoordinated PHEV charging is believed to cause severe impacts to the power grid; i.e. feeders, lines and transformers overload and voltage drop. Nevertheless, improper PHEV data model used in such studies may cause the findings of their works is in appropriated. Although smart charging is more attractive to researchers in recent years, its implementation is not yet attainable on the street due to its requirement for physical infrastructure readiness and technology advancement. As the first step, it is finest to study the impact of charging PHEV based on real vehicle travel data from National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) and at present charging rate. Due to the lack of charging station on the street at the moment, charging PHEV at home is the best option and has been considered in this work. This paper proposed a technique that comprehensively presents the impact of charging PHEV on power system networks considering huge numbers of PHEV samples with its traveling data pattern. Vehicles Charging Load Profile (VCLP) is developed and implemented in IEEE 30-bus test system that represents a portion of American Electric Power System (Midwestern US). Normalization technique is used to correspond to real time loads at all buses. Results from the study indicated that charging PHEV using opportunity charging will have significant impacts on power system networks, especially whereas bigger battery capacity (kWh) is used as well as for higher penetration level.

Keywords: plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, transportation electrification, impact of charging PHEV, electricity demand profile, load profile

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Authors: Judith Klostermann, Miguel Segura, Wilma Jans, Dragana Bojovic, Isadora Christel Jimenez, Francisco Doblas-Reyees, Judit Snethlage

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The Climate Data Store (CDS), developed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the European Union, is intended to become a key instrument for exploring climate data. The CDS contains both raw and processed data to provide information to the users about the past, present and future climate of the earth. It allows for easy and free access to climate data and indicators, presenting an important asset for scientists and stakeholders on the path for achieving a more sustainable future. The C3S Evaluation and Quality Control (EQC) is assessing the quality of the CDS by undertaking a comprehensive user requirement assessment to measure the users’ satisfaction. Recommendations will be developed for the improvement and expansion of the CDS datasets and products. User requirements will be identified on the fitness of the datasets, the toolbox, and the overall CDS service. The EQC function of the CDS will help C3S to make the service more robust: integrated by validated data that follows high-quality standards while being user-friendly. This function will be closely developed with the users of the service. Through their feedback, suggestions, and contributions, the CDS can become more accessible and meet the requirements for a diverse range of users. Stakeholders and their active engagement are thus an important aspect of CDS development. This will be achieved with direct interactions with users such as meetings, interviews or workshops as well as different feedback mechanisms like surveys or helpdesk services at the CDS. The results provided by the users will be categorized as a function of CDS products so that their specific interests will be monitored and linked to the right product. Through this procedure, we will identify the requirements and criteria for data and products in order to build the correspondent recommendations for the improvement and expansion of the CDS datasets and products.

Keywords: climate data store, Copernicus, quality, user engagement

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Authors: Pahirangan Sivapatham, , Esser Barbara

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The impacts of the asphalt mix design, the properties of aggregates and quality differences in the same type of bitumen, as well as the dosage rate of reclaimed asphalt on the relevant material parameter of the analytical pavement design method are not known. Due to that, in this study, the influence of the above mentioned characteristics on relevant material parameters has been determined and analyzed by means of the analytical pavement calculations method. Therefore, material parameters for several asphalt mixes for asphalt wearing course, asphalt binder course and asphalt base course have been determined. Thereby several bitumens of the same type from different producer’s have been used. In addition, asphalt base course materials with three different dosages of reclaimed asphalt have been produced and tested. As material parameter according to the German analytical pavement design guide(RDO Asphalt), the stiffness’s at different temperatures and fatigue behavior have been determined. The findings of asphalt base course materials produced with several pen graded bitumen from different producers and different dosages of reclaimed asphalt indicate the distinct impact on fatigue behaviors and mechanical properties. The calculated test results of the analytical pavement design method show significant differences in the lifetimes. The pavement design calculation is to carry out by means of the actual material parameter. The calculated lifetime of the asphalt base course materials differentiates by the factor 3.2. The determining test results of bitumen characteristics meet the requirement according to the German Standards. But, further investigations of bitumen in different aging conditions show significant differences in their quality. The fatigue behavior and stiffness of asphalt pavement improves with increasing dosage of reclaimed asphalt. Furthermore, the type of aggregates used shows no significant influences.

Keywords: reclaimed asphalt pavement, quality differences in the bitumen, life time calculation, Asphalt mix with RAP

Procedia PDF Downloads 167

Authors: Gaurav Bhanjana, Ganga Ram Chaudhary, Sandeep Kumar, Neeraj Dilbaghi

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Main sources of endocrine disrupting compounds in the ecosystem are hormones, pesticides, phthalates, flame retardants, dioxins, personal-care products, coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), bisphenol A, and parabens. These endocrine disrupting compounds are responsible for learning disabilities, brain development problems, deformations of the body, cancer, reproductive abnormalities in females and decreased sperm count in human males. Although discharge of these chemical compounds into the environment cannot be stopped, yet their amount can be retarded through proper evaluation and detection techniques. The available techniques for determination of these endocrine disrupting compounds mainly include high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), mass spectroscopy (MS) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS). These techniques are accurate and reliable but have certain limitations like need of skilled personnel, time consuming, interference and requirement of pretreatment steps. Moreover, these techniques are laboratory bound and sample is required in large amount for analysis. In view of above facts, new methods for detection of endocrine disrupting compounds should be devised that promise high specificity, ultra sensitivity, cost effective, efficient and easy-to-operate procedure. Nowadays, electrochemical sensors/biosensors modified with nanomaterials are gaining high attention among researchers. Bioelement present in this system makes the developed sensors selective towards analyte of interest. Nanomaterials provide large surface area, high electron communication feature, enhanced catalytic activity and possibilities of chemical modifications. In most of the cases, nanomaterials also serve as an electron mediator or electrocatalyst for some analytes.

Keywords: electrochemical, endocrine disruptors, microscopy, nanoparticles, sensors

Procedia PDF Downloads 258

Authors: Najla Alhkalaf

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The focus of this study is answering the following question: How do e-government services in Bahrain support the productivity of SMEs? This study examines the current E-government function in enhancing SME productivity in Bahrain through analysing the efficiency of e- government by viewing its facilitators and barriers from the perspective of different stakeholders. The study aims to identify and develop best practice guidelines with the end-goal of creating a standardised channel of communication between e-government and SMEs that fulfil the requirement of SME owners, and thus achieve the prime objective of e-government. E-government services for SMEs have been offered in Bahrain since 2005. However, the current services lack the required mechanism for SMEs to fully take advantage of these services because of lagging communication between service provider and end-user. E-government employees believe that a lack of awareness and trust are the main stumbling block, whereas the SME owners believe that there is a lack of sufficiency in the content and efficiency provided through e- services. A questionnaire has been created based on a pilot study that highlighted the main indicators of e-government efficiency and SMEs productivity as well as previous studies conducted on this subject. This allowed for quantitative data to be extracted. Also interviews were conducted with SME owners and government employees from both case studies, which formed the qualitative data for this study. The findings portray that both the service provider and service receiver largely agree on the existence of most of the technical and administrative barriers. However, the data reflects a level of dissatisfaction from the SME side, which contradicts with the perceived level of satisfaction from the government employees. Therefore, the data supports the argument that assures the existence of a communication gap between stakeholders. To this effect, this research would help build channels of communication between stakeholders, and then induces a plan unlocking the potential of e-government application. The conclusions of this study will help devise an optimised E-government strategy for Bahrain.

Keywords: e-government, SME, e-services, G2B, government employees' perspective, entrepreneurs' perspective, enterprise

Procedia PDF Downloads 217

Authors: Amna J. Ghith, Khaled Abu Zid, Khairia Youssef, Nasser Saad

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Backgrounds: The multikinase and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor inhibitors interrupt the pathway by which angiogenesis becomes established and promulgated, resulting in the inadequate nourishment of metastatic disease. VEGFR-2 has been the principal target of anti-angiogenic therapies. We disclose the new thieno pyrimidines as inhibitors of VEGFR-2 designed by a molecular modeling approach with increased synergistic activity and decreased side effects. Purpose: 2-substituted thieno pyrimidines are designed and synthesized with anticipated anticancer activity based on its in silico molecular docking study that supports the initial pharmacophoric hypothesis with a same binding mode of interaction at the ATP-binding site of VEGFR-2 (PDB 2QU5) with high docking score. Methods: A series of compounds were designed using discovery studio 4.1/CDOCKER with a rational that mimic the pharmacophoric features present in the reported active compounds that targeted VEGFR-2. An in silico ADMET study was also performed to validate the bioavailability of the newly designed compounds. Results: The Compounds to be synthesized showed interaction energy comparable to or within the range of the benzimidazole inhibitor ligand when docked with VEGFR-2. ADMET study showed comparable results most of the compounds showed absorption within (95-99) zone varying according to different substitutions attached to thieno pyrimidine ring system. Conclusions: A series of 2-subsituted thienopyrimidines are to be synthesized with anticipated anticancer activity and according to docking study structure requirement for the design of VEGFR-2 inhibitors which can act as powerful anticancer agents.

Keywords: docking, discovery studio 4.1/CDOCKER, heterocycles based anticancer agents, 2-subsituted thienopyrimidines

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Authors: Manju Kanu, Subrata Sinha, Surabhi Johari

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Viral proteins of Ebola viruses belong to one of the best studied viruses; however no effective prevention against EBOV has been developed. Epitope-based vaccines provide a new strategy for prophylactic and therapeutic application of pathogen-specific immunity. A critical requirement of this strategy is the identification and selection of T-cell epitopes that act as vaccine targets. This study describes current methodologies for the selection process, with Ebola virus as a model system. Hence great challenge in the field of ebola virus research is to design universal vaccine. A combination of publicly available bioinformatics algorithms and computational tools are used to screen and select antigen sequences as potential T-cell epitopes of supertypes Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) alleles. MUSCLE and MOTIF tools were used to find out most conserved peptide sequences of viral proteins. Immunoinformatics tools were used for prediction of immunogenic peptides of viral proteins in zaire strains of Ebola virus. Putative epitopes for viral proteins (VP) were predicted from conserved peptide sequences of VP. Three tools NetCTL 1.2, BIMAS and Syfpeithi were used to predict the Class I putative epitopes while three tools, ProPred, IEDB-SMM-align and NetMHCII 2.2 were used to predict the Class II putative epitopes. B cell epitopes were predicted by BCPREDS 1.0. Immunogenic peptides were identified and selected manually by putative epitopes predicted from online tools individually for both MHC classes. Finally sequences of predicted peptides for both MHC classes were looked for common region which was selected as common immunogenic peptide. The immunogenic peptides were found for viral proteins of Ebola virus: epitopes FLESGAVKY, SSLAKHGEY. These predicted peptides could be promising candidates to be used as target for vaccine design.

Keywords: epitope, b cell, immunogenicity, ebola

Procedia PDF Downloads 294

Authors: Elin Cahyaningsih, Dana Indra Sensuse, Wahyu Catur Wibowo, Sofiyanti Indriasari

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Bureaucracy reform program drives Indonesian government to change their management and supporting unit in order to enhance their organization performance. Information technology as one of supporting unit became one of strategic plan that organization tried to improve, because IT can automate and speed up process, reduce business process life cycle become more effective and efficient. Knowledge management system is a technology application for supporting knowledge management implementation in government which is requirement based on problem and potential functionality of each knowledge management process. Define knowledge management that suitable for each organization it is difficult, that why we should make the knowledge management system strategy as an alignment of knowledge management process in the organization. Knowledge management system is one of information system development in people perspective, because this system has high dependency in human interaction and participation. Strategic plan for developing knowledge management system can be determine using some of information system strategic methods. This research conducted to define type of strategic method of information system, stage of activity each method, the strategic method strength and weakness. The author use literature review methods for identify and classify strategic methods of information system for differentiate method type, categorize common activities, strength and weakness. Result of this research are determine and compare six strategic information system methods, there are Balanced Scorecard, Five Force Porter, SWOT analysis, Value Chain Analysis, Risk Analysis and Gap Analysis. Balanced Scorecard and Risk Analysis believe as common strategic method that usually used and have the highest excellence strength.

Keywords: knowledge management system, balanced scorecard, five force, risk analysis, gap analysis, value chain analysis, SWOT analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 442

Authors: Sushil Pradhan

Abstract:

Biotechnology contributes to sustainable development in several ways such as biofertilizer production, biopesticide production and management of environmental pollution, tissue culture and biodiversity conservation in vitro, in vivo and in situ, Insectivorous medicinal plant Drosera burmannii Vahl belongs to the Family-Droseraceae under Order-Caryophyllales, Dicotyledoneae, Angiospermeae which has 31 (thirty one) living genera and 194 species besides 7 (seven) extinct (fossil) genera. Locally it is known as “Patkanduri” in Odia. Its Hindi name is “Mukhajali” and its English name is “Sundew”. The earliest species of Drosera was first reported in 1753 by Carolous Linnaeus called Drosera indica L (Indian Sundew). The latest species of Drosera reported by Fleisch A, Robinson, AS, McPherson S, Heinrich V, Gironella E and Madulida D.A. (2011) is Drosera ultramafica from Malaysia. More than 50 % species of Drosera have been reported from Australia and next to Australia is South Africa. India harbours only 3 species such as D. indica L, Drosera burmannii Vahl and D. peltata L. From our Odisha only D. burmannii Vahl is being reported for the first time from the district of Subarnapur near Sonepur (Arjunpur Reserve Forest Area). Drosera plant is autotrophic but to supplement its Nitrogen (N2) requirement it adopts heterotrophic mode of nutrition (insectivorous/carnivorous) as well. The colour of plant in mostly red and about 20-30cm in height with beautiful pink or white pentamerous flowers. Plants grow luxuriantly during November to February in shady and moist places near small water bodies of running water stream. Medicinally it is a popular herb in the locality for the treatment of cold and cough in children in rainy season by the local Doctors (Kabiraj and Baidya). In the present field investigation an attempt has been made to understand the unique reproductive phase and life cycle of the plant thereby planning for its conservation and propagation through various techniques of tissue culture and biotechnology. More importantly besides morphological and anatomical studies, cytological investigation is being carried out to find out the number of chromosomes in the cell and its genomics as there is no such report as yet for Drosera burmannii Vahl. The ecological significance and biodiversity conservation of Drosera with special reference to energy, environmental and chemical engineering has been discussed in the research paper presentation.

Keywords: insectivorous, medicinal, drosera, biotechnology, chromosome, genome

Procedia PDF Downloads 366

Authors: S. Rashmi, Devashish Das, N. Spoorthi, H. V. Manasa

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Energy is essential and plays an important role for overall development of a nation. The global economy literally runs on energy. The use of fossil fuels as energy is now widely accepted as unsustainable due to depleting resources and also due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the environment, renewable and carbon neutral biodiesel are necessary for environment and economic sustainability. Unfortunately biodiesel produced from oil crop, waste cooking oil and animal fats are not able to replace fossil fuel. Fossil fuels remain the dominant source of primary energy, accounting for 84% of the overall increase in demand. Today biodiesel has come to mean a very specific chemical modification of natural oils. Objectives: To produce biodiesel from yellow oleander seed oil, to test the yield of biodiesel using different types of catalyst (KOH & NaOH). Methodology: Oil is extracted from dried yellow oleander seeds using Soxhlet extractor and oil expeller (bulk). The FFA content of the oil is checked and depending on the FFA value either two steps or single step process is followed to produce biodiesel. Two step processes includes esterfication and transesterification, single step includes only transesterification. The properties of biodiesel are checked. Engine test is done for biodiesel produced. Result: It is concluded that biodiesel quality parameters such as yield(85% & 90%), flash point(1710C & 1760C),fire point(1950C & 1980C), viscosity(4.9991 and 5.21 mm2/s) for the biodiesel from seed oil of Thevetiaperuviana produced by using KOH & NaOH respectively. Thus the seed oil of Thevetiaperuviana is a viable feedstock for good quality fuel.The outcomes of our project are a substitute for conventional fuel, to reduce petro diesel requirement,improved performance in terms of emissions. Future prospects: Optimization of biodiesel production using response surface method.

Keywords: yellow oleander seeds, biodiesel, quality parameters, renewable sources

Procedia PDF Downloads 425