Search results for: screening behaviors.

Authors: Benazeer Md. Shahzada, Verelst Jan, Van Grembergen Wim, Mannaert Herwig

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This article is an extension and a practical application approach of Wheeler-s NEBIC theory (Net Enabled Business Innovation Cycle). NEBIC theory is a new approach in IS research and can be used for dynamic environment related to new technology. Firms can follow the market changes rapidly with support of the IT resources. Flexible firms adapt their market strategies, and respond more quickly to customers changing behaviors. When every leading firm in an industry has access to the same IT resources, the way that these IT resources are managed will determine the competitive advantages or disadvantages of firm. From Dynamic Capabilities Perspective and from newly introduced NEBIC theory by Wheeler, we know that only IT resources cannot deliver customer value but good configuration of those resources can guarantee customer value by choosing the right emerging technology, grasping the economic opportunities through business innovation and growth. We found evidences in literature that SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is a promising emerging technology which can deliver the desired economic opportunity through modularity, flexibility and loosecoupling. SOA can also help firms to connect in network which can open a new window of opportunity to collaborate in innovation and right kind of outsourcing

Keywords: Absorptive capacity, Dynamic Capability, Netenabled business innovation cycle, Service oriented architecture.

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Authors: T. N. M. El Sebai, A. A.Khattab, Wafaa M. Abd-El Rahim, H. Moawad

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Fungal mutant strains have produced cellulase and xylanase enzymes, and have induced high hydrolysis with enhanced of rice straw. The mutants were obtained by exposing Penicillium strain to UV-light treatments. Screening and selection after treatment with UV-light were carried out using cellulolytic and xylanolytic clear zones method to select the hypercellulolytic and hyperxylanolytic mutants. These mutants were evaluated for their cellulase and xylanase enzyme production as well as their abilities for biodegradation of rice straw. The mutant 12 UV/1 produced 306.21% and 209.91% cellulase and xylanase, respectively, as compared with the original wild type strain. This mutant showed high capacity of rice straw degradation. The effectiveness of tested mutant strain and that of wild strain was compared in relation to enhancing the composting process of rice straw and animal manures mixture. The results obtained showed that the compost product of inoculated mixture with mutant strain (12 UV/1) was the best compared to the wild strain and un-inoculated mixture. Analysis of the composted materials showed that the characteristics of the produced compost were close to those of the high quality standard compost. The results obtained in the present work suggest that the combination between rice straw and animal manure could be used for enhancing the composting process of rice straw and particularly when applied with fungal decomposer accelerating the composting process.

Keywords: Rice straw, composting, UV mutants, Penicillium.

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Authors: Teguh Sudibyo, Cheng-Cheng Chen

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Eight steel reinforced concrete beams (SRC), were fabricated and tested under earthquake type cyclic loading. The effectiveness of intermediate stiffeners, such as mid-span stiffener and plastic hinge zone stiffeners, in enhancing composite action and ductility of SRC beams was investigated. The effectiveness of strengthened beam-to-column (SBC) and weakened beam-to-column (WBC) connections in enhancing beam ductility was also studied. It was found that: (1) All the specimens possessed fairly high flexural ductility and were found adequate for structures in high seismic zones. (2) WBC connections induced stress concentration which caused extra damage to concrete near the flange tapering zone. This extra damage inhibited the flexural strength development and the ductility of the specimens with WBC connections to some extent. (3) Specimens with SBC connections demonstrated higher flexural strength and ductility compared to specimens with WBC connections. (4) The intermediate stiffeners, especially combination of plastic hinge zone stiffener and mid span stiffeners, have an obvious effect in enhancing the ductility of the beams with SBC connection.

Keywords: Composite beam, concrete encased steel beam, steel reinforced concrete, stiffeners.

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Authors: Wenjun Zhang, Yunqing Du, Steven W. Cranford, Ming L. Wang

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The beginning of 21st century has witnessed new advancements in the design and use of new materials for biosensing applications, from nano to macro, protein to tissue. Traditional analytical methods lack a complete toolset to describe the complexities introduced by living systems, pathological relations, discrete hierarchical materials, cross-phase interactions, and structure-property dependencies. Materiomics – via systematic molecular dynamics (MD) simulation – can provide structureprocess- property relations by using a materials science approach linking mechanisms across scales and enables oriented biosensor design. With this approach, DNA biosensors can be utilized to detect disease biomarkers present in individuals’ breath such as acetone for diabetes. Our wireless sensor array based on single-stranded DNA (ssDNA)-decorated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) has successfully detected trace amount of various chemicals in vapor differentiated by pattern recognition. Here, we present how MD simulation can revolutionize the way of design and screening of DNA aptamers for targeting biomarkers related to oral diseases and oral health monitoring. It demonstrates great potential to be utilized to build a library of DNDA sequences for reliable detection of several biomarkers of one specific disease, and as well provides a new methodology of creating, designing, and applying of biosensors.

Keywords: Biosensor, design, DNA, molecular dynamics simulation.

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Authors: Jia-Ru Li, Chia-Jung Li, Ching-Wen Lin

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Contrary to negative emotion regulation, coping with positive moods have received less attention in adolescent adjustment. However, some research has found that everyone is different on dealing with their positive emotions, which affects their adaptation and well-being. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between positive emotions dampening and internalizing behavior problems of adolescent in Taiwan. A survey was conducted and 208 students (12 to14 years old) completed the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ), the Affect Intensity Measure, and the positive emotions dampening scale. Analysis methods such as descriptive statistics, t-test, Pearson correlations and multiple regression were adapted. The results were as follows: Emotionality and internalizing problem behavior have significant gender differences. Compared to boys, girls have a higher score on negative emotionality and are at a higher risk for internalizing symptoms. However, there are no gender differences on positive emotion dampening. Additionally, in the circumstance that negative emotionality acted as the control variable, positive emotion dampening strategy was (positive) related to internalizing behavior problems. Given the results of this study, it is suggested that coaching deconstructive positive emotion strategies is to assist adolescents with internalizing behavior problems is encouraged.

Keywords: Emotion dampening strategies, internalizing problem behaviors, affect intensity.

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Authors: Meng-Lung Lin, Chien-Min Chu, Chung-Hung Tsai, Chih-Cheng Chen, Chen-Yuan Chen

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The study of tourist activities and the mapping of their routes in space and time has become an important issue in tourism management. Here we represent space-time paths for the tourism industry by visualizing individual tourist activities and the paths followed using a 3D Geographic Information System (GIS). Considerable attention has been devoted to the measurement of accessibility to shopping, eating, walking and other services at the tourist destination. I turns out that GIS is a useful tool for studying the spatial behaviors of tourists in the area. The value of GIS is especially advantageous for space-time potential path area measures, especially for the accurate visualization of possible paths through existing city road networks. This study seeks to apply space-time concepts with a detailed street network map obtained from Google Maps to measure tourist paths both spatially and temporally. These paths are further determined based on data obtained from map questionnaires regarding the trip activities of 40 individuals. The analysis of the data makes it possible to determining the locations of the more popular paths. The results can be visualized using 3D GIS to show the areas and potential activity opportunities accessible to tourists during their travel time.

Keywords: Tourist activity analysis, space-time path, GIS, geovisualization, activity-travel pattern.

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Authors: Sarkar M. A. Kawsar, Sarkar M. A. Mamun, Md S. Rahman, Hidetaro Yasumitsu, Yasuhiro Ozeki

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The present study has been taken to explore the screening of in vitro antimicrobial activities of D-galactose-binding sponge lectin (HOL-30). HOL-30 was purified from the marine demosponge Halichondria okadai by affinity chromatography. The molecular mass of the lectin was determined to be 30 kDa with a single polypeptide by SDS-PAGE under non-reducing and reducing conditions. HOL-30 agglutinated trypsinized and glutaraldehydefixed rabbit and human erythrocytes with preference for type O erythrocytes. The lectin was subjected to evaluation for inhibition of microbial growth by the disc diffusion method against eleven human pathogenic gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The lectin exhibited strong antibacterial activity against gram-positive bacteria, such as Bacillus megaterium and Bacillus subtilis. However, it did not affect against gram-negative bacteria such as Salmonella typhi and Escherichia coli. The largest zone of inhibition was recorded of Bacillus megaterium (12 in diameter) and Bacillus subtilis (10 mm in diameter) at a concentration of the lectin (250 μg/disc). On the other hand, the antifungal activity of the lectin was investigated against six phytopathogenic fungi based on food poisoning technique. The lectin has shown maximum inhibition (22.83%) of mycelial growth of Botrydiplodia theobromae at a concentration of 100 μg/mL media. These findings indicate that the lectin may be of importance to clinical microbiology and have therapeutic applications.

Keywords: Antibacterial, Halichondria okadai, Inhibition zone, Lectin.

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Authors: M. H. Mehrabi, S. S. Ghodsi, Zainah Ibrahim, Meldi Suhatril

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Standard routes for upgrading existing buildings to improve their seismic response can be expensive in terms of both time and cost due to the modifications required to the foundations. As a result, interest has grown in the installation of viscoelastic dampers (VEDs) in mid and high-rise buildings. Details of a low-cost viscoelastic passive control device, the rotary rubber braced damper (RRBD), are presented in this paper. This design has the added benefits of being lightweight and simple to install. Experimental methods and finite element modeling were used to assess the performance of the proposed VED design and its effect on building response during earthquakes. The analyses took into account the behaviors of non-linear materials and large deformations. The results indicate that the proposed RRBD provides high levels of energy absorption, ensuring the stable cyclical response of buildings in all scenarios considered. In addition, time history analysis was employed in this study to evaluate the RRBD’s ability to control the displacements and accelerations experienced by steel frame structures. It was demonstrated that the device responds well even at low displacements, highlighting its suitability for use in seismic events of varying severity.

Keywords: Dynamic response, passive control, performance test, seismic protection.

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Authors: L. A. Muhammad, M. S. Argungu

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Educational data mining (EDM) has recorded substantial considerations. Techniques of data mining in one way or the other have been proposed to dig out out-of-sight knowledge in educational data. The result of the study got assists academic institutions in further enhancing their process of learning and methods of passing knowledge to students. Consequently, the performance of students boasts and the educational products are by no doubt enhanced. This study adopted a student performance prediction model premised on techniques of data mining with Students' Essential Features (SEF). SEF are linked to the learner's interactivity with the e-learning management system. The performance of the student's predictive model is assessed by a set of classifiers, viz. Bayes Network, Logistic Regression, and Reduce Error Pruning Tree (REP). Consequently, ensemble methods of Bagging, Boosting, and Random Forest (RF) are applied to improve the performance of these single classifiers. The study reveals that the result shows a robust affinity between learners' behaviors and their academic attainment. Result from the study shows that the REP Tree and its ensemble record the highest accuracy of 83.33% using SEF. Hence, in terms of the Receiver Operating Curve (ROC), boosting method of REP Tree records 0.903, which is the best. This result further demonstrates the dependability of the proposed model.

Keywords: Ensemble, bagging, Random Forest, boosting, data mining, classifiers, machine learning.

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Authors: Karuppaiya Maruthai, Viruthagiri Thangavelu, Manikandan Kanagasabai

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In the present study, effect of critical medium components (a total of fifteen components) on ethanol production from waste cashew apple juice (CAJ) using yeast Saccharomyces diasticus was studied. A statistical response surface methodology (RSM) based Plackett-Burman Design (PBD) was used for the design of experiments. The design contains a total of 32 experimental trails. The effect of medium components on ethanol was studied at two different levels such as low concentration level (-) and high concentration levels (+). The dependent variables selected in this study were ethanol concentration (g/L) and cellmass concentration (g/L). Data obtained from RSM on ethanol production were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). In general, initial substrate concentration significantly influenced the microbial growth and product formation. Of the medium components evaluated, CAJ concentration, yeast extract, (NH4)2SO4, and malt extract showed significant effect on ethanol fermentation. A second-order polynomial model was used to predict the experimental data and the model fitted the data with a high correlation coefficient (R2 > 0.98). Maximum ethanol (15.3 g/L) and biomass (6.4 g/L) concentrations were obtained at the optimum medium composition and at optimum condition (temperature-30°C; initial pH-6.8) after 72 h fermentation using S.diasticus.

Keywords: cashew apple juice, ethanol, fermentation, yeast, response surface methodology

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Authors: M. R. Nematollahi

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Vibration characteristics of subcooled flow boiling on thin and long structures such as a heating rod were recently investigated by the author. The results show that the intensity of the subcooled boiling-induced vibration (SBIV) was influenced strongly by the conditions of the subcooling temperature, linear power density and flow velocity. Implosive bubble formation and collapse are the main nature of subcooled boiling, and their behaviors are the only sources to originate from SBIV. Therefore, in order to explain the phenomenon of SBIV, it is essential to obtain reliable information about bubble behavior in subcooled boiling conditions. This was investigated at different conditions of coolant subcooling temperatures of 25 to 75°C, coolant flow velocities of 0.16 to 0.53m/s, and linear power densities of 100 to 600 W/cm. High speed photography at 13,500 frames per second was performed at these conditions. The results show that even at the highest subcooling condition, the absolute majority of bubbles collapse very close to the surface after detaching from the heating surface. Based on these observations, a simple model of surface tension and momentum change is introduced to offer a rough quantitative estimate of the force exerted on the heating surface during the bubble ebullition. The formation of a typical bubble in subcooled boiling is predicted to exert an excitation force in the order of 10-4 N.

Keywords: Subcooled boiling, vibration mechanism, bubble behavior.

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Authors: Cecilia Perri, Vincenzo Corvello

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The aim of the present study is to investigate consumers' determinants of intention toward the adoption of Smart Grid solutions and technologies. Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) model is applied and tested to explain the formation of such adoption intention. An exogenous variable, taking into account the resistance to change of individuals, was added to the basic model. The elicitation study allowed obtaining salient modal beliefs, which were used, with the support of literature, to design the questionnaire. After the screening phase, data collected from the main survey were analysed for evaluating measurement model's reliability and validity. Consistent with the theory, the results of structural equation analysis revealed that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control positively, which affected the adoption intention. Specifically, the variable with the highest estimate loading factor was found to be the perceived behavioural control, and, the most important belief related to each construct was determined (e.g., energy saving was observed to be the most significant belief linked with attitude). Further investigation indicated that the added exogenous variable has a negative influence on intention; this finding confirmed partially the hypothesis, since this influence was indirect: such relationship was mediated by attitude. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: Adoption of innovation, consumers behaviour, energy management, smart grid, theory of planned behaviour.

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Authors: Hersh C. Waxman, Yolanda N. Padrón, Jee-Young Shin, Héctor H. Rivera

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While many studies have conducted the achievement gap between groups of students in school districts, few studies have utilized resilience research to investigate achievement gaps within classrooms. This paper aims to summarize and discuss some recent studies Waxman, Padr├│n, and their colleagues conducted, in which they examined learning environment differences between resilient and nonresilient students in reading and mathematics classrooms. The classes consist of predominantly Hispanic elementary school students from low-income families. These studies all incorporated learning environment questionnaires and systematic observation methods. Significant differences were found between resilient and nonresilient students on their classroom learning environments and classroom behaviors. The observation results indicate that the amount and quality of teacher and student academic interaction are two of the most influential variables that promote student outcomes. This paper concludes by suggesting the following teacher practices to promote resiliency in schools: (a) using feedback from classroom observation and learning environment measures, (b) employing explicit teaching practices; and (c) understanding students on a social and personal level.

Keywords: achievement gap, classroom learning environments, educational resilience, systematic classroom observation

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Authors: K. Durairaj, I. N. Umar

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Lately, asynchronous discussion forum is integrated in higher educational institutions as it may increase learning process, learners’ understanding, achievement and knowledge construction. The asynchronous discussion forum is used to complement the traditional, face-to-face learning session in hybrid learning courses. However, studies have proven that students’ engagement in online forums is still unconvincing. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the motivating factors and obstacles that affect the learners’ engagement in asynchronous discussion forum. This study is carried out in one of the public higher educational institutions in Malaysia with 18 postgraduate students as samples. The authors have developed a 40-items questionnaire based on literature review. The results indicate several factors that have encouraged or limited students’ engagement in asynchronous discussion forum: (a) the practices or behaviors of peers, or instructors, (b) the needs for the discussions, (c) the learners’ personalities, (d) constraints in continuing the discussion forum, (e) lack of ideas, (f) the level of thoughts, (g) the level of knowledge construction, (h) technical problems, (i) time constraints and (j) misunderstanding. This study suggests some recommendations to increase the students’ engagement in online forums. Finally, based upon the findings, some implications are proposed for further research.

Keywords: Asynchronous Discussion Forum, Engagement, Factors, Motivating, Limiting.

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Authors: Daniel J. O. Ferreira, Juan H. Sosa-Arnao, Bruno C. Moreira, Leonardo P. Rangel, Song W. Park

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The comprehensive CFD models have been used to represent and study the heterogeneous combustion of biomass. In the present work, the operation of a global flue gas circuit in the sugarcane bagasse combustion, from wind boxes below primary air grate supply, passing by bagasse insertion in swirl burners and boiler furnace, to boiler bank outlet is simulated. It uses five different meshes representing each part of this system located in sequence: wind boxes and grate, boiler furnace, swirl burners, superheaters and boiler bank. The model considers turbulence using standard k-ε, combustion using EDM, radiation heat transfer using DTM with 16 ray directions and bagasse particle tracking represented by Schiller- Naumann model. The results showed good agreement with expected behavior found in literature and equipment design. The more detailed results view in separated parts of flue gas system allows observing some flow behaviors that cannot be represented by usual simplifications like bagasse supply under homogeneous axial and rotational vectors and others that can be represented using new considerations like the representation of 26 thousand grate orifices by 144 rectangular inlets.

Keywords: Comprehensive CFD model, sugar-cane bagasse combustion, sugar-cane bagasse grate boiler.

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Authors: Sevgi Birsel Nemlioğlu, Hasan Atak

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Aggression is a behavior that cannot be approved by the society. Vandalism which is aggression towards objects is an action that tends to damage public or personal property. The behaviors that are described as vandalism can often be observed in the schools as well. According to Zwier and Vaughan (1) previous research about the reasons of and precautionary measures for vandalism in schools can be grouped in three tendency categories: conservative, liberal and radical. In this context, the main aim of this study is to discover which ideological tendency of the reasons of school vandalism is adopted by the teachers and what are their physical, environmental, school system and societal solutions for vandalism. A total of 200 teachers participated in this study, and the mean age was 34.20 years (SD = 6.54). The sample was made up of 109 females and 91 males. For the analysis of the data, SPSS 15.00, frequency, percentage, and t-test were used. The research showed that the teachers have tendencies in the order of conservative, liberal and radical for the reasons of vandalism. The research also showed that the teachers do not have any tendency for eliminating vandalism physically and general solutions on the level of society; on the other hand they mostly adopt a conservative tendency in terms of precautions against vandalism in the school system. Second most, they adopt the liberal tendency in terms of precautions against vandalism in the school system. . It is observed that the findings of this study are comparable to the existing literature on the subject. Future studies should be conducted with multiple variants and bigger sampling.

Keywords: Vandalism, School, Vandal, Turkey, Teacher, Tendency.

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Authors: Srinivasan Aruchamy, Partha Bhattacharjee, Goutam Sanyal

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Optic disk segmentation plays a key role in the mass screening of individuals with diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma ailments. An efficient hardware-based algorithm for optic disk localization and segmentation would aid for developing an automated retinal image analysis system for real time applications. Herein, TMS320C6416DSK DSP board pixel intensity based fractal analysis algorithm for an automatic localization and segmentation of the optic disk is reported. The experiment has been performed on color and fluorescent angiography retinal fundus images. Initially, the images were pre-processed to reduce the noise and enhance the quality. The retinal vascular tree of the image was then extracted using canny edge detection technique. Finally, a pixel intensity based fractal analysis is performed to segment the optic disk by tracing the origin of the vascular tree. The proposed method is examined on three publicly available data sets of the retinal image and also with the data set obtained from an eye clinic. The average accuracy achieved is 96.2%. To the best of the knowledge, this is the first work reporting the use of TMS320C6416DSK DSP board and pixel intensity based fractal analysis algorithm for an automatic localization and segmentation of the optic disk. This will pave the way for developing devices for detection of retinal diseases in the future.

Keywords: Color retinal fundus images, Diabetic retinopathy, Fluorescein angiography retinal fundus images, Fractal analysis.

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Authors: S. Ganesh

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Power distribution systems typically have tie and sectionalizing switches whose states determine the topological configuration of the network. The aim of network reconfiguration of the distribution network is to minimize the losses for a load arrangement at a particular time. Thus the objective function is to minimize the losses of the network by satisfying the distribution network constraints. The various constraints are radiality, voltage limits and the power balance condition. In this paper the status of the switches is obtained by using Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm. ABC is based on a particular intelligent behavior of honeybee swarms. ABC is developed based on inspecting the behaviors of real bees to find nectar and sharing the information of food sources to the bees in the hive. The proposed methodology has three stages. In stage one ABC is used to find the tie switches, in stage two the identified tie switches are checked for radiality constraint and if the radilaity constraint is satisfied then the procedure is proceeded to stage three otherwise the process is repeated. In stage three load flow analysis is performed. The process is repeated till the losses are minimized. The ABC is implemented to find the power flow path and the Forward Sweeper algorithm is used to calculate the power flow parameters. The proposed methodology is applied for a 33–bus single feeder distribution network using MATLAB.

Keywords: Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm, Distribution system, Loss reduction, Network reconfiguration.

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Authors: Ling-Lih Shen, Feng-Chuan Pan

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Chronic diseases prevailed along with economic growth as well as life style changed in recent years in Taiwan. According to the governmental statistics, hypertension related disease is the tenth of death causes with 1,816 died directly from hypertension in 2010. There were more death causes amongst the top ten had been proofed that having strong association with the hypertension, such as heart diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. Hypertension or High blood pressure is one of the major indicators for chronic diseases, and was generally perceived as the major causes of mortality. The literature generally suggested that regular physical exercise was helpful to prevent the occurrence or to ease the progress of a hypertension. This paper reported the process and outcomes in detailed of an improvement project of physical exercise intervention specific for hypertension patients. Physical information were measured before and after the project to obtain information such as weight, waistline, cholesterol (HD & LD), blood examination, as well as self-perceived health status. The intervention project involved a six-week exercise program, of which contained three times a week, 30 minutes of tutored physical exercise intervention. The project had achieved several gains in changing the subjects- behavior in terms of many important biophysical indexes. Around 20% of the participants had significantly improved their cholesterols, BMI, and changed unhealthy behaviors. Results from the project were encouraging, and would be good reference for other samples.

Keywords: Intervention, biological information, hypertension patients, behavioral changes, chronic disease

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Authors: Lippong Tan, Yuenting Kwok, Ahbijit Date, Aliakbar Akbarzadeh

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A numerical investigation has carried out to understand the melting characteristics of phase change material (PCM) in a fin type latent heat storage with the addition of embedded aluminum spiral fillers. It is known that melting performance of PCM can be significantly improved by increasing the number of embedded metallic fins in the latent heat storage system but to certain values where only lead to small improvement in heat transfer rate. Hence, adding aluminum spiral fillers within the fin gap can be an option to improve heat transfer internally. This paper presents extensive computational visualizations on the PCM melting patterns of the proposed fin-spiral fillers configuration. The aim of this investigation is to understand the PCM-s melting behaviors by observing the natural convection currents movement and melting fronts formation. Fluent 6.3 simulation software was utilized in producing twodimensional visualizations of melting fractions, temperature distributions and flow fields to illustrate the melting process internally. The results show that adding aluminum spiral fillers in Fin type latent heat storage can promoted small but more active natural convection currents and improve melting of PCM.

Keywords: Phase change material, thermal enhancement, aluminum spiral fillers, fins

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Authors: Nurcihan Hacioglu, Cigdem Gul, Murat Tosunoglu

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In this article, the antibiogram and heavy metal resistance profile of the bacteria isolated from total 34 studied animals (Pelophylax ridibundus = 12; Mauremys rivulata = 14; Natrix natrix = 8) captured around the Biga Stream, are described. There was no database information on antibiogram and heavy metal resistance profile of bacteria from these area’s amphibians and reptiles. A total of 200 bacteria were successfully isolated from cloaca and oral samples of the aquatic amphibians and reptiles as well as from the water sample. According to Jaccard’s similarity index, the degree of similarity in the bacterial flora was quite high among the amphibian and reptile species under examination, whereas it was different from the bacterial diversity in the water sample. The most frequent isolates were A. hydrophila (31.5%), B. pseudomallei (8.5%), and C. freundii (7%). The total numbers of bacteria obtained were as follows: 45 in P. ridibundus, 45 in N. natrix 30 in M. rivulata, and 80 in the water sample. The result showed that cefmetazole was the most effective antibiotic to control the bacteria isolated in this study and that approximately 93.33% of the bacterial isolates were sensitive to this antibiotic. The multiple antibiotic resistances (MAR) index indicated that P. ridibundus (0.95) > N. natrix (0.89) > M. rivulata (0.39). Furthermore, all the tested heavy metals (Pb+2, Cu+2, Cr+3, and Mn+2) inhibit the growth of the bacterial isolates at different rates. Therefore, it indicated that the water source of the animals was contaminated with both antibiotic residues and heavy metals.

Keywords: Amphibian, Bacteriological Quality, Reptile, Antibiotic & Heavy Metal Resistance.

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Authors: Ruoya Huang, Ruoxian Huang, Edgar Huang

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Based on a convenience sample of 2,092 participants from across all 50 states of the United States, a survey was conducted to explore Americans’ mask-wearing behaviors during COVID-19 according to their political convictions, religious beliefs, and ethnic cultures from late July to early September, 2020. The purpose of the study is to provide evidential support for government policymaking so as to drive up more effective public policies by taking into consideration the variance in these social factors. It was found that the respondents’ party affiliation or preference, religious belief, and ethnicity, in addition to their health condition, gender, level of concern of contracting COVID-19, all affected their mask-wearing habits both in March, the initial coronavirus outbreak stage, and in August, when mask-wearing had been made mandatory by state governments. The study concludes that pandemic awareness campaigns must be run among all citizens, especially among African Americans, Muslims, and Republicans, who have the lowest rates of wearing masks, in order to protect themselves and others. It is recommended that complementary cognitive bias awareness programs should be implemented in non-Black and non-Muslim communities to eliminate social concerns that deter them from wearing masks.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, ethnicity, mask-wearing, policymaking implications, political affiliations, religious beliefs, United States.

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Authors: Man Young Kim

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Catalytic combustion is generally accepted as an environmentally preferred alternative for the generation of heat and power from fossil fuels mainly due to its advantages related to the stable combustion under very lean conditions with low emissions of NOx, CO, and UHC at temperatures lower than those occurred in conventional flame combustion. Despite these advantages, the commercial application of catalytic combustion has been delayed because of complicated reaction processes and the difficulty in developing appropriate catalysts with the required stability and durability. To develop the catalytic combustors, detailed studies on the combustion characteristics of catalytic combustion should be conducted. To the end, in current research, quantitative studies on the combustion characteristics of the catalytic combustors, with a Pd-based catalyst for MCFC power generation systems, relying on numerical simulations have been conducted. In addition, data from experimental studies of variations in outlet temperatures and fuel conversion, taken after operating conditions have been used to validate the present numerical approach. After introducing the governing equations for mass, momentum, and energy equations as well as a description of catalytic combustion kinetics, the effects of the excess air ratio, space velocity, and inlet gas temperature on the catalytic combustion characteristics are extensively investigated. Quantitative comparisons are also conducted with previous experimental data. Finally, some concluding remarks are presented.

Keywords: Catalytic combustion, Methane, BOP, MCFC power generation system, Inlet temperature, Excess air ratio, Space velocity.

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Authors: Olumide Simeon Ogunnusi, Shukor Abd Razak, Michael Kolade Adu

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Inter-agent communication manager facilitates communication among mobile agents via message passing mechanism. Until now, all Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) compliant agent systems are capable of exchanging messages following the standard format of sending and receiving messages. Previous works tend to secure messages to be exchanged among a community of collaborative agents commissioned to perform specific tasks using cryptosystems. However, the approach is characterized by computational complexity due to the encryption and decryption processes required at the two ends. The proposed approach to secure agent communication allows only agents that are created by the host agent server to communicate via the agent communication channel provided by the host agent platform. These agents are assumed to be harmless. Therefore, to secure communication of legitimate agents from intrusion by external agents, a 2-phase policy enforcement system was developed. The first phase constrains the external agent to run only on the network server while the second phase confines the activities of the external agent to its execution environment. To implement the proposed policy, a controller agent was charged with the task of screening any external agent entering the local area network and preventing it from migrating to the agent execution host where the legitimate agents are running. On arrival of the external agent at the host network server, an introspector agent was charged to monitor and restrain its activities. This approach secures legitimate agent communication from Man-in-the Middle and Replay attacks.

Keywords: Agent communication, introspective agent, isolation of agent, policy enforcement system.

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Authors: M. A. Meslem

Abstract:

For precise geoid determination, we use a reference field to subtract long and medium wavelength of the gravity field from observations data when we use the remove-compute-restore technique. Therefore, a comparison study between considered models should be made in order to select the optimal reference gravity field to be used. In this context, two recent global geopotential models have been selected to perform this comparison study over Northern Algeria. The Earth Gravitational Model (EGM2008) and the Global Gravity Model (GECO) conceived with a combination of the first model with anomalous potential derived from a GOCE satellite-only global model. Free air gravity anomalies in the area under study have been used to compute residual data using both gravity field models and a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) to subtract the residual terrain effect from the gravity observations. Residual data were used to generate local empirical covariance functions and their fitting to the closed form in order to compare their statistical behaviors according to both cases. Finally, height anomalies were computed from both geopotential models and compared to a set of GPS levelled points on benchmarks using least squares adjustment. The result described in details in this paper regarding these two models has pointed out a slight advantage of GECO global model globally through error degree variances comparison and ground-truth evaluation.

Keywords: Quasigeoid, gravity anomalies, covariance, GGM.

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Authors: Cornelia-Eugenia Munteanu

Abstract:

The goal of this paper is to present the diagnostic contribution that the screening instrument, Mini-Mental State Examination-2: Expanded Version (MMSE-2:EV), brings in detecting the cognitive impairment or in monitoring the progress of degenerative disorders. The diagnostic signification is underlined by the interpretation of the MMSE-2:EV scores, resulted from the test application to patients with mild and major neurocognitive disorders. The cases were selected from current practice, in order to cover vast and significant neurocognitive pathology: mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, mixed dementia, Parkinson’s disease, conversion of the mild cognitive impairment into Alzheimer’s disease. The MMSE-2:EV version was used: it was applied one month after the initial assessment, three months after the first reevaluation and then every six months, alternating the blue and red forms. Correlated with age and educational level, the raw scores were converted in T scores and then, with the mean and the standard deviation, the z scores were calculated. The differences of raw scores between the evaluations were analyzed from the point of view of statistic signification, in order to establish the progression in time of the disease. The results indicated that the psycho-diagnostic approach for the evaluation of the cognitive impairment with MMSE-2:EV is safe and the application interval is optimal. In clinical settings with a large flux of patients, the application of the MMSE-2:EV is a safe and fast psychodiagnostic solution. The clinicians can draw objective decisions and for the patients: it does not take too much time and energy, it does not bother them and it doesn’t force them to travel frequently.

Keywords: MMSE-2, dementia, cognitive impairment, neuropsychology.

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Authors: Ferhat Kadioglu, Hasan Puskul

Abstract:

A composite material with carbon fiber and polymer matrix has been used as adherent for manufacturing adhesive joints. In order to evaluate different fiber orientations on joint performance, the adherents with the 0°, ±15°, ±30°, ±45° fiber orientations were used in the single lap joint configuration. The joints with an overlap length of 25 mm were prepared according to the ASTM 1002 specifications and subjected to tensile loadings. The structural adhesive used was a two-part epoxy to be cured at 70°C for an hour. First, mechanical behaviors of the adherents were measured using three point bending test. In the test, considerations were given to stress to failure and elastic modulus. The results were compared with theoretical ones using rule of mixture. Then, the joints were manufactured in a specially prepared jig, after a proper surface preparation. Experimental results showed that the fiber orientations of the adherents affected the joint performance considerably; the joints with ±45° adherents experienced the worst shear strength, half of those with 0° adherents, and in general, there was a great relationship between the fiber orientations and failure mechanisms. Delamination problems were observed for many joints, which were thought to be due to peel effects at the ends of the overlap. It was proved that the surface preparation applied to the adherent surface was adequate. For further explanation of the results, a numerical work should be carried out using a possible non-linear analysis.

Keywords: Composite materials, adhesive bonding, bonding strength, lap joint, tensile strength.

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Zamani Kouhpanji

Abstract:

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

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Authors: M. S. El-Asfoury, M. A. El-Hadek

Abstract:

The complex shape of the human pelvic bone was successfully imaged and modeled using finite element FE processing. The bone was subjected to quasi-static and dynamic loading conditions simulating the effect of both weight gain and impact. Loads varying between 500 – 2500 N (~50 – 250 Kg of weight) was used to simulate 3D quasi-static weight gain. Two different 3D dynamic analyses, body free fall at two different heights (1 and 2 m) and forced side impact at two different velocities (20 and 40 Km/hr) were also studied. The computed resulted stresses were compared for the four loading cases, where Von Misses stresses increases linearly with the weight gain increase under quasi-static loading. For the dynamic models, the Von Misses stress history behaviors were studied for the affected area and effected load with respect to time. The normalization Von Misses stresses with respect to the applied load were used for comparing the free fall and the forced impact load results. It was found that under the forced impact loading condition an over lapping behavior was noticed, where as for the free fall the normalized Von Misses stresses behavior was found to nonlinearly different. This phenomenon was explained through the energy dissipation concept. This study will help designers in different specialization in defining the weakest spots for designing different supporting systems.

Keywords: Pelvic Bone, Static and Dynamic Analysis, Three- Dimensional Finite Element Analysis.

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Authors: Fatima U. Maigari, Musa Halilu, M. Maryam Umar, Rabiu Zainab

Abstract:

Plants as therapeutic agents are used as drug in many parts of the world. Medicinal plants are mostly used in developing countries due to culture acceptability, belief or due to lack of easy access to primary health care services. Jatropha curcas is a plant from the Euphorbiaceae family which is widely used in Northern Nigeria as an anti-diarrheal agent. This study was conducted to determine the anti-diarrheal effect of the leaf extract on castor oil induced diarrhea in albino rats. The leaves of J. curcas were collected from Balanga Local government in Gombe State, north-eastern Nigeria; due to its bioavailability. The leaves were air-dried at room temperature and ground to powder. Phytochemical screening was done and different concentrations of the extract was prepared and administered to the different categories of experimental animals. From the results, aqueous leaf extract of Jatropha curcas at doses of 200mg/Kg and 400mg/Kg was found to reduce the mean stool score as compared to control rats, however, maximum reduction was achieved with the standard drug of Loperamide (5mg/Kg). Treatment of diarrhea with 200mg/Kg of the extract did not produce any significant decrease in stool fluid content but was found to be significant in those rats that were treated with 400mg/Kg of the extract at 2hours (0.05±0.02) and 4hours (0.01±0.01). A significant reduction of diarrhea in the experimental animals signifies it to possess some anti-diarrheal activity.

Keywords: Anti-diarrhea, Diarrhea, Jatropha curcas, Loperamide.

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