Search results for: optical system design

Authors: N. Isnaini, S. Wahjuningsih

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Fig fruit is the fruit of a tropical plant with content of flavanoids, vitamins A, C, and E which are antioxidants that effectively prevent and neutralize free radicals. This study was conducted to evaluate the supplementation of fig fruit extract in a physiological NaCl-based diluent on sperm motility and viability of native chicken semen after cooling. Semen was collected from 4 male mature chocks using massage method. Fresh semen evaluated for colour, pH, volume, concentration, mass motility, individual motility, life sperm and sperm abnormality. Semen was diluted with physiological NaCl-based extender supplemented with different levels of fig fruit extract (0, 10, 20 and 30 %) v/v with the ratio of 1 semen: 4 diluter. Semen used had mass motility of 2+ and motility of 70%. Immediately after dilution semen was stored in 3-5 °C and sperm motility and viability percentage were observed at 0, 12 and 24 h. The obtained data were analyze with Analysis of Variant (ANOVA) and Least Significant Difference were determined. The experiment was designed using completely random design (4 treatments and 10 replications). The results showed that the level of fig fruit extract had very significant effect (P < 0,01) on sperm motility and viability percentage in 0, 12 and 24 h of cooling. It can be concluded that the best fig fruit extract level for resulting optimal sperm motility and viability was 10%.

Keywords: chock, antioxidant, fig fruit extract, sperm

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Authors: Abdul Razak Rahmat, Azizah Ahmad, Azman Ta’aa

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The deployment of Business Intelligence (BI) for organization at the beginning phase is very crucial. Results from the previous studies found that more than half of the BI project fails to meet the objective even though a lot money are spent. Based on that problem, the readiness level of BI for the organization is important to identify in order to reduce the risk before the actual BI project is implemented. In this paper, rigorous literature review on the aspect success factors such as Critical Success Factors (CSFs), Readiness Factors (RFs), Success Factors (SFs), are discussed by different authors. The paper also adopted a few models from previous study as a guide for the assessment of BI readiness. The expected finding from this research is the Business Intelligent Readiness Model (BiRM) as a guild before implement the BI system.

Keywords: business intelligence readiness model, business intelligence for higher learning, BI readiness factors, BI critical success factors(CSF)

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Authors: Xiangmei Li

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Domestic violence (DV) victims are at a greater risk of suffering mental health problems; however, not all victims experience the same degree of depression. Women respond differently to gender inequalities based on their gender ideologies. This study explored the moderating role of gender ideology in the relation between exposure to DV and depression. Data were drawn from a sub-sample of women aged 18-60 from the Third WaveSurvey on the Social Status of Women in China (N = 10,701). The survey adopted astratified three-stage sampling design to select a representative sample of respondents from the country. Regression models were used to examine the moderating effects of gender ideology on the relation between DV and depression. Women who reported DV experience had more severe depressive symptoms after controlling for confounding social–demographic factors (β = 0.592, 95% CI: 0.489 – 0.695). Women's gender ideology moderated the association between DV severity and depression (β = -0.049, 95% CI: -0.085 – -0.013), despite being subjected to the same levels of victimization. The experience of domestic violence is a useful indicator for routine screening for depression in clinic and community settings. Interventions that aim to decrease depression caused by DV are more likely to be effective if they promote more egalitarian gender ideology to counter the mindset that a woman's role is confined to the home and a family suffers if the wife participates in the labor force.

Keywords: domestic violence against wives, depression, gender ideology, moderation

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Authors: Asma Ben Yaghlane, Mohamed Naceur Azaiez, Mehdi Mrad

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We investigate the large scale of networks in the context of network survivability under attack. We use appropriate techniques to evaluate and the attacker-based- and the defender-based-network survivability. The attacker is unaware of the operated links by the defender. Each attacked link has some pre-specified probability to be disconnected. The defender choice is so that to maximize the chance of successfully sending the flow to the destination node. The attacker however will select the cut-set with the highest chance to be disabled in order to partition the network. Moreover, we extend the problem to the case of selecting the best p paths to operate by the defender and the best k cut-sets to target by the attacker, for arbitrary integers p,k > 1. We investigate some variations of the problem and suggest polynomial-time solutions.

Keywords: defense/attack strategies, large scale, networks, partitioning a network

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Authors: Eni I. Eni, James Okon, Ashang J. Ashang

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The pre-degree programme of the University of Calabar was introduced to help increase access to tertiary Education in science related courses. This has become necessary due to population increase and public awareness. Its main objective was to provide access to candidates from educationally less developed states (ELDS) and states within its catchment area. To find out if this objective of the programme has been achieved, an impact evaluation of the programme was conducted, from where the aspect of providing access to University Education was reported here. It was reasoned that if this objective of the programme was properly implemented, there should be an evidence of increase in the access to University Education. To achieve the purpose of this study, two research questions were formulated; expost-facto research design and purposive sampling technique were adopted for the study. Data was collected from the Faculty of Science and analyzed using descriptive statistics in terms of frequencies and percentages. The result of data analysis showed that the pre-degree programme of the University of Calabar has provided educational access to Nigerians especially those from educationally less developed states in science related courses. It was therefore recommended that the programme be sustained and further be improved upon to facilitate its continued provision of access to University Education in Nigeria.

Keywords: higher education, pre-degree programme, University of Calabar, educationally less developed states

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Authors: Kwok Tak Kit

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The construction industry plays an important role in environmental and carbon emissions as it consumes a huge amount of natural resources and energy. Sustainable engineering involves the process of planning, design, procurement, construction and delivery in which the whole building and construction process resulting from building and construction can be effectively and sustainability managed to achieve the use of natural resources. Implementation of sustainable technology development and innovation, adoption of the advanced construction process and facilitate the facilities management to implement the energy and waste control more accurately and effectively. Study and research in the relationship of BIM and environment assessment tools lack a clear discussion. In this paper, we will focus on the synergy of BIM technology and sustainable engineering in the AEC industry and outline the key factors which enhance the use of advanced innovation, technology and method and define the role of stakeholders to achieve zero-carbon emission toward the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2ᵒC above pre-industrial levels. A case study of the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and environmental assessment tools in Hong Kong will be discussed in this paper.

Keywords: sustainability, sustainable engineering, BIM, LEED

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Authors: Salim Ouchtati, Jean Sequeira, Mouldi Bedda

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In this work we present an off line system for the recognition of the Arabic handwritten words of the Algerian departments. The study is based mainly on the evaluation of neural network performances, trained with the gradient back propagation algorithm. The used parameters to form the input vector of the neural network are extracted on the binary images of the handwritten word by several methods: the parameters of distribution, the moments centered of the different projections and the Barr features. It should be noted that these methods are applied on segments gotten after the division of the binary image of the word in six segments. The classification is achieved by a multi layers perceptron. Detailed experiments are carried and satisfactory recognition results are reported.

Keywords: handwritten word recognition, neural networks, image processing, pattern recognition, features extraction

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Authors: Ian Marc G. Cabugsa, Kim Ryan Won, Kareem Mamac, Manuel Dee, Merlita Garcia

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An optimized cacao fermentation technique was developed for the cacao farmers of Davao City Philippines. Cacao samples with weights ranging from 150-250 kilograms were collected from various cacao farms in Davao City and Zamboanga City Philippines. Different fermentation techniques were used starting with design of the sweat box, prefermentation conditionings, number of days for fermentation and number of turns. As the beans are being fermented, its temperature was regularly monitored using a digital thermometer. The resultant cacao beans were assessed using physical and chemical means. For the physical assessment, the bean cut test, bean count tests, and sensory test were used. Quantification of theobromine, caffeine, and antioxidants in the form of equivalent quercetin was used for chemical assessment. Both the theobromine and caffeine were analyzed using HPLC method while the antioxidant was analyzed spectrometrically. To come up with the best fermentation procedure, the different assessment were given priority coefficients wherein the physical tests – taste test, cut, and bean count tests were given priority over the results of the chemical test. The result of the study was an optimized fermentation protocol that is readily adaptable and transferable to any cacao cooperatives or groups in Mindanao or even Philippines as a whole.

Keywords: cacao, fermentation, HPLC, optimization, Philippines

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Authors: Karim Matter, Heba Fayed, Ahmed Abd-Elaziz, Moustafa Hussein

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Due to the exponential growth of mobile devices and wireless services, a huge demand for radiofrequency has increased. The presence of several frequencies causes interference between cells, which must be minimized to get the lower Bit Error Rate (BER). For this reason, it is of great interest to use visible light communication (VLC). This paper suggests a VLC system that decreases the BER by applying a new LED distribution with a hexagonal shape using a Frequency Reuse (FR) concept to mitigate the interference between the reused frequencies inside the hexagonal shape. The BER is measured in two scenarios, Line of Sight (LoS) and Non-Line of Sight (Non-LoS), for each technique that we used. The recommended values of BER in the proposed model for Soft Frequency Reuse (SFR) in the case of Los at 4, 8, and 10 dB signal to noise ratio (SNR), are 3.6×10⁻⁶, 6.03×10⁻¹³, and 2.66×10⁻¹⁸, respectively.

Keywords: visible light communication (VLC), field of view (FoV), hexagonal array, frequency reuse

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Authors: Radu Pop, Adrian Bot, Vasile Rednic, Emil Bruj, Oana Raita, Liviu Vaida

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Our research presents a study concerning optimization of water flow capture for micro-hydro power plants in order to increase the energy production. It is known that the fish ladder whole, were the water is capture is fix, and the water flow may vary with the river flow, this means that on the fish ladder we will have different servitude flows, sometimes more than needed. We propose to demonstrate that the ‘winter intake’ from micro-hydro power plant, could be automated with an intelligent system which is capable to read some imposed data and adjust the flow in to the needed value. With this automation concept, we demonstrate that the performance of the micro-hydro power plant could increase, in some flow operating regimes, with approx. 10%.

Keywords: energy, micro-hydro, water intake, fish ladder

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Authors: Eugene C. Lim

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This paper seeks to examine the extent to which ‘forum shopping’ is available to patent filers seeking protection of GMO (genetically modified organisms)-based inventions in Hong Kong. Under Hong Kong’s current re-registration system for standard patents, an inventor must first seek patent protection from one of three Designated Patent Offices (DPO) – those of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Europe Union (EU) (designating the UK), or the United Kingdom (UK). The ‘designated patent’ can then be re-registered by the successful patentee in Hong Kong. Interestingly, however, the EU and the PRC do not adopt a harmonized approach toward the patenting of GMOs, and there are discrepancies in their interpretation of the phrase ‘animal or plant variety’. In view of these divergences, the ability to effectively manage ‘conflict of law’ issues is an important priority for multinational biotechnology firms with a patent portfolio in the Greater China region. Generally speaking, both the EU and the PRC exclude ‘animal and plant varieties’ from the scope of patentable subject matter. However, in the EU, Article 4(2) of the Biotechnology Directive allows a genetically modified plant or animal to be patented if its ‘technical feasibility is not limited to a specific variety’. This principle has allowed for certain ‘transgenic’ mammals, such as the ‘Harvard Oncomouse’, to be the subject of a successful patent grant in the EU. There is no corresponding provision on ‘technical feasibility’ in the patent legislation of the PRC. Although the PRC has a sui generis system for protecting plant varieties, its patent legislation allows the patenting of non-biological methods for producing transgenic organisms, not the ‘organisms’ themselves. This might lead to a situation where an inventor can obtain patent protection in Hong Kong over transgenic life forms through the re-registration of a patent from a more ‘biotech-friendly’ DPO, even though the subject matter in question might not be patentable per se in the PRC. Through a comparative doctrinal analysis of legislative provisions, cases and court interpretations, this paper argues that differences in the protection afforded to GMOs do not generally prejudice the ability of global MNCs to obtain patent protection in Hong Kong. Corporations which are able to first obtain patents for GMO-based inventions in Europe can generally use their European patent as the basis for re-registration in Hong Kong, even if such protection might not be available in the PRC itself. However, the more restrictive approach to GMO-based patents adopted in the PRC would be more acutely felt by enterprises and inventors based in mainland China. The broader scope of protection offered to GMO-based patents in Europe might not be available in Hong Kong to mainland Chinese patentees under the current re-registration model for standard patents, unless they have the resources to apply for patent protection as well from another (European) DPO as the basis for re-registration.

Keywords: biotechnology, forum shopping, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), greater China region, patent portfolio

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Authors: Napatsorn Suput-Anyaporn

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This paper aimed to investigate multilateral relationships across the factors which included labor shortage, trade union, turnover rate of employee, labor law and regulation, and effectiveness of foreign worker administration in the scope of foreign workers in the industrial manufacturing sector of Thailand. The research employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches, in which foreign workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia in the industrial manufacturing sector in selected areas of Thailand were sampled for the quantitative data collection, and persons in the chief executive management and the supervisor levels, and persons in the academic area in relation with foreign workers were selected as the sample for the qualitative data collection method. Thus, a questionnaire, in-depth interview and focus group were utilized as tools in this research paper. The discussion placed an emphasis on the fact that Thailand should design more effective law and regulations for the foreign workers administration and management in response to preparing for the coming ASEAN Economic Community with the declaration of the free- flow labor movement policy.

Keywords: industrial manufacturing sector, labor law and regulation, labor shortage, migrant worker, trade union, turnover rate of employee

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Authors: Mujidat Lola Olugbode

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This study investigates the effects of internet addiction on academic performance among students in some tertiary institutions in Oyo State, Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Two research questions and two hypotheses were answered and tested. The population of the study comprised of all students in five tertiary institutions in Oyo State, Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 2550 participants (respondents) from the institutions used for the study, this constituted the sample for the study. The instruments used for data collection was a self-constructed questionnaire on Internet Addiction and Students Academic Performance (IAASAP). The reliability coefficient of the instrument was 0.77. Data collected were analyzed using frequency and percentages, Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficient (PPMCC) and t-test analysis. The results showed that the students in tertiary institutions in Oyo State were occasionally addicted to internet use. The study also revealed a positive correlation between internet addiction and academic performance. The findings also showed that there was significant difference in the internet addiction between male and female Students. Based on the above findings, the researchers recommended among others that government, educators, parents, counselors, teachers should help redirect the internet use toward academics to ensure greater academic performance.

Keywords: internet, addiction, internet addiction, academic performance, tertiary institution, students

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Authors: Mahmoud Nadir, Adel Ghenaiet

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The main purpose of this study is the thermodynamic modeling, the parametric analysis, and the optimization of three pressure level reheat HRSG (Heat Recovery Steam Generator) using PSO method (Particle Swarm Optimization). In this paper, a parametric analysis followed by a thermodynamic optimization is presented. The chosen objective function is the specific work of the steam cycle that may be, in the case of combined cycle (CC), a good criterion of thermodynamic performance analysis, contrary to the conventional steam turbines in which the thermal efficiency could be also an important criterion. The technologic constraints such as maximal steam cycle temperature, minimal steam fraction at steam turbine outlet, maximal steam pressure, minimal stack temperature, minimal pinch point, and maximal superheater effectiveness are also considered. The parametric analyses permitted to understand the effect of design parameters and the constraints on steam cycle specific work variation. PSO algorithm was used successfully in HRSG optimization, knowing that the achieved results are in accordance with those of the previous studies in which genetic algorithms were used. Moreover, this method is easy to implement comparing with the other methods.

Keywords: combined cycle, HRSG thermodynamic modeling, optimization, PSO, steam cycle specific work

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Authors: Adel Mohsen

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A direct method based on the good Broyden's updates for evaluating the inverse of a nonsingular square matrix of full rank and solving related system of linear algebraic equations is studied. For a matrix A of order n whose LU-decomposition is A = LU, the multiplication count is O (n3). This includes the evaluation of the LU-decompositions of the inverse, the lower triangular decomposition of A as well as a “reduced matrix inverse”. If an explicit value of the inverse is not needed the order reduces to O (n3/2) to compute to compute inv(U) and the reduced inverse. For a symmetric matrix only O (n3/3) operations are required to compute inv(L) and the reduced inverse. An example is presented to demonstrate the capability of using the reduced matrix inverse in treating ill-conditioned systems. Besides the simplicity of Broyden's update, the method provides a mean to exploit the possible sparsity in the matrix and to derive a suitable preconditioner.

Keywords: Broyden's updates, matrix inverse, inverse factorization, solution of linear algebraic equations, ill-conditioned matrices, preconditioning

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Authors: Aziz Soubai

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The primary issue is that English as foreign language learners don’t use English outside the classroom. The only little exposure is inside the classroom, and that’s not enough to make them good language learners! Edmodo, like the other Learning Management Systems, can be used to encourage students to collaborate with each other and with global classrooms on projects where English is used- Some examples of collaboration with different schools will be mentioned and how the Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition (SAMR) model and its stages can be applied in the activities, especially for teachers who are hesitant to introduce technology or don’t have a lot of technical knowledge. There will also be some focus on Edmodo groups and on how flipped and blended learning can be used as an extension for classroom time and to help the teacher address language problems and improve students’ language skills, especially writing, reading and communication. It is also equally important to use Edmodo badges and certificates for motivating and engaging learners and gamifying the lesson.

Keywords: EFL learners, language classroom-learning management system, edmodo, SAMR, language skills

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Authors: Alireza Barari, Ahmad Abdi

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Regular body trainings cause adaption in various system in body. One of the important effect of body training is its effect on immune system. It seems that cytokines usually release after long period exercises or some exercises which cause skeletal muscular damages. If some of the cytokines which cause responses such as inflammation of cells in skeletal muscles, with manipulating of training program, it can be avoided or limited from those exercises which induct cytokines release. Ginger plant is a kind of medicinal plants which is known as a anti inflammation plant. This plant is as most precedence medicinal plants in medicine science especially in inflammation cure. The aim of the present study was the effect of selected resistance training and consumption of ginger extract on IL-1α and TNFα untrained young women. The population includes young women interested in participating in the study with the average of 30±2 years old from Abbas Abad city among which 32 participants were chosen randomly and divided into 4 four groups, resistance training (R), resistance training and ginger consumption(RG), Ginger consumption(G)and Control group(C). The training groups performed circuit resistance training at the intensity of 65-75% one repeat maximum, 3 days a week for 6 weeks. Besides resistance training, subjects were given either ginseng (5 mg/kg per day) or placebo. Prior to and 48 hours after interventions body composition was measured and blood samples were taken in order to assess serum levels of IL-1α and TNFα. Plasma levels of cytokines were measured with commercially available ELISA Kits.IL-1α kit and TNFα kit were used in this research. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the independent variable and the comparison between groups, t-test and ANOVA were used. To determine differences between the groups, the Scheffe test was used that showed significant changes in any of the variables. we observed that circuit resistance training in R and RG groups can significant decreased in weight and body mass index in untrained females (p<0.05). The results showed a significant decreased in the mean level of IL-1α levels before and after the training period in G group (p=0.046) and RG group (p=0.022). Comparison between groups also showed there was significant difference between groups R-RG and RG-C. Intergroup comparison results showed that the mean levels of TNFα before and after the training in group G (p=0.044) and RG (p=0.037), significantly decreased. Comparison between groups also showed there was significant difference between groups R–RG , R-G ,RG-C and G-C. The research shows that circuit resistance training with reducing overload method results in systemic inflammation had significant effect on IL-1α levels and TNFα. Of course, Ginger can counteract the negative effects of resistance training exercise on immune function and stability of the mast cell membrane. Considerable evidence supported the anti-inflammatory properties of ginger for several constituents, especially gingerols, shogaols, paradols, and zingerones, through decreased cytokine gene TNF α and IL-1Α expression and inhibition of cyclooxygenase 1 and 2. These established biological actions suggest that ingested ginger could block the increase in IL-1α.

Keywords: resistance training, ginger, IL-1α , TNFα

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Authors: Bernd Kiefer, Abraham Gebru Tesfay, Dietrich Klakow

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The motivation of our work is to detect different terrain types traversed by a robot based on acoustic data from the robot-terrain interaction. Different acoustic features and classifiers were investigated, such as Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient and Gamma-tone frequency cepstral coefficient for the feature extraction, and Gaussian mixture model and Feed forward neural network for the classification. We analyze the system’s performance by comparing our proposed techniques with some other features surveyed from distinct related works. We achieve precision and recall values between 87% and 100% per class, and an average accuracy at 95.2%. We also study the effect of varying audio chunk size in the application phase of the models and find only a mild impact on performance.

Keywords: acoustic features, autonomous robots, feature extraction, terrain classification

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Authors: Kaoutar Chbihi, Aziza Menouni, Imane Berni, Tarik Abchouch, Samir El Jaafari

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The unpredictability and ambiguity of a pandemic, combined with the economic impact, sedentary lifestyle, and increased living cost, have the potential to seriously raise the risk of mental health issues among the population. Therefore, this study had the aim to assess the magnitude of mental health outcomes and risk factors among the general population in Morocco in times of the Covid-19 pandemic. This study consisted of a cross-sectional design and was survey-based and region-stratified by collecting demographic data and mental health measurements from 523 participants. The degree of depression, anxiety, and insomnia symptoms were assessed by using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire and the 7-items Generalized Anxiety Disorder. The survey was completed by 523 individuals. Results showed that 67.9% were women, and 58.6% were aged 18-30 years. 49% of participants reported depression issues, while 39.8% experienced anxiety. Being a married woman with children was associated with severe symptoms of depression and anxiety. Finally, our findings reported a significant mental health burden among the general population of Morocco, which needs to be tackled by specific co-created interventions and adapted strategies in order to prevent impacts on public health.

Keywords: anxiety, COVID-19, depression, mental health, Morocco, pandemic

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Authors: Ayeni Margaret Foluso, K. A. Omotayo

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This study investigated the impact of selected environmental variables as determinants of students’ achievements in biology in secondary schools. The selected environmental variables are class size and laboratory adequacy. The purpose was to find out whether these environmental variables can bring about improvement in the learning of biology by Senior Secondary School Students. The study design used was descriptive research of the survey type. Two instruments were used that is, Biology Achievement Test and School Environment Questionnaire .The population of the study consisted of all Biology students in both public and private Senior Secondary Schools class III (SSIII) in all the three selected states in South West Nigeria. A sample of 900 Biology students and 45 Biology Teachers from both public and private Senior Secondary Schools Class III were used. Two research hypotheses were generated for the study. The data collected were subjected to both descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation; and the inferential statistics of regression Analyses was employed to test the hypotheses formulated. From the results, it was revealed that the selected environmental variables had influence on the students’ achievement in biology.

Keywords: environmental variables, determinants, students’ achievement, school science

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Authors: Aboli Dhanavade, Shweta Bhimnath, Rutuja Jumale, Ajay Nadargi

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Security to any of our personal thing is our most basic need. It is not possible to directly apply that standard Human-computer—interaction approaches. Important usability goal for authentication system is to support users in selecting best passwords. Users often select text-passwords that are easy to remember, but they are more open for attackers to guess. The human brain is good in remembering pictures rather than textual characters. So the best alternative is being designed that is Graphical passwords. However, Graphical passwords are still immature. Conventional password schemes are also vulnerable to Shoulder-surfing attacks, many shoulder-surfing resistant graphical passwords schemes have been proposed. Next, we have analyzed the security and usability of the proposed scheme, and show the resistance of the proposed scheme to shoulder-surfing and different accidental logins.

Keywords: shoulder-surfing, security, authentication, text-passwords

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Authors: Fathi Ali Swaid

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The CBR test is widely used in the assessment of granular materials in base, subbase and subgrade layers of road and airfield pavements. Despite the success of this method, but it depends on a limited numbers of soil samples. This limitation do not adequately account for the spatial variability of soil properties. Thus, assessment is derived using these cursory soil data are likely to contain errors and thus make interpretation and soil characterization difficult. On the other hand quantitative methods of soil inventory at the field scale involve the design and adoption of sampling regimes and laboratory analysis that are time consuming and costly. In the latter case new technologies are required to efficiently sample and observe the soil in the field. This is particularly the case where soil bearing capacity is prevalent, and detailed quantitative information for determining its cause is required. In this paper, an electrical resistivity method DC is described and its application in Elg'deem Dirt road, located in Gasser Ahmad - Misurata, Libya. Results from the DC instrument were found to be correlated with the CBR values (r2 = 0.89). Finally, it is noticed that, the correlation can be used with experience for determining CBR value using basic soil electrical resistivity measurements and checked by few CBR test representing a similar range of CBR.

Keywords: California bearing ratio, basic soil electrical resistivity, CBR, soil, subgrade, new technologies

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Authors: Fatemah Al-Baroud, Sudharani Shreenivas Kshatriya

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Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is one of the companies for gas & oil production in Kuwait. The oil and gas industry is truly global; with operations conducted in every corner of the globe, the global community will rely heavily on oil and gas supplies. KOC has made many commitments to protect all due to KOC’s operations and operational releases. As per KOC’s strategy, the substantial increase in production activities will bring many challenges in managing various environmental hazards and stresses in the company. In order to handle those environmental challenges, the need of implementing effectively the health, safety, and environmental management system (HSEMS) is significant. And by implementing the HSEMS system properly, the environmental aspects of the activities, products, and services were identified, evaluated, and controlled in order to (i) Comply with local regulatory and other obligatory requirements; (ii) Comply with company policy and business requirements; and (iii) Reduce adverse environmental impact, including adverse impact to company reputation. Assessments for the Jurassic Production Facilities are being carried out as a part of the KOC HSEMS procedural requirement and monitoring the implementation of the relevant HSEMS procedures in the facilities. The assessments have been done by conducting series of theme audits using KOC’s audit protocol at JPFs. The objectives of the audits are to evaluate the compliance of the facilities towards the implementation of environmental procedures and the status of the KEPA requirement at all JPFs. The list of the facilities that were covered during the theme audit program are the following: (1) Jurassic Production Facility (JPF) – Sabriya (2) Jurassic Production Facility (JPF) – East Raudhatian (3) Jurassic Production Facility (JPF) – West Raudhatian (4)Early Production Facility (EPF 50). The auditing process comprehensively focuses on the application of KOC HSE MS procedures at JPFs and their ability to reduce the resultant negative impacts on the environment from the operations. Number of findings and observations were noted and highlighted in the audit reports and sent to all concerned controlling teams. The results of these audits indicated that the facilities, in general view, were in line with KOC HSE Procedures, and there were commitments in documenting all the HSE issues in the right records and plans. Further, implemented several control measures at JPFs that minimized/reduced the environmental impact, such as SRU were installed for sulphur recovery. Future scope and monitoring audit after a sufficient period of time will be carried out in conjunction with the controlling teams in order to verify the current status of the recommendations and evaluate the contractors' performance towards the required actions in preserving the environment.

Keywords: assessment of the environmental compliance, environmental and social impact assessment, kuwait environment public authority regulations, health, safety and environment management procedures, jurassic production facilities

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Authors: Anthony Vandarakis

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Today’s International Service Learning practices require an update: modern technologies, fresh educational frameworks, and a new operating system to accountably prosper. This paper describes a model of International Service Learning (ISL), which combines current technological hardware, electronic platforms, and asynchronous communications that are grounded in inclusive pedagogy. This model builds on the work around collaborative field trip learning, extending the reach to international partnerships across continents. Mobile technology, 21^st century skills and summit-basecamp modeling intersect to support novel forms of learning that tread lightly on fragile natural ecosystems, affirm local reciprocal partnership in projects, and protect traveling participants from common yet avoidable cultural pitfalls.

Keywords: International Service Learning, ISL, field experiences, mobile technology, out there in here, summit basecamp pedagogy

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Authors: Narges Hamidipour

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VOD, which stands for "video on demand", is one kind of watching movies and series on web platforms that, by using them, individuals can access lots of video content by paying abonnement. The first platform in Iran was funded in 2014, and in the last 10 years, it has become the main part of the movie and series industry. There are 374 VOD platforms in Iran, but just three of them are in the mainstream. However, in these years, they have been developed and famed in different ways. This article focuses on the reasons for this development in the past years. For the framework, "digital economy", "media industries," and "political economy" have been used with the interview method. In this research, some experts in SATRA (regulatory organization of inclusive audio and video media in Iran), owners or managers of VODs and some others who directly have been in the system conveyed their opinions. By the way, some documents and analysis statistics are invoked to reach complete results.

Keywords: digital economy, political economy, VOD, interview, iran

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Authors: Liang Zhang, Yuanfu Lu, Yuming Dong, Guohua Jiao, Wei Chen, Jiancheng Lv

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We demonstrated an interferometric demodulation scheme using a mode-locked fiber laser. The mode-locked fiber laser is launched into a two-beam interferometer. When the ratio between the fiber path imbalance of interferometer and the laser cavity length is close to an integer, an interferometric fringe emerges as a result of vernier effect, and then the phase shift of the interferometer can be demodulated. The mode-locked fiber laser provides a large bandwidth and reduces the cost for wavelength division multiplexion (WDM). The proposed interferometric demodulation scheme can be further applied in multi-point sensing system such as fiber optics hydrophone array, seismic wave detection network with high sensitivity and low cost.

Keywords: fiber sensing, interferometric demodulation, mode-locked fiber laser, vernier effect

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Authors: Djaafar F., Hadri B., Bachir G.

Abstract:

We studied mainly the influence of temperature, thickness, molar fraction and the doping of the various layers (emitter, base, BSF and window) on the performances of a photovoltaic solar cell. In a first stage, we optimized the performances of the InGaP/GaAs dual-junction solar cell while varying its operation temperature from 275°K to 375 °K with an increment of 25°C using a virtual wafer fabrication TCAD Silvaco. The optimization at 300°K led to the following result Icc =14.22 mA/cm2, Voc =2.42V, FF =91.32 %, η = 22.76 % which is close with those found in the literature. In a second stage ,we have varied the molar fraction of different layers as well their thickness and the doping of both emitters and bases and we have registered the result of each variation until obtaining an optimal efficiency of the proposed solar cell at 300°K which was of Icc=14.35mA/cm2,Voc=2.47V,FF=91.34,and η =23.33% for In(1-x)Ga(x)P molar fraction( x=0.5).The elimination of a layer BSF on the back face of our cell, enabled us to make a remarkable improvement of the short-circuit current (Icc=14.70 mA/cm2) and a decrease in open circuit voltage Voc and output η which reached 1.46V and 11.97% respectively. Therefore, we could determine the critical parameters of the cell and optimize its various technological parameters to obtain the best performance for a dual junction solar cell. This work opens the way with new prospects in the field of the photovoltaic one. Such structures will thus simplify the manufacturing processes of the cells; will thus reduce the costs while producing high outputs of photovoltaic conversion.

Keywords: modeling, simulation, multijunction, optimization, silvaco ATLAS

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Authors: Gurmeet Kaur

Abstract:

Agile software development methods are being recognized as popular, and efficient approach to the development of software system that has a short delivery period with high quality also that meets customer requirements with zero defect. In agile software development, quality means quality of code where in the quality is maintained through the use of methods or approaches like refactoring, test driven development, behavior driven development, acceptance test driven development, and demand driven development. Software quality is measured in term of metrics such as the number of defects during development of software. Usage of above mentioned methods or approaches, reduces the possibilities of defects in developed software, and hence improve quality. This paper focuses on study of agile based quality methods or approaches for software development that ensures improved quality of software as well as reduced cost, and customer satisfaction.

Keywords: ATDD, BDD, DDD, TDD

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Authors: Mohamed El Hachimi, Abdelhakim Ballouk, Ilyas Khelafa, Abdelaziz Mouhou

Abstract:

Introduction: Type 1 diabetes occurs when beta cells are destroyed by the body's own immune system. Treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus could be greatly improved by applying a closed-loop control strategy to insulin delivery, also known as an Artificial Pancreas (AP). Method: In this paper, we present a new formulation of the cost function for a Model Predictive Control (MPC) utilizing a technic which accelerates the speed of control of the AP and tackles the nonlinearity of the control problem via asymmetric objective functions. Finding: The finding of this work consists in a new Model Predictive Control algorithm that leads to good performances like decreasing the time of hyperglycaemia and avoiding hypoglycaemia. Conclusion: These performances are validated under in silico trials.

Keywords: artificial pancreas, control algorithm, biomedical control, MPC, objective function, nonlinearity

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Authors: Nipa Debnath, Harinarayan Das, Takahiko Kawaguchi, Naonori Sakamoto, Kazuo Shinozaki, Hisao Suzuki, Naoki Wakiya

Abstract:

Nowadays spinel ferrite magnetic thin films have drawn considerable attention due to their interesting magnetic and electrical properties with enhanced chemical and thermal stability. Spinel ferrite magnetic films can be implemented in magnetic data storage, sensors, and spin filters or microwave devices. It is well established that the structural, magnetic and transport properties of the magnetic thin films are dependent on microstructure. Spinodal decomposition (SD) is a phase separation process, whereby a material system is spontaneously separated into two phases with distinct compositions. The periodic microstructure is the characteristic feature of SD. Thus, SD can be exploited to control the microstructure at the nanoscale level. In bulk spinel ferrites having general formula, MₓFe₃₋ₓ O₄ (M= Co, Mn, Ni, Zn), phase separation via SD has been reported only for cobalt ferrite (CFO); however, long time post-annealing is required to occur the spinodal decomposition. We have found that SD occurs in CoF thin film without using any post-deposition annealing process if we apply magnetic field during thin film growth. Dynamic Aurora pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is a specially designed PLD system through which in-situ magnetic field (up to 2000 G) can be applied during thin film growth. The in-situ magnetic field suppresses the recombination of ions in the plume. In addition, the peak’s intensity of the ions in the spectra of the plume also increases when magnetic field is applied to the plume. As a result, ions with high kinetic energy strike into the substrate. Thus, ion-impingement occurred under magnetic field during thin film growth. The driving force of SD is the ion-impingement towards the substrates that is induced by in-situ magnetic field. In this study, we report about the occurrence of phase separation through SD and evolution of microstructure after phase separation in spinel ferrite thin films. The surface morphology of the phase separated films show checkerboard like domain structure. The cross-sectional microstructure of the phase separated films reveal columnar type phase separation. Herein, the decomposition wave propagates in lateral direction which has been confirmed from the lateral composition modulations in spinodally decomposed films. Large magnetic anisotropy has been found in spinodally decomposed nickel ferrite (NFO) thin films. This approach approves that magnetic field is also an important thermodynamic parameter to induce phase separation by the enhancement of up-hill diffusion in thin films. This thin film deposition technique could be a more efficient alternative for the fabrication of self-organized phase separated thin films and employed in controlling of the microstructure at nanoscale level.

Keywords: Dynamic Aurora PLD, magnetic anisotropy, spinodal decomposition, spinel ferrite thin film

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