Search results for: Mohammed Iqbal Shueb

Authors: Abdul M. Khan, Ayesha Iqbal

Abstract:

In this paper, new dental remains of Merycopotamus (Anthracotheriidae) are described. The specimens were collected during field work by the authors from the well dated fossiliferous locality 'Hasnot' belonging to the Dhok Pathan Formation, and from 'Tatrot' village belonging to Tatrot Formation of the Potwar Plateau, Pakistan. The stratigraphic age of the Neogene deposits around Hasnot is 7 - 5 Ma; whereas the age of the Tatrot Formation is from 3.4 - 2.6 Ma. The newly discovered material when compared with the previous records of the genus Merycopotamus from the Siwaliks led us to identify all the three reported species of this genus from the Siwaliks of Pakistan. As the sample comprises only the dental remains so the identification of the specimens is solely based upon the morpho-metric analysis. The occlusal pattern of the upper molar in Merycopotamus dissimilis is different from Merycopotamus medioximus and Merycopotamus nanus in having a mesostyle fully divided, forming two prominent cusps, while mesostyle in M. medioximus is partly divided and small lateral crests are present on the mesostyle. A continuous loop like mesostyle is present in Merycopotamus nanus. The entoconid fold is present in Merycopotamus dissimilis on the lower molars whereas it is absent in Merycopotamus medioximus and Merycopotamus nanus. The hypoconulid in M. dissimilis is relatively simple but a loop like hypoconulid is present in M. medioximus and M. nanus. The results of the present findings are in line with the previous records of the genus Merycopotamus, with M. nanus, M. medioximus and M. dissimilis in the Late Miocene – Early Pliocene Dhok Pathan Formation, and M. dissimilis in the Late Pliocene Tatrot sediments of Pakistan.

Keywords: Dhok Pathan, late miocene, merycopotamus, pliocene, Tatrot

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Authors: Mohammed Khenfouch, Fokotsa V. Molefe, Bakang M. Mothudi

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Nowadays, graphene and its composites are universally known as promising materials. They show their potential in a large field of applications including photovoltaics. This study reports on the role of nanohybrids and nanosystems known as strong light harvesters in the efficiency of graphene hybrid solar cells. Our system included Graphene/ZnO/Porphyrin/P3HT layers. Moreover, the physical properties including surface/interface, optical and vibrational properties were also studied. Our investigations confirmed the interaction between the different components as well as the sensitivity of their photonics to the synthesis conditions. Remarkable energy and charge transfer were detected and deeply investigated. Hence, the optimization of the conditions will lead to the fabrication of higher conversion efficiency in graphene solar cells.

Keywords: graphene, optoelectronics, nanohybrids, solar cells

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Mohammed Kafaji

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This paper aims to investigate the influence of quality of education and quality of research, provided by local educational institutions, on the adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in managing business operations for companies in Saudi market. A model was developed and tested using data collected from 138 CEO’s of foreign companies in diverse business sectors. The data is analysed and managed using multivariate approaches through standard statistical packages. The results showed that educational quality has little contribution to the ICT adoption while research quality seems to play a more prominent role. These results are analysed in terms of business environment and market constraints and further extended to the perceived effectiveness of applied pedagogical approaches in schools and universities.

Keywords: quality of education, quality of research, mediation, domestic competition, ICT adoption

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Authors: Shahid Iqbal

Abstract:

It is observed that international migration is increased over a time period in all over the world counties and Pakistan is not escaped. It played a pivotal role in household economy and affecting the gender roles both positive and negative in the developing countries. A vast majority of males from Pakistan migrate to other countries in search of employment and income generating activities and their families left behind, particularly nuclear families are subjected to different social problems. In this scenario, most of the responsibilities lie on the female partners as they have to play the role of male as well as female for their children and household chores. Wives of some males feel loneliness, isolation and a sense of insecurity. Keeping in mind, these realities, this study aims to explore the social impact of husbands’ absentee ship on the lives of families left behind. Particularly, wives’ own experiences will be analyzed. This study will be carried out in the District Gujrat of Punjab Pakistan. Since this study will focus on observing the social impact of male’s migration on families, so, all the households that had at least one member abroad will be the potential respondents of the study. Purposes sampling technique will be used as method to locate the respondents. A focus group discussion will be conducted as a tool for the collection of data. Those women will be approached who are taking care of their families in the absence of their husbands for last three years. For the sake of analysis Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) will be applied and researcher will explore how participants make sense of their personal experience and social world.

Keywords: social consequences, male migration, left behind, absentee ship, Pakistan

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Authors: Ahmed Emad, Ahmed Salah, Abdelrahman Magdy, Omar Rashid, Mohammed Adel

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This research paper discusses vehicle-to-vehicle technology as an important application of linear algebra. This communication technology represents an efficient and promising application to help to ensure the safety of the drivers by warning them when a crash possibility is close. The major link that combines our topic with linear algebra is the Laplacian matrix. Some main definitions used in the V2V were illustrated, such as VANET and its characteristics. The V2V technology could be applied in different applications with different traffic scenarios and various ways to warn car drivers. These scenarios were simulated programs such as MATLAB and Python to test how the V2V system would respond to the different scenarios and warn the car drivers exposed to the threat of collisions.

Keywords: V2V communication, vehicle to vehicle scenarios, VANET, FCW, EEBL, IMA, Laplacian matrix

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Saira Iqbal

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Occupational Health and Safety issues nowadays have become an important esteem in the context of Industrial Production. This study is designed to measure the workplace hazards at Kohinoor Energy Limited. Mainly focused hazards were Heat Stress, Noise Level, Light Level and Ergonomics. Measurements for parameters like Wet, Dry, Globe, WBGTi and RH% were taken directly by visiting the Study Area. The temperature in Degrees was recoded at Control Room and Engine Hall. Highest Temperature was recoded in Engine Hall which was about 380C. Efforts were made to record emissions of Noise Levels from the main area of concern like Engines in Engine hall, parking area, and mechanical workshop. Permissible level for measuring Noise is 85 and its Unit of Measurement is dB (A). In Engine Hall Noise was very high which was about 109.6 dB (A) and that level was exceeding the limits. Illumination Level was also recorded at different areas of Power Plant. The light level was though under permissible limits but in some areas like Engine Hall and Boiler Room, level of light was very low especially in Engine Hall where the level was 29 lx. Practices were performed for measuring hazards in context of ergonomics like extended reaching, deviated body postures, mechanical stress, and vibration exposures of the worker at different units of plants by just observing workers during working hours. Since KEL is ISO 8000 and 14000 certified, the researcher found no serious problems in the parameter Ergonomics however it was a common scenario that workers were reluctant to apply PPEs.

Keywords: workplace hazards, heat hazard, noise hazard, illumination, ergonomics

Procedia PDF Downloads 296

Authors: Mohammad Afzal Khan, Fatimah Alanazi, Hala Abdalrahman Ahmed, Talal Shamma, Kilian Kelly, Mohammed A. Hammad, Abdullah O. Alawad, Abdullah Mohammed Assiri, Dieter Clemens Broering

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Lung transplantation is a life-saving surgical replacement of diseased lungs in patients with end-stage respiratory malfunctions. Despite the remarkable short-term recovery, long-term lung survival continues to face several significant challenges, including chronic rejection and severe toxic side-effects due to global immunosuppression. Stem cell-based immunotherapy has been recognized as a crucial immunoregulatory regimen in various preclinical and clinical studies. Despite initial therapeutic outcomes, conventional stem cells face key limitations. The Cymerus™ manufacturing facilitates the production of a virtually limitless supply of consistent human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived mesenchymal stem cells, which could play a key role in selective immunosuppression and graft repair during rejection. Here, we demonstrated the impact of iPSC-derived human MSCs on the development of immune-tolerance and long-term graft survival in mouse orthotopic airway allografts. BALB/c→C57BL/6 allografts were reconstituted with iPSC-derived MSCs (2 million/transplant/ at d0), and allografts were examined for regulatory T cells (Tregs), oxygenation, microvascular blood flow, airway epithelium and collagen deposition during rejection. We demonstrated that iPSC-derived MSC treatment leads to significant increase in tissue expression of hTSG-6 protein, followed by an upregulation of mouse Tregs and IL-5, IL-10, IL-15 cytokines, which augments graft microvascular blood flow and oxygenation, and thereby maintained a healthy airway epithelium and prevented the subepithelial deposition of collagen at d90 post-transplantation. Collectively, these data confirmed that iPSC-derived MSC-mediated immunosuppression has potential to establish immune-tolerance and rescue allograft from sustained hypoxic/ischemic phase and subsequently limits long-term airway epithelial injury and collagen progression, which therapeutically warrant a study of Cymerus iPSC-derived MSCs as a potential management option for immunosuppression in transplant recipients.

Keywords: stem cell therapy, immunotolerance, regulatory T cells, hypoxia and ischemia, microvasculature

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Authors: Boukhatem Mohammed Belkaid, Lahdir Mourad

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In this paper, we propose a new encryption system for security issues medical images. The hybrid encryption scheme is based on AES and RSA algorithms to validate the three security services are authentication, integrity, and confidentiality. Privacy is ensured by AES, authenticity is ensured by the RSA algorithm. Integrity is assured by the basic function of the correlation between adjacent pixels. Our system generates a unique password every new session of encryption, that will be used to encrypt each frame of the medical image basis to strengthen and ensure his safety. Several metrics have been used for various tests of our analysis. For the integrity test, we noticed the efficiencies of our system and how the imprint cryptographic changes at reception if a change affects the image in the transmission channel.

Keywords: AES, RSA, integrity, confidentiality, authentication, medical images, encryption, decryption, key, correlation

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Authors: Aliyu Mohammed Lawal, Dahiru Ya'u Gital

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The problems placed on the environment as a result of energy generation and usage in Nigeria are: Potential damage to the environment health by Co, Co2, Sox and Nox effluent gas emissions and global warming. For instance in the year 2004 in Nigeria energy consumption was 58% oil and 34% natural gas but about 94 million metric tons of Co2 was emitted out of which 64% came from fossil fuels while about 35% came from fuel wood. The findings from this research on how to alleviate these problems are that long term sustainable development solutions should be enhanced globally; energy should be used more rationally renewable energy resources should be exploited and the existing emissions should be controlled to tolerate limits because the increase in energy demand in Nigeria places enormous strain on current energy facilities.

Keywords: energy generation, environmental health, effluent gas emission, global warming, fossil fuel

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Authors: Mohammed Belloufi, Rachid Benzine, Badreddine Sellami

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Conjugate gradient methods is useful for solving large scale optimization problems in scientific and engineering computation, characterized by the simplicity of their iteration and their low memory requirements. It is well known that the search direction plays a main role in the line search method. In this paper, we propose a search direction with the Wolfe line search technique for solving unconstrained optimization problems. Under the above line searches and some assumptions, the global convergence properties of the given methods are discussed. Numerical results and comparisons with other CG methods are given.

Keywords: unconstrained optimization, conjugate gradient method, strong Wolfe line search, global convergence

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Authors: Aliyu Mohammed Lawal, Dahiru Yau Gital

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The characterisation and the energy potential of the municipal solid wastes in Bauchi town and environs were studied. It was found that, 35,000 tonnes of waste was generated annually at 0.19 kg/capital/day of which, the combination of plastics, rubber, polyethene bags constituted about 33%, followed by textile materials, leathers, wood 26%, combination of papers, cartons 19%, crop stalks/grass 11% and the remaining incombustible materials 11%. The heating value or calorific value of the wastes was determined using a digital calorimeter to be 6.43 MJ/kg, almost one-third of the energy content of peat which has a value of 15.9 MJ/kg. The calorific value of the fuel was found to be significant; hence, the waste could be used for energy generation.

Keywords: calorific value, characterization, digital calorimeter, incombustible, municipal solid waste

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Authors: Ahmed Z. Mazen, Nejat Rahmanian, Iqbal Mujtaba, Ali Hassanpour

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In oil and gas well drilling, the drill bit is an important part of the Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA), which is installed and designed to drill and produce a hole by several mechanisms. The efficiency of the bit depends on many drilling parameters such as weight on bit, rotary speed, and mud properties. When the bit is pulled out of the hole, the evaluation of the bit damage must be recorded very carefully to guide engineers in order to select the bits for further planned wells. Having a worn bit for hole drilling may cause severe damage to bit leading to cutter or cone losses in the bottom of hole, where a fishing job will have to take place, and all of these will increase the operating cost. The main factor to reduce the cost of drilling operation is to maximize the rate of penetration by analyzing real-time data to predict the drill bit wear while drilling. There are numerous models in the literature for prediction of the rate of penetration based on drilling parameters, mostly based on empirical approaches. One of the most commonly used approaches is Bourgoyne and Young model, where the rate of penetration can be estimated by the drilling parameters as well as a wear index using an empirical correlation, provided all the constants and coefficients are accurately determined. This paper introduces a new methodology to estimate the eight coefficients for Bourgoyne and Young model using the gPROMS parameters estimation GPE (Version 4.2.0). Real data collected form similar formations (12 ¼’ sections) in two different fields in Libya are used to estimate the coefficients. The estimated coefficients are then used in the equations and applied to nearby wells in the same field to predict the bit wear.

Keywords: Bourgoyne and Young model, bit wear, gPROMS, rate of penetration

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Authors: Mohammed Al-Shalabi

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In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has become an important technology for connecting various smart objects in many applications, especially in health monitoring applications. The IoT technology develops healthcare applications from traditional to personalized ones by making the treatment and monitoring of patients easier. Nowadays, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the necessity of enhancing healthcare monitoring applications to avoid the spreading of this pandemic is increased. In this paper, a mechanism is proposed to minimize direct contact with COVID-19 patients who need ventilators by using IoT technology. The proposed mechanism saves medical providers from COVID-19 infection and then minimizes the spreading of this disease.

Keywords: internet of things, healthcare monitoring, COVID-19, ventilators, thingspeak, clouds

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Authors: Muhamad Iqbal Mubarak Faharul Azman, Azim Hilmy Mohd Yusof, Nur Azwin Ismail, Noer El Hidayah Ismail

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Landslides and rock falls are the examples of environmental and engineering problems in Malaysia. There are various methods that can be applied for the environmental and engineering problems but geophysical methods are seldom applied as the main investigation technique. This paper aims to study the slope stability by using 2-D resistivity method at Jalan Tun Sardon and Sungai Batu, Pulau Pinang. These areas are considered as highly potential for unstable slope in Penang Island based on recent cases of rockfall and landslide reported especially during raining season. At both study areas, resistivity values greater than 5000 ohm-m are detected and considered as the fresh granite. The weathered granite is indicated by resistivity value of 750-1500 ohm-m with depth of < 14 meters at Sungai Batu area while at Jalan Tun Sardon area, the weathered granite with resistivity values of 750-2000 ohm-m is found at depth < 14 meter at distance 0-90 meter but at distance of 95-150 meter, the weathered granite is found at depth < 26 meter. Saturated zone is detected only at Sungai Batu with resistivity value <250 ohm-m at distance 100-120 meter. A fracture is detected at distance about 70 meter at Jalan Tun Sardon area. Unstable slope is expected to be affected by the weathered granite that dominates the subsurface of the study areas along with triggering factor such as heavy rainfall.

Keywords: 2-D resistivity, environmental issue, landslide, slope stability

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Authors: Mohammed Khalil Ur Rahman, Mohammed Alsharon, Arshad Muktar, Zahid Shaik

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Any ailment can go into terminal stages, cancer being one such disease which is many times detected in latent stages. Cancer is often characterized by constitutional symptoms which are agonizing in nature which disturbs patients and their family as well. In order to relieve such intolerable symptoms treatment modality employed is known to be ‘Palliative Care’. The goal of palliative care is to enhance patient’s quality of life by relieving or rather reducing the distressing symptoms of patients such as pain, nausea/ vomiting, anorexia/loss of appetite, excessive salivation, mouth ulcers, weight loss, constipation, oral thrush, emaciation etc. which are due to the effect of disease or due to the undergoing treatment such as chemotherapy, radiation etc. Ayurveda and Unani as well as other traditional medicines is getting more and more international attention in recent years and Ayurveda and Unani holistic perspective of the disease, it seems that there are many herbs and herbomineral preparation which can be employed in the treatment of malignancy and also in palliative care. Though many of them have yet to be scientifically proved as anti-cancerous but there is definitely a positive lead that some of these medications relieve the agonising symptoms thereby making life of the patient easy. Health is viewed in Islam in a holistic way. One of the names of the Quran is al-shifa' meaning ‘that which heals’ or ‘the restorer of health’ to refer to spiritual, intellectual, psychological, and physical health. The general aim of medical science, according to Islam, is to secure and adopt suitable measures which, with Allah’s permission, help to preserve or restore the health of the human body. Islam motivates the Physician to view the patient as one organism. The patient has physical, social, psychological, and spiritual dimensions that must be considered in synthesis with an integrated, holistic approach. Aims & Objectives: - To suggest herbs which are mentioned in Ayurveda Unani with potential palliative activity in case of Cancer patients. - Most of tibb nabawi [Prophetic Medicine] is preventive medicine and must have been divinely inspired. - Spiritual Aspects of Healing: Prayer, dua, recitation of the Quran - Remembrance of Allah play a central role.Materials & Method: Literary review of the herbs supported with experiential evidence will be discussed. Discussion: On the basis of collected data subject will be discussed in length. Conclusion: Will be presented in paper.

Keywords: palliative care, holistic, Ayurvedic and Unani traditional system of medicine, Quran, hadith

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Authors: Muhammad Shahzad Iqbal, Zobia Sarwar, Salah-ud-Din

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Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) belongs to the genus Tospoviruses (family Bunyaviridae). It is one of the most devastating pathogens of tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum) and heavily damages the crop yield each year around the globe. In this study, we retrieved 329 mature miRNA sequences from two microRNA databases (miRBase and miRSoldb) and checked the putative target sites in the downloaded-genome sequence of TSWV. A consensus of three miRNA target prediction tools (RNA22, miRanda and psRNATarget) was used to screen the false-positive microRNAs targeting sites in the TSWV genome. These tools calculated different target sites by calculating minimum free energy (mfe), site-complementarity, minimum folding energy and other microRNA-mRNA binding factors. R language was used to plot the predicted target-site data. All the genes having possible target sites for different miRNAs were screened by building a consensus table. Out of these 329 mature miRNAs predicted by three algorithms, only eight miRNAs met all the criteria/threshold specifications. MC-Fold and MC-Sym were used to predict three-dimensional structures of miRNAs and further analyzed in USCF chimera to visualize the structural and conformational changes before and after microRNA-mRNA interactions. The results of the current study show that the predicted eight miRNAs could further be evaluated by in vitro experiments to develop TSWV-resistant transgenic tomato plants in the future.

Keywords: tomato spotted wild virus (TSWV), Solanum lycopersicum, plant virus, miRNAs, microRNA target prediction, mRNA

Procedia PDF Downloads 120

Authors: Asma Ahmed, Farah Khalid, Sahlah Sohail, Saira Banusokwalla, Sabiha Banu, Inaara Akbar, Safia Awan, Syed Iqbal Azam

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Background and Objectives: The level of knowledge regarding obesity as a disease condition and health-seeking behavior regarding its management is grossly lacking. We present data from our multidisciplinary obesity clinic at the large tertiary care facility in Karachi, Pakistan, to provide baseline profiles and outcomes of patients attending these clinics. Methods: 260 who attended the obesity clinic between June 2018 to March 2020 were enrolled in this study. The analysis included descriptive and ROC analysis to identify the best cut-offs of theanthropometric measurements to diagnose obesity-related comorbid conditions. Results: The majority of the studied population were women (72.3%) and employed(43.7%) with a mean age of 35.5 years. Mean BMIwas 37.4, waist circumference was 112.4 cm, visceral fat was 11.7%, and HbA1C was 6.9%. The most common comorbidities were HTN & D.M (33 &31%, respectively). The prevalence of MetS was 16.3% in patients and was slightly higher in males. Visceral fat was the main factor in predicting D.M (0.750; 95% CI: 0.665, 0.836) and MetS (0.709; 95% CI: 0.590, 0.838) compared to total body fat, waist circumference, and BMI. The risk of predicting DM &MetS for the visceral fat above 9.5% in women had the highest sensitivity (80% for D.M & 79% for MetS) and an NPV (92.75% for D.M & 95% for MetS). Conclusions: This study describes and establishes characteristics of these obese individuals, which can help inform clinical practices. These practices may involve using visceral fat for earlier identification and counseling-based interventions to prevent more severe surgical interventions down the line.

Keywords: obesity, metabolic syndrome, tertiary care facility, BMI, waist circumference, visceral fat

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Authors: Hanizam Awang, Mohammed Zuhear Al-Mulali

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In this study, the possibility of using unground oil palm ash (UOPA) for producing foamed concrete is investigated. The UOPA used in this study is produced by incinerating palm oil biomass at a temperature exceeding 1000ºC. A semi-structural density of 1300kg/m3 was used with filler to binder ratio of 1.5 and preliminary water to binder ratio of 0.45. Cement was replaced by UOPA at replacement levels of 0, 25, 35, 45, 55 and 65% by weight of binder. Properties such as density, compressive strength, drying shrinkage and water absorption were investigated to the age of 90 days. The mix with a 35% of UOPA content was chosen to be used as the base material of a newly designed interlocking, mortar-less block system.

Keywords: foamed concrete, oil palm ash, strength, interlocking block

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Authors: Mohammed Hussein, Abualseoud Hanani

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In Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation system, routing data from the source all the way to the destination constitutes a daunting challenge because LEO satellite constellation resources are spare and the high speed movement of LEO satellites results in a highly dynamic network topology. This situation limits the applicability of traditional routing approaches that rely on exchanging topology information upon change or setup of a connection. Consequently, in recent years, many routing algorithms and implementation strategies for satellite constellation networks with Inter Satellite Links (ISLs) have been proposed. In this article, we summarize and classify some of the most representative solutions according to their objectives, and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, with a look into the future, we present some of the new challenges and opportunities for LEO satellite constellations in general and routing protocols in particular.

Keywords: LEO satellite constellations, dynamic topology, IP routing, inter-satellite-links

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Authors: Manal Bouasria, Mohammed-Hichem Benzaama, Valérie Pralong, Yassine El Mendili

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Reducing the quantity of cement in cementitious composites can help to reduce the environmental effect of construction materials. By-products such as ferronickel slags (FNS), fly ash (FA), and Crepidula fornicata (CR) are promising options for cement replacement. In this work, we investigated the relevance of substituting cement with FNS-CR and FA-CR on the mechanical properties of mortar and on the thermal properties of concrete. Foraging intervals ranging from 2 to 28 days, the mechanical properties are obtained by 3-point bending and compression tests. The chosen mix is used to construct a prototype in order to study the material’s hygrothermal performance. The data collected by the sensors placed on the prototype was utilized to build an artificial neural network.

Keywords: artificial neural network, cement, circular economy, concrete, by products

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Authors: J. Iqbal, Z. Zara

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Five new Acceptor-Donor-Acceptor (A-D-A) type small donor molecules (M1-M5) namely; dimethyl cyanoacetate terthiophene di(methylthiophene) dibenzosilole (DMCAO3TBS) (M1), dimelononitrile terthiophene di(methylthiophene) dibenzosilole (DMCNTBS) (M2), dimethyl rhodanine terthiophene di(methylthiophene) dibenzosilole (DMRTBS) (M3), dimelanonitrile terthiophene di(methylthiophene) methyl fluorene (DMCNTF) (M4) and dimethyl rhodanine terthiophene di(methylthiophene) methyl fluorine (DMRTF) (M5) were designed and theoretically explored their electronic, photophysical and geometrical properties via DFT best functional MPW1PW91/6-311G (d,p) level of theory with respect to reference molecules dioctyl cyanoacetate terthiophene di(octylthiophene) dioctylfluorene (DCAO3TF) (Ra) and dioctyl cyanoacetate terthiophene di(octylthiophene) octylcarbazole (DCAO3TCz) (Rb). Among the designed donor molecules (M1-M5), M2 and M4 represented lowest band gap value (2.480 eV and 2.47 eV) with distinctive broad absorption peak at 598 and 601 nm in chloroform due to the presence of stronger electron withdrawing acceptor molecule which pulls the λmax value towards red shift. Theoretically estimated reorganization energies of these molecules recommended excellent property of charge mobility. The designed donor molecules M1-M5, demonstrated lower λe value with reference to their λh, showing that these molecules could be ideal candidates for the transfer of electron with and M2, M4 are best among these as champion molecules with having lowest λe (0.006 D and 0.005 D respectively). Additionally, the Voc of M2 and M4 are 2.01 eV and 1.85 eV respectively with reference respect to PCBM. Thus, our present investigation suggested that our designed donor molecules (M1-M5) are suitable candidates for the solar cell and proposed for high and better performance for the small molecule based solar cell devices.

Keywords: dibenzisilol, donor materials, hole mobility, organic solar cells

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Authors: Fatiha Guessabi

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Students of the Tahri Muhammed University of Bechar shifted to the virtual platform using E-learning platforms when the lockdown started due to the Coronavirus. This paper aims to explore the advantages and inconveniences of online learning and teaching in EFL classes at Tahri Mohammed University. For this investigation, a questionnaire was addressed to EFL students and an interview was arranged with EFL teachers. Data analysis was obtained from 09 teachers and 70 students. After the investigation, the results show that some of the most applied educational technologies and applications are used to turn online EFL classes effectively exciting. Thus, EFL classes became more interactive. Although learners give positive viewpoints about online learning/teaching, they prefer to learn in the classroom.

Keywords: advantages, disadvantages, COVID19, EFL, online learning/teaching, university of Bechar

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Authors: Anwar Hussain, Muhammad Iqbal

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The changes in the prices of the agriculture commodities combined with changes in population and agriculture productivity affect farmers’ profitability and standard of living. This study intends to estimate various domestic terms of trade for agriculture sector and also to assess the volatility in the standard of living and profitability of farmers. The terms of trade has been estimated for Pakistan and its provinces using producer prices indices, consumer price indices, input prices indices and quantity indices using the data for the period 1990-91 to 2008-09. The domestic terms of trade of agriculture sector has been improved in terms of both approaches i.e. the ratio of producer prices indices to consumer prices indices and the real per capita income approach. However, the cross province estimates indicated that the terms of trade also improved for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Punjab while Balochistan’s domestic terms of trade deteriorated drastically. In other words the standard of living of the farmers in Pakistan and its provinces except Balochistan improved. Using the input prices, the domestic terms of trade deteriorated for Pakistan as a whole and its provinces as well. This also explores that as a whole the profitability of the farmers reduced during the study period. The farmers pay more prices for inputs as compared to they receive for their produce. This further indicates that the poverty at the gross root level has been increased. Further, summing, the standard of living of the farmers improved but their profitability reduced, which indicates that the farmers do not completely rely on the farm income but also utilize some other sources of income for their livelihood. The study supports to give subsidies on farm inputs so as to improve the profitability of the farmers.

Keywords: agricultural terms of trade, farmers’ profitability, farmers’ standard of living, consumer and producer price indices, quantity indices

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Authors: Mohammed Almograbi

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Libya is one of the largest producers of dates from date palm, generating about 60000 tonnes of date palm seeds (DPS) annually. This large amount of seeds led to studies into the possible use as aggregates in lightweight concrete for some special structures. The utilization of DPS as aggregate in concrete provides a good solution as alternative aggregate to the stone aggregate. It has been recognized that, DPS can be used as coarse aggregate in structural lightweight concrete industry. For any structure member, the durability is one of the most important considerations during its service life. This paper presents the durability properties of DPS concrete. These include the water permeability, water absorption, sorptivity and chloride penetration. The test results obtained were comparable to the conventional lightweight concrete.

Keywords: date palm seeds, lightweight concrete, durability, sustainability, permeability of concrete, water absorption of concrete, sorptivity of concrete

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Authors: Boukhatem Mohammed Belkaid, Lahdir Mourad

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In this paper, we propose a new encryption system for security issues meteorological images from Meteosat Second Generation (MSG), which generates 12 images every 15 minutes. The hybrid encryption scheme is based on AES and RSA algorithms to validate the three security services are authentication, integrity and confidentiality. Privacy is ensured by AES, authenticity is ensured by the RSA algorithm. Integrity is assured by the basic function of the correlation between adjacent pixels. Our system generates a unique password every 15 minutes that will be used to encrypt each frame of the MSG meteorological basis to strengthen and ensure his safety. Several metrics have been used for various tests of our analysis. For the integrity test, we noticed the efficiencies of our system and how the imprint cryptographic changes at reception if a change affects the image in the transmission channel.

Keywords: AES, RSA, integrity, confidentiality, authentication, satellite MSG, encryption, decryption, key, correlation

Procedia PDF Downloads 353

Authors: Imane Benghalia, Mohammed Zamoum, Rachid Boucetta

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Hydrodynamic cavitation is a complex physical phenomenon that appears in hydraulic systems (pumps, turbines, valves, Venturi tubes, etc.) when the fluid pressure decreases below the saturated vapor pressure. The works carried out in this study aimed to get a better understanding of the cavitating flow phenomena. For this, we have numerically studied a cavitating bubbly flow through a Venturi nozzle. The cavitation model is selected and solved using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The obtained results show the effect of the inlet pressure (10, 7, 5, and 2 bars) of the Venturi on pressure, the velocity of the fluid flow, and the vapor fraction. We found that the inlet pressure of the Venturi strongly affects the evolution of the pressure, velocity, and vapor fraction formation in the cavitating flow.

Keywords: cavitating flow, CFD, phase change, venturi

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Authors: Mamoona Rasheed, Salman Iqbal, Muhammad Abdullah

Abstract:

Organizational capability, in terms of employees’ knowledge is valuable, and difficult to reproduce; and help to build sustainable competitive advantages. Knowledge capability is linked with human resource (HR) practices of an organization. This paper investigates the relationship between HR practices, knowledge management and organization capability. In an organization, employees play key role for the effective organizational performance by sharing their knowledge with management and co-workers that contributes towards organization capability. Pakistan being a developing country has different HR practices and culture. The business opportunities give rise to the discussion about the effect of HR practices on knowledge management and organization capability as innovation performance. An empirical study is conducted through questionnaires form the employees in private banks of Lahore, Pakistan. The data is collected via structured questionnaire with a sample of 120 cases. Data is analyzed using Structure Equation Modeling (SEM), and results are depicted using AMOS software. Results of this study are tabulated, interpreted and crosschecked with other studies. Findings suggest that there is a positive relationship of training & development along with incentives on knowledge management. On the other hand, employee’s participation has insignificant association with knowledge management. In addition, knowledge management has also positive association with organization capability. In line with the previous research, it is suggested that knowledge management is important for improving the organizational capability such as innovation performance and knowledge capacity of firm. Organization capability may improve significantly once specific HR practices are properly established and implemented by HR managers. This Study has key implications for knowledge management and innovation fields theoretically and practically.

Keywords: employee participation, incentives, knowledge management, organization capability, training and development

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Authors: Zainal A. Muchlisin, Muhammad Iqbal, Abdullah A. Muhammadar

Abstract:

The objective of the present study was to determine the optimum dose of papain enzyme in the diet for growing, survival rate and feed efficacy of climbing perch (Anabas testudineus). The study was conducted at the Laboratory of Aquatic of Faculty of Veterinary, Syiah Kuala University from January to March 2016. The completely randomized design was used in this study. Six dosages level of papain enzyme were tested with 4 replications i.e. 0 g kg-1 of feed, 20.0 g kg-1 feed, 22.5 g kg-1 of feed, 25.0 g kg-1 of feed, 27.5 g kg-1 of feed, and 30.0 g kg-1 of feed. The experimental fish fed twice a day at feeding level of 5% for 60 days. The results showed that weight gain ranged from 2.41g to 7.37g, total length gain ranged from 0.67cm to 3.17cm, specific growth rate ranged from 1.46 % day to 3.41% day, daily growth rate ranged from 0.04 g day to 0.13 g day, feed conversion ratio ranged from 1.94 to 3.59, feed efficiency ranged from 27.99% to 51.37%, protein retention ranged from 3.38% to 28.28%, protein digestibility ranged from 50.63% to 90.38%, and survival rate ranged from 88.89% to 100%. The highest rate for all parameters was found in the dosage of 3.00% papain enzyme kg feed. The ANOVA test showed that enzyme papain gave a significant effect on the weight gain, total length gain, daily growth rate, specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio, feed efficiency, protein retention, protein digestibility, and survival rate of the climbing perch (Anabas testudieus). The best enzyme papain dosage was 3.0%.

Keywords: betok, feed conversion ratio, freshwater fish, nutrition, feeding

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Authors: Musa Alhassan, Alhaji Mohammed Mustapha

Abstract:

Review of studies carried out on the use of bagasse ash in the improvement of deficient soils in Nigeria, with emphasis on lateritic and black cotton soils is presented. Although, the bagasse ash is mostly used as additive to the conventional soil stabilizer (cement and lime), the studies generally showed improvement of geotechnical properties of the soils either modified or stabilized with the ash. This showed the potentials of using this agricultural waste (bagasse ash) in the improvement of geotechnical properties of deficient soils. Thus suggesting that using this material at large scale level, in geotechnical engineering practice could help in the provision of stable and durable structures, reduce cost of soil improvement and also reduces environmental nuisance caused by the unused waste in Nigeria

Keywords: bagasse ash, black cotton soil, deficient soil, laterite, soil improvement

Procedia PDF Downloads 380

Authors: Mnasri Faiza, El Ganaoui Mohammed, Khelifa Mourad, Gabsi Slimane

Abstract:

The main objective of this paper is to describe the hydrothermal behavior through porous material of construction due to temperature gradient. The construction proposed a bi-layer structure which composed of two different materials. The first is a bio-sourced panel named IBS-AKU (inertia system building), the second is the Neopor material. This system (IBS-AKU Neopor) is developed by a Belgium company (Isohabitat). The study suggests a multi-layer structure of the IBS-AKU panel in one dimension. A numerical method was proposed afterwards, by using the finite element method and a refined mesh area to strong gradients. The evolution of temperature fields and the moisture content has been processed.

Keywords: heat transfer, moisture diffusion, porous media, composite IBS-AKU, simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 476