Search results for: usability evaluation

Authors: W. S. Lawal, T. A. Akande

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Four (4) different methods were employed to detoxified jatropha caucas, they are physical method (if include soaking and drying) chemical method (use of methylated spirit, hexane and methene) biological method,(use of Aspergillus niger and Sunday for 7 days and then baccillus lichifarming) and finally combined method (combination of all these methods). Phobol esther andysis was carried out after the detoxification and was found that combined method is better off (P>0.05). 100 broiler birds was used to further test the effect of detoxified Jatropha by combined method, 50 birds for Jatropha made feed at 10 birds per treatment and was replicated five times, this was also repeated for another 50 birds fed conventional feed, Jatropha made feed was compranded at 8% inclusion level. At the end of the 8th weeks, 8 birds were sacrificed each from each treatment and one bird each was fry, roast, boil and grilled from both conventional and Jatropha fed birds and panelist were served for evaluation. It was found that feeding Jatropha to poultry birds has no effect on the taste of the meat.

Keywords: phobol esther, inclusion level, tolerance level, Jatropha carcass

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Authors: Sidique Gawusu, Xiaobing Zhang

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Turbulence models play a significant role in all computational fluid dynamics based modelling approaches. There is, however, no general turbulence model suitable for all flow scenarios. Therefore, a successful numerical modelling approach is only achievable if a more appropriate closure model is used. This paper evaluates different turbulence models in numerical modelling of oil-water flow within the Eulerian-Eulerian approach. A comparison among the obtained numerical results and published benchmark data showed reasonable agreement. The domain was meshed using structured mesh, and grid test was performed to ascertain grid independence. The evaluation of the models was made through analysis of velocity and pressure profiles across the domain. The models were tested for their suitability to accurately obtain a scalable and precise numerical experience. As a result, it is found that all the models except Standard-ω provide comparable results. The study also revealed new insights on flow in porous media, specifically oil reservoirs.

Keywords: turbulence modelling, simulation, multi-phase flows, water-flooding, heavy oil

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Authors: Alicia Kamischke, Souhail Elhouar, Yasser Khodair

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The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Specification (360-10) provides equations for calculating the capacity of a W-shaped steel member to resist concentrated forces applied to its flange. In the case of flange local bending, the capacity equations were primarily formulated for an interior point along the member, which is defined to be at a distance larger than ten flange thicknesses away from the member’s end. When a concentrated load is applied within ten flange thicknesses from the member’s end, AISC requires a fifty percent reduction to be applied to the flange bending capacity. This reduction, however, is not supported by any research. In this study, finite element modeling is used to investigate the actual reduction in capacity near the end of such a steel member. The results indicate that the AISC equation for flange local bending is quite conservative for forces applied at less than ten flange thicknesses from the member’s end and a new equation is suggested for the evaluation of available flange local bending capacity within that distance.

Keywords: flange local bending, concentrated forces, column, flange capacity

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Authors: Uğur Çakir, Erol Şahin, Kemal Çomakli, Ayşegül Çokgez Kuş

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Solar energy is thought as main source of all energy sources on the world and it can be used in many applications like agricultural areas, heating cooling or direct electricity production directly or indirectly. Greenhousing is the first one of the agricultural activities that solar energy can be used directly in. Greenhouses offer us suitable conditions which can be controlled easily for the growth of the plant and they are made by using a covering material that allows the sun light entering into the system. Covering material can be glass, fiber glass, plastic or another transparent element. This study investigates the solar energy usability rates and solar energy benefiting rates of a semi-spherical (modified arch) type greenhouse system according to different orientations and positions which exists under climatic conditions of Bayburt. In the concept of this study it is tried to determine the best direction and best sizes of a semi-spherical greenhouse to get best solar benefit from the sun. To achieve this aim a modeling study is made by using MATLAB. However this modeling study is running for some determined shapes and greenhouses it can be used for different shaped greenhouses or buildings. The basic parameters are determined as greenhouse azimuth angle, the rate of size of long edge to short and seasonal solar energy gaining of greenhouse.

Keywords: greenhousing, solar energy, direct radiation, renewable energy

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Authors: Kuanrong Qiu, Sebnem Madrali, Evgueniy Entchev

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To achieve the satisfactory objectives in deploying integrated renewable energy systems, it is crucial to consider all the related parameters affecting the design and decision-making. The multi-criteria evaluation method is a reliable and efficient tool for achieving the most appropriate solution. The approach considers the influential factors and their relative importance in prioritizing the alternatives. In this paper, a multi-criteria decision framework, based on the criteria including technical, economic, environmental and reliability, is developed to evaluate and prioritize renewable energy technologies and configurations of their integrated systems for community applications, identify their viability, and thus support the adoption of the clean energy technologies and the decision-making regarding energy transitions and transition patterns. Case studies for communities in Canada show that resource availability and the configurations of the integrated systems significantly impact the economic performance and environmental performance.

Keywords: multi-criteria, renewables, integrated energy systems, decision-making, model

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Authors: Vamsi G.

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Majority of the modern-day structures have less aesthetical value with minimum requirements set by foreign tribes. Numerous elements of traditional architecture can be incorporated into modern designs using appropriate principles to improve and enhance the functionality, aesthetics, and usability of any space. This paper reviews the diminishing ancient values of the traditional Islamic architecture. By introducing them into the modern-day structures like commercial, residential and recreational spaces in at least the Islamic states, the functionality of those spaces can be improved. For this, aspects like space planning, aesthetics, scale, hierarchy, value, and patterns are to be experimented with modern day structures. Case studies of few ancient Islamic architectural marvels are done to elaborate the whole. A brief analysis of materials and execution strategies are also a part of this paper. The analysis is formulated and is ready to design or redesign spaces using traditional Islamic principles and Elements of design to improve the quality of the architecture of modern day structures by studying the ancient Islamic architectural theories. For this, sources from the history and evolution of this architecture have been studied. Also, elements and principles of design from case studies of various mosques, forts, tombs, and palaces have been tabulated. All this data accumulated, will help revive the elements decorated by ancient principles in functional and aesthetical ways. By this, one of the most astonishing architectural styles can be conserved, reinstalled into modern day buildings and remembered.

Keywords: ancient architecture, architectural history, Islamic architecture, principles and elements

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Authors: Sajjad Sedaghat

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In this work, facile and green biosynthesis and characterization of silver–montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposite is reported at room temperature. Silver nanoparticles (Ag–NPs) were synthesized into the interlamellar space of (MMT) by using water extract of Satureja hortensis L as reducing agent. The MMT was suspended in the aqueous AgNO₃ solution, and after the absorption of silver ions, Ag⁺ was reduced using water extract of Satureja hortensis L to Ag°. Evaluation of the antibacterial properties are also reported. The nanocomposite was characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM study showed the formation of nanocomposite using water extract of Satureja hortensis L in the 4.88 – 26.70 nm range and average particles size were 15.79 nm also the XRD study showed that the particles have a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure. The nanocomposite showed the antibacterial properties against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.

Keywords: antibacterial effects, montmorillonite, Satureja hortensis l, transmission electron microscopy, nanocomposite

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Authors: Bulus Kpame, Mukhtar Mohammed Alhaji, Garba Jibril

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In any team sport, the most important variables that should be used to measure performance are physical condition, and technical and tactical performance. In a complex game like football, it is extremely difficult to measure the relative importance of each of these variables. However, physical fitness itself has been shown to consist of several components, like endurance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination and speed. Each of these components has been shown to consist of several subcomponents. This paper attempts to describe a test battery to assess and evaluate physical performance in football players. This battery comprises a functional, structured training session of about 2.5hrs. it consists of quality rating of the warm-up procedure, tests of flexibility, football skills, power, speed, and endurance. Acceptable values for performance in each of the tests are also presented under each test. It is hoped that this battery of tests will be helpful to the coach in determining the effect of a specific training program. It would also be helpful to train physician and trainer, to monitor progress during rehabilitation after sustaining any injury.

Keywords: assessment, evaluation, performance, programs

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Authors: A. A. Al-Saleh, E. A. Ismail, A. A. Metwalli

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Effects of camel and cow casein hydrolysates by trypsin enzyme on rheological and sensory properties and growth of starter culture of the yoghurts made from cow milk have been investigated. The hydrolysates strongly decreased the fermentation and coagulation time of the yoghurts. The rate of pH decrease was higher with camel casein hydrolysate in comparison with cow casein hydrolysate at all concentrations used (0.5; 1.0 and 1.5%). Viscosities of the yoghurt made with hydrolysates significantly (p<0.05) decreased compared to control samples. The addition of the hydrolysates significantly (p <0.05) increased the hardness and adhesiveness of the yoghurts. No significant differences in water holding capacity of control and treated samples were obsereved at 0.5 and 1.0% casein hydrolysate addition. However, increasing casein hydrolysate addition to 1.5% decreased water holding capacity of yoghurt samples. The sensory evaluation scores of the yoghurts were significantly (p<0.05) improved with the addition of casein hydrolysates.

Keywords: yoghurt, camel casein hydrolysates, cow casein hydrolysate, sensory evaluation

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Authors: Sijia Guo

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The development of new technologies and the falling cost of high-speed Internet access have made it easier for institutes and language teachers to opt different ways to communicate with students at distance. The emergence of web-conferencing applications, which integrate text, chat, audio / video and graphic facilities, offers great opportunities for language learning to through the multimodal environment. This paper reports on data elicited from a Ph.D. study of using web-conferencing in the teaching of first-year Chinese class in order to promote learners’ collaborative learning. Firstly, a comparison of four desktop videoconferencing (DVC) tools was conducted to determine the pedagogical value of the videoconferencing tool-Blackboard Collaborate. Secondly, the evaluation of 14 campus-based Chinese learners who conducted five one-hour online sessions via the multimodal environment reveals the users’ choice of modes and their learning preference. The findings show that the tasks designed for the web-conferencing environment contributed to the learners’ collaborative learning and second language acquisition.

Keywords: computer-mediated communication (CMC), CALL evaluation, TBLT, web-conferencing, online Chinese teaching

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Authors: Gichun Cha, Dongwan Lee, Junkyeong Kim, Aoqi Zhang, Seunghee Park

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All the world are studying the construction technology of double deck tunnel in order to respond to the increasing urban traffic demands and environmental changes. Advanced countries have the construction technology of the double deck tunnel structure. but the domestic country began research on it. Construction technologies are important. But Safety evaluation of structure is necessary to prevent possible accidents during construction. Thus, the double deck tunnel was required the shape management of middle slabs. The domestic country is preparing the construction of double deck tunnel for an alternate route and a pleasant urban environment. Shape management of double deck tunnel has been no research because it is a new attempted technology. The present, a similar study is bridge structure for the shape management. Bridge is implemented shape model using terrestrial laser scanning(TLS). Therefore, we proceed research on the bridge slabs because there is a similar structure of double deck tunnel. In the study, we develop shape management method of bridge slabs using TLS. We select the Test-bed for measurement site. This site is bridge located on Sungkyunkwan University Natural Sciences Campus. This bridge has a total length of 34m, the vertical height of 8.7m from the ground. It connects Engineering Building #1 and Engineering Building #2. Point cloud data for shape management is acquired the TLS and We utilized the Leica ScanStation C10/C5 model. We will confirm the Maximum displacement area of middle slabs using Least-Squares Fitting. We expect to raise stability for double deck tunnel through shape management for middle slabs.

Keywords: bridge slabs, least squares, safety evaluation, shape management method, terrestrial laser scanning

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Authors: Emily Saurman, David Lyle

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In Australia, a well serviced rural town might have a psychiatrist visit once-a-month with more frequent visits from a psychiatric nurse, but many have no resident access to mental health specialists. Access to specialist care, would not only reduce patient distress and benefit outcomes, but facilitate the effective use of limited resources. The Mental Health Emergency Care-Rural Access Program (MHEC-RAP) was developed to improve access to specialist emergency mental health care in rural and remote communities using telehealth technologies. However, there has been no current benchmark to gauge program efficiency or capacity; to determine whether the program activity is justifiably sufficient. The evaluation of MHEC-RAP used multiple methods and applied a modified theory of access to assess the program and its aim of improved access to emergency mental health care. This was the first evaluation of a telepsychiatry service to include a time and motion study design examining program time expenditure, efficiency, and capacity. The time and motion study analysis was combined with an observational study of the program structure and function to assess the balance between program responsiveness and efficiency. Previous program studies have demonstrated that MHEC-RAP has improved access and is used and effective. The findings from the time and motion study suggest that MHEC-RAP has the capacity to manage increased activity within the current model structure without loss to responsiveness or efficiency in the provision of care. Enhancing program responsiveness and efficiency will also support a claim of the program’s value for money. MHEC-RAP is a practical telehealth solution for improving access to specialist emergency mental health care. The findings from this evaluation have already attracted the attention of other regions in Australia interested in implementing emergency telepsychiatry programs and are now informing the progressive establishment of mental health resource centres in rural New South Wales. Like MHEC-RAP, these centres will provide rapid, safe, and contextually relevant assessments and advice to support local health professionals to manage mental health emergencies in the smaller rural emergency departments. Sharing the application of this methodology and research activity may help to improve access to and future evaluations of telehealth and telepsychiatry services for others around the globe.

Keywords: access, emergency, mental health, rural, time and motion

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Authors: Aniruddha Joshi

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This paper discusses a simulation study of automated sand casting production system. Therefore, the first aims of this study is development of automated sand casting process model and analyze this model with a simulation software Witness. Production methodology aims to improve overall productivity through elimination of wastes and that leads to improve quality. Integration of automation with Simulation is beneficial to identify the obstacles in implementation and to take appropriate options to implement successfully. For this integration, there are different Simulation Software’s. To study this integration, with the help of “WITNESS” Simulation Software the model is created. This model is based on literature review. The input parameters are Setup Time, Number of machines, cycle time and output parameter is number of castings, avg, and time and percentage usage of machines. Obtained results are used for Statistical Analysis. This analysis concludes the optimal solution to get maximum output.

Keywords: automated sand casting production system, simulation, WITNESS software, performance evaluation

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Authors: Eleanor Nel

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Research output is an indicator of institutional performance (and quality), resulting in increased pressure on academic institutions to perform in the research arena. Research output is further utilised to obtain research funding. Resultantly, academic institutions face significant pressure from governing bodies to provide evidence on the return for research investments. Research output has thus become a substantial discourse within institutions, mainly due to the processes linked to evaluating research output and the associated allocation of research funding. This focus on research outputs often surpasses the development of robust, widely accepted tools to additionally measure research impact at institutions. A publication writing programme, for enhancing research output, was launched at a South African university in 2011. Significant amounts of time, money, and energy have since been invested in the programme. Although participants provided feedback after each session, no formal review was conducted to evaluate the research output directly associated with the programme. Concerns in higher education about training costs, learning results, and the effect on society have increased the focus on value for money and the need to improve training, research performance, and productivity. Furthermore, universities rely on efficient and reliable monitoring and evaluation systems, in addition to the need to demonstrate accountability. While publishing does not occur immediately, achieving a return on investment from the intervention is critical. A multi-method study, guided by the New World Kirkpatrick Model (NWKM), was conducted to determine the impact of the publication writing programme for the period of 2011 to 2018. Quantitative results indicated a total of 314 academics participating in 72 workshops over the study period. To better understand the quantitative results, an open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants from a particular faculty as a convenience sample. The purpose of the research was to collect information to develop a comprehensive framework for impact evaluation that could be used to enhance the current design and delivery of the programme. The qualitative findings highlighted the critical role of a multi-stakeholder strategy in strengthening support before, during, and after a publication writing programme to improve the impact and research outputs. Furthermore, monitoring on-the-job learning is critical to ingrain the new skills academics have learned during the writing workshops and to encourage them to be accountable and empowered. The NWKM additionally provided essential pointers on how to link the results more effectively from publication writing programmes to institutional strategic objectives to improve research performance and quality, as well as what should be included in a comprehensive evaluation framework.

Keywords: evaluation, framework, impact, research output

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Authors: Zainul Huda, Mohammed Hani Ajani

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The design, manufacture, and operation of thin-walled pressure vessels must be based on maximum safe operating pressure and an adequate factor of safety (FoS). This research paper first reports experimental evaluation of longitudinal and hoops stresses based on working pressure as well as maximum pressure; and then includes a critical study of factor of safety (FoS) in the design of a glass fiber pressure vessel. Experimental work involved the use of measuring instruments and the readings from pressure gauges. Design calculations involved the computations of design stress and FoS; the latter was based on breaking strength of 55 MPa for the glass fiber (pressure-vessel material). The experimentally determined FoS value has been critically compared with the general FoS allowed in the design of glass fiber pressure vessels.

Keywords: thin-walled pressure vessel, hoop stress, longitudinal stress, factor of safety (FoS), fiberglass

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Authors: Zainul Huda, Mohammad Hani Ajani

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The design, manufacture, and operation of thin-walled pressure vessels must be based on maximum safe operating pressure and an adequate factor of safety (FoS). This research paper first reports experimental evaluation of longitudinal and hoops stresses based on working pressure as well as maximum pressure; and then includes a critical study of factor of safety (FoS) in the design of a glass fiber pressure vessel. Experimental work involved the use of measuring instruments and the readings from pressure gauges. Design calculations involved the computations of design stress and FoS; the latter was based on breaking strength of 55 MPa for the glass fiber (pressure-vessel material). The experimentally determined FoS value has been critically compared with the general FoS allowed in the design of glass fiber pressure vessels.

Keywords: thin-walled pressure vessel, hoop stress, longitudinal stress, factor of safety (FoS), fiberglass

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Authors: Hummera Rafique, Aamer Saeed

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Synthesis of structural analogues of various well known bioactive natural 3,4-dihydroisocoumarins viz. Scorzocreticin, Annulatomarin, Montroumarin, and Thunberginol B, have been carried out starting from 3,5-dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl acetic acid. 3,5-Dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl acetic acid was then condensed with various aryl acid chlorides (a-e) to afford the corresponding 6,8-dimethoxy-7-methyl-3-aryl isocoumarins (5a-e). The alkaline hydrolysis of isocoumarins yields keto-acids (3a-e), which were then reduced to hydroxyacids, followed by cyclodehydration with acetic anhydride furnish corresponding 3,4-dihydroisocoumarins (7a-e). Finally, demethylation of 3,4-dihydroisocoumarins was carried out to afford 6,8-dihydroxy-7-methyl-3-aryl-3,4-dihydroisocoumarins (7a-e). Antibacterial evaluation of all the synthesized compounds were carried out against ten bacterial strains, it was concluded that isocoumarins (5a-e) and 3,4-dihydroisocoumarins (7a-e) are more active against gram positive bacteria then gram negative. However, the 6,8-dihydroxy-3,4-dihydroisocoumarin derivatives (8a-e) are more active against gram negative then gram positive.

Keywords: 3, 5-Dimethoxy-4-methylhomophthalic acid, natural 3, 4-Dihydroisocoumarin analogues, antibacterial activity, isocoumarins, demethylation

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Authors: Chechen Liao, Pui-Lai To, Chuang-Chun Liu

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Online shopping has become very popular recently. In today’s highly competitive online retail environment, retaining existing customers is a necessity for online retailers. This study focuses on the antecedents and consequences of Internet buyer regret and satisfaction in the online consumer purchasing process. This study examines the roles that online consumer’s purchasing process evaluations (i.e., search experience difficulty, service-attribute evaluations, product-attribute evaluations and post-purchase price perceptions) and alternative evaluation (i.e., alternative attractiveness) play in determining buyer regret and satisfaction in e-commerce. The study also examines the consequences of regret, satisfaction and habit in regard to repurchase intention. In addition, this study attempts to investigate the moderating role of habit in attaining a better understanding of the relationship between repurchase intention and its antecedents. Survey data collected from 431 online customers are analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS) and support provided for the hypothesized links. These results indicate that online consumer’s purchasing process evaluations (i.e., search experience difficulty, service-attribute evaluations, product-attribute evaluations and post-purchase price perceptions) have significant influences on regret and satisfaction, which in turn influences repurchase intention. In addition, alternative evaluation (i.e., alternative attractiveness) has a significant positive influence on regret. The research model can provide a richer understanding of online customers’ repurchase behavior and contribute to both research and practice.

Keywords: online shopping, purchase evaluation, regret, satisfaction

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Authors: Mehmet Akoz

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In this study the clinical, mikrobiological and histopathological diagnoses of subclinic and nonspecific endometritis resulting in repeat breeder. Total of 36 cows, aging between 3-9 years having normal oestrous cycles with no pregnancy following at least 3 unsuccesful inseminations, were used. Biopsy specimens for histopathological and swab for bacteri microbiological cultures were obtanied from endometrium of repeat breeders showing no macroskopic evidence of any defectiveness of genital organs and based on anamneses. Eleven out of 36 cows have positive bacteriological results. While 19 cows have varying degrees of and endometritis, the other 17 cows did not have any pathologic lesions. A total of 19 biopsies in 4 of the I. degree in endometritis, 9 of them II. degree endometritis and 6 were also III. degree endometritis was evaluated. In the majority of cows by the histopathological evaluation results (78.9%) monitored by the second and third-degree endometritis shape, in 83.3% of the isolated microorganisms were identified similar results. Histopathological and microbiological evaluation, along with clinical examination are important for the diagnoses and treatment of repeat breeders, having no resistance with well dissipation to endometrium rifaximina foam formulation was found to be more effective than PGF2α.

Keywords: repeat breeder, dairy cattle, histopathology, PGF2α, rifaximina

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Zamani Kouhpanji

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Characterizing the fatigue and fracture properties of nanostructures is one of the most challenging tasks in nanoscience and nanotechnology due to lack of a MEMS/NEMS device for generating uniform cyclic loadings at high frequencies. Here, the dynamic response of a recently proposed MEMS/NEMS device under different inputs signals is completely investigated. This MEMS/NEMS device is designed and modeled based on the electromagnetic force induced between paired parallel wires carrying electrical currents, known as Ampere’s Force Law (AFL). Since this MEMS/NEMS device only uses two paired wires for actuation part and sensing part, it represents highly sensitive and linear response for nanostructures with any stiffness and shapes (single or arrays of nanowires, nanotubes, nanosheets or nanowalls). In addition to studying the maximum gains at different resonance frequencies of the MEMS/NEMS device, its dynamical responses are investigated for different inputs and nanostructure properties to demonstrate the capability, usability, and reliability of the device for wide range of nanostructures. This MEMS/NEMS device can be readily integrated into SEM/TEM instruments to provide real time study of the fatigue and fracture properties of nanostructures as well as their softening or hardening behaviors, and initiation and/or propagation of nanocracks in them.

Keywords: MEMS/NEMS devices, paired wire actuators and sensors, dynamical response, fatigue and fracture characterization, Ampere’s force law

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Authors: I.-A. Ciobotaru, I.-E. Ciobotaru, D.-I. Vaireanu

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Currently, an ascending trend of battery use may be observed, together with an increase of the generated amount of waste. Efforts have been focused on the recycling of batteries; however, extending their lifetime may be a more adequate alternative, and the development of such methods may prove to be more cost efficient as compared to recycling. In this context, this paper presents the analysis of a proposed process for the reconditioning of some lithium-ions batteries. The analysis is performed based on two criteria, the first one referring to the technical aspect of the reconditioning process and the second to the economic aspects. The main technical parameters taken into consideration are the values of capacitance and internal resistance of the lithium-ion batteries. The economic criterion refers to the evaluation of the efficiency of the reconditioning procedure reported to its total cost for the investigated lithium-ion batteries. Based on the cost analysis, one introduced a novel coefficient that correlates the efficiency of the aforementioned process and its corresponding costs. The reconditioning procedure for the lithium-ion batteries proposed in this paper proved to be valid, efficient, and with reasonable costs.

Keywords: cost assessment, lithium-ion battery, reconditioning coefficient, reconditioning procedure

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Authors: Ghandehari Motlagh, Mohammad

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Purpose: We tried to find the most common etiologies for anisometropia in pre-op cataract cases: axial or refractive. Methods: In this cross-sectional study ,41 pre-op cataract eyes with more than 0.33 difference between axial lengths of 2 eyes were enrolled.Considered for each 1mm difference between axial lengths in long eyes( AXL more than 25):1.75-2.00 D of anisometropia, for normal eyes(AXL: 22- 25):2.50D and for short eyes (AXL less than 22):3.50-3.75 D as axial anisometropia. If there are more or lesser anisometropia, we recorded as refractive anisometropia. Results: Average of anisometropia :4.24 D, prevalence of PK or LK :1 (2.38%), kc:1(2.38%), glaucoma surgery: 1(2.38%), and pseudophakic status of the opposite eye 8(19.04%). Prevalence of axial anisometropia:21 (52.4%) and refractive anisometropia 20(47.6%).Then on basis of this study we can rely on the patient’s refraction exactly before phaco for evaluation of axial length differences between the 2 eyes, because most of the anisometropias are axial. Conclusion: In most cases, cataract does not induce significant change in refractive error (secondary myopia) and AXL difference between the 2 eyes are correlated with anisometropia.so it can be used for cataract patient’s ocular biometry evaluation. Pre-cataract refraction is a valuable variable should be measured and recorded in routin eye examination.

Keywords: ocular axial length, anisometropia, cataract, ophthalmology and optometry

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Authors: Celeste E. van Rinsum, Sanne M. P. L. Gerards, Geert M. Rutten, Ien A. M. van de Goor, Stef P. J. Kremers

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Combined lifestyle interventions have shown to be effective in changing and maintaining behavioral lifestyle changes and reducing overweight and obesity. A lifestyle coach is expected to promote lifestyle changes in adults related to physical activity and diet. The present Coaching on Lifestyle (CooL) study examined participants’ physical activity level, dietary behavioral, and motivational changes immediately after the intervention and at 1.5 years after baseline. In CooL intervention a lifestyle coach coaches individuals from eighteen years and older with (a high risk of) obesity in group and individual sessions. In addition a process evaluation was conducted in order to examine the implementation process and to be able to interpret the changes within the participants. This action-oriented research has a pre-post design. Participants of the CooL intervention (N = 200) completed three questionnaires: at baseline, immediately after the intervention (on average after 44 weeks), and at 1.5 years after baseline. T-tests and linear regressions were conducted to test self-reported changes in physical activity (IPAQ), dietary behaviors, their quality of motivation for physical activity (BREQ-3) and for diet (REBS), body mass index (BMI), and quality of life (EQ-5D-3L). For the process evaluation, we used individual and group interviews, observations and document analyses to gain insight in the implementation process (e.g. the recruitment) and how the intervention was valued by the participants, lifestyle coaches, and referrers. The study is currently ongoing and therefore the results presented here are preliminary. On average, the participants that finished the intervention and those that have completed the long-term measurement improved their level of vigorous-intense physical activity, sedentary behavior, sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and BMI. Mixed results were observed in motivational regulation for physical activity and nutrition. Moreover, an improvement on the quality of life dimension anxiety/depression was found, also in the long-term. All the other constructs did not show significant change over time. The results of the process evaluation have shown that recruitment of clients was difficult. Participants evaluated the intervention positively and the lifestyle coaches have continuously adapted the structure and contents of the intervention throughout the study period, based on their experiences and feedback from research. Preliminary results indicate that the CooL-intervention may have beneficial effects on overweight and obese participants in terms of energy balance-related behaviors, weight reduction, and quality of life. Recruitment of participants and embedding the position of the lifestyle coach in traditional care structures is challenging.

Keywords: combined lifestyle intervention, effect evaluation, lifestyle coaching, process evaluation, overweight, the Netherlands

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Authors: Sung Jong Lee, Hong Joo Ha, Chun Sang Hong

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In recent years, the interests on the impacts of industrial wastewater on aquatic ecosystem have increased with concern about ecosystem protection and human health. Whole effluent toxicity tests are used to monitor toxicity by unknown toxic chemicals as well as conventional pollutants from industrial effluent discharges. This study describes the application of TIE (toxicity identification evaluation) procedures to an acutely toxic effluent from a Seawater desalination facility in industrial complex which was toxic to Daphnia magna. In TIE phase I (characterization step), the toxic effects by heavy metals, organic compounds, oxidants, volatile organic compounds, suspended solids and ammonia were screened and revealed that the source of toxicity is far from these toxicants group. Chemical analysis (TIE phase II) on TDS showed that the concentration of chloride ion (24,215 ~ 29,562 mg/L) was substantially higher than that predicted from EC50 for D. magna. In confirmation step (TIE phase III), chloride ion was demonstrated to be main toxicant in this effluent by the spiking approach, species sensitivity approach, and deletion approach. Calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, fluorine, sulfate ion concentration was not shown toxicity from D. magna. Finally, we concluded that chloride was the most contributing toxicant in the waste water treatment plant. Further research activities are needed for technical support of toxicity identification and evaluation on the various types of wastewater treatment plant discharge in Korea. Acknowledgement: This research was supported by a grant (16IFIP-B089911-03) from Plant Research Program funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Korean government.

Keywords: TIE, D. magna, V. fischeri, seawater desalination facility

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Authors: Abdullah Alsehaimi

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Over decades, there have been many studies of delay in construction, and this type of study continues to be popular in construction management research. A synthesis and critical evaluation of delay studies in developing countries reveals that poor project management is cited as one of the main causes of delay. However, despite such consensus, most of the previous studies fall short in providing clear recommendations demonstrating how project management practice could be improved. Moreover, the majority of recommendations are general and not devoted to solving the difficulties associated with particular delay causes. This paper aims to demonstrate that the root cause of this state of affairs is that typical research into delay tends to be descriptive and explanatory, making it inadequate for solving persistent managerial problems in construction. It is contended that many problems in construction could be mitigated via alternative research approaches, i.e. action and constructive research. Such prescriptive research methods can assist in the development and implementation of innovative tools tackling managerial problems of construction, including that of delay. In so doing, those methods will better connect research and practice, and thus strengthen the relevance of academic construction management.

Keywords: construction delay, action research, constructive research, industrial engineering

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Authors: Tuula Nygard

Abstract:

This study contributes to the pedagogical discussion on how to promote adolescents’ multiliteracies with the emphasis on information seeking and evaluation skills in contemporary media environments. The study is conducted in the school environment utilizing perspectives of educational sciences and information studies to health communication and teaching. The research focus is on the teacher role as a trusted person, who guides students to choose and use credible information sources. Evaluating the credibility of information may often be challenging. Specifically, children and adolescents may find it difficult to know what to believe and who to trust, for instance, in health and well-being communication. Thus, advanced multiliteracy skills are needed. In the school environment, trust is based on the teacher’s subject content knowledge, but also the teacher’s character and caring. Teacher’s benevolence and approachability generate trustworthiness, which lays the foundation for good interaction with students and further, for the teacher’s pedagogical authority. The study explores teachers’ perceptions of their pedagogical authority and the role of a trustee. In addition, the study examines what kind of multiliteracy practices teachers utilize in their teaching. The data will be collected by interviewing secondary school health education teachers during Spring 2019. The analysis method is a nexus analysis, which is an ethnographic research orientation. Classroom interaction as the interviewed teachers see it is scrutinized through a nexus analysis lens in order to expound a social action, where people, places, discourses, and objects are intertwined. The crucial social actions in this study are information seeking and evaluation situations, where the teacher and the students together assess the credibility of the information sources. The study is based on the hypothesis that a trustee’s opinions of credible sources and guidance in information seeking and evaluation affect students’, that is, trustors’ choices. In the school context, the teacher’s own experiences and perceptions of health-related issues cannot be brushed aside. Furthermore, adolescents are used to utilize digital technology for day-to-day information seeking, but the chosen information sources are often not very high quality. In the school, teachers are inclined to recommend familiar sources, such as health education textbook and web pages of well-known health authorities. Students, in turn, rely on the teacher’s guidance of credible information sources without using their own judgment. In terms of students’ multiliteracy competences, information seeking and evaluation tasks in health education are excellent opportunities to practice and enhance these skills. To distinguish the right information from a wrong one is particularly important in health communication because experts by experience are easy to find and their opinions are convincing. This can be addressed by employing the ideas of multiliteracy in the school subject health education and in teacher education and training.

Keywords: multiliteracies, nexus analysis, pedagogical authority, trust

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Authors: Chia-Min Lai, Wan-Ching Lin, Hahn-Ming Lee, Ching-Hao Mao

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As world wild internet has non-stop developments, making profit by lending registered domain names emerges as a new business in recent years. Unfortunately, the larger the market scale of domain lending service becomes, the riskier that there exist malicious behaviors or malwares hiding behind parked domains will be. Also, previous work for differentiating parked domain suffers two main defects: 1) too much data-collecting effort and CPU latency needed for features engineering and 2) ineffectiveness when detecting parked domains containing external links that are usually abused by hackers, e.g., drive-by download attack. Aiming for alleviating above defects without sacrificing practical usability, this paper proposes ParkedGuard as an efficient and accurate parked domain detector. Several scripting behavioral features were analyzed, while those with special statistical significance are adopted in ParkedGuard to make feature engineering much more cost-efficient. On the other hand, finding memberships between external links and parked domains was modeled as a graph mining problem, and a coarse-to-fine strategy was elaborately designed by leverage the graphical locality such that ParkedGuard outperforms the state-of-the-art in terms of both recall and precision rates.

Keywords: coarse-to-fine strategy, domain parking service, graphical locality analysis, parked domain

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Authors: Ping-Hsiung Wang, Kuo-Chun Chang

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There has been a common trend worldwide in the seismic design and evaluation of bridges towards the performance-based method where the lateral displacement or the displacement ductility of bridge column is regarded as an important indicator for performance assessment. However, the seismic response of a bridge to an earthquake is a combined result of cyclic displacements and accumulated energy dissipation, causing damage to the bridge, and hence the lateral displacement (ductility) alone is insufficient to tell its actual seismic performance. This study aims to propose a damage-based seismic design and evaluation method for reinforced concrete bridges on the basis of the newly developed capacity-based inelastic displacement spectra. The capacity-based inelastic displacement spectra that comprise an inelastic displacement ratio spectrum and a corresponding damage state spectrum was constructed by using a series of nonlinear time history analyses and a versatile, smooth hysteresis model. The smooth model could take into account the effects of various design parameters of RC bridge columns and correlates the column’s strength deterioration with the Park and Ang’s damage index. It was proved that the damage index not only can be used to accurately predict the onset of strength deterioration, but also can be a good indicator for assessing the actual visible damage condition of column regardless of its loading history (i.e., similar damage index corresponds to similar actual damage condition for the same designed columns subjected to very different cyclic loading protocols as well as earthquake loading), providing a better insight into the seismic performance of bridges. Besides, the computed spectra show that the inelastic displacement ratio for far-field ground motions approximately conforms to the equal displacement rule when structural period is larger than around 0.8 s, but that for near-fault ground motions departs from the rule in the whole considered spectral regions. Furthermore, the near-fault ground motions would lead to significantly greater inelastic displacement ratio and damage index than far-field ground motions and most of the practical design scenarios cannot survive the considered near-fault ground motion when the strength reduction factor of bridge is not less than 5.0. Finally, the spectrum formula is presented as a function of structural period, strength reduction factor, and various column design parameters for far-field and near-fault ground motions by means of the regression analysis of the computed spectra. And based on the developed spectrum formula, a design example of a bridge is presented to illustrate the proposed damage-based seismic design and evaluation method where the damage state of the bridge is used as the performance objective.

Keywords: damage index, far-field, near-fault, reinforced concrete bridge, seismic design and evaluation

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Authors: Wajid Mumtaz, Aamir Saeed Malik, Syed Saad Azhar Ali, Mohd Azhar Mohd Yasin

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In this paper, a technique based on electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis is presented, aiming for diagnosing major depressive disorder (MDD) among a potential population of MDD patients and healthy controls. EEG is recognized as a clinical modality during applications such as seizure diagnosis, index for anesthesia, detection of brain death or stroke. However, its usability for psychiatric illnesses such as MDD is less studied. Therefore, in this study, for the sake of diagnosis, 2 groups of study participants were recruited, 1) MDD patients, 2) healthy people as controls. EEG data acquired from both groups were analyzed involving inter-hemispheric asymmetry and composite permutation entropy index (CPEI). To automate the process, derived quantities from EEG were utilized as inputs to classifier such as logistic regression (LR) and support vector machine (SVM). The learning of these classification models was tested with a test dataset. Their learning efficiency is provided as accuracy of classifying MDD patients from controls, their sensitivities and specificities were reported, accordingly (LR =81.7 % and SVM =81.5 %). Based on the results, it is concluded that the derived measures are indicators for diagnosing MDD from a potential population of normal controls. In addition, the results motivate further exploring other measures for the same purpose.

Keywords: major depressive disorder, diagnosis based on EEG, EEG derived features, CPEI, inter-hemispheric asymmetry

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Authors: Memory Ranga, Phillip Pretorious

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The South African Government has invested a lot of money in Information Technology Governance (ITG) within the Government departments. The ITG framework was spearheaded by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA). This led to the development of a governing ITG DPSA framework and later the Government Wide Enterprise Architecture (GWEA) Framework for assisting the departments to implement ITG. In addition to this, the government departments have adopted the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) for ITG processes. Despite all these available frameworks, departments fail to fully capitalise and improve the ITG processes mainly as these are too generic and difficult to apply for specific governance needs. There has been less research done to evaluate the progress on ITG initiatives within the government departments. This paper aims to evaluate the existing ITG frameworks within selected government departments in South Africa. A quantitative research approach was used in this study. Data was collected through an online questionnaire targeting ICT Managers and Directors from government departments. The study is undertaken within a case study and only the Eastern Cape Province was selected for the research. Document review mainly on ITG framework and best practices was also used. Data was analysed using the Google Analytic tools and SPSS. A one–sample Chi-Squared Test was used to verity the evaluation findings. Findings show that there is evidence that the current guiding National governance framework (DPSA) is out dated and does not accommodate the new changes in other governance frameworks. The Eastern Cape Government Departments have spent huge amount of money on ITG but not yet able to identify the benefits of the ITG initiatives. The guiding framework is rigid and does to address some of the departmental needs making it difficult to be flexible and apply the DPSA framework. Furthermore, despite the large budget on ITG, the departments still find themselves with many challenges and unable to improve some of the processes and services. All the engaged Eastern Cape departments have adopted the COBIT framework, but none has been conducting COBIT maturity Assessment which is a functionality of COBIT. There is evidence of too many the ITG frameworks and underutilisation of these frameworks. The study provides a comprehensive evaluation of the ITG frameworks that have been adopted by the South African Government Departments in the Eastern Cape Province. The evaluation guides and recommends the government departments to rethink and adopt ITG frameworks that could be customised to accommodate their needs. The adoption and application of ITG by government departments should assist in better governance and service delivery to the citizens.

Keywords: information technology governance, COBIT, evaluate, framework, governance, DPSA framework

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